__________________________________________________________________ Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 39: 1893 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 __________________________________________________________________ The Right Keynote for the New Year (No. 2289) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 1, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD." Psalm 115:18. IT has been truly said that if the members of our churches were in a right condition of heart, the work of the pastor towards them would be no more difficult than that of a commanding officer to his troops. A general, or a captain has never to study eloquence--he has simply to give the word of command tersely and plainly--and himself to lead the way. So, if our hearts were right in the sight of God, we would not need illustrations to win attention or arguments to urge us on--we would only need to know what is the special duty of the hour and, helped by the Divine Spirit--we would, with alacrity, seek to perform it. Well, now, let us hope that this is our condition tonight! God grant that it may be! Certainly it ought to be our condition in reference to the duty which is taught us in the text. I shall but, as it were, give the word of command in my Master's name--and I trust that the Holy Spirit will be working in all our spirits, causing each one of us to say, "Ready, yes, ready, to bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord." You noticed, while we were reading the Psalm, that it contained a piece of cutting sarcasm upon the gods of the heathen which are unable to do anything for their worshippers. Albeit that they have the outward semblance of the organs of life and sense, yet in those organs there is neither life nor power. Their mouths cannot speak; their eyes cannot see; their ears cannot hear; their noses cannot smell; their hands cannot handle; their feet cannot walk. But our God is declared to be the living God who is in the heavens and who has done whatever He has pleased. Well, that being so, a living God should be worshipped by a living people in a living manner! This is one of the rules of Christian worship which we should never forget. Let us come before the Lord, not as mere bodies, fancying that it is enough to put in an appearance in the place where prayer is known to be made, but let us bring our living selves, our souls, our hearts, into God's worship--and whether it is in prayer, or in praise, or in the proclamation of His Truths, or in the listening to the Gospel message--let us do it with all our life! Let the praise be full of life! Let the prayer be full of life! Let the ministration of the Truth of God be the lively oracle of the living God! And let the ear, the heart's ear, be all alive while we listen to the Gospel! There is nothing more that is acceptable to God in the mere routine of Christian worship than there is in the turning of the windmills of the Tartars, when they put their prayers upon the mill and they revolve with the blowing of the wind! If true life is absent from our service, though we speak with the tongues of men and of angels, though we have the richest music, though we have everything that heart can devise to create a charm, yet it profits us nothing, and brings no Glory to God. "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," is a text which may be applied to dead services as well as to dead men. May the Lord, in mercy, send to some religious services a resurrection! May He be pleased to put a living heart and soul into them, for if there are not these, He will not accept a dead sacrifice at men's hands! A living God must be worshipped in a living way by a living people! In the context we see, also, that as it is true with the heathen's idols, that, "they that make them are like unto them, so is everyone that trusts in them," so ought it to be with us in reference to our God. A living God should have a living people and a blessing God should have a blessing people. He has blessed us with unspeakable favors. He is always blessing us! It is not possible for us to compute the amount of blessing which He is constantly bestowing upon us. Therefore, "Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name." If He exalts you with His favor, take care that you exalt Him with your praise. If He enriches you with His blessings, bring your blessings and offer them at His feet, as the wise men brought their gold and frankincense and myrrh and laid them as tribute at the feet of the newborn King. Bless a blessing God! What can be more congruous? As the echo answers to the voice, so let our blessing of God answer to the blessing we have received from God, even as Paul puts it, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world." This, then, is the work that is to occupy us tonight, and the work in which we shall continue, I trust, from this time forth and forevermore. Living unto the living God, time and eternity will be spent in blessing the blessing God. Notice, in the text, which is clearly intended to excite us to praise, first, a mournful memory, suggested by the word "but." Secondly, a happy resolution--"we will bless the Lord." Thirdly, an appropriate commencement--"from this time forth." And then, fourthly, an everlasting continuance--"and forevermore. Praise the Lord." I. First, then, there is in the text the trace of A MOURNFUL MEMORY. Read the preceding verse, without which we do not get the sense of this one to the fullest. "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth." The mournful memory is that of those who, at one time praised the Lord with us, and exulted in His holy name during the past year, some have been numbered with the dead. There are gaps in our ranks, my Brothers and Sisters, which death has made during the past year. Some have been taken from us whom we could ill spare, as we thought, but they were, nevertheless, needed up above. He who bought them had a better right to them than we had and His prayers prevailed over ours, as they always should. We said, "Father, we will that they whom You have given us be with us where we are." But Jesus prayed, "Father, I will that they, also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am." And they have gone. He had the best right to them and we can only say, "It is the Lord: let Him do what seems good to Him." But, as far as this world is concerned, they who have been taken from us do not praise the Lord, save that, being dead, they speak by the recollection of their holy lives. And their memory is sweet, like incense that has been burned, and leaves a perfume behind. Save for this, "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence." I know that in Heaven they are praising Him! They have been added to the orchestra above and have helped to make it complete. Fresh songsters are there before the everlasting Throne of God, but here they cannot swell our praises. Their bodies sleep beneath the green sward in the silence of the tomb. As I look round the different parts of the Tabernacle-- my eyes being better able to distinguish the gaps than some of yours are because I rather know something of all, and each of you knows but a part of this great congregation--as I look around, I notice where sat one whose eyes were full of glances of delight whenever the name of Jesus was mentioned. I have heard him speak in his Master's praise most sweetly and yet tearfully, but I shall never hear him here again. I looked into his tomb but a few days ago. He has gone down into silence so far as his body is concerned. There was another dear worker who was always here, I might say that he was always everywhere where there was anything to be done for Christ! And we went to his grave, also, and we laid him in the silent tomb. During the year I suppose some 70 or 80 of our number have gone over to the majority--I mean, 70 or 80 of those who were actually members of the Church, besides those who, I trust, loved the Lord, although they had not confessed His name in Baptism and united with His people in Church fellowship. They have gone over to the great host above--and there are so many the fewer here. Well, what doe this say to us? I will not imitate Dr. Watts, and say-- "Hark, from the tombs a doleful sound!" I think we hear too many doleful sounds from the tombs. But I hear a lively, earnest sound, and it says, "Brothers and Sisters, keep up the song of praise unto the Lord! Do not let the music falter. Our voices are gone from among you-- sing, therefore, each of you, the more sweetly and loudly to make up for our absence from the earthly choir." Now that so many saints have gone Home, there are so many the fewer on earth to praise the Lord. O you who have recently come into the Church, you who have been baptized for the dead to fill up the gaps in our ranks, be earnest, with your loud hosannas, to bless and magnify the name of the Lord! Brethren, let us take a blessed revenge on Death, and if he takes from our numbers, let us, as God helps us, increase the real efficiency of the Church by each of us endeavoring to become double what we formerly were in the service of our Master! O Death, you have struck down a songster who used to sing at my side, but my voice shall be louder than before! I will make music for us both and there shall yet come another to fill his place! And so there shall be three songs instead of two--and God shall be a gainer on earth and a gainer in Heaven by the loss which death seemed to cause to Christ's Church! They are going, one after another, my Brothers and Sisters. They are gathering homeward one by one. The most useful, the most mighty in prayer, the most holy, the very pillars and strength of the Church are going and, as a Brother said the other day, "When so many good ones are going, what can we do better than pack up and go with them?" As each one goes, we feel almost inclined to say what the disciples said concerning Lazarus, "If he sleeps, he shall do well." And to add, with Thomas, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him." But I am of another mind and I say, "No, if there are so many going, let us ask to be allowed to stay, for this great fight has to be fought out somehow and, if some of the troops have fought the good fight, and exchanged the sword and shield for the palm branch and the harp, let us who are left pray with all our might unto the Lord God of Hosts to strengthen us in this day of battle, that we may not go till we have finished our part of the fight and have been the means of calling others to prolong the blessed struggle by which victory shall be given to the name of Christ." By the thought, then, of the many dead who cannot any longer praise God among us, let us be stimulated to bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! There comes up in my mind, however, another reflection, that, as others are gone, we, ourselves, shall also go soon. "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence." O Brothers, if we are called to preach, it is only for a little while! We have not an indefinite period in which to be wise to win souls. Our work must be done soon or it will never be done! O teachers, you must win your children for Christ soon, for you are not to live a thousand years to go on seeking the little ones! They must be brought to Jesus soon or they will not be brought by you, for you will have passed away! O all you Christian people who love your Lord, be busy in those sacred works which can only be performed on earth, for angels cannot clothe the naked or feed the hungry! No angel can be a Dorcas to make garments for the poor. These things are for this life--these modes of praising God are only for time--there are others for eternity. These are for this life and to these we have to attend as long as we are here. To keep the Church of God on earth, the Church militant, in good marching order, and good working condition, and so to glorify God here is what we must do now, and do it soon, for, "the night comes when no man can work." I wish we all felt more that we are dying men. The sound of the chariot wheels of eternity should make us quicken our pace. If you could often look through the heavenly telescope and see the Judgment Seat, the Great White Throne in the heavens, and the assembled multitude, and yourself rendering up your books of account to the last great Examiner, some of you would live far differently than you do! God help us to do so and, by the recollection of this, "but," though it comes over us like a cloud, tonight, let us be quickened into the immediate and joyous work of blessing and magnifying the Most High! II. Let us now go to our second point which is this--A HAPPY RESOLUTION. "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord." "We will bless the Lord," for it seems to us to be the very thing for which we were created. This is the flower of our being! We are never happier, surely, never more developing what God has put into us by His Grace, than when we are praising and blessing Him. We will bless the Lord by our songs. They shall be more frequent than they have been. Brothers and Sisters, do you sing as much as you might? Do you sing at work and do you sing in the household, and do you sing on your beds? I have known some who have managed to live always singing. It was my joy to know an old man, a very old man, who was famous in the village where he lived because, as he walked the streets, he was always humming a little bit of a hymn. He was a grand old Methodist of the grand old days--and he had always some glorious hymn that he would go along tooting as he went about the streets! And he sang himself to bed and sang himself to sleep, and, I was going to say, sang himself awake--he was scarcely awake before he began to sing again. It was all singing with him! Now, you know how the worldlings sing. You cannot be quiet in your beds, at night, because of the noise they make in the streets. Let us be as ready with the songs of Zion as they are with the songs of Gomorrah! Let us magnify the Lord with our songs far oftener than we have done. Then, let us magnify the Lord in our daily talk and conversation while we speak about Him. Never speak badly of His name. Some of you do. There is sometimes a grumbling at His Providences. There is a fretting at the trials He sends. There is a complaining about all sorts of things. But you who love Him, begin, from this night, to bless Him by speaking well of His name. Bless Him for everything! Bless Him for the bitters; bless Him for the cold; bless Him for poverty and sickness. "That is a hard thing to do," you say. Yes, but it is a sweet thing to do--it will be as comforting to yourself as it will be glorifying to God! Begin to praise Him in the tone of your spirit. May God the blessed Comforter help you to do it by a calm, equable frame of mind, by a Divine placidity of temper, by a complete subjection of the will to Him so that you shall not feel it to be subjection, but find it to be your delight that the Lord should do with you whatever pleases Him! It is bliss to praise God so that our very thoughts praise Him, not by effort, but as flowers pour out their perfume, so that our inmost soul praises Him, just as the birds sing, not as if it were a task, but because it cannot help it! Was it not made to sing? And so it sits on the bare bough, before the spring has yet developed the green leaf and opening bud, and it sings even amid the frost and snow--and wakes us up in the spring morning with its hymn of praise to its Creator. "Its," I said, but I mean a thousand of them--winged choristers praising and blessing God, not because they are told that they ought to do so-- but because it is their intense delight to pour out their music! Oh, that we were little birds, made always to sing God's praise! Oh, that we were drops of dew, forever sparkling in the light of God's love! I like to look at the lilies, sometimes, and think how they worship God. They never study a sermon, or compose a hymn, or weave a rhyme, or even think--but they serve God by standing still and showing themselves and breathing out their sweet perfume to the winds! Oh, to be full of God, till, at last, you bless Him even by existing! Till life becomes a Psalm and even breathing becomes a hymn of praise unto the Most High in whom we live, and move, and have our being! Blessed be His name! We will bless the Lord from this time forth, in some such way as that, as He shall help us! For, dear Brothers and Sisters, we may well bless the Lord because we are alive. That, "but," suggests that since others have gone, we should bless Him that we live. I do not know whether I would not as soon have been in Heaven as here, but, still, to abide in the flesh for a while may be more necessary for some and, therefore, I am glad to be alive. And some of you with your children about you, with many dependent upon you, should thank God that while you are needed here you are spared here--and you should thank Him who has kept you. You might have been killed in some accident. You might have been struck down, as many have been this year, by contagious disease. You might have been in such pain, tonight, that death would have seemed a relief to you. Bless the Lord that it is not so. Bless Him that you live. O God, our Creator and Preserver, we will, from this time forth, bless You that we are alive! Then bless God because of spiritual life, for there is something in that calling for devout gratitude, for to live, and yet not to be alive spiritually, is to be a walking corpse, an animated dunghill, a Lazarus who by this time stinks, and yet is not in his grave! It is a horrible thing to be going about in this world with eyes that do not see God, and with ears that never hear His voice when He is speaking everywhere, and with a heart that never responds to His Divine love. Better not to be, than to be and yet not know the greatest and best of Beings. Let us bless God that He has quickened us into spiritual life, for it was not so with some of you a long while ago. No, it is but a few months since some of you were made alive. And this new year may remind you of some former new years, and of how they were spent, and into what condition you brought yourselves! O Lord, our state of spiritual death does not bear thinking of, except we wet the page of memory with many tears! Blessed be Your name, You have delivered us from the bondage of corruption and brought us into newness of life! Therefore will we bless You from this time forth and forevermore! And let us bless the Lord because, according to the Psalm, we have been blessed of Him. Read, again, the 12th verse, "The Lord has been mindful of us: He will bless us." Now, it is not only according to the Psalm, but it is also a matter of fact. "The Lord has been mindful of us." I do not know your histories, dear Friends, as you know them, but I would like you to pull out your pocketbooks and your diaries, and just look down them. How many times has the Lord been mindful of you during the past year? I could tell of many interpositions of His Divine love on my behalf, but I will not do so at this time. I will bless His name in secret for His loving kindness towards His unworthy servant. A good old woman used to hear people speak about their Ebenezers, or stones of help, in remembrance of God's mercy, but she said that when she looked back on hers, she thought she was looking back on a wall. They were set so closely together that they seemed to make a wall on the right hand and on the left of all her pathway. Well, that is just like mine. I am such a debtor to Divine Mercy that if I could but pay half a farthing in the pound, I should need to give fifty million times more than I am, or ever hope to be worth! Oh, what I owe Him! Rutherford speaks somewhere of his soul going right down in the stream of God's love, not floating in it, but sinking, foundering, going down till mighty love went over the masthead of his soul. And such do I feel that our gratitude ought to be. The ocean of God's love rises above us so as altogether to swallow us up. The Lord has done such great things for us that if we do not bless Him, the very stones we walk on in the streets might cry out against us, and every beam in the wall might groan in the night to think that it sheltered such an ungrateful sleeper! Oh, the mercy, the forgiving mercy, the abounding mercy, the ceaseless mercy of the living God! What tongue can ever tell it? Surely the poet did not strain metaphors too much, or use hyperboles, or push them too far, when he said-- "But, oh, eternity's too short To utter half Your praise!" Again, we ought to praise the Lord, according to the Psalm, because He will bless us. You must have noticed that the Psalmist expressed that idea several times in different forms--"He has been mindful of us: He will bless us." This is a very sweet duty to which I would exhort you, to bless the Lord in the prospect of what He is going to do. Come, let us weave songs out of tomorrows! We will not boast of them, but we will bless God for them. Let us praise Him for all the love and kindness that is going to be with us through all the year that is just beginning! Troubles will come, but the Lord will deliver the godly out of them all! Tribulation will be our portion, but in Christ we shall have peace! Perhaps we shall go Home this year--if we are to do so, let it not cause us even so much as one single fear, but let us put that into the song and bless the Lord for gates of pearl and harps of gold--so soon to be the heritage of His unworthy children! III. Now I must be brief on the other points, but I want to delay a minute or two on the third head, which is AN APPROPRIATE COMMENCEMENT--"From this time forth." When is the time to begin to praise God? Now, Brothers and Sisters, now--"From this time forth." You see, it was just then that the heathen were saying, "Where is their God?" When God is blasphemed by others, then let His people praise Him! Whenever you hear anything said against God, any note of blasphemy or skepticism, then say, "We will bless the Lord from this time forth." Always feel as if you were called upon to make some recompense to the blessed name for the dishonor which the adversary has done to it. I think there will be less swearing in the world if we always do that, for the devil will tell his children to leave off when he finds that every time they curse, we bless God all the more. Whenever you hear that a bad book has come out--whenever you hear that some scientific man has been saying something that will mislead the unwary, say, "We will bless the Lord from this time forth. We will have a new song because of that. We will make some kind of amends to God's great name because of all the calumny that is cast upon it." So let us do it whenever we have a sense of mercy. He has been mindful of us, therefore, from this time forth, we will praise His name. Do you feel as if He had done great things for you, of which you are glad? Is your heart leaping, tonight because of some special mercy? Then let this be your sweet resolve, "We will bless the Lord from this time forth." I think that we ought to praise the Lord from the first moment in which we know our sins are forgiven, the first moment in which we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and then from every period of spiritual enjoyment. You who are about to be baptized may well say, "We will bless the Lord from this time forth, from the time when we come forward to confess our faith in Jesus, when we put on Christ by public profession of allegiance to Him." From every season of coming to the Communion Table, from every hallowed night of wrestling prayer, from every time you climb the Mountain of Transfiguration and behold your Master's Glory, yes, and from every Gethsemane's night, when you strive almost in vain to watch with Him one hour--even then, say, "From this time forth we will bless Him." I am sure that I may claim that the beginning of another year is a good time to begin blessing the Lord. For the mercies of another year, the forgiveness of another year, the provision, the instruction, the guidance, the supplies of another year, for the mercies of the year on which we enter with good heart of hope, for all our fears which have been averted, for all our hopes which have been fulfilled, for all that we have learned, for all that we have experienced, let us carry out this happy resolution that, from this time forth, we will bless the Lord! Oh, how I wish that I could put this resolution into the hearts of some people whom I know! I hope they are Christians, but, you know, they were born on a bleak day and they always speak with lips of frost. You are never many minutes with them but you hear grievous complaining. Dear Brother, how would it do for you to say, "From this time forth I will bless the Lord"? We know some who, like myself, are depressed by this horrible wintry weather. We get to feel all our bones aching and we are very apt, when we are full of rheumatism, to begin to talk about it. Come, my Sister. Come, my Brother, let us have done with that theme, and say, "From this time forth we will bless the Lord!" I know the style of talk that is very frequent--"Never was there such a dull time for trade. Business is worse than I ever knew it. Everything is going to the bad. There are wars and rumors of wars, and the world is coming to an end, and I do not know what is not going to happen." Well, Brother, if you like that strain, you must keep on at it, but as for me, and you, too--I really think that it would be better if we were both to say--"From this time forth we will bless the Lord." We have strummed away long enough on that sackbut--let us begin to play on the psaltery and the harp of a solemn sound! We have too long been singing-- "Lord, what a wretched land is this, That yields us no supply! No cheering fruits, no wholesome trees, Nor streams of living joy. But pricking thorns through all the ground, And mortal poisons grow; And all the rivers that are found With dangerous waters flow." Let us go on to the next verse and sing-- "Yet the dear path to Your abode Lies through this horrid land. Lord, we would keep the heavenly road, And run at Your command!" Let us begin to sing of the path, and the Guide, and the Home to which we are going! We are a day's march nearer Home, a year's march nearer Home, so from this time forth let us bless the Lord! IV. And then comes, lastly, AN EVERLASTING CONTINUANCE--"We will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore'" I was born in a county where there were many old-fashioned people and I am old-fashioned, myself. Whenever I read my Bible and find that it says, "everlasting," or, "forevermore," I believe that it means what it says. Of course, I have lived in a world in which I am informed that it does not mean anything of the kind--that it means a very short period-- or a period longer or shorter according as circumstances may happen! I am afraid I shall never learn this new lingo. I have no intention of trying to learn it, either, so I am sure that I never shall be able to understand things the wrong way upwards, as the wise men now do. "Everlasting" will be everlasting with me forever and ever, I can tell you, and it will find me, at any rate, a believer in eternity as being that which never has an end! I believe that those who think differently will have to come round to the opinion that I have found in the Word of God. At any rate, if we are to agree, they will have to do so, for I shall never come round to their view. Now, then, the expression, "We will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore," means that our praise shall have no end to it, "Forevermore," means eternity, I believe, and I pray God that we may make it to mean eternity in our praise "from this time forth and forevermore." Falling from Grace shall not come in to make us cease praising and blessing the Lord! We began to praise Him, not in the strength of nature, but in the strength of Grace--and that strength will not exhaust itself, for it will be renewed day by day--so that we shall be able to bless the Lord forevermore. Death itself shall not stop us from blessing God! No, it shall but increase the choir and sweeten the harmony! We shall love the Lord more and praise Him better when death shall have divested us of these tongues which now are impediments to the highest praise--and shall have given us the power to speak without lips and tongues in a nobler language before the Throne of God-- "My God, I'll praise You while I live, And praise You when I die, And praise You when I rise again, And to eternity." Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if we are in the right state of heart, there is not a time when we could leave of blessing the Lord. When shall we cease to bless Him? When He leaves off blessing us? That will never be! When we leave off being in debt to Him? That can never be! When He ceases to be worthy of blessing? That cannot be! Or when the life of Divine Grace within us ceases to recognize His blessedness? That, also, cannot be, for it shall be in us "a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Leave off praising Him? O Brothers, Sisters, never, never, never, not even for the time in which a clock might tick once! Go on praising Him if He shall take you up to the bed of sickness--if every limb shall be a mass of pain, if every nerve shall be a highway for a crowd of pains to travel on--yet still go on blessing and praising and magnifying Him, for this is His due! When we have praised Him best and most, we have not given Him what He deserves! Let us fill this House of Prayer with our praise and thanksgiving tonight! The Romanist sets his incense on fire and fills the whole place with its smoke. Oh, let there go up to God from our grateful hearts a cloud of the smoke of praise unto His blessed name! Blessed be the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, from this time forth and forever-more! If any man cannot join in that praise, let him remember that he is not fit to live, nor fit to die--for to die without praising God and to rise again--would be to remain in a state in which he could not possibly enter Heaven, since the one occupation of Heaven is magnifying and blessing and praising the Lord forever and forever! Let such an one seek the Lord, now! Let him trust in the Lord Jesus Christ! Then he shall be saved and he will be able to join us in saying, "We will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord." EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. PSALM115. Verses 1-3. Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto Your name give Glory, for Your mercy, and for Your Truth's sake. Why should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: He has done whatever He has pleased. It was very natural that the heathen should say, "Where is their God? because they had no outward emblem, no visible image, no tangible token--whereas the heathen had their many gods, such as they were, made of wood and stone, so that they asked, "Where is their God?" I think that when that question is suggested, it is a good sign, for it proves the purity of the faith which has cleansed itself from outward symbolism. May men often have to ask of us, "Where is their God?" But I fear that the people of Israel were brought into so low a state, at times, that this question was also asked in scorn and derision, "Where is now their God?" "He was with them when they came out of Egypt. He was with them when they captured Canaan. He has been with them in many a terrible battle, turning to flight the armies of the aliens, but where is now their God?" It is a cutting question under such circumstances. It was so with the Psalmist when be said, "As with a sword in my bones, my enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is your God?" "But our God is in the heavens where their gods never were. He has done whatever He has pleased." The gods of the heathen have done nothing--they cannot do anything. 4-7. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: they have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: they have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. It is a grim piece of sarcasm which the Psalmist here aims at the idol gods. I do not know, sometimes, whether this is not all that superstition deserves of us--to be utterly laughed at and put to scorn. The spirit of Elijah is not altogether the most Christ-like, and yet even the Christian may well say to the priests of Baal, in derision and contempt, "Cry aloud, for he is a god." What do they deserve who so degrade themselves as to worship things which their own hands have made--things which can be seen with the eyes and touched with the hand? Yet, even in this country we have thousands who call themselves Christians, who prostrate themselves before idols made in different forms and shapes--yes and say to a piece of bread that the baker made, "This is our god." Well says the Psalmist-- 8. They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusts in them. They are as doltish and as stupid, as blind and as deaf, and as ridiculous as the gods that they make, for no man was ever better than the god he worshipped! 9-11. O Israel, trust you in the LORD: He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD: He is their help and their shield. You that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: He is their help and their shield. There is real help in the living Jehovah, real protection in Him. 12. The LORD has been mindful of us: He will bless us. There is a New Year's motto for you. It will go back through the old year, and forward into the new one--"The Lord has been mindful of us: He will bless us." See how mindful He has been of us all through the past year in a thousand ways! Long before we have known our needs, He has supplied them. He has delivered us from dangers of which we never knew and led us into mercies of which we never dreamed! 12, 13. He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great. Great blessings for small people, and not small blessings for those whom He makes great in Israel. 14, 15. The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children. You are blessed of the LORD which made Heaven and earth. This is the Creator's blessing, therefore a real one. Many of you have had the new creation worked in you--you shall live to see new heavens and a new earth! 16. The Heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S: but the earth has He given to the children of men. And they seem as if they meant to keep it, too. The sad thing is that they get the earth into their hearts and so they miss the blessing which the Lord intended them to receive from His gift of it. 17. The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence. As far as this world is concerned, no note is heard from the grave. 18. But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD. So let us do tonight. Let us have an extra Psalm of praise to the Lord who has brought us safely through another year! __________________________________________________________________ God's Unspeakable Gift (No. 2290) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 8, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift." 2 Corinthians 9:15. IF you will read, at home, the chapter from which our text is taken, you will find that Paul was stirring up the Corinthians to an act of liberality. He had boasted of what they would do, but he had just a little fear that they might fall behind and not quite come up to what he had promised on their behalf. He stirred them up to liberal giving, telling them that they who sowed liberally, should reap liberally, and they who sowed sparingly would reap sparingly. Once upon that theme of giving, the Apostle could not help speaking of another gift. He saw a track just off the main road and he felt that it led him straight away to his God and to his Savior. And so, while the ink was yet flowing in his pen, he began to write about it as though he would say, "I am not thinking now, my Brethren, so much of your gifts as I am of another gift--not so much of your gifts to the Lord's poor people as of the Lord's great Gift to you--His poor people. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift." A person, who was collecting for some good objective, called upon a friend one day and, as he needed him to be very generous, pleaded hard with him. After a while, he seemed to quit the subject altogether, and he said, "I knew your father." "Did you?" "Yes, and I called upon him about a certain business, just as I do upon you, and your father did not need any prompting. He said, 'State the case,' and as soon as the case was stated, he pulled out his purse and gave me ten times as much as I had expected to obtain from him." You see, our friend was not exactly pleading with the son when he told that story, and yet I do not know how he could have pleaded better, for reverence for his father's name and the desire not to seem to fall off from his father's standard, were the very best arguments that could have been used with him! So I admire the wisdom of Paul. When he would bring these Corinthians up to a high standard of liberality towards their poor Brethren in Judea, he says, as though it were only by the way, "Thanks be unto God, your Father and my Father, for His unspeakable Gift. Whatever you give, I can speak about, but what He gave surpasses all powers of speech! Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift." Now, this text, tonight, gives me three things to speak of. The first is, that Christ is a Gift. And, secondly, that as a Gift, Christ is unspeakable. And, thirdly, that as a Gift unspeakable, Christ calls forth praise to God from us. I. First, then, CHRIST IS A GIFT. How often you hear people speak about Christ and His salvation as though they were the reward of merit--as though we did something by which to win his Divine favor! If they do not teach that salvation comes through our own merits, yet, according to them, it is the effect of our feelings and our experiences. Somehow or other, according to this common notion, we must get fit to receive God's Gift and thus, what comes to us is more our due than an alms of heavenly charity! I hesitate not to say that this teaching flies in the teeth of the entire Word of God. Everywhere in the Scriptures the great word is not merit, but GRACE--not deserving, but receiving freely of the great mercy of our God! Our Lord Jesus must be a Gift to us if we are ever to possess Him. He could only come to us sons of men by way of a gift. Consider the dignity of His Person for a minute and then ask how it is conceivable that we could have deserved that such a Person as He should come here and live and die, that we might be saved! I can conceive of a man meriting this or that honor among his fellow men, but when I think of the Prince of Life, the Lord of Glory equal with the Father, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, very God of very God--and when I see Him giving Himself up to die for men, my very blood boils at the thought that we could ever have deserved that Sacrifice! One is indignant that human pride should dare to go the length of even imagining that a life of perfection could have deserved to be rewarded by the Gift of Christ! No, my Brothers and Sisters, if we had kept God's Law without a flaw. If there had been no omission of duty, no commission of sin and we could have taken the compound merits of a perfect world and laid them at the feet of God, they could not have deserved that Christ should become Man--that Christ should live in poverty--that Christ should die in shame for man! There would have been no need of Christ's death if man had not sinned. But had there been a supposable need, Christ's Sacrifice could not have been deserved even if we had remained innocent, like our first parents in the Garden of Eden before the Fall! I am sure that none of you could, for a minute, tolerate the thought that any human merit could deserve the Incarnation of God upon this earth, the coming of the Divine Son in our nature into this world and His shameful death upon the Cross of Calvary. But next, this will be very evident from the nature of the work for which Christ was given. It is clear from the Scriptures that He was given for the undeserving. He came into the world to save sinners. He took upon Himself, not our righteousness, for there was none for Him to take, but, as we read just now, "the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." The prominent and paramount idea of Christ in the Scripture is that of a Priest offering sacrifice--but the Priest is for men who need atonement for their sins--the expiation, the sacrifice, the sin-offering, is for guilty men. How could Christ die on the Cross for deserving men? The idea is absurd! No bruises were required for those who needed not to be healed. There needed to be no chastisement of peace for those who deserved well of God. The very work of Christ in dying, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God," implies that we were at a distance from God. It also implies our injustice and, consequently, our total inability to deserve such a Gift at God's hand. No, no--a Savior is for sinners--a dying Savior must be for those who deserved to die! Christ does not come, therefore, to us as deserving Him, but He is God's unspeakable Gift! And let us think of the splendor of His Grace, the lavish wealth of blessing which comes to us through Him. Know you not that as many of you as have believed in Christ are made to live with an everlasting life? There pulses in you, tonight, the life of eternity, the life of Heaven! You have begun to live the life that shall last forever and ever. Know you not that you have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, adopted into the family of God? You are the children of the Most High. "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." Did you deserve this? Could you deserve this? Is it possible? Being adopted into the heavenly family, you have been justified-- made just in the sight of God! And now you know that you are loved with an everlasting love, that you are predestinated to glorify God here, by being conformed to the image of His Son. And now you know that you are ordained by Divine decree to sit upon a throne which He has prepared for you, and to reign with Him forever and ever. Did you deserve this? Can it be conceived that anything you have ever done could have been rewarded with such extraordinary gifts as these? A boy runs an errand for me, and I give him two pence, or, if I am generous, I give him sixpence. But if I were to give him a thousand pounds, he would not believe that it was a payment for his service--he would not think that possible! He would feel that the reward was far above anything that he had earned, that his service was quite unworthy of so great a gift--and he would conclude that if that great sum of money was really his, I must have given it to him out of pure generosity. He would never dream that he had earned it, even supposing that he had done his errand with all the diligence in the world! And no child of God, however much he has served his Lord, ever thinks that he deserves to be a child of God, that he deserves to be an heir of Heaven, that he deserves to be a priest and a king, to live forever at God's right hand in untold blessedness! Oh, no, all this must be a gift--we could not have earned such a blessing as this! You know that there are two things to make a gift--there cannot be a gift without, first of all, one to give it, and then another to receive it. Have you received Christ? It is essential, to make Him a Gift to you, that you should accept Him. It is little enough that you should take into your empty hands the priceless treasure that God bestows. It is little enough that, like an empty cup, you should stand under the flowing spring and let the crystal stream flow in. But it is necessary in order to complete the Gift! I will not ask you to thank God for His unspeakable Gift unless, God having given, you also have received! You may receive Christ, oh, so freely! If salvation were to be bought--if it were to be earned--woe would be unto you! But being a Gift, nothing is more free! The poorest man in the world may accept a gift. A trembling hand may receive a gift. He that is a thief and a robber, yes, a murderer, doomed to die, may accept a gift, if it comes not of merit, or by way of reward, but entirely of the generosity of the bestower. Oh, what a glorious thing it is that you and I and all of us may receive God's unspeakable Gift! Once received and accepted, Christ is ours. If a man has made a gift to me, I would not say anything that would hurt his feelings, but it is not his any more. If he has given it to me, it is mine. A person once handed over to me a house that was to belong to a certain part of the work that I had to conduct, and if I had taken possession of that house when it was given to me, it would have been mine. But I did not. The person died and though I held the deeds and writings, yet the gift was invalid by the law of mortmain. Had I taken possession when the house was handed to me, it would have been mine, but as the case stood, it was not mine. I must, if I had taken possession, have said to the person giving the house, "You must get out of it, or you must pay me rent, however nominal it may be, to acknowledge that this is really mine, and that you have given it over to me." But I could not have asked such a thing as that, or even dreamed of doing so and, therefore, the gift was void, and the house was not mine for the Lord's cause. Now, dear Friend, if you accept the Gift that God gives, remember that it will be yours--Christ will be yours, eternal life will be yours! You will have the title deeds of your inheritance! You will stand possessed of it. But do not put that off till death, I pray you. No--take possession, now, of that Christ whom God gives over to you to be His Gift to you, and your possession forever! And I will say one more thing. When once you receive this Gift, you will never lose it, "for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance," which means that God never regrets that He has given this unspeakable Gift. He will never say, "You must let Me have that back." If God has given you Christ, and you have accepted Him, He is yours forever! And this is the glory of this Divine Gift! A possession that I may lose is a very poor possession, after all. A suit at law may be brought against me and I may lose what I thought was mine. I would not like to have such a possession as that! I could not go to sleep at night through fear that I should lose it. But if God has given me Christ and I have taken Christ, He is mine! Death, nor Hell, nor anything else, shall ever be able to separate the soul from Christ, or Christ from the soul that has accepted Him. It was well spoken, "Christ and a crust, yes. Christ and no crust would be better than all the world without Him." Oh, give me Christ, and let me die, sooner than let me live without Christ, for that cannot be truly called life which is without Him who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." I know that some of you have been straining after doing something or being something in order to obtain God's unspeakable Gift. Will you have it? Will you have it for nothing? Do not insult God by bringing your poor wretched merits as the purchase-money for His free Gift of Christ! Come just as you are and freely take what He freely gives--and Christ is yours forever! I was surprised, the other day, when I found that a poor soul in deep despair had obtained comfort from a sermon of mine, not upon the universal redemption of men, nor upon the free offer of salvation, but the man had laid hold of the sharp angular points of a sermon upon the Everlasting Covenant and upon the Doctrine of Election. When I heard of it, I saw how God can give a soul comfort simply by the exhibition of His Sovereign Grace. "It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy." O Soul, if you will have Christ as a Gift, you may have Him tonight! You need not go home, first. You need not wait a moment. But if you will not have Him as a Gift, you will never have Him, for in no other way can Christ ever belong to you and me, except as God's Gift which we, by His Grace, are led freely to accept! Thus much, and perhaps too much, considering our time, on the first point, that Christ is a Gift, the free Gift of God's Grace. II. Now, in the second place, let us consider the fact that, AS A GIFT, CHRIST IS UNSPEAKABLE. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift," said the Apostle Paul--and so say we. "Why," asks one, "do you speak about Him, then?" Well, principally because He is unspeakable. By this time, after nearly 1900 years, if the theme we have to preach about were speakable, we should have exhausted it--but as it is unspeakable, a sea without a shore, an ocean without a bottom--we will keep on preaching for another 1900 years, if the Lord does not come--and we shall never get to the end of this theme, I am quite sure! I heard of a minister who explained to one of his hearers what a trouble it was for him to get a sermon. "Oh," he said, "it takes me days, and makes my head ache, and I do not know what to do." "Sir," his friend replied, "if it is like that, I should think you must be near the bottom of the tub." And I should think so, too. But when we come to speak about Christ, we have an unspeakable subject! Here is a well springing up that overflows and we can speak forever upon this unspeakable theme! How is it unspeakable? First, he who spoke best of Christ declared that He was unspeakable. Do you know anybody who spoke better of Christ than Paul did, Inspired as he was? What majestic sentences! What wonderful paragraphs you come across in Paul's writing, where he piles up his words, mountain upon mountain, in order to glorify Christ! If anybody could have spoken Christ out from Alpha to Omega, and told all about Him, Paul was the man! And though he did not give up the blessed task, but lived and died at it, he declared that God's Gift was unspeakable, and I am sure it is so. Next, he who needs a Savior most, will tell you that Christ is God's unspeakable Gift. You know that man. He sits down in the deep distress of his soul, with his hand to his heavy head, but he cannot lay his hand on his heavy heart. It would break his arm to try to hold that up! Laden with guilt and full of fears, he says, "There is no salvation for me but by Christ. Oh, that I could get Christ! Oh, that I could get Christ! It would be an unspeakable blessing if I could but believe in Christ." I know one who talked like this to his mother, the other night. "Why, John," she said, "you look very miserable! You look as if you had the whole world hanging on you." "Mother," he replied, "I could better bear the whole world with Christ than live without Him." When a man thus feels his need of Christ, he knows that Christ is God's unspeakable Gift! When you receive Christ, you will find that he who enjoys Him most feels Him to be an unspeakable Gift. When we do not enjoy Christ much, we can talk like parrots about His charms, but when we get our souls full of Christ, generally we cannot talk at all about Him! The man who feels that Christ is his, that he is saved, and that Christ has filled him full of heavenly treasures and made him to possess all things--such a man as that--when he begins to try to talk about Christ, gets choked up. The tears are in his eyes. "Oh," he says, "let me go home, let me get alone and sit down, and quietly think this subject out, for it is altogether unspeakable." He who thinks that he could tell all that he knows about Christ may also conclude that he does not know much, for he who knows most of Him feels that He is God's unspeakable Gift. And, Beloved, he who has used Christ most and used Him longest will tell you this. At first, Christ is everything to the new-born soul in one direction. By-and-by, He is everything in another direction and, in the end, Christ is everything in every direction! Tell me, my gray-headed Friend, what do you think of Christ? If you have known Him 50 years, at what is Christ best, Man? "Best?" you ask, "He is best at everything!" And so, indeed, He is. And to what use do you put Christ, my Brother, in the midst of the battle of life? Do you find Christ good as a helmet, breastplate, shoes, or belt? "Oh," you say, "He is good as a full armor. All I need, I find in Christ, yes, more than all." It would be impossible to tell all the uses to which Christ is put. You who have used Him most and longest will say, "He is unspeakably precious to us, for He has been good to us in sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth, in joy and in depression. He is equally good everywhere! Oh, that we might still go on to know more of Him, for as God's great Gift to us He is unspeakable!" Again, the preacher who has preached Him most fully knows that Christ is unspeakable. Ah, dear Friends! I do not suppose that you can understand the feeling that comes over me at times. I have sometimes had glorious liberty in preach-ing--I have felt like Naphtali, a hind let loose--and I have talked away of my Master to my own joy, and I think to yours, too. And then, when I have been on my way home, I have begun asking myself, "Now, how did you preach, after all?" And it has seemed to me a poor, miserable affair. I have said so little in honor of my Master compared with what I ought to have said, that I have felt half inclined to come back here and begin again--only the thought has often struck me--"You will do it worse if you go back, so that you had better leave it alone as it is." I know a man, an eminent painter, and a person sat for him 13 times for his portrait--and the artist could not catch the sitter's expression. I saw him throw his brush right into the middle of the painting and he said, "I give it up! I cannot do it." That is how we sometimes feel with regard to our Master. Who can paint Him as He ought to be painted? We give it up! Go, Sir, and look at the sun, and then come back and paint the sun upon your canvas! And then go and look at Christ, and express Him by your speech. Nature, all nature together-- "To make His beauties known, Must mingle colors not her own." He who preaches Christ most fully knows that He is unspeakable! You did well to sing just now the verse that I often repeat to myself concerning my own preaching-- "Vexed, I try and try again, Still my efforts all are vain! Living tongues are dumb at best, We must die to speak of Christ." I have come so far and reached my last point. I wish that we had more time for such a glorious theme. III. Now, thirdly, AS A GIFT UNSPEAKABLE, CHRIST CALLS FORTH PRAISE TO GOD FROM US. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift." The Gift of Christ makes us view God with thankfulness. Never fall into the mistake that is often made by ignorant persons when they suppose that our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to make God loving. No, no, no! Jesus Christ came into the world because God was loving and, in love to us, gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us-- "'Twas not to make Jehovah's love Towards the sinner flame, That Jesus, from His throne above, A suffering Mian became. 'Twas not the death which He endured, Nor all the pangs He bore, That God's eternal love procured, For God was Love before," and He so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. God's unspeakable Gift is not the cause of His love, but the fruit of His love! Do not say, "Thanks be unto Christ for dying to placate the Father." No, no! "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift." God gave His Son--and we adore the Giver--and bless His name. Once we thought of God with dread, but now that He has given us Jesus, we think of Him with thankfulness. We are glad that there is a God. It is no question with us whether there is a God or not! If there were no God, it were eternal ruin to us! But because there is a God, there is Heaven for us--no, our God is our Heaven, blessed be His name! Thus, we think of God with thankfulness. And notice, next, that we ought to express that thankfulness. The Apostle says, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift." But, Paul, what brought you to that topic? You were talking to these Corinthians about giving, not grudgingly, as of necessity, and so on. What brought you to the subject of God's unspeakable Gift? Paul answers, "It is impossible to say what brought me to this topic, for I am always at it. Whatever I am talking about, whatever business I have on hand, I am always thanking God for His unspeakable Gift." The Apostle broke out into that burst of praise because he could not help it! His soul was swelling with intense gratitude and he was obliged to cry out, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift." Dear Friends, praising God is never out of season and never out of place. You know that some of us who profess to be Christians are the most orderly and proper people in all the world--that is to say, we never intrude our religion upon other people. We can see a man for 20 years and yet never say a word to him about Christ. We do not have those dreadful people crying out, "Hallelujah," in the service, do we? We are so dreadfully proper! Besides that, we are dreadfully cold as well. Perhaps we should speak about Christ very imprudently and do some very rash things if we loved Him better, but we love Him so little that we become wonderfully prudent and wonderfully proper--and we and the world jog on together as if there were no difference between us! If a man does roll out an oath, now and then, we are very sorry, but we never rebuke him. Of course not! Ah, well, I wish that we could be at least as rash as one old man who was employed at a wharf unloading. He was weakly and sickly, and so they gave him less pay than others received, and he was quite content. But there was a stevedore who, one morning, swore at him, and the old man bowed his head and said nothing. The blasphemer swore, again, and the old man bowed his head again. At last the swearer said, "You old fool, what are you bowing to me for?" The good man replied, "I was not bowing to you, but you named the name of God, and I thought that I would pay Him reverence even if you did not." Well done, old man! Well done, old man! May every Christian here find some way of thanking God for His unspeakable Gift! The more the world curses, the more let us bless! We are to express our thanks as well as to feel grateful. Our expression of thankfulness for God's unspeakable Gift would make ourselves all the surer that Christ is ours. A man who has received a gift and never looks at it, and never thanks the giver, will come, by degrees, to forget that he has it, or to forget the giver, and to forget how he came by it. Cultivate a grateful spirit when you think of what a Gift you have in Christ! Praise the Lord for Christ! Then you will need to praise Him, again, and when you have praised Him again, you will need to praise Him yet again--and the more you praise Him--the more sure you will be that He is really yours! Suppose that a man has a garden and that he knows it is his? He is quite sure it is his. And suppose that for 20 years he has always gathered all the fruit of the garden and lived upon it. Then nobody can question his right--he has the right of possession, the right of enjoyment. He received his garden as a gift and for the last 20 years he has thanked the giver of it. I am sure that his title is clear enough. Oh, how some of you would clear your titles if you praised God more! Your very praising and blessing Him would be a re-examination of your title deeds--and your confidence would grow to full assurance. You would not only know that you had received God's unspeakable Gift, but you would also know why you had received it! Lastly, we are to wish for the spread of such thankfulness. If we are in the right frame of mind, we shall not only, ourselves, say, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift," but we shall mean what Paul meant--let everybody else who has received this unspeakable Gift praise God for it! Brothers, let us thank God! Sisters, let us praise the Lord! I remember being at a Primitive Methodist meeting where they sang a hymn beginning-- "Come, soldiers, can't you rise and tell The wonders of Immanuel? Yes, bless the Lord, we can rise and tell, The wonders of Immanuel." There was a very lively chorus to the hymn and those Methodists did sing it, too! It ran like this-- "All glory to the Lamb of God, Who purchased us with atoning blood! We soon shallpass over Jordan's flood, And join the saved in Glory!" I learned a lesson in praise, the other morning. I think it was a little after five o'clock, when I was just waking, I heard a blackbird come and chirp a note or two close by my window. After a minute or two, a thrush also began to sing, And when the two together became fairly awake, they were not satisfied until they had aroused all the chaffinches, and goldfinches, and sparrows! So they chirped away and sang on until they awoke every bird near my house! What an oratorio of praise the bird musicians gave forth! They never had to look to their paper to see whether they kept to the score, but each one did keep to the score, and they rose higher and higher and higher in their exultant songs to the God of day who had chased the night away and given them light, once more, in the morning! Now I am the blackbird that would start the praise tonight. There are birds of all sorts here, of different colors, and varying plumages, and able to sing all manner of notes. Let us join together to give the Lord an evening song as those birds gave Him a morning song--and let this be the keynote--"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift!" Before I dismiss those who are not going to remain for the Communion, let us all sing-- "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him, all creatures here below! Praise Him above, you heavenly host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. ISAIAH53. Mr. Moody was once asked whether his creed was in print. In his own prompt way, he replied, "Yes, Sir. You will find it in the 53rd Chapter of Isaiah." A condensed Bible is in this chapter. You have the whole Gospel here. Verse 1. Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? Nobody ever does believe either Prophets or preachers except through the work of God's Spirit and Grace. The Lord's arm must be revealed, or else His Truth proclaimed by His servants will never be accepted. All the Prophets speak in these words of Isaiah, as if they all stood together, and lifted up this wail, "Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" 2. For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. This is Israel's King, the long-promised Messiah! Yet when He comes to Bethlehem, see what "a tender plant" He is! Look at the house of David, almost extinct, and see what "a root out of a dry ground" is-- "The stem of Jesse's rod." When Jesus comes before the sons of men, dressed in the garb of a peasant, a poor Man, a sorrowful Man, a Man who had not where to lay His head, notice how men say, by their actions, if not in words, "There is no beauty that we should desire Him." 3. He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. We rightly sing-- "Rejected and despised of men, Behold a Man of woe! And grief His close companion still Through all His life below! We held Him as condemned of Hea ven, An outcast from His God, While for our sins He groaned, He bled, Beneath His Fathers rod." His own people, yes, His own chosen ones, turned away from Him! And you and I did so till God's Grace changed our hearts and opened our eyes! But why was He "despised and rejected of men; a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief"? Why was the Prince of Israel such a suffering Man? He had no sin for which to be chastened. There was no evil in His Nature that needed to be fetched out with the rod of correction. Oh, no! The answer is very different-- 4, 5. Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. What a joyous note there is in that sorrowful line, "With His stripes we are healed"! Glory be to God, we are healed of our soul-sickness, cured of the disease of sin by this strange surgery, not by stripes upon ourselves, but by stripes upon our Lord! 6. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. The general sin of the race, the special sin of the individual--all gathered, heap upon heap, mountain upon mountain--and laid by God on Christ! We sometimes sing-- "I lay my sins on Jesus, The spotless Lamb of God. He bears them all and frees us From the accursed load. I bring my guilt to Jesus, To wash my crimson stains White in His blood most precious, Till not a spot remains," and I will find no fault with that hymn. But the real laying of sin upon Jesus was effected by God, Himself--"The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." 7. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. He never pleaded for Himself. At the earthly judgment seat, He said not a word for Himself, so that even Pilate "marveled greatly." Oh, the eloquence of that silence! Truly it was golden! Omnipotence restrained Omnipotence! Christ held Himself in as with bit and bridle. "As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth." 8. 9. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken. And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Therefore He was allowed to be buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea. He was no felon, whose body must be cast out to the kites and jackals, but "He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth." 10. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when You shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. Wicked men slew our Lord, and their crime was the blackest in the world's history, but, unconsciously, they were carrying out "the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief." Christ died for others, but He lives, again, and through Him a godly seed shall live forever and ever--"When You shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand." He is made to prosper because He died. 11. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied. His death pangs were birth pangs--"the travail of His soul." He sees the multitude that shall be born through His death, and He is content. 11. By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many. Dear Hearer, will He justify you? Do you know Him? If you know Him so as to trust Him, He has justified you--you are a justified man tonight! "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." "By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many." 11. For He shall bear their iniquities. They kick against this doctrine nowadays. They cannot bear it, yet it is the very marrow of the Gospel--Christ bearing sin that was not His own, that we might be covered with a righteousness which is not our own, but comes from Him! Paul, by the Spirit, put this great Truth of God thus, "For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 12. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He has poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Thanks be unto God for this great Sacrifice! __________________________________________________________________ "Dare To Be a Daniel" (No. 2291) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 15, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank." Daniel 1:8. VERY much of our future life will depend upon our earliest days. I like a remark of Mr. Ruskin's that I remember to have read, though I cannot quote it verbatim. He says, "People often say, 'We excuse the thoughtlessness of youth,'" but he says, "No, it never ought to be excused. I had far rather hear of thoughtless old age, when a man has done his work-- but what excuse can be found for a thoughtless youth? The time for thought is at the beginning of life and there is no period which so much demands, or so much necessitates, thoughtfulness as our early days." I would that all young men would think so. They say that they must sow their "wild oats." No, no, my dear young Friend, think before you sow such seed as that, and remember what the reaping will be. See whether there is not better corn to be found than wild oats and try to sow that. Then think how you will sow it and when you will sow it, for, if you do not think about the sowing-- "What will the harvest be?" If there is any time when the farmer should think, it is surely in the early stages of the plowing and the sowing. If he does not think, then, it will be of small use for him to think afterwards. Daniel was a young man, and he did think. It was his glory that he so thought that he came to a purpose, and he purposed, not with a kind of superficial, "I will," but he, "purposed in his heart," and gave his whole self to a certain definite purpose which he deliberately formed. He was a young man--he was also a captive--and that rendered it the more remarkable that he should come to such a decision. He had been stolen away from his father's house and carried into a foreign land. And you know what men say, "When you are in Rome, you must do as Rome does." But here was a young man in Babylon who would not do what Babylon did--a youth in a king's court who would not eat what the king ate, or drink what the king drank--a captive whose very name had been changed in order to make him forget his country and his God, for the change in name, as I told you in the reading, was meant to be significant of a change in religion. But though they might change Daniel's name, they could not change his nature, nor would he give up anything that he believed to be right. Captive as he was, he had a right royal soul, and he was as free in Babylon as he had been at Jerusalem. And he determined to keep himself so, for he, "purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank." Oh, that we had a multitude of young men who knew how to put their feet down! We have a great number, now, who are watching to see where to put their foot down, and they will try to put it down, not where it is most solid ground, but where it is most turfy, and easy, and soft to the feet! May God give us back the old grit that used to be in old-fashioned Christians, to whom custom was nothing, but God's Word was everything--to whom it mattered not whether it brought loss or gain--but they did the right and followed the right, cost what it might! Now, it was because Daniel, while yet a youth, a captive, a student, was so decided in what he did, that his later life became so bright. He would never have been called, "a man greatly beloved," if he had not been made, by Grace, a youth greatly decided. Neither would he have advanced to the reign of Cyrus, as we read just now, if he had not stood firm in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. You shall read the evening of life in the morning of life, and you shall decide what your evening is to be by what your morning is! God help you, who are beginning life, for, if God begins with you and you begin with God, your life will be one of happy usefulness which will have a truly blessed end! I am going to talk just now, not so much about Daniel, as about the whole subject of a spirit of decision in such a time as this. Our first head will be that there are temptations to be resisted by us, as there were by Daniel. Secondly, there are right methods of resisting temptation. And, thirdly, there are certain points which will have to be proved by experience while we are in this process of fighting against temptation. I. THERE ARE TEMPTATIONS TO BE RESISTED. There never was a man yet who had faith and who had not trials. Wherever there is faith in God, it will be tested at some time or other--it must be so. It cannot be that the house shall be built, even on the Rock, without the rains descending, the floods coming and the winds beating upon that house. Though it shall not fall, yet it shall be tried by a force that would make it fall were it not Divinely sustained. Now, first, look at Daniel's temptations. In his case, the temptation was very specious. He was told to eat the portion of food that, every day, came from the king's table. Could he need any better? And he was commanded to drink the measure of wine, generally the best in the world, that was sent from the king's table. He might have fared like a prince! Could he have any objection to that? He had no objection except this--that it would defile him. Do you understand what he meant by that? There were certain foods used by the Babylonians, such as the flesh of swine, the flesh of the hare and of certain fish, that were unclean, and when these came from the king's table, if Daniel ate them, he would be breaking the Law of Moses as given in the Book of Leviticus, and thus he would be defiled. Remember that the food which was allowed to Israel was to be killed in a certain way. The blood must be effectually drained from the flesh, for he that ate the blood defiled himself thereby. Now, the Babylonians did not kill their beasts in that way and the eating of flesh which had not been killed according to the Law would have defiled Daniel. You know how careful the Jews are to this day with regard to the butchering of the food they eat. More than that, usually such a king as Nebuchadnezzar, before he ate food, dedicated it to his god. Bel-Merodach was greatly venerated by Nebuchadnezzar as god, so that a libation of wine was poured out to Merodach, and a certain portion of food was put aside, so that, in fact, it was offered to idols--and Daniel felt that he would be defiled if he ate of meat which might be unclean, and which was certain to be offered to idols--it would be breaking the Law of God--so Daniel would not eat it. But the temptation to do so must have been very strong, for somebody would say, "Why, what difference can it make what you eat, or what you drink?" Under the Christian dispensation, it might be another matter, but under the Jewish dispensation, it made a great deal of difference whether a man ate or drank certain things. Others would say, "Why is Daniel so particular? There have been other Jews here who have unhesitatingly eaten the king's meat. We read of king Jehoiakim, that he had a portion from the king's table every day, and he does not seem to have made any objection! Why does this young fellow put his back up so and make himself so odd, and so different from everybody else? There is no use in being so strict and sticking out about little things." So the temptation came to Daniel with great speciousness. Then, the temptation seemed the road to honor. To consent to eat of the king's meat and to drink of the king's wine, seemed to be the way to get on in Babylon. They would say to Daniel, "Surely, if you begin by objecting to what the monarch sends you from his table, you will never get on at court. People with a conscience should not go to court." I do not say that, today, but I do think that they ought not to be members of Parliament! It must be amazingly difficult for a man with a conscience to go in and out there! But for Daniel to begin with a conscience like this, so particularly tender that it was offended by a glass of the king's wine, or a morsel of the king's meat, why, any good old fatherly man would have said, "My boy, you will never get on--your religion will always stand in your way. I am sure you will never come to be much." That would have been a great mistake, however, for Daniel became a great ruler and he prospered in the world through that very conscientiousness which it was thought would spoil all his prospects! Somebody would whisper in Daniel's ear, "It is the law of the land. The king, who is supreme, has ordered that you should eat this portion and drink this measure of wine each day." Yes, but whatever the law may be, and whatever custom may be, the servants of God serve a higher King and they have but one rule and one custom! "We ought to obey God rather than man." They are ready to be the most obedient subjects up to a certain point, but when the Law of God comes in, then are they dogged to a degree of obstinacy. They can burn, but they cannot turn--they can die, but they cannot deny the Law of the Lord, their God! In Daniel's case, if he had done what it was proposed to him to do, it would have been giving up the separated life. He felt that if he constantly fed upon the luxurious food of the king, he would be reckoned to be a Chaldean like the king, and so, to keep up his separation as belonging to the chosen seed, of whom Balaam prophesied, "The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations," Daniel would not eat of the royal fare which was provided for him. Had he done so, he would have melted into a Chaldean and given up being an Israelite, to whom belonged the promises. This is the temptation of the present day. Profess to be a Christian, but float along the common current of the world! Take the name of a Christian and go to your place of worship, and go through your ceremonies--but do not bring your religion into your business! Act as other people do! This is the temptation of the time--as the majority of men think, so think you--and as the majority of men say, so say you! And as the majority of Christian professors talk, so talk you! This is the Satanic temptation which is wrecking our churches and doing, I know not how much mischief to men of God! But Daniel, though tempted strongly to do like that, would not yield. He "purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank." Now, in our own case, what are the particular temptations to which we, as believing men and believing women, are exposed? I cannot go into the question of individuals, but I can imagine someone here, tonight, who is in a position where he is asked to do what it is not right for him to do. But he says, "I shall be fired if I refuse to do it! I know others do it and I must do it." My dear young fellow, allow me to put before you, Daniel, who purposed in his heart that he would not eat the king's meat. I talked, the other day, with a gentleman who was the trustee for one of the wealthiest men in England, and who now is trustee of the money that the same gentleman has left to all his children. Those children have grown up and have come to years of maturity, but they still make him the trustee, paying him for looking after all their money, which is an immense amount. I was asking him how it was that he gained the confidence of the family so that they put him in such a position where all that they have is under his care and discretion. He said that he remembered, when he was but a boy, the head of the establishment said to him one day, "Say that I am out," and he replied, "Please, Sir, I could not say that, for it would not be true." Of course the master was very angry and told him that he must not bring his scruples there, or he would never get on in life--but he never asked him to tell a lie again--and when somebody was needed to act as confidential clerk, that young fellow was selected and, knowing him to be one who would be faithful and true, his master took the opportunity to promote him! And he put implicit confidence in him from that hour. Sometimes you will find that to be out and out for the right will be the making of you. I would not urge integrity upon you from such a motive, but, since the devil will tell you that it will be the ruin of you, I will urge you to stand fast to the right, to speak the truth at all times, to be straightforward, for you will find that honesty is the best policy. Any man who speaks the truth will find it the best thing in the long run! To lie, to stray from the truth, to stall, to try to hold with the hare and run with the hounds involves you in a world of difficulty and trouble! Be straight as Daniel was. The Lord help you to be so! But now it comes to Christian people in another way. Some would tempt us to assist the cause of God by amusements. Christian people are asked to go to places, well, very doubtful places, to say the least, and sometimes this evil is introduced into religion, till, as one of our friends said most truly in prayer, tonight, they have brought the theater into the house of God! They have really done so and brought back chaos and old night, primeval darkness. Oh, that God would speak, again, and say, "Let there be light," and chase these things of darkness away once and for all! I charge every Christian here to make his resolve that, if others do these things, as for Daniel, he has purposed in his heart that he will not defile himself with the king's meat, or with the wine which the king drank! So today, again, there is the temptation of love for intellectual novelty. Instead of the old, old Gospel, and the old, old Book, for which God be thanked forever, we are to place science, which is generally conjecture, in the place of Revelation--and the thoughts of men are to cover and bury the sublime thoughts of God. I see ministers and churches deluded and led astray by these temptations. As for me, if no one else will say it, I purpose in my heart not to defile myself with this portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. We need still to have old-fashioned Believers who will sing the verse we sang just now-- "Should all the forms that men devise Assault my faith with treacherous art, I'd call them vanity and lies, And bind the Gospel to my heart," God send us many Daniels of that sort! And, besides this, we have, nowadays, the temptation to general laxity. People do, even Christian people do, what Christian people should not do. And they excuse themselves by quoting the example of other Christians, or by saying, "We are not so precise as our fathers were." Has God changed? Is there not a text that says, "The Lord your God is a jealous God"? Does He permit His people to sin and take pleasure in it? And are we to forget that precept, "Be you holy, for I am holy"? Is there to be no separation from the world? And is it no longer true that, "If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him"? Is there no such text as this, "Come out from among them, and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty"? I pray you, Brothers and Sisters, now, if never before, tie everything up as tightly as you can! The storm is now so heavy that you need to go with close-reefed sails. Oh, for a Daniel's declaration that you will not defile yourself with the portion of the king's meat, or with the wine which he drank! I could continue long at this point, but I have given you the general principle which you can work out for yourselves. Christians have meat to eat of which the world knows not. We have our re-creation--that is the way to pronounce recreation--re-creation. We go to our Creator and He makes us anew. We have our nights of holy mirth. We have our days of delight. There is a King, a portion of whose meat we rejoice to eat, and of whose wine we delight to drink. But as to questionable things, things of the world, and all that tends towards departure from the living God, we say that, by His Grace, we determine not to defile ourselves with them! II. Now I come to the second point. THERE ARE RIGHT METHODS OF RESISTING TEMPTATION. And the first is that the heart must be set. "Daniel purposed in his heart." He looked the matter up and down and he settled it in his heart. Before he asked Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego anything about it, he had made up his own mind. Oh, for a made-up mind! Oh, for the man who knows how to look at his compass and to steer his vessel where he ought to go! God grant you Divine Grace, young man, to nail your colors to the mast and to be determined that you will keep to the right course, come fair wind or come foul! Daniel had settled it in his heart. The Grace of God is a great heart-settler. Where it comes, men become firm and positive, for the Lord teaches them to profit. The next thing is that the life must be willing. Daniel was helped in carrying out his resolution by his own personal character. God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. Whenever a man is brought into favor and tender love, and is a good man, there is something about him that has commended itself. There is a something about him that is lovable, or he would not have been loved. It is of no use for a man to say, "I have made up my mind upon certain things," and to keep doggedly fighting over those matters, while, at the same time, the whole of his life is unkind, ungenerous and unlovable. Yes, by all manner of means be a martyr if you like, but do not martyr everybody else, for it is very possible to get so much grit in you that you become all grit. There are some who have carried firmness into obstinacy and determination into bigotry, which is a thing to be shunned. Yield everything that may be yielded! Give up mere personal whims and oddities, but as for the things of God, stand as firm as a rock about them. God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince who was set over him, but there was in Daniel, by God's Grace, a generosity and frankness and nobleness of character which even the mighty Chaldean admired. Oh, for a grand character to support one's religious determination! Then observe that the protest must be courteously borne. While Daniel was very decided, he was very courteous in his protests. He went to the prince and he told him his scruples. He requested that he might not be obliged to defile himself. There are many ways of doing the same thing and some people always select the very ugliest way of doing everything. Let us ask for wisdom and discretion in doing that which is right. Firmness of purpose should be adorned with gentleness of manner in carrying it out. It was so with young Daniel. Next to that, self-denial must be sought. I do not think that Daniel had any objection to eat flesh, or to drink wine, for he evidently did both, according to other portions of this Book, but his objection was, for religious reasons, against the king's meat and the king's wine, so he said, "To make it clear that nothing that enters my lips has ever been dedicated to idols, let me have nothing to eat but vegetables--lentils, beans, peas and such like things--and for drink, let me have that of which kings do not often take much, let me have nothing but water, in order to make quite sure that I have no libation that has been offered to idols." So Daniel and his three companions denied themselves luxuries, which, perhaps, they enjoyed as much as anybody else, so as by no means to defile themselves with anything which had been associated with the Babylonian idols. If you will be out and out for God, you must expect self-denial and you will have to habituate yourself to it. Be ready for a bad name; be willing to be called a bigot; be prepared for loss of friendships; be prepared for anything so long as you can stand fast by Him who bought you with His precious blood. He that should run the gauntlet of earth and Hell for a thousand years, and yet hold fast his integrity, would be a gainer by all that he lost--he would gain an increase of eternal joy by all he suffered. Therefore, I charge you, seek for the Daniel spirit. And then the test must be boldly put. Daniel showed his faith when he said to Melzar, "Feed me and my three companions on this common fare; give us nothing else. We do not ask you to leave us to our plan for twelve months; try us for a short time. I do not say a day or two; but take as many days as you like. Put us to the test and if, at the end of the appointed time, we are not all the better for our plain fare, then we will consider further, but, for the present, will you try us?" I think that a Christian man should be willing to be tried. He should be pleased to let his religion be put to the test. "There," he says, "hammer away if you like." Do you need to be carried to Heaven on a feather bed? Do you need to always be protected from everybody's sneer and frown--and to go to Heaven as if you were riding in the procession on Lord Mayor's day? Well, if so, you are very much mistaken if you think you are going to have it so! God give you courage, more and more of it, through faith in Himself! May you be willing to put your religion to every proper test, the test of life, and the test of death, too! III. Now, in closing, I want to show you that THERE ARE CERTAIN POINTS WHICH WILL HAVE TO BE PROVED BY EXPERIENCE. I speak, now, to you Christian people who hold fast by the old doctrines of the Gospel, who mean to hold fast by the old ways and will not be led astray by modern temptations. Now what have you to prove? Well, I think that you have to prove that the old faith gives you a bright and cheerful spirit. Really, I cannot help laughing, sometimes, when I see myself as some other people see me. One gentleman describes me as having "settled down into an ever-deepening gloom." It is a curious thing that I was not aware of this at all! You who know me and with whom I mix--have you noticed this "ever-deepening gloom" falling upon me? Do I preach like a man who has lost all the joy of life and all his comfort? I think not! If there is a happier man beneath the skies than I am, I will not change places with him, for I am perfectly satisfied to take things as they come to me--and I am glad that he has more to rejoice in than I have! Yet I am sure I do not know what he has that I have not. I have God in Heaven, I have God on earth! My heart is filled with an intense satisfaction in the firm conviction that what I believe is true and that what I preach to you is true! I am ready to stand before the Judgment Seat to give an account of what I have preached! That which I have asked you to believe, I myself believe, and if I am lost with faith in Christ, and you are lost, well, we will both be lost and go down in the same ship, for I have not a little private boat on the davits, ready to be let down, that I may got away by myself! I shall stick to the old ship and be the last man to leave it--and I shall not leave it--neither will the ship go down, but it will carry us all safely to the desired haven! Well, dear Friends, if you hold by this truth, do not let that ever make you gloomy! Men talk of "Gloomy Calvinism!" Have you never read about that "awful gloomy Calvinism"? Think of Calvin, a man who suffered from somewhere about 83 separate diseases--the most pained and tortured of all men as to his body--yet look at his life and read his Commentaries and his other books, and see the deep and wondrous calm that filled his mighty soul! There was nothing gloomy about his Calvinism--it was all bright and light and cheering to him. They do not know us, or they would not attack us as they do! Perhaps they would, though, for the enemies of the Truth of God are always ready to lie in their throats. Another point that we shall have to prove, dear Friends, is that the old faith promotes holiness of life. There are some who say, "Those people cry down good works." Do we? If you bring them as a price to purchase salvation, we do cry them down. "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" and, as somebody says, "The rags have the best of it, for they are worth more than our righteousnesses." We do say that, but, though we cry down good works as a ground of confidence, we wish to abound in them more and more to the glory of God! Go to some people and hear them talk about good works and go to other people and see them done! We wish for you and for ourselves, that we may be so holy in our lives and so gracious in our conversation that even our adversaries shall be compelled to say, "Whatever their doctrines may be, their lives are right." We have to prove that we are fatter and fairer than those who eat the king's meat! God help us to prove that we are more truthful and more godly than those who have not like precious faith! The next thing, dear Friends, is that we must prove that the old faith produces much love of our fellow men. You know that, nowadays, the watchword is, "the enthusiasm of humanity." It is a curious thing that those churches that have such a wonderful "enthusiasm of humanity" speak of us as if we were always talking of God and forgetting men. Well, well, which of these new-fangled churches has an orphanage? It is very fine to talk about Christian socialism and what you are going to do for the poor--but what have you done? Much of it is just chatter, chatter and nothing else! But the godly, who feel that God is All, are, after all, those who care most for men. And those who believe most firmly that the unbelieving sinner will be lost are the men who are most anxious to have him saved! Those who believe that there is no salvation but by the precious blood are determined that Christ shall see of the travail of His soul. Those who believe that salvation is all of Grace, from first to last, are moved to preach it with heart and soul wherever they have the opportunity. And, when God makes up His last account, it shall be found, I trust, that the best lovers of men have been those who were first of all the best lovers of God! By your help, by your kindness, by your benevolence, prove it, so that when they come to look at you who have eaten nothing but vegetables and who have drunk water, they may find that, after all, you appear fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children who ate the portion of the king's meat and drank his wine. Let our labor for the conversion of souls be incessant! Let us abound and superabound in it! And then, dear Friends, let us prove that the old faith enables us to hare great patience in trial. He who believes the Doctrines of Grace is the man who can suffer! He who falls back on Predestination and the Sovereignty of God is the man to bear burdens that would crush another! And when we come to die, who will die best? Will it be the man who is trusting in his own righteousness, or trusting in constantly changing philosophy that alters like a chameleon, according to the light that falls on it? Who will die best? You, with all this flimsy stuff, or he who, believing in his God, and in his Bible, falls back upon the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ? Finally, Brothers and Sisters, what is needed is that we who hold the old faith should be in a better state of spiritual health. May every Grace be developed! May every faculty be consecrated! May your whole lives be spent in walking with God and may you be such men and women that, if we need evidences of the truth of our holy religion, we may bring you forward and say, "See what Grace has made them! A belief in the Doctrines of Grace has fashioned them as they are, and they, themselves, are the proof of what they believe." May God bless to many here the words which I have spoken so feebly--and may many a young man-- "Dare to be a Daniel! Dare to stand alone! Dare to have a purpose firm! Dare to make it known!" EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. DANIEL 1. Verse 1. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. Sin always brings its punishment. King Jehoiakim did evil in the sight of the Lord, so God used Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to be the rod in His hand to scourge His sinful people and their wicked king. 2. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand. It was not merely that Nebuchadnezzar was strong enough to overcome the Jews, but God handed over His people into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. The enemy cannot touch the Church of God without Divine permission. 2. With part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god. See how holy things, once used for the noblest purposes, become of no further service when the Spirit of God is gone from the Church. You know that when the Philistines captured the Ark of God, and put it in the temple of Dagon, the fish-god fell down broken before the Ark. Nothing of this kind happened in Babylon. The holy vessels were put into the heathen temple and no miraculous result followed, for God cares nothing for golden vessels in and of themselves. When sin has polluted His people, their precious things are nothing to Him. They may go where men please to carry them. All their value lies in God accepting the service rendered through them. So, Brothers, you may keep up your attendance at the Lord's Supper, and your preaching, and your gathering for worship--but they will all be nothing without the Spirit of God! Look how the Lord's Supper is turned into the sacrifice of the "mass," and how Baptism is represented as the channel or medium of regeneration, when once the Spirit of God has gone from the Divinely-appointed ordinances! Besides these holy vessels, Nebuchadnezzar took the best of the people of the land and carried them away captive. He singled out the rich and the noble--those who had education and other attainments--while he left the poorest of the land behind. Sometimes those who are the most exalted will have the most suffering. 3. 4. And the king spoke unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes; children--youths-- 4. In whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. Nebuchadnezzar was, in many respects, an enlightened ruler. He looked upon this as one of the best things that he could do for his court and vast empire, that he should pick out the best of the young men of every nation, who should bring their national knowledge with them, and then, being sprightly in body and nimble in mind, should be trained to become counselors, or advisers of the court, or be prepared to fill important offices as they became vacant. 5. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank. Treating them exceedingly well, thinking, perhaps, that the very food they ate might help to tone their minds for the work to which he had called them. He wished to make them into true Chaldeans, so he ordained that they must eat of the meat he ate and drink of the wine he drank. 5. So nourishing them three years. Putting them to college, as it were, for three years-- 5, 6. That at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. You know these men's names, you will recognize them when you hear them in their altered form. 7. Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names. This was to Chaldeanize them, to take away from them everything Jewish. 7. For he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego. Now these young men's Jewish names had, each one of them, the name of God worked into their texture. I need not stay to bring it out, but there is a signification about each name connecting it with God. You hear in two of them the sound of El, which is a name of God, and in the other two, the termination Iah, which brings out the name Jehovah. The new names that were given to them appear to have been connected with idols--at all events, it was so with Belteshazzar and Abednego, or Abednebo. The intent was to make Babylonians of them. 8. But Daniel purposed in his heart.--I always like to come across a, "but," when there is any scheme of this kind. When the plan is to seduce men from right, then it is a happy thing to have a but, but, but, "But Daniel purposed in his heart," determined, settled, fixed it. 8. That he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Daniel here mentions only himself, but the three others were one with him in the resolve and the request. He was the leader. Sometimes there would be no Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, if there was not a Daniel. The other three might never have had the strength of mind if it had not been for the Daniel who dared to stand alone. But having such a brave leader, they dared to stand with him. We often owe much to spiritually-minded men who are able to help others to take a right course. 8, 9. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. It was like the case of Joseph and Potiphar. Daniel's gentle disposition, his loving ways, his open and frank spirit had won upon the prince of the eunuchs, so that he not only regarded him with favor, but even had a tender love for him. God has the hearts of all men under His control and He may give His people favor where they least expect it. 10. And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse looking than the children which are of your sort? Then shall you make me en- danger my head to the king. What a reign of terror there is in a despotic country where kings can do as they will! For the smallest offense, a man's head may be in danger! 11, 12. Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Prove your servants, I beseech you, ten days; and let them give us vegetables to eat, and water to drink. I like it that the Holy Spirit uses their old names whenever it is proper that they should be used. May we never lose our old names! I mean, our new names, for they have grown old with some of us now! May we always be known as the servants of God and not as Chaldeans! The prince of the eunuchs gave Daniel a kind of hint, that, if the officer under him chose to take the responsibility of altering the food and drink, he might do so, and the prince would not interfere with the experiment. So Daniel turns to Melzar and says to him, "Prove your servants for a suitable time. Let us have vegetables to eat, and water to drink." He put his request in an extreme light in order to be quite sure that nothing brought to him would come from the king's table. 13. Then let our countenances be looked upon before you, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as you see, deal with your servants. "If we do fall off and grow thin, and look pale and ill through this coarse food, as you think it, well then, alter it. But if, on the other hand, we should be as well as those who have eaten the king's meat, and drunk the king's wine, then let us keep to our vegetables and water." 14. So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. A round number, standing for a sufficient period to afford a fair test. 15. And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer--and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. I doubt not that the satisfaction of heart which they had in keeping themselves undefiled tended to give them a good digestion and thus they were more likely to be well than were the others. 16. 17. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them vegetables. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. God can help us in our study. We may pray as much over what we have to learn as over what we have to do. I believe that, often, a difficult problem can be best solved by prayer. All true knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom are the gifts of God. 17-19. And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king. They were made to be his attendants, his advisers--these very men who had been so absurd as not to eat the food from the royal table--so obstinate as to consider that they would defile themselves if they did! It is these absurd and obstinate people who cannot be bent, but must be straight--the upright men who shall stand before kings--for God is with them. 20. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. They communed with God and that was better than being magicians or stargazers! Men of God are ten times better than all that lot put together! 21. And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus. Those two words summarize the whole of Daniel's history--"Daniel continued." May God give to each of us here Divine Grace to continue as Daniel did! __________________________________________________________________ Abraham, A Pattern To Believers (No. 2292) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 22, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "By faith he (Abraham) sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God." Hebrews 11:9,10. ABRAHAM'S life, taken literally, is full of instruction, but we shall be wise to take the spirit of it and endeavor to make it our own. We cannot live just as Abraham did, but we can carry out the great principles which lay at the root of Abraham's life and, if the Holy Spirit will work in us a like degree of faith to that of the holy Patriarch, we may glorify God by our lives, even as he did. The first point in which we must follow him is that our life must be a life of faith. We cannot be children of believing Abraham unless we live by believing. If you follow your senses, you go by what you see. Now, by what this poor flesh would teach you to desire, you will know nothing of the life of Abraham. He was a man who saw what eyes can never see. He heard what ears can never hear and he was moved, guided, actuated by motives which men of the world can never feel. He was a great man, a very prince among men--first, chief and father of all believing men--but he owed the preeminence of his character to the greatness of his faith. We must have his faith and we must live by it, as he lived by it-- and then God will be able to make something of even such poor, feeble creatures as we are. Let me remind you of what we read in the sixth verse, "Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." If we would be like "faithful Abraham," we must begin by being Believers. Abraham is, in three things, a pattern to us who believe, and those three things will be the divisions of our subject tonight. He is a pattern to us, first, in the mode of his living--"He sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tents." Secondly, Abraham is a pattern to Believers in the company he kept--"With Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." And, thirdly, Abraham is a pattern to Believers in the home he looked for--"For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God." I. First, dear Friends, it should be our anxious desire to imitate Abraham spiritually IN THE MODE OF HIS LIVING. How did he live? Well, first, he lived as a man cut off from old associations. He had dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, on "the other side of the flood," as the Scripture says, and he was called to leave his family, his estate, his country--and go to a land which he had never seen, and which God promised, ultimately, to give to his family to be an inheritance forever. Abraham was not disobedient. He left his country and he journeyed to the land pointed out to him. Now, dear Friends, we are not, as a rule, to leave our friends and kindred. We would be very ungenerous and ungrateful if we did. There may, however, be occasions when even that may have to be done, but we are really to leave our old associations, our unspiritual, sinful, worldly associations and to come right out. You who are born of Christian parents and live in godly families, do not know much about this coming out, for you are singularly shielded. But there are some here who, if they become Christians, will get "the cold shoulder" from everybody in the house. A man's foes will, in their case, be they of his own household. They will have to quit their present business. They will have to cut the connection between them and many ungodly men and women. They will have to come right out from the old kith and kin of their ungodliness and each one of them will have to say-- "I am on the Lord's side-- My old companions, fare you well, I cannot go with you to Hell." Now, Abraham did this and he never went back again, as some do who run away from their old master for a little while, and then go back to his cruel service to their own destruction. I suppose Abraham was called out from the place where he dwelt, to live a separated life, because his kinsfolk and acquaintances were idolaters. The Lord said to Israel, through Joshua, "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods." Abraham must, therefore, be taken away from that connection, that he might serve the living and true God. "No," you say, "but when he went to Palestine, he was among idolaters." Yes, but it is one thing to walk up and down among idolaters, and quite another thing to be in the same family with them! Abraham was safe enough from idolatry when he moved about among the Canaanites and saw their obscene worship. But he was not safe from it in a decent, respectable household like that of his father, where the teraphim were slyly adored, and the worship of false gods was carried on without the disgusting abominations that were common in Canaan. I think that more people are lost through half-way Christians than through profligates. Men seldom become drunkards through drunkards. They become drunkards through--well, we will say no more about that--you know what I mean. And I do not think that men often learn to grow up dishonest by the example of great thieves, but it comes through imitating people who are thought to be honest, and yet can pilfer. Ah, Friends, it is a good thing to get a man right out from the world, even from the best side of it, for the best part of the world is bad enough and complete separation from it, with a deep abyss between it and ourselves, is really necessary for our spiritual health. Now, the next thing about Abraham was that while he lived away from his country, he lived in the land of promise. That was an odd thing, was it not, that he should be a stranger in the land of promise? God had given it to him and to his seed by a Covenant of Salt, and yet he possessed not a foot of it except what he bought from the sons of Heth for a bury-ing-place. That is all he had. So, today, in this world, perhaps all that some of you will ever have is about six feet of earth for a burying-place, and yet it is all yours, it is all yours. You are living in the land of promise. "The meek shall inherit the earth." They that fear the Lord are the true possessors of the world and the day shall come when even this poor world, itself, brought into subjection to the Christ of God, shall be ours! Indeed, it is ours already and much more than the world is also ours, as the Apostle says, "Things present, or things to come, all are yours." Abraham was in the land of promise and yet he was a stranger in it. In this point you must be like he. Regard everything about you as yours and yet consider that you have not anything in actual possession except that little plot in the cemetery where sleeps one well-beloved and where you, too, shall sleep, unless the Lord shall come. The point to be remembered is that we are to be strangers in this world! We are not to be mistaken for citizens of this world--we ought to be known to be strangers in it. Abraham never blushed to say, even to the lordly sons of Heth, "I am a stranger and a sojourner with you." He did not want them to think that he was a Canaanite. I do not know what he would have done if they had fallen into that idea. Christian people, if you were what you should be, men would know that you did not belong to this ungodly race! You have been redeemed from among men. You have been endowed with a new life to which they are strangers--and it ought to be apparent in your daily walk and conversation that you seek another country. This world is not your country and never can be! Why was Abraham made to be a stranger in that country? I think it was that he might be tried and that in the trial Graces might be developed which could never have come out otherwise. And you are to be a stranger in the midst of your own friends, that your patience may be tried, that your faith may be exercised, and that your holy longings for the better country may often break out. Was he not put there, also, that, being absent from Home, he might learn to look for it by faith? You are not to be in Heaven just yet. It is not the time for you to be there. You are to be absent from Heaven that you may long for it, that you may go there with a better appetite! I think a boy who goes to school loves home the better when he comes back for his holidays. Oh, what a Heaven will Heaven be to some of God's people who spend the most of their time on a hard bed, made harder by their lying long upon it, and who have none of the comforts of this life and, perhaps, not too much of the comforts of the life to come! One hour with our God will make up for everything we suffer here! But our suffering will go a long way towards making Heaven more truly Heaven when once we get there. Abraham was placed in Canaan as a stranger, in this sense, that he had nothing to do with many of the cares that vexed the sons of Heth. Nor have you as a Christian anything to do with the cares that vex the worldling. You ought to have no care to get rich. You are a stranger here--why do you want to heap up the furniture when you are soon going away? You ought not to know the worldings' fret and worry. They are at home and they may well fret. That house is decaying, this furniture is going out of repair--but what is that to you? It is none of yours! You are only a traveler stopping at the inn and if the place should fall down tomorrow, you will be away. You are on your journey Home--you are not a fixture, as these men are--you take but little concern in the things that they are most worried about. If I go to Mentone, I do not trouble about French politics. I know who is the President of the Republic, but I do not know the name of the great men who sit on his right and on his left hand, and I do not want to know! If I hear anything about politics, I like to know what is being done in my own dear homeland. So, you Christians, your citizenship is in Heaven. As to these things which are down below, you take an interest in them so far as they concern the Kingdom of God and the good of your fellow men, but you are no partisan. Why should you be? You are a stranger and a foreigner--and so you keep aloof from party strifes and from those cares and other things of which the men of the world think so much. I think, also, that Abraham was sent to Canaan as a stranger to be a witness for God. These people were soon to be destroyed, but their iniquity was not yet full, so they had another chance in the living of a man of God, a Prophet of God, among them. You, my Christian friend, are a stranger here, and you are living here for the good of those around you. It may be that you may snatch some brand from the burning. Be content to stay if such is the case. Abraham lived there to show the people what God could do for those who trusted in Him. He was a mere gypsy in the land, moving about with his tent, and yet he came to be the richest man among them! Abraham was very greatly blessed in flocks and in herds, for God took care of him--and I think He did it to say to these Canaanites, "You see, with all your fret, and all your worry, God's servant, Abraham, gets on better than you do." So, when the king of Sodom offers Abraham wealth, he grandly says, "I will not take from a thread even to a shoelace, and I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, I have made Abraham rich." Yet the man was prospered and by his prosperity he taught men this lesson--that he who trusts in God is no fool. He who trusts in God shall find, even in this life, as far as he is able to bear it, and God thinks fit, that the Lord "is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Still, Abraham was, to all intents and purposes, a foreigner in the land that belonged to him, even as you are strangers in a world that belongs to you. And as your Lord came unto His own, and His own received Him not. And as God, Himself, is a stranger in the world He made, even as David said to the Lord, "I am a stranger with You, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were." To make this point still more clear as to Abraham's mode of living, I want you to notice that Abraham lived in tents. He never erected a house, he built no booths--he simply had his tent--he pitched it, or shifted it as he moved from place to place. Why was this? What did it mean? Not that you should go in a tent, but that you should feel that everything you have, all round about you, all your possessions, are but frail things and are apt to change. I know that you begin to look upon that little property as a very sure thing--be not deceived, the only sure thing is your God! You are beginning to look upon your worldly income as pretty certain and you rest upon it. The only thing you may rest upon is the faithful promises of your God! So you think your wife will live? Ah, me, I do not wish to grieve you, but if I could prophesy, I would not tell you how soon she may be taken. You look upon your children as young immortals--but they are not. You will have to bury them, or they will have to bury you. All things here pass away. I cannot tell you the strange joy I felt after the earthquake at Mentone. I had been to see many of the houses that had been shaken down and the two churches that were greatly injured, and I was full of the earthquake. I had quite realized its terrors and its power, and when I went up the stairs of my hotel, I thought, "Well, at any moment this may all come down with a run. When I go to bed, it may all slip away." And I felt a great delight in thinking that I actually realized, not in a dream, but as a matter of fact, the shakiness of this poor earthquaky world and how everything in it is without foundation, but is just a mere tent which might come down at any moment--a gust of wind might blow it over! When we are most comfortable in it, we may hear a voice saying, "Up and away! Pack up your tent and journey somewhere else." Sit loose by this world, I pray you! Let not your roots strike into this accursed soil. Live here as those who are soon to live there--and tarry here as men who only tarry till the trumpet sounds, "Boot and saddle! Up and away, for this is not your rest." When we live so, we shall live as Abraham did, and as God would have us live. II. Now, very briefly, in the next place, we must imitate Abraham IN THE COMPANY HE KEPT--"Dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." What a fortunate, no, what a gracious circumstance it was that Abraham could find the best company in his own neighborhood! There are some men I know that are fine company out of doors, wonderful company, I have heard say, in the bar-parlor, or at a banquet, but they are no company to anybody at home. Short, gruff, sharp barks like a wolf--this is all their family can get out of them. When they are once inside the house, they are not at home. When they are outside, and far away, then they are quite at home. But here is Abraham, who lives in a tent, and has the happiness of finding his best company in his own family. I suppose that he lived with Isaac about 75 years. If you calculate, you will find that that is about the time. Did he live with Jacob? Yes, he must have lived at the same time as Jacob for about 15 years. He saw his dear son Isaac married, and twin children born, and he marked their life long enough to see that Jacob was of that kind that would make a plain man dwelling in tents--and Abraham found the sweetest company with his own dear family. May the Lord in mercy convert all our children, and their wives, and their children--and may we have a church in a house, as Abraham had a church in a tent! Happy are men who can find their best company at home! But that is not the point I want to mention. Abraham dwelt in tents with those like-minded with himself. We know a man by his company--and a man is blessed or cursed by his company. Abraham dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob-- men of the same spirit as himself, quite different men, but men saved by the same Grace, men who worshipped the same God, men who lived for the same end, men who were actuated by the same principles, men who were co-heirs with him of the promised land! This is the company I keep. These are the dearest friends I know. If you need a merry evening, child of God, get together half-a-dozen who are like yourself--God's children! If you need an evening that you can look back upon with delight, gather such a company together! Never mind how poor the Believers are--perhaps the poorer they are the better it will be, for they will talk more freely with God, often, than some of what we call the better class--the worse class, I have often had to call them. Children of God, who really have to look to Him for daily bread, are often more full of faith than any other class of society. People of God who know the rough and tumble of the world, those who have stood its hard usage, those who mix from day to day with ungodly men who scoff at them--these are the men who come to God in real earnest! They do not play at religion--they live it! Never mind their station or rank in life. If they are in good favor with God, let them be in good favor with you and make your choicest companions among the people of God. I have seen some, who call themselves children of God, turn up their noses at God's best people because they did not put their H's in the right places, or they spoiled the Queen's English. Bless the dear souls! If their hearts are right with God, what matters it about the faultiness of their speech? Ah, how often have our souls been carried up to Heaven by prayers that violated all the proprieties! And how often have I been made to feel as dull as death by a prayer that was wonderfully beautiful in its wording--cold moonlight, no sunshine--a pretty picture, but no life in it! Give us the life of God and let us get into our tent with Isaac and with Jacob, and there let us find Isaac's God, and Jacob's God, and we shall do well! Dear young Friends, who have lately come to Christ, mind that you keep company with God's people. I do not want you to have a lot of acquaintances to talk to, but have one or two. Perhaps two may be better than one, but one is good enough--one godly Christian to whom you can go and tell your troubles--one older than yourself who has been a little farther on the road than you have been. Talk with such saints, as Jacob probably talked with father Isaac, and Isaac with father Abraham, while they lived together in the same encampment and dwelt in tents. III. Now, lastly, I wish to say something that may lead your hearts away from this poor, dead, dull world. Let us imitate Abraham IN THE HOME HE LOOKED FOR--"for he looked for a city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God." Note, first, that all saints live with an eye beyond time. You know, the horse and the cow are quite satisfied as long as there is something in the rack or the manger--they make no provision for future months. Young men, when they begin life, often spend in waste all they get and make no provision for old age. We do not commend you for your wisdom if you have done so, but we beg you not only to think of all that may be needed while you are here, but to think also of the hereafter. Can we live through this transient span of time and never remember that we have to live forever? Can we spend all our time upon time and have no view to eternity? FOOLS, FOOLS, FOOLS, written in capital letters, are they who can use this life and never regard it as the hinge upon which must swing the great door of their eternal state! Children of God have an eye to the world to come. They do not live "like dumb, driven cattle," but they think of the changeless state into which death, or Christ's coming, may speedily plunge them--and they live with an eye to that state. Saints have good reason to live thus. They have not much here, as a rule. "If in this life, only, we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable."-- "Alas, for us, if you were all, And nothing beyond, O earth!" Alas, for the believer in God, if all he had could be had here! Surely, we are to be greatly pitied as having missed the grandest end if this world contains our all! But it does not contain our all--Christians have a hope beyond the grave! What an awful thing it must be to everyone here who must die, but who has no idea, yet, of what will become of him, or, if down deep in his conscience there is an idea of what it will be--it is, "a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation!" How can you go home happy? How many die in the streets! How many die in their sleep! I pray you, be not so unconcerned as to be upon the brink of eternal ruin and yet never to think of it! God give you to look beyond the grave and make sure work for eternity! We are told, here, that Abraham expected a city. That is an Inspired description of Heaven. On earth Abraham had no city. Lot went away to Sodom to seek a city and that city was burned with fire and brimstone, and Lot barely escaped with his life. Abraham kept to his tents--he knew nothing about city life, but, "he looked for a city." Why is Heaven called a city? Because it is a place of fellowship where men meet one another! You know, away in the country, there is sometimes a lonely cottage where they only see a man pass once in six weeks. They never even see the postman--they must go to get their letters. Heaven is not like such lonely places. We look upon Heaven, not as a spot where there will be half-a-dozen people of our own views and sentiments, but as a great city where there will be a wide fellowship among a multitude that no man can number! It will be a city for security, within walls that never can be attacked, and with streets where there shall never be known an adversary. Heaven is a city because it is a place of splendor! Countries glorify themselves by the greatness of their cities. There is no city like the New Jerusalem! It is a place of store. Cities have great wealth and great accumulations of useful things which are not found in villages and hamlets. In Heaven there is everything that a heart can desire--fruits new and old laid up by the great Lord for His well-beloved. Heaven is a place of freedom and, therefore, it is called a city. Men get "the freedom of the city," here, and they are as proud of it as they well can be. But, oh, to be liverymen of Glory, freemen of the company of the perfect, citizens of the New Jerusalem! This is what we look for. We are looking for a city. We think all this so-called city of London to be but a dissolving view. We count this great country of England to be but like a pack of cards which will soon be knocked over. We reckon the whole world to be but a dream! There is a city, and we are looking for it! The text said that Abraham "looked for a city which has foundations." Saints look for something abiding. Abraham used to pull up the tent pins and his men would take down the big tent pole and roll up the canvas, and they were soon away, always moving about that country with their flocks and herds. The tents had no foundations, but Abraham was looking for a city that had foundations. There is nothing on earth that really has a foundation. Even those buildings that seem most firm will be dissolved and burned up in the last general fire. They are all "such stuff as dreams are made of," and will be gone before long. But we look for a city that has foundations. Eternal love, eternal faithfulness, infinite power, endless bliss, immortal glory make the foundations of the city to which we are now wending our way, where all is peace and joy and nothing can ever disturb it! When I think of some of our dear friends who are already there, who have gone from this city to the city that has foundations, could I wish them back again? Could you wish them back to all the sorrow and grief of this poor trying life, back to the tent which has been dissolved, now that they have gained "the building of God, the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens"? No, Beloved, stay where you are! We are hoping soon to join you. We can hear the sound of the coming chariot and we shall soon be with you where Jesus is! This was Abraham's way of living, counting everything around him to be no more fixed and settled than an Arab's tent, and looking for a city which has foundations. That city was to have a Builder and a Maker, as all cities have. Hundreds and thousands of names would have to be mentioned to describe this city of London and to say who the builders and makers of it were. You need not be anxious to know them, for they are not good for much, most of them. The builders and makers of the streets that we go through had better be forgotten and, I think, their houses, too. But there is a city that is all built by one Builder, it is the City of God. There will be nothing there that is trumpery or temporary--everything there is the best of the best, most suitable for the inhabitants and most glorious to behold! The very streets are paved with gold, exceedingly rich and rare. The best builders of earth cannot be compared to the great Builder above, the eternal Architect, the everlasting Chief Mason who has built those many mansions where His saints shall dwell forever! I cannot tell you anything about Heaven. If I could come back for a while after going there, I would like to come and tell you, but that must not be. You must read this Book and study it. Above all, you must get Heaven into your own heart, for you will never have your heart in Heaven till you have Heaven in your heart. You must have Heaven in you before you will be in Heaven--and you can learn about Heaven by the experimental knowledge of the Word of God, by living near to the Lord, and by an experience of His deep love and His eternal faithfulness. Thus, there is a city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God. Are you going there? Why, there are some of you who have everything that you own here. You are like the man, when the ship was sinking, who had all his property round his waist in pieces of gold--which sank him to the bottom of the sea! Everything that you have is here and it is sinking you down to Hell! As for us who have believed in Christ, we have only a trifle of spending money just to pay the toll-gates on the road--our treasury is up there, on the other side of the river, in the land of the hereafter, on the hilltops of Glory with the Ever-Blessed--where we hope to soon be! Saints look for their Home at the end of their pilgrimage. When a man goes on a long journey, he likes to have thoughts of his home. How often have I told you how quickly my horses go home! They seem to know when their heads are turned homewards--and away they go. They pull up even the highest of Norwood's hills with all their might because they are going home! They do not go so fast when they are coming here and I do not blame them. They know where there is a good feed for them and a place to lie down--and even a horse goes best with his head towards home. Come, Beloved, our heads are towards Home, as many of us as believe in Jesus! We do not need to be lashed as we go up the everlasting hills! We will pull against the collar with all our might to get Home as soon as we can! Oh, but I wish you were all going with us! I wish you were all going the way that leads to the city that has foundations. Trust Christ! Trust Christ! He is the Way! Come out from the world. Lead the separated life. Live upon an unseen God and as surely as there is a God in Heaven, you shall be in Heaven in His good time, for He will never leave one Believer outside in the cold! God bless you, for Jesus' sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. HEBREWS 11:1-21. This is the triumphal arch of faith. Here we find the names of many of the heroes of faith and a brief record of some of the battles in which they fought and conquered. May you and I possess "like precious faith" as that of which we have here the story! We cannot enter Heaven without it! We cannot fight our way through the world without it. Verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. It gets a grip of what it hopes for and holds it in its hand. 1. The evidence of things not seen. We see by faith. We see by faith what cannot be seen by our eyes. We grasp by faith what cannot be grasped with our hands. A strange mystery is the simple act of faith. 2. For by it the elders obtained a good report. All the godly of the olden time had a good report of God and of holy men as the result of their faith. 3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. They were not evolved out of something else that existed before--evolution is a rank lie against Revelation! The worlds were not made, not one of them was made, out of something pre-existent, but they were framed by the Word of God, and the things which are seen were not made of things which are seen. 4. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. He was a better man than Cain and his offering was a better offering than Cain's was. But at bottom here was the difference between the two brothers--Abel had faith and Cain had none. It was "by faith" that Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain presented. 4. By which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaks. What wondrous faith this is! Here is a dead man speaking! Here is a man who is slain by his brother, yet the one who is killed receives the approbation of God! 5. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Faith has conquered death, itself, or else avoided it. There is scarcely anything which faith cannot do, for faith ranks itself on the side of the Omnipotent God, and becomes all but Omnipotent. "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death." 5. 6. And was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is. He cannot come to a God who, to his own mind, is non-existent! He must believe that He is. 6. And that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. You must believe that God hears prayer. You must believe that He will punish the guilty and that He will reward the righteous. Without this sure faith you cannot come to Him. 7. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house. You see, faith and fear can live in the same heart--and they can work together to build the same ark. Faith and fear are very sweet companions when the fear is filial fear, a holy dread of disobeying God. When we are moved with that fear, our faith becomes practical. 7,8. By the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. He did not hesitate to leave his family, to leave his property, to leave his country--he obeyed--"when he was called to go out into a place which be should after receive for an inheritance." 8. And he went out, not knowing where he went. Faith puts her hand into God's hand and follows where He leads, with sweet contentment, knowing that if she cannot see, God can, and He will not lead us wrong. Do you not remember that hymn that our Brother Chamberlain sings so sweetly?-- "So on I go--not knowing, I would not if I might. I'd rather walk in the dark with God, than go alone in the light. I'd rather walk by faith with Him, than go alone by sight. Where He may lead, I'll follow, My trust in Him repose. And every hour in perfect peace I'll sing, 'He knows! He knows!'" 9,10. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God. There have been many here in this House of Prayer who have looked for this city and they have gone to it. Others of us sit waiting here till our Lord's dear hand shall beckon us and His voice shall say, "Come up higher." We are looking for the city! Keep looking, Beloved, there is nothing here worth looking for, but look for "a city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God." 11. Through faith, also, Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. And this holy woman is enrolled among these saintly ones. Her faith was not all it ought to have been, but God saw that it was true faith, and He loved it, and He wrote the record of it. 12. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. This is true, literally, of Abraham's seed according to the flesh. It is also true in a spiritual sense, for he is "the father of all them that believe," and they are a multitude whom no man can number. 13. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them. What long arms faith has! The promises are afar off and yet faith embraces them tonight! Embrace the promises, dear Friends, and stretch out your hands by faith to hands that have gone before-- "Even now by faith we join our hands With those that went before! And greet the blood-sprinkled bands On the eternal shore." 13. And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They not only were strangers and pilgrims, but they confessed it! Confessed faith is requisite. Oh, you who, like Nicodemus, come to Christ by night, be ashamed that you are ashamed--and come out and boldly confess what you are! 14. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. They were strangers and pilgrims here, and they sought a country elsewhere. Every man needs a country and if we have not one beneath the stars, we seek it somewhere else. 15. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. Ah, but God's people are not mindful of that country from whence they came out! They have opportunity to return, but they have no wish to return. May God's Grace always keep any of you from turning back, for it is to turn back unto Hell! Your faces are heavenward today--keep them so. Remember the doom of any that apostatize. It is impossible, "if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance." "If the salt has lost its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." Lord, keep Your servants! Hold us up and we shall be safe! 16. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He has prepared for them a city. They are not ashamed to be called God's people, and He is not ashamed to be called their God. They are looking for a city and He has prepared a city for them. Evidently He and they are well agreed. They need a Heaven and He is preparing Heaven for them, and preparing them for Heaven! 17-19. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall your seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. This was one of the grandest achievements of faith! It was also a figure or type of God's offering up His well-beloved Son almost on the same spot! 20, 21. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. The staff which had helped him so often in his early pilgrimage, the staff on which be leaned when he came back from the place of his wrestling, halting on his thigh. He leaned on it as he sat upright on his death couch and pronounced the parting blessing. So, you see, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all lived by faith and did their works by faith, and distributed blessings to their children by faith. Friend, have you this faith, or have you not? If you have it, you are blessed among men, blessed among women! If you have it not, what hope is there for you either in this life or in eternity? __________________________________________________________________ Simeon's Swan Song (No. 2293) INTENDED FOR READING, ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 29, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Lord, now Jet You Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word: for my eyes have seen Your salvation." Luke 2:29,30. IF we are believers in Christ, we shall one day use words like these. Perhaps not just at present and yet, possibly, sooner than some of us think, we shall gather up our feet in our bed and we shall say with all composure, "Lord, now let You Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word." See what death is to the Believer. It is only a departure! It is a departure after a day of service. "Lord, now let You Your servant depart. My day's work is done. Let me now go Home." With us who believe it will be a departure to a higher service, for we shall still be the Lord's servants even when we depart from this present sphere of labor. We shall go to do yet higher and more perfect work in the nearer Presence of our Master. "His servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face." Death to the Believer is only a departure from one form of service to another. And, note, that it is a departing "in peace." We are at peace with God. We have-- "Peace! Perfect peace! In this dark world of sin, The blood of Jesus whispers peace within!" As many as have believed in Jesus, have entered into rest. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God." We have joy and peace in believing and, as we live in peace, we shall also die in peace. We shall remain in peace and we shall depart in peace. A deep and holy calm will fill up our dying moments-- "It is enough: earth's struggles soon shall cease, And Jesus call to Heaven's perfect peace!" We shall be able to say, perhaps, when we come to die, what a dear friend of mine once said to me, when I went in to see him on his dying bed. A part of his affliction consisted in total blindness from what they call the breaking of the eye-strings. Sitting up, although he could not see me, he moved his hand and said-- "And when you see my eye-strings break, How sweet my minutes roll! A mortal paleness on my cheek, But glory in my soul!" So will it be with us--we shall depart in peace. To the Believer, death is not a thing to be dreaded--he even asks for it, "Lord, now let You, permit You, Your servant to depart in peace. Grant it as a gift, vouchsafe it as a favor." Death to the sinner is a curse, but to the Believer it is a form of benediction, it is the gate of life. To the sinner, it is a chain dragging him down to the unutterable darkness of Hell, but to the saint, it is a chariot of fire bearing him aloft to the Heaven of light and love! Note, also, that Simeon said, "Lord, now let You Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word." Did you not notice, in our reading, what Luke says about Simeon in the 26th verse? "It was revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ." The prophecy had been fulfilled! He had seen the Lord's Anointed. There was nothing more for him to desire upon earth, so he said, "Lord, now let You Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word: for my eyes have seen Your salvation." The reason for Simeon's holy calm, the cause of his finding death to be nothing but a departure out of this world, lies in this fact, that he could say, "My eyes have seen Your salvation." It is of that blessed fact that I am going to talk tonight as the Spirit shall help me. I do not suppose that everybody here can say, "Lord, now let You Your servant depart in peace." Some of you would not depart in peace if death came to you as you now are. Dear Friend, if you are not prepared for death and judgment, you had better pray, "Lord, let me stay here till I have found peace with You; and then let me depart in peace whenever You will." I shall at this time take the innermost sense of the text, dwelling upon these words of Simeon, "My eyes have seen Your salvation." There were others who had seen the Baby Christ with their natural eyes, but Simeon had seen, in the Babe, Christ, the salvation of God, not with his outward eyes, but with the inward perceptions of his spirit! I hope that many here present can say that they have seen, and do see, in Christ, God's salvation, and their salvation given to them of God. If so, I am sure that they feel ready to live, or ready to die. But if it is not so with any of you--if you cannot say, "My eyes have seen Your salvation," you cannot pray, "Lord, let Your servant depart in peace." What, then, do these words mean, "My eyes have seen Your salvation"? I will try to explain their meaning in my discourse tonight and, when I have finished, I think you will see that there are these five things included in this utterance of old Simeon. First, here is clear perception. Next, perfect satisfaction. Then, happy unbinding. Then, dauntless courage. And finally, joyful appropriation. I. The first thing for us to notice in Simeon's swan song is CLEAR PERCEPTION--"My eyes have seen Your salvation." Some people are very hazy in their religion--they "see men as trees walking." They see things as we see them in London in a fog. That is to say, we do not see them clearly; we cannot see them distinctly; and yet we do see them after a fashion. The fault with a great many Christians, nowadays, is that they have only just light enough to see things as in a mist--they have not discerned clearly the sharply-cut image of the Truth of God. But Simeon could say, not, "I think I see the salvation of God in Christ. I hope I do. Perhaps I do--he could say, "My eyes have seen Your salvation." Oh, happy are you, my dear Friends, tonight, if you can distinctly and clearly see in Christ Jesus, the salvation of God! True, Christ was but a Baby then. And Simeon could easily hold Him in his arms, yet his faith could see everlasting salvation, infinite salvation within God Incarnate! God has come into our world and has taken upon Himself our nature. He that was born at Bethlehem was "very God of very God." He that trod the acres of Palestine, as He went about doing good, was the same who "was in the beginning with God," without whom was not anything made that was made. Christ is God. "The Word was with God, and the Word was God," but it is equally true that "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth."-- "Itis my sweetest comfort, Lord, And will forever be, To muse upon the gracious truth Of Your Humanity. Forever God, forever Man, My Jesus shall endure. And fixed on Him, my hope remains Eternally secure." Now, this Christ took upon Himself the sins of all His people. "Who His own Self bore our sins in His own body on the tree." "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." And sin, being laid on Christ, it remained no more on those from whom He took it! He bore it that they might not bear it! He suffered the consequences of their sin that they might never suffer those consequences! Jesus made an Atonement to the Justice of God--He vindicated and honored the perfect Law of the Most High. When I see Christ on the Cross, Christ in the tomb, Christ risen from the dead, Christ at the right hand of God, I understand that He took away my sin. He died. He was buried. He came forth from the grave, having destroyed my sin and put it away--and He has gone into the heavens as my Representative, to take possession of the right hand of God for me, that I in Him and with Him may sit there forever and ever! To me, Christ's Sacrifice is a business transaction as clear and straight as mathematics could make it. I care not that men decry what they call "the mercantile theory of the Atonement." I hold no "theory" of the Atonement! I believe that the Substitution of Christ for His people is the Atonement for their sins. And that there is no other Atonement--but that all else is theory! This is to me so clear, so true, so definite, that I can venture to say with Simeon, when I have seen Christ, especially Christ crucified, Christ glorified, "My eyes have seen Your salvation." Clear perception, then, is the first meaning of Simeon's words. You young people who have come to believe in Christ, get clear perceptions as to how Christ is God's salvation. Do not mix and muddle things up, as so many do, but accept Christ as your Substitute, as "the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world." Believe that on the Cross He paid your debt, discharged your liability--and bought you with a price--so that you are His, and His forever and ever. You will never have peace in death--I do not see how you are to have solid rest in life--without a sharp, crisp, clearly-cut idea of how Christ is the salvation of God! The bulk of people do not see it and they, therefore, miss the comfort of it. The comfort of a man, immersed in debt, is assured if he has a friend who bears his burden and pays his debt for him--then he feels that he is clear of all his former liabilities. I declare, before the living God, that I know of no solid comfort for my heart, tonight, but this--the chastisement of my peace was upon Him, and with His stripes I am healed! May you get a clear perception of this great Truth of God, now! II. But, next, when Simeon could say, "My eyes have seen Your salvation," he had PERFECT SATISFACTION in Christ. You observe, he takes Christ up in his arms, and says, "My eyes have seen," not, "a part of Your salvation," but "Your salvation." He is not looking to anything else for salvation, but only to that Man-Child, seeing all that that Man-Child will do, and bear, and suffer--recognizing in Him the two Natures, the Divine and the Human--and as he clasps Him to his breast, he says, "My eyes have seen Your salvation. It is enough, I have here all that I need. Lord, now let You Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word: for my eyes have seen Your salvation." Beloved Friends, have you ever done with Christ what old Simeon did? "He took Him up in his arms, and blessed God." All that you need to save you, lies in Him! I have known the Lord, now, for some 40 years, or thereabouts. When I first came to Him, I came as a sinner, without any works of my own which I could trust, or any experience upon which I could rely. And I just rested my whole weight upon the finished work of Christ. Now, after 40 years of service, and nearly 40 years of preaching the Gospel, have I any works of my own to add to what Christ has done? I abhor the thought of such a thing! Have I even the weight of a pin's head that I dare put into the scale with my Lord's merits? Accursed be the idea! More than ever do I sing-- "Nothing save Jesus would I know," and nowhere would I rest but in Him alone! Now, dear Christian Friends, I know you understand this, that Christ is an all-sufficient Savior, that He is all your salvation and all your desire. And yet, perhaps, you are tempted at times to think that you must be this, or you must do that, or you must feel the other, or else Christ is of no effect to you. Think not so, but rest wholly and alone on Christ! Say, "I rest in Him, whether I am a saint or a sinner; whether I have bright frames or dark frames; whether I am useful, or whether I am defeated in my service, I have no more to trust in when I rejoice in the Light of God's Countenance than I have when I walk in darkness, and see no light. Christ is everything to me at all times--a winter Christ and a summer Christ--all my Light when I have no other, and all my Light when I have every other light."-- "My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus' blood and righteousness! I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus' name! On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand!" God bring you to this, that you may say, "I have seen Christ, my eyes have seen God's salvation. I am perfectly satisfied. I need nothing else." Does a man pluck me by the sleeve, and say, "I will tell you something worth hearing"? My good Fellow, go and tell it to somebody who wants to hear it, for I do not! I have heard all the news I need when I have heard of eternal salvation by Jesus Christ! III. Now, thirdly, notice that there is in Simeon's words, "My eyes have seen Your salvation," a kind of HAPPY UNBINDING. The man has been, as it were, bound. But He says, "Lord, now let You Your servant depart in peace. Every fetter is now broken. I have seen Your salvation, Lord, I am not tied to life, nor tied to home, nor tied to comfort, nor tied even to Your Temple. Now, Lord, I can go anywhere, departing in peace, for my eyes have seen Your salvation." Is not that a grand utterance of old Simeon? The most of us are tied in one way or another and we find it hard to cut ourselves loose. With many of us, the first part of our life is often spent in tying ourselves down to this world and, by-and-by, we feel that we are too much tied, bound, hampered, hindered--and we cry out, "How shall we get free?" The only way to get free is to get Christ! "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free, indeed." If you take Christ in your arms and say, with Simeon, "My eyes have seen Your salvation," you can then say, "Everyone else and everything else may now go."-- "Yes, should You take them all away, Yet will I not repine; Before they were possessed by me, They were entirely Thine" And, as You have given me Christ, You may do what You will with me as to other things! Where Christ is not valued, gold becomes an idol. Where Christ is not prized, health becomes an idol. Where Christ is not loved, learning and fame become idols. Where Christ is not first and foremost, even personal beauty may become an idol. But when Christ becomes our All in All, because our eyes have seen His salvation, then the idols fall! Dagon is broken! We are emancipated and we can say concerning all these things, "Yes, whether you come or whether you go, you are not lords of the house--you are but comers and goers unto me henceforth and forever, for a clear conception that Christ is God's salvation and a full grasp of Him as mine, have set my Spirit free from every fetter that before held me in captivity." IV. I must not pause here, because I want you to notice how being able to say, "My eyes have seen Your salvation," gives to a man DAUNTLESS COURAGE. He who has once seen Christ as God's salvation is not afraid to see death. "Now," he says, "I can look death in the face without dread, for I have seen God's salvation." He is not afraid of that tremendous Judgment Seat which will be set in the clouds of Heaven, for He who will sit upon that Judgment Seat is God's salvation to us who believe! The man who is "looking unto Jesus" is not afraid of the day when the earth will rock and reel, and everything based upon it will shake to its destruction. He is not afraid of the star called Wormwood, nor of seeing Heaven and earth on a blaze. "My eyes have seen Your salvation," he says, and he bears this glorious vision about with him wherever he goes. It is more to him than any earthly charm could be! It is more powerful than the most potent charm of the mystic or the magician. Such a man is safe! He must be safe--his eyes have seen God's salvation! If you would have a courage of the truest kind that needs no stimulus of drink, and no excitement of the noise of trumpet and of drum--the calm courage that can suffer pain, that can bear rebuke, that can endure slander, that can stand alone, that could stand foot to foot with the infernal fiend, himself, and yet not be afraid. If you would have such courage as that, I say, you must got Christ in your arms, for then shall you say with Simeon, "Lord, come what may, I have nothing to fear, for my eyes have seen Your salvation."-- "Fearless of Hell and ghastly death, I'd break through every foe! The wings of love, and arms of faith, Should bear me conqueror through." V. I will not detain you much longer, for the time is well near spent, but I would say this one more thing, He who lays hold on Christ, makes a JOYFUL APPROPRIATION of Him. His sight of Christ, his clear apprehension of what Christ is, is accompanied by a personal appropriation of Christ to himself. This is the matter that puzzles many. I have, during the past week, talked with several people who have heard from me concerning the way of salvation and the preciousness of Christ. And the question of many of these enquirers has been this, "How can we get hold of Christ? We believe that all you say about Him is true. Christ is God's salvation, but how can we take Him to be ours? You seem to treat Christ as if He were yours beyond all question. How can we learn to do the same?" My answer is, when you once know how the Savior saves, and how He is God's salvation, trust Him to save you! That trust grips Him, holds Him--and if you can hold Him--He is yours. We have certain rights of property extant among us and a man may have to bring his title deeds to prove that a house is really his own. But in the Kingdom of Grace, the only title deed you need is that you have hold of Christ. May I take Him, then, without any right? Yes, taking Christ gives you the right to take Him! "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." There is a piece of bread on yonder table. I mean to have it for my own. It will be of no use for you to dispute with me about the matter, for I shall put it beyond all dispute. How? I shall take that bread in my hand. Well, you can wrench it from me. I shall do more than that--I shall eat it! I shall digest it--it will become a part of my own being! You will not get it away from me, then--and I do not care if you go to the law with me to try to get it! Possession is more than nine points of the law in such a case as that. Digestion and assimilation will be ten points of the law, certainly! Now, it is just so with Christ. Poor Soul, take Him; believe Him; trust Him; appropriate Him! Trust Him more, and more, and more! The more the devil tries to take Him from you, trust Him the more. Plunge yourself deeper and deeper, still, into this sea of salvation, and trust Christ still more. Perhaps someone says, "But how may I know at first that I have a right to trust Christ?" You have a right to trust Christ because you are commanded to do it. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Make a dash for this great blessing! Take Christ, tonight, regardless, for, though it should seem like robbery to you to take Him, yet if you once have Him, He will never be taken away from you! Make a dash for Christ, I say, tonight, and take Him, saying, "I believe Him. I trust Him. I rest myself on Him." Heaven and earth shall pass away, but if you trust Christ, you shall never be ashamed! There was never a man yet who dared trust Christ and yet found that Christ was not equal to his need, or that He did not fully supply all his needs. Simeon took Christ up in his arms. Somebody might have said, "Old man, what have you to do with the new-born King? Old man, you may be just and devout, but dare you handle the Incarnate God? Dare you fondle Him upon whose shoulders God has laid the key of His Kingdom, whose name is called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace? Dare you touch Him?" Yes, He dares do it! He takes Him up in his arms. He clasps Him to his heart. He rejoices over Him. He is ready to die with delight, now that he has found Christ! Come, poor troubled ones, come tonight and take Christ into your arms! And you, dear saints of God, who have done this long ago, do it again! Take Him right up into your arms, as though He were still a Babe. Take Him to your heart and say, "He is everything to me--my Love, my Hope, my brother--this blessed Incarnate God who loved me and gave Himself for me." If you can do this, it shall be well with you now, it shall be well with you in death, it shall be well with you throughout eternity! Have I among my hearers any who are postponing this all-important business, putting it off till a more convenient season? Let me tell them something that ought to warn them of the risk they are running. Once upon a time the Prince of Darkness said to the evil spirits under his command, "I want to see which of you can be my best servant. The Gospel is being preached in various places and many persons are hearing it. And I am afraid that my kingdom will suffer loss. Unless something can be done, I fear that many will desert from under the black flag and enlist under the standard of Jesus of Nazareth. I would gladly prevent this--which of you will help me? Then up rose one who said, "I will go forth and say that the Bible is not true, that Christ is not God, and that what is preached is not the Truth of God." But the great Prince of the Pit answered him, "You will not serve my turn just now. There are a few places where you will be very useful, but the most of those who are listening to this Word will laugh at you and drive you back. You smell too much of the place where you go on my errands. You cannot do what I need now." Up stood another of the evil throng and said, "Let me go and I will bring forth certain new views of truth and various fresh doctrines, and with these I will turn aside the thoughts of men from the old faith." But the Prince of the power of the air replied, "You, too, are a good servant of mine, and you stand me in good stead at other times, but just now you are not the one for the task I propose." Then out spoke one who said, "O Prince of Darkness, I think I am your good soldier on this occasion. Here am I, send me." "And what will you do?" said Beelzebub, "What will you do?" "I will go forth and tell the people that the warnings of the preacher are true and the voice of the Gospel is the voice of God! I will not awaken and arouse them by any sort of opposition, but I will tell them that there is time enough, by-and-by, to attend to these things. I will bid them wait a little longer and bide their time. I will put this word into the mouth of each one, that he may say to the preacher, 'Go your way, for this time. When I have a convenient season, I will call for you.'" Then the grim master of the Pit smiled and said, "Go your way, my faithful servant, you are he that shall carry out my purpose right thoroughly, and so shall you foil the preacher--and the Word of God that he utters shall fall to the ground." Is there not a message here for someone who is listening to my words? "My eyes have seen Your salvation." How I wish that I could make some here who do not know it, understand how simple is the way of salvation! You are a sinner, guilty and condemned! Christ becomes a Man, takes your sins, suffers in your place. You accept Him to stand for you. You permit Him, by your faith, to be accepted as your Substitute, and His pains are put down instead of yours, and you are "accepted in the Beloved," and saved in Him. Oh, if you could but do this--and you may do it tonight before you leave this place, and I hope you will--if you do this, whether you are old or young, there will come to you a heart full of benediction for life, and the best of all preparations for death! Truly happy shall you be if you can say, "My eyes have seen Your salvation." I seem as if I did not need to see anything else, after having seen Christ as God's salvation! There is a story told of Muslims, who often are very fanatical, and do very strange and horrible things in their fanaticism. But they have been known to go to Mecca, to see the tomb of their prophet, and when they have seen his tomb, they have taken a hot steel and have drawn it across their eyes, that they might never see anything else--that indeed they might die with the view of the false prophet's tomb as their last sight! Now, that is not what we do, but still, we would act in the spirit of it. "My eyes have seen Your salvation." People say, "See Naples and die." They mean that it is so lovely that when you have seen it, there is nothing more to see. See Christ, and what else is there to see? Now, whether you sail over the blue sea beneath a bluer sky, or dive into the deeps of this murky atmosphere--whether you are in a palace or in a dungeon, sick or full of bounding health--all these are items of small consequence, if your eyes have seen God's salvation, for God has blessed you as only God can bless you! Go and live in peace and go and die in peace--and praise the name of Him who gave you such a Savior to see, and the power to see Him! The Lord bless you, Beloved! Amen and amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. LUKE2:21-38. Verse 21. And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the Child, His name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before He was conceived in the womb. Although the old Law ends with Christ, it is very instructive to notice that He came under the Law and conformed to all its appointments. Jesus, therefore, had to be circumcised. In Him the Law was fulfilled in every point, even to the jots and tittles--nothing was omitted. Behold how perfect is the righteousness which He worked out for His people! 22. And when the days of her purification according to the Law of Moses were accomplished, they brought Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord. Everything was done that was required by the Jewish Law, you see. "When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." "Being found in fashion as a Man," and a Man under the Jewish Law--Jesus and His parents were obedient to all its requirements. 23, 24. (As it is written in the Law of the Lord, Every male that opened the womb shall be called holy to the Lord); and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the Law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. This proves the poverty of our Lord's parents. If they had been able to bring a costlier sacrifice, they would have done so. The Law required the offering of a lamb for a burnt offering, but there was a gracious provision in the case of the poor mother--"If she is not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons; the one for the burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for her, and she shall be clean." Even in the case of a working woman, the birth of her first-born son required from her a sacrifice; but it might be of the smallest kind--"A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons." Think of your Lord, Himself, redeemed by a sacrifice, a pair of doves offered in His place! What a wonderful coming down to our condition and position was this! 25. And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout. He blended in his character his duty to man and his duty to God--"he was just and devout." 25. Waiting for the consolation of Israel. His devotion was not that of a blind devotee. He had eyes of expectation! He was expecting the Messiah to come, who is, "the consolation of Israel." 25, 26. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. That which the Holy Spirit reveals will assuredly come to pass, as it did in the experience of old Simeon. 27. And He came by the Spirit into the Temple. Men who have the Spirit will be led by the Spirit. Simeon came into the Temple at the right moment. Just when a young man was entering, with his wife and new-born Child, "He came by the Spirit into the Temple." 27, 28. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the Law, then took he Him up in his arms. He came in, I say, at the right time! Did ever anybody who was not led by the Spirit, find Christ? Somebody has come in here tonight and he does not know why he has come--he has been led here by the Spirit that he may see Jesus, and may have such a sight of Him as shall be his salvation! God grant that it may be proved that many an aged Simeon has traveled here this Sabbath night, led by the Spirit for this purpose, to find the Savior in His own house! 28, 32. And blessed God, and said, Lord, now let You Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word: for my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people; a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of Your people Israel. Simeon had studied the ancient prophecies to good purpose and he perceived from them that "the Lord's Christ" would be "a Light to lighten the Gentiles" as well as "the Glory of" God's ancient people, "Israel." 33. And Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him. We may be very near to Christ and yet know very little about Him. Joseph and the virgin mother did not understand "those things which were spoken of Him." One wonders it was so after all that had been revealed to them--we marvel that they marveled! 34. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary, His mother, Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. Do you understand that? Whenever Christ comes to a man, there is first a fall--and a rising again afterwards. You never knew the Lord aright if He did not first give you a fall! He pulls us down from our pride and self-sufficiency and then He lifts us up to a position of eternal safety! He is "set" for this purpose! This is the great design of Christ's coming--"This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel." 34. And for a sign which shall be spoken against. Christ and His Gospel will always be spoken against. If you know a gospel which is approved by the age and patronized by the learned, that gospel is a lie! You may be sure of that. But if it is spoken against, if it is slandered, if it is called absurd, unscientific, and I know not what, all that is in its favor! 35. (Yes, a sword shall pierce through your own soul also). This favored woman had the greatest smart to go with her great honor. She saw the suffering and anguish of her Son and, the nearer you are to Christ, the more of sorrow it will cost you, sorrow which you may be well content to bear. You know how it is put in that hymn of which many of us are very fond-- "IfI find Him, if I follow, What His recompense here? Many a labor, many a sorrow, Many a tear." Yet, I say again, you may be well content to bear it all for His sake, for you remember what the next verse of the hymn is-- "If I still hold closely to Him, Whathas He atlast? Sorrow vanquished, labor ended, Jordan past." 35. That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Christ and His Cross are the revealers of the thoughts of men's hearts. Men's hearts can conceal their thoughts until Christ's Cross comes near--then the old enmity rises up, the heart rebels--and we see what is really in men's hearts. 36, 37. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; and she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the Temple, but served God with fasts and prayers night and day. It would have been a pity for Christ to have been received in the Temple only by a man. There must be a woman there, too, to join in Simeon's swan song, and to unite her testimony with his. 38. And she coming in that instant.--God knows how to time what we call our accidental walks--"She coming in that instant."-- 38. Gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spoke of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. So that the song of Simeon was sweetened by the voice of Anna--and they both rejoiced in God their Savior! And their joy was shared by "all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem." May many of us have a share in that same joy as, by faith, we lovingly gaze upon "the Lord's Christ." __________________________________________________________________ The Memory Of Christ's Love (No. 2294) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 2, 1890. "We will remember Your love more than wine: the upright love You." Song of Solomon 1:4. I Do not think I can preach tonight. I feel so weary, and worn, and ill. Still, I can talk to you a little concerning the great love of Christ. If I were dying, I think I could speak upon that theme, and oh, when we rise again, how we shall talk forever and ever about Christ's love! This will be our endless theme throughout the eternal ages, "His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins." I have taken for a text the last two sentences in the Song of Solomon, the first chapter, and the fourth verse--"We will remember Your love more than wine: the upright love You." This is a night for remembering Christ's love. The Communion Table is spread before us, the sacred feast to which we are about to come is meant to recall to our minds our Savior's words, "This do in remembrance of Me...This do you, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." But, while we remember Christ, the central thought in our minds shall be that of which Paul wrote, "who loved me, and gave Himself for me." We will, above all other things, tonight, remember His love. Have any of you been forgetting it? Is it long since you had an hour's real enjoyment in meditating upon the love of Christ? Then, Beloved, come tonight, and renew your vows! Begin, again, your fellowship, and make this firm resolve, "We will remember our Lord; we will remember His love tonight!" May the Holy Spirit, who brings everything to remembrance whatever Christ has said to us, help us now to remember Him! For Him to remember us when He comes to His Kingdom, will be our Heaven. For us to remember Him, though He has gone away to His Kingdom, shall be a little Heaven to us tonight. As I am able, I will talk with you briefly, first, upon the preparations for the holy memory mentioned in our text. We shall find them in the verse in which the text is embedded--"Draw me, we will run after You: the king has brought me into His chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in You." When we have considered the preparations for the holy memory here referred to, I will speak upon the Divine subject of this holy memory--"We will remember Your love more than wine." Then, thirdly, we will meditate upon the Divine product of this holy memory--"The upright love You, love You because they remember Your love." I. First, then, dear Friends, as I may be helped by the Holy Spirit, I would remind you of THE PREPARATIONS FOR THIS HOLY MEMORY. Here they are. The first word is, "Draw me." Lord, I would gladly come to You, but like Mephibosheth, I am lame in both my feet. I would gladly fly to You, but my wings are broken, if, indeed, I ever had any. I cannot come to You. I lie inert, and dead, and powerless. So the first preparation is, "Draw me." It is a sweet, gracious, efficacious exercise of Divine power that I need and entreat. I say not, "Drive me," but, "Lord, draw me." I say not, "Throw me there, or force me yonder, but, "Lord, draw me. While You draw, I shall have liberty left to run--draw me, we will run after You." We do not need to be born again--we who are believers in Christ have had that miracle worked upon us already. We are not now asking for pardon and justification--as believers in Christ, we have these priceless gifts already. What we need is the gentle influence of the Holy Spirit to attract us nearer to Christ--so each one cries to the Lord, "Draw me." We are not dead. We are quickened and made alive. Our very pain and anguish, because we are not able to come to Christ as we would, prove that we are alive. I commend this prayer to you, "Lord, draw me; draw me." It is the work of Christ to draw. "I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." It is the work of the Father. "No man can come to Me," said Christ, "except the Father which has sent Me draw him." It is the work of the Spirit of God to draw a soul towards Christ. I pray this for myself and, I trust that you will pray with me, "Come, Sacred Spirit, and draw us nearer to Christ! Enliven our hopes; incline our hearts; awaken our desires and then help us to yield our whole being to Your gracious influences!"-- "If You hare drawn a thousand times, Oh, draw me, Lord, again!" That, then, is the first preparation for the holy memory mentioned in our text, Divine drawing--"Draw me." Notice, next, that this verse says, "Draw me, we will run after You." I like the change in the pronouns, as though I should pray tonight, "Lord, draw me; I am the most weighted, the heaviest of all Your children in this congregation; but draw me, we will run after You. All my Brothers and Sisters will run at once if You do draw me. If You draw the most burdened one towards Yourself, all the rest will come to You at a rapid rate," Do you not feel, my dear Brother or Sister, as if you could use this expression? Lord, if You will draw me, all my fellow members will be running with me; yet they will not outstrip me in their eagerness to reach You, for we will together run after You. Do, therefore, draw me, my gracious Lord! If we would be fully prepared to remember Christ, we must get into this running pace--"Draw me: we will run after You." Be quick, my Soul, be quick, about heavenly things! Creep, if you will, about your worldly business, but run after your Lord. Oh, that we might everyone attain the running pace tonight! Oh, that we might speed along towards our Lord with that strong, impetuous desire which will not let us rest till we are close to Him! "Draw me, we will run after You." Divine drawing is the first preparation for the holy memory. And next comes speedy running. Now, in the further preparation, if you read the verse through, you will find that an answer comes to the prayer as soon as it is uttered--"The king has brought me into His chambers." "What I asked for, I have obtained at once! And I have received more than I asked for. I prayed, 'Draw me,' and He has carried me bodily. 'The king has brought me into His chambers.' I did but pray that I might come a little nearer to my Lord, but He has brought me into His secret places, into His withdrawing rooms! He has brought me where He brings His bride. He has brought me where He receives His courtiers. The King has brought me into His chambers and now I see how truly royal He is. The King has done it! The King, not a king, but that King who is King of all kings, the most royal of all monarchs--'the Prince of the kings of the earth,' even my Lord Jesus, has brought me into His chambers." How quickly this was done! I want you to believe, Beloved, that it could be done just as quickly in your case. Pray, "Lord, draw me. I feel as if I were coming to the Communion Table quite unfit to come." Is that what you say? Then pray, "Draw me," and in a moment, before the prayer is uttered, you shall find yourself not only drawn, but actually brought into the secret place of fellowship! "The king has brought me into His chambers." "Before I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib." I know, and some of you know, unhappily, what it is to feel very cold and lifeless. But I also know, and some of you know, what it is to become full of life, full of love, full of joy, full of heavenly rapture in a single moment! You who could only creep begin to run. You who could only sigh begin to sing! I want it to be so with every one of you, dearly Beloved, tonight! And you who think you are forgotten, shall be remembered tonight, at any rate. You who have almost forgotten what a real, hallowed time of communion means, may learn it over again, tonight, as you cry, "Draw me, we will run after You: the king has brought me into His chambers." Thus we have had three preparations for the holy memory mentioned in our text--drawing, running, and bringing. There is only one more preparation for remembering Christ and that is to feel gladness and joy in Him--"We will be glad and rejoice in You." Come, take those ashes from your head, you that are sighing by reason of affliction! Come, unbind that sackcloth, and throw it aside, you that have lost fellowship with God, and are, consequently, in the dark! Christ is yours if you believe in Him. He has given Himself to you and He loves you. Rejoice in that blessed fact! Remember who He is and what He is--very God of very God, yet perfect Man, God in Human Nature, Immanuel, God With Us, glorified now in the highest heavens, though once, for our sakes, He sank down into the very depths of death and the grave. Bless His dear name! Be glad and rejoice in Him! Now, I pray you, let your mouth be filled with laughter, your tongue with singing and your heart with holy ecstasy as you think of who your Well-Beloved is, how great He is, and what greatness He puts upon you by virtue of His union with you! We cannot very well remember Christ as we should while we carry about with us a heavy heart. Come, sad spirit, be glad in the Lord! "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice." If ever a human soul had reason to rejoice, it must be the soul that believes in Christ! If ever there were any of the sons of Adam who had cause to be glad and to clap their hands with holy mirth, it is the men who have found Christ to be their salvation and their All in All! These, then, are the preparations for the holy memory of which our text speaks. If they are well made, you will have no difficulty in remembering Christ's love tonight! II. So now, in the second place, as I may be strengthened, I would like to speak about THE DIVINE SUBJECT OF THIS HOLY MEMORY--"We will remember Your love." First, we will remember the fact of Christ's love. What a wonderful thing it is that the Son of God should love us! I do not wonder so much that He should have any love for you--but I am lost in wonder at the fact that He has any love for me, even for me! Does not each Believer feel that the wonder of wonders must ever be that the Lord Jesus Christ loves him? He was in Glory, needing nothing. He was in His Father's bosom, enjoying ineffable delight. If He wanted to cast His eyes of love on any of His creatures, there were myriads of bright spirits before the Throne. But, no, He must look down, down, down, to earth's dunghills and find us who were utterly unworthy of His regard! Then He might have pitied us, and left us in our lost estate, but it could not be so with One who has such a heart as our dear Savior has--He must love us! What it is for God to love, God only knows. We faintly guess, by the love that burns in our bosom towards the objects of our affection, what the love of God must be. The love of God must be a mighty passion! I use the word because I know no better--I am conscious that it is not the right one, for human language is too feeble to describe Divine Love-- "Stronger His lore than death or Hell Its riches are unsearchable! The first-born sons of light Desire in rain its depths to see-- They cannot reach the mystery The length, and breadth, and height." Oh, the love of Christ! It must always be the wonder of wonders that Jesus Christ, the darling of the heavens, should have set the eyes of His affection upon men of mortal mold--on sinful men--on me! That, to me, is the climax. We will remember the fact of Christ's love. But we will remember, also, the character of Christ's love. What a love it was! He loved us before the foundation of the world! With the telescope of His Prescience, He foresaw our existence and He loved us when we had no being! Then He struck hands with the great Father and entered into Covenant on our behalf, and engaged that He would stand Sponsor for us and redeem us from the ruin of our sin. Oh, the love, the love, the everlasting love of Christ! He has never left off loving us from the very first. All through the ages before the world was, and through the centuries in which the world has existed, He has loved His chosen every moment--and loved them to the fullest. Can you drink in the sweetness of that thought? Oh, I pray you, remember the antiquity and the constancy of the love of Christ to His people! "We will remember Your love." It was unmerited love which had no reason in us for it to light upon-- "What was there in you that could merit esteem, Or gire the Creator delight? 'Twas eren so, Father,'you must always sing, 'Because it seemed good in Your sight.'" He loved us because He would love us. It was the sovereignty of His love that made Him love those whom He chose to love. He loved them freely, without anything in them, or that would ever be done by them, to deserve His love. But He loved fully as well as freely. He loved intensely, Divinely, immeasurably. You know your love to your child--it is but a feeble spark compared to the great sun of Christ's love to you! You know your love to your husband--it is a tiny rill compared with the ocean of Christ's love to His people! Beloved, turn over the wondrous qualities of the love of Christ to you, and say, as you sit at the Communion Table tonight, "We will remember Your love, for we cannot forget it. We will remember Your love, for the joyous theme forces itself upon us. We will remember Your love more than wine." We will also remember the deeds of Christ's love. It is a grand story. I cannot stay to tell it to you tonight. You know how, in the fullness of time, the Son of God came out of Glory and alighted on a stall where the horned oxen fed. He who had made all worlds was hanging at a woman's breast, for He was made flesh that He might save us from our sins. "Herein is love!" See Him living a laborious life, going about doing good, despised, maligned, yet always ready to give still greater Grace and mercy to the unworthy. You know His life, the wondrous life of Christ. "Herein is love." At last, He gave Himself up in agony even to a bloody sweat. He gave His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. He hid not His face from shame and spitting. And then He gave Himself--His hands to the nails, His feet to the Cross and the cruel iron, His side to the lance, His body to the tomb, His soul to depart to His Father. "Herein is love." I wish I could preach upon this theme as it deserves to be proclaimed. Oh, that I knew how to speak of the dying love of Christ! The angels desire to look into the mystery of the love of Jesus, but even they cannot compass its immeasurable height, and depth, and length, and breadth! Will not each of us, who are the objects of it, remember His dying love?-- "When to the Cross I turn my eyes, And rest on Calrary Lamb of God! My Sacrifice! 1 must remember Thee! Remember You and all Your pains, And all Your lore to me. Yes, while a breath, a pulse remains, Will I remember Thee!" But Jesus rose from the grave. He rose with the same love. He ascended with the same love. He lives with the same love, pleading for us! He loves us now and He will come for us in love. Love shall give Him wings to fly down to earth again. He will reign here, but not without His people. "The Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously." He will reign forever in love! Evermore, throughout the life to come, and the ages that shall never end, Christ will rest in His love! He will rejoice over His people with joy! He will joy over them with singing. He will also give them to share His Glory and to sit upon His Throne--and to reign with Him forever and ever! Oh, what a theme is this, the deeds of Christ's love! In trying to talk of it, I feel like a poor schoolboy standing here, speaking on a subject he loves. Oh, that there were a Milton, or some one of Miltonic caliber, to tell out the story of this great love of Christ! Yet, perhaps the theme is better with my poor description than it would be with the loftiest words of men, because you are more likely to forget the description and to remember the love that cannot be described. Whereas, had my discourse been filled with lofty and worthy diction, you might have forgotten the theme and remembered the speaker. I would like you, Brothers and Sisters, tonight, to remember the proofs of Christ's love. You were far off, but He sought you and brought you back. You were deaf, but He called you and opened your ears to hear His loving call. You came trembling and afraid, but He cheered you--and in a moment He took your burden from you and set you free! Do you remember it?-- "Do you recall the place, the spot of ground, Where Jesus did you meet?" I remember, tonight, the place where first I saw the Lord. I know it to a yard. Some of you cannot speak as definitely as that, and you need not blush because you cannot. Did Jesus come to you? Did He forgive your sins? Did He comfort you with His love? Then remember it tonight! Never mind about dates and places--just remember His love! Since Jesus first came to you, and saved you, many a time you have been in trouble and He has comforted you. You have been in labor and He has sustained you. You have been in disrepute, but He has honored you. Alas, you have proved yourself unworthy of His love, but He has forgiven your backslidings. You have wandered from Him, but He has restored you. Remember His great love! No word of mine will, I fear, help you much, but let your memory begin to run over the pages of your diary. Turn over the leaves that record your Lord's favor to you. Are there not some pages with great crosses upon them, which you made in the day of trouble, and other crosses which you made in the hour of your deliverance when Jesus came to your relief? Oh, remember His love, remember His love more than wine! I will not detain you on this point any longer, although there was much more I wanted to say. Only, Brothers and Sisters, if I cannot talk to you, do the thing that we are thinking about. Remember Christ and His great love. Do now, before you partake of the emblems of His broken body and His shed blood, get to Him! You may forget everything else if you like, but I charge you remember Christ's love! There, fling overboard every other recollection, however precious! Let the golden ingots go, but hold fast to the true lading of the ship, her real cargo--the love wherewith Christ has loved us! Remember that and sit still and enjoy the blessed memory. Before I come to the last division of my subject, I should like to ask whether there are any here who cannot remember Christ's love because they never knew it? Is that your case, my dear Friend over yonder? Let me remind you of the lepers of whom we have been reading, and then let me recall to your minds God's ancient Law concerning the man suffering from leprosy. When he was brought for the High Priest to examine him, the High Priest looked him up and down, from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet, and he said to the leper, "Here is a place still on your breast where your flesh is perfectly clean." And the leper said, "Yes, I am pleased to see that it is so." But the High Priest replied, "You are unclean, you must not go into the House of the Lord, or associate with the people." Then there came another, and he searched him all over, and said, "Here, upon this part of your leg, there is still a sound place." "Yes," said the other, "I have often thought what a good sign it was." "You also are unclean," said the High Priest, "Go to your separate house, and abide there." Then there came one poor man who was white all over, and the High Priest said to him, "Have you any clean places?" "No, my lord, not one. Examine me and see." And the High Priest looked, and there was not a clean spot on him where you could have put a pin's point--the leprosy was all over him, he was saturated all through with the deadly virus and foul with the loathsome disease. And there he stood and cowered and trembled before the High Priest. Then the High Priest said to him, "Behold, you are clean! When you have performed the ceremony required by the Law of God, you may go home to your house and to the house of your God, for you are clean." There was a medical reason, I suppose, for this Law--the mischief had thrown itself out, it had come out to the shin, the disease was fully developed, and would soon be removed. But, whatever may have been the medical reason, such was the Law--and if I am addressing anybody here who feels, "There is nothing good about me. I am unclean, unclean, unclean, from the crown of my head to the sole of my feet, and the lowest place in Hell is my dessert," my Friend, the Grace of God has begun to work in you! Now that you are emptied, God will begin to fill you! Trust in the atoning Sacrifice of His dear Son and you shall have the assurance that you are also the subject of His saving Grace--His love shall be shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit--and you shall join with us in remembering that great love wherewith He has loved us! III. The last thing upon which I have to speak to you is this, THE DIVINE PRODUCT OF THIS HOLY MEMORY--"The upright love You." So it seems, then, that if we remember Christ, we shall have a respect for His people. His people are the upright and she, who speaks in the sacred Canticle, here looks round upon them, and says, "The upright love You." "That commends You to me; for if they who are of a chaste spirit love You, much more should I." I think, if you feel as I do sometimes, you would be glad to be sure that you were even the least in God's House. We know the upright love Christ and we love the upright because they do so--and we esteem Christ because the better men are, the more they think of Him. Is it not so? But sometimes we are afraid we are not among the number of the chosen ones. "The upright love You." Lord, am I one of the upright? Our hymn puts it, even concerning Heaven-- There you that lore my Sarior sit, There I would gladly hare place, Among your thrones, or at your feet, So I might see His face." Would we not gladly sit at the feet of the very least of His people if we might but love Christ? They love Him! I know how you look about you tonight and you say, "There sits Brother So-and-So. He loves Christ. There is Mistress So-and-So who is so busy in the service of her Lord. She loves Christ. And that dear man (Mr. William Olney), whose death we still commemorate by these sad memorials around the pulpit--he loved Christ." "Ah, well!" you say, "I wish I loved Him, too, and that I were among the upright in character who truly admire Him." Seek that blessing, dear Friends, for it is to be had if you seek it aright! Seek it, for the love of Christ will make you love the upright and foster in you an esteem for them. I do not like to hear Christian people speak ill of one another-- and I do not like to hear Christian people speak ill of the Church. If Christ loves her and is married to her, woe to you if you find fault with my Master's bride! He loves not those who love not His chosen! Have a great love for the people of God, even the poorest of them! Count them to be the aristocrats of the world, the blood-royal of the universe, the men and women who have angels to be their servants and who are made kings and priests unto God! If you remember Christ, you will remember His people. If you remember His love, you will feel a love towards them, God grant that you may do so! One thing more, and I have done. In remembering Christ's love as the upright do, we shall grow upright. I believe that God blesses trouble to our sanctification and that He can bless joy to the same end. But I am sure of this, that the greatest instrument of sanctification is the love of Jesus! One asked what he should think of to make him holy, and his friend answered, "Think of death." It is wise to talk with the grave, the mattock and the shroud--but the living love of Christ has a sanctifying power that even thoughts of death have not! One has said, "If you would grow holy, think of the punishment of sin, the pit that God has dug for the wicked. It will make you tremble at the thought of sin and cause you to flee from it as from an arch-destroyer." This is true. But still, if you would grow in Grace fast, and become holy, rapidly, this is the best theme for your meditation, "We will remember Your love." If you will remember Christ's love, you will be lifted up from your crookedness and made straight--and put among the upright who love the Lord. Come, then, let us join tonight in sweet thoughts of love to Christ! The sermon is short, but the subject is long, and you have now an opportunity for coming to the Communion Table and thinking out that theme which I have started for you, "The love of Christ to me, the love of Christ to me." Then follow it up with this, "Oh, my poor love to Christ!" Think, dear Friends, if you remember your own love to Christ, what a small thing it is to remember! His great love is like the sun in the heavens! Your love--well, you have to put on your spectacles before you can see it, it is so small a thing! God grant it may grow tonight and, at the Communion Table, may you have such a visitation from Christ, such delightful fellowship with Him, that you may be able to sing, again, the hymn that you were singing when I was obliged to retire for a while from the platform-- "My Jesus, I lore You, I know You are mine, For You all the follies of sin I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my Sarior, are You, If erer I lored You, my Jesus, 'tis now. I will lore You in life, I will lore You in death, And praise You as long as You lend me breath. And say when the death-dew lies cold on my brow, 'If erer I lored you, my Jesus, 'tis now.'" May you sing it now and be able to sing it when the death-dew lies cold on your brow! The Lord be with you, for Jesus' sake. Amen. EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON. PSALM 113, AND LUKE 17:11-19. We will read, this evening, two passages in the Word of God. The first will be Psalm 113. Verse 1. Praise you the LORD. Praise, O you servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD. Three times are you stirred up to this duty of praise. Adore the Sacred Trinity with threefold praise! There is a trinity in you--let spirit, soul and body praise the Lord. Let the past, the present and the future make another threefold chord. And for each of these, "Praise you the Lord. Praise, O you servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord." 2, 3. Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised. "From the rising of the sun until the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised." In hours of morning light, when the dew is on the grass and our soul is fall of gladness, and in the hours of the setting sun, when the day is weary and the night seems coming on, still let the Lord have the praise that is His due, for He is always to be praised! There is never an hour in which it would be unseemly to praise God. For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven--but the praising of God is never out of season! All time and all eternity may be dedicated to this blessed work. 4, 5. The LORD is high above all nations, and His Glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwells on high? The loftiness, the majesty, the sublimity of God are attributes that are wonderful in themselves, yet they minister much joy to those who love the Lord. For, you know, we can never make too much of those whom we love. And if we see them exalted, then is our soul glad. Would you wish to have a little God? Would you wish to have a God who had but little honor, or little power? No, you ascribe to Him all conceivable and all inconceivable greatness, and you exult as you think what a high and mighty God He is-- "Who is like unto Jehorah our God, who dwells on high?" 6. Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in Heaven, and in the earth! It enables us to get some faint idea of the greatness of God when we read that He has to humble Himself even to look at the things in Heaven, perfect and spotless though they are!. Dr. Watts truly sings-- "The lowest step around Your seat Rises too high for Gabriel's feet! In rain the tall archangel tries To reach Your height with wondering eyes." All the faculties of all the angels cannot comprehend the Infinite! When the Lord looks down to us, how much He must humble Himself! If He humbles Himself to see the things in Heaven which are clear and pure, what humility is required that He may look upon the things on the earth! 7, 8. He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the dunghill that He may set him with princes, even with the, princes of His people. Have you never noticed that in all these joyous songs to God, there is almost always one of these notes--that God abases the proud and exalts the humble? This was the basis of Hannah's song. And it was the pith and marrow of Mary's Magnificat--"He has put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree." This wonderful turning of things upside down. This withering of the green tree and making the dry tree to flourish. This killing that which lives and quickening that which is dead. This emptying of the full, and filling of the empty. This casting down the mighty from their thrones and lifting the poor out of the dust! This is always one of the highest reasons for exulting joy. What a Truth of God there is for you and for me tonight, if we feel ourselves to be spiritually so poor that the dunghill is no offense to us because we feel ourselves to be even more offensive than the filthy things that are cast away by men! What a mercy it is that the Lord "lifts the needy out of the dunghill that He may set Him with princes, even with the princes of His people"! 9. He makes the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise you the LORD. Does your soul feel barren? May the Lord grant unto it an abundant fruitfulness! Looking back upon the past year, perhaps you have had many barren times, or times that you have thought to be barren. If you are a minister of the Gospel, I should not wonder if those have been your most fruitful seasons. When you have been most empty, God has been pleased to feed the people through you. O dear Brothers and Sisters, those very times of spiritual experience which are most humiliating and most painful are often the most soul-enriching to us--and they also bring the greatest glory to God! Now we will read a New Testament story in order that we may see how some men did not praise the Lord as they should have done. You will find the narrative in the 17th Chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, at the 11th verse. Luke 17:11. And it came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. There is but One of whom we will think tonight--our Divine Lord who was on His way to Jerusalem. Passing along the frontiers of Samaria and Galilee, He had the Jews on one side of Him and the Samaritans on the other. He took a middle course, as if to show how He was going up to the New Jerusalem loaded with blessings for the Jews on one side, and Gentiles on the other. 12. And as He entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men that were lepers. Oh, the abundance of human misery that met the Savior's eye--"ten men that were lepers"! I was reading only yesterday of what happened in Westminster, many years ago. When the king went along the highway there were crowds of poor lepers on either side of the road--a shocking sight to see in this dear land of ours--and the king, in his tender mercy, simply passed a law that the lepers should not come near the road again to shock his gracious majesty with their misery! That is all he had to do for them. But our glorious King treated lepers very differently--"There met Him ten men that were lepers." 12. Which stood afar off. The rule was that they should never come upon the public road, or near the highway, lest the disease should be taken by others who might come near them. 13. And they lifted up their voices. Not much of voices were they likely to have, for the leprosy dries the throat and the voice is low and husky. And when lepers cry, "Unclean, unclean," it is an awfully sad sound, but very weak. These ten lepers lifted up their poor voices. 13. And said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! They raised a plain cry and the whole ten of them had to lift up their voices before they could be well heard. 14. And when He saw them. Even before He heard them, He saw their pitiable condition. 14. He said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. That is all Jesus said to the lepers--"Go show yourselves unto the priests." They were not to go to the priests till they were clean, for the priests could not heal them. It was the healed man who went to the priests to get a certificate that he was healed, and so might mingle in society again. It was a strange message, then, that the Savior gave to these lepers--"Go show yourselves unto the priests." And oh, the faith of these men! With only this shell of a promise, as it were, they cracked it and found a promise inside it, for they said to themselves, "He would not send us to the priests for nothing! He would not mock our misery! He must mean to heal us!" And, therefore, away they went. A grand faith this! You are to come to Christ before you feel any Grace in yourself! You are not to wait until you feel you are healed and then come to Him! Come just as you are, without any sense of Grace, or any kind of feeling within you that is worth having. Come just as you are! 14. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. As the sinner believes he is saved. As a man begins to go towards the Savior--the Savior's Grace meets him. 15. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed. They all saw that they were healed and they all must have felt extremely glad. Oh, the happiness of feeling the hot blood cooled and full health taking the place of languor and disease! 15. Turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God. This was a sure sign that he was healed, that he had his voice back--the disease had so thoroughly gone that the sound, which seemed to hide away in his husky throat, now came out clear and loud--like the stroke of a bell! 16. And fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. When I read these words just now, I thought, that is where I would like to be and that is what I would like to do, all my life, to fall down-- "At His feet, giring Him thanks." 16. And He was a Samaritan. Ah, me! Nine of the seed of Israel were ungrateful--and only one poor outcast Gentile was grateful to the Lord for the miracle of healing that had been worked! 17-19. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And He said unto him, Arise, go your way: your faith, has made you whole. May the Lord Jesus thus speak to many a poor, leprous sinner here tonight! "Arise, go your way: your faith has made you whole." __________________________________________________________________ God's People--or Not God's People (No. 2295) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not My people, You are My people; and they shall say, You are my God." Hosea 2:23. "As He says also in Hosea, I will call them My people, which were not My people; and her beloved, which was not beloved." Romans 9:25. To my mind, it is very instructive to notice how Paul quotes from the Prophets. The Revelation of the mind of God in the Old Testament helps us to understand the Gospel revealed in the New Testament. There is no authority that is so powerful over the minds of Christian men as that of the Word of God. Has God made known any Truth in His Word? Then it is invested with Divine authority! Paul, being himself Inspired by the Holy Spirit and, therefore, able to write fresh Revelations of the mind of God, here brings the authority of God's Word in the olden times to back up and support what he says--"As he says also in Hosea." Beloved Friend, if you are seeking salvation, or if you need comfort, never rest satisfied with the mere word of man. Be not content unless you get the Truth from the mouth of God. Say in your spirit, "I will not be comforted unless God, Himself, shall comfort me. I want chapter and verse for that which I receive as Gospel." Our Lord's reply to Satan was, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Give me, then, but a Word out of God's mouth, and I can live upon it! But all the words out of man's mouth, apart from Divine Inspiration, must be as unsatisfying food as if men tried to live on stones. Notice, again, how Paul teaches that the very essence of the authority of the Scriptures lies in this, that God speaks through His revealed Word--"As HE says also in Hosea." It is God speaking in the Bible whom we ought to hear. The mere letter of the Word, alone, will kill, but when we hear God's voice speaking in it, then it has power which it could not possess otherwise. It is a blessed thing to put your ear down to the promises of Scripture till you hear God speaking through them to your soul. It is truly profitable to read a Gospel Commandment and to listen to its voice until God, Himself, speaks it with power to your heart. I pray you, do not regard anything that is preached here unless it agrees with what is written there in the Bible. If it is only my word, throw it away! But if it is God's Truth that I declare to you, if God, Himself, speaks it through my lips, you will disregard it at your peril. I will make only one other observation by way of introduction. Is it not wonderful how God's Word is preserved century after century? There were seven or 800 years between Hosea and Paul and it is remarkable that the promise to the Gentiles should lie asleep all that time, and yet should be just as full of life and power when Paul was quoting it after all those centuries! God's Word is like the wheat in the hand of the mummy, of which you have often heard. It had lain there for thousands of years, but men took it out of the hand and sowed it--and there sprang up the bearded wheat which has now become so common in our land! So you take a Divine promise, spoken hundreds or thousands of years ago, and lo, it is fulfilled to you! It becomes as true to you as if God had spoken it for the first time this very day and you were the person to whom it was addressed. O blessed Word of God, how we ought to prize you! We cannot yet tell all that lies hidden between these covers, but there is a treasury of Grace concealed here which we ought to seek until we find it. Having thus introduced our texts as taken from God's Word in the Old and New Testaments, and as being God's voice to us, speaking adown the centuries with all the freshness and force it would have if it were uttered anew tonight, I invite every unconverted person to listen with both his ears and his whole heart, to hear if there shall drop some living word of cheer and promise that shall make this evening to be his birth night! If so, this shall be the time wherein his captivity shall be ended, his mouth shall be filled with laughter and his tongue with singing--and his spirit shall rejoice in God his Savior! I. Now, first, in considering the words in the Epistle to the Romans, let us look at THE ORIGINAL STATE OF GOD'S PEOPLE. "I will call them My people, which were not My people; and her beloved, which was not beloved." If we look at the original state of God's people, we shall gaze upon a very gloomy picture. Yet this portrait reveals the state in which every unconverted man is tonight--the state in which all of us, who are now saved, once were! We were not God's people--that is to say, we had not God's approval. I speak now of all those whom God has saved. There was a time when there was no approval of them! As the Apostle says, "They that are in the flesh cannot please God." So was it with those who were not God's people--their thoughts were contrary to God's thoughts, their ways were such as God could not endure--their speech grated in His ears, they followed the devices and imaginations of their own hearts! The prince of this world had dominion over them and God's Grace had not been displayed upon them. They went astray like lost sheep. That is your condition tonight, Sinner--you are the object of Divine disapproval. "Not beloved," says the text. "Not beloved." How can you be beloved of God? How can the Lord take any delight in a man who takes no delight in his God, who tries not even to think of Him--who breaks His Law with impunity--and finds pleasure in that which God abhors? "Not My people," says the text. That is, they were not the subjects of Divine approval. Next, such people receive from God no good thing of the highest order. "Oh," say some, "but we are receiving all sorts of temporal blessing's from God." I know you are and you ought to thank Him for them. But as you are not His people, and not beloved, even these good things turn out to be evil things to you. Your table becomes a snare and a trap to you. Men who receive God's mercies before His Grace has brought them to Himself, make idols of the good things He bestows upon them. They receive benefits at His hands and use them to provoke Him to anger! They take of their wealth and they say, with the rich fool, "Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years. Take your ease--eat, drink, and be merry!" And so they forget that they must die and they forget their God. Oftentimes, even health and strength become a snare to men. They will plunge into greater sin because they have so much vigor of body. We have known some who have been so robust in health that they would not think of God, or of Christ, or of their souls, or of eternity! I tell you, Sinners, that while you are as you are, God's curse rests upon your blessings! There is no good thing out of Christ, for that which would be good with Christ becomes evil without Christ! It becomes a thing which destroys rather than blesses and which helps men the more rapidly to destroy their souls. Oh, what a sad state is yours of whom God says, "They are not My people, and they are not beloved"! While they are as they are, they cannot receive the highest good from God--even the best things that He sends them, they turn into evil. Remember, too, you who know not God, that you are in a very miserable condition because to you there is no application of the precious blood of Christ. Jesus died for sinners, but you pass by His Cross as though you had nothing to do with it. Israel in Egypt was saved because God saw the blood and passed over the houses of His people. But you are not beneath that crimson sign! You have never looked to Christ by faith! No blood is on the lintel and on the two side posts of your door. All we can say of you, as we look at you, is, "Not beloved! Not beloved." Oh, poor Souls, you who have not believed, what does the Scripture say to you? Why, that you are "condemned already" because you have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God! You who have not believed in Christ are lying in the Wicked One--and what does that expression mean? Why, lying in his bosom, as if you were the darling children of the devil! How can there be any sign of the Divine delight or complacency towards you while your delight is in Satan and in sin? No, you have no interest in the precious blood of Jesus! Ah, me, what would I do if this were my case? I would sooner lose my eyes, my hearing, my sense of taste! I would sooner lose life, itself, than lose an interest in the precious blood of Jesus! Yet some of you live at ease though there has been for you no pardon of sin, no washing in the blood of sprinkling. You are still guilty before God. Again, when these people were called by God, "not My people," and, "not beloved," there had been no saving work of the Spirit of God upon them. I am addressing some here, tonight, who have never had their hearts broken by the Spirit of God. They have never been brought to repentance, they have never been led to faith in Christ. Consequently, to them the Spirit of God is not a Quickener. To them He is not a Comforter. To them He is not an Illuminator. All His Divine offices are fulfilled in other people, but not in them. They are strangers to that blessed power without which no man can come to God, or believe in Christ. Oh, what a sad condition for any to be in--"not My people," and, "not beloved"! They have no trace of that life which they would have if the Spirit of God had made them to pass from death unto life. God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living--and as long as you are dead in sin, He is not your God in this special sense--neither does He call you His people. Those who are in that sad state have no relief in prayer. They do not pray--they cannot pray! Now, when I am in trouble, I need nobody to advise me to pray. A trouble no sooner comes to me than I spread it before God and I find a sweet relief at once. Oh, if there were no Mercy Seat, I should wish that I had never been born! But there are some of you who never truly pray. Such prayers as you do offer have no heart in them, no life in them and, therefore, God does not hear you, and you live on in this world without prayer. Men, how can you exist thus? Life must be to you like a burning desert where every particle of sand blisters the foot that treads upon it. What can this world be to a prayerless man? And as you are without prayer, so you are without the promises of God to sustain you. The wealth of God's people seldom lies in ready money. Their treasure consists mostly in promises to pay--promises which God has made to His own people. But for the ungodly there are no blessed promises! God will give nothing to you who will not even believe His Word! He has made no Covenant with you who will not even trust His Son! You remain as He says--it is not my word, but His--"not My people," and, "not beloved," as long as you are without faith in the Lord Jesus Christ! Whatever promises He has made to His people, you are without power to plead those promises at the Throne of Grace, for they do not belong to you. In addition to all this, you are now without any fellowship with God, or with His Son, Jesus Christ. God made this world, but you never speak with the world's Maker. You are guardianed by His Providence and yet you have no fellowship with the God who rules over all. Why, the joy of life to some of us lies mainly in our fellowship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! He is the very center of the circle in which we move. He is the height and glory of our manhood. He is the All in All of our existence. We would not wish to live if it were not for Him. He is the sun that makes our Heaven bright--all would be dark without Him--and yet some of you have no communion with Him, perhaps not even any knowledge of Him! Oh, my dear Friend, you have no Christ, no Savior, no communion with God, no fellowship with the Most High! What a terrible condition is yours! Besides this, you have no hope of Heaven. If you were to die as you now are, what could be your eternal portion but to be driven from the Presence of God, and from the Glory of His power? The Lord Jesus would say of you, "I never knew them, I never knew them. They are not My people. They are not My beloved." Why, you have never even sought Him! You have never cried to Him! You have never forsaken the sin which He hates! You have never rested upon the Atonement which He has made! You have never trusted in His living power to save! Ah, poor creatures that you are, how I pity you! "Do not call us poor," you say. "We are rich, we are increased in goods and have need of nothing." So much the worse is your poverty because of your fancied wealth! It will be an awful thing to go from your well-spread table to the place where you will be denied a drop of water to cool your burning tongues! It will be a terrible thing if you go from the weakness and sickness of the dying bed at once to stand before your God--to be driven from the pangs of your last moments into that dread position of a culprit, unpardoned--to receive sentence from the great Judge of All. "Not My people," and, "not beloved." I cannot bear the thought of your doom, and I can say no more on that terrible theme. II. But now, in the second place, I have to speak of THE NEW CONDITION OF GOD'S PFOPLE. Listen, and as you listen, may God make it to be your new condition! There are many in this world to whom my text has been proven to be true--"I will call them My people, which were not My people; and her beloved, which was not beloved." Now see the change which God can make. It is God who makes it! The very same people of whom He said, "They are not My people," He now calls His people! Yes, and in the very place where He said that they were not His people, He says they are the people of the living God. Now, what if tonight I have been saying of such and such that they are not God's people? But what if, before they leave this place, God should say to them, "You are My people"? Oh, what a blessed change would have taken place in them! Let me describe it. If the Lord shall say to us, tonight, "You are My people, and you are My beloved," then we shall know, first, that He thinks upon us, that His mind is toward us, that He has a kindly regard for us, that He takes delight in us, that His heart is set on doing us good! Oh, you who love the Lord and are His children, think of this--you have the thoughts of God running towards you in streams of ever-abounding tenderness, mercy, goodness and faithfulness! And, as the Lord thinks of us, He speaks to us. Oh, to think that the Lord should speak to those who were once not His people, and speak to them so effectually as to make His sweet promises enter into their ears, yes, into their hearts! And should become familiar to them, for, "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His Covenant"! Oh, how sweetly does God commune with His own children! How He does open up His very heart to them and make them to know Him, even as Jesus manifests Himself unto His chosen as He does not unto the world! It is a choice privilege of a child of God to be thought of and then to be spoken to by the Lord! More than that, God hears us speak. When we are His people, and His beloved, then our accents become sweet in His ears. You know that your dear children often speak very poorly and badly, and other people do not much care to listen to their talk. But to a father's ear the sound of his own child's voice is always sweet! You have been away from home for some weeks. I know that you are longing to hear the dear prattlers once again. Well, like as a father loves the voice of his child, so does our heavenly Father love the voices of His beloved whom He calls His people--and He has regard to what they say--He hearkens to the voice of their cry. Then, beloved, He not only hears us, but He grants us our desire. He will come to our deliverance in the time of trouble. He will bestow upon us all good things--"No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." Oh, the privileges of those who are God's people! The theme is too vast for human language to compass! One special mark of our new condition is that the Lord forgives our sin. Once we were loaded with sin, but now we have not a single sin left upon us. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanses us from all sin! Paul challenges the whole universe to lay anything to the charge of God's elect, for God has justified them. "Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." Oh, the heaped-up blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! And that is true of all whom God calls His people, though they once were not His people! And then, dear Friends, sin being forgiven, the Lord works all things for our good. Whether we are joyous or depressed, if we are the Lord's people, all is working for our good! "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." Our losses and our crosses, our bereavements and our bodily pains, as well as our rapturous joys and our highest delights, are all working out the best results for us! More than this, when we are in trouble, God pities us, for, like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him." Yes, and He sends us relief, too, according to that word of David, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivers him out of them all." What is better, still, God dwells in us, as He said, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." And the Holy Spirit has come, and taken up His abode in these mortal bodies--and He dwells there, our Teacher and our Comforter, our Guide and our Friend. By-and-by, the Lord Jesus will come, again, and receive us unto Himself, that where He is, there we may also be. I wish I had the tongues of men and of angels that I might tell you the splendor of the position of those who are the Lord's own people, the Lord's own beloved! And who were these people once? I come back to my text. They were not God's people, and not beloved--"I will call them My people, which were not My people; and her beloved, which was not beloved." Now then, some of you, whom God cannot now look upon except with anger--why should He not look upon you with love, tonight, through Jesus Christ? He that believes in Christ Jesus may have the blessed assurance that the Lord loves him and that he is one of the Lord's people! You may have come in here saying, "I belong to the devil. I am sure I do. I feel within my spirit that I am under his cruel sway. Alas! I have not a spark of Grace, or a thought of goodness. I am as far off from God, holiness and Heaven as I can ever be." Then to you, may God say, "I will call them My people, which were not My people; and her beloved, which was not beloved"! Oh, the magnificence of this Grace that waits not for man, neither tarries for the sons of men, but works according to the eternal purposes of God and accomplishes all His sovereign will! III. This brings me, in the third place--going back to the text in Hosea--to notice THE GRAND RESULT OF THIS WONDERFUL CHANGE. "I will say to them which were not My people, you are My people; and they shall say, You are my God." Here is a dialogue between the Lord and His people. God says something to them and they say something to Him. Remember that there is no change in God--it is only a change in our relation to Him, because those who have become His people were really His people, in His everlasting purpose, from before the foundation of the world--though they were not actually so as to their own spiritual condition. But now, when this change comes to pass in their relations to God, see the grand result of it! First, the Lord says, "You are My people." Now I pray that the Lord may come, tonight, and speak to some who never made mention of His name before, some who never knew Him, who never trembled at His Word, never hoped in His mercy, never trusted in His Son, never, indeed, meant to be His people at all! I trust that the Lord will now say to some of them, "You are My people." Oh, what a wonderful experience it is when the poor lost sinner finds out that he belongs to God, that he has been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, that God means to save him, that He will not let His Son's blood be shed for him in vain! I remember the shame and yet the joy that filled my soul when I first woke up to the consciousness of what Christ had done for me. I remember the confusion of face I felt because I had treated such a Savior so badly and yet I also felt intense delight in thinking that He loved me, notwithstanding all my sins. This is a text that comforted me-- I pray the Lord to send it home to some other heart-- "I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you." And this one, also, "I have called you by your name; you are Mine." Oh, if the Holy Spirit would apply those Words with power to some sinner's heart, tonight, what a running after God, what a seeking after Christ there would be! "I will say to them which were not My people, You are My people." The Lord does not always say that to His people with equal force. At first, they half hope that it is so. They indistinctly hear His voice saying it, but as faith increases, they hear Him say it more distinctly, "You are My people." I feel that it is most gracious of God to call those His people that were not His people. You see that He gives them a new name and that overrides the old one. I think that I hear someone saying, "I have found the Savior!" "What? What?" says somebody who knows you. "You? Ha! We all know what you were." Perhaps one says, "Ah, you know that you have been as bad as any of us!" Possibly in one case they might say, "You talk of being God's child? You are a fallen woman," or, "You have been a thief," or, "You have been a liar," or, "You have been a frequenter of places where God is forgotten, a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God." Yes, but, Beloved, if the Lord says, "I have called you by your name; you are Mine," you can say to yourself, "They may say what they please about me, and I must acknowledge the truth of it all, but this Word of the Lord, 'You are Mine,' overrides them all!" What a blessed text this is for one who has lost his character, for one who has lost all repute! If you come to Christ, and believe in Him, here is a text that applies to you! God says, "Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honorable, and I have loved you." God can make "right honorables" out of those who are, in themselves, most dishonorable, and He can give them a name and a place among His people. Yet I can imagine God looking upon someone here, tonight, and saying of such an one, "How can I put Him among the children? What? Put such a sinner among My children?" I can fancy there is somebody here who is so extremely sinful that if I were to propose to God's people that he should be received among them, they would say, "We would not like to receive that man into the Church." Ah, but when our heavenly Father welcomes home His prodigal son, He will not have the older brother talk like that! He comes out and reasons with him, and says, "It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, and is found." Jesus would have us receive the very chief of sinners, the jailbirds, the Hellbirds, the men who have gone farthest astray--the men who have lost all hope, the most forlorn and self-condemned, the most dejected, distressed, devil-haunted men and women out of Hell! These are just the people in whom the Grace of God triumphs over all sin! "I will call them My people, which were not My people; and her beloved, which was not beloved." "And I will say to them, which were not My people, you are My people." When the Lord says this to any, their sin is put away! My Lord is a great Forgiver! My Lord, whom I preach to you tonight, who was once nailed to the Cross, is able to save all them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. "He delights in mercy"--it is His right-hand attribute, His last-born, His Benjamin! Never does He display His mercy more than when, like the mighty sea, His love rolls over the very tops of the mountains of iniquity and covers them! I close by noticing what the Lord's people say to Him, "They shall say, You are my God." That is the right saying for every one of the Lord's people, "You are my God." Poor Sinner, may God the Holy Spirit help you to begin to say that, "You are my God"! Here is a text that should help you to say it, even as it helped me in the hour of my conversion, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." Will you look to God, Sinner? Will you say to the Lord, "You are my God"? "My God, I have long forgotten You, I have blasphemed You, I have rebelled against You, I have desecrated Your Sabbath, I have decried Your Gospel, I have ridiculed Your servants! But, behold, I look to You, for I have sinned. Have mercy upon me for Your dear Son's sake!" That is a good beginning, but may you have Grace to advance beyond that experience, so that you may come and lay your hands on Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, saying, "This Savior is my Savior. I accept Him as my Substitute, to stand in my place"! When you have once rightly uttered this blessed sentence, "You are my God," God's Grace will help you to keep on saying it! There is no getting farther than this, "You are my God." That is the end of all good things. What more does a man need? What more can a man desire? There is not a good thing anywhere out of Christ! One of the old Puritans, in the days when nobody much liked going to sea, said, "When a man is in a ship and in his own little cabin, if he casts his eyes all around, and sees nothing but the wild waste of waters, without a sign of land any-where--nothing but angry billows tossing the vessel up and down--and if anyone says to Him, 'Will you leave your little cabin? Will you leave your little ship?' 'No,' he says, 'where else can I go? There is nowhere else to go."' That is just how I feel tonight about my Lord! My cabin, my ship, my Christ, my faith in Him, gives me rest and peace! I cannot see anywhere else that I can go except to destruction and despair--so my soul says over again, "You are my God, you are my God. Others may have what they will, but I will have my God. They may have what god they like, but You, Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Holy Spirit--You are my God and on You my soul does rest, seeking no other confidence." Will you say that, tonight, my dear Hearers? I do not know your cases, but I know that if I need to get sheep into a fold, a good way is to set the gate open as widely as ever I can! And then another good way to entice the sheep in is to have rich pasture inside. Well, I have tried to set before you the rich, Free Grace of God to the very chief of sinners. And I have pointed to the opened Door that is wide enough to let the biggest sinner come through! Jesus said, "I am the Door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." Now, if Noah's ark had a door that was big enough to let an elephant through, then it was big enough to let a dog through, or a fox, or a cat, or a mouse. You may come if you are the biggest sinner in the world, but I do not suppose that you are, for the biggest sinner died and went to Heaven long ago. Paul says that he was the biggest sinner, the chief of sinners--and I believe that he knew what sized sinner he was. If there was room for him to go through the gate of salvation, there is room for you! May God's Grace draw you this very night--and unto the God of all Grace shall be the praise forever and ever! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. HOSEA 2:5-23. In this chapter God compares Israel to a woman who had been unfaithful to her husband in the very worst and most wicked manner. Verse 5. For their mother has played the harlot: she that conceived them has done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. She attributed to false gods the gifts which God had given to her. This was great ingratitude to God, and a high insult to His holy majesty. 6. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. That is what God does to sinners whom He means to save. He will not let them take their own course. He gives them thorny trials which hedge up their way. He puts an obstacle in their path--perhaps some sickness or poverty. When men are desperate in wickedness, God has a way of stopping them. Even in their mad career, His mighty Grace comes in and says, "So far shall you go, but no further." 7. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Thus sinners go after the pleasures of the world and the pleasures run away from them. They make one thing their god, and then another, and they put out all their strength to attain the object of their ambition, but God thwarts them. In Infinite Love, He baffles all their endeavors because He means to bring them to Himself! 7. Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now. That is what He brings us to--weary of the world, yes, weary of life, itself--we get worn out in the ways of evil, and then we say, "I will go to God." What a blessed conclusion to come to! However terrible the whip with which He scourges us, it does us good. The fierce billow that washes the mariner upon the rock of safety is a blessing to him. 8, 9. For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return, and take away My corn in the time thereof, and My wine in the season thereof, and will recover My wool and My flax given to cover her nakedness. God claims the blessings of Providence as His own and when He sees His people misuse them, He says, "I will recover them. She is giving them to Baal, she is using them for an evil pur-pose--I will take them away." 10, 11. And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of My hand. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. When God deals with men, He uses no half measures! If they have been very happy in the ways of sin and He intends to save them from their evil courses, He will take away all their joy. They shall henceforth have none of the merriment in which they indulged. He will give them better happiness, by-and-by, but for the time being it shall be true, "I will cause all her mirth to cease." 12. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. Her most precious things shall be destroyed, or, if they are allowed to exist, they shall become a cause of fear and trouble. Oh, how often have I seen this verified in the experience of men and women whom God has saved by His almighty Grace! 13. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot Me, says the LORD. They burnt no incense at Jerusalem. They refused to offer sacrifice there, but they went to this hill and to that, to worship the different images of Baal, and said, "These are our gods." Therefore, God says that He will make them sick of their idolatry! They shall grow tired of thus polluting His holy name and degrading themselves by worshipping things made of wood and stone. 14. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. Oh, glorious verse! She that went so far astray, God will come and draw her back from the path of sin! He will get her alone. He will bring her into a place of grief and sorrow, a wilderness--and then He will come near and speak sweet words of comfort into her ear. "I will allure her, as the bird catchers whistle to the birds and draw them to the net, so will I allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, the place of loneliness, the place of need, and I will speak to her heart," so the Hebrew has it, for God knows how to speak, not only into the ears, but into the heart. 15. And I will give her her vineyards from there. He will give back what He took away. He will seal with loving kindness the real kindness which made Him deal roughly with her at first. 15. And the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. Oh, Backslider, God can give you back your early joy, your early love, yes, and your early purity! And He can make you sing as at the beginning! Therefore, be of good comfort and come to your Lord--come even now, with all your sins about you--and He will receive you! 16. And it shall be at that day, says the LORD, that you shall call Me Ishi; and shall call me no more Baali. "Baali" means, "My Lord," in the sense of domination. But God will not seem to us, anymore, like a domineering Governor, as we once thought Him. But we shall call Him, "Ishi," "My Husband." There shall be such nearness of love, such confidence of hope between the restored soul and her God, that she shall call Him no more Baali, but Ishi. 17. For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. Oh, the love of God! He does not want us to remember our old ways. I do not like to hear people talk about their old habits, except they do it very tenderly, with many a tear and many a sigh, and tell the story to the praise and glory of Divine Grace. God takes the old names out of our lips--we forget them, we have done with them, we bury the dead past-- and we live in newness of life. 18. And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of Heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground. So that the insects should not devour the crops, the foxes should not spoil the vines and the birds should not steal the seed! So will God take care of His people! It does seem that, when we once get right with God, we get right with everything--when we are at peace with Him--then neither beast, nor fowl, nor creeping thing can do us harm. 18. And I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. They had been much troubled by war. It had killed their children, destroyed their homes and made them poor and wretched. Now God says, "I will break the bow and the sword and the battle." How often God gives a heavenly calm to us when we are once washed in the blood of Christ and covered with His Righteousness! I remember how the storm within my heart was hushed into a deep calm as soon as I had seen my Lord and had yielded my heart to Him. Oh, you that are in storms tonight, I pray that God may bring you to Himself and give you "peace, perfect peace!" And then what more will the Lord do? 19. And I will betroth you unto Me forever. What? This woman that had gone so far into evil? Can a man receive such an one back? No, but God can! He says there shall be a new betrothal, a new marriage--"I will betroth you unto Me forever." Blessed word! 19, 20. Yes, I will betroth you unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth you unto Me in faithfulness: and you shall know the LORD. You shall know Jehovah! You shall know that there is none like He, passing by iniquity, transgression, and sin--and faithful to His people even when they are unfaithful to Him! Is there any god like our God? Have you ever tasted His Grace? Do you know His pardoning love? Have you ever been brought back to Him? Have you been restored to His favor? Then I am sure you can say, "There is none like unto Jehovah." 21, 22. And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, says the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. God would send rain when it was needed. He would be all ear to hear on behalf of His people. He would not only hear them, but hear the very earth they tilled, and the heavens above their heads, as if Nature, itself, began to pray when the child of God learned that holy art! 23. And I will sow her unto Me in the earth. He would make the people to be like the seed which He, Himself, would sow, and cause to spring up and abide. 23. And I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy. I would like to read that again. Somebody has, perhaps, come in here, tonight, who has never obtained mercy. Perhaps you have been seeking it and you have not found it. Hear God's promise, and lay hold upon it--"I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy." 23. And I will say to them which were not My people, You are My people; and they shall say, You are my God. See, it is all in, "shalls," and, "wills!" God is speaking! God Omnipotent, Omnipotent over men's hearts. He is not saying, "I will if they will," but, "I will, and they shall," for He has the key of free agency--and when He turns it in the lock, without violating the free will of man, He makes him willing in the day of His power to the praise of His Divine supremacy, for God is God when He saves as much as when He reigns! Yes, His reigning Grace is the very glory of His Nature, and this we love and adore. Grant us a taste of it! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ Saints Guarded From Stumbling (No. 2296) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen." Jude 1:24,25. THE point and pith of what I may have to say will lie in the alteration of this text caused by the revision of the New Testament. The Revised Version runs thus, "Now unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling.''" I am not going to speak at any length upon the rest of the text, but shall dwell mainly upon this remarkable alteration, which certainly gives the meaning of the original better than the rendering in the Authorized Version. To begin, then, here is a doxology. Jude is writing upon very practical subjects, indeed. His short Epistle is of the most practical kind, but he cannot finish it without a doxology of praise. Is there any work which we should complete without praise to God? Prayer should always have praise mingled with it. The preaching of the Gospel, or the writing of it. The teaching of the young and every other form of Christian service should be combined with the spirit of praise. I think that I may say of praise what we read of salt in the Old Testament--"salt without prescribing how much." You cannot have too much of praise! "With all your offerings you shall offer salt," and, "with all your offerings you shall offer praise." It seems delightful to me to notice how the Apostle Paul stops almost in the midst of a sentence to bow his knees and utter a doxology of praise to his God. And here Jude, with burning words denouncing sin, and urging Believers to purity, cannot conclude his Epistle without saying, "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen." Beloved Friends, we may well continue to praise God, for our God continues to give us causes for praise! If we will only think, we shall begin to thank! If we will only consider, even, the mercies of the present, we shall break out with ascriptions of praise to Him. At this very moment, every Believer here has a reason for a doxology. My text begins with, "Now," and closes with, "now and forever." The praise of God should be given at the present time and it is to be perpetually carried on--therefore now is the time for it to be rendered--"both now and forever. Amen." Consider, then, dear Brother or Sister, you have at this moment a cause for ascribing praise to God, and you have this reason for it, at any rate, that He is able to guard you from stumbling--His ability is to be employed for your good! His power is intended for your keeping! Oh, sing unto the Lord a now song, tonight, with heart and soul bless Him who is able to guard you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy! I. Coming to the text at once, I shall notice, first, THE DANGER TO BE DREADED. It is "stumbling." What is that? Well, first of all, it is a lesser form of falling. A horse may stumble and not fall--yet it is a sort of falling. If there is much stumbling, it will be a fall! Now, there are faults to which the child of God is very liable, which do not amount to actual falling--but they are stumblings. Like David, we have to say, "My feet were almost gone; my steps had well near slipped." We are not actually down, but it is a wonder that we are not. We have not broken our knees, but we were within an inch of doing so! A little more and we would have fallen to our serious hurt. The text speaks of, "Him that is able to guard you from stumbling"--to preserve you from the smallest form of grieving the Spirit, or the faintest trace of sin which would not amount to a fall. The Lord can keep you from that which is not a fall, but which might lead to it. I want to set a high standard before you tonight. Jude does not say that you are able to guard yourselves from stumbling, for you are not--but the ascription of praise is to Him who is able to guard you, even, from stumbling, and to present you, not only pardoned, but faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy! Stumbling is, next, not only a form of falling, and a matter, therefore, to be grieved over, but it is a prelude to falling. Oftentimes we first stumble and then, after a while, down we go! If we could recover ourselves from the stumble, we should not have to gather ourselves up from the fall. Long before the child of God falls into public sin and injures his character, those who watch him will have perceived his stumbling. He stayed up, just stayed up--but you wondered that he did. He kept on, perhaps for months, but as you looked at him, you said to yourself, "I am afraid that he will come to something worse. I feel sure that he will have a stumble, and another stumble, and then another stumble. And he will be down, by-and-by." Oh, that a child of God could notice his own stumblings! Then he would soon be delivered from them! But it is too often with us, to change the metaphor, as Hosea says, "Gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knows it not." He is getting feeble, he is becoming prematurely old, but he has not seen the change in the color of his hair! He has not looked in the glass of the Word lately, so he is unconscious that he is declining. If Satan cannot conquer Mansoul by storming it, he sometimes triumphs by sapping and mining, gradually undermining the walls and getting a secret entrance in that way. May the Lord make us very watchful--that we may not be ignorant of Satan's devices--and may our Savior guard us, even, from stumbling--for then we shall be kept from falling! I think that I can put this matter pretty plainly. You must have known, you must have read of, or you must have seen some people whom you believe to be true and real Christians. And in their lives there is nothing glaringly wrong, nothing that is so offensive that they can be excluded from the Church, or for which their Christian friends would condemn them as hypocrites. Yet, somehow, their lives are, to say the least, questionable, doubtful. There is good in them, but that good is blotted. We trust that there is in them a true desire to be right, but there are so many sad failures in their lives that they seem to stumble to Heaven rather than to run there! Now, our desire is that our life may not be of that kind and, therefore, we would lay hold upon this text and plead it before the Throne of God, "Lord, You are able to guard us from stumbling, be pleased to do so, to the praise of the glory of Your Grace!" You will see that stumbling is itself a form of evil, if you think of another phase of it. There were some who stumbled at the doctrine of Christ in His own day. He had a number of followers who kept with Him up to a certain point. But when the Savior said, "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you," they went back and walked no more with Him. They could not understand what He meant and they murmured, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" So, being staggered and stumbled at the depth of this great mystery, they turned aside and walked no more with Him. Beloved, we need God so to uphold us and guard us that, whatever the teaching of His Holy Word may be, we shall receive it without a doubt. I know that there are some Christian people who stumble at one doctrine, especially if they hear somebody denounce it. And there are others who are staggered at another doctrine because they have met some very wise man who knows better than the Word of God and says that it cannot be true! In these days there is very great liability to this kind of stumbling, especially among Christians who do not read their Bibles much--and, I am sorry to say, that there are plenty of such Christians! They read magazines, or perhaps works of fiction, rather than the sure Word of God! And they are thus easily caught in the snare of the fowler. Many professing Christians do not know what God's Word really teaches, so they are not established in the faith. They do not know, even, the elements of the doctrines of Christ--they have not examined the immutable foundations of the faith--and they are staggered. And truly, the mysteries of the Kingdom of God are so deep, and the teachings of Christ are so contrary to the reasonings of flesh and blood, that we need not wonder if some are stumbled! Let us cry to Him who is able to guard us from stumbling that, with steady step, we may press on in the way of life and never be ashamed of the Truth of God, lest the Truth of God should be ashamed of us! Let us believe what the Bible says, however difficult the believing may be, because God has said it! This should always stand for us as the grand master argument-- not the reasonableness of the doctrine, not because it commends itself to our judgement--but the fact that God has said it! That ends all debate. Christ is able to guard from stumbling as to doctrine. Many others are stumbled at the Cross. Strange to say, the Cross of Christ has always been the stumbling stone to the ungodly and to mere professors. What? The Cross of Christ an occasion of stumbling? Why, it is the very center of Apostolic teaching--"We preach Christ Crucified." Nowadays, there are two great points of attack--the one is the Inspira- tion of Scripture--and the other is the Substitutionary work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The enemies of the Cross will not have a crucified Savior! They stumble at that which is the very foundation of our faith! The Lord will keep us from stumbling at Christ's Cross, I am quite sure. It is the rock of our refuge, the pillar of our hope! The Cross that Christ carried involves one for us to carry. No sooner does a Christian man become a Believer and confesses Christ in Baptism, than he is sure to meet with some who straightway revile him. He has to take up his cross. A working man among skeptical companions, a young girl in a book-folding warehouse, a wife who has an ungodly husband--as soon as they come out boldly on the side of Christ, straightway they have a cross to carry--and this causes a great many to stumble. Persecution and ridicule are too much for them--by-and-by they are offended--that is, they stumble at the Cross. They would have Christ, but not any shame for Christ's sake! They are like Mr. Pliable, who set out to go to the Celestial City, but when he tumbled into the Slough of Despond with Christian, he said that if he could only get out on the side nearest to his own house, Christian might have the Celestial City all to himself, for he could not go through a slough to get there! How many there are of this kind--fearful ones--cowardly ones! But there is a God who is able to guard us from stumbling and I trust that He will do so. May we never be stumbled by anything that happens to us for Christ's sake! May we take joyfully the spoiling of our goods, if need be--yes, and suffer death itself if it should ever come to that--sooner than turn aside from bearing the Cross after the crucified Christ! And this stumbling sometimes happens not only at the doctrine of Christ and at His Cross, but at the precepts He has given. If we are to be Christ's, we must obey Him. "You call Me Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am." But one will stagger at one command of Christ and another at another! Though Christ bids us love one another, there are some who can do anything but love. They can give their bodies to be burned, but they have no charity. When Christ bids us walk in integrity before all mankind, there are some who can do many good things, but they like little sly practices in trade--and they stumble at Christ because of those evil ways. You know there are many ways in which people try to be as little Christians as they can be, so as just to get into Heaven. Miserable wretches, they want to save their souls and yet, after all, to follow the ways of the world! So they stumble at the precepts of the Holy Christ. They cannot put up with commands like His which lay the axe at the root of the tree. If you are kept by Him who is able to guard you from stumbling, you will love every way of Christ, and every Word of Christ, and your prayer will be, "Teach me Your statutes," and your heart will willingly obey every precept of the Lord! Once more, there are some who are staggered by the experience of Believers. I speak, now, especially to young beginners. You have begun to be believers in Christ and you have been very, very happy. I am very glad that you are. Long may your happiness continue! But there is another who has been, perhaps, in the way of the Lord for a few months, and suddenly a depression of spirit has come over him and he says to himself, "Oh, dear me, is this the way of God's people?" I remember that within a week after I had found joy and peace in believing, I began to feel the uprisings of inbred sin and I cried out, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" I did not know that such a sigh and cry could never come out of an unbelieving heart--that there must be a new heart and a right spirit within the man to whom sin is a burden and who loathes it. I did not know that, then, and I wondered whether I could be a child of God at all! Oh, there are strange experiences for those who are on the road to Heaven! You remember how John Newton sings-- "I asked the Lord that I might grow In faith, and love, and every Grace Might more of His salvation know, And seek more earnestly His face. I hoped that in some favored hour At once He'd answer my request, And by His love's constraining power, Subdue 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." The good man began to discover more and more his own sinfulness and he said, "Lord, is this the way to holiness?" and he was stumbled for a moment. O Beloved, it is only the Grace of God that can make us feel that whatever experiences we have within us, our faith looks to a living Christ who never changes--and we rest in His finished work! Whether we are up or whether we are down, whether we sing or whether we sigh, we look beyond our changing moods unto Him who loved us and gave Himself for us! Yet many have been stumbled by their own inner experiences, not understanding them. There is only One who can guard us from such stumblings. So, then, dear Friends, to close this description of stumbling, if we are guarded from stumbling we shall certainly be kept from falling. This is an inclusive blessing. It includes preservation from falling into outward sin and, especially all final falling, all fatal falling! Christ is able to guard us from stumbling--much more is He able to preserve us from falling away, from utterly departing from the faith. But we would do that if it were not for His guardian care. There is nothing that the worst of men have done which the best of men could not do if they were left by the Grace of God! Do not think so much of yourself as to imagine yourself incapable of even the greatest crime. That very thought proves that you are capable of committing any crime. I think that it is Mr. Cecil who says, "I thought myself humble, one day, when I said that I did wonder that I should have sinned as I had done in such a way. Whereas," he said, "if I had been truly humble, I should not have wondered that I sinned like that! I should have wondered at the Grace of God that kept me from even greater sin! And I should have understood that my natural tendencies all went towards evil--and that the marvel was that they did not master me and lead me farther into evil than I had gone." Oh, Beloved, we must be kept by God, Himself, or else stumbling, falling--foully and fatally falling--will be our lot! From that, however, the Lord will preserve us who are truly His. So much, then, upon the danger to be dreaded. II. Now, I must be somewhat more brief on the second point, THE PRIVILEGE TO BE ENJOYED--"Now unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling." Well, beloved Friends, it is a great privilege to be guarded from stumbling, for it is a privilege that we greatly need. I was thinking of the many things that make us in danger of stumbling. There is, first, our weakness. It is the weak horse, you know, that stumbles and falls. It is out of condition, out of health--and down it goes. And we are weak, very weak. Then, consider the many roads that we have to travel. Here is a man who is a preacher, a husband, a father, a master. Some of you are tradesmen, or workmen and, beside your daily occupation, you have all your domestic relationships. Now, what you need is to be guarded all round from stumbling. We have heard of one who was all right at home, but he was very vulnerable outside his house. I have heard of another who was an excellent man in the Church, but if you had asked his wife about him, she would not have liked to describe him. A man may be a very good man at a Prayer Meeting, but he may be a very poor hand when you get him at his work. I have known some move very slowly, indeed, at that time--nobody would have liked to pay them by the day. Now, it is an evil thing when a Christian is bad anywhere, but it is a grand thing--and only God can enable us to attain to it--when we do not stumble in any one of the ways which we have to go, but are always kept walking uprightly. And then, you know, it is the pace that makes some people stumble. See the pace we have to go at now. When I think of our dear old fathers in the country, I almost envy their quiet lives--not up too early, and seldom going to bed very late--not much to do, leading very steady sort of lives. They traveled by broad-wheeled wagons, and we fly over the ground by express trains--and need to go twice as quickly as we can--and all the while we have so much to do. And, then, it is not only the pace, dear Friends, but it is the loads that some of you have to carry. Oh, the weights that are piled upon some of God's people in their business! Only God can keep an overloaded heart from stumbling and the ways are very rough just now. You hardly meet anybody in trade who does not say, "Ah, we have a rough bit of ground to travel over now--stones in plenty, and no steam roller!" But there is One who is able to keep you from falling. Perhaps there are some of you who have not to travel over a rough bit of road. Your path is very smooth, you have all that heart can wish for and every comfort that you could desire. You need to be guarded from stumbling, for you are on a very slippery road. If there has been a thaw and then a frost comes on at night, the road may be very pretty to look at, but it is very bad for a horse's feet, and so prosperity is a very slippery way for God's people. The Lord must keep them from falling or they will go down with a crash. Then there is the length of the road as well as the other things I have mentioned. If we had to serve God only for a short time, one might easily do it, but we may have to go on for 50 years, 60 years, 70 years, 80 years. I think, some- times, that if martyr days were to come, and they would burn me quickly, I could endure it. But it would be a terrible trial to be roasted on a slow fire! Yet our lives are often so prolonged and filled with trial and temptation, that it is like being roasted alive by a slow fire. The road is long and the pace has become very trying, so we may easily stumble. But the text gives us good cheer, for it tells us of Him that is able to guard us from stumbling. It is not only necessary for us to be kept, but it is very gracious on Christ's part to keep us. Beloved, what if you should have this text fulfilled in you, so that, through a long and trying life, you should so live that when your enemies wanted to find fault with you, they would not know where to begin? Live so that if they look you up and down, they will have to say of you as they said of Daniel, "We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God." Oh, if you should go down to the grave faultless--not that we can, any of us, be in ourselves faultless in the sight of God--but if you live such blameless lives that no one shall be able to say evil of you, but shall be compelled to confess that in you the life of Christ has been reflected in your measure, what a privilege it will be! And this is the privilege set before you in the text--that you shall not be stumbled. What distress you will be saved from if you are guarded from stumbling! A stumbling Christian has to be a sorrowing Christian. When a child of God stumbles, and knows it, he very soon takes to weeping and humbling himself in the Presence of his God. But if you are kept by the Grace of God, you will be saved from many a bitter pang, and helped to go from joy to joy and Grace to Grace. What a blessing such a person is to other people in the Church of God! Without saying anything against our fellow Christians, we know where our respect and confidence usually go. When we have seen Brothers and Sisters who have been upheld and sustained in trial and temptation, and have not stumbled, we take delight in them! Those of us who are younger and weaker, go and hide, as it were, under the shadow of their wings. And what a blessing such people are to the world! Those are the true saints who help to spread the Gospel of Christ! A holy life is a missionary enterprise. An unstumbling life is an incentive to others to run along the heavenly road, trusting in the Divine Power to guard them, also, from stumbling! Best of all that I have to say is this, that this privilege is attainable--"Unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling." "Oh!" says one, "if I just get to Heaven, it will satisfy me." Will it? I pray you, do not talk so. Just to get in, like a tempest-tossed boat, water-logged, or like a wreck just towed into the harbor--well, it is a great mercy to get to Heaven anyway--but that is a poor way of getting in! Better would it be to steam into the harbor with a fall cargo and plenty of passengers on board, and all the flags flying to the honor of the Great King and Pilot who has guarded you through the storm, that, "so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." May it be so with you! Oh, that we may not have to send off the tugs and tow you into the harbor, but that, instead thereof, you may come in with a fleet of little ships behind you, able to say, "Here am I, and the children that You have given me"! This is a privilege worth having, but it cannot be attained except through Him who is able to guard you from stumbling. III. Now I will lead you on, in the third place, with great brevity, to remember THE POWER WHICH BESTOWS THIS PRIVILEGE. To be guarded from stumbling throughout a long life, is not of ourselves. It is not to be found in our own experience--not even in the means of Grace alone. That same power that made the heavens and the earth, and keeps the earth and heavens in their places, is needed to make a Christian, and to keep him standing before the sons of men. "Unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling." God has this power. He has power over all circumstances. He can so arrange the trials of your life that you shall never be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. He has power, also, over Satan, so that, when he desires to sift you as wheat, the Lord can keep him back. God will not allow him to overcome you. Best of all, God has power over our hearts. He can keep us alive with holy zeal. He can keep us so believing, so loving, so hoping, so watching, so fully obedient that we shall not stumble at His Word, or stumble at anything else. Jude speaks of "the only wise God," so that, God's power is joined with wisdom. He knows your weakness and He can guard you against it. He knows your tempters and He can thrust them aside, or help you to overcome them. It is the wise God, as well as the strong God, who is able to guard you from stumbling. He knows where the stumbling stones are and where your weakness is--and He can and He will bring you safely through. Yet once more, the One who guards us from stumbling is our Savior as well as the only wise God. It is His business to save you. It is His office to save you--and save you He will! Commit yourself tonight to His guardian care, and walk with him. That is a high favor, that you may not only be kept from falling, but even be guarded from stumbling, to the praise and glory of His Grace. I have been very brief where I should have liked to enlarge. IV. I finish with this point, THE GLORY WHICH IS DUE TO CHRIST FOR THIS PRIVILEGE. If we are guarded from stumbling, we may take no credit to ourselves, but we must lay the crown at the feet of Him to whom the power belongs. If He has kept us from stumbling until now, let us praise Him for the past! Oh, what a mercy to have had this keeping year after year! Notwithstanding many imperfections and follies, which we have had to confess, yet we have been kept from any grievous stumbling that would have dishonored the holy name of Christ! Bless God, tonight, that you have been kept from stumbling, today. I do not know where you have been, but I have no doubt you have been where you might have slipped if you had been left by the Spirit of God! You have been in the shop. You have been in the home. You have been in the street. You have been on the Exchange. You have been among ungodly men. Yes, and even among Christian men, you can soon commit yourself and trip up. If you have been kept, today, do not say, "How good I am!" No, no, no! Say, "Now unto Him who has guarded me from stumbling, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever." Now, will you begin to praise Him for the future as well? You have not experienced it, yet, but remember that verse which we often sing-- "And a new song is in my mouth, To long-loved music set! Glory to You for all the Grace I have not tasted yet." Begin to thank the Lord that He will keep you from falling in the future! Bless Him that He will present you faultless before the Presence of His Glory with exceeding joy. And the next time that danger comes to you, praise Him that He can guard you from stumbling. Tomorrow morning, perhaps, you have a difficult task before you. You are looking forward, in the course of the week, to something that will be very trying. Well, praise God now, that He is able to guard you from stumbling! But oh, what a song we will give Him when we are once over the river! When we climb the celestial hills, when we enter Heaven and find ourselves among the white-robed, blood-washed throng, I wonder which of us will praise Him most? Well, let us not wait till then, but let us begin here--let us rehearse the music of the spheres now! Let us say, "Now unto Him that is able to guard us from stumbling, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever." This sermon does not belong to all of you, I am sorry to say. I wish that it did, but remember, dear Hearer, that He who can keep the saint from stumbling can bring the sinner into the right way! The same Grace that can preserve the child of God from falling into sin can bring you out of sin! And as we have to look wholly to Christ, certainly you must do so. May the Lord lead you to look, tonight, out of yourself, your feelings and your works and trust to the Lord Jesus, who died, but lives again, and lives to save guilty men! Whoever believes in Him has everlasting life and He will bring them into His way! And He will keep them from stumbling and present them among the rest of His blood-washed, to praise His name forever. The Lord bless this meditation for Christ's sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. PSALM91. Verse 1.--He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. It is not every man who dwells there, no, not even every Christian. There are some who come to God's House, but the man mentioned here dwells with the God of the House! There are some who worship in the outer court of the Temple, but, "he that dwells in the secret place of the Most High" lives in the Holy of Holies--he draws near to the Mercy Seat and stays there! He walks in the Light, as God is in the light. He is not one who is sometimes on and sometimes off, a stranger or a guest, but like a child at home he dwells in the secret place of the Most High. Oh, labor to get to that blessed position! You who know the Lord, pray that you may attain to this high condition of dwelling in the inner shrine, always near God, always overshadowed by those cherubic wings which indicate the Presence of God. If this is your position, you "shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." You are not safe in the outer courts. You are not protected from all danger anywhere but within the veil. Let us come boldly there and, when we once enter, let us dwell there. 2. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. This is a daring utterance, as if the Psalmist would claim for himself the choicest privileges of any child of God. When you hear a glorious doctrine preached, it may be very sweet to others, but the honey lies in the particular application of it to yourself. You must, like the bee, go down into the bell of the flower, yourself, and fetch out its nectar. "I will say of the Lord, He is my"--then come three "mys", as if the Psalmist could grasp the Triune Jehovah--"my refuge, my fortress, my God: in Him will I trust." What a grand word that is, "My God"! Can any language be loftier? Can any thought be more profound? Can any comfort be surer? 3. Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler. If you dwell near to God, you will not be deceived by Satan. In the Light of the Lord you will see light and you will discover the limed twigs and the nets and the traps that are set to catch you--"He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler." 3. And from the noisome pestilence. The pestilence is something that you cannot see. It comes creeping in and fills the air with death before you perceive its approach. But, "He shall deliver you from the noisome pestilence." There is a pestilence of dangerous and accursed error abroad at this time--but if we dwell in the secret place of the Most High, it cannot affect us--we shall be beyond its power! "Surely," oh, blessed word! there is no doubt about this great Truth of God, "Surely, He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence." 4. He shall cover you with His feathers. The Psalmist uses a wonderful metaphor when he ascribes "feathers" to God and compares Him to a hen, or some mother bird, under whose wings her young find shelter. Yet the condescension of God is such that He allows us to speak of Him thus--"He shall cover you with His feathers." 4. And under His wings shall you trust. God is to His people a strong defense and a tender defense. "His wings" and "His feathers" suggest both power and softness. God hides not His people in a casing of iron--their shelter is stronger than iron--yet it is soft as the downy wings of a bird for ease and comfort. As the little chicks bury their tiny heads in the feathers of the hen and seem happy, and warm, and comfortable under their mother's wings, so shall it be with you if you dwell with your God--"He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust." 4. His Truth shall be your shield and buckler. Twice is he armed who has God's Truth to be his shield and buckler. 5. You shall not be afraid for the terror by night. Nervous as you are, and naturally timid, when you dwell near to God, your fears shall all go to sleep. That is a wonderful promise--"You shall not be afraid." If it had said, "You shall have no cause for fear," it would have been a very comforting word, but this is even more cheering! "You shall not be afraid for the terror by night." 5. Nor for the arrow that flies by day. Both night and day you shall be safe. Your God will not leave you in the glare of the sun, nor will He forsake you when the dampness of night dews would put you in peril. We, dear Friends, may have secret enemies, who shoot at us, but we shall not be afraid of the arrow! There may be unseen influences that would ruin us, or cause us dishonor, or distress--but when we dwell with God, we shall not be afraid of them. 6, 7. Nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. When God takes His people to dwell in nearness to Himself and they have faith in this promise, I make no doubt that, literally, in the time of actual pestilence, they will be preserved! It is not every professing Christian, nor every Believer who attains this height of experience, but only such as believe the promise and fulfill the heavenly condition of dwelling in the secret place of the Most High. How could cholera or fever get into the secret place of the Most High? How could any arrows, how could any pestilence, ever be able to reach that secure abode of God? If you dwell there, you are invincible, invulnerable, infinitely secure! 8-10. Only with your eyes shall you behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the Most High, your habitation; there shall no evil befall you. "There shall no evil befall you." It may have the appearance of evil, but it shall turn out to your good. There shall be but the appearance of evil, not the reality of it--"There shall no evil befall you." 10, 11. Neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. You remember how the devil misapplied this text to Christ. He was quite right in the application, but he was quite wrong in the quotation, for he left out the words, "in all your ways." God will help us in our ways if we keep in His ways. When we meet with trouble and Providence, we ought to enquire whether we are in God's way. That famous old Puritan, holy Mr. Dodd, having to cross a river, had to change from one boat into another and, being little used to the water, he fell in, and, when he was pulled out, in his simplicity and wisdom, he said, "I hope that I am in my way." That was the only question that seemed to trouble him. If I am in my way, then God will keep me. We ought to ask ourselves, "Now, am I in God's way? Am I really moving, today, and acting, today, as Divine Providence leads me, and as duty calls me?" He who travels on the king's business, by daylight, along the king's highway, may be sure of the king's protection. "He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways." Come here, Gabriel, Michael, and all the rest of you," says the great King of Kings to the angels around His Throne. And when they come at His call, He says, "Take care of My child. Watch over him, today. He will be in peril--suffer no evil to come near him." 12. They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone. What royal protection we have, a guard of angels, who count it their delight and their honor to wait upon the seed-royal of the universe, for such are all the saints of God! 13. You shall tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shall you trample under feet. Strength and mastery may be united--"The young lion and the dragon"--but the child of God shall overcome them. Talk of St. George and the dragon! We ought to think more of the saint and the dragon! It is he that dwells in the secret place of the Most High, who, by God's help, treads upon the lion and adder and of whom it is written, "The young lion and the dragon shall you trample under feet." 14. Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him. Does God take notice of our poor love? Oh, yes, He values the love of His people, for He knows where it came from--it is a part of His own love--the creation of His Grace! 14. I will set him on high, because he has known My name. Does God value such feeble and imperfect knowledge of His name as we possess? Yes, and He rewards that knowledge--"I will set him on high." 15. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him. Notice, that it is, "He shall," and, "I will." The mighty Grace of God "shall" make us pray, and the Almighty God of Grace "will" answer our prayer--"He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him." How I love these glorious shalls and wills! 15. I will be with him in trouble. "Whatever that trouble is, I will be with him in it. If he is dishonored, if he is in poverty, if he is in sickness, if that sickness should drive his best friend away from his bed, still, 'I will be with him in trouble.'" 15. I will deliver him, and honor him. God puts honor upon us, poor dishonorable worms that we are! One old Divine calls a man, "a worm six feet long," and it is rather a flattering description of him, don't you think? But God says, "I will deliver him, and honor him." 16. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation. He will live as long as he wants to live. Even if he should have but few years, yet he shall have a long life, for life is to be measured by the life that is in it, not by the length along which it drags. Still, God's children live to a far longer age than any other people in the world. They are, on the whole, a long-lived race. They who fear God are delivered from the vices which would deprive them of the vigor of life-- and the joy and contentment they have in God help them to live longer than others. I have often noticed how long God's people live. Some of them are speedily taken Home--still, this text is, as a rule, literally fulfilled, "With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation." He shall see God's salvation even here! And when he dies, and wakes up in the likeness of his Lord, he will see it to the fullest. May that be the portion of each of us! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ Sealed and Open Evidences (No. 2297) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase, which is sealed, and this deed which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days." Jeremiah 32:14. THE discourse of this evening is suggested by the transaction of Jeremiah with his uncle's son in the purchase of a field at Anathoth which he conducted in a business-like and legal way. I will begin with just a few remarks upon the transaction itself. Jeremiah was called to forego the comforts of the present for the blessings of the future. He was a poor man and he was shut up in prison. A little money must have been a very great thing to him at such a time--even food could not be purchased during the siege except at fabulous prices--and his allowance was very small. Yet he paid down 17 shekels of silver--not a great sum in itself, but very great to him in such circumstances--to buy the field which, as I said in the exposition, he could not go and see, for he was a prisoner, and which he could not have reached even if he had been free, for it was in the hand of the Chaldeans and laid desolate by the invading army. He was commanded by the Lord to buy a field which, speaking after the manner of men, was on the moon! It was what we call, "an estate in Spain," which Jeremiah could not possibly visit, but because he had God's orders to buy it, he did buy it and he paid the purchase money right cheerfully. Dear Brothers and Sisters, this is exactly what we have to do--we have to pawn the present for the future! We must be satisfied to give up anything which Christ may require of us for the sake of that which is yet to come. Our inheritance is not on this side of Jordan. Our joy is yet to be revealed. I grant you that we have much thrown in, for the Lord is a good Paymaster, but on the road to Heaven He gives us only our spending money. Our inheritance is in the land of the hereafter, in the regions of the blessed--and we must not look for it here--this is not our rest! It is worth while to give up a great deal that belongs to the present for the eternal inheritance which is yet to be ours. "There remains a rest to the people of God." And if ever it should come to this, that your present comfort, yes, and your present life, must be given up for the sake of the land of promise and the Covenant heritage, make no delay. Do not hesitate for a moment, but yield everything up, that the greater blessings of the future may be assuredly yours. My second remark is that, when a man acts by faith, he ought still to act in a clear, business-like way. We who believe in God are no fools. Some may think that we are; but they would not find us to be so if they had to deal with us in matters requiring judgment and consideration. Jeremiah buys the field in the presence of witnesses, weighs the money, and has the purchase deed drawn up, and the counterpart of the deed, all after a legal manner, just as Abraham did when he bought the field of Machpelah from the sons of Heth. That passage in Genesis is an ancient legal document, containing just such words as you would find in an Oriental purchase deed of the present day. The man of God counts things, which to others are dreams, as realities, and he treats them as such. Faith is sanctified commonsense. It believes in God--is that stupidity? It believes in God's promises--is that foolishness? It believes that God will keep His Word--is that a folly? If so, we purpose to be more foolish, still, but, knowing that it is not folly, but truest wisdom, we act in this case as we act in other matters and we make sure as far as we can. "Fast bind, fast find," says our proverb and, therefore, we exercise in the things of God that discretion and prudence which we use in the things of men. Faith is not folly--and the Believer must not, in anything, act like a fool! Perhaps you might wonder why Jeremiah, whose business it was to prophesy, should be set to buy land? There is nothing like division of labor. Let the politician attend to politics, let the keeper of a theater supply amusement to the people who want it--and let the Christian minister keep to his preaching. Yes, but Jeremiah was commanded by God to do this because he was really preaching by what he did! The preacher must believe in what he preaches and it may be that he will be called to do something which will be, to his people, the best possible proof that he really does believe it. Jeremiah believes that the city, though it was to be destroyed, would afterwards be rebuilt and that land would be valuable, trade would be restored and agriculture would again flourish. He has said this--he has now to prove it. The few shekels that he has, he must invest in a bit of land which is worth nothing, today, but may be worth a good deal, if not to himself, yet to his heirs. He must buy the field to prove his sincerity! Oh, Beloved, if we are called to preach, we must believe what we preach, or else we had better give it up! "I believed, therefore have I spoken," is a text which should be written over every minister's study door, and over his pulpit, too. What have we to say if we have a doubt about it? How can we move others if we have no fulcrum for our lever, if we are not, ourselves, sure and certain? If there is no element of dogmatism in our message because of our confidence concerning what we have to deliver, in God's name, let us go to bed and hold our tongues until we believe it! The monk that shook the world owed his power, under God, to the fact that the world could not shake him! Martin Luther believed with an unshakable faith and, therefore, he had power over others. God called Jeremiah to effect the purchase of this little estate to prove to the people that he believed what he preached! And now, leaving Jeremiah, I am going to make a parable, not to bring out what the text teaches, but to use it parable-wise. When he bought this piece of land, it was transferred to him by two documents. The first was a purchase deed, drawn up and signed by witnesses and then sealed up, not to be opened, anymore, unless required to settle a dispute. That was his real purchase or title deed. Then there was a counterpart of this transfer made and signed by witnesses. This was not rolled up and it was not sealed--but it was left open so that Jeremiah might refer to it and that, when desired, the open deed might be read and examined by others. It is not at all a bad custom and one which we, to a large extent, follow, that there should be two deeds of transfer, the one to be kept and laid up by itself, only to be opened in case of litigation, or absolute necessity--the other being the certified copy--the open deed or evidence for daily use if anybody wished to examine it and see how the property had been transferred. Now, with regard to our redemption, our inheritance which Christ has bought for us at an immense price, we, too, have two sets of deeds or evidences. The one is sealed up from all eyes but our own. In part, too, I might say that it is sealed up from our own eyes. The other, the counterpart of that, equally valid, is open to ourselves and open to others. So I shall talk, first, about the sealed evidences of our faith. And, secondly, about the open evidences of our faith. And, then, thirdly, about the use of these two sets of evidences. May the Holy Spirit make us wise to speak things to edification and to heart searching, as He, alone, can! I. First, then, I want you to think a little OF THE SEALED EVIDENCES OF OUR FAITH, the evidences which are sealed, at least in a measure, from our fellow men. And, first, I would say, among the sealed evidences is this--the Word of the Lord has come to us with power. If anyone asked himself, "Have I a right to the Covenant of Grace and to the 'all things' which are ours if we are in that Covenant? Have I a right to the purchased possession? Have I a right to the Lord Jesus Christ and all that comes to Believers in Him?" In part, the answer must be, "Has the Word of the Lord come to you with power, not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the Word of God?" Some of my hearers will not understand what I am now saying. I noticed, in one of the daily papers, this remark about a sermon I preached a few Sunday mornings ago, "Mr. Spurgeon will admit that it needed an education to understand him." Yes, I do admit it. And I admit another thing, namely, that very many newspaper writers have not that education and that, therefore, they cannot understand what we preach. It is with our preaching of such things as it was with Dr. Hawker, when preaching at Plymouth. One of his members brought down from London a great scientist and he thought that the learned man would like to hear Dr. Hawker, the eminent preacher of the Gospel. The next morning, this member said to the doctor, "I brought So-and-So to hear you yesterday." "Did you?" "Yes. And what do you think he said, Dr. Hawker? He said that he did not understand a sentence of what you were talking about." "Did he?" said Dr. Hawker, "Well, there were lots of old women in the aisles who understood it all." They had been taught of God and the other person had not! Now, only he who has felt it will know what I mean by this expression--the Word of God has come with power to our soul! There is a mystic influence, a Divine unction which really goes with the Word of God, in many cases, so that it enters the heart, sheds a radiance upon the understanding, pours a flood of delightful peace and joy upon the soul--and affects the whole mental and spiritual being in a way which nothing else does! You cannot explain this to others! Do you know it yourself? If so, that will be to you the sealed evidence or deed that the eternal heritage is yours! The Lord has given you the spiritual perception of these things. You had no such faculty when He gave it to you, but He took you from being carnal, in which state you could not understand spiritual things, and he made you spiritual! And now His spiritual Truth has come with the demonstration of the Spirit to your heart and you now know, by a witness which you cannot communicate to anybody but yourself, that these things are so and that you have a part in them! The next one of these sealed evidences is this--if, indeed, this heavenly heritage is ours--we have a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." Unless fearfully deceived, some of us can say, tonight, that we are resting wholly upon Christ. We depend upon the blood of Christ for cleansing, the righteousness of Christ for clothing, the death of Christ to be the death of sin, and the life of Christ to be our life unto God! All that we have we derive from Him. As for myself, I have not a shadow of a shade of the ghost of a hope apart from the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ--and I know that many of you can say the same. Well now, the possession of that confidence, that child-like trust, that real faith, is an evidence to you that the heritage is yours. "Without faith, it is impossible to please God," but he that believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. He that accepts Christ and His great Sacrifice to be the one ground of his trust--and does this with all his heart and soul--has that sealed evidence which others cannot read, but which he may read with confidence, for Christ said, "He that hears My Word, and believes on Him that sent Me, has everlasting life." "He that believes on Him is not condemned." He is a justified man and, "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." I can give you only just a hint or two upon these evidences. Another sealed evidence of our interest in Christ is that we have life in Jesus. Of this nobody but yourself can judge--and you must be sure to judge very carefully according to the Word of God. It is not the old life educated. It is not the old nature improved. It is a distinctly new life, so that you have hopes to which you once were strangers. You have fears which once never affected you. You have come into a new world--you are, indeed, born again! All around you seems new, it is with you as with one I spoke to the other day. She said to me, "Sir, either I am new, or else all the world is." And I said, "Yes, but the world is not new--that remains old." "Oh, but!" she replied, "my relation to it, my thoughts about it, my thoughts about everything are totally different from what they ever were before." You can tell if this change has been worked in you. If a horse could suddenly be inspired with mental faculty so as to be able to understand astronomy, what a new life it would be for it as it began to study the stars! Ah, but yours is a greater change than that! You have risen from the lower sphere of mere soulish life into the higher condition of spiritual life and now you consort with God, you speak with Christ, you have become familiar with heavenly things and are raised up to sit in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus! It is a new life altogether with you and you feel it beating within your soul. You cannot tell this to everybody. If you did, perhaps you would have your testimony received with a laugh. To yourself, however, it is a sealed evidence, but a very sure one. And this leads me to the fourth evidence, which is that we now have communion with God in prayer. Worldlings may pray after a sort, that is, they can utter a few good words, or repeat a form of prayer. But true Believers speak with God as a man speaks with his friend! We tell Him our daily troubles. We detail our needs, we express our joys. Prayer is, to us, a reality--and God hears it and He answers us--and gives us many evidences of His love in the answers to our prayers. Some of these we can tell to the praise of His Glory, but there are 10 times as many which we would not tell for all the world, for they are like love passages between two enamored souls--they are too precious to be whispered to other ears! It would be casting pearls before swine if the spiritual man, who dwells with God, were to tell all that he asks of God, and all the Lord's answers to his prayers! But, oh, believe me, you cannot enjoy real fellowship with God in prayer and come out of the closet with Luther's, "Vici! Vici!" "I have conquered! I have conquered!" on your lips, and live to enjoy the fruits of your victory in wrestling with God in secret--and then have any doubt whether you have a right and title to the eternal heritage! That is a sealed evidence, but it is a sure one. You cannot but look back upon it with extreme satis- faction. The prophet Micah said, "My God will hear me," and if you can truly, from your soul, say the same, you have a blessed evidence that you are an heir of Heaven! But, next, I rank very highly among the sealed evidences of our inheritance the fact that we have the fear of God before our eyes. Fear looks like one of the minor Graces, but it is a very leading one in the spiritual life. That holy awe of God, that consciousness of His majestic Presence, that dread of doing anything contrary to His will, that tender, loving, filial fear which love does not cast out, but rather nourishes and cherishes--he that has this holy fear is a child of God! They sometimes speak in indictments against criminals of their "not having the fear of God before their eyes," and, mark you, if a man has not the fear of God before his eyes, you need not wonder at anything that he does. Take away the fear of God from a nation and to what lengths of evil will it not go? Remember the great and terrible Revolution in France, when, at the end of the last century, she had cast off all fear of God? When a nation comes to that point, rebellion against authority is the least thing to be looked for. The horrors of the guillotine and the constant flow of blood will be sure to come-- but in the child of God there is a holy, filial fear, which keeps him from doing things that others do. Remember how Ne-hemiah says, "So did not I, because of the fear of God"? A Christian is not held back from a certain course by a dread of punishment, but by that loving dread of offending so good and so gracious a God as he has. Now, if you feel, tonight, that you can honestly say that you walk in the fear of God all the day long--that is a sealed evidence--and it is a very sure proof that the inheritance of the saints really belongs to you. Another evidence is this--we have secret supports in the time of trouble. Here one could expatiate at great length if time would permit. "Underneath are the everlasting arms." You are sustained when enduring awful pain, comforted under deep depression of spirit, strengthened for the work for which, in yourself, alone, you are quite unequal, borne upward with holy joy in the midst of cruel slander! Surely that is enough evidence for you! Besides, the Lord gives to His people secret delights and we sing, "He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love." At such times, the Lord gives us secret directions and instructions which come to the soul directly from Himself. Do not think me fanatical, for it is even as I say. These love tokens come to the soul with a demonstration and a power, a delight and a rapture which no words can ever express. They cannot be expressed, seeing that, in many instances, we hear, in the time of ecstatic joy, words which it is not lawful for a man to utter! We wrap these proofs up among the sealed evidences of our right to the heavenly inheritance! Another sealed evidence is the secret love which the child of God has to all others of the children of God. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." As to the love we have to Jesus, "We love Him because He first loved us," and our love to Him is one of the evidences of His love to us. We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. "God, my exceeding joy" is a sweet name that David gives to the Lord, and then he adds, "I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance, and my God." I love to sing it as the hymn version puts it-- "For yet I kno w I shall Him praise, Who graciously to me, The health is of my countenance, Yes, my own God is He." If you feel this intense love to the Lord and to His people, that is one of your sealed evidences. But once again, and I should like to enlarge on all these points, but I must not, those inward conflicts which you now have, that struggling in your soul between right and wrong, the new man seeking to get the victory over the old corrupt nature--all these are your sealed evidences. So, also, are the victories which God gives you, when He treads evil passions beneath the feet of the new-born man-child, who is the image of Christ within you, when you conquer yourself, when you subdue anger, when you go forth to do, by the strength of God, what otherwise your nature would shrink from--all these are blessed evidences, signed and sealed, to be rolled up and put away--to be seen by no eyes but your own--and the eyes of the Most High. These, then, are the sealed evidences of our faith. I have been obliged to hurry over this part of my subject because I need just a few minutes, now, to dwell upon the open evidences. II. Let us consider, secondly, THE OPEN EVIDENCES OF OUR FAITH. There is a counterpart, or copy, of the sealed title, or purchase deed. What are these open evidences of our faith? They are such proofs as others can see--and the first of such evidences that we are the children of God must be the open Word of God itself. I read the Bible and I say, "Well, if this Book is true, I am a saved man! If this is really a Divine Revelation, then I am saved!" Beloved, have you that open evidence of your salvation? That is the best evidence in the whole world! When Peter was writing concerning the Transfiguration of Christ, he added, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place." The Lord Jesus said, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I believe in Him, therefore I shall not perish, but have everlasting life. The open volume of the Word of God is our open evidence of salvation! Next to that, the open evidence of our right to the inheritance is a thorough change of life such as other people can see. Is it so with you? Has there been a distinct crisis in your being? Have you been turned from darkness unto light? Have you been brought from the power of Satan unto God? Does your husband know of the change? Does your wife see it? Do your father and mother notice it? Does your master perceive it, if you are a domestic servant? I think that, in some persons, conversion works so marked a change that the people of the neighborhood in which they live must see it! Distinctly do I recall, here, a man whose voice was uncommonly loud when he prayed at the Prayer Meetings. I was only a child, then, but I said to myself, "I have heard that man's voice before," and so I had, but I was surprised to hear it in prayer, for I had heard him swear on board ship! He was a captain and he swore as if he had swallowed a trumpet--and there he was, converted, and he was speaking in the same trumpet-tones to the praise of the glory of God's Grace! When a man has been a gross offender, there will be a conversion which men and angels and devils will be sure to see--and this is one of the open evidences that he is a Christian. May you all be such Epistles of Christ that you may be known and read of all men! Another open evidence is separation from the world. A man who is really a child of God cannot, after his conversion, consort with his old companions. As one said to me this week, "When I was in the shop, they began to talk some lewdness and to utter filthy words. And I just took up my hat and went away, for I heard this text in my ears, "Come out from among them, and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." Separation from the world is one of the open evidences of a child of God. You do not come away from them because you dislike the people, but because you cannot bear their evil ways. They find pleasure in that which is a sorrow to you--that which is food to them is poison to you--and you say to yourself, "My Lord would not wish to come and find me in this society," so you et away from them. The next open evidence is found in union with the people of God, making them your companions, taking a delight in them. Depend upon it, we shall forever go with those who are our chosen friends here--the people who are our companions on earth will be our companions in the world to come! Tares will be bound up in bundles with the tares, but the wheat will be bound up with the wheat. This, then, is another open evidence of your adoption into the family of God-- when you love the people of God and seek their company. One very clear open evidence is strict honesty, uprightness and integrity in business. Do not tell me that you are a child of God if you can cheat your follow men! You may tell that to whomever you like, but it will not be believed by any man who reads his Bible. Straightforward honesty should always be the mark of every professor of the religion of Christ! Your word must be your bond, and you must sooner fail in business than do the smallest thing that would be contrary to the strictest integrity. This will become, to many, an open evidence which they can read. One very open evidence of a change of heart and of our possession of the inheritance, is a readiness to forgive. If you cannot suffer a wrong and continue to cherish resentment for it, how dwells the love of God in you? How can you ever pray the prayer of the Believer and say, "Our Father which are in Heaven," when you have to stammer as you come to, "Forgive us our sins; for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us." Cheerful readiness to forgive any injury done to ourselves--to overlook any wrongdoing whatever--is one of the open evidences that we are the children of God! Another open evidence is one which we often get and do not like, that is, the opposition of the world. If any man will serve God faithfully, he will be sure to have the dogs of Hell at him. If you were to go through a village where you had never been, before, the dogs would come out and bark at you. But if you belonged to the parish, they would know you, and they would not take any notice of you. If you are a stranger to the world and a citizen of Heaven, the devil's dogs will howl at your heels! They cannot help it, for it is their nature. Thank God, Isaac, when Ishmael mocks you, for it is a mark that you are of the true seed and that Ishmael is not! Another open evidence, and one that is very sweet, is a holy patience in time of trouble and especially in the hour of death. Often have God's people, when racked with pain, been able to rejoice in God. And when heart and flesh have failed them and the death-sweat has been standing on their brow, they have been able, even then, if not to sing, at least to say, "The Lord is my Shepherd." "Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me." III. I wish that Time would have paused for a while, tonight, but he has not. I must not keep you beyond our usual hour, so I will close with just two or three words upon THE USES TO WHICH WE PUT THESE EVIDENCES. One of them is that they often yield us comfort. There is truth in Dr. Watt's hymn-- "When I can read my title clear To mansions in the skies, Ibid farewell to every fear, And wipe my weeping eyes." It takes the sting out of every trouble when we know that the heavenly inheritance is surely ours. Then again, these evidences answer the unjust charges of Satan when he comes and says, "You are not a child of God." Ah, but we have the evidences of our salvation, the sealed evidence and the open evidence, and we answer him boldly! And above all things, I think that we ought to value these evidences because they will be produced in court at the Last Day. That is the most solemn thing of all. See how the Lord Jesus, the great Advocate of His people, produces the evidence in court--"I was hungry, and you gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink," and so on. He produces this evidence of a work of Grace in their hearts, and says to them, "Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Brothers and Sisters, do you possess these evidences? If you have none, do not try to counterfeit them. For God's sake and your own sake, do not commit forgery in such a matter as this! If you have not these evidences, pray God that you may know that you have not, and go straightway to Christ, tonight, as a sinner. You have plenty of evidence that you are a sinner and Jesus came into the world to save sinners! Put your trust in Him, now, and receive from Him the evidence that you are one of His people. If you have bad evidences, worthless evidences, counterfeited evidences--fling them away and pray God that you may get rid of whatever false comfort you have ever derived from them! If God has given you the true evidences, still come to Jesus, just as you are, for it will be your continual coming to Christ that will be your best standing evidence that you are truly in Him! The Lord bring you all to Jesus, tonight, just as you are, whether saints or sinners--and then shall you rejoice in Him! The Lord bless you, for Jesus' sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. JEREMIAH 32:6-41. Verses 6, 7. And Jeremiah, said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Behold, Hanameel, the son of Shallum, your uncle, shall come unto you, saying, Buy you my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is yours to buy it. God gave His servant an intimation of what was about to happen so that he might know how to act. It did seem a very strange thing to come to a poor Prophet in prison and to ask him to buy a piece of land when the Chaldeans were in possession of it--and when there seemed to be no hope that he would ever see it! One said, "I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it," but Jeremiah could not do this, for he was shut up in prison, and the enemy had possession of the field he was to buy! Still, the thing was of the Lord, and therefore it was right. And there is many an action which, in itself, might seem absurd, but which, nevertheless, is to be performed because it is according to the will of God. 8. So Hanameel, my uncle's son, came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray you, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD. Should a minister be concerned about the buying of land? Yes, if God bids him buy it. He is not to be entangled with the affairs of this life, but Jeremiah certainly could not be entangled with this field. 9. And I bought the field of Hanameel, my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. They always paid by weight to make sure that the amount was correct. 10, 11. And I signed the deed and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. So I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open. The transaction was all in proper legal form. We are not to be neglectful in business because we are the servants of the Lord, but in all things we should act as men of prudence and commonsense. 12-14. And I gave the purchase deed unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel, my uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that signed the purchase deed, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison. And I charged Baruch before them, saying, Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; take these deeds, both this purchase deed, which is sealed, and this deed which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days. They had no iron safes in those days, so their practice was to put their documents into earthen vessels and bury them deep in the earth, where they reckoned they would be secure. 15. For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. Therefore, as an act of faith in God, the Prophet bought this meadow. 16. Now when I had delivered the purchase deed to Baruch, the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the LORD, saying. Jeremiah completes the business, puts the securities into safe keeping, and now he prays. It is always well to be free from care before you pray. Let nothing remain to be done, if it is possible, and then get alone and let your heart be free to speak with God. I do not suppose that Jeremiah prayed any the less or any the worse because he had attended to this business transaction. A man who lives near to God ought to be able to go from his counting-house to his closet with a happy heart! 17-19. Ah Lord GOD! behold, You have made the Heaven and the earth by Your great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for You: You show loving kindness unto thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of Hosts, is His name, great in counsel, and mighty in work: for Your eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. Whenever you are troubled, think much of God! Speak much of Him. This is true adoration. It will be a great help to your own spirit. Your own littleness will be forgotten in the greatness of your God. 20-24. You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and have made You a name, as at this day; and have brought forth Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror; and You have given them this land, which You did swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey; and they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not Your voice, neither walked in Your Law; they have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do: therefore You have caused all this evil to come upon them. Behold the siege mounds! The earthworks thrown up about Jerusalem completely surrounded it and the Chaldeans were hard at work breaking down the walls to capture the city while the people were dying of famine and disease. 24, 25. They are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what You have spoken is come to pass; and, behold, You see it. And You have said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy you the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. Observe, it is hardly a prayer that Jeremiah utters--it is just a statement of his condition-- and yet that is real prayer. When you do not know what to ask God, state your difficulty, for that is the very best thing you can do. When you cannot see any way out of the maze, never mind--it is for God to show you the clue. There is often much sanctified commonsense in laying the difficulty before the Lord, spreading the letter before Him, and leaving it there. When you cannot ask for deliverance in this way or that, it will be sufficient just to state the case as Jeremiah did. 26,27. Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for Me? This is a grand question, an unanswerable question! 28-31. Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hands of the Chaldeans, and into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it: and the Chaldeans that fight against this city, shall come and set fire on this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink offerings unto other gods, to provoke Me to anger. For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before Me from their youth: for the children of Israel have only provoked Me to anger with the work of their hands, says the LORD. For this city has been to Me as a provocation of My anger and of My fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before My face. Jerusalem was such a sinful city that it must be destroyed. The very roofs of the houses had been defiled by the sacrifices offered to idols. If these words were true of Jerusalem, surely they are also true in great measure of London! It has been a provocation of God's anger, "from the day that they built it even unto this day." 32. Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their Prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They seemed, from the very highest to the lowest, determined to provoke the Lord, to show how little they cared for the Most High. 33. And they have turned unto Me the back, and not the face. Like men who wished to insult a king in his very court. 33. Though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. It is a great aggravation of an offense against God when He has taught us and yet we "have not hearkened to receive instruction." 34, 35. But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by My name, to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into My mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. If God had commanded them to offer up their children, they would have stood aghast at such cruelty, but they willingly sacrificed them to Molech in opposition to His will. 36, 37. And now, therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, of which you say, It shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. Behold, I will gather them, out of all countries where I have driven them in My anger, and in My fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. God is angry, and yet gracious! The rest of the chapter is full of tenderness and love. It is enough to make our eyes fill with tears as we note how God speaks concerning those who had rebelled against Him. 38. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God: This is, indeed, a Covenant of Grace! It is not dealing with men after their sins, but according to the inexhaustible bounty of eternal love. 39, 40. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me. There is, here, a promise of double bliss! The Lord will not turn from His people and they shall not turn from Him. What more could God do than He, here, promises? It looks like a trial of strength between sin and Grace! Sin was like a mountain, but the Lord's love was like the flood which prevailed till even the mountains were covered! 41. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole soul. See how God puts His whole heart to the work when He is blessing His people? When He forgives sin, it is with His whole heart and soul. May we, with our whole heart and soul, repent of our sins and then, with all our heart and soul, serve the Lord! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ The Christ-Given Rest (No. 2298) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 5, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28. I AM afraid that we have not always noticed the fullness of this promise. Usually the text is preached from as an invitation to the unconverted to come to Christ and, very properly so--"Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It is an invitation to all of you who are laboring after salvation, or are heavy laden with a load of sin, or the burden of your daily cares. You may come--you are bid to come to the Lord Jesus--and He has promised that He will give you rest. But I must leave you, tonight, so far as my sermon is concerned, for my main business will be with those who have come to Christ. After having given the invitation to those who are outside the Church of Christ, I pass inside, and I want those who are within to come into sweet communion with their Lord, tonight, while I dwell upon this very gracious promise, "I will give you rest." I do not find, in this world, if I promise anything, that anybody ever forgets it. You try any of the societies connected with the Tabernacle--promise them a guinea and see if they do not wait upon you for it! But the curious thing, the wretched thing is that many of our Lord's promises are neglected by us. We do not wait upon Him to have them fulfilled. After having read the promise, it passes out of our thoughts. Do not so, tonight, I pray you. Here is the promise, "I will give you rest." Let no man here who has come to Christ be content, tonight, unless he gets the rest which the Lord Jesus promises to give. Jesus does not play at promising. Do not play with His promises--be as ready in receiving as He is willing to be in giving. "I will give you rest." This ought to be a very precious word to all Believers. You have come to Christ. He promises to give you rest--be sure that you get it. Do not rest content until you have that perfect peace which He alone can give you, that peace which is here called, "rest." This evening I shall not have much time, but I shall, first, exhibit this pearl, this pearl of rest. Secondly, I shall point you to the hands which give this pearl--"I will give you rest." And, thirdly, I shall, for a few minutes, dwell upon the promise which Jesus makes--"I will give you rest." It is a positive declaration of our Lord to those who come to Him-- "I will give you rest." I. First, then, let me EXHIBIT THIS PEARL. Mild and soft is its radiance. I call it a pearl because it is so precious, so blessed a thing. "I will give you rest." Jesus does not say in what part of the mind He will give rest, for He will give it in every part of the mind. He does not say in reference to what He will give us rest because He will give us rest in reference to everything. When a promise is general, you may take it in its widest possible meaning. Particulars restrain and restrict, but where there are no particulars, then you have unlimited range. "I will give you rest"--rest about everything, rest at all times, rest in every part of your nature! This promise includes rest of the mind, or fixedness of belief. Just now there is great restlessness concerning what we are to believe and many persons are much tossed about by the contrary winds that blow. They believe black, today, and white, tomorrow. Some have fallen into such a condition that they believe nothing, unless, indeed, it should not happen to be in the Bible--and then they will believe it! But if it is in God's Word, then, of course, they feel it necessary to doubt it. I suppose there is nobody that is not affected, to some extent, by the tornado of doubt which is sweeping over this island and over the whole world! Now, is there any child of God here who is perturbed in mind? You say to yourself, "I used to be a simple-minded Believer, but I have been worried, tried and troubled. I think that I shall have to buy some books upon Christian evi- dences, so as to look into the subject and find out the strongest arguments. Or I shall go and talk to some old Christian and hear what he can say to strengthen me." Listen, my Brothers and Sisters. Your Lord and Master says, "Come unto ME and I will give you rest." There is a surer intellectual rest to be found in personal communion with Christ than anywhere else! If I get my head on His bosom, none of the philosophers can make it ache. When I once put my finger into the print of the nails, I am no more faithless, but believing! I believe that living in communion with God is the only sure cure for doubt. Trusting wholly to Christ Crucified, resting in His precious blood and daily seeking to have it applied to the conscience--and then walking in the Light as God is in the light, is the surest way to end all those undermining processes which seek to destroy the very foundations of our hope! Come to Jesus tonight! Come to Jesus at the Communion Table and enter anew into fellowship with Him, and you will be able to say, "My heart is fixed! O God, my heart is fixed! I will sing and give praise." After being with Jesus, half the questions that trouble you will be answered and the other half will not seem worth the asking. After having been with Him, most of your doubts will vanish and the rest will not concern you one jot or tittle! You are His beloved, and your heart rests in that blessed fact. Our Lord next gives rest of the conscience, or a sense ofpardon. Conscience is a great source of unrest even to the best of men. Conscience makes cowards of us all, even those who are most daring in sin. With the child of God, there is no death of conscience. On the contrary, he who lives to the Lord has a more tender conscience than he ever had before he was saved. A tender conscience is a great blessing--never try to get rid of it. A morbid conscience may be a torment, but a tender conscience is a benediction--cherish it. Many blind persons read with their fingers, but if the fingers grow hard and callous, and the poor folks cannot feel the raised letters, it is a sad trial for them. We can often read the mind of God by the tender finger of conscience. Take care that your conscience never gets seared, I mean you Christian people. You need to keep your conscience more tender than that of anybody else. But suppose the conscience becomes restless, what are we to do with it? Brothers and Sisters, there is no purging the conscience from dead works except by drawing near to Christ, again! Have any of you Christian people slipped with your feet? Have you dishonored the sacred name you bear? Be ashamed and be confused. Who among us has not much to make him ashamed? But remember that the Christ who invites the erring sinner before conversion, invites the erring Believer after conversion. Come, all you that labor within your spirits and are heavy laden under a sense of your imperfections-- come to Christ, again, tonight! Where you once found rest in the atoning Sacrifice, you shall find it again! Do not let me go a step further till you have done this. Let us practice what I preach as we go along! You with your intellectual brilliance, come to my Lord, tonight, and see Him on the tree, and look your doubts away! You with the troubled conscience because of your unworthy walk, come to the Fountain and be washed anew--and let your conscience find rest. Supposing those two rests to be enjoyed, there is still a struggle going on and, therefore, Christ gives rest of the soul, or confidence of victory. The soul, even when it knows its pardon is sure, even when it has settled its doctrinal difficulties, is, nevertheless, engaged in a struggle against the old nature. Do you find that you have completely gained the victory yet? Do you never feel a struggle within your spirit? I must confess that I have a daily fighting of my better self against the old self, the newborn nature against the old nature which will, if it can, still keep its hold upon me. "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" is my cry as I begin the battle. Yet before I end it, I can say, "Thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." If any of you are asking, "How shall I ever get the victory? See how I am tempted. See how weak I am in certain directions, constitutionally weak, and apt to slide! O Sir, shall I ever be perfect? Shall I ever master inbred sin?" Listen, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Jesus will give you rest in the sweet confidence that you will get the victory! He will bruise Satan under your feet. Surely, Beloved, there will come a day when there will be no sin left in us. When we shall see the face of our Savior in Glory, we shall be like He--all our doubts will be dead, all our sins will be forgiven--and all our sinful tendencies will be forever destroyed!-- "Then shall I see, and hear, and know All I desired or wished below," and then shall I be rid of all that plagues me and that grieves my God. Come to Jesus, tonight, wrestling Believer, and have fellowship with Him--and you will have rest, even, in the midst of the conflict, for you will be sure that you shall ultimately overcome through the blood of the Lamb! Besides this, Jesus gives rest of the heart, or satisfaction in love. Some people appear to have no heart or, rather, their heart is a kind of valve made of leather. I have sometimes looked at certain people with great wonder when I have seen how little they have ever been affected. They never have much joy. They never have much sorrow. They seem to have been placed between two millstones and to have had all the juice pressed out of them--they appear to have no heart! But commend me to a man or woman with a big heart. Some seem to have a most affectionate nature--they must love! These are the people who have the most sorrow, though, mark you, they also have the most wonderful joy! Well, now, it may be that you have loved and you have been deceived, or you have loved and the fond object of your affection has been removed by death. You are here, tonight, with a sad countenance. You are saying, "What shall I do with this heart of mine? Where shall I love wisely, truly, without the hazard of another broken heart?" Jesus stands, tonight, invisibly in our midst and He says, "Come unto Me and I will give you rest." If you will love Him, (and oh, how well He deserves your love!), if you will take Him to be your Companion, your Friend, your Husband. If you will let Him enter into your heart and dwell there--if you will love Him beyond all else, He will give you rest and that kind of love which it is allowable to give to the creature! You shall be able to give without fear when you have once given the heart, itself, to Him who never fails, never disappoints and never is untrue. All you who wander with your great loving hearts aching for lack of love, come to my Lord and He will give you rest! I see you, tonight, like the vine with its tendrils, seeking that by which you may climb higher. Come and let your tendrils entwine themselves about my Lord and His sweet Words of Grace, and you shall get a good hold, and grow and climb even to the skies!-- "Are you weary? Are you languid? Are you sorely distrest? 'Come to Me,'says One, 'and coming, Be at rest.'" I will not enlarge upon this point further than to say, as I have already told you, that Christ gives rest to the entire being, or peace about everything. Are you troubled, dear child of God, tonight? You ought not to be troubled about anything. "Ah, Sir! You do not know my position." No matter, Friend, that I do not know it--HE who bids you come to Him knows it! "But, dear Sir, my affliction is peculiar." Listen--"In all their affliction He was afflicted." Yours cannot be peculiar, therefore--Jesus must know all about it--and if He knows, it is better than my knowing. "But I have such a heavy cross to carry." Is it heavier than His? "Ah, Sir, but I have so many trials!" Are there more than He can enable you to endure? Come to Him, I pray you! Now then, if you can, at least for a few minutes, divest yourselves of your cares, your anxieties, your doubts, your fears--there He stands, He of the pierced feet and the nailed hands, and the crimson side! There He stands in Glory and He bids you come to Him and trust Him! Lay your burdens down at His feet. Why should you carry what He will readily carry for you? Tell Him all your griefs. Why do you hide them from Him? Should He not know your heart if you are married to Him? Should there be a secret kept away from Him? I am persuaded that I am preaching to you what will be more healing than the balm of Gilead, and sweeter than the sweetest music to lull you into a delightful peace if you will but listen to this Gospel invitation and come to Jesus, by a simple act of faith, and by a great resolve of fellowship, for He says, "I will give you rest." So much, then, about this pearl, rest. II. Now I want you to look, for a minute or two, at THE HANDS WHICH GIVE THIS PEARL--"I will give you rest." If Jesus Christ will give me anything, I will be glad to have it. The least possible gift from Him has a special sanctity about it because it comes from His dear hands. Your friend gave you a broken sixpence and you have kept it. Your mother gave you, (alas! you have no mother now), a little book with her name in it--and you would not sell it for its weight in silver. Now, whatever Jesus gives is a keepsake to His people. They lay it by and they love it. Listen, then--He says, "/ will give you rest." If He will give me rest, then I know that His giving it guarantees its genuineness. I shall have no false peace if Jesus gives it to me. He will never give counterfeit coin to His people. If He gives me peace, it is peace! "When He gives quietness, who, then, can make trouble?" Beloved, do you not see that the fact that Jesus gives it will make your peace to be to you, beyond all question, the true peace of God which passes all understanding? Christ's gift of this rest also proves the value of the gift. Jesus does not give us pebbles and straws. If He gives us rest, it is rest worth having. Oh, Beloved, did you ever enjoy the rest that Jesus gives? Were you ever tossed about with a great trial? Did you ever have a heavy load of care? If you have never had such burdens, I have--I have lain awake at night wondering whatever I should do in certain cases. And at last I have come to the conclusion that I could not do anything and that I must leave all with the Lord. Did you ever wake up, after a little sleep, when you had cast all your care on Christ and left your troubles with Him and found yourself perfectly at rest? I have, sometimes, in the midst of great pain, sat up in the night and been afraid to go to sleep for fear I should lose the heavenly calm that I was enjoying. When I have left everything--and God knows that I have more cares to carry than most men--when I have left everything with Him and submitted myself absolutely to His sweet will, and had full fellowship with Christ, I have wondered what I could fret about if I tried! I have said to myself, "There is peace for me in Heaven. There is peace for me on earth. There is peace for me in the grave. There is peace for me everywhere." It was with my heart, as it was with the stormy sea when Jesus said, "Peace, be still." "And there was a great calm." This is the kind of rest that the Lord Jesus Christ gives--rest of the deepest, truest kind--rest which the world cannot give and which the world cannot possibly take away. If He gives rest, it is no second-first rest--it is first-class--it is beyond measure precious if it comes from His hands. Note again, Jesus says, "I will give you rest." If His hands give it, this ensures your getting it. Jesus does not say, "I will send you rest." It might be lost in the post. He does not say, "I will commission an angel to bring you rest." He might miss his way. It is, "/ will give you rest." Come to Jesus and you shall have rest out of His own hands put into your hands--no, put into your heart. You shall certainly get it. There will be no missing it--between the cup and the lips there shall be no slip! Jesus says, "I will give you rest." This ensures your right to it. When a Believer is at peace and rest, if the devil were to meet him, he would ask, "Why are you so quiet?" If you did not answer him, he would say, "What right have you to be at rest? You are a long way off being perfect. Look at the imperfections of yesterday! Why, even in your prayers you sinned!" "Ah," says the child of God, "I am not going to dispute with you, Satan. But I have a right to rest, for Jesus gave it to me. I am sure that He did not steal it and I am certain that He gave it to me. My title deeds are clear enough. A free gift through Jesus Christ--who can ever dispute that?" Oh, child of God, enjoy what Jesus gives, and be not afraid that anyone will take it from you! Do you not think that when Jesus says, "I will give you rest," this should encourage you to enjoy it? I believe that some Christians are afraid of being too happy. Do I not recollect when I first knew the Lord? I was as merry as a lark. I felt so glad that my sins were forgiven, I said within myself-- "I am so glad that Jesus loves me." Some good old Christian man shook his head. "Ah," he said, "the black ox has not trodden on your toes yet." Well, I had not seen the animal, so I went on rejoicing! Then another said to me, "Some Christians are many years before they come to anything like assurance." That did stagger me a little, and they told me about the dragons and the giants that there were on the Pilgrim's Road. I have not seen any of them, yet, but those good people tried to frighten me with them. Now look, here, Beloved--there is none too much joy in the world! Do not you go about killing any whenever you see it! Rather try to encourage it, and if you see a young Christian happy in believing, and you do not happen to be as cheerful as he is, do not try and take his joy from him. Leave the black ox alone! The ugly beast will come in due time. Warn the young Believer of all the sin against which he should be on his guard, but do not hold up before him a gloomy view of the Christian life. You, Christian, have a right to perfect peace and if, between here and Heaven, you never have a doubt--if between here and the Eternal City you never have an anxious care--you have a perfect right to that complete serenity! It is, I say, provided for you in the Word of God. If you do not have it and enjoy it, that is your own fault, but there is ample provision made that we should have Heaven below as well as Heaven above! Oh, Christian people, if we lived up to our privileges, if we realized the Truth of God of the text, "I will give you rest," we would commend the Gospel! We would win converts! We would glorify God! We would be vastly more useful ourselves! "I will give you rest," is an encouragement to the enjoyment of the rest that Jesus gives to those who come unto Him. And, once more, if Christ says, "I will give you rest," how it endears Him to us! If all my rest is what He gives me, shall I not love Him? Oh, if my weary spirit is like Noah's dove, finding no rest for the sole of its feet till it comes back to Noah, to Christ, and to the ark, shall I not love Him who is my rest? Shall I not prove that love by consecrating to Him the life which He has made so happy? Shall not every step I take seem to ring out music of praise to His name? Shall I not open the gates of the morning with a song and draw the curtains of the night with a new note of thanksgiving? Truly, God has given us this rest! The Romans said of a certain peace that they enjoyed, "a god has given it to us." Behold, the Son of God has given us that deep repose which, as Believers, we have a right to enjoy and which, I trust, we enjoy tonight! If you do not enjoy it, do not let me go any further until you get it! Come, child of God, I am not simply going to talk about this matter--I want you to practice it! There is the hand, the pierced hand which gives you rest--take the rest from it and enjoy it now--and then kiss that hand with a fervor of deepest reverence because of this priceless gift which it has bestowed upon you! III. I close by noticing, in the third place, very briefly, THE PROMISE WHICH JESUS MAKES--"I will give you rest." It is a great blessing, sometimes, not to be able to read well. You remember how Mrs. Beecher Stowe, when she wrote, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," pictured Uncle Tom as having to spell all the words over? Now, it is a great blessing if a person is obliged to read the Bible like that. "I--will--give--you--rest." Every Word of God seems to be emphatic if you will just let it speak! All these bells ring out music, but I have no time to ring them tonight. Will you please listen to their melodious chimes all the week? "I--will--give--you--rest." To this promise there is but one condition. That we have already fulfilled if we have come to Christ and, therefore, there is no condition at all attached to the promise, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest." We have come to Him unless we are hypocrites. We who are coming to the Communion Table have first come to Christ. We have really, truly, sincerely, looked unto Him, trusted Him, come to Him and hidden ourselves in Him. Very well, then, you have fulfilled the one and only condition attached to this promise of the Lord Jesus--and there stands the unconditional promise which applies to you tonight! Let me go over it again, "I--will--give--you--rest." This promise is made only to one character--and that character we can easily feel to be our own--"All you that labor and are heavy laden." You are the children of God, but you still have to labor. The most of you have to work hard every day and you have, also, much spiritual labor to serve your Lord, and to keep off the adversary. You labor both for the meat that perishes, and for that which endures unto eternal life. I am afraid that there are none of us who do not, at times, get heavy laden, especially when we get away from our Lord. Oh, what a load comes on us unless we keep close to Him! Very well, then, if tonight you labor and are laden, come along with you, and Christ will give you rest! I mean my fidgety Sister over yonder, who is always fretting--you love the Lord--and yet you keep fretting! Come, have done with it, for He says to you, "I will give you rest." I mean, also, my timid Brother over there who is always afraid of something that never happens! Give up that nonsense! Come along with you, you weary and heavy laden one--Jesus says to you, "I will give you rest." I mean that dear Brother, there, who has a darkness over his mind that he cannot shake off. Come to Jesus and He will give you rest. I mean myself, caring about the Church of God and almost broken-hearted, at times, as I see how ill it fares in these evil days. I will come to my Lord, tonight, and He will give me rest about that, for, after all, I have not to manage His Church and guide His affairs. No, all responsibilities and all dreads about the future I lay down at Your feet, You great Head of the Church, You great Master of assemblies! Next, notice that this promise is most positive and unreserved--"I will give you rest." Jesus does not say, "I will give you rest in every respect but one." No, "Come unto Me and I will give you rest." And the mercy of it is that this promise is as sure as ever! A hundred years ago a man went to the Lord Jesus with this promise, "I will give you rest," and the Lord Jesus gave him rest. Fifty years ago another man went with this promise and he said "Lord, there it is! You said, 'I will give you rest,'" and the Lord gave him rest. Now, tonight, take that promise for yourselves! It is just as good as if it had never been fulfilled! I give my neighbor a check--he goes with it to the bank and gets the cash for it. Now suppose the banker returns that check to me--and I go with it to the bank and try to cash it again? "No," they say, "we have cashed that check once, and that is done with." But you may take God's check and go to the Bank of Heaven every day! And every hour in the day! And the check is just as good as if it had never been cashed before. "I will give you rest." You tried that when you were 21--try it now that you are seventy! When you were 40, in the day of your trouble, you said, "Lord, give me rest." Now that you are 80, the promise still stands just as good as ever! God's promises are not like a bundle of old checks that are done with and sent back to the drawer--they are always fresh and always new! Many of you are coming to the Communion Table. This rest is set forth to you in the ordinance. That Table seems to say to you, "I will give you rest." I shall not ask you to come up to the platform and to kneel down and take the bread from my hands. I shall ask you to sit as much at your ease as ever you can, because, at the Lord's Supper, that is the right posture. When Christ broke the bread, the disciples did not even sit, but reclined around the table! You miss the very spirit of the Supper if you come and kneel. It is a festival of rest--and when you come to it, you have nothing to do but to eat and to drink. That is the form in which Christ puts fellowship with Himself, "You shall eat with Me, and you shall drink with Me"--so that, in the ordinance He does, by the outward symbol, say, "I will give you rest." This promise will be completely fulfilled at the last. By-and-by, by-and-by, Christ will give us eternal rest! There is a Brother to whom I have been accustomed to take off my hat every Sabbath as I passed along. He was one of a goodly number of regular old friends, all along the road, that I could not speak to, but we just bowed and wished each other well as we passed. Last Lord's-Day I missed my friend from the place where I generally passed him, and I asked about him, and they told me that he had gone Home. There have been many who have gone Home since I was with you before. Well, then, we, also, may expect to go Home, by-and-by, and here is the Master's promise about that matter, "I will give you rest." "I will give you rest when the last hour comes. When the time of weakness, old age and sickness come, I will give you rest." Be not afraid-- "Death is no more the king of dread, Since our Immanuel rose" and all the Lord's people may go up to their beds and rejoice to think that there is an end to this life of conflict, and a beginning to the life of victory, for Jesus says, "I will give you rest." Oh, the perfect repose, the unutterable bliss that will be yours and mine before long! I say, "before long," for in this great congregation I do not doubt that there are several Brothers and Sisters who will see the King in His beauty before many weeks are gone. I could wish that it were my lot to go first among you, but if it may not be, well, you shall go on a little ahead, my Brothers and my Sisters, and we will follow in our turn. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." I have done--at least, I mean, I have only begun! I have begun to enjoy the text, myself, and I hope you have done the same. I must, however, just remind you that, when Jesus says, "I will give you rest," He does not mean that He will make you lazy. Lazy people cannot rest--they never know what rest means. There must be labor to give us rest. When Caesar Malan had 17 days' rest, in which he was charged by the physician not to exercise his mind, or do anything, he wrote 53 of the best hymns he had ever written and some of the best in the French tongue! He said that he could not help it--he wrote the hymns because he was resting, and they were a part of his rest. God sometimes makes His servants to be like those birds that rest on the wing. Stretching their broad pinions and taking a mighty flap, they seem to pass mile after mile at every stroke of their wings, resting while flying. Thus you may stretch your pinions of progress, and of holy aspiration, and rise higher and higher, and yet be still at rest! Like the stars that have a deep and profound rest, both by day and night, and yet keep their courses and know no fatigue, so you and I, blessed of God, shall keep our places and serve our God, and shine on, and yet shall rest till we enter into the Rest that remains for the people of God! I wish that it were possible for me to make every child of God, here, quite restful tonight. I know that I shall fail, but there is a blessed Spirit who can do it! When you are all quite restful, go home and rest. Go home, dear wife, with a restful heart. Perhaps your husband will meet you with an angry word. Be so restful that you will not mind it! Go home, dear young people, who have to work for your living. Perhaps you will sleep, tonight, in a room where there are many who will mock you if you kneel down to pray. Get such perfect rest that it will not matter to you whether they laugh or not! Take no more notice than you do of the grinding of the cab wheels outside this Tabernacle. The Lord can give His people such absolute peace that it would not matter to them if Heaven and earth should pass away! God grant to us that perfect peace! If any of you do not know anything about it, I wish that you did--but there it stands in the text, just as Christ said it, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." God help you to come and take the rest that Jesus gives! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. COLOSSIANS 2:6-17. Verse 6. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in Him Do not go away from Him. You have received Him--stay with Him. Whatever He was to you at first, let Him be that to you to the very last. Do not begin with Christ and then go back to self--let it be all Christ from first to last. 7. Rooted and built up in Him. Growing in Him. Have your very life, like a tree, rooted in Christ and, like a temple, built up in Christ. 7. And established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein, with thanksgiving. Do not forget what you have been taught! Do not reject it--keep to it. He who should learn one system of philosophy, and then unlearn it, and begin another, and then unlearn that, and begin another, would be more likely to turn out a fool than a philosopher! And he who begins to learn the faith in one way, and then tries to learn it in another way, and then attempts to learn it in yet another way is more likely to be a skeptic than to be a saint. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Plenty of people would spoil you in this way, by teaching you their profound thoughts, their grand inventions, their bright ideas. Beware of all of them! 9. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Everything, then, must be in Christ if all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him! Why do you need to go anywhere else for wisdom? What can you find by going elsewhere? "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." 10. And you are complete in Him. You are like vessels filled up to the brim. You are like warriors thoroughly furnished, fully armed for the fight--"You are complete in Him." 10, 11. Who is the Head of all principality and power: in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. All that the Jew ever had, you have in Christ, only you have the real purification of which His rite was but a symbol. 12. Buried with Him in Baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised Him from the dead. It is only as you are one with Christ that Baptism will be to you what He intended, but, "buried with Him in Baptism," you are dead to all besides and all your life lies in Him. 13. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision, of your flesh, has He quickened together with Him. All your life is in Christ. You are "quickened together with Him." 13. Having forgiven you all trespasses. Your pardon is given to you in Christ. Oh, how full and how free is that forgiveness that comes to you through Christ Jesus! 14, 15. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. His Cross was His triumph! Then He led captivity captive. What more do you need? Your enemy is vanquished, your sins blotted out, your death changed to life, your necessities all supplied! Will you not stay at home with Christ? "Why do you gad about so much to change your way?" Can you have a better lover than your Lord, a dearer husband than the heavenly Bridegroom? Oh, love the Lord, you His saints! Cling to Him and make much of Him! Let Him be All in All to you! 16. Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath. Do not let anybody come in and tell you that it is necessary for your salvation that you should abstain from this meat or that drink, that there is a merit in fasting for 40 days in Lent, or that you cannot be saved without observing such and such a holy day. Your salvation is in Christ! Keep to that and add nothing to this one Foundation which is once and for all laid in Him! 17. Which are a shadow of things to come. That is all that they are--"a shadow of things to come." 17. But the body is of Christ. Christ is the real one thing necessary. Mind that you have the Substance, for then you can let the shadows go! May God bless to us all this brief reading of His Word! __________________________________________________________________ Thorns and Thistles (No. 2299) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 12, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to you." Genesis 3:18. THIS was not the penalty which might have been pronounced upon Adam. This curse does not fall directly on him-- it glances obliquely and falls upon the ground whereon he stands--"Cursed is the ground for your sake." It is not from materialism that a curse comes upon the spirit of man, but it is from the erring spirit that the curse falls upon the material creation. Let us notice this and learn from it the infinite mercy of God, in that, while the curse falls upon the serpent distinctly, and his head is bruised, yet upon Adam it comes, as I have said, obliquely. "Cursed is the ground for your sake." "Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to you." God, in His justice, never goes beyond justice even in pronouncing His severest sentence, but here, in this life, He tempers His justice with great patience and long-suffering, "Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Another thing is very noticeable, that though the ground was now to bear thorns and thistles to Adam, yet he was to be above ground and alive to till it. Had the sentence been carried out to the fullest, a yawning grave would have opened at his feet and there would have been no more of Adam--but he was permitted, still, to live. Now, whenever thorns and thistles spring up about your path, do not murmur. "Why does a living man complain?" When a felon lies in the dungeon and the sentence of death has been passed upon him, if his life is spared, he may be quite content to live on bread and water for the rest of his days. Thank God that you are not in Hell! Thank God that life is still prolonged to you! You are on praying ground and pleading terms with God, even though that ground may bring forth thorns and thistles to you. "He has not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." We are still spared. And though there are thorns and thistles springing up around us, still, that is a light punishment compared with what we really deserve to suffer. And, then, notice one thing more, how sweetness can be extracted from that which is sour. If the ground was to bring forth thorns and thistles to Adam, then he was still to live. Not only was he alive, but he was still to live on, for the Lord added, "And you shall eat the herb of the field." Although the sentence took away from Adam the luscious fruits of Paradise, yet it secured him a livelihood. He was to live--the ground was to bring forth enough of the herb of the field for him to continue to exist. Albeit that henceforth all he ate was to be with the sweat of his face, yet he was to have enough to eat, and he was to live on. Thorns and thistles might multiply, but there would be the herb of the field for him, and he would be spared. The promises of God are often veiled by His threats and if faith can only look beneath the rough covering of the message, something cheerful and hopeful may be found within. Brothers and Sisters, you will have trials! Thorns, also, and thistles shall the ground bring forth to you, but your bread shall be given you, your waters shall be sure! You have been provided for until now, notwithstanding many straits and trials, and it shall be so to the end. The manna shall not cease till you eat the old corn of Canaan. Till you need no more, God will not cease to feed you all your life. So, if the text, tonight, shall sound somewhat gloomy, and you expect a very thorny and thistly sermon, yet I trust that there will be much to cheer and comfort those of you who have found it true in your experience--"Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to you." I should like to say to those here who have their portion in this life, that it is not much of a portion. Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to you and, if this is all you have, you have a very poor pittance to live upon-- "There is beyond the sky A Heaven of joy and love," but beneath the sky there is no such Heaven! Even for the godly there are thorns and thistles, but for you who are not godly, thorns and thistles are all that you have! If you have no heritage on the other side of Jordan, in the land of the hereafter, in the dwelling place of the blessed, it were better for you that you had never been born! Notwithstanding all the transient delights that you now possess, they will only be as the crackling of thorns under a pot, soon over, and nothing but a handful of ashes left in everlasting darkness. Oh, that you would learn from this not to set your affection upon things below, but to be looking for a better and a brighter land, where the thorn never grows, and the thistle never springs up! But now let us come to the handling of our text, thorny though it may seem to be. I. And, first, A GENERAL FACT is here stated. This fact we will consider. Ever since that first sin of our first parents, this has been generally true of the whole human race, not only of the earth, literally, but of everything else round about us, "Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to you." It is so with regard to the natural world. This world is full of beauty; it is full of light; it yields a thousand pleasures; but still, it is full of terror. There is much, indeed, to distress the frail mortals who live in this world. Have you ever been to sea in a storm? Have you not felt as if Nature were at war with you then? Have you never been on the land in some tremendous thunderstorm, when the whole earth seemed to shake, and the skies were split with the fiery bolts? Ah, then you have felt that this world is not quite a paradise since man has become a sinner! The stars of Heaven do not fight for him, but they sometimes fight against him. There are many things in this world, with its stern laws, that make it a place that has not all the comfort that a creature might wish. He is a sinful creature and although he does not suffer all the discomfort that he deserves, yet this world is changed from what it was when God placed Adam in it to delight himself in Paradise! As it is in the natural world, so it is in the social world. You go out into the wide world of trade and business and I think you find that thorns, also, and thistles does it bring forth to you. You do not have a week's dealing, a week's work, a week's going to and fro in this world without getting a pricking thorn here and there. If we do not all have to complain of this experience, I think we who are Christians will all admit that the world is not congenial to a believing man or woman. The society of the world is not helpful to a holy heart. To have to mix in it is rather a task for which we need much Grace, as we cry, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." You cannot have much to do with the men of the world without finding that many of them are sharper than a thorn hedge--and you cannot go to and fro in the earth without discovering that you are surrounded by those who make thorns and thistles to grow up all around you. Be not surprised when this is the case, for it is only what your Lord foretold--"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." It is the same, also, in the religious world. We read, in the Book of Hosea, that they turned aside from God and set up altars. And afterwards it is said, "The thorns and the thistles shall come up on their altars." The worst thorns and thistles that ever wound my heart are those that grow in religious circles. To see God's Truth dishonored, to have the Glory of Christ's Substitution denied, to hear doctrines preached which would be novel if they were not old errors newly vamped and brought forth from the oblivion in which they deserved to rot--and to see Christian people behave themselves as some of them do, having little respect to the name of Him whom they profess to serve, and bringing discredit on the Sacred cause for which they ought to be willing to die rather than to cast a slur upon it--these are thorns and thistles that pierce us to the very heart! You can neither live in the Church nor live in the world without finding that this present state of life brings forth thorns and thistles to men, yes, to Christian men, too! Not only to the first Adam and to his seed, but to the second Adam and to His seed, this present state has this as one of its certain characteristics, "Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to you." I will go a little further, and tread upon delicate ground. I am afraid that there are many of you who have felt that, even in the little family world in which you move, you are not left without trials. God, when he took away Paradise as our home, gave us home to be our paradise! And if there is a place where all happiness is to be found, it is around the family hearth. "East and west, home is best." "There is no place like home." Yet where is there a home without affliction? The dear child whom you love, sickens and dies. Perhaps the wife or the husband may be taken away to the long home; or poverty comes in; or one whom you love dearer than yourself pines daily with constant sickness and frequent agony. No, we must not expect perfect peace, perfect happiness even in the home which is blessed with morning and evening prayer, where God locks up the door at night and draws the curtains in the morning--no, not even there, my dear Friends, shall we be free from the curse that sin brought into this fair world. Still will this word follow us into the sacred precincts of our own dwellings, "Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to you." And it is so if you get a little closer home, still, to the microcosm or little world of your own self. There is no part of man which does not yield him its thorns. Many of us have a thorn in the flesh. Is there any part of the body which may not, if God so wills it, become the subject of disease and, consequently, the source of pain to us? I know some whom God dearly loves--I know He loves them, for He favors them very highly--who, nevertheless, find that in the body of this flesh there are the seeds of corruption. There are the bitter wells of Marah by reason of sharp pain of body and, as to the mind, itself, what mind is there that is full of faith and most joyful in the Lord which is not naturally, still, the subject of grief? There will come times of depression, seasons of apprehension, nights when the Light of God's Countenance is withdrawn, or when, though we know that we possess the love of God, it is not shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit to the same extent as in our brighter hours. Yes, and even in the soul, itself, by reason of the imperfection of our sanctifica-tion, from the fact that we are not so filled by the Spirit, and not so conscious of the abiding of the Spirit within us as we yet shall be, thorns, also, and thistles are brought forth to us. I may be speaking to some who can say, with an emphasis, that they oftentimes find great crops of thistles springing up in their hearts. And they have to keep the sickle of sacred mortification going to cut them down and they try, if possible, to dig them up by the roots. But thus it is--you cannot expect a perfect life of happiness in an imperfect world like this. No, your Savior carried the Cross, and you will have a cross of some kind or other to carry after Him. "Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to you." Now, still dwelling on this dreary fact, as we have it foretold in the text, let us learn from the text, itself, first, that trials will come spontaneously. Nobody is so foolish as to sow thorns and thistles. I have often wondered who that great fool must have been, who, being a Scotchman, desired to see the old Scotch thistle growing up in New Zealand and, therefore, sent a packet of seed out there to poison, with his precious thistle, that land where there were none before! I think the man who would venture to sow even one seed of a thistle in such a world as this, where thistles grow quite plentifully enough, must have gone a long way in folly. But if, dear Friend, you never cause trouble to others and do nothing that can bring trouble to yourself--and you will be a wonderfully wise man if that is the case--still, troubles will come of themselves! If you need a herb of the field that you are to feed upon, you must sow it. Your wheat and your barley, you must sow with care. As to the thorns and thistles, you need not take any trouble about sowing them--they will spring up of themselves spontaneously--and so will the afflictions and tribulations of this life come to you without any effort on your part! And, as they come spontaneously, so trials will come unavoidably. I care not how careful a man may be with his farm--he will find thorns and thistles springing up and needing to be destroyed! He may have plowed and harrowed, and done his best to get rid of every thistle in autumn before it has seeded, and yet he cannot keep the troublesome things out--they will be sure to come. So you may rest assured that troubles of heart, and troubles of body, and troubles of mind will come to you, watch and guard against them as you may! All the prudence and care, yes, and all the prayer and faith that you can summon to your help, will not keep you clear of these thorns and thistles. As they are spontaneous, so are they unavoidable. To many, also, trials are very abundant. "Thorns, also, and thistles"--not a thorn and a thistle--but thorns and thistles, and plenty of them, shall it bring forth to you. If any of you are vexed with trial after trial, I pray you do not think it a strange thing--you are not at all alone in such an experience. Many of you, because of your troubles, will get alone, and say, "I am the man that has seen affliction." Stop! I can find you another man who can equal you, and many women who can surpass you in their afflictions! The path of sorrow is trodden by thousands of feet--it is hard with traffic--but as it leads to the eternal Kingdom when a Believer's foot is upon it--we need only rejoice to follow the footsteps of the flock and look upon our trials as the tokens that we are where the great Shepherd leads us. Thus we sing-- "Is this, dear Lord, that thorny road Which leads us to the mount of God? Are these the toils Your people know, While in the wilderness below? 'Tis even so, Your faithful love Does thus Your children's Graces prove-- 'Tis thus our pride and self must fall, That Jesus may be All in All." Thorns and thistles come abundantly--and trials come very variously. It is not only one form of trouble, but other forms, also--"Thorns, also, and thistles." You may think that it is bad enough to be ill, yourself, but to be poor as well, to also have a sick child and to be assailed by a slanderous enemy, seems more than you can bear! Ah, well, you are to expect these things! If you had only one form of trouble, perhaps you would grow used to it and, therefore, it might lose its effect. It is the very fact that it wounds that makes it useful to us! Solomon says, "By the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better." No tribulation for the present is joyous--if it were, it would not be tribulation at all! If the rod does not make the child smart, what is the use of it? And if our troubles do not make us grieve, why, then, they are not troubles, and there is no room for Divine Grace to support us under them! We may expect to have trials of every sort and size, for they attend the followers of the Lamb as long as they are in the world that lies under this curse. "Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to you." I think that, without straining the text, I may say that trials will come very frequently, for thorns and thistles seem to spring up very early in the morning, and very early in the spring, and very late in the autumn, and even far into the winter! When is there a time when a man in this world, yes, a Christian, too, can be sure that he will be perfectly free from trouble? And trials come universally. I have seen thorns and thistles on the tops of the Surrey Hills, growing by myriads, enough to seed a kingdom with them! And if you go down into the valley, into the poor man's little plot of ground, you will find thorns and thistles there. They grow in the gardens of Windsor Castle as well as in the backyard of your lodging house. Thorns, also, and thistles grow anywhere--on dunghills or in conservatories! They seem to be universally scattered! The downy wings carry the thistle seed everywhere and it springs up in most unlikely places. If you think that other people are to be envied because of their freedom from trial, it is possible that if you knew more about them, you would find that they were to be pitied, and that your lot, after all, is much better than theirs! Now, I am not going to say any more about this general fact, a fact which I suppose most of you know quite as well as I do, that thorns and thistles, trials and troubles, abound in this sin-cursed world. II. But now, in the second place, THIS FACT HAS TO BE FACED--"Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to you." Now know this, you Christian people, especially, know this, and then it will prevent disappointments. If you begin your Christian life imagining that because you are a Christian, everything is to go smoothly with you and that you are henceforth never to have any more troubles, you will be bitterly disappointed when the thorns and thistles begin to spring up! Expect them! Look forward to them and then, when they do come, half of their sting will be gone! You will say, "Well, when I took this farm, I knew that thorns and thistles would spring up, I calculated upon seeing them. Now that they have come up, to be forewarned is, in a great measure, to be forearmed--I shall not sit down and weep with bitter disappointment, for what I suffer is no more than I expected." In the next place, the knowledge of this fact will awaken gratitude. If you have not a little lot of thorns and thistles, be thankful that you have not. And if you are saying to yourself, "Well, I trust that I am a Christian, but really, I have not any very great trouble. I seem to sail on a mill pond, everything goes smoothly with me." Thank God for it. It should tend to make you grateful if there is no bitter in your cup, when you might have expected that there would be. Then drink the sweet with gratitude and pour out a portion for the poor--and have sympathy with others who are not as favored in this respect as you are! This fact should arouse your gratitude. In the next place, being forewarned that there will be thorns and thistles, should brace up your soul to expect them. The finest men in all the world are not to be found in the warm, genial climates, where the earth has only to be tickled with a hoe and it laughs with plenty! The strongest and the most enterprising spirits have been found at the back of the north wind, where there are frosts and ice, and long, dreary winters, and men have a hard struggle for a livelihood. They become real men under that stern training! Now, if there were no thorns and thistles, no struggles and no trials, should we have any brave Christians? Should we have any great and noble souls at all? When did the Church yield her best men for her Lord's service? It was in the persecuting times, when they had to swim through seas of blood to hold fast the Truth of Christ! These are silken days and we have wretched specimens of Christians everywhere--but if the times of persecution were to come, once more, with the rough winds blowing, and the whole sea of the world tossed in tempest, we should then find brave sailors who would put the ship's head to the wind and ride safely over the stormy billows in the name of the Eternal God! It is, perhaps, the worst thing that can happen to us to be without any kind of trouble. We do not grow in Grace very quickly without trial--and we do not, then, develop the Graces of the Spirit as we do when God sends the thorns and thistles to grow up around us. Further, dear Friends, the knowledge that we may expect the thorns and the thistles should prevent our clinging to this world. I should not always want to stay here, when all that I have as a warranty of this farm is this--"Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to you." There is a land-- "Where everlasting spring abides, And never-withering flowers." Oh, let my heart be set upon the world to come! Let me cheer my soul with the prospect of being forever with the Lord, where nothing can distress or annoy my glorified spirit forever! The Lord does not mean Believers to be satisfied with this world. If you are His child, however fair your portion here, He means you to be always restless until you rest in Him and never to be fully satisfied until you wake up in His likeness. Therefore, be thankful for the thorns and thistles which keep you from being in love with this world and becoming an idolater as so many of your fellow men are. Does not the Lord intend, by these trials and troubles, to bring us to seek after higher things? Brethren, are there not many men who would have been lost if they had not lost their all? I talked with one, the other day, who said to me, "I never saw until I lost my eyes." Another said to me, as I noticed that he had lost a leg, "Ah, Sir, it was the loss of that leg that made me think and brought me to my Savior's feet!" Some of you cannot go to Heaven with all your possessions and with all your prosperity! It will be necessary to have these things cut away. You are like a ship that is going down through overloading and you will have to be unloaded that you may float--and blessed is that hand of God which unloads you of many an earthly joy, that you may find your all in the world to come! Affliction is God's black dog that He sends after wandering sheep to bring them back to the fold! If that dog is after anyone here, tonight, I pray you, fly away to the Shepherd! Do not begin fighting the dog and trying to struggle with him, for you will get nothing by that, but run away to the Shepherd! One of these days you will be glad for all the rough treatment that the black dog gave you in the day of your tribulation. Thorns and thistles shall the earth bring forth to you, but if these bring you nearer to your God, they are the best crop the ground can grow! Remember what we sang just now-- "God in Israel sows the seeds Of affliction, pain, and toil. These spring up and choke the weeds Which would else overspread the soil! Trials make the promise sweet. Trials give new life to prayer. Trials bring me to His feet, Lay me low and keep me there." Once more, these thorns and thistles should make us look to Christ to change all things around us. The world will always go on bringing forth thorns and thistles until HE comes--and when He comes, our Glory and Delight--then, "instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree." Only His Grace and His own glorious Presence can change this visible creation, as it shall be changed when, "the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock." We look for that happy transformation, but as for moral transformations, they take place every day where Jesus comes! He constantly turns thorns and thistles into fir trees and myrtle trees. He makes what was our sorrow to become the base of sweet content and out of all our griefs we gather gladness, blessed be His name! If any of you say that this is a dreary subject, I want you to remember how much more dreary it was to Him than it ever can be to you, for when He was crowned on earth, the only crown He ever wore was a crown of thorns! This curse of the earth was on His head and wounded Him sorely. Was He crowned with thorns and do you wonder that they grow up around your feet? Rather bless Him that ever He should have consecrated the thorns by wearing them for His diadem! Be willing to wear the thorn crown, too, and if that is not given you to prick your temples, and to make every thought an agony, be satisfied to go on treading a thorny path, for your Lord has been that way before. The day shall come when all these thorns will make us sing more sweetly! The special music of some of the redeemed is due to their special trials-- "The deeper their sorrows, the louder they'll sing." The transports of Heaven will reach a height in those who have passed through great afflictions which they cannot attain otherwise. "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve Him day and night in His Temple." Therefore, be not sorry that the earth shall bring forth thorns and thistles to you, for without these you could not come through these great tribulations and enter into so great and glorious a rest! I have ended sooner, because of the Baptism which is to follow, but I would to God that some of you here, who have no portion in the world to come, would lay my text to heart. So you have come to London, young man, and you attend the theater, and music halls, and so on! Well, they will bring forth thorns and thistles to you. That is the kind of ground where they grow very large and with very sharp thorns on them. Oh, but you, my young Friend, do not go to such places--you are getting on nicely in business! Yes, but you have no guarantee that it will always be so. Thorns and thistles will it bring forth to you, as well as to others. And suppose that you should prosper? Suppose that you should make L10,000? Suppose that you should make much more than that? Do you not know that with all that there will come great care, and that, after all, there is no satisfaction in it, and that when all that makes success in life is summed up, apart from laying hold of eternal things, it is all nothing but smoke? Thorns and thistles for dying beds are often made out of riches. There are more thorns and thistles to the rich than to the poor when they come to die, if they have lived an ill-spent life. Oh, Sirs, if you could have all the world, it would only be a bigger plot of thorns and thistles for you without Christ! But if you get Him, if Jesus is your portion, then if your trials should be heaped up as high as Heaven, you would not mind, for Christ would come and be with you in the worst of them--and you would still rejoice and glory in tribulation, also--and your tribulation would work in you patience, and patience, experience, and that experience would work in you the likeness of Christ, and so bring you nearer Heaven! It matters not to the Believer what form his life may take when once Christ has become his life! And it will not matter much to you who are not saved what form your life takes if you continue without the Savior--it will be death all the same. And it will land you in eternal death! Oh, God, grant that we may never settle down upon this thistle plot and try to make it to be our heritage, but may we find our portion in the Lord Jesus Christ! I wish all of you that blessing, for His name's sake. Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. GENESIS3. Verse 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yes, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? He began with a question. How much of evil begins with questioning! The serpent does not dare to state a lie, but he suggests one--"Has God refused you all the fruit of these many trees that grow in the garden?" 2, 3. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. Eve had begun to feel the fascination of the Evil One, for she softened down the Word of God. The Lord had said concerning the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, "In the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. A little of the spirit of doubt had crept into Eve's mind, so she answered, God has said, "You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die." 4, 5. And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die: for God knows that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. The serpent insinuated that God selfishly kept them back from the tree, lest they should grow too wise and become like God, Himself. The Evil One suggested ambition to the woman's mind, and imputed wicked designs to the ever-blessed and holy God. He did not say any more--the devil is too wise to use many words. I am afraid that the servants of God sometimes weaken the force of the Truth of God by their verbosity, but not so did the serpent when he craftily suggested falsehoods to Mother Eve--he said enough to accomplish his evil purpose, but no more. 6. And when the woman saw.--Sin came into the human race by the eyes and that is the way that Christ comes in, by the eyes of faith, the spiritual eye. "Look unto Me, and be you saved," is the counterpart of this Word of God, "When the woman saw." 6. That the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. This was a distinct act of rebellion on the part of both of them. It may seem a small thing, but it meant a great deal. They had cast off their allegiance to God. They had set up on their own account. They thought they knew better than God and they imagined they were going to be gods, themselves. 7. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. All they had gained by their sin was a discovery of their nakedness. Poor creatures, how the serpent laughed as his words were fulfilled, "your eyes shall be opened"! They were opened, indeed, and Adam and Eve did know good and evil! Little could they have dreamed in what a terrible sense the serpent's words would come true. 8. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. No doubt, when they had heard the voice of the Lord before, they had run to meet Him, as children do to a father when he comes home "in the cool of the day." But now, how different is their action! 8. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the Presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. What fools they were to think that they could hide themselves from God! The fig leaves were to hide their nakedness and now the trees, themselves, were to hide them from God. 9-11. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where are you? And he said, I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat? God comes to judge His fallen creature, yet He deals kindly with Him. The Lord will have it from Adam's own lips that he has offended--He summons no other witness. 12. And the man said, The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. This is a clear proof of his guilt, first, that he throws the blame on her whom he was bound to love and shield. And next, that he throws the blame on God, Himself--"The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree." Ah, me, what mean creatures men are when sin comes in and shame follows at its heels! 13. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that you have done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. How often we throw the blame of our sin on the devil who certainly has enough to bear without the added guilt of our iniquity! What Eve said was true, but it was not a sufficient reason for her sin. She should not have been beguiled by the serpent. 14. 15. And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life: and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. Here was the first proclamation of the Gospel! Strange to say, while God pronounces a curse upon the enemy of mankind, He is uttering a blessing upon the whole of those who belong to Christ, for HE is that Seed of the woman, and all that belong to Him are a simple-minded, child-like people--children of the woman. Their opponents are the seed of the serpent--crafty, cunning, wise, full of deceit--and there is enmity between these two seeds. Christ is the Head of the one seed, and Satan is the head of the other. And our Lord Jesus Christ has had His heel bruised and He suffered in that bruising of His heel. But He has broken the head of the dragon. He has crushed the power of evil. He has put His potent foot upon the old serpent's head. 16-18. Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in sorrow you shall bring forth children; and your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you. And unto Adam He said, Because you have hearkened unto the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it: cursed is the ground for your sake; in sorrow shall you eat of it all the days of your life; thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to you; and you shall eat the herb of the field. Adam had been accustomed to eat of the fruit of the many trees of Paradise. Now he must come down and eat "the herb of the field." He is lowered from royal dainties to common fare. 19. In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return unto the ground. "You shall get your life out of the ground till you, yourself, shall go into the ground." 19-21. For out of it were you taken: for dust you are, and unto dust shall you return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam, also, and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. This was a very significant Gospel action. The Lord took away from Adam and Eve the withered fig leaves, but put on them the skins of animals, to show, in symbol, that we are covered with the Sacrifice of Christ. The giving up of a life yielded a better covering than the growth of Nature--and so, today, the death of Christ yields us a better covering than we could ever find in anything that grew of our poor fallen nature. Blessed be God for thus thinking of us when providing raiment for our first parents! 22. And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever. That would have been a horrible thing, for man to be incapable of death--and so to continue forever in a sinful world! It is by passing through death that we come out into the realm of perfectness. 23, 24. Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life-- "O, what a Fall was there, my countrymen, Then I, and you, and all of us fell down," while sin triumphed over us! Yet even the Fall by Adam's sin was not without the promise of a gracious recovery through the last Adam, the Lord from Heaven! Well does Dr. Watts set forth the contrast between the fall of the angels and the Fall of man-- "Down headlong from their native skies The rebel angels fell, And thunderbolts of flaming wrath Pursued them deep to Hell. Down from the top of earthly bliss Rebellious man was hurled And Jesus stooped beneath the grave To reach a sinking world." He took not on Him the nature of angels, but He took our nature and died in our place! May we trust to His death to bring us life and, thereby, be saved from the consequences of the Fall! __________________________________________________________________ The Whole Gospel In A Single Verse (No. 2300) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 19, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 28, 1889. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." 1 Timothy 1:15. I SPOKE, yesterday, with a brother minister who had been a pastor in America, and I asked him why he was so anxious to go back again where the climate had so greatly tried him. He answered, "I love the people to whom I preach." "What sort of people are they?" I enquired. "Well," he replied, "they are a people who come together anxious to get good. They do not try to find fault with me, but they seek to get all the good they can out of the Gospel I preach." "Well," I said, "it is worth while crossing the ocean to go to a congregation of that sort of people." You know, dear Friends, how it is with some people, as it was with one friend to whom I spoke last Tuesday. God had blessed the Word to his soul and he was converted, but he had been hearing me some time before and I said to him, "How was it, do you think, that during those other years that you came here, you did not find the Savior?" "Oh, Sir!" he answered, "I am afraid it was because I came to hear you, and when I had been here and heard you, I was quite satisfied. But when God taught me to come here to look for Christ, and to seek eternal life, then I obtained the blessing." Now, will you who are here, tonight, especially you who are not saved, try to hear me in that fashion, not noticing how I preach, because I do not care much about that, myself--and you need to care about it far less--but only to think what good can be got out of it? Let each hearer ask himself, "Is there anything of saving benefit to my soul in what the preacher will say tonight?" Now, this text contains the Gospel in brief, and yet I may say that it contains the Gospel in full. If you get condensed notes of a sermon or a speech, you often miss the very soul and marrow of it, but here you get all the condensation possible, as if the great Truths of the Gospel were pressed together by a hydraulic ram, and yet there is not a particle of it left out. It is one of the "little Bibles," as Luther used to call them--the Gospel in a verse. The essence of the whole Bible is here-- "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." I. Now I am going to be short upon each point and, therefore, I shall at once speak upon this first head. Here is OUR NAME, OR A BROAD WORD OF DESCRIPTION--"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." One of the most important questions that can be asked by any man is this, For whom is salvation meant? The answer we have is given by the Holy Spirit in the Inspired Word of God--"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.''" Jesus Christ came to save sinners of all sorts. So long as you can come under the general description, "sinners," it matters not what shape your sin has taken. All men have, alike, sinned, and yet all have not sinned in the same way. They have all wandered the downward road and yet each one has gone a different way from all the rest. Christ Jesus came into the world to save respectable sinners and disreputable sinners! He came into the world to save proud sinners and despairing sinners! He came into the world to save drunks, thieves, liars, whoremongers, adulterers, murderers and such! Whatever sort of sin there is, this Word of God is wonderfully comprehensive and sweeping--"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." A black lot, a horrible crew, they are, and Hell is their due reward, but these are the people Jesus came to save. If there are any people in the world who are not sinners, Jesus did not come to save them because such people do not want a Savior. If there are any of you who venture to say that you have never sinned, well then, you need not listen to me, for I have nothing to say to you, nor has this Book of God, except to tell you that you are under a grievous error and a great delusion! There can be no mercy to a man who has committed no fault. Some time ago there was a man incarcerated for life for an offense he never committed and, when it was found out that he was not guilty, Her Majesty insulted him, I think, by giving him "a free pardon." Why, he had never committed the crime for which he had suffered, poor Soul, and he had been a year, at least, in confinement as a felon, though he was innocent! I think Her Majesty should have begged his pardon and given him large compensation. Pardon and mercy are not for innocent people--they are for the guilty! And the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, came into the world, not to save the innocent, the righteous and the good--but to save sinners! Notice, next, that Jesus came to save sinners without any other qualification. There is a habit which some have of qualifying the word, sinner, as we have it in the hymn-- "Come, humble sinner, in whose breast," and so on. I think the writer of that hymn put it-- "Come, tremblingsinner, in whose breast A thousand thoughts revolve." But when Jesus Christ invites sinners, He does it after this fashion, "Come, sinners." "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." There is no adjective before the noun! There is no sort of qualification except that they are sinners. Christ Jesus came to save hardened sinners, for He softens the heart. He came to save aggravated sinners, for He breaks the iron sinew of the neck and subdues the stubborn will. He came to save sinners who have no good thing in them. "If you have any merit," said one to another, "if you have any good thing about you, it is like a drop of rose water in a sea of filth." But, truly, there is not even that one drop of rose water in our nature--nor need there be in order that Christ may save us! He came to save sinners--that is all Paul says. I dare not limit what is left unlimited. I dare not qualify what is left unqualified. "Sinners"--that is all the Apostle says. What? If they have no trace of goodness, no mark of anything excellent? Yes. "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." This means, also, that Christ Jesus came to save sinners in their pollution. Remember that sin is a very offensive thing. When conscience is really awakened to discover the pollution of sin, it is seen to be exceedingly sinful, a thing that is truly horrible. We are taught, in the Scriptures, even to hate the garments spotted by the flesh--and there is such a thing as a righteous indignation against sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ has come into the world to save the polluted, to save those against whom virtue gives her vote, to save those whom society expels! What a wonderful thing "society" is, itself rotten to the core very often and yet, if there happens to be a poor woman who has gone astray, "society" cries, "Put her out! Drive the wretched creature away from us." I have known one such turned out of hotel after hotel. They could not bear their righteous selves to come anywhere near to one who had in the least degree broken the laws of society! But it was not so with Christ. Notwithstanding all His sense of the horror of sin--and it is much greater than our sense of it, for His mind is sensitive because of its supreme purity--yet, notwithstanding that, He came into the world to save sinners! And with sinners He mixed, even with publicans and harlots! With sinners He sat at meat. With sinners He lived. With sinners He died! He made His grave with the wicked. He entered Paradise with a thief! And today, those who sing the new song in Heaven confess that they were sinners, for they say, "You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." Yes, notwithstanding the pollution of sin, Christ came to save sinners! He came, also, to save sinners under the curse. Sin is a cursed thing. God has never blessed sin and He never will do so. Though sin may seem to flourish, for a time, the blight of the Almighty is upon it--the breath of the great Judge of All will wither up everything that grows of evil. He cannot bear it--His fire shall burn, even to the lowest Hell, against all iniquity! And yet, though you are under the curse, Jesus Christ came into the world to save the accursed sinner by taking the curse upon Himself, and Himself hanging on the tree of the curse, and bearing the curse for us, that we might be saved! Do you feel the curse of God in your spirit, tonight? Does it seem to dry up all the springs of your life? Then remember, notwithstanding that, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Once more, Christ came to save sinners without strength. Sin brings death. Wherever sin reigns, the power to do good dies out. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you, also, do good that are accustomed to do evil." But when you are without strength, ah, even without strength to believe on Him--without strength to feel your sin, without strength to feel even a desire to be better--even then it is true that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." I know He did, for the first good desires are His gift. The first prayers are His own breath. The first sigh under the burden of sin is His own work. Jesus does it all! He came into the world to save us. "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly," those in whom there could not be any trace of goodness--"the un-godly"--those who were without God and without hope in the world. It is for such that Jesus Christ came into the world. I do not know how to set this gate open wider. I will take it right off its hinges and I will pull up post and bar and all and defy the very devils of Hell to come and shut this City of Refuge against any soul, here, that is a sinner! If you have sinned, behold, the voice of Everlasting Love speaks aloud to you, tonight, these words, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." II. I must not dwell long on any one word in our text, so I pass to another. In the second place, here is OUR NEED, OR A WIDE WORD OF SALVATION. We poor sinners need saving and, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Jesus came to save. He did not come to condemn us. When God came down upon earth, it might have been thought that He must have come to condemn, for when He came down to look at the tower of Babel, and saw the sin of the world, He scattered the sinners upon the face of all the earth. Now, it might be thought that if He came on earth, He would be shocked and horrified by a personal investigation of sin and then would say, "I will destroy the world." But Jesus said, "The Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world, through Him, might be saved." If you get condemnation out of the Gospel, you put the condemnation into it yourselves! It is not the Gospel, but your rejection of it, that will condemn you. Therefore, I pray God that you may never put from you the Word of God and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, as they did to whom Paul and Barnabas preached at Antioch. But, next, Christ did NOT come into the world to help us to save ourselves. He came to save us--not to set us on our legs and say, "Now you do so much, and I will do the rest." No, He came to save us! From top to bottom salvation is all of Grace, and all the gift of God by Jesus Christ. He did not come into the world, I say, to make us salvable, but to save us--nor to put us in the way of somehow or other meriting salvation! He came, Himself, to be the Savior and to save sinners. Cannot you see that you, who have been trying to spin a robe of righteousness, got all that you did in the day unraveled before night? You who have been knitting part of a garment to cover your nakedness, put your knitting needles down, and take what Christ has finished! Come, you who have been working hard, like prisoners on a treadmill, trying to get to Heaven that way, you will never do it! See another ladder, like that which Jacob saw of old, that reaches from Heaven to earth, and from earth to Heaven, and may God enable you to climb to Him that way, but not by a way of your own! Jesus did not come to help us to save ourselves. And He did not come to save us in part, that we might do the rest. It takes a long time to make some men know this. I know numbers of Christian people who still have one foot on the rock, and the other foot on the sand. There is a certain, or rather, uncertain doctrine that always makes people feel unsafe. It is that you must not say that you are saved, but that if you hold on your way, and keep on the right road, then, perhaps, when you come to die, you may begin to hope that you are saved. I would not give two pence for such a Gospel as that! We need salvation given to us outright and given to us forever--and this is what Christ does give us when we come and trust in Him. "He that believes on Him is not condemned." He is saved, then and there, by the act of God. "He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." He did not come to save us in part. And the Lord Jesus Christ has not come to make us content to be unsaved. I have sometimes heard people talk to the unconverted like this, "Now, you must wait. You must wait. You cannot do anything, therefore, sit still and wait until something happens to you." That is not the Gospel! The Gospel is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Read the Bible through and learn what God has revealed there. Lay aside your own system and notion. You will not find that the Lord Jesus Christ said to the man at Bethesda, "Now, lie at the pool till the angel comes and stirs it." That is old Judaism that does that! But Jesus said, "Rise, take up your bed, and walk." When Jesus speaks to sinners like that, they will rise and take up their beds and walk! Somebody says, "But you, poor minister that you are, cannot tell men to take up their beds and walk--and make them do it." Yes, we can, when our Master speaks through us, and when we deliver the Lord's message in faith, resting on the power of the Holy Spirit! We can still be used by the Lord to work miracles. The dry bones are made to hear the voice of the Lord's servant when the Holy Spirit goes with the voice and they are quickened by Divine power-- "The Gospel bids the dead revive, Sinners obey the voice and live! Dry bones are raised, and clothed afresh, And hearts of stone are turned to flesh!" Again, I say, Jesus did not come to make sinners contented to be lost, or to sit down and wait as if salvation did not concern them. No, He came to save sinners. Well, what does it mean, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners? It means that He came to save them from the punishment of their sin. Their sin shall not be laid to their charge so that they shall be condemned for it. That is one thing. He came, also, to save them from the pollution of their sin, so that, though their mind has been debased, and their taste degraded, and their conscience deadened by sin, He came to take that evil away and give them a tender heart, a hatred of sin, a love for holiness and a desire for purity. But Jesus came to do more than that. He came to take away our tendencies to sin, tendencies which are born in us and grow with us. He came, by His Spirit, to eradicate them, to pluck them up by the roots, to put within us another principle which shall fight with the old principle of sin and overcome it-- till Christ, alone, shall reign, and every thought shall be brought into captivity to Him. He came to save His people from apostasy. He came into the world to save sinners by keeping them faithful to the end so that they shall not go back unto perdition-- "Yes, I to the end shall endure, As sure as the earnest is given. More happy, but not more secure, The glorified spirits in Heaven." A very important part of the work of Grace is this. To start a man right is but little, but to keep that man holding on, even to the end--this is a triumph of Almighty Grace, and this is what Christ has come to do! Jesus came into the world, not to half save you, not to save you in this direction or that, and in this light or that, but to save you from your sin, to save you from an angry temper, to save you from pride, to save you from strong drink, to save you from covetous-ness, to save you from every evil thing--and to present you faultless before the Presence of His Glory with exceeding joy! This is a grand word, "Christ Jesus came into the word to save sinners." Oh, that you might believe it! I pray God that out of this congregation, which is wonderfully large for such a night, and yet small compared with our usual number on a Thursday evening, there may be very many who will say, "Yes, I believe that Jesus came to save sinners and I trust Him to save me." You will be saved the moment that you do that, for faith is the mark of His salvation, the proof that He has saved you! III. But now, thirdly, there is a name here. We have had our own name, sinners. Now here is HIS NAME, OR A GLORIOUS WORD OF HONOR--"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Christ Jesus! Not an angel, not the best of men, but Christ Jesus! "Christ" means, as you know, Anointed, that is, God sent Him, anointed by His own Spirit, prepared, fitted, qualified and endowed for the work of saving. Jesus comes not without an anointing from God! He is not an amateur Savior, come on His own account, without any commission or authority, but God has anointed Him in order that He may save sinners. When He went into the synagogue at Nazareth on the Sabbath, He applied to Himself the words of the Prophet Elijah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." The other part of His name is "Jesus," that is, Savior. He has come, therefore, to be the Anointed Savior, commissioned to be a Savior, and if He is not a Savior, (I say it with all reverence), He is nothing! He came into the world to save and if He does not save, He has missed His mark! He laid His heavenly Glories down to take this still higher Glory, that He might be the Savior of sinners. The angels sang concerning Him, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." And the angel of the Lord said to Joseph--"You shall call His name, Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." Beloved, notice this--the Savior of sinners is not the Virgin Mary--saints are not saviors, but, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, "very God of very God," the Creator of all things, sustaining all things by the word of His power. He came into the world, to Bethlehem's manger and afterwards to Calvary's Cross, with this as His one business--that He might save sinners! Is He not able to save? Is He not just the Savior that we need? God and yet Man in one Person! He is able to sympathize because He is Man, and He is able to save because He is God! Blessed God-Man, Jesus Christ, only You are able to save me! I cannot dwell longer on that part of my theme, but I wish that you who are seeking salvation would let your thoughts dwell upon it until you have truly trusted Him as your Savior. IV. The fourth thing in the text is HIS DEED, OR A SURE WORD OF FACT. "Christ Jesus came into the world." We have not to look to what He will do to save sinners, for He has done it! He came into the world. He existed long before He came out of Heaven into this world. He was in the beginning with God and He came here. You and I began our existence here, but He existed from the beginning! In the Glory of the Father and in the fullness of time He came into the world. He came willingly. It is put so in our text--"Christ Jesus came into the world." There is a kind of voluntariness evident in the words. He was sent, for He is the Christ, the Messiah, but He came of His own free will-- "Down from the shining seats above, With joyful haste He fled." He came into the world. I say, again, the salvation of sinners is not a thing to be accomplished in the future. If God had promised it, we might trust as Abraham did, when He saw Christ's day afar off and was glad, but Jesus has come--He has been here--God Almighty has been here in human form, dwelling among men! He came into the world to save sinners. He came into the world so far that He knew the world's griefs and bore them, the world's penalty, the world's shame and reproach, the world's sickness and the world's death. He came into the world, into the very center and heart of this ungodly world, and there He dwelt, "holy, harmless, and undefiled." Christ Jesus came into the world and when He came here, it was such a wonderful coming that He stayed here. Some 33 years He was here and all that while He was still seeking to save sinners. During the last three years He went about doing good, always hunting up sinners--and at the end of His service for sinners He stretched out His hands and feet, and yielded up Himself to die for sinners. He breathed out His very soul for sinners. "Who His own Self bore our sins in His own body on the tree." I do not feel that I have any need to find any words of mine to try to garnish this Gospel of the Glory of the Blessed God. It is the greatest theme on which a man ever spoke! It needs no oratory to set it forth! The story, itself, is marvelous, "the old, old story of Jesus and His love." God could not in justice pass over human sin without an atonement, but He made the Atonement, Himself! Jesus, who is One with the Father, came here and offered Himself as a Sacrifice that He might save sinners. Now, if He does not save sinners, His coming here is a failure. Do you believe, can you imagine, that Christ's coming into the world could be a failure? In my very soul I believe that all He meant to accomplish by His coming here He will accomplish--that no man shall ever be able to point to any failure in this grandest of Divine enterprises! There is no failure in Creation--there will be no failure in Providence! And when the whole story is ended, there will be no failure in this great work of Redemption! "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," and sinners shall be saved. Will you be among them, my dear Hearer? Why should you not be among them? V. Once more. We have here, in the fifth place, OUR ACCEPTANCE, OR A WORD OF PERSONALITY. The Apostle says, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." I am not going to dispute with the Apostle and yet, if he were here, I should be a little dubious as to his right to the title of, "chief of sinners," and I would ask him whether, if he were chief, I was not the next. I suppose that there are many here who would say, "Paul sinned no more grievously than we did before our conversion." I remember, in preaching once, I said that if I ever got to Heaven, those lines would be true of me-- "Then loudest of the crowd I'll sing, While Heaven's resounding mansions ring, With shouts of Sovereign Grace." When I had done preaching, a lady met me in the aisle and she said, "You made one mistake in your sermon." "Oh, dear Heart!" I replied, "I daresay I made twenty." She said, "But the one you made was this. You said that you would sing the loudest when you got to Heaven--but you will not. When I get there, I shall owe more to the Grace of God than you will--you have not been such a sinner as I have been." Well, I found all the other saints around us were of a mind to contest about which should praise God most because of the great things He had done for them in saving their souls! Ralph Erskine wrote a hymn about the contention among the birds of paradise as to which should praise God best, and he describes the different kinds of people in Heaven all vying with each other in magnifying the name of the Lord who had redeemed them! But that is not my theme just now. When we come and appropriate this sinner's Savior, we do it, first, by a confession. "Lord, I am a sinner. I know it. I mourn over it. I confess to You that I have broken Your righteous Law." Then there follows, on that confession, a sense of humiliation. Did Jesus come into the world to save me? Then I am a greater sinner than I thought I was, first, that I should need the Son of God to save me and, next, that I should sin against love so amazing, so surprising, as to rebel against One who would come into the world to save me! The more we appreciate Christ's saving sinners, the more we depreciate ourselves. He who has a great Savior will feel himself to be a great sinner. And he who has the best and clearest view of Christ is the man who will say, "Of whom--namely, of the saved sinners--I am chief." Now, this appropriation of Christ, which began with confession and went on to deep self-humiliation, flowers into faith, because, notice, the Apostle says, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." Though he says that he is chief of them, yet he means, also, "I am one of those He came to save." "Of whom I am chief." "Oh, yes, I am one of those he came to save!" Faith enables the soul to say that. My dear Friends, I do trust that, by the Grace of God, many of you will say that, tonight. "Lord Jesus, I trust in You. Of the multitude that You did come to save, who are described as sinners, I am one." This appropriation of Christ by faith will go on to open confession of Him. The Apostle confesses that, while he was the chief of sinners, yet Christ died for him, and you will be led to make that confession. I hope that you will do it as our friends are going to do it tonight--by obedience to Christ's Law in Baptism, as He bids you, "He that believes and is baptized, shall be saved." One thing I notice about my text which greatly delights me. Paul says, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." No, no, Paul, that expression will not do! Why, my dear Man, you are a scholar, and yet you have made a mistake in the tense of the verb! It is not sum, "I am," but fui, "I was." "No, no," says Paul, "never bring your Latin in here. My Greek expression is, 'I am chief.'" "What? After being saved, after being forgiven, still are you chief of sinners?" "Yes," he says, "it is so." And it is possible for a man to be not a whit behind the very chief of the Apostles and yet to feel that, in putting his whole life together, he has to take his place among the sinners, yes, at the head of them, as the chief of sinners! I think I told you that I once tried the plan, which some of our Brothers and Sisters try, of praying to God as a saint. Why, I have seen some of our Brethren, when they have had a Sunday out, with their best go-to-meeting clothes on, talk about their being perfect, and they looked exactly like the peacock I saw with his tail spread out, strutting along so grandly! Well, I rather liked the look of that fine show--there was something very beautiful in it--so I tried it, myself, once. I went to God in prayer boasting about my virtues, my attainments, my growth in His Grace and my service for Him. I think that I have as good a right to do that as anybody else has. I have served God with all my might and I have laid everything at His feet. But when I tried to pray that way, I knocked at the gate and nobody came! I knocked again, but nobody came. There is a little wicket, you know, that they open, just to look out to see who is there. So they asked, "Who is that knocking?" I answered, "Oh, it is a saint! It is one who has grown in Grace until he is perfectly sanctified, one who has preached the Gospel for many years." They just shut the gate at once--they did not know anything about me in that capacity! So I stood there and got nothing. At last, broken-hearted and full of grief, I knocked again with all my might, and when they asked, "Who is there?" I said, "Here is a poor sinner who has often come to Christ in that capacity, and has taken Him to be his whole righteousness and salvation, and he has come, again, just as he used to come." "Ah!" they said, "it is you, is it? We have known you for many years! You are always welcome." I found that I had access to my God when I said, "I am the chief of sinners. I am still a sinner." Well, now, putting myself in that position where I always must be and always hope to be, I would say to any sinner here, whoever yon may be, come, Friend, come along with me to the Cross! One says, "But I cannot go with you. You have been a minister of the Gospel these 30 years and more." My dear Friend, I am still a poor sinner and I have to look to Christ every day as I did at the very first. Come along with me! Come along with me! It is many, many years since, on a snowy morning, I looked to Him and was lightened. I wish that, this snowy night, some soul here would look to Him and live! I had much more to say, but the time has gone, so I just leave you with my text, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." It is a blessed proverb, an Apostolic proverbial saying--but it is a true saying--"It is a faithful saying." Everybody who has tried it has found it true! It is worthy of the acceptation of you all, and it is worthy of all the acceptation that any one of you can give to it. You may come and trust your soul on it for time and for eternity! You may come with all your burden of sin upon your shoulders. You may come with all your need of feeling, with all your hardness of heart and just take as your Savior this Jesus Christ who came into the world to save sinners! Only trust Him and when you have trusted Him, you have done much more than you dream. Some people think that there is nothing in faith, but God is pleased with it and, "without faith it is impossible to please God." If God is pleased with it, there is a great deal more in it than some imagine! That faith contains within itself a future life of holiness! It is the one acorn out of which countless forests will yet grow! Believe! May the Lord help you to believe in Jesus immediately! Ere you leave this place, trust Him! Trust Him wholly. He came to save sinners. Let Him save you! It is His business--it is not yours. Leave yourself in His hands and He will save you, to the praise of the glory of His Grace. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. 1 TIMOTHY 1:1-17. Verse 1. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope. Christ is our hope. We have not a shadow of a hope apart from Him. I remember, when on the Continent, seeing on a cross the words, "Spes unica," the unique, the only hope of man--and that is true of the Cross of Christ, and of Christ who suffered on it. He is our hope! 2. Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Notice the Apostle's triple salutation, "Grace, mercy, and peace." Whenever Paul writes to a Church, he wishes "Grace and peace." But to a minister he wishes, "grace, mercy, and peace." Ah, we need mercy more than the average of Christians! We have greater responsibilities and, consequently, might more readily fall into greater sin--so to a minister Paul's salutation is, "Grace, mercy, and peace." 3, 4. As I besought you to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that you might charge some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. You see, the Apostle, in his day, had to contend against those who ran away from the simplicity of the Gospel into all manner of fables and inventions. Such, in our day, are the doctrine of evolution, the doctrine of the universal fatherhood of God, the doctrine of post-mortem salvation, the doctrine of the final restitution of all men, and all sorts of fables and falsehoods which men have invented! 5-7. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: from, which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the Law; understanding neither what they say, nor of which they affirm. There were some who put the Law of God into its wrong place. They made it a way of salvation--which it never was meant to be, and never can be. It is a way of conviction! It is an instrument of humbling! It shows us the evil of sin, but it never takes sin away. 8. But we know that the Law is good, if a man uses it lawfully. In its own place it has its own uses, and these are most important. 9-13. Knowing this, that the Law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer. Paul must have written this verse with many tears. What a wonder of Divine Grace it was that he should be put into the sacred ministry, to bear testimony for Christ, when he had been, before, a blasphemer! 13. And a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. He almost thought that if he had done all this willfully, he might not have been forgiven, but he felt that, here, God spied out the only extenuating circumstance, namely, that he was mistaken--"I did it ignorantly, in unbelief." 14, 15. And the Grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am, chief. He spoke from his heart, from deep experience. This, indeed, was, to him, the glorious Gospel of the blessed God that had saved him, the very chief of sinners! He could, therefore, with confidence commend it to others as worthy of all acceptation. 16. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. The case of Paul is not a singular one--it is the pattern one. If there are any here who feel that they have sinned like Saul of Tarsus, they may be forgiven like Paul the Apostle! He is a pattern to all who should thereafter believe in Christ to life everlasting! Just as we often see things cut out in brown paper and sold as patterns, so is the Apostle Paul the pattern convert! What God did for him, He can do for thousands of others. 17. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Paul could not help this outburst of praise! He must put in a doxology. When he remembered his own conversion and pardon, and his being entrusted with the ministry of the Gospel, he was obliged to put down his pen and lift up his voice in grateful thanksgiving to God. So may it be with us as we remember what great things the Lord has done for us! __________________________________________________________________ Marah Better Than Elim (No. 2301) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 26, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 4, 1889. "So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them, and said, If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD your God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that heals you." Exodus 15:22-26. AFTER I had fallen down at Mentone, and was grievously ill, a Brother in Christ called to me and said, "My dear Friend, you have now come to Marah." I replied, "Yes, and the waters are bitter." He then said, "But Marah is better than Elim, for in Elim the Israelites only drank of the water and ate of the fruit of the palm trees, and that was soon over. But at Marah we read that God, 'made for them a statute and an ordinance,' and that was never over. That statute and ordinance stood fast and will stand fast for Israel as long as they are a nation. There is much more benefit to be reaped from Marah than from Elim." I thanked my friend for that good word. I had found it true before. I have found it true since then and you and I, if we are, indeed, the people of God, will find it true to the end, that Marah, though it is bitter, is also better. And albeit that we do not like it, yet in the end there shall be no bitterness in it, but an unutterable sweetness which shall be ours through time and eternity! We have a long record about Marah, have we not? I have read you four verses concerning Marah. How many verses have we about Elim? Only one. Does Marah deserve to be talked about four times as much as Elim? Perhaps it does. Perhaps there is four times as much fruit to be obtained from the bitter waters of Marah than from the 12 springs of water, and 70 palm trees at Elim. Who knows? This I know, however, that we are very apt to talk more about our bitters than about our sweets--and that is a serious fault. It were well if we had fewer murmuring words for our sorrows and more songs of thanksgiving for our blessings. Yet Holy Writ seems, here, to speak after the manner of men, and to let us have the four verses for the trial, and the one verse for the delight! Still, as it speaks, also, after the manner of God, I gather that Marah is, after all, more noteworthy than Elim and, truly, there does come to God's people something better out of their troubles than out of their joys. Certainly one thing is clear, Israel had no miracle at Elim. Wells and palm trees they had, but they had no miracle, there, no miraculous change of the bitter into the sweet. And they had no statute, and no ordinance, and no promise, and no new Revelation of God, and no new name for Jehovah, there. All that belonged to Marah, "for there He made them a statute and an ordinance." And there He promised, if they were faithful and obedient, that He would put none of the diseases of Egypt upon them. And there He revealed Himself as Jehovah Rophi, "the Lord that heals you." Oh, yes, there are many virtues and many blessings in the bitter waters of Marah! Often have we found it true that, "Sweet are the uses of adversity." I hope that nobody here thinks that these Israelites experienced a small trial. We are not accustomed to traveling in the desert, but those who are, tell us that thirst in the wilderness is something awful to endure. For all that great host to go three days without water must have been a very trying experience. You would not like to try that even in this country, but what must it be to go three days in the wilderness, beneath a burning sky, without a drop of water to drink? Then came the bitter disappointment at Marah. Probably the people knew that there were water springs ahead, so they hurried up to the place to drink, but when they stooped to taste the waters, they found that they were bitter. They could not drink of them and there they stood, in their desperation, with the long thirst parching their throats, and bitter disappointment adding to their agony! And they murmured against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" I say not this to excuse them, but lest you should think that they had only a small trial to bear. Remember, also, that this was a new form of trial. They never lacked for water in Egypt--there were plenty of rivers and canals there--and they could drink as much as they chose. This was an experience to which they were quite unaccustomed and I should not wonder if they were greatly surprised at it, for they knew that they were the people of God. They had just seen the Lord divide the Red Sea and drown their enemies--and now He has brought them out of Egypt to let them perish of thirst in the wilderness? They fancied that they were going to have one long triumphant march right into the Promised Land, or to be always dandled upon the lap of Providence, and indulged in every way, like spoiled children. They must have stood aghast at finding that, when the earth yielded water to slake their thirst, it was such water as they could not drink! Well, now, this kind of surprise happens to many who have set out on the way to Heaven. God has been very gracious to them--their sins are washed away and they think that the great joy which they have lately experienced will never be taken away from them and will never be even diminished. They reckon upon a long day without a cloud. God has favored them so much that they cannot imagine that they shall have any trial or any bitterness. It is not so, Beloved! A Christian is seldom long at ease! No sooner does he start out on pilgrimage to Heaven than he meets with difficulty and, as he goes on, he finds out that the way to Heaven is not a rolled pathway--it is up hill and down dale--through the mire and through the slough, over mountain and through the sea! It is by their trials and afflictions that the people of God are proved to be His children! They cannot escape the rod, whoever may--yet this experience does, at first, come as a very great surprise to them, so I want to talk, tonight, to some who have been lately brought to rejoice in the Lord's pardoning mercy, but are now staggered because they have come to an encampment in the wilderness where their thirsty mouths are filled with bitterness. I begin my discourse by saying that this experience was a great gain to Israel. Marah, with all its trials, was no loss to them. They made a decided advance in three things through having to endure this trial. They were gainers, first, by examination. Next, by experience. And, thirdly, by education. I. First, Israel's trial at Marah was a gain to them by EXAMINATION. It was to that end that they were brought there, that they might be examined by the Lord--"There he proved them." Speaking of Israel at Marah, let me say, first, that they were in a new position. They were no longer slaves, they were not in Egyptian territory. The Red Sea rolled between them and their former lives and their former masters. But it is evident from their conduct that they were not altogether a new people. They had brought a great deal of evil out of Egypt with them. When you heard them sing, you said, "It is strange that those poor slaves can sing such a jubilant song. Those women, so accustomed to carry heavy burdens of earth, how merrily they dance! How joyfully they strike the timbrels! Israel has certainly become a new race. What a grand choir they make! What singing is theirs! Who would have dreamt that those who cried by reason of their taskmasters would ever sing like that?" Yes, but when they were tried and tested, it was found that the old stuff was still in them--they murmured just as they had often done before when, in the land of Egypt, they had blamed Moses because their burdens were increased. We, too, have entered quite a new state. Some of you, perhaps, have lately become new creatures in Christ Jesus. Between you and your old sins there rolls a deep, impassable sea--you will never go back to them again. Ah, but do not begin to flatter yourselves that you have left behind you all your old selves! There remains, still, even in the regenerate, the old lusts of the flesh! They have had their heads broken, but they still live! They have been crucified, their hands and feet are fastened to the wood, crucified with Christ--but they live for all that! And they struggle on the Cross and you must not marvel, if, when you are tried and proved, you find that you are like these Israelites at Marah. Notice, next, that the trial to which Israel was subjected was the Lord's own test, which is searching and accurate-- "He proved them." We sit down and practice self-examination, which is a very proper thing. Beware, I pray you, of a faith that will not stand self-examination! If you dare not look into your own heart, it must be because there is something rotten there. The tradesman who is afraid to inspect his books, or examine his stock, is going to the bad, rest assured of that. We are bound to examine ourselves very carefully, but, after all, our examinations are very superficial, very partial, and we are very apt to make a mistake. In the case of Israel, the Lord proved them by that thirst in the wilderness and that great agony on finding that the water they looked for was undrinkable. "He proved them." The Lord may be bringing some of you into deep waters and great trials because He is proving you. When the fan is in His hand, then does He thoroughly purge His floor. When He sits as a Refiner of silver, believe me, it is no child's play to be in the crucible! The Lord took Israel to those waters on purpose to prove them. Have you never prayed, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts"? The Lord may answer you in a way of which you little dream--He may conduct you to some waters of Marah that He may test you and prove you. Well, now, under the test, see what happened to Israel. Their faith in God evaporated. That question, "What shall we drink?" has not a trace of faith in it! I hear it shouted, in different tones, by men, women and children--and it all comes to the same thing, "We hoped to quench our thirst here, but we cannot drink this water, and now, what shall we drink?" As if God could not, having dried up the sea, turn the earth into a fountain of water! He that made them a path through the midst of the deep waters could make a path for waters to come to them! There was no trace of faith in the murmurers at Marah. They seemed full of faith at the Red Sea, did they not? Many dancers, but no doubters! Many singers, but no unbelievers! Yet the whole company had not more than a pennyworth of faith among them. Moses was the only one who truly believed God--but as for the faith of the rest of them, it was mere gilt--veneer of faith covering a solid mass of unbelief! Not only did their faith fail, but their love to God was very feeble. Did you not hear them three days ago? Why, you can almost hear the strain of their jubilant song, "He is my God and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt Him." Oh, how they love Jehovah, do they not? They were in the love of their espousals! They went after Him into the wilderness. But now the cry is, "What shall we drink?" And they murmured against Moses. Theirs was a cupboard love, like yours and mine often is. They loved God very much for what they got out of Him and if He would not give them water to drink, what cared they for Him? If He would divide the Red Sea for them, then He would be their God and they would prepare Him a habitation. But if He let them suffer the pangs of thirst, there should be no blessings for Him on their lips! Ah, me, how like ourselves were these people! When we test ourselves, we say, "Lord, You know all things, You know that I love You." And I hope that that is correct. But when the Lord proves us, and we are very sharply tested, we are apt to say, "Nobody was ever tried as we are! Nobody ever had the peculiar difficulties that surround us!" And then we begin murmuring. When we are thinking of how much we love God, it might be more profitable to consider how very little we really love Him, after all. And see, Brothers and Sisters, these people were ready to break away from their God. They murmured against Moses because Moses was visible in their midst--but the real murmuring was against God, Himself! They might ask, as long as they liked, "What shall we drink?" but they could not get a drop of water by repeating that question a thousand times. Would they go back to Egypt? How would they cross the sea? What would Pharaoh and the Egyptians think of them if they did go back? Could they force their way forward through that terrible wilderness? There they stood, entirely dependent upon God, and yet with scarcely a particle of faith in Him! And their love all shriveled up--and all that within three days! O Israel, it is early days to be falling out with your new Husband! They had just been married to the Lord by a new Covenant and baptized in the cloud and in the sea--yet within three days they are ready to fling it all up and to say, as they did in their hearts--"Would to God that we had remained in the land of Egypt!" Oh, what poor, faithless, treacherous, deceitful creatures we are! It is only Divine Grace that makes us anything worth having. It is a wonder of mercy that the Lord puts up with us. This, then, was Israel's examination. "Well," you say, "did they gain much by that?" Oh, yes! It is always a gain to a man to know the truth about himself. A captain must find his longitude and latitude, that he may know whereabouts his vessel is upon the sea. And this, I believe, is one of the things God would have His people do. The Lord does not wish His children to live in a fool's paradise and to fancy that they are rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing, when they are naked, and poor, and blind, and miserable! He sends us our Marahs, just to blow away our shams and get rid of our pretences, that we may build our house on the Rock, that what is built may be founded on real granite and may endure even to the end. So much for the examination of the children of Israel at Marah. II. But now, beloved Friends, these people gained much by EXPERIENCE. Experience cannot be the property of the beginner--he must acquire it. Now what did the children of Israel experience? First, they learned that the wilderness was the same to them as it was to other people. It is well that young converts should know that this world is an evil world even to the man who is saved by Divine Grace. You are new, but the world is not. You love holiness, but the world neither loves you, nor loves holiness. You are in a wilderness--you are in the enemy's country--you have not yet come into your rest. If you have not learned this fact, yet, you will have to learn it. They were to learn, next, that they were wholly dependent upon God. When they stood at the brink of the Red Sea, they saw that they were so, and that only God could lead them through the sea. But after that, they were just as dependent. They could not live longer without water, they must perish of thirst unless God supplied them. It is a blessed lesson for us to learn that we are entirely dependent upon God for all things, but especially for spiritual things. You will not pray unless He gives you the Spirit of supplication. You will have no tenderness of heart unless He works repentance in you. You will have no more faith unless faith is constantly bestowed by God. We are just like these gaslights--a candle may depend upon its own resources, but this light cannot. Only cut the connection between it and the reservoir of gas and, straightway, out it must go. We depend upon God every instant as much as we did at first and all our old experience, all that we have learned, and known, and taught, will stand us in no stead whatever unless we continue perpetually to receive from God. That was the lesson Israel had to learn. They also learned that God and God, alone, would provide. They might have to go very short of supplies at times and they might have a long thirst, but the Lord would not let one of them die of thirst. There is no record that even the tiniest babe in the camp, or even a sheep or goat in that mighty throng, perished for lack of water! God did provide. He does not promise that there shall always be a dinner ready when the dinner bell rings. You have not such an appetite as you would afterwards have if you waited another hour and, sometimes, the Lord may keep you waiting for His supplies that you may enjoy them all the better when they do come. He never is before His time, but He never is behind His time, though He may be behind your time. God will provide. That day Israel began to understand that word of their father Abraham when He said to Isaac, as you remember, "My son, God will provide." Now it began to come home to the children of the tribes that God would surely provide--and He did provide for them this great necessary gift of water when they were in the wilderness. That is something to learn. Some of you people of God, here, have learned that lesson, for you have been in great straits and you have been fed by the constant provision of God. The Israelites were also to learn, in the next place, that God could make their bitters into sweets, and He could do that in a very simple way. But He could do it--and He could bring good out of evil, and satisfy them by that which formerly nauseated them. Have you learned that lesson? Some of you people of God, when you get bitter waters, want to throw them away. Do not throw a drop of it away, for that is the water you have yet to drink. Accept your afflictions! They are a part of your education. Accept your afflictions. When Job could say, "The Lord gave," it was easy to add, "and blessed be the name of the Lord." But he also added, "and the Lord has taken away." That was the bitter water, but he drank it, and it was sweet to his taste, and he blessed the name of the Lord for the taking as well as for the giving! God means to bless some of you by the enemy's curse. Though you do not know it, you are to be lifted up by those who are trying to pull you down. I noticed some of the papers writing unkindly of our dear friend, John McNeill, and saying all manner of hard things of him--and I rejoiced in my heart! I hoped that they would go ahead at that work. I remember how they did it to me--all the bitterness they could invent, in years gone by. Every form and fashion of abuse was heaped upon me--and what a wonderful advertisement it was! What a kindness they were doing me without intending it! Let them alone and, depend upon it, God will make the wrath of man to praise Him and the remainder of that wrath He will restrain. Next, notice, that God works by His own means. The Lord showed Moses a tree and when he cast that tree into the waters, they became sweet. I think, if I had been there, I should have suggested that Moses should use that rod of his. Did he not divide the Red Sea with it? Why not just put his rod into the water and stir it up, and make it sweet? Oh, yes, you know, we are always for running to old methods! But God is a Sovereign and He will work as He pleases. There was a tree growing there, perhaps the wood of it was bitter, certainly it had no efficacy for making bitter water sweet, but God bade Moses cast that tree into the waters--and as soon as it was done the waters were made sweet! Now, you have just to believe that God will help you. You do not know how He will do it and, perhaps, He will not help you in the old way. Do not despair because Moses does not bring out his rod, for the Lord can relieve you without that! That dear friend who has helped you so many years is gone. Well, but God is not gone and He is not dependent upon that one person, nor upon any other! Therefore leave God as a King to do as He pleases, for His pleasure is the wis-est--and let His pleasure be your pleasure. Israel also learned by experience that God Himself was to be looked to, and nobody else. If there were waters beneath their feet, they were of no value until God spoke sweetness into them. If Moses, himself, stood there, he could do nothing but pray to the Lord. God, Himself, must come and, by a miracle, must make the water fit to drink. Brothers and Sisters, it is always a gain to us in our experience when we get farther and farther away from every dependence but the Lord! You may have friends forsaking you and they who used to praise you may now be speaking evil of you. And you may come, at last, to feel that you have nothing but God to depend upon--then is the time that faith really comes into exercise! I could not help laughing when I read the story of a good Christian lady who spoke of our friend, Mr. Hudson Taylor--"Why," she said, "there is no Society to take care of him! Poor man, he has nobody but God to depend upon!" You may well smile. "Nobody but God to depend upon"--but that is everybody to depend upon! Oh, if we could only be brought to that experience, Marah's waters would, indeed, be a heavenly tonic to us! The child of God who has learned this Truth of God, experimentally, can say, "My soul is weaned from all the nether springs, but she drinks from the upper spring that flows from beneath the Throne of God, and she finds every drop to have a heavenly sweetness in it." Thus Israel gained by experience as well as by examination. III. Now comes the third point--Israel gained by EDUCATION. The Lord was not going to lead a mob of slaves into Canaan to go and behave like slaves there! They had to be tutored. The wilderness was the Oxford and Cambridge for God's students. There they went to the University and He taught and trained them, and they took their degree before they entered into the promised land. There is no University for a Christian like that of sorrow and trial. Now the Israelites were educated by Marah, first, in self-distrust. How could they ever trust themselves, again, when, three days after singing that jubilant song, they caught themselves murmuring against Moses? If they had been intelligent, as they were not, they would, each one, have said to his fellow, "Behold the boastfulness of our evil hearts." What a terrible drop it is from "I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously: the horse and His rider has He thrown into the sea," to, "What shall we drink?" That is just how you and I come down when we are left to ourselves. Thus Israel learned self-distrust. Next, they learned, as I have told you before, daily dependence. They learned that they must depend upon God even for a drop of water. That is the dependence of a Christian. He has nothing and he can do nothing without his God. We have no bread, no water, no anything except as God shall give it to us. A blessed lesson was this for Israel. They were educated well at Marah. Next, they learned the power of prayer. Will you kindly fix your eyes upon those two verses, 24 and twenty-five? "And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord." Moses did not answer them. He did not upbraid them. He did not, even, begin to argue with them. But he cried unto the Lord and, thus, the people learned the power of prayer. They might have gone on murmuring until now if they could have lived so long-- and the waters of Marah would have been as bitter as ever. But Moses cried unto the Lord and that prayer did what all the murmuring could not do! Were half the breath we vainly spend in going round to our neighbors, asking their sympathy, spent in going directly to God in prayer, we should sooner get out of our troubles! "Straightforward makes the best runner," and he that runs straight to God in every time of adversity shall soon find relief. Again, at Marah the Israelites began to learn their separateness from Egypt. The Egyptians never drank these bitter waters but the Egyptians had foul diseases and terrible plagues. Now, the Lord tell His people that He will not put upon them any of the diseases of Egypt. God turned the rivers of Egypt into blood, but here He turns the bitter waters into fresh streams. His miracles were for Israel and against Egypt--and they began to clearly perceive that they had nothing to do with the Egyptians. They were a separated people. It is a valuable piece of education for a young Christian to find out that he does not belong to the world. The tendency is to think that, though you are in the Church, you can be in the world, too, and that you belong, in a measure, to both. That will never do! The Lord means to fetch His people right out of the world--and He will have them out! And if any of you try to be like the mouse behind the wainscot and only come out and feed in the dark--I mean that you come to Christ for a little food when nobody sees you and then go and hide away with the world--there will be a black cat after you before long! Some trouble or other will happen to you. That game will never please God and never profit you. Therefore drop it, I pray you, or else some bitter Marah will teach you that you are not of the world. Israel had next to learn the position of obedience. Will you kindly notice this? God did not say, "Do this and I will bring you out of Egypt." No, but after He brought them out, He said, "Hearken to My commandments, and keep My statutes." Salvation comes first and then obedience! Saved first, brought through the Red Sea with the high hand of God's gracious power and, after that, become His obedient people! Obedience follows after redemption and deliverance. First the blood of sprinkling on the doorposts and after that you shall give ear unto the voice of the Lord your God, and diligently hearken to Him. Israel also learned the nature of obedience. Obedience does not merely do what it knows it should do, but it finds out what it ought to do. Oh, you Christian people, do you make a practice of reading God's Word to see what He would have you do? I am afraid that there are some who make a point of not seeing some of the duties which are not pleasing to them. There are some who half shun portions of Scripture because they would trouble their consciences. Let it not be so with any of us, but let us listen diligently to the voice of the Lord our God. If you are saved, the kind of obedience that you are bound to render is that of a willing heart, which cries like Saul, "Lord, what will You have me to do?" Then, Israel learned the promise made to obedience--"If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord, your God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians." For you there shall be no plagues. God may try you, yet it will be not in anger, but in His dear Covenant love. Everything shall be changed for you. If sickness comes, it shall be overruled for your spiritual health. When death comes, it shall only introduce you to eternal life. The Lord will be very gracious to you. He that forgives our sins also heals all our diseases. His name is Jehovah Rophi! What an education it is for us when we feel that the God that healed the waters, heals us, and heals everything that has to do with us! It changes the aspect of all things about us, takes the sting out of the wasp and turns it into a bee. It takes away the venom from the serpent and gives us its wisdom, that we may be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves! Oh, the wonderful cure-alls of God, the heavenly catholicon of the Cross, the universal remedy of a dying Savior! May our experience educate us in the knowledge of that gracious healing! The hour has struck and I must, therefore, cease. Only I must say that this is the one lesson of tonight--dear people of God, trust your God. Trust your God not only when your mouth is full of honey, but when it is full of gall. "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him," for He in whom you trust will bless you. But if you are not trusting Him, then shall plagues, like those of Egypt, come upon you. Darkness and all manner of evils shall waylay you, till, at last, there shall be heard in your house a bitter cry, for the Destroying Angel will overtake you, and plunge his avenging sword into your guilty hearts. God save you from that terrible doom, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen. EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON. EXODUS 15; JEREMIAH 7:21-26. Exodus 15:1. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea. Note, that they were singing, singing a very loud and triumphant song, and you would have thought that they would have kept on singing for the next 40 years! It was such a triumph, such a deliverance, God's arm was made so bare before their eyes that you would have thought that their jubilation would have lasted throughout a lifetime, at the least. On the contrary, it lasted a very little while. Yet what a song it was that they sang! "I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea." What a song of triumph that is which is sung by souls saved from sin, death and Hell by the great atoning Sacrifice of Christ! Oh, when we first realize that we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we do, indeed, "feel like singing all the time," for our sins are washed away and we have a notion that we shall always keep on singing till we join in the song of the glorified in Heaven! So it ought to be, but, alas, from sad experience we know that it is not so! However, the song of Moses and the children of Israel goes on. 2. The LORD is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt Him. The heart is prompted by gratitude to think of doing something for God. It thinks of preparing Him a habitation, but what habitation shall we prepare for Him whom the Heaven of heavens cannot contain? All that we can possibly do is too little for the greatness of His Grace and His Glory. "You did well that it was in your heart," said the Lord to David, though He might not prepare God a habitation. It is well that it is in our heart, today, to do some little thing for the Glory of God. As an old Puritan says we give for love-tokens a cracked sixpence, or a flower that soon fades. It is accepted as a love-token, not for its intrinsic value, but as an emblem of what our heart feels and would do if it could. Even so it is with the Lord and the service His people seek to render to Him. He takes our trifles and makes much of them. 3-5. The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is His name. Pharaoh's chariots and His host has He cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. And this is what has happened to all the powers that were against us. Our sins, where are they? Has not the Lord cast them into the depths of the sea? Yes, blessed be His name forever! We, like Israel on the other side of the Red Sea, praise the Lord that we have escaped out of the hand of the oppressor and that Pharaoh holds us as servants no longer. To the Lord, alone, is due the glory of our deliverance. 6-8. Your right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of Your excellence, You have overthrown them that rose up against You: You sent forth Your wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of Your nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. What cannot God do? The liquid becomes solid! Nature, itself, changes when the God of Nature puts forth His power. Trust in God and He will do wonders for you, also, as He did for His ancient people Israel. 9. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. How the powers of darkness rage and rave! What a flurry they are in! What big words they speak! What cruel designs they harbor against God's people. See how still and calm is the Lord amid all their raging! 10. You did blow with Your wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters. God has only to use His breath to blow upon them and away they go, and all their boastings, too! One word from the mouth of God can destroy all our doubts and fears. The breath of His Spirit can sink all our enemies and make us sing for joy of heart at our great deliverance. 11-13. Who is like unto You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them. You in Your mercy have led forth the people which You have redeemed: You have guided them in Your strength unto Your holy habitation. The song becomes prophetic. All joy gets to be prophetic--at least, the joy of earth when once it is touched with the live coal from off the heavenly altar. We begin to praise God, "for all the Grace we have not tasted yet," as Israel here does. They praise the Lord for leading His people through the wilderness and bringing them unto His holy habitation, even while they are only at the beginning of their journey. 14. The people--That is, the Canaanites-- 14, 15. Shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. When they hear of the great things that Jehovah has done for His people, they shall feel that the day of their doom is come. Who can stand against so mighty a God? Yet there are some, in our day, whose hearts are stouter and harder than the hearts of the dukes of Edom and the mighty men of Moab. They hear of God's judgments upon the wicked and of the terrible doom of the ungodly, and yet they dare to defy the Lord and to continue in their evil ways! 16-18. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of Your arm they shall be as still as a stone; till Your people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which You have purchased. You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which You have made for You to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands have established. The LORD shall reign forever and ever. How grandly that last note must have pealed forth from the hundreds of thousands of male voices! The women must also have sung it with the utmost conceivable joy as they struck their timbrels and danced before the Lord. 19-22. For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. And Miriam the Prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing you to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. At first, they were afraid of too much water, from the waves of the sea. Now they are afraid of too little. Will their songs be over in three days? Ah, yes! At the end of the third day they came to some springs of water, but they were brackish or bitter. 23, 24. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured--Ah, these singers had sadly changed their notes! Where are the timbrels now? "The people murmured" 24-27. Against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them, and said, If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD your God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that heals you. And they came to Elim. They did not stay long at Marah, probably only a few hours. 27. Where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees and they encamped there by the waters. That Elim must have been prepared on purpose for Israel. Twelve springs of water--that was the number of the tribes. Threescore and ten palm trees--that was the number of the elders. I do not wonder that Moses noted these numbers. It must have seemed remarkable that, long before they came there, there were the wells and there were the palm trees all ready for their encampment! It was most significant that these things should have been prepared according to the number of the children of Israel, but everything else is arranged by the same rule. When the Lord divided the people, He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the children of Israel. It is by this line that He still builds His Church. It is according to His thoughts of His own people that He rules everything in His Providence. There are a few verses in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, at the seventh chapter, which we will read concerning this subject. Jeremiah 7:21, 22. Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spoke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. You have heard what God said to them when they came out of Egypt. 23-26. But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people: and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all My servants the Prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: yet they hearkened not unto Me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. God grant that these words may never be a truthful description of us! Oh, may we keep the Covenant of our God and walk before Him with a holy, reverent fear, and serve Him all our days! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ Watching For Christ's Coming (No. 2302) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 2, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL 7 1889. "Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to eat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants." Luke 12:37,38. I AM about to speak of the Second Coming of Christ and I felt thankful that my dear Brother's prayer, although we had not been in consultation with one another upon the matter, was in every way so suitable to the subject upon which I am to speak. He led us in prayer to think of our coming Lord, so that I trust you are on the margin of the subject, now, and that you will not have to make any very great exertion of mind to plunge into mid-stream and be carried away with the full current of thought concerning the Second Advent of the Savior. It is a very appropriate topic when we come to the Lord's Table, for, as that prayer reminded us, the Lord's Supper looks backward, and is a memorial of His agony. But it also looks forward and is an anticipation of His Glory. Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth, "For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you show the Lord's death till He comes." By looking forward, in a right state of heart, to that Second Coming of Christ which is the joy of His Church, you will also be in a right state of heart for coming to the Communion Table. May the Holy Spirit make it to be so! The posture at the Communion Table, as you know, according to our Lord's example, was not that of kneeling, but that of reclining. The easiest position which you can assume is the most fitting for the Lord's Supper, but remember that the supper was no sooner finished, than, "they sang a hymn," and when that hymn was concluded, they went out into the Mount of Olives to the agonies of Gethsemane. It often seems to me as if now, after finding rest at the Table by feeding upon Christ, whose real Presence we have--not after a carnal sort, but after a spiritual sort--after that, we sing a hymn, as if we would go out to meet our Lord in His Second Coming, not going to the Mount of Olives to see Him in a bloody sweat, but to hear that word of the angel, "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into Heaven." I do not think we ought to feel at all surprised if we were to go always expecting Him, not knowing at what hour the Master of the house shall come. The world does not expect Him--it goes on with its eating and drinking, its marrying and giving in marriage--but His own family should expect Him. When He will return from the wedding, I trust that He will not find the door shut against Him, but that we shall be ready to open to our Lord immediately when He knocks. That is the object of the few words that I shall have to say, tonight, to stir you up, and my own heart, also, to be always watching for Christ's Second Coming. I. First, THE LORD WILL COME. He that has come once is to come again. He will come a second time. The Lord will come. He will come again, for He has promised to return. We have His own word for it. That is our first reason for expecting Him. Among the last of the words which He spoke to His servant John are these, "Surely I come quickly." You may read it, "I am coming quickly. I am even now upon the road. I am traveling as fast as wisdom allows. I am always coming, and coming quickly." Our Lord has promised to come and to come in Person. Some try to explain the Second Coming of Christ as though it meant the Believer dying. You may, if you like, consider that Christ comes to His saints in death. In a certain sense, He does, but that sense will never bear out the full meaning of the teaching of the Second Advent with which the Scripture is full. No, "the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archan- gel, and with the trump of God." He who went up to Heaven will come down from Heaven and stand, in the latter day, upon the earth. Every redeemed soul can say with Job, "Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another." Christ will as certainly be here again in Glory as He once was here in shame, for He has promised to return. Moreover, the great scheme of redemption requires Christ's return. It is a part of that scheme that, as He came once with a sin offering, He should come a second time without a sin offering, that, as He came once to redeem, He should come a second time to claim the inheritance which He has so dearly bought. He came once, that His heel might be bruised. He comes, again, to break the serpent's head and, with a rod of iron, to dash His enemies in pieces, as potters' vessels. He came, once, to wear the crown of thorns. He must come, again, to wear the diadem of universal dominion. He comes to the marriage supper. He comes to gather His saints together. He comes to glorify them with Himself on this same earth where once He and they were despised and rejected of men. Understand this, that the whole drama of redemption cannot be perfected without this last act of the coming of the King! The complete history of Paradise Regained requires that the New Jerusalem should come down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband--and it also requires that the heavenly Bridegroom should come riding forth on His white horse, conquering and to conquer, King of kings and Lord of lords, amidst the everlasting hallelujahs of saints and angels! It must be so. The man of Nazareth will come again! None shall spit in His face, then, but every knee shall bow before Him. The Crucified shall come, again, and though the nail prints will be visible, no nails shall, then, fasten His dear hands to the tree. But instead thereof, He shall grasp the scepter of universal sovereignty and He shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah! When will He come? Ah, that is the question, the question of questions! He will come in His own time. He will come in due time. A brother minister, calling upon me, said, as we sat together, "I should like to ask you a lot of questions about the future." "Oh, well!" I replied, "I cannot answer you, for I daresay I know no more about it than you do." "But," he said, "what about the Lord's Second Advent? Will there not be the millennium, first?" I said, "I cannot tell whether there will be the millennium, first, but this I know, the Scripture has left the whole matter, as far as I can see, with an intentional indistinctness, that we may be always expecting Christ to come, and that we may be watching for His coming at any hour and every hour. I think that the millennium will commence after His coming, and not before it. I cannot imagine the Kingdom with the King absent. It seems to me to be an essential part of the Millennial Glory that the King shall then be revealed. At the same time, I am not going to lay down anything definite upon that point. He may not come for a thousand years. He may come tonight. The teaching of Scripture is, first of all, 'In such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man comes.' It is clear that if it were revealed that a thousand years must elapse before He would come, we might very well go to sleep for that time, for we should have no reason to expect that He would come when Scripture told us He would not." "Well," answered my friend, "but when Christ comes, that will be the General Judgment, will it not?" Then I quoted these texts, "The dead in Christ shall rise first." "But the rest of the dead lived not, again, until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." I said, "There is a resurrection from among the dead to which the Apostle Paul labored to attain. We shall all rise, but the righteous shall rise a thousand years before the ungodly. There is to be that interval of time between the one and the other. Whether that is the Millennial Glory, or not, this deponent says not, though he thinks it is. But this is the main point, the Lord shall come. We know not when we are to expect His coming. We are not to lay down, as absolutely fixed, any definite prediction or circumstance that would allow us to go to sleep until that prediction was fulfilled, or that circumstance was apparent." "Will not the Jews be converted to Christ, and restored to their land?" enquired my friend. I replied, "Yes, I think so. Surely they shall look on Him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son. And God shall give them the Kingdom and the Glory, for they are His people, whom He has not forever cast away. The Jews, who are the natural olive branches, shall yet be grafted into their own olive tree, again, and then shall be the fullness of the Gentiles." "Will that be before Christ comes, or after?" asked my friend. I answered, "I think it will be after He comes, but whether or not, I am not going to commit myself to any definite opinion on the subject." To you, my dear Friends, I say--Read for yourselves, and search for yourselves, for still, this stands first, and is the only thing that I will insist upon tonight--the Lord will come. He may come now. He may come tomorrow. He may come in the first watch of the night, or the second watch, or He may wait until the morning watch--but the one word that He gives to you all is, "Watch! Watch! Watch!" that whenever He shall come, you may be ready to open to Him and to say, in the language of the hymn we sang just now-- "Hallelujah! Welcome, welcome, Judge Diviner So far I know that we are Scriptural and, therefore, perfectly safe in our statements about the Lord's Second Advent. Brothers and Sisters, I would be earnest on this point, for the notion of the delay of Christ's Coming is always harmful, however you arrive at it, whether it is by studying prophecy, or in any other way. If you come to be of the opinion of the servant mentioned in the 45th verse, you are wrong--"If that servant says in his heart, My lord delays his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looks not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers." Do not, therefore, get the idea that the Lord delays His Coming and that He will not or cannot come as yet. Far better would it be for you to stand on the tiptoe of expectation and to be rather, disappointed, to think that He does not come. I do not wish you to be shaken in mind so as to act fanatically or foolishly, as certain people did in America, when they went out into the woods with "ascension dresses" on, so as to go straight up all of a sudden! Fall into none of those absurd ideas that have led people to leave a chair vacant at the table and to put an empty plate because the Lord might come and need it! And try to avoid all other superstitious nonsense. To stand star-gazing at the prophecies, with your mouth wide open, is just the wrong thing to do! Far better will it be to go on working for your Lord, getting yourself and your service ready for His appearing, and cheering yourself all the while with this thought, "While I am at work, my Master may come. Before I get weary, my Master may return. While others are mocking at me, my Master may appear! And whether they mock or applaud, is nothing to me. I live before the great Taskmaster's eyes, and do my service knowing that He sees me and, expecting that, by-and-by, He will reveal Himself to me, and then He will reveal me and my right intention to misrepresenting men." That is the first point, Brothers and Sisters, the Lord will come. Settle that in your minds. He will come in His own time and we are always to be looking for His appearing. II. Now, secondly, THE LORD BIDS US WATCH FOR HIM. That is the marrow of the text--"Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, shall find watching." Now what is this watching? Not wishing to use my own words, I thought that I would call your attention to the context. The first essential part of this watching is that we are not to be taken up with present things. You remember that the 22nd verse is about not taking thought what you shall eat, or what you shall drink--you are not to be absorbed in that. You who are Christians are not to live the fleshly, selfish life that asks, "What shall I eat and drink? How can I store up my goods? How can I get food and raiment, here?" You are something more than dumb, driven cattle that must think of hay and water. You have immortal spirits! Rise to the dignity of your immortality! Begin to think of the Kingdom, the Kingdom so soon to come, the Kingdom which your Father has given you and which, therefore, you must certainly inherit! Think of the Kingdom which Christ has prepared for you, and for which He is making you kings and priests unto God, that you may reign with Him forever and ever. Oh, be not earthbound! Do not cast your anchor, here, in these troubled waters. Build not your nest on any of these trees--they are all marked for the axe and are coming down--and your nest will come down, too, if you build it here. Set your affection on things above, up yonder-- "Up where eternal ages roll, Where solid pleasures never die, And fruits eternal feast the soul." There project your thoughts and your anxieties--and have a care about the world to come. Be not anxious about the things that pertain to this life. "Seek you first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Reading further down, in the 35th verse, you will notice that watching implies keeping ourselves in a serviceable condition--"Let your loins be girded about." You know how the Orientals wear flowing robes which are always getting in their way. They cannot walk without being tripped up, so that, if a man has a piece of work on hand, he just tucks in his robe under his belt, tightens his belt up tightly, and gets ready for his task--as we would say in English, turning the Oriental into the Western figure--rolling up your shirtsleeves and preparing for work. That is the way to wait for the Lord, ready for service, that, when He comes, He may never find you idle. I called to see a Sister one morning and when I called, she was cleaning the front steps with some whitening, and she said, "Oh, my dear Pastor, I am sorry that you should call upon me just now! I would not have had you see me like this on any account." I answered, "That is how I like to see you, busy at your work. I should not have liked to have come in and caught you talking to your neighbor over the back palings. That would not have pleased me at all. May your Lord, when He comes, find you just so, doing your duty!" You see exactly what is meant--you are to be doing your duty--you are to be engaged about those vocations to which God has called you. You are to be doing it all out of love to Christ and as service for Him. Oh, that we might watch in that style, with our loins girded about! Work, and wait, and watch! Can you put those three things together? Work, and wait, and watch! This is what your Master asks of you. And next, He would have us wait with our lights burning. If the Master comes home late, let us sit up late for Him. It is not for us to go to bed till He comes home. Have the lights all trimmed. Have His chamber well lit--have the entrance-hall ready for His approach. When the King comes, have your torches flaming, that you may go out to meet the royal Bridegroom and escort Him to His home! If we are to watch for the Lord as we ought, it must be with lamps burning. Are you making your light to shine among men? Do you think that your conduct and character are an example that will do your neighbors good and are you trying to teach others the way of salvation? Some professors are like dark lanterns, or candles under a bushel. May we never be such! May we stand with our lamps trimmed and our lights burning and we, ourselves, like unto men that wait for their Lord, not walking in darkness, nor concealing our light, but letting it shine brightly! That is the way to watch for Christ, with your belt tight about you because you are ready for work, and your lamp flaming out with brightness because you are anxious to illuminate the dark world in which you live. To put it very plainly, I think that watching for the Coming of the Lord means acting just as you would wish to be acting if He were to come. I saw, in the Orphanage schoolroom, that little motto, "What would Jesus do?" That is a very splendid motto for our whole life, "What would Jesus do in such a case and in such a case?" Do just that. Another good motto is, "What would Jesus think of me if He were to come?" There are some places into which a Christian could not go, for he would not like his Master to find him there. There are some kinds of amusements into which a Believer would never enter, for he would be ashamed for his Master to come and find him there. There are some conditions of angry temper, of pride, petulance, or spiritual sloth in which you would not like to be if you felt that the Master was coming. Suppose an angel's wing should brush your cheek just as you have spoken some unkind word and a voice should say, "Your Master is coming"--you would tremble, I am sure, to meet Him in such a condition! Oh, Beloved, let us try, every morning, to get up as if that were the morning in which Christ would come! And when we go up to bed at night, may we lie down with this thought, "Perhaps I shall be awakened by the ringing out of the silver trumpets heralding His Coming. Before the sun arises, I may be startled from my dreams by the greatest of all cries, 'The Lord is come! The Lord is come!'" What a check, what an incentive, what a bridle, what a spur such thoughts as these would be to us! Take this for the guide of your whole life--act as if Jesus would come during the act in which you are engaged--and if you would not wish to be caught in that act by the Coming of the Lord, let it not be your act. The second verse of our text speaks about the master coming in the second watch, or in the third watch. We are to act as those who keep the watches of the age for Christ. Among the Romans it was as it is on board ship--there were certain watches. A Roman soldier, perhaps, stood on guard for three hours, and when he had been on the watch for three hours, there came another sentry who took his place, and the first man retired and went back to the barracks. And the fresh sentinel stood in his place during his allotted time. Brothers and Sisters, we have succeeded a long line of watchmen! Since the days of our Lord, when He sent out the chosen 12 to stand upon the citadel and tell how the night waxed or waned, how have the watchers come and gone! Our God has changed the watchers, but He has kept the watch. He still sets watchmen on the walls of Zion who cannot hold their peace day or night, but must watch for the Coming of their Master, watch against evil times, watch against error and watch for the souls of men. At this time some of us are called to be specially on the watch and dare we sleep? After such a line of lynx-eyed watchmen, who counted not their lives dear unto them that they might hold their post, and watch against the foe, shall we be cowards and be afraid, or shall we be sluggards and go to our beds? By Him that lives, and was dead, and is alive forevermore, we pray that we may never be guilty of treason to His sacred name and Truth! But may we watch on to the last moment when there shall ring out the clarion cry, "Behold, the Bridegroom comes! Go you out to meet Him." People of the Tabernacle, you are set to watch, tonight, just as they did in the brave days of old! Whitefield and Wesley's men were watchers and those before them, in the days of Luther and of Calvin, and backward even to the days of our Lord! They kept the watches of the night and you must do the same, until-- "Upstarting at the midnight cry, 'Behold your heavenly Bridegroom near,'" you go forth to welcome your returning Lord. We are to wait with one objective in view, viz., to open the door to Him and to welcome Him--"that when He comes and knocks, they may open unto Him immediately." Perhaps you know what it is to go home to a loving, tender wife and children who are watching for you. You have been on a journey. You have been absent for some little time. You have written them letters which they have greatly valued. You have heard from them, but all that is nothing like your personal presence! They are looking out for you and if, perhaps, the boat should fail you, or the train is late--if you arrived at eleven or twelve o'clock at night, you would not expect to find the house all shut up and nobody watching for you! No, you had told them that you would come and you were quite sure that they would watch for you. I feel rebuked, myself, sometimes, for not watching for my Master when I know that, at this very time, my dogs are sitting against the door, waiting for me--and long before I reach home, there they will be and, at the first sound of the carriage wheels, they will lift up their voices with delight because their master is coming home! Oh, if we loved our Lord as dogs love their masters, how we should catch the first sound of His Coming--and be waiting, always waiting--and never happy until at last we should see Him! Pardon me for using a dog as a picture of what you ought to be, but when you have attained to a state above that, I will find another illustration to explain my meaning. III. Now, lastly, THERE IS A REWARD FOR WATCHERS. Their reward is this, "Blessed are those servants, whom the master, when he comes, shall find watching." They have a present blessedness. It is a very blessed thing to be on the watch for Christ, it is a blessing to us now. How it detaches you from the world! You can be poor without murmuring. You can be rich without worldliness. You can be sick without sorrowing. You can be healthy without presumption. If you are always waiting for Christ's Coming, untold blessings are wrapped up in that glorious hope. "Every man that has this hope in him purifies himself even as He is pure." Blessednesses are heaped up one upon another in that state of heart in which a man is always looking for his Lord. But what will be the blessedness when Jesus does come? Well, a part of that blessedness will be in future service. You must not think that when you have done working here, you Sunday school teachers, and those of us who preach and teach, that the Master will say, "I have discharged you from My service. Go and sit on a heavenly mountain and sing yourselves away forever and ever." Not a bit of it! I am but learning how to preach, now--I shall be able to preach, by-and-by. You are only learning to teach now--you will be able to teach, by-and-by. Yes, to angels and principalities, and powers, you shall make known the manifold wisdom of God! I sometimes aspire to the thought of a congregation of angels and archangels, who shall sit and wonder as I tell what God has done for me--and I shall be to them an everlasting monument of the Grace of God to an unworthy wretch, upon whom He looked with infinite compassion and saved with a wonderful salvation! All those stars, those worlds of light--who knows how many of them are inhabited? I believe there are regions beyond our imagination to which every child of God shall become an everlasting illumination, a living example of the love of God in Christ Jesus! The people in those far distant lands could not see Calvary as this world has seen it, but they shall hear of it from the redeemed! Remember how the Lord will say, "Well done, you good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things"? He is to keep on doing something, you see. Instead of having some little bit of a village to govern, he is to be made ruler over some great province. So it is in this passage. Read the 44th verse--"Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he has." That is, the man who has been a faithful and wise steward of God, here, will be called of God to more eminent service hereafter. If he serves his Master well, when his Master comes, He will promote him to still higher service! Do you not know how it used to be in the Spartan army? Here is a man who has fought well and been a splendid soldier. He is covered with wounds on his breast. The next time that there is a war, they say, "Poor fellow, we will reward him! He shall lead the way in the first battle! He fought so well before, when he met 100 with a little troop behind him-- now he shall meet ten thousand with a larger troop!" "Oh!" you say, "that is giving him more work." That is God's way of rewarding His people and a blessed thing it is for the industrious servant! His rest is in serving God with all his might. This shall be our Heaven, not to go there to roost, but to be always on the wing, forever flying and forever resting at the same time. "They do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word." "His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face." These two things, blended together, make a noble ambition for every Christian! May the Lord keep you waiting, working, watching, that when He comes, you may have the blessedness of entering upon some larger, higher, nobler service than you could accomplish, now, for which you are preparing by the lowlier and more arduous service of this world! God bless you, Beloved, and if any of you do not know my Lord and, therefore, do not look for His appearing, remember that He will come whether you look for Him or not. And when He comes, you will have to stand at His bar. One of the events that will follow His Coming will be your being summoned before His Judgment Seat--how will you answer Him, then? How will you answer Him if you have refused His love and turned a deaf ear to the invitations of His mercy? If you have delayed, and delayed, and delayed, and delayed, how will you answer Him? How will you answer Him in that day? If you stand speechless, your silence will condemn you and the King will say, "Bind him hand and foot, and take him away." God grant that we may believe in the Lord Jesus unto life eternal and then wait for His appearing from Heaven, for His love's sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. LUKE 12:12-48. Verses 13, 14. And one of the company said unto Him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And He said unto him, Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you? Our Lord kept to His proper business, which was the preaching of the Gospel and the healing of the sick. We find, in these days, that the minister of the Gospel is asked to do almost everything. He must be a politician. He must be a social reformer. He must be, I know not what! For my part, I often feel as if I could answer, "Who made me to do anything of the kind? If I can preach the Gospel, I shall have done well if I do that to the glory of God and to the salvation of men. Surely there are enough people to be judges and dividers, there are quite sufficient politicians to attend to politics and plenty of men who feel themselves qualified to direct social reforms. Some of us may be spared to attend to spiritual affairs." 15. And He said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. Jesus gave His hearers a good moral and spiritual lesson from the occurrence which they had witnessed, and then passed on to speak of the matter which always occupied His thoughts. 16, 17. And He spoke a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth, plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? He did not enquire, "Where can I find a needy case in which I may use my superfluity for charity?" Oh, no! "How can I hoard it? How can I keep it all to myself?" This was a selfish, worldly man. 18-20. And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, You fool. Other men said of him, "This is a wise man. He minds the main chance. He is a fellow plentifully endowed with good sense and prudence." But God said unto Him, "You fool." 20. This night your soul shall be required of you. I should like you to set that up as the counter picture to the one that we had this morning, "Today shall you be with Me in Paradise." [Sermon #2078, Volume 35--The Believing Thief.] That was said by Christ to the penitent thief, but to this impenitent rich man, God said, "This night your soul shall be required of you." 20, 21. Then whose shall those things be, which you have provided? So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. "He that lays up treasure for himself." That was the chief point of this man's wrong-doing--his selfishness. His charity began at home and ended there. He lived only for himself. 22, 23. And He said unto His disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat; neither for the body, what you shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Have no anxious, carking care. Do not be looking after the inferior things and neglecting your soul. Take care of your soul--your body will take care of itself better than your soul can. The raiment for the body will come in due time, but the clothing for the soul is the all-important matter. Therefore, see to that. 24-27. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them: how much more are you better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If you, then, are not able to do that thing which is least, why take you thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. The lilies simply stand still in the sunlight and silently say to us, "See how beautiful are the thoughts of God?" If we could just drink in God's love and then, almost without speech, show it in our lives, how we should glorify His name! 28. If then God so clothes the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith! But you have some faith, otherwise the Savior would not have said to you, "O you of little faith!" The man who has no faith may well go on fretting, toiling, spinning, but he that has faith, as he goes forth to his daily labor, looks beyond that to the God of Providence, and thus God keeps him without care, and provides for him. 29, 30. And seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, neither be you of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knows that you have need of these things. He knows that you must go and work for these thing, but He would not have you fret and fume about them. "Your Father knows." He will provide. It is enough for Him to know His children's needs, and He will be sure to provide for them. 31. But rather seek you the Kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Thrown in as a kind of make-weight. You get the spiritual and then the common blessings of life shall be added unto you. 32. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. That is your share. Others may have inferior joys, but you are to have the Kingdom of God! The Lord could not give you more than that and He will not give you less. 33. Sell that you have, and give alms. Do not merely give away what you can spare, but even pinch yourself, sometimes, and sell what you can that you may have the more to give. 33. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that fails not, where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupts. Put some of your estate where it cannot be lost. Take care that you invest some of it for God's poor, and God's work, where the interest will be sure and the investment will be safe. 34. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. You can be sure of that. Your heart will go after your treasure and, if none of your treasure has gone to Heaven, none of your heart will go there, either. 35. 36. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and you yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he comes and knocks, they may open unto him immediately. Our Lord constantly reminded His disciples that the time would come when He must leave them for a season, but He always kept before them the thought of His return and bade them watch for Him as those that wait for their lord. 37-39. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. As he does not know when the thief will come, he is always watching. 40, 41. Be you therefore ready also: for the Son of Man comes at an hour when you think not. Then Peter said unto Him, Lord, speak You this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord told him that, while it was spoken to all, it had a very special bearing upon Apostolic men, upon preachers of the Gospel, ministers of Christ. 42-44. And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he has. Just as Pharaoh made Joseph ruler over all Egypt, so, when men have done well in the ministry of Christ, He will promote them, and they shall do still more for Him. 45. 46. But and if that servant says in his heart, My lord delays his coming, and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looks not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder. This is a truly terrible expression! We are sometimes charged with using too strong expressions with regard to the wrath to come. It is quite impossible that we should do so, even if we tried, for the expressions of the Lord Jesus are more profoundly terrible than any which even mediaeval writers have ever been known to invent! 46. And will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. The worst portion that any man can get is with the unbelievers! Are there not some here who may, in this verse, see what a dark doom theirs will be if they are among those who are described as being cut in sunder, and having their portion with the unbelievers? 47. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. So that there are different measures of responsibility--there are degrees in guilt, and degrees in punishment. 48. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. O my Brothers and Sisters, let those of us who are privileged with the possession of the Gospel, and privileged with any amount of ability to spread it, enquire whether we could give in a good account if the Lord were to come tonight and summon us, as stewards, to give an account of our stewardship. God bless to us all the reading of His Word! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ Three Arrows--or Six? (No. 2303) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 9, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 25, 1889. "And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Strike the ground. And he struck three times, and stopped. And the man of God was angry with him, and said, You should have struck five or six times; then had you struck Syria till you had consumed it: whereas now you shall strike Syria only three times." 2 Kings 13:18,19. IT is a very difficult task to show the meeting place of the purpose of God and the free agency of man. One thing is quite clear--we ought not to deny either of them, for they are both facts. It is a fact that God has purposed all things both great and little. Neither will anything happen but according to His eternal purpose and decree. It is also a sure and certain fact that, oftentimes, events hang upon the choice of men. Their will has a singular potency. In the case before us, the arrows are in the hands of the king of Israel and, according to whether he shall shoot once, twice, three times, or five or six times, so will the nation's history be affected. Now, how these two things can both be true, I cannot tell you. Neither, probably, after long debate, could the wisest men in Heaven tell you, not even with the assistance of cherubim and seraphim! If they could tell you, what would you know, and in what way would you be benefited if you could find out this secret? I believe that it would be as difficult to show that these two things do not agree, as it is to show how they can agree. They are two facts that run side by side, like parallel lines. Things are often left to the will of men, yet everything does come to pass, in the end, according to the will of God! Can you not believe them both? And is not the space between them a very convenient place to kneel in, adoring and worshipping Him whom you cannot understand? If you could understand your religion, it would be one that did not come from God--it would have been made by a man of limited capacity, like yourselves, who was, therefore, able to make what you can comprehend. But inasmuch as there are mysteries in your faith, to the top of which you cannot climb, be thankful that you need not climb them. But sometimes a practical question about these two points does arise. It is correct to say, speaking after the manner of men, "If men are earnest, if men are believing, if men are prayerful, such and such a blessing will come." And that the blessing does not come may be rightly traced to the fact that they were not as prayerful and as believing as they ought to have been. I believe that God will save His own elect, and I also believe that if I do not preach the Gospel, the blood of men will be laid at my door. I believe that God will give to His Son to see the travail of His soul, but yet, if you who are His people are not earnest in seeking the salvation of souls, and they perish, their blood will be required at your hands! This remark seems to be suggested by the story before us. God knew how many times the Syrians would be beaten and yet He left king Joash to decide whether they should be beaten three times or six times. Next, reflect what great things may lie in a man's hands. There stood Joash, an unworthy king, and yet in his hands lay, measurably, the destiny of his people. If he will take those arrows and will shoot five or six times, their great enemy will be broken in pieces. If he will be dilatory and will only shoot three times, he will get only a measure of victory. And poor Israel will ultimately have to suffer, again, from this enemy, who has been only scratched, and not killed. You do not know, dear Friends, what responsibility lies upon you! You are the father of a family--what blessings may come to your household, or may be missed by your children--through your conduct! Dear Mother, you think yourself obscured, yet your child's future will depend upon your teaching, or non-teaching! Great events depend upon little matters, as large vessels hang upon small nails, and you who are here, tonight, sitting in the pews, and meditating upon your future course of action, may do that which shall lead many to Heaven. But if you decide another way, you may do that which will curse many through time and eternity. Remember that, and remember in what a position of responsibility you may be placed many a time in your life--and how necessary it is that the Grace of God should be with you, to guide you, that you may not be an injury to others by what you do or leave undone. Once more, notice what great results may come from very little acts. It was a very trifling thing, was it not, to shoot an arrow from a bow? Your child has done it many times in his holidays. He has taken his bow and shot his little homemade shaft into the air. This is what the king of Israel is required to do--to perform this very slight and common feat of archery--to shoot from an open window and to drive his arrows into the ground beneath. And yet upon the shooting of these arrows will hang victory or defeat for Israel. So there are some who think that hearing the Gospel is a little thing. Life, death, and Hell, and worlds unknown, may hang upon the preaching and hearing of a sermon! To hear attentively and not be disturbed in the sermon may seem a very insignificant thing and, yet, upon the catching of the Word of God may result either the attainment of faith or the absence of faith--and so the salvation that comes by faith! In our affairs that appear to be trifles, we are often shaking worlds. That which looks like a great action may turn out to be a puff-ball, and nothing more, but a little occasion may prove to be great in its consequences. The mother of mischief is no bigger than a gnat's egg and the beginning of Divine Grace is no larger than the mustard seed. Therefore, do not trifle with little things, for on these little things may hang the greatest things, even the great things of an eternal state! That lesson seems to me to lie upon the very threshold of our subject, tonight. But I cannot detain you on the threshold. We must enter into the theme, itself. I. First, let me speak of SOME MATTERS IN WHICH MANY MEN TOO SOON PAUSE. There are some who, having great opportunities--and we all have them, more or less--shoot only three times when they ought to shoot five or six times. One of these matters is in the warfare with the evil within. Some, as soon as they begin their Christian life, fit an arrow to the string and shoot down big sins, such as swearing, or drunkenness, or open uncleanness. When they have shot these three times, they seem to think that the other enemies within them may be tolerated. My Brother, you should have shot five or six times! There remains a bad temper within you that must be conquered. Or there remains an unforgiving nature that must be slain. There is no going to Heaven with that evil thing alive. Or you are proud and self-confident. Have you not an arrow for that evil, for God hates pride, and so should you! But certain people say, "Well, you know, that is my constitution." Well then, you must be constituted differently, or else you will not get to Heaven. "Oh!" says one, "that is my besetting sin!" How often is that used as an excuse! If I were to go across Clapham Common, tonight, and a dozen men were to come around and knock me down and rob me, I should be beset by them! But when I stay at home and ask them into my house, and feast with them, and let them rob me, I cannot talk about being beset, for I have invited them there. Some professors tolerate themselves in sin. I repeat, they tolerate themselves in sin. One says, "Well, you see, I always was so hot-tempered." You must get cool, my Brother. Another says, "I was always very irritable." You must get rid of that irritableness, my dear Friend--the Grace of God should teach you to overcome that evil habit. We sin, but we must not tolerate any sin. It will ruin a man if he sits down and says, "I cannot overcome that sin." You MUST overcome it--every sin is to be overcome--and if you have struck three times and stopped, you must not rest satisfied. The man of God, tonight, will not give you any peace if that is your condition. But he will say to you, "You should have struck five or six times." There must be a clean sweep of every sin, for Christ has died, not to save us in our sins, but to save us from our sins. There are some who shoot three times and then leave off with regard to Christian knowledge. They know the simple Truth of Justification by Faith, but they do not want to know much about Sanctification by the Spirit of God. Why not, my Brother? Can you be saved unless you are sanctified? Some are perfectly satisfied with laying, again, the first principles, always going over those--but they want to know no more. I beseech you, strive to be educated in the things of God! Read not only the first spelling book, "Believe and live," but go on to read in the high classics of holiness and communion. Seek to be well established in the faith and, "to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge." Be a diligent student of the Word of God-- give yourself wholly to it. Lie asoak in Divine Truth till it colors you through and through! Some, again, sin in this way with regard to Christian attainments. They have little faith and they say, "Faith like a grain of mustard seed will save you." That is true. God forbid that I should discourage the little ones! But are you always to be a little one? A grain of mustard seed is not worth anything if it does not grow--it is meant to grow till it comes to be a tree and birds lodge in its branches. Come, my dear Friend, if you have little faith, do not rest till you have great faith, till you have full assurance, till you have the full assurance of understanding! You love Christ, but why not love Him more? You have hope, but why not a clearer expectation? You have a little patience, but why not have abundance of Grace to endure affliction, and to glory in tribulations, also? "Oh, I cannot get to that!" Truly, the man of God is not angry, tonight, but he would be a little angry with you if he thought that you meant that utterance! You can get to it-- you must get to it! You are not to be content without the prize of your high calling in Christ Jesus, but you are to run and press forward, and not to be satisfied unless you daily make progress in the Divine life. Others, again, seem satisfied with little usefulness. You brought a soul to Christ, did you? Oh, that you would long to bring another! Do you not remember what the General said, in the war, when one rode up to him and cried out, "We have taken a gun from the enemy"? "Take another," said the General. If you have brought one soul to Christ, it should make you hunger and thirst to bring another! You have been in the Sunday school. Keep to it--increase your class and rest not till all your girls and boys are saved! You preach, sometimes, in the villages. Preach twice as often--you will do that without knocking yourself out. Some dear friends have only enough Grace and enough usefulness to serve as specimens of what they ought to do. I have heard of one, who, going to Paris, walked into a restaurant and asked for a beef steak. They brought him a little something on a plate and he took it all up upon his fork at once, and said, "Yes, that is the kind of thing! Bring me some of that." Some people's usefulness just serves for a mouthful to a really earnest person. We say to such, "Yes, that is the right sort of thing! Bring us some of that." Why are you not doing much more? You have done more than some others, but why do you stop at the third shot? "You should have struck five or six times." And this spirit comes out very vividly in prayer. You pray--otherwise you are not the living children of God at all--but oh, for more power in prayer! You have asked for a blessing--why not ask for a far greater one? We need more Christians of the type of the importunate widow. They have become very scarce nowadays. I should like to see that woman's successors, those who will not let the King go unless he blesses them--who lay hold upon the angel, as Jacob did, and wrestle all night until they got a blessing. You have done well to pray, but you should have prayed much more. What blessings are waiting, what treasures are in the hands of God, ready for the man who can bend his knees and stay at the Mercy Seat till he wins his suit with God! The Church of God, as a whole, is guilty here, as to her plans for God's Glory. She is doing much more, now, than she used to do, but even now, though she strikes three times, we may say to her, "You should have struck five or six times." Oh, that the Church of Christ had a boundless ambition to conquer the world for her Lord! Oh, that we never rested day or night till our neighbors knew the Savior, till sinners of every class were made to know that there is a God in Israel! Start up you, you who have done so little, Churches that have been satisfied with now and then stirring the Baptismal Pool, and the adding of half-a-dozen in a year! Oh, for cries to God, and labors for God of a very different sort from those of the past! My time would fail me if I dwelt on this point. You will all think of many matters in which we begin well and then we stop. II. But now, secondly, let me speak of THE REASONS FOR THIS PAUSING. Why do men come to a dead halt so soon? Some of them say that they are afraid of being presumptuous. You are afraid of being too holy, are you? Dismiss your fear! You are afraid of asking for too much Grace? Be afraid of having too little! You are afraid of conquering sin-- tremble for fear of an unconquered sin! There is no presumption in taking the largest promise of God and pleading it, and expecting to have it fulfilled. Perhaps one says, "/have not the natural ability to be doing more, or enjoying more." What has natural ability to do with it? When all your natural abilities are in the grave and you look only to the spiritual strength of God, then you shall see greater things than these! Talk not so, I pray you. Another says, "Well, I am getting old, I cannot shoot as I used to do." Well, dear Friend, if you want to get old, the surest way is to get old. I mean it. Think that you cannot do what you used to do and give up your religious engagements because you are getting so old? Give up preaching because you are so old? Give up the Sunday school because you are so old and you will be old fast enough--that is the sure way to make yourself old! Look at our statesmen and notice to what an age they still continue working. One reason is because they work on--if they gave up, they would have to give up! If we will but persevere, we shall prove that there is life in the old dogs, yet. We can do something, yet, in the cause of God, even though the hair turns gray and the voice gets weak! Let us not make an excuse out of our age until it really does prevent us from doing our work for Him--then we must take to something else that we can do to serve the Lord, and so bring forth fruit even in old age. Shall I tell you the real reasons why men pause in their work? With some, it is because they are too dependent upon their fellow men. This king Joash could shoot when Elisha put his hand on his hand--probably Elisha only did that once, and then left him to himself and said--"Now, you shoot." Then he only shot three times. There are many Christian people who are a great deal too dependent upon their ministers, or upon some elderly Christian who has helped them onward. When he is dead and gone, or when he has moved away, then they do not shoot any more. I want you, dear Friends, not to have to be carried all your days. We do not object to be nursing fathers and nursing mothers to the children, but we want you who are grown up to run alone. What would any father, here, think if he had to carry his boy when he was twenty-six? It is time, I think, that he went on his own two feet. There are some Church members who still want always to have the influence of somebody who is a superintendent to them, just as Elisha was to Joash in his shooting. Do not let it be so with you, but shoot away, God helping you, and keep on shooting till your arrows are all gone! Another reason why some pause is that they are too soon contented. Joash thought that he had done very well when he had shot three times--and that Elisha would pat him on the back, and say--"How well you have done!" That kind of feeling creeps over many workers for the Lord. They fancy that they have done their share. They have had their time, now they will let somebody else take a turn. And they have done the work so well, too! Ah, yes, the power to do more oozes out by the leakage of contentment with what you have done! We have done nothing well enough to say, "It is finished." Still is there much more land to be possessed and, in the name of God, let us banish from our hearts all contentment with our attainments, or with our services, and let us do much more than we have yet attempted for that dear Lord who has bought us with His precious blood! Joash, too, I dare say, gave up shooting because he was unbelieving. He could not see how shooting the arrows could affect the Syrians, and he wanted to see. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, we do not, any of us, believe enough in God! Believe in God to the uttermost. Thus will you be successful workers and accomplish great things for God. No man knows the possibilities that lie at his feet. It is impossible to measure them--only unbelief can contract them. Remember that even Christ could not do many mighty works in His own country because of the people's unbelief. And nothing stops us from doing work for Him like unbelief in the Ever-Blessed One. I should not wonder, also, if Joash was too indolent to shoot five or six times. He did not feel in a shooting humor. Now, whenever you do not feel in a humor for prayer, then is the time when you ought to pray twice as much! If you do not feel in a humor to take your class, say to yourself, "You shall do it well, today. I will make you do so, poor lazy flesh of mine!" I heard of a person who, being, weary in walking to the Meeting House, stopped, and said to his legs, "Come, you have carried me a good many miles to the theater--and I will make you carry me to the House of God!" So may we say to ourselves and to one another, "We were active enough when we ran to our amusements and went with the giddy multitude to do evil--and we will be active, now, in the service of our God." None of us will ever got to Heaven on a featherbed. No, it is a marching pilgrimage from this place to the gates of pearl. Joash also probably had too little zeal. He was not wide awake. He was not thoroughly energized. He did not care for the Glory of God. If he could beat the Syrians three times, that would be quite enough for him. He thought that they would have had enough of it, too, and so he laid down his bow and his arrows. I wonder whether I am speaking to anybody who has just been putting up his bow and arrows, some Brother who has made up his mind that he will retire from the school, or one who has so much to do in the world that he must give up that village station? If so, turn this subject over, and ask yourselves whether you were not sent in here, tonight, on purpose to be told that you ought to have shot five or six times and done much more than you have done. God does speak to men, here, often--and very pointedly, sometimes. Some have written to me to know who told me all about them--when I never heard about them in my life. God does speak to men's consciences by His servants and I put it to every child of God, here, whether this is not a message from the excellent Glory--"Keep on! Keep on as long as there is life in you! Keep on growing in Grace and advancing in the service of Christ." III. But now, thirdly, and very briefly, notice THE LAMENTABLE RESULT OF THIS PAUSING. When Joash had shot three times, he paused and, therefore, the blessing paused. Three times he shot, and three times God gave him victory. Do you see what you are doing by pausing? You are stopping up the conduit by which the river of blessing will flow to you! Do not do that--to impoverish yourself must certainly be a needless operation. You will suffer in consequence, as this king did, for, after the three victories, the rival power came to the front again. You will suffer in many ways if you cease to draw daily supplies of Grace from God, or cease to shoot the arrows against sin. Others will also suffer with you. All Israel was the worse for Joash leaving the arrows unshot. Your children, your neighbors, your friends--who can tell how many may suffer because you are slack in Grace and in the service of the God of Grace? Meanwhile, the enemy triumphed. There is joy in Hell when a saint grows idle! There is gladness among devils when we cease to pray, when we become slack in faith and feeble in communion with God. What was even worse, Jehovah, Himself, was dishonored. The worshippers of false gods triumphed over Israel and the infinitely-glorious Jehovah did not manifest His might as He would otherwise have done. Let us not rob God of His Glory, for that is the worst of robberies, but let us live so that as much glory as is possible may be gotten out of such poor creatures as we are by the ever-blessed God. Yet again, glorious possibilities were lost. See what glorious possibilities lie before you and do not let them lie there untouched! If you were poor and there was a gold mine in your field at home, which only needed the use of a spade to make you rich, would you not be sorry that you had neglected it so long? Behold, the blessed promises of God are before you! You children of God may be rich, blessed and happy--will you leave this mine unworked? You Sinners who, as yet have only begun to seek the Savior, seek Him more earnestly! Cling more closely to Christ and you will soon get the blessing. Shall it be your own hand that locks you out of the Kingdom of God? Suffer it not to be so. IV. I am warned by the time that I must close, but I must say a few words about THE CURE FOR THIS PAUSING. If we pause in our holy service, or in getting near to God, or in sucking the marrow out of the promises, remember that the enemy will not pause. You cannot make the drink traffic stop. You cannot make the harlotry of London stop its temptations. You cannot make the infidels stop. You cannot make the "Down-Graders" stop. They will all be at it, with all their might, seeking to do mischief against the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And there is the same choice for you that the Scotch captain put to his men--"Lads," he said, "you see the enemy there? If you don't kill them, they will kill you." If you do not overthrow the powers of evil, the powers of evil will overthrow you! Oh, that God would give us to have no hesitation about our choice, but may we continue, by the power of the Spirit, to shoot the arrows of God's deliverance till Christ, Himself, shall come! A cure for this stopping lies in the reflection that in other things we are generally eager. If a man engages in business, he is all alive in it. If a man takes to a certain study, he will weary himself that he may understand it. And shall we do the work of the Lord half-heartedly and, in matters of Grace, slur over things and only do as little as we can? The Lord save us from this spirit! A little religion is a very dangerous thing--drink deep if you would come to the sweetness of it. It is bitter at the top--but when you drink it to the very depths--the lees thereof are the choicest cordial for a fainting spirit. God grant us to know the inner core of religion, for that is where the sweetness lies! And lastly, this question ought to prevent us from ever pausing. Can we ever do enough for our Savior? Did He stop anywhere? Did He cry a halt when the work was half done? Did He not set His face steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem? When the scourges fell, He did not turn back and leave us. When the nails were driven into His hands and feet, He did not desert us. When He came to be forsaken of the Father, He did not forsake us, but He went through with His work till He could say, "It is finished." Oh, that we might, each of us, resolve that we would go through with our work, saying, "I have lifted my hand unto the Lord and I cannot go back! May every Christian man and woman say the same! And you who have not yet believed in Christ, may you be brought to believe in Him who died for the guilty! Surrender yourself to Him who died upon the Cross and, having done so, when He looks upon you, and says, "Your sins are forgiven you," look up to Him, and say, "I bless You for that sweet word, my Lord, and now I will serve You all the days of my life." May the Quickening Spirit add the Divine quickening to these feeble words and set you all shooting five or six times, for Jesus' sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. 2KINGS13. Verses 1, 2. In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son, of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom. "Seventeen years"-- that is a long time in which to do mischief. Seventeen years of reigning over a people, influencing them all for mischief, turning them aside from God and doing his utmost to erase the name of Jehovah from the hearts of the people. Remember, this Jehoahaz was the son of Jehu who had been called to the front because of the sins of the house of Ahab. Though Jehu was brought forward to be a reformer, yet he and his race were as bad as those who were cast out. What a sad thing this is, when those who are planted where the cumber-ground tree used to be, become just as barren as the one that has been cut down, or are only fruitful in sour fruit! See here the force of evil example. It was many years since Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had set up the calves at Bethel and Dan, yet here is another king walking in his footsteps. You cannot tell, if you leave a bad example behind, how your children and your grandchildren to distant generations, may follow your evil footsteps. Bad examples are very vital-- they live on age after age--and influence others long after the first transgressor is dead. The thought that we may be ruining those who are yet unborn should keep us back from sin. Notice also, at the end of the second verse, "He departed not therefrom." There is a final perseverance in sin--some men seem to prove it--"He departed not therefrom." He was warned against it. He was chastened for it, but, "He departed not therefrom." If men hold on in sin, how much more ought the people of God to hold on in righteousness! Whatever happens to you when you are once in the good old way, may it be said of you, "He departed not therefrom." If all other men should turn aside, yet let that be said of you, "He departed not therefrom." But, if you are in the wrong road, may the Lord cause you to turn from it and to turn to Him at once! If you depart not from evil, you must depart from God. 3. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of Hazael, king of Syria, and into the hands of Benhadad, the son of Hazael, all their days. God's people cannot sin without coming under chastisement. Remember this Word of the Lord, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." If you become Church members, and yet live unholy lives, you come under a special discipline, a discipline which I plainly see to be going on in the Church of God even to this day. "For this cause," said Paul of the Church in Corinth, "many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." No doubt God does send many rods to His rebellious family. He is not one of those fathers who "spare the rod, and spoil the child." Hazael and Benhadad were both wicked men, yet God used them as rods to chastise His sinning people. 4. And Jehoahaz besought the LORD, and the LORD hearkened unto him. Bad as he was, he knew the hand that smote him, and he sought Jehovah. What a wonder it is that God hears the prayers of even wicked men! I have heard it said, sometimes, that, "the prayer of the wicked is an abomination unto God." There is no such passage as that in the Scripture. It is "the sacrifice of the wicked," that is "abomination to the Lord." Even when a wicked man cries unto God and even if his prayer is not a spiritual and acceptable prayer, yet God may hear it in a measure, as he did in this case. Sometimes that hearing of prayer leads men to repentance and they then pray better prayers and receive greater blessings. 4. For He saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them. God cannot bear to see the sorrows of His own people. Even when He, Himself, is laying on the rod, if His child cries, it goes to His heart. Remember what He did to Pharaoh when He heard the sighing and crying of His people in Egypt. There is nothing more powerful with a father's heart than the tears of his child--and God heard the prayers of this bad man because, "He saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them." 5. (And the LORD gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime. The Lord gave them deliverance from the cruel fetters of the Syrians. They had been so tormented, so plundered, so oppressed in every way that God had pity upon them and gave them peace. 6. Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, but walked therein: and there remained the grove also in Samaria). Israel's repentance was only half-hearted. They repented because they suffered. They repented because of the suffering rather than because of the sin. They went back to the sin after they escaped from the sorrow. Oh, be not so, my Hearer! If God has chastened you on account of sin, let yours be a thorough repentance. Go to God with hatred of your sin, for until you get rid of sin, your being rid of sorrow will be a small blessing. 7. Neither did He leave of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten-thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing. God helped them and delivered them, but they were brought very, very low. If God's people sin, their deliverance will cost them dearly. Israel was once a great and powerful nation--their armies went forth in vast hosts--but now they have only the remnant of an army. 8. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? They were not worth writing in the Scriptures. We have very slender records concerning Je-hoahaz, but quite enough for such a wicked man. 9-11. And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria: and Joash, his son, reigned in his stead. In the thirty and seventh year of Joash, king of Judah, began Joash the son of Jehoahaz to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned sixteen years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. One sinner was followed by another! This young man must have seen the mischief that his father's idolatry brought on the people, but he went on in the same evil way. Oh, you sons of godly parents, you ought to follow your fathers' footsteps, for these wicked sons of wicked men followed their fathers' evil example! Oh, that there were an inclination in all the children of the godly to be like their parents, for there is evidently a tendency in the heart of the children of the ungodly to be like their sires! 11. He departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin: but he walked therein. I repeat what I said before, what a mischievous thing is one evil example! When a man makes another sin, the other who sins is guilty and the man who makes him sin is a sharer in his guilt. Here is Jeroboam, dead for years, and yet he keeps on sinning. I may say of him, "He, being dead, yet sins." His sin goes on burning like a fire and surely the punishment continues if the sin continues. As long as souls exist, sin will exist--you cannot stop it. Sin will repeat itself again and again, and multiply in its repetition spreading among thousands, perhaps, yet unborn! Oh, what an evil thing is sin! Prove to me that sin ever ceases to operate and you might give me some thought that the punishment will cease--but that can never be--and, as long as sin continues to poison, God will continue to punish. 12, 13. And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and his might wherewith he fought against Amaziah, king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat upon his throne: and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. Now, here is a story about this Joash which is preserved to us. 14. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness of which he died. An old man, probably in his 90th year, he had served his generation well. We read nothing of him for 45 years. He seems to have been in comparative seclusion--perhaps in his old age he had been neglected and forgotten--as many a man of God has been who once stood in the front rank. El-isha has fallen mortally sick, at last, and he is about to go Home. 14. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him. This is one good thing that Joash did. He remembered that it was through Elijah and Elisha that the men of his house, the house of Jehu, had been put upon the throne, and when he heard that Elisha was dying, something like compunction crossed his heart and he "came down unto him." 14. And wept over his face. As Bishop Hall says, he gave him some drops of warm water--and if a cup of cold water, given to a Prophet, shall not be without its reward--so neither shall those tender tears be without their reward. 14. And said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. Elisha must have opened his eyes when he heard those words, for he remembered that those were nearly the last words that he said to Elijah when his master was taken up to Heaven. Perhaps the king had heard that and, with a kind of delicate thoughtfulness, he applied the words to this grand old man who was now about to die. He was to Israel, chariot and horsemen, for it was by his means that Israel had been delivered. 15, 16. And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put your hands upon the bow. And he put his hands upon it; and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands. Not because he could lend much strength, for he was an old man, but because this signified that God would be with the king, that the power which dwelt in the Prophet's God would come through the Prophet's hands to help the king. 17. And he said, Open the window eastward. They had no glass windows in those days, you know, but they threw back the iron bars that made the shutter and opened the window eastward. 17. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of the LORD'S deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for you shall strike the Syrians in Aphek, till you have consumed them. It was usual, in the East, when war was proclaimed, to do it by shooting an arrow towards the enemy's country, and this brave old man, soon about to breathe out his life, had strengthened the king in the great weakness of the Israelite state to proclaim war once more against Syria! 18. And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. I suppose, a quiver full. 18. And he said unto the king of Israel, Strike the ground. "Shoot the arrows out of the window and let them strike into the ground and stick there." 18, 19. And he struck three times, and stopped. And the man of God was angry with him. Elisha was angry, but he did not sin. He loved the people and he was grieved to think that the king was so slack and slothful. 19, 20. And said, You should have struck five or six times; then had you struck Syria till you had consumed it: whereas now you shall strike Syria only three times. And Elisha died, and they buried him. God has different ways of taking His people Home. Some go all of a sudden, whirled away, as Elijah was. This Prophet died gently, worn out with age, but there is something very beautiful about his death. A king weeps over his aged face. He has the pleasure, though it was mingled with pain, of helping to deliver his people and, after his death, God bore full witness to him. 20, 21. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. Thus God gave Elisha power, even after death, and certainly set the Divine seal upon his message! It was as great a glory to him to give life to the dead as it was to Elijah to pass to Heaven without dying at all. 22, 23. But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. And the LORD was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them, because of His Covenant. Ah, that is what always lies at the bottom of God's mercy, "His Covenant." Oh, that grand word, "covenant"! Some think very little of it. Few preach much about it. But this is the very foundation of mercy. This is "the deep that lies under," out of which all the wells of Divine Grace spring up. 23, With Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast He them from His Presence as yet. He would not do it till He was fully driven to it, till provocation upon provocation should wear out His patience, 24, 25. So Hazael king of Syria died; and Benhadad, his son, reigned in his stead. And Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, took again out of the hand of Benhadad, the son of Hazael, the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Three times did Joash beat him, and recovered the cities of Israel. He shot three arrows and now it came to pass that three times did Joash beat Benhadad and recover the cities of Israel. Oh, that he had beaten the king of Syria six times, and set Israel completely free from its enemy! __________________________________________________________________ Blinded By Satan (No. 2304) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 16, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH 31, 1889. "The god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not." 2 Corinthians 4:4. THE practice of blinding men is a horrible process, too horrible for us to say another word about it, but there is also a spiritual blindness which comes upon some men. These are, to begin with, unbelievers. The god of this world does not blind Believers--but he blinds the minds of them which believe not. It is, therefore, a very dangerous thing not to believe on the Son of God. The penalty of unbelief is death and condemnation--and that penalty begins to fall on men when, in consequence of their unbelief, their foolish heart is darkened, their intellect loses the power to perceive spiritual ob-jects--and the god of this world blinds their mental vision. Ah, my Hearers, how anxious Satan is to secure your destruction, since, rather than that you should see the saving Light of God, he takes the trouble to blind your eyes! God grant that no man here may die under this dreadful deprivation of Light which is caused by Satanic influence upon the minds of men who have not believed in Jesus! Remember that this blindness to spiritual things is quite consistent with much sharpness as to natural things. A man may be a very keen politician. He may be a first-rate man of business. He may be an eminent scientist, a profound thinker and, yet, he may be blinded as to spiritual Truths of God. How often is it true, "You have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes"! As an old writer says, "Poor, ignorant men often find the door to Heaven and enter in, while the learned are looking for the latch." Yes, a man may have clear eyes for worldly things. He may be very keen as to his insight into the problems of life and, yet, the god of this world may have blinded his eyes! What is more remarkable, still, a man may have much Scriptural knowledge. He may understand, in the letter, the things of the Kingdom of God. He may be very orthodox in his beliefs and may be able to give an answer to those who ask him what he believes, and why he believes--but, still, he may have no spiritual perception of the reality of these things. A person may know something of botany from books and he may even understand the Linnaean system of classifying plants, but he may never, after all, have seen the primrose by the river's brim, nor have gathered a single flower out of the garden. He is a poor botanist, is he not? He who has studied natural history in his own chamber, but has never seen a living animal, knows very little about the subject, after all! We have many round about us who can talk of Heaven and Hell, and sin and salvation, and Christ and the Holy Spirit who, nevertheless, have never had one true perception of the meaning of any of these words. They see, but perceive not. They hear, but do not understand--they are unbelievers and the god of this world has blinded their minds. Now, I am going to say, tonight, first, that this blindness is very common. Secondly, that it is worked by the Evil One upon men in different ways. And, thirdly, I shall speak upon the kind of treatment that this blindness requires. I. First, then, THIS BLINDNESS IS VERY COMMON. It is manifested in some by occupation with this world. Here is a man who has lived in this world for a good many years and, all that while he has been thinking, working, proposing, projecting, but what about? Why, about this world! He has generally been concerned with a trinity of questions--"What shall I eat? What shall I drink? With what shall I be clothed?" This man believes that he is to live forever in another world, that this present life is only like the porch of a house--that the state to come is the house, itself. All these years, 30, 40, 50, 60, seventy--may I say 80 years?--this man has never thought about the eternal world, but only about the temporary world! He has never thought about where he is to dwell forever, but has spent all his power and strength upon the passage to it. This is so unreasonable that I am sure he must be blind! I cannot account for his folly anyway else. Surely, the soul is more important than the body! We think more of the body than we do of the garment it wears, but the body, after all, is only the garment of the soul! The true ego, the I, myself, is my soul! Am I never to think of that, but only to be thinking of my earthly house, my food, my garments, my daily work? That is the kind of thing that a brute would think of--oxen and asses think of what they shall eat, and what they shall drink, and where they shall lie down--if they think at all! And is this all of which you and I think? Surely, that occupation of the mind upon what must be of secondary consideration is a proof that the god of this world has blinded the mind! I will give you another example, from a different quarter, and that is, the extreme easiness of conscience which we see in many men and women. They can commit a great sin, wash their hands and then have done with it, as if the very washing of the hands or the wiping of the mouth was quite enough to put away all thought of the wrong. Many will sit here, tonight, who have, through a long life, committed a hundred sins of which they would be ashamed to be reminded, and yet they are not ashamed of them! They would only be ashamed to be found out--they are not ashamed of the sin, itself. A man truly awakened by the Spirit of God feels the remembrance of his sin to sting him as with scorpions! He cannot bear it. But the great mass of people do a thousand wrong things and yet they are not troubled, but feel quite at their ease. Some of you are probably within a very short time of death and judgment, and yet you can make sport of sin! How often does it happen that people come to the place of worship and go their way, having rejected solemn appeals--and they will never hear any more! They have had their last warning. Oh, if they could but know that, during the week, they will fall down dead, or be laid aside by sickness, never to leave the bed, again! Yet they trifle, on the brink of fate, on the very verge of everlasting woe! If you saw a man going straight on to the very brink of some dreadful precipice, and you saw him about to take another step, you would say, "That man is blind. I am sure that he is, or else he would not act like that." People do not go into terrible danger with their eyes open--yet there are many of our fellow men, perhaps many of ourselves, going right on, carelessly and heedlessly--to the very brink of the awful abyss without a thought of danger! They must be blind! This horrible peace of conscience, this quenching of the Spirit whenever conscience stirs itself, this playing and trifling with death and judgment prove that they are blind! To give you another example, there are many who have presumptuous hopes about the future. At any rate, they do not trouble themselves. I do not know why they are so easy, but there are different forms of presumption which enable them to look into the future without fear. One says, "Well, you see, I was christened when I was a child, and I was confirmed as a youth." Another says, "I have always attended the Meeting House. I am never absent from any of the services. I have subscribed my guinea to the hospital. I am kind to everybody. I think that most people would give me a good name." Their dependence is on that sort of thing and they have never looked at what is really lacking. They will not stay to hear that Word of God, "You must be born again." They will not listen to Christ when He says, "He that believes not shall be damned"--whatever his profession or moral character may be! No, but they go on dancing to destruction with a light and merry heart. Surely these people are blinded by Satan! Then see another sort of people, and note their readiness to sin. They yield to the tempter, they yield at the first request! There is no need for Satan to importune them to evil. They seem always ready for it, especially if they think that they can escape from trouble by doing wrong. Why, are there not many persons who would tell a lie to save a sixpence? Ah, to save a penny? The shop was open this morning--the profit made did not amount to two pence--but, still, the Sabbath was broken for that paltry sum! How many are selling their souls, not to gain the whole world, no, not to gain a four penny piece! They think so little of their souls and their eternal destiny, that, for the sake of a drop of beer, for the sake of an evening's amusement, for the sake of pleasing a foolish companion they will fling their souls away as if they were only pebble stones not worth the keeping! Ah, Sirs, such people must be blind! People who have had their eyes opened spiritually have been known to die sooner than do the least thing that was wrong. Remember the man who was told that if he would give one farthing to be spent on incense to the heathen gods, his life should be spared? But the man knew the Lord and, therefore, he would sooner die than give a single mite towards the worship of idols! Men of God have cheerfully laid down their lives to defend even a slight point of God's eternal Truth. But these men who think nothing of such holy heroism and are willing to lose their souls for a paltry pleasure, why, they must be blind! I need not stay to say more except this one thing. This blindness shows itself in trifling with eternal things. There is a person here who, not long ago, was very greatly awakened, even resolved to seek the Savior then and there. But when in the Enquiry Room he put off the final decision. There was no reason why he should put it off except the reluctance of his mind to accept Christ. That was not the first time that he had procrastinated and postponed. And yet he is still putting off his reception of Christ. He is not sure that he will live to get home, tonight. He is not certain that, should he fall asleep, tonight, on his bed, he will wake up in this world in the morning! Yet he leaves his soul in jeopardy, as if it were a matter of very small concern. A person came here, not long ago, who had taken off a diamond ring when he washed his hands. And all the while he was sitting here, he kept wondering what would become of that ring, whether, when they emptied the water out of the basin, it would be thrown away. He was so anxious about his ring that he hurried home as quickly as ever he could after the service. He did not wait a week to see about it, yet there are men, here, who have waited weeks, months, years, ah, many years, procrastinating and procrastinating! They would not leave their worldly business like that, but they leave the eternal business of salvation or damnation as though it were but as a sere leaf that might be blown whichever way the wind might please! Such people must be blind! I am sure they must be blind. Oh, that they were wise enough to cry, in the language of Charles Wesley's hymn-- "O God, my inmost soul convert, And deeply on my thoughtful heart Eternal things impress! Give me to feel their solemn weight, And trembling on the brink of fate, Wake me to righteousness!" I could heap up many proofs that this blindness is very common, but I have not the time to do so, for we must pass on to consider the next point. II. Secondly, I want to prove to you, very earnestly and very pointedly, that THIS BLINDNESS IS WORKED BY THE EVIL ONE IN DIFFERENT WAYS. In some, it comes by utter worldliness. There are some people who say, "We cannot attend to that matter, we have enough to do to earn our living." Others say, "Well, thank God, we have not to earn our living by the sweat of our brow, but really, we have plenty of other things to think of besides turning our attention to that Methodistic stuff." One says, "I--, I--," yes, you may speak it out if you like--you think that God and Heaven and eternal things are trifles unworthy of your thoughts! Your house, your horse, your wife, your money--these, of course, are not trifles--these must come first. The world, the world, the world--this is in your heart and occupies it all. Said the captain of a whaler, one day, to a man of God, who spoke to him about his soul, "Mr. Bertram, it is of no use for you to speak to me about my soul, or ask me to come to the service, tonight. You see, I am out here after whales, and all the while that I was sitting, and you were talking, I should be thinking about whales. And when you gave out a hymn, I should just be thinking of whether there was a whale anywhere about. If I were to pray, I should be praying about whales. I have whales in my heart, Sir, and there is no room for anything else." It is so with many, many people. They have their business, they have set up a loom, they have an invention, they have all the materials of a building inside their hearts--and there is no room for God. Their hearts are blinded by utter worldliness. Some, again, are blinded by the devil in a very desperate way, by love of some favorite sin. I do not hesitate to say it is a general fact that when men kick against true religion and when they get offended by being spoken to about it, if you could track them home, you would find in their conduct some very good reason for their opposition. I recollect that in preaching, on one occasion, I happened to allude to the pleasure it gave me to see the gleaners picking up the wheat in the harvest time, as Ruth did, and I said, "I verily believe that there are some farmers who would rake their fields with a small tooth comb, if they could, to get every grain of the wheat up." I noticed a respectable-looking gentleman, in the front of the gallery, get up and go out. Somebody at the door said, "Why are you going out, Mr._?" He replied, "I won't stop to listen to such a fellow as that. I always rake my fields three times." Yes, you see, it was the truth that made him angry. It is usually so. There is a reason for men being angry with the Gospel and turning away from it, when it strikes at some of their favorite sins. Such and such a man says that he does not believe in Jesus Christ. It is not likely that he should! I will not tell you why, but his wife knows. There is another man who keeps a shop. He says that he does not need to be converted. No, if he were, he could not keep that shop! Or if he did, be would have to alter the line of business in which he is engaged. Ah, the god of this world blinds men's eyes with sin! I cannot go into all the particulars, but if there is any man here who has a pet sin that he cherishes, do not let him wonder that he cannot see the beauties of Christ, or the glories of salvation! And let him not think that we would do anything to win his approbation while he remains in love with that sin! It is with us very much as it was with Martin Luther when he said, "I could be proud to think how badly some people speak of me! For them to speak badly of me is the highest honor that such as they are can confer upon me." When you who are living in unchastity and dishonesty speak badly of Christ and of Christians, you only speak after your own manner--and we cannot wish you to alter your tone till God has changed your heart! Many are blinded as to the things of God by following a party. "Well," you say, "I could not begin to study these matters of religion, because I am linked in with such a set. I know how they would treat me. They would laugh at me, first, and they would give me the cold shoulder, next. No, really, my dear Sir, if you know how I am connected, you would not expect me to ever give any consideration to these doctrines that are preached, whether they are true or not." It is a pity, it is a solemn pity, that a man should ruin his soul to keep in with his party! I rejoiced to read of the praise that was passed in the House of Commons, the other night, upon John Bright who deserved much more than was said, especially upon this one point, that, whenever his conscience came in conflict with his party, he followed his conscience and let his party go where it might. Public approbation and applause were nothing to him so long as he could keep clear in the sight of God by doing what he believed to be right. Now, when he dies, every party has a word of honor for him. There is nothing lost, after all, by sticking to what you believe to be right--and if it is so in politics, how much more should it be so in the matter of religion! Cut your sinful connections, quit your evil companions! It were better to do that than to go with them, applauded and approved, and find yourself wrong at the last. Oh, that men had but a grain of grit in them, so that they would never make the things of God, Heaven and eternal realities to hang upon the breath of men's nostrils, or the smiles or frowns of their fellow men! But I am afraid that a great many will never come to know Christ because they will continue to follow their party, or the prejudice of their early education still clings to them. A fourth way in which Satan blinds a great many, and he does it very commonly, is by raising objections to the Truth of God. There is nothing in this world to which you cannot object. I venture to say that there is no fact, however palpable to all the senses, but what you can, if you like, find reasons for not believing it to be a fact. If somebody were to assert that I am not here and that I am not speaking, I have no doubt that, with proper pay, a lawyer could be found to prove it--and what a lawyer could do, a great many, who are not learned in the law--could do as well. To answer objections is an endless task--it is like trying to empty a flowing fountain with bottomless buckets. Men do not object to the religion of Jesus Christ really and truly. It is not this to which they object, but they invent objections, they go abroad searching after objections that they may then have an excuse for rejecting Christ. In this way many prove that they are blind-- they have a difficulty they cannot get over, and do not mean to get over, either--and so they see not Christ. With others, blindness is worked by wrong inferences. It is astonishing how many eyes are blinded by wrong inferences drawn from the Truth of God. We have known one say, "Well, the mercy of God is very great--it is universal-- therefore I am sure that God will not cast us into Hell." This is a wicked lie derived from a great Truth! Another says, "I read that God has an elect people." That is most surely true, but not the inference that is drawn from it--"Therefore, if I am to be saved, I shall be saved. And if I am to be lost, I shall be lost, so that I need not trouble my head about the subject." That is another false inference deduced from a great Truth of God. When a man means to commit suicide, any rope will do, and when a sinner is resolved to perish, he can always find an argument, fetched even from the Truth of God, itself, as the means of his own destruction! I am not going to answer any of these lies, but only to say that, by these false inferences, many a man has been blinded to his own eternal ruin. Then there is another way of being blinded, and a very common one, too. That is, by general conceit of knowledge. I know a man stone blind of it. When I met him last, he looked at me, condescended to ask how I was and he as much as intimated that he was occasionally prepared for a little conversation with an inferior person and, therefore, he did not mind speaking about religion with me, he, himself, being a very superior person, indeed, knowing everything and, if possible, a few things besides! This man called himself an agnostic--and when a man says that he is an agnostic, he is an ig- noramus--that is, a person who knows nothing. Yet, such a man usually talks as if he knew everything and the appendix at the end of that. He mentions Calvinism and he says in a tone of contempt, that his grandmother was a Calvinist! He says that he remembers the Evangelical School, but that they have nearly died out now. You have not talked long with him before you discover that the Lord Jesus Christ and he could never get on together because the Savior has said, "Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven," and this man will never become a little child, not he! If you need the opposite of a little child, there you have the gentleman--and he wishes you, "Good afternoon," when you begin to quote Scripture. He is not at all the person to receive any instruction of that sort. The "superior" person will always be lost, take my word for it! The more superior he is, the more sure he is to be lost--I mean not that he is really superior, but that he thinks himself so--superior to all teaching. He is not prepared to be a learner. He is ready to set up as a teacher and a master of anything you like. He is not the kind of man to enter the gates of Heaven--he carries his head too high for that. He is a man of broad thought and, of course, he goes the broad way. Narrow-minded people go in the narrow way--but then it leads unto life eternal and, therefore, I commend it unto you-- "Broad is the road that leads to death, And thousands walk together there. But wisdom shows a narrower path, With here and there a traveler." We have another set of people who are blinded by some special conceit of false grace. Here is a man who has attended to many duties. Some, of course, he does not care about, but he compounds for duties he does not like by attending to others that are to his taste. He does not pray, but then he sings in the choir! Communion with God--he does not know anything about that--but he takes the sacrament! He has never repented of sin, but then he has found fault with other people for their sins, and he regards that almost as good! He does not help the poor and needy, but then he has a capital plan for lowering the poor rates! He is always doing some good thing or other, of a sort, but not of the sort that Scripture proscribes. As to believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, by a living faith trusting Him, that is beyond his range. As to seeking a new heart and a right spirit--and being converted and turned from darkness to Light--he does not know anything about that, either, but there has been, after all, a very great improvement in him. He has given up some very questionable practices and, on the whole, he has done a good deal which ought to be spoken of with considerable commendation. This is the kind of gentleman who is blinded by the god of this world! But it is idle for me to talk about people being blinded except to those who can see, for the blindest man is the man who says that he is not blind, who will not have it that he does not see everything aright, even though he has never had his eyes opened by the Lord! He says that he could always see--it is an insult to suppose that he is blind. He is like the Pharisees who said to Jesus, "Are we blind, also?" to whom Jesus answered, "If you were blind, you should have no sin but now you say, We see, therefore your sin remains." This is sinning against the Light of God! This is sinning with a vengeance! May God preserve all of us from such a sin! III. Now I come to the most practical point, that is, THE KIND OF TREATMENT THAT THIS BLINDNESS REQUIRES. I pray God to bless to you what I have to say upon this matter. I should say, first, dear Friends, beware lest this blindness be sent as a punishment. Although our blind friends have our loving sympathy and God blesses them, yet it must be a great calamity to be without their eyesight. Now, blindness of heart is not only a sin, but it is the punishment of sin, and it comes to many as the result of violating conscience, resisting the Holy Spirit, trifling with solemn things and being desperately set on mischief. Oh, you who have a tender conscience, mind that you do not lose it! You who have the power to sit and hear a sermon and to feel it, do not trifle with that holy sensitiveness. Once lost, so that you can read the Book of books and hear the most earnest talk, and yet feel nothing, you have lost one of the greatest privileges that you ever had. May God help the man who is going on towards this fatal blindness--and stop him before he gets any further! I would say, also, to you who are in any way blind, beware lest that blindness becomes the herald of your doom. Before Haman was hanged, the first thing that the servants did was to cover his face. And when a man is about to be lost forever, the first thing that the devil does is to blind his eyes so that he cannot see. Now the poor blind Samson will make sport for the Philistines! Now they hope that they can kill him whenever they please. Beware of a blinded conscience--it is the prelude of eternal destruction! God save you from it! Next, if you have even a little Light, value it greatly. If any one of us should be gradually losing his eyesight, I know that he would greatly prize the little sight that he had. How often have I spoken to a friend who has said, "This eye is quite gone, Sir, there is just a little light left in this one, and the doctor says that I must wear a shade and be very careful, or I may lose that." Oh, take care of the little Light of God you have! If you can feel a little, be very tender of that feeling. If you can see a little of the beauty of Christ, be very jealous over that sight. Have I not often said that he who has starlight, if he thanks God for starlight, and uses it, will get moonlight, and he who has moonlight, and thanks God for it, and uses it, will get sunlight--and he who has the sunlight shall yet come to that Light which is as of seven days in the glorious Presence of God? Take care, then, of any Light that you have. And then, the next thing is, if you are at all conscious of your blindness, but do not see the full evil of sin, do not see the glory of Christ, and do not perceive the way of salvation, confess your blindness. Go home, tonight, and, in your chamber, alone, acknowledge that you do not see what you ought to see, and do not feel what you ought to feel. Show your sightless eyeballs to the Savior who gives sight to the blind. Do not cloak your sin, confess it. "He that covers his sins shall not prosper: but whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy." Say with David, "I acknowledged my sin unto You, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord." So shall you also be able to say with him, "and You forgave the iniquity of my sin." When you have confessed your blindness, do one more thing, trust to the Lord Jesus to open your blind eyes. Put yourself consciously into the Presence of the Divine Savior and say to Him, "I believe that You are able to work this miracle of mercy. I believe that You can make me see Your Truth and feel Your Truth. I believe that You can make me see Yourself, and trust You. Here are my eyes, Lord, I would receive my sight! I believe that You can give it! Give it to me now!" Ah, perhaps while I speak these words, the flash of the Divine Light is coming into some dark heart! Salvation does not take hours--it is in one single instant that we pass from death unto life! The moment that we believe in Jesus, we are saved! The moment that we look to Him hanging on the Cross, our iniquity is pardoned! God grant us that blessed look of faith tonight, each one, for Jesus' sake! Amen. It may help some to look to Christ if we sing a verse of that well-known hymn-- "There is life for a look at the Crucified One! There is life at this moment for thee! Then look, Sinner--look unto Him, and be saved-- Unto Him who was nailed to the tree." EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON. ISAIAH 6; MATTHEW 13:10-17; LUKE18:35-43. Isaiah 6:1-4. In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the Temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His Glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Isaiah was awe-stricken by this vision of the Glory of the Lord. It was a sight such as few eyes have ever seen. Isaiah was never actually in the Holy Place, for he was no priest and, therefore, he could not stand there. It was in vision that he saw all this Glory and it was a vision that must have remained upon his memory through the rest of his life. The holiness and the Glory of God struck him at once. 5. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts. There was, indeed, enough to make him say, "Woe is me!" A sinful preacher, an imperfect preacher, among a sinful and imperfect people, he felt as if the society in which be moved was the reverse of the society in which God dwells. Pure seraphim cry, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts," but as for us, our very talk is unholy--"a people of unclean lips." 6, 7. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged. The live coal from off the altar does not represent the holy flame which burns in the Prophet's heart, but it represents purgation, cleansing, participation in the sacrifice, and the putting away of sin. With a blister on his lips, Isaiah stood silent before God. 8. Also I heard the voice of the LORD, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Here we have the Divine Trinity in Unity. "Whom shall I send?" There is Unity. "Who will go for Us?" There is the Trinity. God is seeking a messenger to deliver His message to men. 8. Then said I--Stammering it out with the blistered lip-- 8. Here am I; send me. Isaiah did not know the errand; perhaps, if he had known it, he would not have been quite so ready to go. Who can tell? But God's servants are ready for anything, ready for everything, when once the living coal has touched their lips. I thank God that I was never called to such a work as Isaiah had to undertake. 9, 10. And He said, Go, and tell this people, Hear you indeed, but understand not; and see you indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. That was no Gospel ministry! It was a ministry of condemnation. The house of Israel had rejected the Prophets and had rejected God and, in the fullness of time would reject God's own dear Son! When Isaiah in vision looked forward to all this, he was not sent to soften, but to harden--his word was to be a savor of death unto death, and not of life unto life. 11, 12. Then said I, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities are wasted without inhabitants and the houses without man, and the land is utterly desolate, and the LORD has removed men far away, and there is a great forsaking in the midst of the land. This was a heavy task for the Prophet--he had no tidings of God's relenting, no tokens of Divine Mercy. 13. But yet.--You never get this deep bass note of Divine Justice without having a, "but yet," to accompany it! 13. In it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. When the oak sheds all its leaves, it is not dead--there is living sap that will again cause the tree to be verdant. Though the nation was to be brought very low, there was still to be left a remnant according to the Election of Grace. Sin never reaches such a point in God's people but what Divine Grace triumphs! Still, where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound. This is a terrible chapter! It shows the Sovereignty of God in a lurid light and reveals how, when sin comes to a certain point, the Lord gives men up and leaves them to the blindness of their heart, so that even the means of Grace, the prophetic message, becomes a means of condemnation to them. Now we are going to read in one of the many places in the New Testament in which this passage is quoted. Matthew 13:10-12. And the disciples came, and said unto Him, Why do You speak unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given. For whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has. You can understand this Truth of God if you go into certain museums. I will suppose that you know nothing whatever of comparative anatomy and you go into the Museum of Comparative Anatomy at Paris. If you understand a little of the science, you will learn a great deal more--"for whoever has, to him shall be given." If you do not know anything about the subject, you will say, "Well, this is the most uninteresting exhibition I ever saw," and you will come out with the feeling that you do not know anything. What you did know will have vanished in the sight of all that mass of bones arranged in those extraordinary shapes. You will only feel your own lack of knowledge in that de-partment--you will show your ignorance, and nothing else. So it is in the things of God. If you understand the fundamental principles of true godliness, you will soon understand more. But if you do not comprehend as much as that, even the reading of the Scriptures will be but slightly instructive to you. 13-15. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Now the Savior turned to His disciples and spoke especially to them. 16. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. It is no use having eyes that do not see, or ears that do not hear, and yet I fear that there are many eyes of that kind, and many ears of that sort, in this congregation tonight. 17. For verily I say unto you, That many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them: and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them. Now let us read one other passage to show how the Lord heals the blind and makes them see. Luke 18:35, 36. And it came to pass, that as He was come near, unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging: and hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. If he could not see, he could hear and he could speak. Use all the ability that you have and God will give you more! 37-39. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passes by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, You son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. They told him that he was spoiling the Preacher's sermon. They had lost his last sentence. They could not catch the Savior's meaning, so they cried out to the blind man, "Hold your tongue, Sir." 39, 40. But he cried so much the more, You son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood. I can see Him stop. He had been walking on, before, and talking as He went, but prayer can cause the Savior to be spell-bound. Here Jesus stood. 40, 41. And commanded him to be brought unto Him: and when he was come near, He asked him, saying, What will you that I shall do unto you? Our Lord likes us to know what it is that we need. He would have us feel our need, that we may have a distinct perception of the blessing when it comes and know just what it is. 41. And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. He needed nothing else, but oh, how badly he needed that gift! 42. And Jesus said unto him, Receive your sight. Notice the echo. The blind man said, "Lord, that I may receive my sight." Jesus said, "Receive your sight." With a little turn in the expression, Christ's answer is the echo of our prayer! 42. Your faith has saved you. No, surely it was Christ who saved him. Yes, but Christ delights to put His crown on Faith's head, for Faith always puts the crown back on Christ's head--"Your faith has saved you." 43. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him. What should we do when our eyes are opened by Christ but follow him? The moment that we can see Him, we should begin to follow Him! 43. Glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God. May we have cause to praise the Lord, tonight, for many blind eyes opened! __________________________________________________________________ No Fixity Without Faith (No. 2305) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 23, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 11, 1889. "If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." Isaiah 7:9. As I told you in the reading, Isaiah had a very heavy commission from God. He was to go and speak to people who would not hear him and to be to them a messenger rather of death, than of life. Though the message, itself, would be full of life, yet they would refuse it, and so bring upon themselves a tenfold death. As a sort of experiment in his work, he was called upon, first, to go and speak to king Ahaz, that wicked king. He knew in his own soul that what he had to say would be rejected, but, nevertheless, at the command of God, he went to speak to the king. He was told where he would meet him. God knows where to send His faithful servants. He has arranged every circumstance about the true preacher-- what he shall say and where he shall say it--and every congregation is a picked congregation for God's sent servants. He knows who comes and who is away. He knows how to adapt the message with great specialty to the individual case of each person who is within sound of the preacher's voice and He knows how to adapt even the voice, itself, to the ears of every hearer. We know all this, for we have had abundant evidence of it again and again. The tidings which Isaiah took to Ahaz were very pleasant ones. He was not to be afraid of the king of Israel and the king of Syria. These men were determined to destroy him and his people, but they were only like smoking firebrands, almost extinct. Their power would soon come to an end and, therefore, the Prophet told the king not to be distressed, but to be quiet and to wait patiently till he saw what God would do. Then he challenged the faith of Ahaz and warned him that if he did not believe, neither would he be established! Isaiah anticipated what was all too true, that Ahaz would not trust, that he would prefer to look to outward means, send for the king of Assyria and lean upon an arm of flesh rather than put his trust in God. He might have waited, surely, and not have indulged his fears until there was reason for them, but no, he must be all in a fright and a fume notwithstanding that God had said to him, by His servant, Fear not, neither be faint-hearted." Well now, these words of Isaiah to Ahaz furnish us with a warning and an encouragement. God seems to speak out of this blessed Book to you and to me, tonight! Certainly, He speaks to me--I hope to you, also--"If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." I. Our first head shall be, GOD DESERVES TO BE BELIEVED. We cannot say this of everybody. Many men deserve to be believed--their character is such that we are bound to trust them. Some men, on the other hand, ought not to be believed--their character is such that we would be foolish to confide in them. But I say, tonight, of Him who created the heavens and the earth, the God of this Word of God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He claims to be believed and He deserves to be believed! For, first, He is God and, being God, He cannot lie. The conception of a lying God may be possible to a heathen, but I trust that to you it is quite out of the question. The very idea of "God" to us means perfect truthfulness, indisputable veracity--God who, from the very necessity of His Nature, cannot lie. He can do anything that is right, but He cannot do a wrong thing. He cannot say an untruthful thing. He cannot, either in word, or deed, or thought, be guilty of falsehood. He is God and He cannot lie. To impute a lie to God is blasphemy! I will use no softer word. You have brought dishonor upon the sacred name when you have, in any way, connected the name of Jehovah with a lie. "Has He said, and shall He not do it?" Oh, Beloved, do not treat the Lord as if He were a liar! Remember that when you doubt His promise--since you know He can fulfill it if He wills, for He is Omnipotent--when you doubt His promise, you are casting a suspicion upon the veracity of the Eternal God! Do you mean to do that? Have you never read that word of the beloved and loving disciple, "He that believes not God has made Him a liar; because He believes not the record that God gave of His Son"? Did you really mean to make God a liar? Were you guilty of such infamy as that? Well, I will say no more upon that point but He deserves to be believed because He is God. It is essential to every true idea of God to believe that God must be true. He deserves to be believed because His Word has always been true. Any person who is a student of prophecy knows how literally, even in small things, the prophecies of God have been fulfilled. There was a little book which was published, some time ago, by Mr. Urquhart, of Weston-super-Mare, upon fulfilled prophecy. I gave a copy to a Brother, the other day, and on writing to me, he said that he had found it much more interesting than any story or novel he had ever read in his life, and vastly more astounding than any romance, for every jot and tittle, to the dots of the i's, and the crosses of the t's, in the prophecies of God's servants, had been recorded in history! In the ruins of Tyre, Sidon and Babylon, and the like, we have, in every stone, a witness of the faithfulness of God to His Word! Nor is it merely in history that the Lord has been proved to be true. You and I--I hope I may say that, but I do speak for many here--have proved the faithfulness of God. He has thrown us into different trials. We have had opportunities for testing the promises which we could not have tested if we had not been tried. Just as you are unable to see the stars by day, but if you go down a well, you can see them, directly, at any time of day or night, so, dear Friends, God puts us down these deep wells of trial, and then we see His starry promises shining brightly! I would rather take the promise of God than the promise of the Bank of England! The Bank of England might fail--a terrible disaster, certainly, and highly improbable--but the Word of God cannot fail, for the Lord has greater resources than the whole nation has, or all the nations of the earth put together! The inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers in God's sight! He takes up such isles as we dwell in as very little things. Oh, Friends, the Lord may well have all our confidence, for when we confide in Him to our utmost, we have leaned with very little pressure upon the veracity of God! The bull that bore the gnat upon his forehead smiled when the gnat hoped that his weight was not too much for him--and for God to bear us up is as nothing to Him! We may come to Him with what we call our great needs and He will smilingly say, "A crumb from My table will suffice for a million such as you." The things that are but trifles with the Most High would be enough for all the inhabitants of the world, if they would come to Him--therefore let us trust Him, as I sometimes say, "Up to the hilt." Let us go in for glorious trusting of our God! When a man swims, it is a good thing to have deep water. You do not need, then, to calculate whether it is a mile deep or twenty miles--if you are swimming, why, you are swimming! When you come to trust in the Infinite God, let Him be infinite in your thoughts as far as the finite can accept infinity. Trust Him without limit or bound, without suspicion or mistrust! For, further, as He must be true, being God, and as He has been true, being God, so He has no motive for being untrue. Why does God ever speak to us at all? Why does the Infinite ever stoop out of His boundless Glory to make Himself known to creatures that, before Him, are much more insignificant than an ant on the anthill can be to a man? You have never strained yourselves, I am sure, to reveal yourselves to a worm--and yet God has put forth all His sacred ingenuity to manifest Himself to man who, compared with his Maker, is but the insect of a minute! Why, do you think, He should speak to us--to deceive us? It seems to me to be the height of absurdity to suppose that if Jehovah breaks the eternal silences, it is to mislead a poor, miserable creature like man. Oh, no! The love that makes Him speak cannot be questioned and the Truth which He speaks must not be doubted! If God reveals Himself to men at all, men may, like little children with a father, feel themselves quite sure that they may most safely trust every word of the Revelation. Men talk of all the "mistakes of Scripture." I thank God that I have never met with any! Mistakes of translation there may be, for translators are men, but mistakes of the original Word there never can be, for the God who spoke it is Infallible and so is every Word He speaks! And in that confidence we find delightful rest. There can be no motive for God to give us a Book that is partly true and partly false, about which we are to be the judges, accepting this portion and discarding the other. That would make us worse off and fill us with yet more self-conceit than we would have had if we had been left without the Book at all! This can never be the case--therefore let us believe that, in God's motive for speaking to us, which must be condescending love, there is a guarantee that He speaks the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth. I feel almost ashamed to be talking like this about Him who is so surely true, and whom you and I have tried and proved these many years. It seems so idle to have to prove what nobody ought to doubt. For, once more, remember that the honor of God is involved in His veracity. If you say that God is not Almighty, we may pray God to forgive your mistake. But if you say that He is not truthful, there is a spitefulness, a malice about your assertion which is a grievous wrong to His holy Character. God untrue? Oh, Sir, I beseech you, do not think so for a moment, for this is a high crime and misdemeanor against the Majesty of the Eternal Throne! God will sooner cease to be than break His promise or forget His pledged Word. He is very jealous for His own Glory. He calls Himself, in the Ten Commandments, a jealous God, and so He is. He will never permit the Glory of His infinite Majesty to be tainted by the suspicion of a falsehood. Therefore, let not any child of His ever doubt Him and, as I fear we have done so, let us tremble before Him and repent that we should ever have had the audacity, even, to tolerate within a mile of our thoughts, anything like a suspicion of our God. His honor is compromised if He breaks His Covenant, but this He cannot do, as Paul writes to the Hebrews, "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us." The blood of the only-begotten Son of God has sealed the Covenant--and sooner shall Heaven and earth pass away than any part of that Covenant shall fall to the ground! Only this one thing I add. Suppose, even for a moment--a supposition we will not even make--that we could not trust in the truthfulness of God? What would be left for us to trust to? When rocks move, what stands firm? If God, Himself, can change, or be not true--come, Night, and swallow me up in your blackness! Come Chaos, and devour me! Oh, for annihilation, that we might cease to be if God has ceased to be true! Then would the harbors be turned to whirlpools! Then would the rocks be turned into clouds! Would there be anything left? Would not everything disappear, like the foam of the sea, if God could be proven to not be true? Thank God, we do not live in such a chaos as that! We know that He is true and, with Paul, we cry, "Let God be true, but every man a liar." Let everything else be swept away like chaff before the wind, but the eternal God and His Word will stand unmoved forever and ever! That is my first point--God deserves to be believed. II. But, secondly, SOME ARE NOT WILLING TO BELIEVE GOD. That is clear by the fear expressed in the text-- "If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." "If you will not believe." Believing is a matter of the will. A man does not believe without being willing to believe. God's Grace works faith, not upon us, but in us. God works in us to will and to do and, in the willing, He leads us up to believing. We voluntarily believe and, certainly, men voluntarily disbelieve--and some of them, with strong perversity of will, would not believe even though one rose from the dead! Why is this, this strange unwillingness of some men, no, in a sense, of all men, to believe in God? They are willing to believe other things. We have numbers of persons about who are like fish with their mouths open, ready for any bait. It does not matter how absurd may be the dream of a man, if he will persistently enough stand up in the street and publish his dream, or will print it, he will be certain to find a number of fools who will believe what he says! In this country, although we think ourselves so very wise, Carlyle was not far off when he spoke of our population as consisting of so many millions, "mostly fools." At any rate, there is a considerable sprinkling of them about. See how readily men believe what they read in the newspaper, though, probably, there is not a fragment of truth in it! That is all the better for the paper because the lie can be contradicted tomorrow, and that will make another column or two, and so fill up at a time when there is a dearth of news! But there is great credulity among men in general. Do you think that anybody could sell patent medicines if everybody were wise? No, but everybody is not wise. We are willing to believe what a man tells us if he will only tell it to us bravely enough, with a sufficient quantity of brass. But when it comes to believing God's Word, many manifest a strange incapacity to believe! The box is shut and you cannot find the key! But bring a lie of man, and the box opens of its own accord! There is a sort of, "Open sesame," then. Alas, often the falsehood of men is received and the Truth of God is rejected! Another thing is significant, that men cling tenaciously to faith in themselves. They do believe, they will believe, that they can work their way to Heaven. You talk to them about their sin. Well, they cannot deny it, but they so extenuate it as to make it appear to be rather their misfortune than their fault. It is, with them, a calamity to be sinners, rather than a grave offense. So they make it out to be and, in the future, those poor creatures are going to manage themselves! The wine cup, it is true, has tempted them, and they have fallen many times--but now they know better--they will never be affected by drink, again! The lust of the flesh which has led them captive to many a Delilah--oh, yes, they have "sown their wild oats"--but they will never go into that form of evil, again--and so on, and so on! The creature that has done nothing right, but everything that is wrong, still believes in himself. He goes to church and calls himself a "miserable sinner," and yet continues to be a happy believer in his capacity to rule himself. "We have done the things we ought not to have done, and have left undone the things we ought to have done; and there is no health in us." Yes, we said that on our knees, but when we get on our legs, again, we are going to do the things we ought to do, and to leave undone the things which should be left undone--and we feel as healthy--from the crown of our head to the sole of our feet, as if we never had a disease about us in our lives! Now, that is a strange thing, that man can believe in himself and yet cannot believe in God! This is the madness of our nature--that man thinks that he can do everything when he can do nothing! Then, observe how, instead of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, some prefer an emotional religion. I am astounded at some people, how readily they are excited, how easily they are "saved"--at least they say they are saved. Do they believe the promises and hang upon the Word of God? No, but they "feel" so much. These same feelings that seem to lift you up to Heaven will thrust you down to the depths of Hades! Yet these people prefer mere natural emotions, an inward feeling, to this which is the infinitely sounder way--to believe in God and in Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Next, some stubbornly suffer under unbelief. They have been pining for rest for years and they have not attained it, yet. Still, they will not believe in Christ. Oh, what would they not give if they could but have a night's calm rest and could by day go to business without distress of mind! Yet they will not give themselves up to Christ to be saved, simply trusting Him to save them. They have brought themselves near to the door of suicide and wished they had never been born--yet they will not take the healing medicine that lies close by their hands! They will do anything, sooner than trust in God! I notice, too, that such people demand this and that of God, beyond what He has revealed. God has spoken, but that is not enough for them. God must do something else for them--they must dream some peculiar dream, they must see some strange vision--they must fancy that they hear a voice in the air. Pshaw! Put the whole of that nonsense away! Believe what God has said and you are on sure ground. Come to this "more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place." Believe this and your peace shall be like a river and your righteousness as the waves of the sea! But no--they will not. God must do this or that to oblige them, or else they will not believe Him. You make Him a liar if He will not pamper your whims--but He will do nothing of the sort! I might, with profit, dwell on that point, but time flies too rapidly for me to say more upon it. III. Notice, in the third place, that FAITH IS NOT A THING TO BE DESPISED. Have you never heard people say, "Oh, they preach up faith, you know"? "Well, what is faith?" "Well, it is just believing so-and-so." Listen, Sirs, and then speak like that no more! Faith is a most wonderful thing, for it is a fair index of the heart. If you will not believe in God, I see that in your heart you hate God. But if you will believe Him, you love Him. We trust a man whom we love. I think that there is little trust in men towards whom we have no esteem and affection. If you believe God, your heart is right with Him. If you will not believe Him, do what you may, you are out of order with your God, I am sure of that. We know that a child who does not believe his father's word is not a loving and obedient child. Faith in God is, next, a sure proof of a change of mind, for, by nature, we do not think of God, much less do we trust Him--we trust what we can see, hear, taste and feel. When we trust God, it shows that we have undergone a great change of mind, an amazing change, of which there can be no surer evidence than that we see Him who is invisible and we live under the influence of His Presence, and we really seek to please Him whom mortal eyes have never seen. Does anyone think that faith is a little thing? Why, it inaugurates purity of life. The moment that a man believes in Christ Jesus, and trusts Him, he ceases from the sin he formerly loved. Sin becomes to him a burden and a plague. If you believe, your belief will kill your sinning, or else your sinning will kill your believing! The greatest argument against the Bible is an unholy life--and when a man will give that up--he will convict himself. The Book will convict him when he has put out of the way that darling sin that now stands between him and God. A belief in God, as He reveals Himself in Christ, is the inauguration of a life of self-sacrifice and holiness. Do any still talk of faith as being a little thing? Why, it is faith that leads to prayer, and prayer is the very breath of God in man, returning from where it came! If you believe, you will pray. How can you pray if you do not believe? Do you knock at a door of which you are persuaded that there is nobody there to hear you? You are not such a fool, I trust, but when you believe that there is a God, and that God is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, you will begin to seek Him--and you will never leave off seeking Him as long as you are in the land of the living! Faith little? Why, it is faith that glorifies God. All the works that we can ever do, be they what they may, can never bring such Glory to God as a single act of trust! I venture to say that the highest adoration is not that of cherubim and seraphim before the blazing Throne of God, but that of a poor sinner, conscious of guilt, who, nevertheless, believes in God as He reveals Himself in Christ, putting away sin by the great Sacrifice. If you can, tonight, believe, even if you are the biggest sinner out of Hell--it you can believe, I say--that God can pardon you, you have done Him honor! And if you, poor, troubled Christian, in the very vortex of your grief, can still believe that God is faithful and that He will bear you through, you have glorified His blessed name more than angels can! This is practical music that consists not in sound, but in the inner sense of the heart. It is true melody to God. Faith is not the trifle that some think it to be. This holy trust in God is the heart and soul of all true experimental godliness! IV. So I have come to my last point, grieving that I have had to slur so much where I should have liked to speak at length--THOSE WHO REFUSE TO EXERCISE FAITH WILL MISS MANY GREAT PRIVILEGES. I might mention many, but the text gives us the one which I will dwell upon--"If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." It means, first, that those who believe not will miss establishment in comfort. If you believe not in God, your heart shall be moved like the trees of the woods by the wind. You shall be tossed to and fro like the waves that dash on the rocks. You shall be driven along like a rolling thing that is twisted about by the whirlwind. But if you will believe in God and in His dear Son who reveals Him, then you shall come to an anchorage and there you shall outride every storm! Fear shall depart and your soul shall be at rest. Oh, you do not know the profound calm that spreads over the spirit when it has done with itself and just commits itself to God! You never can know this if you will not believe. In the next place, if you will not believe, you shall never enjoy establishment in judgement. There are many persons who do not know what to believe--they heard one man, the other day, and they thought that he spoke very cleverly, and they agreed with him. They heard another, the next day, who was rather more clever, and he went the other way, so they went with him! Poor Souls, driven to and fro, never knowing what is what! "If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." You shall be like the moon that is never, two days, alike. You shall seem to believe this and to believe that, and yet, really believe nothing! But if you will come and trust your God--wholly believe every Word that He has spoken and, especially, believe the Incarnate Word, the ever-blessed Son of God who gave Himself for the guilty--then you shall begin to know something! You shall put things in their right places and, knowing the Truth of God, you shall know more of it and you shall get the assurance of faith from which you shall never be shaken, as the Holy Spirit shall bear witness to the Truth within your soul. Next, we need an establishment in conduct. Look at certain men who once professed to be converted. They were down at a revival meeting the other day and they went to the penitent form. But then, a day or two after, they went to quite another form. They made a confession of faith and joined the Church. Ah, me, the Church will be well rid of them if their conduct is such as it has been, lately! But why is it that their conduct is not always as it should be? How is it that many men are this and that and 20 things? How is it that there is inconsistent behavior? My text supplies the answer, "If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." But a genuine faith in God, a solid faith in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, a true realization of the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit will keep you from stumbling and you shall be preserved faultless until the coming of your Lord! So it is, also, with establishment in hope. We know some who are, at times, all bright of eyes and cheerful with hope, and they look into the Eternal World with great delight. They half wish that they could die at once and be where Jesus is! But after a very short time their castle in the air melts away--they have no joy, no hope, no peace. No, "If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." If you hope without believing, your hope is an anchor that has not gripped anything. If you expect without a proper ground of expectation, or if the ground is not what God has said, then you may expect what you like, but as your expectation is not from Him, it will certainly be disappointed. Oh, that you would make the Word of God the top and bottom of everything in your life! Oh, that you would take it as the Alpha and Omega of your knowledge of things Divine! Then would you be established, for there would be something to ground your hope upon, which even Satan could not destroy! And, lastly, we need to be established in spiritual vigor and strength. You do not need to be always babes in Christ-- you need to be fathers. You desire to be useful--you need to be bringing others to Christ. Perhaps you look at some with envy. You say, "Such-and-such a person is quite a mother in Israel. Such-and-such a man is a standard-bearer for Christ. But I am a poor, puny thing, of no use to the Lord." If you would grow, you must believe your God! He that gets close to God and leans wholly upon God, shall have Divine strength imparted to him. We have never believed God, any one of us, as we ought to have believed Him. Some of us have believed Him, as we thought, without reserve at times. Have we not gone to Him? We will not tell the story now--but have we not gone to Him in abject need and cast ourselves upon Him--and found all supplies even exceeding abundantly above what we asked for or even thought? Then have we found that our God has been to us like the illimitable waters of the great sea, and we have cried to others, "Bring your great vessels and fill them from this ocean." I am told that in the olden times, on Christmas Day, it was the custom in country villages for the squire always to fill with good things whatever vessels the poor people brought up to the hall, that they might have a Christmas dinner. It was strange how big the basins grew year after year! Whenever the man came round with the crockery cart, every good housewife would look all over his stock to see if there was not a still larger basin. It was a rule that the squire's servants should always fill the bowl, whatever size it was, and thus the bowls grew bigger and bigger! Oh, my dear Friends, God will fill your bowl however large it is! Get as big a bowl as you can--and when you bring it, if ever there comes a whisper in your ear, "Now you have presumed upon God's benevolence, you have brought too big a bowl"--smile at yourself and say, "This is as nothing to His overflowing fullness." If I said, "O poor Sea, poor Sea, now you will be drained dry, for they bring such big bowls to be filled with your waters!" The sea, tossing its mighty billows far and wide, would laugh at my folly! Come, then, and bring your largest conceptions of God and multiply them ten thousand-fold and believe in Him as this Book would make you believe in Him! Open your mouth wide and He will fill it. He bids you, even, to command Him. He says, "Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My hands command you Me." That is a wonderful expression! Rise to the sublimity of faith and be daring with your God! And you guilty ones, look up, believing that He is greater in mercy than you are in sin--and more able to forgive than you are to transgress--and you shall find it so! But "if you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." Let us all go home, believing in Christ Jesus, for His dear name's sake! Amen. EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON. ISAIAH 7:1-16; 2 CHRONICLES 28:1-16. Isaiah 7:1, 2. And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Tadah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, King of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. They were tossed to and fro, bent, thrown down, as the trees of a forest in a tornado. They had already felt the power of these two confederate kings and they were terribly afraid. David, himself, would have had confidence in God, but, "the house of David" had gone far astray. Ahaz had cast off the fear of God and he had, therefore, great fear of men. 3. Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shear-Jashub your son. Shear-Jashub was but a child and why Isaiah was to take his son with him does not appear, except that his name signifies, "The remnant shall return," and it was part of the Prophet's message that the remnant, the people who had been carried away captive, should return. 3. At the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field. God knows the exact spot where His servants shall meet with the men to whom He sends them. There is a corner where the fuller's field just juts upon the up- per pool--there Isaiah will meet king Ahaz--and there he is to speak to him. Is there any spot by the "Elephant and Castle" where God means to meet with some soul, tonight? I pray that it may be so. 4. And say unto him. The Prophet is told the word he is to speak as well as the place where he is to deliver the message. Isaiah knew that he was soon to go and deal with men of hard heart and deaf ears. The other day we read the sixth chapter of this prophecy and we noted the hard task that Isaiah had to perform. Now he is beginning his work with the man whom the Bible calls, "That King Ahaz," as if it could not say anything bad enough of him, but had merely to mention his name and everybody would know who was meant. 4. Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. Their kingdoms were dying out. They were like burnt-out firebrands--they made a little smoke--and within a very short time there would be nothing left of them. And Ahaz need not be afraid of them. 5-9. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: thus says the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Renzaliah's son. God did not intend it to grow any bigger. These two little kingdoms of Syria and Ephraim were to keep as they were until they were destroyed. 9-12. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established. Moreover the LORD spoke again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask you a sign of the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. He put his refusal very prettily, as men often do when they want to say an evil thing. He refused to accept a sign from the Lord under the idle pretense that it would be tempting God. We never tempt God when we do what He bids us! There is no presumption in obedience. It was an idle compliment, to conceal the impudence of his heart. The Lord invited him to acknowledge Jehovah as his God--"Ask you a sign of Jehovah your God." But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, neither will I tempt Jehovah." He did not say, "Jehovah, my God." And his silence meant dissent. 13. And he said, Hear you now, O house of David. Observe, the Prophet does not say, "Hear now, O Ahaz," as if God would not deal with Ahaz on his own account, but only because he was of the "house of David." The Lord remembered His Covenant with David. God sometimes blesses men for the sake of their fathers. He might not hear a word that they have to say, but He remembers their fathers and the amity and harmony which there was between Himself and their fathers. 13, 14. Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God, also? Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son. A most wonderful sign is this! 14, 15. And shall call His name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. Whereupon a wise commentator says that before children are able to learn, their parents should look upon the very feeding of them as a means of making them to know the difference between good and evil. 16. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that you abhor shall be forsaken of both her kings. This was the sign-manual. Judah could not be destroyed, for our Lord was to spring out of Judah--and this was the sign that Judah must stand because Immanuel must be born of that nation--and the time for this great event was fixed by the Lord. Until a child is some few years of age, he does not distinguish between good and evil; but in a shorter time than it would take a child to come to years of responsibility, God meant to cut off both those kings--and He did. This was a very wonderful prophecy and ought to have filled Ahaz with great delight, and with confidence in God, but it did nothing of the kind. Now we are going to read more of the story of this King Ahaz. 2 Chronicles 28:1-3. Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: but he did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD, like David, his father, for he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim. Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. God had driven out the Canaanites because of these abominations and, therefore, for His own people to practice them was peculiarly provoking to Him. 4. He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. He could not do enough of it--so many trees, so many altars. There are some men who use every opportunity for sin with a diligence which would bring the blush into the face of Christians who are not as diligent in obeying as these men are in sinning. 5. Therefore the LORD, his God, delivered him into the hands of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter. It did not look as if the captives would ever return, yet the Prophet's son was named Shear-Jashub, "The remnant shall return." Ahaz might have said to Isaiah, "Your child's name is a lie." We shall see. 6-11. For Pekah, the son of Remaliah, slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah, the king's son, and Azrikam the governor of the house, and Elkanah that was next to the king. And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria. But a Prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded, and he went out before the host that came to Samaria and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your fathers was angry with Judah, He has delivered them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage that reached up unto Heaven. And now you purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, sins against the LORD your God? Now, hear me, therefore, and deliver the captives again, which you have taken, captive of your brethren: for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you. It was very wonderful that these wild fellows should listen to this Prophet with all those captives round about them. It was a brave act on the part of the Prophet Oded to go out and utter his protest. 12-15. Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshil-lemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against them that came from the war, and said unto them, You shall not bring in the captives here: for whereas we have offended against the LORD already, you intend to add more to our sins and to our trespass: for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel. So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the congregation. And the men which were expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren: then they returned to Samaria. What a wonderful thing that was! Ahaz ought to have said to Isaiah, "Your child's name is right, after all, for the remnant has returned." Did it not seem as if Ahaz must now trust God? But notice what the next verse says. 16. At that time did King Ahaz send unto the kings of Assyria to help him. When men are determined to be unbelievers and disobedient, they will send anywhere for help but to the Lord. Israel and Syria were very little kingdoms, but Assyria was a great empire, the mighty nation of the period. Yet no help came to Ahaz from that quarter, for we read in the 20th verse, "And Tilgath-Pilneser, king of Assyria, came unto him and distressed him, but strengthened him not." The 21st verse tells us that Ahaz bribed the king of Assyria, "but he helped him not." That is always the dirge at the end of all efforts to secure human instead of Divine aid. __________________________________________________________________ Servitude Or Service--Which? (No. 2306) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 30, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL 14, 1889. "Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know My service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries." 2 Chronicles 12:8. THE people of God had left their God and He had left them, so that Shishak, the king of Egypt, came against them, and though the Lord had respect to their humble prayer and would not suffer Shishak to destroy Jerusalem, yet He brought them into subjection to the Egyptian king. Our text tells us the reason for this servitude--"They shall be his servants; that they may know My service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries." Beloved Friends, the children of Israel were bound to the service of God. Jehovah had chosen them out of all the nations of the world to be His people. He had committed the Holy Oracles to the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob--they were, from before the foundation of the world, set apart in the eternal purpose to be the Lord's. That highly honorable and gracious choice ought to have bound them to His service. In addition to this, they were called out by His own voice. Their father, Abraham, was fetched out from Ur of the Chaldees where he served other gods, and he was led to know Jehovah and to follow Him. He walked with God and God was very familiar with him, so that He spoke with him as a man speaks with his friend. All along the ages God called His people out from the world. Especially did He call them out of Egypt, delivering them out of the house of bondage with a high hand and with an outstretched arm. He led them through the wilderness, fed them with manna and instructed them and, in this way, He separated them to be His own peculiar portion beyond all the sons of men. By their calling, then, as well as by their election, they were bound to keep close to the one living and true God. And above this, as if to make them doubly His own, He entered into a Covenant with them. It was first made with Abraham, then it was renewed with Isaac and with Jacob. The Covenant was still further ratified in the wilderness where the Lord promised that when they came into Canaan, He would be their God and He would bless them. But He stipulated that they must obey His voice, cling to Him and have Him, only, to be their God. Also His Word and His Law were to be the rule and guide of their life. This Covenant, God always kept, but the people broke it very soon, so that Moses shattered the tablets of stone, a fit symbol of the way in which Israel broke the Law of God! Is it not very sad to think that the great God, who made the heavens and the earth, should have but one nation out of all the inhabitants of the world--and these His by choice, by calling and by Covenant--and yet that they should continually grow weary of Him? Other peoples did not change their gods. It was a rare thing for a nation to cast away its idols in those days. But Israel, which alone had the true God, while the rest had gods that were only idols, quit the living and true God to set up in His place the gods of the heathen which could do them no good! Now, this phenomenon of human nature, this going after idols and leaving the true God, is constantly being renewed. We have the same thing, even, in the Church of God, which never seems to be satisfied with chaste love for Christ, but continually goes after one strange lover and another. Thus Christ's pure Truth is left for some brilliant error! And His simple worship is deserted for some invention of man! Even when God spoke by His servant, Shemaiah, the Prophet, the men of Judah were itching to be after their idols and panting to get away from God! And the Lord said, "Inasmuch as they have forsaken Me, I have left them in the hand of Shishak, and they shall be his servants; that they may know My service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries." I. In considering these words, tonight, I shall say, first, that THERE ARE SOME WHO HAVE ALREADY CHOSEN THE SERVICE OF THE KINGDOMS OF THE COUNTRIES. We have many round about us who have deliberately chosen not to serve God, but to serve other masters. O Beloved, if you have chosen to serve God, it is because God has chosen you! If I am speaking, tonight, to any of you whose one objective in life is God's Glory, who can truly say that you live as in the fear of God, and before Him, endeavoring to please Him--that is evidence of a work of Grace within your heart. You are very grateful that such a work of Grace has been worked upon you, but how many there are of our follow men who have chosen some other god and some other way of living! Some choose to be the slaves of open sin. Hardly, I think, would they choose such slavery if they really knew all that it included, but they have chosen it practically. How many there are who are the devotees of drunkenness! Ah, me, what can they see in Bacchus that they should worship him? Others are the slaves of licentiousness. I need not mention the forms of uncleanness in which so many wallow in this foul city of ours, where the temptation to sin is in every street. The forms of evil are many--I need not mention them, for, if I did, I might omit one and then, perhaps, the person who is under its influence might fancy that I did not think it to be a sin! But if you choose to live for sinful pleasure, let me tell you that you have entered upon a servitude compared with which the service of God is light and pleasant, indeed. Whatever the strictest form of religion may require of you, it will never demand of you so much as vicious pleasures will. I could stand here and tell of cases that have come under my own notice, of men and women who, in pursuit of sin, have brought themselves to beggary. Have I not seen the son of honest and godly parents clothed in rags and covered with vermin, so that when I spoke to him, I could not, with the utmost sympathy, dare to come within an arm's length of him? Have I not seen the same sort of person, through drunkenness, full of disease, bloated and surely soon to die? And when other sins have been added to these, have we not, sometimes, been in a hospital where, talking with a wretched man upon his bed, who brought upon himself the whole of his disease, we could not but feel that a martyr, when he died at the stake, did not endure for God such awful agony as this poor fool endured in the pursuit of his lusts? I tell you, and I defy the world to doubt the statement, that the service of sin is the most horrible of slaveries and, that, when men give themselves to it, and their passions become dominant, the worse serfdom that there ever was upon the face of the earth is freedom compared with the bondage of a man's own passions! If you want to know the truth about this matter, I would not advise you to learn it by experience, but I would recommend you to go to someone who has run his evil course and has come to the end of it--and ask him if it is not true that the wages of sin is death! Then go to the dying Christian, like one of our Brethren who has passed away this week, a man who spent his Sabbaths preaching the Word and earned his bread in the week-days. When he came to die, with an internal cancer, those who saw him said that nobody could be happier, nobody could be more full of triumph than he in the prospect of soon being with his Savior! Oh, let me serve God! Let me not serve my lusts! Young men, young women, God help you, by His Grace, to make that wise and happy choice at once! There are many persons who are not the worshippers of vice, but they are the votaries of making money. They are the slaves of the thirst for wealth. This is a very common evil and I invite you to look upon those who have made gain the one objective of life. Some have carried it out very resolutely. The miser lives poor that he may die rich. He scrapes money together that his heir may fling it away. I think that his god is a very poor one and that the service he renders to his god is a very wretched business, for when he succeeds in gathering money, then there is the care of keeping it--and with some it is a very great care, indeed! I will not mention the name of one of the richest men of this period, but I believe it is true that when one congratulated him upon his great wealth, he said, "Oh, do not talk in that way! Here is a fellow who has just written to me, saying that I must give him L200 or else he will blow my brains out! And, wherever I am, I am always being persecuted for money. Money brings no happiness to people who possess it." He is one who ought to know, for he has more than most men. You will find that persons who rise in what are called the ranks of society, do not have more happiness--they only have a heavier load to carry. I find one stick to be a great help to me when I go out walking, but if I had a bundle of 20 sticks, I suppose I should find it quite a load to carry. And those who accumulate so much wealth often have to confess that the game is not worth the candle--they have only acquired that which they cannot enjoy. A man cannot wear more than one suit of clothes at a time, after all, and let him do what he likes, he cannot eat seven dinners in a day, and he cannot enjoy ten times more than anyone else. While the poor man always has a stomach for his meat and his only trouble is to get meat for his stomach, this poor rich man can find no appetite to enjoy his dainties. Ah, the advocate of making money is employed in a hard service! I have seen him, even when he is getting old, and when he has made sufficient wealth, with his nose still on the grindstone! He must always be at the office. He must be always sticking to his post like the worst paid clerk in the place--and he is still as stingy as ever. He has buried himself beneath a hill of gold. Live for God, my dear Sir--He will give you the things of this life--He will show you how to get as much as shall be truly useful to you! But if you make gold your god, you will serve a hard master! There are some others who do not try to get much money, but they are lovers offashion, lovers of society, admirers of the world. I will not say much about these ladies and gentlemen. I do not think that I have enough respect for them to speak about their special form of slavery. They must go away from London when "society" goes. They would be ashamed to stay at home when fashionable people go out of town. They must go to such-and-such a place, not because they care to go there, but because it is the fashion! They have to do just this much and they must not do that much. Poor slaves, I should like to snap every link of their chains! It does seem such a dreadful piece of slavery for men and women that they dare not do what is right, and what they would like to do, but must do what other people do! Etiquette binds them hand and foot. Oh, that they had but the will and the strength to break these fetters! The man who dresses for fashion and lives for fashion, ceases to be a man! I know what they call such creatures, but I will not repeat the term of contempt which is applied to them. The woman who lives only to be fashionable ceases to be a woman. I will say no more about her. This idol of fashion is a hard and silly god, for it requires its devotees to make themselves into fools, if not into something worse. Then there is another cult that has lately come up which some have chosen, so that they have become the devotees of "culture." Many have forsaken the simple Gospel and turned away from the belief in their Bible which their mother had, and in which their father died, because they want to be considered very thoughtful and clever and superior persons! Now, I have noticed that whenever a person gives up his belief in the Word of God because it requires that he should believe a good deal, his unbelief requires him to believe a great deal more. If there are any difficulties in the faith of Christ, they are not one-tenth as great as the absurdities in any system of unbelief which seeks to take its place! I do not hesitate to say that the whole doctrine of Evolution, with which many men are fascinated today, is ten thousand times more absurd than the most ridiculous travesty of what is taught in the Word of God and, it requires more faith, and also far greater gullibility than to believe any doctrine which is deduced from Holy Scripture! You will find great demands made upon your faith by Shishak, if you become his servants. He will tax you and take all you have, whereas, to believe what God has said is, after all, but a reasonable service. The man who goes in for the new ideas in religion--the man of "progress," who is so wise and learned--must confess that he loses that sweet rest of heart that he has seen in Christian people, which was enjoyed by the godly woman described by Cowper-- "Who knows, and knows no more, her Bible true, A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew." There is safe anchorage for us, here, but there is no anchorage in the sea ofpersonal infallibility. "Oh!" says one, "I never claimed that." No, my dear Sir, but there must be infallibility somewhere--and if you are the judge of the Word of God, you have shifted the infallibility from the Word to yourself--and you are really the claimant of it. In your own heart of hearts, you think so! Where will you ever get rest with such a delusion as that? He who rests on himself, rests on a very frail foundation, indeed! I believe this night that upon which I can pray, that upon which I can live, that upon which I can die! My faith is fixed in the revealed Word of God and I find that it sustains me in the hour of bitter bodily pain, with which I am too well acquainted--and in the hour of deep depression of spirit, with which I am all too familiar--and in the time of cruel desertion, for I have had some of the best friends fail me. And in the time of slander, for who has had anything worse spoken of him than they have uttered against me? I can fall back upon the eternal Truths of God--they are the hills from which my help comes--and they never fail me. Can any man say the same of his "culture" and "progress," and of his "advanced thought"? Can he live or die on such stuff as that? Why, he cannot even live on it, for, by his own admission, he cannot write out his creed because he believes one thing, today, but he may believe quite another thing tomorrow--and the next day he will, in all probability, have shifted his ground, again. Oh, this Shishak, this new god, lately come up-- his service is unspeakably harder than the service of the eternal Truth of God--and there is no wage to be won from it! I will only refer to one more class of those who have chosen the service of the kingdoms--these are the seekers of self-righteousness. This is an old-fashioned and very respectable deity whom many still worship. They are seeking to be saved by their own works, by their charitableness, by their religiousness, by sacraments, by priests, by their own feelings, by something of their own! It is a hard way in which a man never has any rest or assurance. It is a way in which he runs because of the crack of the whip behind him--"Do this and you shall live! Do not do this and you shall perish!" How infinitely superior is the way of simply trusting Christ and then obeying Him out of gratitude--not working for life, but from life! Not seeking to serve Christ in order to be saved, but because you are saved, and wish to work out that which God has worked in you, to will and to do of His own good pleasure! Surveying these different masters, I venture to say, once and for all, and then I leave this part of my subject, that those who have chosen the service of the kingdoms have made a very foolish and evil choice--and that those who have chosen the service of God may forever bless the Lord with all their hearts! II. Here is our second point. SOME SEEM TO BE PINING TO GIVE UP THE SERVICE OF GOD AND TO GO TO THE SERVICE OF THE KINGDOMS. It is a strange thing, but this evil is always breaking out even among the people of God. Some want to change out of sheer love of change. That you should want to change ministers, I do not at all wonder--my voice must have become very monotonous to some of you--but that you should want to change gospels, that does distress me! That there should be any man who grows weary of the everlasting chimes of the glorious notes of Free Grace and dying love appalls me. No, no! Let me hear the voice of God through eternity, for it has a perpetual freshness and novelty about it! I can bear with the monotony of the preacher, if the monotone is still full of Jesus and His love. But there are some people who cannot be constant to anything. They are like the moon. You could not measure the moon for a suit of clothes with the hope of ever fitting it and, so, you cannot tell what these men are or where they are, for they are always changing. Some want to be off to their idols because of the outward aspect of the new thing. It looks grand to them to go in for the "culture" ideas, and it seems a fine thing to live for the world. Men of the world seem so grand as they roll along in their carriages--why should we not be as great as they? Then there is something very tangible about minding the main chance, for, after all, if you do not get the pounds and pence, where are you? The world will not think much of you! "Oh!" says one, "I like the thought of this following after Christ, but He is a root out of a dry ground, and His people are generally poor, common sort of folk. I should like to get in among the uppermost people." When men begin to run down the people of God, I always find that they are not worth much, themselves. When any man is ashamed of a child of God because he is poor, he must be a very poor creature, himself. But that is often a reason for turning away from the service of God to the service of the kingdoms. Sometimes men turn aside because of their loss ofjoy in the service of God. They are not serving the Lord as they used to do. They are doing but little for Him. Now, a little religion is a very bitter thing. If you have only a little of it, you will find that there is no sweetness in it. It is like the boys that go to bathe in the river in the early morning. One just dips his foot in the water. "Ugh!" he cries. It shivers him right through, but he who takes a header and plunges in, glows all over in a moment! I wish that some religious people would just take a header. If they did, they would feel the joy of the Lord thrill through them and there would be no fear that they would ever want to leave His service. Beware of a little godliness! To say, "I want just as much religion as will take me into Heaven, just as much godliness as will save my bacon," is dishonoring to Christ and essentially evil. When the joy is gone out of religion, we do not wonder that men want to get away from it. Then, there are many who are led to want a change from the service of God by the flagging of others. They meet with many who say, "Well, really, you are not going to keep to that old style of things, are you?" Another says, "I have found something very brilliant and fresh." They listen to these tempting voices and they think to themselves, "One cannot always go against the stream." If they would really think, they would remember that live fish swim against the stream--it is the dead fish that go floating down with the tide. I like the man who says, "I am not going to take my religion from my companions. If they do not intend to go to Heaven, I am sorry for them. But as for myself, I know what I am doing. My heart is fixed, almighty God, fixed on You, believing in Your dear Son, resting in His precious blood! I am resolved, come fair or foul, to keep my face towards the Celestial City till I behold the King in His beauty and reign with Him forever and ever." God give you that fixed and firm resolution! Many cannot do anything contrary to their surroundings-- they must do as other people do, poor creatures that they are. There are some who turn aside because religion has brought them to a point where it entails some extra self-sacrifice. I have known some who have said, "Well, I am prepared for many things in the cause of God, but we must draw a line, somewhere. One may buy gold too dearly. I could not, for instance, give up my employment. If my employer commanded me to do a wrong thing, I think that I should stretch my conscience a little and do it. I could not lose my job." Another says, "Well, I could not enter a protest against such-and-such an error. If I did, I should have all my friends down upon me and they would call me bigoted and narrow-minded." And that would break your heart, would it? It would be a very soft heart if it would. "Oh, but really, I am not the man to stand out by myself!" Are you not? Remember that text, "The fearful"--that is, the cowardly--"and unbelieving shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone." God grant that you may not have that for your portion! Oh, that you may follow Christ at all hazards! Be this your word-- "Through floods and flames, if Jesus leads, I'll follow where He goes! 'Hinder me not,' shall be my cry, Though earth and Hell oppose." III. I am going to finish with this point. THERE IS A GREAT CONTRAST BETWEEN THE SERVICE OF GOD AND ANY OTHER SERVICE. The service of God is delightful. Remember, young man, if you are about to engage in the service of God, there is nothing demanded of you that will harm you. There is no Commandment of God which, if you keep it, will injure either your body or your soul. There is nothing asked of you but what will be for your benefit--nothing that will really be to your loss. If it should seem to involve a present loss, yet it shall be turned to future gain, for God will overrule it for your permanent good. Next, notice, that there is nothing denied you in the service of God that would be a blessing to you. The promise is, "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." You shall neither have less pleasure, nor less strength, nor less real honor if you obey the Commands of God. You may seem, sometimes, to give up what appears to be pleasant to you, but God denies His children nothing that would be really for their advantage. The service of God is, after all, such a service that if we lived selfishly, we might wish to live as God bids us live. If a man were infinitely wise and could fashion a life which, upon the whole, would be best for himself, he could not do better than to fashion it according to the Commands of God and the example of Christ--and you cannot say that of any of the servitudes of which I have spoken. Once more, observe, that in the service of God strength will always be given according to your day. When you serve the Lord, if He sends you out upon a tough piece of work, He will give you extra Grace. And if He calls you to great suffering, He will give you greater patience. He does not require of you more than He is prepared to give you. He will do for you exceeding abundantly above what you ask or even think! What a service is this in which we are never sent to warfare at our own charges? Shishak, the king of Egypt, and all the Egyptian kings built pyramids and dug canals. You have often wondered how they made them. In the reign of one of them, nearly a third of a million of people were forced to go and dig a canal--and they were not only never paid a penny, but they never had even a piece of bread given to them, nor were they even furnished with tools. The bulk of them had to dig out the canals with their own fingers and they perished by the thousands. That is your Shishak, king of Egypt! That is the devil's service all over! There is no reward given and no help whatever. You are left to do the best you can--and that best brings you no reward, either in this life or in that which is to come. Here, again, is a further beauty about the service of God, that there is no threat made to hang upon it. You are saved if you are a believer in Christ--that matter is done with--Christ has saved you! You do not go out to work for God with any idea of winning Heaven, or of escaping Hell by what you do. You are saved and you serve the Lord with a higher, purer, grander motive, namely, that of unselfish gratitude, loving Him because He first loved you! You serve God after a very different fashion from the servitude of sin. The servitude of a slave is bitter, but the service of a son is sweet-- and to that we are called! And all the while that you are the servant of God, you have a sweet peace in reflecting upon what you have done. Did you ever go out for a day, or for an evening, with friends, spending a merry time in gaiety, perhaps not altogether censurable, but still, not entirely commendable? When you have gone upstairs to bed, have you not thought, "Well, somehow, I do not feel quite happy"? When you went to pray, did you not feel as if you had broken your knees? And when you awoke in the night and thought over what seemed so very nice at the time, was it not honey in your mouth, but gall in your stomach? Did you ever spend a whole day in the service of God? When you have gone to bed at night, how have you felt? Very tired, perhaps, but oh, so thankful that you could look upon it all without regret! You could chew the cud of that service! There was something in the remembrance that soothed you in the night. As George Herbert said, when he helped a poor woman with her load--and men wondered that the parson of the parish should carry a poor woman's basket for her--"The memory of this will make the bells ring in my heart at night," so the service of God makes the bells ring in our hearts! Lastly, there is above all this, a hope of the eternal reward which is so soon to come. I spoke, the other day, on board ship with a Brother in Christ, and as we talked together, I said, "Well, you know, I may be in Heaven in a quarter of an hour. If the ship went down, I do not believe that it would make any difference to me." And he said, "Nor to me." I believe that we were the happiest men on board that steamer! How sweet it is to feel that you are not your own, but that you belong to God! If you really belong to God, He will not lose you. He has never, yet, lost anything that was truly His. He puts the broad arrow or the bleeding heart on you to show that you belong to the King! The devil, himself, dares not run away with you. God will call for you in that day when the inventory of the Divine possessions shall be read. You shall be known as marked by the King--and you shall be His forever and ever! Oh, let us try to live so that we can die in the same style as we are living! It is well to be walking in such a way that you can walk right straight on though a grave should be in your way-- and walk right straight through it--and out at the other side. Young man, are you going the way that you would like to keep on going forever and ever? The train is starting. You are taking your seat. Which way do you want to go, to the realm of brightness, or the land of eternal darkness? Take your seat in that carriage which will go right through to the better land and, taking your seat, feel, "Now the train may go right onto the terminus. For this purpose did I enter it, that I might go to the end of the journey." Many want to go as far as they can down the dark valley and then they hope that they will get out at some station or other and change their track. Be not so unwise, but, tonight, enter the right train! Lay hold on eternal life! Put your trust in Jesus and may we meet in Heaven without having had to know by bitter experience the awful difference between the service of God and the service of the kingdom of darkness! God bless you, dear Friends, for Christ's sake! Amen. EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON. 1 KINGS 14:21-24; 2 CHRONICLES 12. 1 Kings 14:21. And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. After great mountains often come low valleys. Solomon was a wise man--Rehoboam was otherwise. 21. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when be began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. Rehoboam ought to have been a good king. Jerusalem was the holy city, the chosen city. God put His own name there. It is a sad thing that this king should try to put away God's name from the chosen city. 21. And his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. There was bad blood in him. How often do we find that the good king has a good mother's name mentioned with his own! Bad kings generally come from some stranger, some heathen princess. It was so with Rehoboam. 22. And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. Their fathers had been great sinners, but, in the days of David, they had not set up false gods. In the days of Solomon, after the Temple had been built, they began to go astray. It is a curious thing that a high ritualistic service, even if it is right, is usually attended with a coming down in spirituality. When the Temple service was instituted, it was the beginning of a decline, but in Reboboam's day that decline became more apparent, the "down-grade" became more visible. 23. For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. They could not have enough of it. When men go wrong, they generally go wrong very greedily--they cannot have too much of evil. 24. And there were also Sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. When men once turn aside from the living God to follow inventions of their own, there is no telling where they will go. Nothing is too foul, nothing is too filthy for them. Now read the same story as you find it in 2 Chronicles 12. Verse 1. And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom. and had strengthened himself, he forsook the Law of the LORD, and all Israel with him. They prospered, at first, by adhering to Jehovah. The good people out of the neighboring land of Israel emigrated to them, strengthening them, but, as soon as they grew strong, they forsook the Law of Jehovah. 2. And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem because they had transgressed against the LORD. Shishak did not know that fact, nor did he care about Jehovah. God so ruled in Providence that when His people cast Him off, He soon found a rod with which to chasten them. The King of Egypt determined to conquer them. You do not know, my Friends, how God will strike you, but if you err from His statutes, He will never be long without a rod. You will bring chastisement on yourself if you depart from the living God. You will have yourself to blame if some dire affliction happens to you. 3. With twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians. This vast crowd ate up everything! The rule was to quarter on the enemy. They would devour every eatable thing throughout the whole country! 4. And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem. When God means to chasten a people, He does not take long to do it and neither can their weakened strength successfully oppose their enemy. 5. Then came Shemaiah the Prophet to Rehoboam, and to the princes of Judah, that were gathered together at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said unto them, Thus says the LORD, You have forsaken Me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak. The Prophet gave them no invitation to repentance, but just an explanation of the sorrow which had come upon them. 6. Whereupon the princes of Israel and the King humbled themselves; and they said, The LORD is righteous. That was well done. They had not yet become so confirmed in their rebellion as to reject the Prophet of God and to turn in willful, wanton, resolute disobedience against him. 7. And when the LORD saw that they humbled themselves. Though it was not in a spiritual way, yet 7. The Word of the LORD came to Shemaiah saying, They have humbled themselves: therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and My wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. He shall not storm the city! He shall not destroy it. 8. Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know My service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. The Lord's people were to know the difference between the service of God and the service of the kings of the countries round about them. It would be a very sharp contrast and a very bitter one. 9. So Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD. The Temple was always very rich. Shishak came and stripped it. Everything there that was really valuable was taken away. 9. And the treasures of the king's house; he took all. He could not very well take any more. That is generally the way with the devil. God is satisfied with tithes, but Shishak and Satan take all. 9-11. He carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made. Instead of which king Rehoboam, made shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, that kept the entrance of the king's house. And when the king entered into the house of the LORD, the guard came and fetched them, and brought them again into the guard chamber. That was a come-down, indeed, from shield's of gold to shields of copper! That is, I suppose, what is meant here by the brass. This is what the king suffered at the hands of Shishak and it was an emblem of the condition of his people. The golden kingdom had became a bronze one. 12. And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned from him, that He would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well. Or, some behaved well. Even a measure of humiliation is acceptable with God. And though He did not save the nation from being plundered, yet He did rescue it from being altogether struck. Alas for Rehoboam, he did a bad day's work when he turned away from God! 13, 14. So King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem, and reigned: for Rehoboam, was one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD. He was one of that fickle sort, neither here nor there--a compromising gentleman--not very definite in anything. He would go right if he were driven that way, and he would go wrong if he were led in that direction. Oh, how many there are who never prepare their hearts to seek the Lord! They are not determinately bad--they have not enough backbone in them to be leaders in evil--but they are never good for much because they have never made up their minds to do the right at all costs. They have never had their heart prepared by the Holy Spirit to seek the Lord. 15, 16. Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the Prophet, and of Iddo the Seer concerning genealogies? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David: and Abijah, his son, reigned in his stead. So they pass away. One generation dies and another follows. God grant that when we fall asleep it may not be with the sin of Rehoboam lying upon us, neither may we be succeeded by evil sons, but may we serve God in our day and be followed by those who shall serve Him still better! The Lord grant it! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ The Greatest Exhibition of the Age (No. 2307) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 7, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY 5, 1889. "For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till He comes.'" 1 Corinthians 11:26. FIRST, let me say that the Lord's Supper is nothing to us unless we partake of it as spiritual persons in a spiritual way. We must understand what we are doing in coming to the Communion Table. The mere mechanical celebration will be vanity. It may even be a sin. To observe this ordinance aright, you must bring your mind in an awakened state. You must come with holy faith, love and concentrated thought. I pray that we may so come, tonight. I know how mechanical we all get. We even stand up and sing and, oftentimes, we forget what we are singing while the sounds issue from our lips. We cover our eyes in prayer, but we do not always pray. There is such a thing as preaching from the mouth outward, instead of speaking from the heart. And I believe there is a kind of hearing which is dreadfully superficial and can do the hearer no good. Now, if you come to the Supper, tonight, bring your hearts with you! And if your hearts are warm with love to Christ, desire to have them yet more full of love to your Lord. I remember reading of a Mr. Welch, a very devout minister of the Gospel in Suffolk, who was found weeping one day. And when he was asked by a brother minister why he wept, he said it was because he should love Christ more than he did. That was a very good reason for weeping. Now, let us love our Lord much, tonight, and if we cannot feel the glow of love as we wish to feel it, let us weep to think that it is so. May the Spirit of God come and put life into our Communion, that every child of God, here, may have real fellowship with Christ in the breaking of bread! But now, let us get to our work. The Lord's Supper, dear Friends, is, first of all, a memorial. "This do in remembrance of Me." It is intended to keep alive in our own hearts and in the minds of others, the wondrous fact that the Son of God was here among men and laid down His life a Sacrifice for sin. It is well known that a custom, a rite, a festival, has a very great historical power to keep up in the minds of men the recollection of a fact--and our Lord has selected this common meal, this Supper, as a method by which men should be made to know to the very end of time that He died. There can be no doubt about the death of Christ because through long ages all history bears record that Christian men and women have met together--and have eaten bread and have drunk wine--to keep up the memory of His sufferings and death. This is better than if there had been a statue erected, or than if a document had been written, or than if a brass tablet had been inscribed. We are not without memorials of other sorts, especially are we not without books, but this perpetually celebrated feast--kept up without cessation, kept up in every country on the face of the earth--is one of the very best memorials that the death of Christ can have. All of you who come to the Table, tonight, will be helping to keep alive, in the memory of men, the great fact that Jesus died. But the Lord's Supper is more than a memorial, it is a fellowship, a communion. Those who eat of this bread, spiritually understanding what they do--those who drink of this cup, entering into the real meaning of that reception of the wine--do, therein, receive Christ spiritually into their hearts. Their heart, soul, mind feeds upon Christ, Himself, and upon what Christ has done. We do not merely record the fact, but we enjoy the result of it. We do not merely say that Christ died, but we desire to die with Him and to live only as the result of His having died! We take scot and lot with Christ as we come to the table. We say deliberately, "Yours are we, You Son of God, and all that we have. And You are ours and, in testimony thereof, we eat this bread and we drink of this cup to show that we are one with Yourself, partners with You in this great fellowship of love." Well, now, if you need a permanent memorial and a perpetual means of fellowship, it will be wise to have a rite or ceremony in which there shall also be a likeness to the fact that has to be remembered! This supper is, therefore, an exhibition, a showing, a setting forth, a proclamation of the death of Christ. That you may remember that Jesus died, there is something here that bears a resemblance to His death. That you may the better have fellowship with Him in His death, here is something which is a vivid picture of that death and which will help to bring it more clearly before your mind's eyes. That is the subject for tonight's meditation--this Supper as a showing forth, an exhibition of Christ's death, "till He comes." In speaking of this exhibition, this showing forth, we will consider, first, what it shows. Secondly, how it shows it. And thirdly, how long it is to show it. I. Thinking of this Supper that we are about to celebrate, we will consider, first, WHAT IT SHOWS. "As often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death." Brothers and Sisters, tonight we are to show, to exhibit, to demonstrate, to set forth, to symbolize, to represent, to picture the death of Christ! He lived, or He could not have died. That fact is, therefore, included in our confession of faith. But the point we especially set forth is this, that He died, He who was born at Bethlehem, the Son of Mary, and who lived here on earth, being also the Son of God, in due time, died! He gave His life a ransom for many. Why do we record that fact? To my intense grief, I have heard it said, even among a certain class of preachers, that we dwell too much upon the death of Christ. They ask why we do not talk more about His life. The death of a man, they say, is not so important, by a great many degrees, as his life. The Lord have mercy upon the miserable and ignorant men who talk in that fashion! But we have a reason for making so much of Christ's death--the Lord has instituted no memorial of His life--the memorial that He has instituted is to keep before His people the perpetual remembrance of His death. And why is that the case? I take it because this is the very heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The doctrine that He died, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God," is essential to the Gospel. Leave out the vicarious Sacrifice unto death, and you have left out the life of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! There are some Truths of God which ought to be preached in due proportion with other Truths, but if they are not preached, souls may be saved. But this is a Truth of God which must be preached and if it is left out, souls will not be saved! I should have more hope of the salvation of a man hearing a Romish priest, with all his superstition, if he preached the death of Christ, than I should of one hearing a Unitarian, with all his intelligence, if he left out the doctrine of the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ! "The blood is the life thereof." "Without shedding of blood is no remission." Because the death of Christ is the life of the Gospel, therefore it is that there is an ordinance to set forth that death "till He comes." And this is the more so, in the next place, because this is the point where the Gospel is always being assailed. You shall find, in almost every controversy, that the fight thickens about the Cross. It is around the standard that the foemen cluster. There the sword rings upon the armor! There the loudest shout is heard! There you see the garment rolled in blood! So the Cross, the Cross is the standard of our Christianity! Round the Atoning Sacrifice the controversialists gather. They think they are aiming at other things, but the real password is, "Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the Divine Substitute for men." If they could once get rid of the Doctrine of the Atoning Sacrifice, they would destroy that which is the greatest tower of strength to the Gospel of Christ! But, thank God, they cannot get rid of the Cross! We can still sing-- "The Cross it stands fast, Hallelujah! Defying every blast, Hallelujah! The winds of Hell have blown, The world its hate has shown, Yet it is not overthrown. Hallelujah for the Cross! It shall never suffer loss! Therefore, set forth the Atoning Sacrifice of Christ, Brothers and Sisters, in this ordinance, "till He comes." So well does this Supper set forth the death of Christ in that respect, that it has been argued by some Brethren that, if a man comes to the Communion Table, unless he is a great liar, he has already made a confession of faith in Christ. I will not go that length, but there is a good deal of truth in the argument. If you truly eat and drink of this Supper, you must believe in the Atoning Sacrifice--you come here under false pretences if you are not a believer in that, for, at the institution of this Supper, the Savior said, "This is My blood of the New Testament (or Covenant) which is shed for many for the remission of sins." The pardon of sin must be by the shedding of the blood of Christ--and if you reject the blood of Christ, you have rejected the true meaning of this Supper--and, certainly, you cannot come here with a clear conscience. This Supper, then, sets forth the great fact that Jesus died, and it is ordained to set that death forth because it is essential to the Gospel, and because it is the point which is most fiercely attacked. And you will notice, Brothers and Sisters, according to our text, that this showing of the death of Christ is to be kept up through every age "till He comes." It will not be needed after the Coming of Christ for reasons which we will speak of, by-and-by, but until then it will always be needed. Shall I always have to preach the Doctrine of Atonement? Yes, always. Shall we always have to set Christ forth evidently crucified among men? Yes, always. First, because we always need to have this Truth of God set forth. You and I, who are firm believers in this glorious Truth of God, yet cannot too often think upon it. I love to come every Lord's-Day to the Communion Table--I should be very sorry to come only once a month, or, as some do, only once a year. I could not afford to come as seldom as that. I need to be reminded, forcibly reminded, of my dear Lord and Master very often. We do so soon forget and our unloving hearts so soon grow cold. How is it with you, my Brothers and Sisters? I know that it is thus with me. I sing, sometimes-- "Gethsemane, can I forget? Or there Your conflict see, Your agony and bloody sweat, And not remember Thee!' But that is the point of my argument. We need to go often to Gethsemane and there see our Lord's agony and bloody sweat, that we may remember Him. I suppose that, until we see His face, we shall never have one Communion too many, and we shall never have a thought of Christ that is superfluous. No, banish all poetic thought rather than that I should lose a thought of Him! Be gone the most delightful classical expression and the most charming thoughts of philosophers, if they would push out one thought of Jesus, for thoughts of Christ are golden thoughts--and thoughts of other things, however burnished by the wit and genius of men--are but poor metal compared with thoughts of Jesus! We need this Supper for ourselves, Brethren, and we should partake of it often, for that is what is meant by our Lord's words, "As oft as you drink it." We need that often we should eat this broad and drink this cup--and show His death for our own sins. But this Supper is as much needed for the sake of others. We are to show Christ's death that others may know about it, that others may be impressed by it, that others may be saved by it! I sometimes wonder, when I am talking to you upon this theme, that I do not preach much better. And yet, when I have done, I say to myself, "Well, how can there be anything better if one only tells the tale truly?" That God came here in human flesh and for our sins did serve, did die. That He bore the vengeance due to our guilt, the punishment which our transgressions had incurred. Brethren, that is poetry! It is essential poetry, even though I only put it into a child's speech. It needs no garnishing. The face of perfect beauty must not be touched with Jezebel's paints! And all the garnishing of eloquence that can be brought to such a fact as this is unnecessary, meretricious, and degrading. Oh, hear you the tale, and then, as you come to the Table, remember what it is that you set forth, and say to yourself, "I am, by this action, telling a story more wonderful than all the histories of men put together. I am showing to those who look on something which angels desire to look into, which the most wonderful intelligences will, throughout all the ages, study with ever-growing wonder and delight--God Incarnate, suffering in the sinner's place!" Show that forth, Brothers and Sisters, for it is worth the showing! II. But now, secondly, having mentioned what it is that this Supper shows, let me prove to you HOW IT SHOWS IT. It does so, first, very instructively in the emblems themselves. We need to tell men and to tell our own hearts that Jesus died. Well, look, here is bread! Mark you, not a wafer, but a piece of household bread. And here is wine in a cup. Not wine and water, but the true juice of the grape, which our Lord called, "the fruit of the vine." What then? Here are bread and the fruit of the vine, separately. Bread, representing the flesh of Christ, has a million sermons in it. Shall I tell you its story? It was a grain of wheat. They threw it into the ground, they buried it beneath the clods, it lay there exposed to winter's cold. It sprang up and many a frost nipped it in the green blade. But then came spring weather and summer tide, and the wheat grew and grew on till it turned into the yellow golden grain. Look, they come along with a sharp sickle and cut it down! It must feel the keen edge. After cutting it down, they take it away in sheaves. They spread it out upon the barn floor. Here are flails which come hammering down upon it--in those olden times they used flails. Now they beat out the grain from the ear and now, when they have all the grain separated from the straw, it must be winnowed and the chaff must be blown away. Then they take this wheat and put it between two stones and grind it. Woe unto you, O Grain, you are ground into the finest flour! But it has not finished its history of suffering yet. When well ground and separated from the bran, it is taken and a woman kneads it with all her might, and makes it into dough. Nor is its suffering ended, yet, for she thrusts it into the oven! Now does it feel the heat of the fire and when the loaf is taken out of the oven, it is cut, or broken, and devoured. It is a story of suffering from the beginning to the end! Now take that cup and look into its ruddy depths. Do you see that vine yonder? You expected to find it festooned on trelliswork, a lovely object--but looking at it in the winter and spring, you say to yourself, "Is that a vine? It looks like an old, dead stick left in the ground." Yes, it has been cut down. Did you not see the pruner's knife? How sharply he cut! "Surely," you said, "he is killing that vine." No, vines are made to bear much fruit by being closely cut and pruned. But now it is summer and in the early months of autumn the vine is loaded with red grapes--and those grapes must be taken off the vine and severed from the branch. Look, they are throwing them into the winepress, heaps upon heaps! Look how they are piled up! And what happens now? Men leap in upon them and with their feet they tread the grapes. The blood of the grape runs out of the winepress, red like ruddy gore! This is the history of the wine of which you drink and so it comes to you. And, oh, I need not tell you of your Lord, how He was thrown into the winepress, and how He suffered even unto death! These elements of bread and wine are stories to you and emblems of suffering! You notice, too, that these emblems are separate. If I were to take the bread and crumble it into the cup, and then pass it to you that you might drink of that curious mixture, you would not celebrate the Lord's death at all! It would not be possible, for it is the body with the blood separated from it that sets forth death! While the blood is in the veins, you have life, but when the blood is drawn away from the body, which is set forth to you in the pure white bread and in the red juice of the grape, then you have the picture of death--and in that way you show Christ's sufferings and death in the celebration of this Supper. So much I have, I hope, made plain enough for all to understand. Now notice the manner of the use of these two elements, for the manner of their use vividly shows Christ's death. I think it is in the Church Catechism that we are taught that the word, "sacrament," means "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual Grace." That definition will do for this ordinance, which is the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual Grace. It is very remarkable how the emblems before us appeal to our various senses. Notice, first, the Savior took the bread and the cup. You see them--they are before you, you can see them. After He had blessed them, He said, "Take." Did you ever see, in a very Ritualistic church, that little game played by the priest with his napkin held out under the chin of the communicant and, telling him to open his mouth and popping the wafer in? This is not eating the Lord's Supper, for the command at the institution of the Lord's Supper was, "Take, eat." It is essential that you take it in your hand. "Take, eat." So there is another sense that is affected in this sacred exercise, that is, the sense of touch. Jesus took the bread and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, that they might employ the second sense. They had seen, now they touched. "Take, eat," said the Lord, and they held it in their hands. Never do you have the Lord's Supper without an appeal to the ears, for He said, "This is My body." Whenever we break this bread, we say the same, "This bread is Christ's body," so there is an appeal to the ears. You put the bread and the wine into your mouth--there comes in your fourth sense, your taste, so that four senses are made to assist you in realizing that Christ did really die, that His death is no dream, no fiction! It is not merely a man in a book, but a living Man who died, a real Man who poured out His life unto death for you! I have said that four senses are appealed to, but I might add the sense of smell, also. There is an old proverb, "Nothing smells so sweet as bread," and to a hungry man there is nothing so refreshing as the presence of bread which regales the nostril. The Lord has given us an ordinance, here, in which He brings our body to support our soul and to render vivid to our mind by at least four, if not all of our five senses, this most blessed fact, that Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary and the Son of God, did really lay down His life a Sacrifice for us! But now I remind you of another thing. We show the death of Christ, in the next place, by the mode of the disposal of this bread and this wine, for these elements go into our bodies. They are received into the inner man and are digested and assimilated there, and taken up into our system to build us up. And herein we teach that Christ, dying for us, is to be received by faith into the heart. We are to believe in that death as being for us. We are to appropriate it as our own. We are to trust in it. We are to live upon it. It is to become part and parcel of our spiritual nature and we are to be built up, thereby, for Christ's death on the Cross saves nobody to whom Christ does not come into the heart. If you do not believe, even Christ lifted up between earth and Heaven will not save you. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." But without receiving Him, Christ is dead in vain so far as you are concerned. You have no part nor lot in this matter. This fact, I say, we set forth by the method of the disposal of the emblems. And now, carefully note that the spirit of this ordinance is also very instructive. How does it begin? Jesus takes bread and blesses it. In other words, He gives thanks. It is very usual to call this ordinance the Eucharist, or, the giving of thanks. That is the spirit of it--it is all through a giving of thanks. Now, mark you, there is no reason to give thanks for the death of Christ unless it was an Atoning death and an expiation for sin. I should regret, infinitely regret, that a good man should die as Jesus died unless there was an end to be accomplished by it worthy of that death. The end of Christ's death was that, dying for us, by the shedding of His blood, there might be remission of sins--and for that we may well give thanks! The Communion begins with thanksgiving, but how does it continue? It continues by our sitting at ease. There are some who think that to kneel at the Communion is the most reverent posture. So it is, and I doubt not that God accepts their reverence--but it is a most unscriptural posture! There is more presumption than reverence in it, for to alter the ordinance of Christ, even on the pretense of reverence, is not justifiable! When our Lord first of all instituted the Supper, they did not sit down as we do, but they reclined as the Orientals still do, at their ease, so much at their ease that the head of John was on the breast of Jesus. I cannot conceive anything more exactly the opposite of coming up to an altar rail and kneeling down, than this reclining upon couches with your head upon your next neighbor's bosom! The fact is that it meant ease, it meant rest--and that is what the posture which we take up should mean. Our nearest approach to that which can be tolerated in our western clime is to sit as much as you can at ease, as a person in this country does at a banquet, as near an approach as possible to the method of the Oriental at his banquet. That is how the feast goes on--it began with a blessing, it proceeds with a restful posture. How does it end? After Supper they sang a hymn. It was not a dirge, it was not funeral--they celebrated the death of Christ, but not with funeral rites. They sang a hymn! It was joyous, probably part of the great Hallel of the Jewish Passover. This indicates to us and we set it forth, that the death of Christ is now a joyous event--that to the whole of His people it is not a thing to sigh over, but that, believing in Christ--it is a thing to thank God for, to be at ease about and to sing over! And we set that forth by the manner in which we partake of this Supper. One thing more we set forth. The persons who come to the Table must be, according to Christ's rule, believers in Him. They, and they only, have a right to eat of this feast. Others eat and drink unworthily and drink and eat condemnation to themselves. We do, therefore, say, albeit that there is no limit to the value of the Sacrifice of Christ (that were inconceivable), yet He had a special objective in it and He died for a special people, which people are known by their being led to believe in Him, to unite with Him in a distinct affiance by trusting in Him. Not for you all will this avail, but for all of you that believe, for so it is written, "For God so loved the world," so much and no more, "that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life"--a universality which, nevertheless, has a specialty hidden in its inner self. Believe this, or else this death is not for you. Trust Christ, or else you shall have no share in the blessings which His death has purchased. And we set that forth when, gathering at the Table, we come as Believers, but we are obliged to tell others that if they are not Believers, they must not come--they have no right to come. III. My time has nearly gone, and therefore I must finish with the third point. We have seen what this Supper shows, and how it shows it. Now we are to consider HOW LONG IT IS TO SHOW IT. I have tried, as best I could, in a very simple way, to show how this Supper symbolizes and sets forth the death of Christ. How long are we to do it? "Till He comes." Well, now, what does that teach us? When Jesus comes, we are to leave off observing the Lord's Supper, but not till He comes. It teaches us, then, that there will always be a value in Christ's wondrous death. God would not have us set forth a thing that is done with, a sucked orange, a mere shell out of which the seed is gone. If the death of Christ were not abundantly efficacious, still, He would not have us set it forth. But tonight we can sing, with as much meaning and force as ever we could-- "Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood Shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed Church of God Be sa ved to sin no more." It is nearly 1,900 years since Jesus was here and yet His blood is still powerful, His death can still take away sin! Come and try it, tonight, some of you who have never believed in Him! Tonight, I say, at the close of this-- "Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky." Come now, tonight, and yield yourself to the Lamb of God, and wash in His precious blood, and you shall be whiter than snow! The Communion Table is just now covered with a white cloth, but when it is uncovered, and you see the bread and the wine, they will say to you, "The Atonement is still existing, it is still efficacious, it is still full of power." We celebrate the ordinance because Christ's death is still available for all who trust to it. The next thing is, dear Friends, that by saying that we will partake of this Supper till Christ comes, we set forth our belief in the perpetuity of this ordinance until the influence of Christ's death shall have been infallibly secured. We are now in a world where men forget and, as long as we are in such a world, we must keep this signpost, this direction to those who want to journey to Heaven! We must never take this signpost down till there will be no need of it because Christ will have come--and when He shall have come, Beloved, we shall not, even then, forget His death! When He shall come, do not think that we shall give up the Lord's Supper because we give up thinking of Him. No, we shall give it up because we shall, then, never give up thinking of Him! He will be present with us and He, being present with us, we shall not need the help which now our weakness requires! So then, in closing, I say to you that this Supper is a window, a window of agate, and the outlook of this Supper is the Second Coming of the lord from Heaven. This Supper is also a gate of carbuncle and through this gate we are to watch for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ from the Throne of His Glory to this earth. The Lord shall come. As surely as we are sitting here in this house, so surely will He, before long, appear a second time on earth, "without sin, unto salvation!" And we mean to keep up this feast "till He comes."-- "See, the feast of love is spread. Drink the wine, and break the bread-- Sweet memorials, till the Lord Calls us round His hea venly board. Some from earth, from Glory some, Severed only 'Till He come!'" Could you keep on feasting "till He comes," my unsaved Hearer? I think that you had better weep and mourn, repent and believe, and so get ready for His appearance! But those who are ready may just keep on feasting upon Him and rejoicing in Him, till He puts in His last and glorious appearance! God help us to continue so, for Jesus' sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. JOHN161-20. This chapter contains some of the most precious Words that the Lord Jesus uttered before He died upon the Cross. Verse 1. These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended. Or, as the Revised Version translates it, "be made to stumble." Christ would not have His children stumble. There is an offense of the Cross, but He would not have us needlessly offended. How careful is our dear Savior not to give us offense! We ought to be very careful not to offend Him, but what condescension it is on His part that He should be careful of offending us, or of permitting us to be offended, or made to stumble! 2. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he dose God service. Can you remain faithful to your Master, then, when you lose your position, or your character, or men put you out of the synagogue? When you nearly lose life, itself, and when they shall think they are doing God's service by seeking to kill you, can you stand true to Christ, then? The Master knew that days of bitter persecution would soon come upon His followers, so He strengthened them against those evil times that were approaching. 3. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor Me. It is ignorance that makes men hate God's people and His Son--"They have not known the Father, nor Me." Truly did Paul say, "I did it igno-rantly in unbelief," and for such persecutors there is full and free forgiveness. When they turn unto the Lord, even this sin shall be forgiven them. But they will not forgive themselves for having committed it and, like Paul, they will count themselves the chief of sinners because they persecuted the Church of God. 4. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them. "You will then see My foresight, My care for you, My prophetic power. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. You will not be taken by surprise." If any of you who have lately been converted should meet with great opposition, do not be surprised--Jesus has told you to expect it--and if the fire should get seven times hotter, count it no strange thing that the fiery trial has happened to you. It has happened unto others before you and will happen to others after you! Therefore be prepared for it. 4. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. "While I was with you, you could run to Me and tell Me all about your trials and difficulties. If anybody was hard with you, I could come to your help and comfort you. You did not need to know these things, before, so I did not tell you of them. You need to know them, now, and now I tell you of them." 5. But now I go My way to Him that sent Me. Christ was going to the Cross and to the grave, and afterwards to Heaven. 5. And none of you asked Me, Where go you? For lack of asking that question, Christ's disciples were full of grief. Sometimes we do not ask enough questions. We ask too many questions of doubt--it would be well if we were to ask a few more questions of believing curiosity! There are some things that we ought to wish to know and Christ encourages His people to come to Him for information. 6. But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow has filled your heart. When a poor Christian friend is dying, you are full of sorrow because he is going away from you. Why do you not ask where he is going? If he is going Home to Heaven and to Glory, why, then, be comforted about him! You have no cause for distress on his account. 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away. "It is better for yon that I should be absent than that I should be present." Their Lord was their joy, their Leader, their Teacher, their Comforter. He is going away and He tells them that His absence will be a gain to them! "It is expedient for you that I go away." 7. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. Now, it is better for us to have the Comforter than to have Christ here in bodily Presence, for if Christ were here, tonight, in this Tabernacle, where could we put Him so as to be equally near, each one of us? I should certainly want Him up here on the platform! And you, up there in the top gallery, would say, "Well, we are a long way off--why should He not come up here?" You see, if it is bodily Presence that is enjoyed, some must be near, and some must be far off. But now that Christ has gone up to Heaven, His Spirit is here. Where is that Spirit? On the platform, I hope, and everywhere else! Any of you who desire Him, may have the Holy Spirit's Presence. The Lord says," I will put My Spirit within you." Better than the bodily Presence of Christ is the real, though spiritual, Presence of the Holy Spirit. 8. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and ofjudgement. What? A Comforter reprove? Yes. The Holy Spirit never comforts till He has reproved. There must be a reproof of sin before there can be comfort in Christ! And while the Spirit comforts saints, He reproves the world. 9. Of sin, because they believe not on Me. The greatest sin in all the world is not believing on Jesus. Our Lord did not say, "Of sin, because of the evil of drunkenness." That is a great sin, a cursed sin and there are other great sins, but Christ said, "Of sin, because they believe not on Me." That is the root sin, the foundation sin--the sin that keeps a man in his sin. 10. Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and you see Me no more. It is God's Righteousness that takes Christ up to Heaven. He has been here. He has lived a perfect life. He has died a Sacrificial death and God has shown His acceptance of Him, for He has gone to His reward. 11. Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. When Christ came here, there was a crisis, a judgement. And sin was judged and condemned and the Prince of the world, the chief sinner in the world, received his deathblow-- "the Prince of this world is judged." 12. I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them, now. See how Christ teaches us slowly, wisely, prudently? There are some things which some of you young Christians do not know--you could not bear them if you did know them. You shall know them when you can bear them. A man with a doctrine that he cannot handle is often like a child with a tough piece of meat which he cannot bite. Give the child milk, or the crumb of the loaf! Do not put crusts into his mouth till he has teeth to bite them. Do not give him meat till he can digest it. See the gentle Savior's way of imparting instruction? He teaches us much, but not too much at a time. 13. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide yon into all Truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. See, my dear Brothers in the ministry, how little store the Holy Spirit sets by originality? We have men, nowadays, straining to be original! Strain the other way, for listen, "He shall not speak of Himself--not even the Holy Spirit--"He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak." He is the Repeater of the Father's message, not the inventor of His own! So let it be with us ministers. We are not to make up a Gospel as we go along, as I have heard some say. We are not to shape it to the times in which we live, and suit it to the congregations to which we speak. God forbid! Let this be true of every one of us, "He shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak" 14. He shall glorify Me. The Holy Spirit does that. Therefore, surely we, who are the preachers of the Gospel, should aim at the same objective--"He shall glorify Me." It should be our one desire to magnify and glorify our Lord Jesus Christ! 14-16. For He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father has are Mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you. A little while, and you shall not see Me; and again, a little while, and you shall see Me, because I go to the Father. That was a very simple statement! Every Sunday scholar understands it, now, but the 12 Apostles did not understand it when they heard it. 17, 18. Then said some of His disciples among themselves, What is this that He says unto us, A little while, and you shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and you shall see Me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that He says, A little while? we cannot tell what He says. They said this "among themselves." This was not a wise course, for what can ignorance learn from ignorance? Here were disciples questioning one another--none of them knew anything--and yet they were trying to teach one another. If they had all gone to their Master, how much more quickly would they have understood His words! Take everything to Jesus! Try everything by the Word of God. Do not believe what you hear because I say it, or because somebody else says it. Go to the Word of God to learn what you need to know, and to the Spirit of God to teach you the meaning of what you read! 19, 20. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask Him, and said unto them, Do you enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and you shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and you shall see Me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, That you shall weep and lament. Christ would die. He would go away and be unseen. On the Cross He would depart out of this life. In the tomb He would be hidden from His disciples--"You shall weep and lament." 20. But the world shall rejoice. But not for long--the world's joy at Christ's death was soon over. 20. And you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. I think we may leave off our reading at this verse, with these words to flavor our mouth all this week--"Your sorrow shall be turned into joy." God grant that it may be so with many here present, for Christ's sake! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ Ten Wrong Kinds of Hearers (No. 2308) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 14, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL 21, 1889. "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God." Isaiah 58:1,2. IF we would understand these words aright, we must remember that the people here mentioned were not good people--they were a set of hypocrites. This is quite clear if we read the verses that follow our text--"Why have we fasted, they say, and You see not? Why have we afflicted our souls and You take no notice? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers. Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily: and your righteousness shall go before you; the Glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard." It is a very pleasing sign when people like to go up to the House of God. I do not know of a more beautiful sight than the present congregation, with every seat occupied, and some people even willing to stand to hear the Word preached! There are many who would give all they have to see such a sight! How sad is the opposite of this! An empty place of worship--people loafing about at home all the Sabbath, not caring to listen to the eternal Truth of God--that is a very melancholy state of things. We take delight in seeing persons anxious to get in to hear the Word. I know that there are some here who would not be absent from the assembly of God's people on any account. When they are ill, their Sabbaths are always dull to them. And if they go into the country, they seem to miss the opportunity of hearing the Gospel as they have been accustomed to hear it. All this is most pleasant and most delightful, yet remember that there may be nothing at all in it! This congregation will soon scatter and break up--and when it is divided into its separate particles and nothing is left of it--it may come to pass that nothing will be left of it in another sense, that is, that there will be no result whatever from our meeting together. As I said in the prayer, it may be just one big wave breaking on the shore, dying away and leaving nothing behind. I pray God that it may not be so. Yet, my dear Friends, you who are the most regular hearers of the Word and who have been so from your childhood, you need to be warned that the mere hearing of the Gospel will not save you! Yes, and the continuous hearing of it may increase your responsibility and do nothing more! If you are hearers, only, it may come to pass that, at the last, you will have heard for the worse, not for the better, for the only record that will remain of all those Sundays and of all those sermons, will be that you have just so many times willfully hardened your neck and continued in rebellion against the tender mercy of God! What I am going to do, tonight, is not so much to preach Christ, though I trust I shall not fail to do that, as to deal with different classes of hearers and to show the difference that there is between those who hear without acceptance and without profit, and those who hear so as to please God--those whose hearing becomes a part of worship, those who hear desiring benefit for themselves, and whose hearing becomes a saving act--for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God! While I try to draw a few distinctions, not occupying too much of your time upon any one of them, I invite every person here to examine himself, whether he is in the faith. I invite every hearer to put himself into the crucible to see what is his true condition in the sight of God. Never mind your neighbor--let him use his own ears for himself--you use your ears for yourself just now. Better still, let each one of us go to the Lord with the Psalmist's prayer, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." I. First, THERE ARE SOME WHO GET NO GOOD OUT OF THE HEARING OF THE GOSPEL BECAUSE THEIR HEARING IS SOON FOLLOWED BY FORGETTING. It is true that they hear and, for a time, they hear it with considerable attention. But it is only for a time. They regard the exercise of hearing as being confined to the time which the sermon occupies and, with some, the shorter that time is, the better they like the discourse! When the sermon is over, it is done with as far as they are concerned. They may happen to remember that they were at such a place, on such a day, and heard a sermon from such a text--but that is all that they remember. They are glad that the preacher's words should drop as the dew, and distil as the rain--but they like it to be like the rain when it trickles off the leaf of the plant and leaves no mark--or like the dew which is exhaled before ever the sun is up. They do not want to have any abiding result from the hearing of the Word. It is a temporary thing with them. I was going to say it is a trumpery thing with them. They hear the preacher's message, the service is over and, at the door of the sanctuary they leave behind everything that they have gathered there--in fact, they have really gathered nothing. Now, it is not so with the profitable hearer. He says to himself, "That which I am about to hear, today, is God's Word. My Soul, take heed that you retain it and lay it by in store! You are listening to a Gospel which is the wonder of the ages. You are hearing of mysteries which angels desire to look into. You are hearing the story of God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, that He might redeem men from going down into the Pit. Now, my Soul, hear for eternity!" Ask that the impression made upon you shall last in life, in death and be seen at the Day of Judgment to be a saving, enduring, sanctifying impression upon you. Oh, that men felt that to come to hear the Gospel is not like going to the market to hear goods cried, or going to an auction to hear an estate set forth and extolled, or attending a lecture to listen to what was done in the rocks in the ages past, or what is going on in the stars that glitter in the heavens! These are all things that will pass away! We are come together to hear about God, Heaven, Hell, the soul, eternity, immortality, the Judgment, the eternal rewards--everlasting life and the everlasting doom--eternal death! Here is something worth the hearing. I sometimes think that I have no need to fret myself about how I put these things before my hearers, for if men were in their senses, they would naturally want to know the truth about their souls and, knowing that, in whatever language it was put, they would be quite content. If there were a lecture, tomorrow evening, upon how to make 500 pounds a day--if a man could tell you how to do that and yet he spoke in broken English, you would be quite satisfied so long as you could put in practice what he was teaching you! And when we are teaching men the way to Heaven, the way to peace with God, the way to got sin pardoned and the heart renewed, it ought not to matter how we deliver the message--the news, itself, ought to be so precious that men would be glad to hear it even though we stuttered and stammered it out! Alas, it is not so. But it would be so if all men were the right kind of hearers! Wrong hearers belong to the Slate Club--they write on a slate what they hear and then wipe it all off. But the Christian hearer has the Gospel message "engraved as in eternal brass" and it abides with him world without end. II. Next, THERE ARE SOME WHOSE HEARING IS THE HEARING OF MAN--NOT THE LISTENING TO THE VOICE OF GOD. Dear Friends, if you go into some places of worship where the preacher does not believe that the Word of God is Inspired, you may listen to him or not as you like. He has no claim on your attention if what he preaches has not, "Thus says the Lord," at the back of it. You have as much right to require him to listen to you as he has to expect you to listen to him! He has to tell you and he will tell you his latest thoughts, his freshest inventions, his most novel excogitations. Well, you may throw them over the wall and have done with them, if you like. If he is a learned and clever man, you may attach to what he says the importance which you ought to attach to the words of a clever man, but you are not required to pay any more attention than that to anything that he has to say! But if we plead with you that what we read to you is God's Word, every syllable of it, and that what we preach, if it is not taken from God's Word is nothing, that its only weight and force lie in this, that we deliver the Inspired Truth of God, putting it into our own language, but still giving you the Truth as far as we know it, as a Revelation from God, then at your own peril will you refuse it! These gentlemen who, themselves, deny the Inspiration of the Book of God, thereby renounce all claim upon your attention except such as you like to give to your fellow men. But if a man can say, "Thus says the Lord," and the Lord has sent him in the power of His Spirit and by His anointing, to deliver His Gospel as the Gospel of God and not the Gospel of man, then I pray you to give an earnest and a diligent heed to the things that you hear lest by any means you should let them slip! We are nothing of ourselves, but if we deliver God's message, that message is everything, and we can say to our hearers, with deep solemnity, "How shall you escape if you neglect so great a salvation?" If this is what God really speaks to you, then woe unto you if you will not hear it! And if this is in very truth an Inspired message from Heaven, then shall you be blessed if you hear it, for it is written, "Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live." It makes all the difference between hearer and hearer whether you are hearing God or hearing only a man! If you hear the sermon as the word of man, it shall be the word of man to you and do you no good. But if you hear it as the Word of God--if you search your Bibles to see whether these things are so and if, finding them to be God's Word, you receive them, and tremble at them, and do honor to them as coming from God--then they are able to save your souls and they will save your souls! Oh, my dear Hearers, this may not seem a great point, but it is a truly essential one! Here we may divide our hearers. They who hear the Gospel as God's voice, hear it to live--and they who hear it as the mere lecture of man, hear it in vain! III. Let me draw another line of distinction, a pretty clear one, too. THERE ARE SOME WHO WILL HEAR THAT WHICH PLEASES THEM, BUT THEY WILL NOT HEAR THAT WHICH TRIES THEM. I know my hearers pretty well by this time. There is one who likes good sound doctrine and if you preach doctrine to him, he says, "Oh, ah, that is delicious!" Give him a precept. "Ugh!" he says, "I do not like that, you know. I never care much about duties." You are a bad hearer--and you will get no blessing out of it. There is another man who likes to hear about the practical part of Christianity. He belongs to the Ethical Society, but if you give him Scriptural teaching about the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, he grinds his teeth and he is ready to turn on his heels and depart in a rage. That is not the kind of hearer whom God will accept, or who will get any good out of what he hears. There are some hearers who like a sermon when it just brushes their fur the right way. "Oh!" they say, "that is the right sort of preacher for us! Those are our sentiments. Now we can go on as we have been going. See what excuses he makes for us? He will allow us to be Christians and worldlings, too. That is the kind of preacher we like, one of your liberal sort." But the true hearer says to himself, "I do not ask to be pleased. Give me the man who just tells me the Truth of God though it vexes me at the time that I hear it." I do not need a doctor of the sort that says, "Oh, my dear Sir, there is very little, indeed, the matter with you! You need just a week's rest and change, and then you will be all right"--all the while knowing that you have a deadly and incurable disease upon you. Do you think that such a man deserves his guinea from the patient he is deceiving? Give me the doctor who examines me through and through, who finds out to the best of his knowledge what ails me, and then deals with me like an honest man, not trying to make out that I am better than I am, but who tells me what my disease really is, and treats me for what he knows is wrong! Oh, yes, God's ministers are not sent to please men! We are not sent to tickle itching ears, but to drive the sword of God's Spirit into the hearts of men, for He says, "Therefore have I hewed them by the Prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth." God's Prophets are rough hewers. They come with the axe and with the rod. They come not to fiddle while you dance, nor to blow the trumpet to tell you of a victory won without fighting. Ah, Sirs, you are bad hearers if you cannot hear that which rasps you, that which stings you, but which is honest Truth of God and is meant to make you repent of your sins! Give me not the man who makes me merry, but the man who makes me penitent! Not the man who sends me home filled with a fine conceit of myself, but the man who, whatever I think of him, makes me think badly of myself and brings me to my knees to seek mercy through Jesus Christ my Savior! This point reveals a great difference among hearers, does it not? IV. Now, there is another class, with whom I would deal next, namely, THOSE WHO ALWAYS WANT TO HEAR SOMETHING NEW. We have in London a sort of flying camp of people who always turn up when there is anything fresh. Every new man gets a congregation for a time out of these celestial gypsies, that put up their tents on every common. You know this sort of people. If there is a new thing cried up, they are after it. There will be another novelty in six months' time and they will be after that just as eagerly. They are always looking out for something fresh. Did you ever grow any fruit trees? If so, did your gardener ever recommend that they should be transplanted every six months? If so, the apple chamber may be as small as you like! That kind of hearer, who first hears this, and then hears that, and then hears the other, and after that a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth thing and always likes the last new toy best, is a baby to begin with, and he remains a baby to the end of the chapter! No, give me the Truth of God that I knew as a boy, and fed upon, then, and let me feed upon it, still! As I said this morning, the true Israelite was as well fed on the manna after 40 years as he was at the first. It is the mixed multitude that needs the quails and something else, but the heir of Canaan, the true Israelite, is satisfied to eat the bread that came down from Heaven. He needs nothing better. He knows that there cannot be anything better. His prayer is, "Lord, give us this bread forevermore." Do I address any here who go about from one place to another in this style? You sheep that never stop in one pasture, how will you ever fatten? How will you ever grow spiritually strong? Besides, I think your conduct shows that you do not know the great secret, after all. If you did, you would be of his mind who said, "The old is better" and, having tasted that, you would keep to it even to the end! V. Let me draw another line of distinction. THERE ARE SOME HEARERS WHOSE HEARING IS ALL FOR THE ELOQUENCE OF THE SPEAKER--NOT FOR THE SUBSTANCE OF THAT WHICH IS SPOKEN. That comes home to some of you, I know. If a man can speak thoroughly well, and is a man of fluent utterance, a man of dramatic action, a man who makes the subject alive before your eyes, that is the preacher whose words you will remember! And he may preach any doctrine he likes, or no doctrine at all--that is not the point. Why, surely, you are like stupid people who will go to a shop because it is such a handsome shop, no matter what is sold in it! It may be utter rubbish and your money may be all wasted, but then it is such a pretty shop, is it not? Why, you good housewives know better than to do that! Many a man has a pretty shop, but his wares are bad--buy not from him, I pray you! We do not need, on the few Sundays that we have, the few days which we have to live, and with death so near--and judgment so tremendous--to go to the House of God merely to have primroses and pretty flowers presented to us by the preacher! Oh, for God's sake, put your flowers away! These souls are being damned! Come to close grips with them, Sir! Show them the way to Heaven and leave your flowers until they get there! And then they will not care for your tawdry, artificial eloquence! The only eloquence that is worth having is that of the heart--that which comes straight up from the soul of a man and he speaks well because he speaks out of his heart! O Sirs, I charge you, do not so insult the God of Heaven as to spend His Sabbath in merely listening to big words and fine oratory! What is this but to turn the Chapel into a theater and to make the preacher to be a mere performer? I had rather use market language and be as vulgar as vulgarity, itself, and carry souls to Heaven, than be a very Demosthenes, or a Cicero, and leave men's hearts untouched! Alas, that there are hearers to whom the words are everything and the sense is nothing! VI. I will draw another line, helping you at the same time to draw one for yourself. THERE ARE MANY WHO HEAR THE GOSPEL, BUT DO NOT HEAR IT FOR THEMSELVES. They hear it as people look at a picture. You know what we do with it--we stand and look at the foreground, and judge as to the distance, and the side lights, and the perspective and so on. (I do not know much about the terms of painting). And we just say, "That is a very beautiful view, that piece, of water yonder, that wood, those trees, the cattle, all are very pretty." Is not that how many people hear sermons? "Under the first head, did you notice so-and-so?" Or, "Under the second head, did you observe what the preacher said?" "When he came to that point, I thought it was rather well-turned." "I did not like so much that observation toward the close of the sermon--I thought that was rather rough." Yes, you see, you are judging the discourse as if it were a painting! That is all it is to you--but is this what it was meant to be? No, the true hearer looks into the Word of God as into a glass in which he may see himself as he really is. And when he sees himself in that glass, he says, "I did not know that I had that spot over the left eye. I was not aware that I had that blotch on my forehead. I must go and wash and be cleansed." It is well to hear a discourse that makes you see yourself as you are in God's sight. Many, when they hear a sermon, say, "I wonder how So-and-So would feel that sermon." What have you to do with him? Lend anything that you have to spare, but do not lend your ears! They will never come home so sound as when you lent them out. Keep your ears for your own use and let the Truth of God go home to your own heart, for this, and this only, is the kind of hearing that will ever save the soul! When you, yourself, hear for yourself, then you may yourself get right with God and live by faith in Christ Jesus! VII. Now I will mention a point which, I am afraid, will come home to a very large number now present. THERE IS AMONG HEARERS TOO MUCH OF UNPREPARED HEARING. I will tell you what I mean. The man comes fresh from the shop. That I do not mind, but perhaps he comes in fresh from care, from anger, from quarrelling, from the use of unhallowed language. And he comes in to hear the Word of God with his ears stopped up. Now, the right way to hear so as to get a blessing is to hear with prayer, to come up to hear what God the Lord shall speak, praying all the while, "O God, bless the message to my soul! Send me strength, tonight, through some part of what is said or sung that I may really be fit to hear Your Word. Prepare me, for the preparation of the heart is from You. Make me like a plot of plowed land that, when the seed falls upon me, I may receive it and bring forth a harvest." Now, my dear Hearers, do you think that we really prepare ourselves enough for the hearing of the Word of God? Do you not think that we lose a great blessing because we do not come prepared to hear what God the Lord will say unto us? I have sometimes been greatly rejoiced when I have seen the numbers of persons who have been brought to Christ by my preaching, but I have always taken a very large discount off anything like praise that I might give to myself, for I have said, "Why, those people, as a rule, come on purpose to hear me!" When I have preached in the country, the people have come there on purpose to hear and have had almost to fight to get in--and they have made up their minds that they are going to hear something that they need to hear and something that will be a blessing to them--and they have sat with their mouths wide open, taking in every word. Of course, anybody can open oysters when they open their shells, themselves. When people come prepared, then it is that their hearts are readily reached. But when people come prejudiced, with their shells tightly shut up. When they do not mean to hear, do they wonder that no good comes to them through the discourse? How could it? Only by a wonderful act of the sovereignty of Divine Grace could they expect to get a blessing. VIII. There is a further distinction that I must mention. THERE ARE MANY WHO COME TO GOD'S HOUSE TO HEAR FROM A LOW MOTIVE and such do not usually get a blessing. Some come from a very base motive. We have known some come that they may catch up a word with which they may find fault. Oh, dear Hearts, if you need to find fault with me, you need not listen but for five minutes! I shall always give you plenty of opportunity and let me tell you another thing, I shall not fret if you find the opportunity. It will not, in the least degree, trouble me. I would rather that you should find fault than that you should be quite indifferent. If you will only let the Word enter your hearts, you may do what you will with me--kick me, if you like--only mind that you get to Heaven! There are some who make a man an offender for a word. They turn over all the basket of fish and because there is one that does not smell quite sweet, they cry it all over the market. That is their style of acting towards the preacher. They would not like to be dealt with in that way, themselves. It is a base motive altogether. Some come from another motive. There is one here, tonight. He has come up to see his brother. He does not generally go to a place of worship, but John said to him, "William, come to the Tabernacle with me, tonight." He does not like to offend John and so he comes. Another young man has come because there is a young woman who comes here. I am not going to blame him for that, but still, it is not an honorable motive for going to hear the Word of God. Another has come to see the Tabernacle, to look at the building. And another has heard that the preacher is such a strange man. He will come to see what he is really like. That is a poor motive. Many of you come because, well, you have only come here because your mother comes here. You come because it is the custom and the habit--and you would not like to become perpetual Sabbath breakers, forsaking the assembling of yourselves together. If that is all you come for, you will get it, and it is nothing. But if you come to hear the Word, saying, "I come to weigh it, to see whether it is God's Word, and if it is, I will follow it. If it comes to me with the power of the Holy Spirit, commending itself to my conscience, I will obey it, I will yield to it, for I need to find salvation through the Word of God, and I come with that intention"--I do not believe you will come a dozen times, any one of you, to hear the Gospel with a view of finding Christ in it, but what you will find Him! "He that seeks, finds." IX. I must draw yet another distinction and that is, that MANY COME TO HEAR THE WORD, BUT AFTER HAVING HEARD IT, THERE IS NO IMPROVEMENT IN THEM. One of our Brethren told me, just now, that a friend in the market said to him, "Do you always hear Mr. Spurgeon?" "Yes," he answered, "I have heard him these 25 years." The other said, "Then you ought to be a good fellow." "Well," I said, "he did not say you were a good fellow, did he? "No, but he said I ought to be." If you have heard the Gospel for 25 years, you ought to be a good fellow. If it is the Word of God that you have heard--and you have not improved by it--surely you are becoming like that fig tree that brought forth no fruit. At last the mandate went forth, "Cut it down, why cumbers it the ground?" But, alas, there are many who hear the Word for years, but are none the better for all their hearing. X. Lastly, THERE ARE SOME PERSONS WHO DO NOT HEAR TO PROFIT BECAUSE THEY DO NOT BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. You have not accepted the Christ who has been preached. You have heard about faith, but you have not believed. You have heard about repentance, but you have never repented. What do you come for, if you never make any practical use of what you hear? Why do you come? A man keeps a shop on the Causeway and you go into the shop when he opens it on Monday. You go up and down, look at all the things, and go out again. Do the same on Tuesday and Wednesday, ask to see his goods, and look them all over, but do not buy anything. Try that for a week and you will get some very clear hints that you are not wanted there! If you go to a shop, you are expected to buy! I would like to give some of you a plain hint about that matter. You have come to my shop and turned my goods over, but you have not bought anything. Is my price too high? It is, "without money, and without price," so you cannot say that! "Whoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Come and take the Savior and He is yours! Trust Him and you are saved! Why, would a person go to see a physician and go often, and pay his guinea, as some of you pay your pew-rents, and yet never take the medicine, never get the prescriptions made up--but just get the directions--and then neglect them? It is absurd! Such a man as that must be a fool! I will not say that anybody here is a fool, but I do not know what else he is if he understands what he must do to escape from the wrath to come and yet never does! This line is a very clear and distinct one and I wish that we might cross it, tonight, if we have never before crossed it. Cross the line by decision for Christ! That is the point. You have heard aright if you have found Christ! You have heard for nothing if you have not found Him. If you have looked to Him upon the Cross, you have heard to your eternal profit, for he that looks to Him shall live! If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you are born of God! If you are trusting yourself wholly to Him, you have eternal life, for he that believes in Him has everlasting life! But if you believe not in Christ, you might as well have heard the noise of Cheapside as have heard the sound of the Gospel! You might as well have heard the toll of the drum at the barracks as have listened to the proclamation of Jesus Christ, for all the good that it will ever bring to you. Now hear God's message to every one of you, tonight, you who have not yet believed--"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house." God help you to do it, for His dear love's sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. LUKE 13:6-30. Verse 6. He spoke also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. It was a fig tree, a fruit-bearing tree by profession, so it ought to have borne fruit. It was planted. It was not a wild tree, it was planted in a vineyard, in the proper place for fig trees to grow, in good soil and, therefore, the owner of it had a right to come and look for fruit on it. But he found none. Have we not here, tonight, some who are planted in the Church of God who ought, by their profession, to be bearing fruit, but they are not? Christ has come and He has looked for fruit. But He has found none. 7. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I came seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbers it the ground? The owner seems to say, "If I had not found fruit the first year, I should have thought that the season was unfavorable. If I had found no fruit the second year, I might have thought that, perhaps, the tree was a little out of condition and would come round again. But when I come for three years, and three years consecutively, and I find no fruit, then it is clear that the fig tree is a barren one! Why should it stay here and spoil the soil, occupy the place that a good fig tree might have occupied and take away the nutriment from other trees?" So if, after many years, some of you have brought forth no fruit, God may well complain about you. You are eating the bread that might have nourished a saint. You are occupying a place in which your influence is injurious to others. Others do less because you do nothing. I pray the Holy Spirit to bring this home to the conscience of any barren professor whom it may concern, lest the command should go forth, "Cut it down; why cumbers it the ground?" 8, 9. And he answering said unto him, Sir, let it alone this year, also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bears fruit, well: and if not, then after that you shall cut it down. Even the vinedresser's pleading has a limit--"Give it one more year." He admits that the time must come for the axe to cut down the tree that is fruitless. The cumber-ground tree cannot stand forever--it is unreasonable that it should. And you cannot be permitted to live forever in sin--you cannot be allowed to taint the air with blasphemy for another 50 years. There must come an end to such a life as yours and that end may come very soon. The edge of the axe is sharp and the hand that wields it is strong. Beware, O barren tree! 10, And He was teaching in one of the Synagogues on the Sabbath. When there happened a very remarkable miracle. The parable that preceded it was a parable of judgement--the miracle that followed was a miracle of mercy and Grace. 11, 12. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to Him. You can see her slowly moving along, bent double. Hers was a painful walk, but she came at Christ's call. 12, 13. And said unto her, Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity. And He laid His hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. See what Christ can do! After I had preached this morning, I had to speak with just such a woman as this, one who has been, for many years, the victim of deep despondency. How I wished that I could lay my hands on her and say, "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity"! But we cannot work such a miracle as that. It is Christ who must do it all and, blessed be His name, He is always great in a pinch! Christ loves to come in at a dead lift. When we are all beaten and we have reached man's extremity, then it is Christ's opportunity! Oh, you poor despairing woman, bent double by your sadness, the Lord's hand can restore you and we pray for you, tonight, even the thousands of Israel pray for you at this moment! Lord, lay Your hand upon that poor child of infirmity! 14. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation. Wretched creature, to be indignant at Christ's doing good! There is no reckoning with self-righteous people! They are mad, themselves, and they think others so. 14, 15. Because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath. The Lord then answered him, and said, You hypocrite--It served him right! This is just the word that would naturally come to the lips of the Savior. Because He was loving and tender, He could not endure this hypocritical indignation--"The Lord then answered him, and said, You hypocrite." 15,16. Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath? A very conclusive argument. You may do deeds like this on the Sabbath and you may come and be healed on the Sabbath, even though it should involve you in a journey. It is so necessary that you should get the Bread of Heaven, so necessary that you should get the blessing of Christ, that on this day you may come and be healed. 17-19. And when He had said these things, all His adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him. Then said He, Unto what is the Kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. You get a little Grace, tonight. Let that Divine Man take but a grain of the mustard seed of His Grace and drop it into your heart, which He will have prepared like a garden, and there is no telling what will come of it! That sigh, that tear, that wish will grow into holiness of life and zeal of conduct! It may be but very little in its beginning, but it will grow. Both good and evil begin with very small eggs, but they grow into great things. 20. And again He said, To what shall I liken the Kingdom of God? Now take the bad side and see how the Kingdom of God may be perverted and injured by evil influences. 21. It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. That woman of Rome has hidden her leaven in the Church and it has leavened the whole--and now the woman of intellect has put her leaven into the Church. Conceited self-invention of new doctrines, perversion of the simplicity of the Gospel--that kind of leaven has been hidden in the meal of the Church--and it is leavening the whole. God help us to keep out the leaven both of Romanism and of Rationalism! 22. And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. His face was toward the Cross. He was working His passage to His Sacrifice and preaching His way to that place where He should complete our redemption. This is a wonderful picture of Christ--"teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem." 23. Then said one unto Him, Lord, are there few that are saved? What business is that of ours? Our business is far more practical--to be saved, ourselves, and to endeavor to be the means of saving others! Jesus did not answer the question-- He did what was better. 23, 24. And He said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. You can get into the broad road without striving. But you must, "strive to enter in at the strait gate." Strive for that which requires self-denial, that which humbles you, that which goes against the grain, that which is not according to human nature. Do not imagine that Divine Grace is to be had while you are half asleep and that Heaven is to be gained on a feather bed. Strive, strive, for many will seek in vain to enter! Seeking is not enough! It must come to a holy violence--"Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." When will that be? That will be when you are in another state. 25. When once the master of the house is risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us. They will be very respectful. They will call him, "Lord." They will be very earnest. They will pray, "Lord, Lord." They will be very simple and very honest in their request--"Open unto us." They will be very personal--"Open unto us." Such will the prayers of the ungodly be when they wake up to the fact that they are shut out of Heaven! 25-26. And He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not who you are: then shall you begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Your Presence, and you have taught in our streets. They came to the Communion Table. They used to hear sermons indoors and out of doors. "You have taught in our streets." 27. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not who you are; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. They shall be judged by their works. If they were workers of iniquity, it proved that they were unrenewed and unsaved. Christ will not endure their company but will say to them, "Depart from Me." 28. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. You who thought that you had a share in the Kingdom of God, and were, by birth, the natural heirs of it--"You yourselves thrust out." 29. 30. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last. The least likely to be saved shall be saved! The blackest sinners, the vilest outcasts, the grossest unbelievers shall be brought to repentance and faith and shall be saved! While those who were first in privileges, children of godly parents, professors of religion. Those who appeared in every way likely to be first saved, will be left to the last, and be shut out of the Kingdom of God, never to enter. God grant, in His infinite mercy, that nobody in the Tabernacle, tonight, may be of that unhappy number! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ God's Works Made Manifest (No. 2309) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 21, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY 12, 1880. "Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents" (that he was born blind): "but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." John 9:3. NEVER attribute any special sorrow endured by men to some special sin. There is a tendency to consider that those on whom the tower in Siloam fell must have been sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem. And if any have met with a very sudden death, we are apt to suppose that they must have been exceedingly guilty--but it is not so. Very godly men have been burned to death in a train. I remember one who came to that terrible end. Many holy men have been drowned on board ship when they have been going about their Master's errands. Some of the most gracious men that I ever met have dropped dead without a moment's warning. You cannot judge of a man's state before God by that which happens to him in the order of Providence. And it is very unkind, ungenerous and almost inhuman, to sit down, like the friends of Job, and suppose that because Job is greatly afflicted, he must, therefore, be greatly sinful. It is not so. All afflictions are not chastisements for sin--there are some afflictions that have quite another end and objective. They are sent to refine, sent as a holy discipline, sent as sacred excavators to make more room in the heart for Christ and His love. Indeed, you know that it is written, "As many as I tenderly love, I rebuke and chasten." "Whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives." It was, therefore, in the last degree, absurd to suppose that if a man was born blind, it was a punishment for the sin of his parents, or a punishment sent beforehand for some sin which he might commit, by-and-by. Our Savior bids us look quite another way and regard infirmities and physical evils as sent to be a space wherein God may display His power and His Grace. It was very specially so in this particular instance and I am going to push the fact, further, and say that even sin, itself, existing as it does everywhere, existing especially in some, may afford what we call, "elbow room," for the Grace of God and may, indeed, become a platform upon which the wonderful power, patience and sovereignty of Divine Grace may be displayed. That will be the subject that we shall talk about, tonight, how God takes opportunity from the sorrows and the sins of men to make manifest His own works to His own Glory. As this man was born blind, in order that, through his blindness, the power of God might be seen in giving him sight, so I think there are many in whom the power of God may very readily be seen and the works of God be very clearly made manifest. I. So, first, let us enquire what works these are. WHAT WORKS OF GOD ARE SEEN IN THE SALVATION OF MEN? There is a man over yonder who is all out of order. There is nothing right about him. He is a man upside down. His heart loves that which will ruin it and does not love that which would bless it. His understanding is darkened. He puts bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. His will has become very domineering and has usurped power which it never ought to possess. If you will study him well, you will not make much of him. He is all out of gear, like a piece of machinery in which the wheels do not operate correctly. To describe him briefly by one word, I should say that he is in a state of chaos, everything is in confusion and disorder, tossed up and down. "Well," says one, "that is my case. I am like that tonight." Now, the first work of God that we read of in the Bible is the work of creation--"In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth." When the fullness of time was come for the fitting up of the world, which event we generally call, creation, although it was really the arrangement of that which had been created, then the Lord came forth and the Spirit of God, with outspread wings, brooded over chaos and brought order out of confusion. Oh, that the Spirit of the Lord would, tonight, come and brood over that man's confused and confounded mind where everything is tossed about in wild disorder! He cannot tell why he was born, nor for what objective he is living. He seems to have no purpose in life, he is tossed to and fro like a log in the ocean. His passions fly from vanity to vanity and you cannot put him in order. His mother tried it, but he scorned to be tied to her apron strings. Many friends have tried it since then, but he has now taken the bit into his mouth and has run away--he refuses to obey the reins. O God, if You will come, tonight, and make him a new creature in Christ Jesus, Your creating work will be made manifest in him! If You will mold, and model, and form, and fashion him until he shall be a vessel fit for Your use, then will the work of God begin to be manifested in him. Oh, that it might be so! There are some of us here who can bear witness that God is a great Creator, for He has made all things new within us and transformed what before was chaos into a world of beauty and delight wherein He delights to dwell. After the world was created, God's next work was that of making light. The earth was created, but it was swathed in darkness. "Darkness was upon the face of the deep." No sun, no moon, no stars had yet appeared. No light had yet fallen upon the earth--perhaps by reason of dense vapors which shut out the light. God did nothing but say, "Let there be light; and there was light." Well now, tonight there has come in here one who is not only without form and void, and dreadfully tossed about, but one who is, himself, dark and in the dark. He needs the Light of God, but he has none. He does not know the way of life. He does not see a ray of hope that he ever will find the way. He seems shut up in gloomy, thick, Egyptian night and, perhaps, worst of all, he does not know his true condition--he calls darkness light, and prides himself that he can see, when really he can see nothing at all! Lord, speak the Word, and say, "Let there be light," and the man will see the light, and see it at once! I am quite sure that, whether I can speak with power, or not, God can speak with power and, standing here, it is to my heart a sweet solace that He can, at this moment, find out the most darkened sinner in the building, sitting or standing anywhere about, and the Light of God can penetrate into his soul in less time than it takes me to say the words! And to his own surprise the darkness shall be light about him and the Egyptian night shall be turned into the midday of infinite love and mercy! Pray God that it may be so, Brothers and Sisters! Lift up a silent prayer to Heaven, for this light-giving! This illumination is a special work of God and there are many who are now in the dark, in whom it is possible for this work of God to be manifested. After these two works of God are done, after we have had creation and light-bringing, still there is death and there is need of the Divine work of resurrection. What is the use of a form beautifully fashioned if it is dead? And what is the use of light shining with all its brilliance upon a corpse? Yet in this House of Prayer there are, tonight, some who are dead in trespasses and sins. They do not feel the weight of sin, yet to a living man it is an intolerable burden. They are not wounded by the two-edged sword of the Lord, though a living man is soon cut and gashed by it. They do not even hear the joyous notes of Free Grace and dying love though they ring out like a peal of silver bells! These dead sinners do not appreciate their sweet music. It is the work of God to make men live. There will come a day, and perhaps sooner than we think, when all the myriads of bodies that lie in our cemeteries and churchyards will rise up from the grave to live again! That will be a manifestation of Divine Power, but it will not be a greater manifestation of Divine Power than when a dead heart, a dead conscience, a dead will is made to live with a Divine life! Oh, that God would work that mighty miracle of mercy tonight! Pray that it may be so, beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ. The dead will not pray for this resur-rection--therefore let us pray for it for them! And if there is a man who does pray for it, one who cries, "Lord, make me live!" that is a proof that already there is a thrill of life shooting through him, or he would not have that living desire! Brethren, I might thus continue working upon the line of the story of the creation and the arranging of the world in due order, but I will not--you can do that for yourselves. I want, next, to speak to you about the Divine work of cleansing. There is, tonight, in this place of worship, a man who is black with filth. He has done everything that he could do in order to rebel against God. Perhaps he is like Mr. John Newton who describes himself somewhat thus--he says, "I was, in many respects, like the Apostle Paul. I was a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious, but there was one point in which I went beyond the Apostle Paul, for he did it ignorantly, but I sinned against light and knowledge." Do I speak to any here who, in sinning, have transgressed very grossly because they have done what they knew was wrong and have perse- vered in doing it against the checks of conscience and against the warnings of a better longing, which they have never yet been able to kill? I am amazed, sometimes, when I have had to talk with those whose lives have certainly gone almost to the very extremity of iniquity, but who, nevertheless, all the time have had a certain inward check that would never let them go just that little piece further which would have put them beyond hope. There was always a something that they still revered, even when they pretended to disbelieve everything and to blaspheme everything! There was some influence for good still operating upon them, as though God had a line and a hook in the jaws of leviathan--and though he ran out so far into the great deep of sin that you could not tell where he had gone, yet he had to come back, again, after all. God still does wonders of mercy and Grace! Now, suppose, tonight, that that black sinner, with all his years of sin, should be forgiven outright? Suppose that, tonight, the whole of those 50 or 60 years of sin should vanish once and for all? Suppose that God should forgive, better still, that God should forget? Suppose that, with one tremendous fling of His Omnipotent arm, He should take the whole mass of that sinner's sin and cast it into the depths of the sea? What a wonder of Grace that would be! That is what God will do for everyone who trusts in Jesus! If you will come and cast yourself at His dear feet, and look up to Jesus, Crucified, bleeding in your place, and believe those words of the Prophet Isaiah, "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all," or the words of the Apostle Peter, "Who, His own Self, bore our sins in His own body on the tree." If you trust Jesus, the great Sin-Bearer, He will make you whiter than snow! And in your case the works of God shall be manifested, for none but the Almighty God can make scarlet sinners white--and He can do it in a moment. Lord, do it now! Suppose that another thing should happen, that a man here, or a woman who is desperately set on mischief, should, tonight, be turned in an entirely opposite direction? That would be manifestly a Divine work of changing the whole current of life! I have never seen Niagara Falls and I do not suppose that I ever shall, but there are some here who have seen it. Down comes the mighty flood with a tremendous crash, forever leaping down from on high! Would you not believe Him to be God who should, in a moment, make that waterfall leap upward instead of downward and, as impetuously seek the heights as now it leaps into the depths? Well, the Lord can do that with some big Niagara Fall of a sinner here this very evening! You are determined, tonight, to go into evil company and to commit a filthy sin. You are determined, tomorrow, to grasp the drunkard's cup and not be satisfied until you have turned yourself into something below a beast! You are determined to pursue that evil business of yours, that getting money by gambling, or something worse. Yes, but if my Lord comes forth, tonight, determined to save you, He will make you sing to another tune! "Oh, but I could never be a Methodist!" says one. I do not know what you will yet be. "Oh!" says another, "you would never make a convert of me." I did not say that I could--but the Lord can make you what you think you never will be! There are some here, who, if they could have seen themselves 10 years ago, sitting here, and enjoying the Word, would have said, "No, no, Charlie, that is not you! I am sure, my boy." And, "No, Mary, that is not you, my girl! You will never be there, there is no fear of that." But you are here, you see, and what Free Grace has done for some of us, it can do for others. Lord, do it according to that mighty power which You did work in Christ when You did raise Him from the dead! Work in the same fashion in the ungodly, tonight, and turn them from the error of their ways to run as impetuously after You as now they run from You! I have only one more matter to mention under this head. I think that God's works are sometimes manifested in men by giving them great joy. There is a person here, tonight, convicted of sin. Mr. Conscience has come up against him. You know Mr. Conscience--he keeps a cat-o'-nine-tails. When he is allowed to get to work and he gets tight hold of a sinner who has long kept him under hatches, he says, "Now it is my turn!" And he lets you know it, believe me! Let a man once get conscience, with a cat-o'-nine-tails, laying it on, and he will never forget it! Every stroke seems to tear off a thongful of his quivering flesh. Look how the nine plows make deep furrows every time they fall! "You speak," says one, "like a man who knows it." Know it? I knew it for years while but a child! And neither night nor day could I escape from the falling of those terrible thongs! Oh, how conscience scourged me and I could find no rest anywhere till, once upon a time, I heard the Divine voice that said, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all you ends of the earth." And conscience put away his cat-o'-nine-tails and my wounds were bathed in heavenly balsam! And they ceased to smart and I was glad! Oh, how my heart cried, "Hallelujah!" as I saw Jesus on the Cross! Then I understood that God had executed the full vengeance due to my sin upon His Well-Beloved who had kindly bared His shoulders to the lash and undertaken to bear the punishment of my sin. Then did my heart leap with joy! You notice that I am always preaching that Doctrine of Substitution. I cannot help it, because it is the only Truth of God that brought me comfort. I should never have gotten out of the Dungeon of Despair if it had not been for that grand Truth of Substitution! I hope that no young lady is going to ask me to write in her album this week. That request is made to me, I do not know how many days in the week, and I always write this verse in all the albums-- "Ever since by faith I saw the stream Your flowing wounds supply, Redeeming lo ve has been my theme, And shall be till I dee." If you once know the power of that blessed theme, then you will see that it is a work of God to sweep away our ashes and to give us the oil of joy--to take from us our robes of mourning and to clothe us with garments of beauty--to put a new song into our months and to establish our goings. May you all have this blessed work of God worked in you, to the praise of the glory of His Grace! II. Now, my second head is this, HOW ARE THESE WORKS MADE SPECIALLY MANIFEST IN SOME MEN? I will take this blind man and just run over his life. First, he was totally blind. There was no sham about his blindness. He could not see a ray of light--he was totally blind--he knew nothing about light. Is there anybody here who is totally blind in a spiritual sense? You cannot see anything, my poor Friend. You have not one good desire--you have not had, even, a good thought! Ah, you do not know what kind of people we have in this London, but we do meet with people who, for years, seem never to have had a good thought ever cross their minds. And if someone else were to speak to them about anything that is good, or even decent, he would be talking double Dutch to them! They do not understand it. We have multitudes of that kind in our slums, yes, and in the West End they are just as bad. Now, when the Lord, in His infinite mercy, comes to these people who are totally blind and He makes them see, there is room for His mighty power to work there, for everybody says, "What a wonderful thing that such a person as that should be converted!" I remember well a man with whom I have often prayed in very sweet fellowship. He was a strange fish when I first knew him, though he was a very good man afterwards. He was as eccentric a being as I ever met--and I am sufficiently eccentric myself--but he was a dead worldling. His Sundays--well, he did not know any difference between Sunday and Monday except that he could not be in the beer shop for quite so long on Sundays. He said, "I had been out one Sunday morning to buy a pair of ducks and I put one in each pocket of my coat. As I went along, and saw the people going into a place of worship, I thought that I would see what it was like, I had heard that it was a decent looking place inside." He went in. The Lord met with him--and that day those ducks did not get cooked--they had to wait till Monday! But he was, himself, caught and captured for Christ that day. A total change took place in him and he became a fervent Christian at once, whereas before he had been totally without any kind of religious thought, either of fear or of hope! Here was a case in which the works of God were specially made manifest! That man has gone to Heaven, now. Well do I remember him and how I praised God for his conversion! But the man mentioned in our text was born blind. Now, there are many like that, indeed--all people are born blind. It is original sin, from which we all suffer. Sin is a taint of the blood. We are born blind. There are some who, in a very peculiar way, are bred and born in a family utterly destitute of religion. They are brought up to despise it, or else brought up in the midst of superstition and taught to say a useless prayer to a crucifix of wood or stone. Can these people, who are so brought up, find Christ? Yes, by His Grace, they do find Christ, or rather, Christ finds them! And they hear the Gospel and it commends itself to their minds straight away. I suppose that nobody was ever more superstitious than Martin Luther was. I have seen that staircase in Rome, up which Martin Luther went on his knees. It is said to be the staircase which our Lord came down from the palace of Pilate. I have seen the people go up and down on their knees. Just think of Luther doing it--and there came to him, as he was going up the stairs on his knees, those words, "The just shall live by faith," and he rose up at once--and he did not go on his knees any farther! Oh, that God would appear in that way to some of you! Next, this blind man was cured by special means. That was another manifestation of God's works. The Savior spat, stooped down and with His finger worked that spittle into the dust until He had made clay. Then taking it up, He began to put it over the man's eyes. I believe that God is greatly glorified by the salvation of people through the simple preaching of the Gospel, the very simplest means that can be used. Often men say, when souls are saved in this place, as they are continually, "Well, I cannot see anything remarkable in the preacher." No, and if you were to look a great deal longer, you would see less than you see now, for there is not anything whatever in him--but there is a great deal in the Gospel! O Brothers and Sisters, if some preachers would only preach the Gospel, they would soon see how very superior it is to all their fine essays! "But they prepare their sermons so well." Oh, yes, I know, but did you ever hear of the man who used to prepare the potatoes before he planted them in his garden? He always boiled them--they never grew, for he had prepared all the life out of them! Now, many a boiled sermon is brought out to the people, but it never grows. It is elaborated and prepared so much that nothing will ever come out of it. The Lord loves to bless living words spoken in simple language out of an earnest heart. The man who speaks thus does not get the glory--the glory goes to God--and thus there is room for the works of God to be manifested! This blind man was also a specially fit sphere for God to manifest His works in because he was known as a public beggar. They used to lead him up in the morning, I suppose, to the gate of the Temple, and there he took his place and sat down. He was a man with a ready tongue, I should guess, so that he often used to exchange chaff with those that went by, and they remembered what kind of a man he was. He was always very sarcastic, I suspect, and when they spoke to him, and gave him nothing, he knew how to give them something! That blind beggar was a well-known character in Jerusalem, as well known as the blind beggar of Bethnal Green--so the Savior selected him because he was so well known-- and opened his eyes. So you have come here, tonight, my Friend, have you? You are well known, but I will not point you out. I do not like doing that kind of thing. There came in here, not long ago, a soldier who had been a professor of religion, but he had been a dreadful apostate and had gone back. But he wanted to hear the Gospel again. Just over yonder, where there are two pillars, he wisely chose a place where I could not see him. But it so happened on that Sunday night, and he is the witness of it--I well remember saying, "Well, Will, you have to come back, you know. You have got to come back. And the sooner, the better." And Will did come back! And he sent word to me to say that Will had come back with a broken heart to find his Lord. I did not know that his name was Will, I am sure, and I did not know why he had hidden himself behind the pillars, there, but God did, and He adapted the Word of God to the person, and so he fetched Will back again! If there is any Will, or Tom, or Jack, or Mary, or if there are any others here who have wandered far from God, O Sovereign Grace, bring them back, whether they are soldiers or civilians, that they may seek and find the Savior even now! This Will was well known and his restoration to Christ will, I trust, manifest the works of God in him because he was so well known. Oh, that the Lord would hear that prayer of my friend, this morning, and convert the Prince of Wales! We all said, "Amen," to that petition! We want the Lord to bring into His Church some of those who are best known, whether they are princes or whether they are beggars, that the works of God may be manifest in them! When this man was converted, instead of being a public beggar, he became a public confessor. I like that answer of his, "Whether He is a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." There is many a man who can say, "Well, I do not know much about theology, but I know that I was a drunk and I know that I am not a drunk, now. I know that I used to beat my wife and now, God bless her, she knows how I love her! Then I could have gone into all manner of sinful company, but now, thank God, His saints are my choice companions! Once I could have gloried in my own righteousness, but now I count it dross and dung, that I may win Christ and be found in Him. There is a great change in me--nobody can deny that fact--and I praise God's name for it." The Lord send out a great company of men who are not ashamed of Jesus Christ! We need many men and women who will come straight out from the world and say, "Christ for me, for He has so touched my heart, that I am for Him! And if no one else will confess Him, I must do so, for He is my best Friend, my Lord, my Savior, my All!" In such cases, the works of God are made manifest. III. Now I have done when I have just said three or four things by way of hints upon this last point, How MAY GOD'S WORKS BE MANIFEST IN US? Some of you are very poor. Others are very lame or very sickly. You are consumptive, asthmatic, full of aches, pains and complaints. Now, then, perhaps all this suffering is permitted that the work of God may be manifest in your afflic- tions by your holy patience, your submission to the Divine will, your persevering holiness amid all your poverty and trials. All this is sent that God's Grace may be seen in you. Will you look at your afflictions in that light and believe that they are not sent as a punishment, but as a platform upon which God may stand and display His Free Grace in you? Bear well all the Lord's will, for your trials are sent for this purpose, that God's works may be manifest in you. The same is true of your infirmities. We are, none of us, perfect, but we may also have physical infirmities. Now believe, if you are sent to preach the Gospel, or to teach children, or in any way to advance the Kingdom of God, that you would not be any better fitted for your work if you had all the eloquence of a Cicero and all the learning of a Newton! You, as you are, can serve the Lord and can fill a certain place, better, with all your drawbacks, than you could without those drawbacks. A sensible Christian will make use of his infirmities for God's Glory. There is a strange story that they tell of St. Bernard, a tradition which is believed, by some people, but which I look at as an allegory rather than as a matter of fact. He was going over the Alps towards Rome upon some business. The devil knew that the saint was about to do something that would greatly injure his kingdom, so he came and broke one of the wheels of the saint's carriage. Whereat Bernard called out to him, and said, "You think to stop me in this way, do you, Satan? Now you shall suffer for it yourself!" So he took him and twisted him round, and made a wheel of him--and fastened him to the carriage--and then went driving on, Now, the meaning of that allegory is that, when infirmities threaten to injure your usefulness, you are to use those infirmities in God's service. Turn the devil, himself, into a wheel and go ahead all the better because of the hindrance that he tried to cause. Why, it might be an advantage, sometimes, to be compelled by stammering to lay emphasis on a word! And if ever I did feel myself, now and then, stuck in a hole by that process, I would take care to be stuck somewhere near the Cross. Many a man has had the power to attract people by the very singularity which looked as if it must impair his usefulness. All our infirmities, whatever they are, are just opportunities for God to display His gracious work in us. So it will be with all the oppositions that we meet with. If we serve the Lord, we shall be sure to meet with difficulties and oppositions--but they are only more opportunities for the works of God to be seen in us. By-and-by, we shall come to die and, in our deaths, God's work may be manifest. I wonder by what death we shall glorify God? Was not that a beautiful expression of John's, when the Savior spoke of Peter? He told Peter how he would die, but John does not put it so. He says, "By what death he should glorify God." Perhaps it will be by a long, pining sickness. Some will be gradually dissolved by consumption. Well, you will glorify God by it! Those pale cheeks and that thin hand, through which the light will shine, will preach many a sermon on that sick bed. Or perhaps you will glorify God in some other fashion. You may have to die with bitter pangs of pain, but then, if the Lord cheers you and makes you patient, you will glorify God by that kind of death. You will look death calmly in the face, and not fret, and not be afraid. You will have to die somehow, unless the Lord, Himself, shall come and, blessed be His name, He will take you Home in a way that will somehow or other bring glory to His name, however it may be! So let us begin to rejoice in it even now. May God bless these words of mine and may many, here, be eternal monuments of the boundless, Sovereign Grace of God! And unto Him be Glory forever and ever! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. JOHN 9:1-38. Verse 1. And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from his birth. The man could not see Jesus, but sight came to the man from Jesus. If there are any here who cannot look to Christ as yet, our prayer is that He may look on them as He looked on this blind man. 2. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Beloved, if you had Christ with you, you could occupy your time better than in asking such questions as this! And I think that when we go to Holy Scripture, we can do better than pry into things of small practical importance, or even into great mysteries. However, in this case, since the disciples were liable to fall into grave error, our Lord gave them instruction upon the matter that perplexed them. 3. Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. In other words, this man is not blind as the result of sin in himself, or in his parents. He is blind in order that God may have a platform for the display of His gracious power in healing him! 4, 5. I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night comes, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world. Our Savior felt that He was commissioned as a Servant of His Father, sent here to do a certain work, and He must be doing it. It is well for God's servants to feel a holy compulsion--it does not take away from them the freedom of their action and their delight in the service of God--but exercises a powerful influence over a man when he feels, "Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel." Or when, like the Lord Jesus, he says, "I must work the works of Him that sent me." Did the Well-Beloved, the Prince of Heaven, come under compulsion? Did He put Himself under that, "must," which is for the King? Then you and I may well put ourselves under holy bondage for the Lord. There, do not hinder me! Do not tell me that I am too feeble in health--"I must work the works of Him that sent me." 6, 7. When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. Our Lord often works miracles without means and, sometimes, with means which appear to be quite inappropriate. It would seem to be more easy to blind a man with clay than to open his eyes with it! And there are some who assert that the Gospel plainly spoken would lead men into sin, but it does not. It is "the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes." If you go to work in the name of God. If you put the clay on the sinner's eyes and bid him go and wash, you will see what will happen. 8-11. The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he: others said, he is like he. But he said, I am he. Therefore said they unto him, How were your eyes opened? He answered and said, A Man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight. Does he not tell his story well? If he had not been a blind man whose eyes had just been opened, he would have exaggerated somewhere or other. I never heard a man tell a tale with absolute correctness--it is not the way of people--they are sure to put in some little item by way of garnishing, for there is a bump of romance in most men's heads. But this shrewd, strictly honest man tells the story briefly and leaves out no important particular. 12-15. Then said they unto him, Where is He? He said, I know not. They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. And it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and do see. That was short and sweet--and when you have to deal with Pharisees, do not give them much--they are not worth it and they are sure to misuse it! When he spoke to the common people, he enlarged and gave them details, but now that he comes to talk to these pragmatic professors, he cuts it down to as few words as possible. 16. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This Man is not of God, because He keeps not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a Man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. Yes, and there is always a division among the enemies of Christ--they cannot agree among themselves. If they could always lay their heads together and agree, they might have greater power, but the Edomites draw their swords against the children of Ammon, and they are sure to slay one another in the long run. There were also some among these Pharisees who had a conscience, men like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea, and they asked, "How can a Man that is a sinner do such miracles?" 17. They said unto the blind man again, What say you of Him, that He has opened your eyes? He said, He is a Prophet. He must be a Prophet. He could not have worked such a miracle as that if He had been a common man--"He said, He is a Prophet." 18. But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called theparents of him that had received his sight. You see, John gives to the Pharisees the name which they arrogated to themselves--"we are Jews." But they were not true Jews. They called themselves Jews and so John speaks of them as "the Jews." It often happens that a certain clique or party will run away with a name which does not belong to them any more than it does to a great many who differ from them very widely. These Pharisees pretended that they would not believe the miracle. It was manifest before their eyes, but yet they would not believe it until they called his parents. 19-21. And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: but by what means he now sees, we know not; or who has opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself. This was very shrewd on their part, but I think that I must add that it was very cowardly to throw all the testimony on their son. There are some parents who, if their children do right, if they follow Christ, seem to leave them to take care of themselves. 22. These words spoke his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Excommunicated--and they could not bear to be cut off from the respectable society which they had before enjoyed. 23, 24. Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him. Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this Man is a sinner. Does it not sound pretty from their Pharisaic lips? Arch-hypocrites pretending to teach a man who knew much better than themselves! "We know that this Man is a sinner." You did not know it, but we know it and as we know it, and we are doctors, you must believe it. 25. He answered and said, Whether He is a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. He could not be beaten out of that! You cannot argue a man out of an experience of this kind and, if the Lord Jesus Christ has ever opened your eyes, dear Friend, nobody can make you doubt that blessed fact! 26, 27. Then said they to him again, What did He to you? How opened He your eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and you did not hear: why would you hear it again? Will you also be His disciples? He threw a little sarcasm into that last question. The man was a very remarkable person--a simple-hearted, honest man--but quite able to hold his own in any company. 28. Then they reviled him. It is a bad case, so abuse the plaintiff. There is nothing to be said for our side, so let us abuse the man who has had his eyes opened! 28-30. And said, You are His disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke unto Moses: as for this Fellow, we know not from where He is. The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvelous thing, that you know not from where He is, and yet He has opened my eyes. Does not that manifestation of miraculous power show where He must have come from? Could He have come from anywhere but from God? 31-33. Now we know that God hears not sinners: but if any man is a worshipper of God, and does His will, him He hears. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, He could do nothing. Well argued! The case is proven, indeed. 34. They answered and said unto him, You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach, us? Cannot you hear them say it? "A blind beggar, who has just begun to see, 'Do you teach us?'--D.D.'s, men who are learned in the Law--'Do you teach us?'" Well, Brethren, if a man has only one eye, he may teach those who have not any, for the old proverb says, "In the realm of the blind, the man with one eye is king." Yet there is another proverb on this subject and that is, "In the realm of the blind, the man with one eye gets hanged." That was likely to be the case here--the blind Pharisees could not bear the man who could see! He knew too much for them. 34-36. And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said unto him, Do you believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him. He needed instruction. Christ may have done much for a man, but he may not, as yet, fully know the Lord. There may be some here, tonight, upon whom Christ has worked a great deal, and yet you do not know Him as you will know Him--"Do you believe on the Son of God?" 37, 38. And Jesus said unto him, You have both seen Him, and it is He that talks with you. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him. That is the way with a genuine Believer--he worships Christ! Why? Because he believes Him to be God! It would be idolatry to worship Christ if He were only man! And Christ would have been an impostor if He had allowed this man to worship Him if he had not been God! But he was God and we, believing Him to be God, worship Christ as very God of very God, to whom be praise forever and ever! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ Howling Changed To Singing (No. 2310) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 28, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY, EVENING, APRIL 28, 1889. "Howlong will You forget me, O LORD? Forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?...I wiil sing unto the LORD, because He has dealt bountifully with me." Psalm 13:1,2, 6. THIS is a very short Psalm, there are only six verses in it, but what a change there is between the beginning and the end of it! The first two verses are dolorous to the deepest degree, but the last verse is joyful to the highest degree. David begins many of his Psalms sighing and ends them singing, so that I do not wonder that Peter Moulin says, "One would think that those Psalms had been composed by two men of a contrary humor." If I were asked, "Are there two men here, or is there only one?" My answer would be that there is only one, but that one is two, for every man is two men, especially every spiritual man. He will find within himself an old man and a new man, an old nature and a new nature--and even the new nature, itself, is subject to strange changes--so that, like April weather, we have sunshine and showers blended. Sometimes it seems as if all the showers were poured on top of the sunshine and the sunshine, itself, were quenched and could scarcely gladden us. David was a wonderful man for changes of experience. God permitted him to go through many experiences, not so much for himself, as for the good of succeeding generations. Whenever you look into David's Psalms, you may somewhere or other see yourselves. You never get into a corner but you find David in that corner. I think that I was never so low that I could not find that David was lower--and I never climbed so high that I could not find that David was up above me, ready to sing his song upon his stringed instrument, even as I could sing mine! These are two instantaneous photographs. The first one gives us the man complaining, the second one gives us the man rejoicing. I wonder whether we shall get two such photographs, tonight--some sitting here complaining, who, before the service is over, will go their way rejoicing? God grant that it may be so! Possibly somebody here says, "I do not understand what you mean by each man being two men." Well, let me say a little more on that point. Every man is a mystery. He is a mystery to other people, but, if he ever thinks, he is a great mystery to himself! And, if he never does think, why then, I think that he is a mystery, indeed, that he should have such a wondrous faculty as the power of thought, and yet should let it lie idle! He who does not study himself may think that he understands himself, but it is the judgment of folly. He who has been accustomed to make a friend of himself and has had himself for his companion, and talked to himself, and cross-examined himself, is the man who will say, "I am puzzled. I cannot make myself out. I am often at my wits' end. I am such a strange mixture, and so dreadfully changeable." You must know yourself, dear Friend, in some measure, or else I am afraid that you will never know the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you do not know Him, then you do not know what eternal life means, for to know Him is eternal life! But why is it necessary for us to know ourselves, that we may know Christ? You must have some knowledge of the disease that you may know what the Physician can do--and there is also this Truth of God to be remembered--the Lord Jesus Christ is the model Man and only by knowing something about men do we know much about Him. Is it not strange that the Psalms are often so written that you do not know whether David is writing about himself or about the Lord Jesus? One verse can only be applied to Christ and you are certain that David is writing of the Messiah, but the next verse you can hardly apply to Christ, for there are some terms in it which would be derogatory to the Lord Jesus Christ, so it must refer to David. The fact is that there is a wonderful union between David and David's Lord--there is a marvelous union be- tween the saint and his Savior, between the Believer and Him in whom he believes--and you cannot always tell where one begins and the other ends. So, if you have no knowledge of man, it is to be feared that you have no knowledge of that Son of Man, the Man of men, the Savior of men, the First-Born among many brethren, to whose likeness we are yet to be fully conformed. I invite anybody here who has not yet known the Savior, to pray to God to make him know himself. It may be that the discovery of what you are will necessitate your discovering what Christ is! A true estimate of your own poverty may compel you to resort to Him for wealth. A true sight of your own disease may force you to apply to Him for His all-healing medicine. Certainly it is to be urged upon you by the highest of motives that you do not, with all your understanding, forget to understand yourself and that, while you have many books on your shelf, you do not read them so as to forget this Book which lies within, this wonderful Book which concerns you more than all the writings of men, the Book of your own nature, your own needs, your own desires, your own changes! God make you familiar with them and then make you also familiar with the Book of Grace which is written in the life of the Son of Man! Now, with that as a preface, I invite you to the study of our text. First, you will see, in the first two verses, a man complaining. Go three verses farther on and you will get to a man singing, about whom we will talk in the second place. And then we shall close our discourse tonight by asking, What are the connecting links between the man complaining and the man singing? How did this complaining man get up to concert pitch and begin to sing before he had gone more than a little way further on the road? I. First, then, here is A MAN COMPLAINING. Pardon me if I say that here is a man howling. Let me read the first two verses again--"How long will You forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?" Said I not truly, when I called it howling? There is so much of complaining here, so much of questioning--"How long? How long? How long? How long?"--four times over, that we may call it, as David did once call his prayer--"the voice of my roaring." It is a kind of howling, roaring, moaning complaint before God in the bitterness of his soul. Let us take these four, "How longs?" and speak of them. Here is, first, the poor man's grief, as it seems to him--"How long will You forget me, O Lord? Forever?" Think for a minute. Can God forget? Can Omnipotence forget? Can unchanging love forget? Can infinite faithfulness forget? Yet so it seems to David. So it has often seemed to men in the deepest of trouble. "How long will You forget me?" You have been praying for mercy and you cannot find it--and you think that God forgets. You have been, perhaps, a seeker after peace for years, and yet you have not found it, and you think that God forgets. Or, perhaps, years ago, you were one of the happiest of the happy and you bathed in the light of God's Countenance. But now you are the unhappiest of the unhappy, you are at a distance from your God, you have been trying to get back and cannot get back, and you think that God forgets you. Or else wave upon wave of trouble has rolled over you--you have hardly had time to breathe between the surges of your grief. You are ready to perish with despondency and you think that God forgets you! That is how it looks to you, but it is not so, and cannot be so. God cannot forget anything, it is impossible! "Can a woman forget her sucking child?" Mark that expression, the child that still draws its nourishment from her bosom. That is just what you are still doing, for, albeit you think that God forgets you, you are still living on what He daily gives you and you would die if He did not give you of His Grace and strength. "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget you." Lay hold of that great Truth of God and dismiss that which can be only an appearance and an error. God has not forgotten to be gracious, nor has He forgotten you. The next, "How long?" the next piece of David's howling, represents his trouble as it really is. "How long will You hide Your face from me?" That is as it really is with some of you--God has hidden His face from you--not His heart, nor His mind. He has not forgotten you, but He has taken away from you the comfort of His smile. Are you crying, tonight, "Lord, how long will You hide Your face from me?" I am glad you cry about it! The ungodly do not cry for God's face to be revealed to them--they wish that God would always hide His face from them. They do not want either His face or His favor. But if you are longing to see His face, it is because that face is full of love to you. I do not wonder that you are unhappy if you have lost the light of God's Countenance, for he who has ever had it, cannot lose it, no, not for a moment, without feeling his heart ready to break! "There are many who say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift up the light of Your Countenance upon us." Only give us to know that You love us and we will not envy the man who owns the greatest estate, or enjoys the highest degree of human applause. This is enough for us, to have God with us! Oh, dear child of God, if you have lost the light of your Father's Countenance, and you sigh after it, you shall have it, again! You shall have it very soon! By the degree of your longing, you may measure the length of His absence. If you long but little, He will be absent long, but if you long much, He will come to you soon. You will soon find that the hidings of His face are over and the light of His Countenance is once again your joy. This is what the trouble really is and a great trouble it is while it lasts, though it works for your good. What plants would grow if it were always day? Does not night make them grow as well as day? Brothers and Sisters, if we always had fine weather, should we ever have a harvest at all? The Arabs have a proverb, "All sun makes the desert." If there is no rain, how can there be verdure? There is a ripeness given to the fruits by the moon as well as by the sun. Grieve when God hides His face from you, but do not despair as well as grieve, but believe that even in this, He still loves you. It is a face of love that you do not see. You believe that, yourself, or else you would not wish to see it. If it were a face of wrath, you would not be longing to see it again. It is a face of love that is hidden from you. Therefore, be of good courage, you shall see it, by-and-by. Notice next, that we have the man's sorrow as it is within himself. "How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?" He talks to himself! That is the counsel he takes with himself and he does not get any very great help out of that. It is a mark of wisdom to talk with yourselves, sometimes, but not if you make yourself your own oracle. A man may talk to himself until he talks himself into despair, though there is a way of talking with yourself that will talk you up into the Light of God, such as David used when he said, "Why are you cast down, O my Soul? And why are you disquieted in me? Hope you in God." That is the way to talk to yourself! But yet, as a rule, there is not much good comes of talking to yourself unless there is a third One present--that blessed One who can construe what self may say in mystery--and set right what self might twist into error. Oh, yes, I know some who pour out their hearts within them! Do you remember what David says in the 42nd Psalm? "I pour out my soul in me." Now, if it were possible to pour the contents of a jug of water out into itself, the water would be there, all the same, would it not? That is a grand passage where David says, "You people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us." Take your pitcher and turn it bottom upwards, and let the contents all run out. That is a true easement. To pour out from itself into itself is a poor change. To pour it out before God is to find instant relief. Beloved, it may be that you cannot get any relief and that daily, from morning until evening, you are still in a fret and a trouble. Well, that is the case with David, here--and my text is a photograph of you! And, once more, the fourth, "How long?" shows the man's sorrow as it is without Him. "How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?" It adds very much to a man's grief when somebody from the outside says, "Oh, you are always miserable! It makes anybody wretched to be near you." It was thus when Peninnah exulted over Hannah's barrenness and "provoked her sorely, to make her fret." It happens to many Christians to have this sort of thing done by somebody, especially a very "candid friend." A candid friend is only an enemy candied over with a little sugar, as a general rule, and one who takes the opportunity to say nastier things than a downright enemy would say. You may have some such person in your family. Above all, there is our great adversary, from whom may God deliver us, who also delights to triumph and exult over us whenever he can! And so our trouble outside is that Satan and his allies exult over us and we have not yet learned to say, as we ought to say, "Rejoice not against me, O my enemy, when I fall, I shall arise." That last touch may, perhaps, make the photograph depict somebody here who said, "I do not think that I shall see my portrait tonight. I have been roaming about and got into great trouble, and I am one by myself." Well, but here is David, who is with you, and David's Lord is with you, too! That is the first photograph--a man complaining. II. I am glad to pass from the first view and bring on the second one. The second picture of the same person is found in the sixth verse, where we see A MAN SINGING--"I will sing unto the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me." It is the same man that we saw before, but he has done with his howling and has taken to singing, for, first, his heart is rejoicing. Read the fifth verse. He says, "My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation." It is not merely the appearance of joy--it is real joy--his heart is rejoicing! Have you never seen a friend who has been suddenly lifted up by the Spirit of God out of great mourning and of whom you have said, "Well, I should not have known that it was the same person"? Grief throws a peculiar cast over the human countenance. Well do I remember, as a child, a lady who used to come to my grandfather's house, whose face was terrible to look upon and when I asked who that sad lady was, they said, "Hush, child," and they made me hold my tongue until she was gone. And then they told me that she was one who thought that she had committed the unpardonable sin. I do not know what it was that struck me, but there was something about her face which has never gone from my memory, though it must be pretty well 50 years ago that I saw her. But when a person is full ofjoy, especially spiritual joy, have you ever noticed what a kind of transfiguration the face undergoes? You have been, yourself, to have your photograph taken, and the man places an iron clamp at the back of your neck and you go away, directly, I mean that you do. Your body stands there, but you, yourself, go traveling down the rod of iron, and you are not there at all, and the likeness is not yourself--it is your chrysalis, the case in which you used to be, but you are gone! Well, now, when you have joy in your heart, really in your heart so that everybody can see it on your countenance, your eyes begin to sparkle and your whole face is lit up, so that people say, "Well, really, he is only an ordinary-looking person as a general rule, but when he is in that state of mind, there is a wonderful kind of beauty about him!" Now, the Lord can work that change for some of you, so that when you go home, mother will say, "Why, Maria, you are quite different from what you were when you went to the Tabernacle! John, how changed you are! You went so dull and heavy, but now you seem to be quite another person." Yes, the secret is that it is with him as it was with David--his heart is rejoicing! The next thing is that his tongue is praising. "I will sing unto the Lord." That which is down in the well will come up in the bucket. That which is in the heart is sure to come up to the mouth before long--so the happy Believer begins to sing and, very likely, he breaks out with the children's hymn-- "I feel like singing all the time, My tears are wiped away For Jesus is a Friend of mine, I'll serve Him every day." You may try, perhaps, to repress your emotion, but if the Lord has really brought you up out of the horrible pit, such as I have been describing, your emotion will not be altogether repressed. You will feel as if, should you hold your peace, the very stones would begin to cry out! A rejoicing heart soon makes a praising tongue! Notice, next, that the man's judgment is content. That cool, calculating faculty now begins to read God's dealings, and it comes to a very different conclusion from that which it arrived at before. Some of you used to learn, as children, a book called, "Why, and Because"--and it is a good thing to have a, "why, and because," for your own feelings. Now, says David, "I will sing unto the Lord, because, after weighing and judging the matter thoroughly, I can testify that He has dealt bountifully with me. I thought that He had forgotten me, but He has dealt bountifully with me. I thought that He had hidden His face from me, but He has dealt bountifully with me. I said in my heart that He treats me very harshly, but I take all such language back, Lord! I eat my own words with bitter herbs and I regret that I should ever have used them! You have dealt bountifully with me." "Return unto your rest, O my Soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." This poor man who thought that he was forgotten, now looks at the food which God has put upon his table and he finds that he has Benjamin's portion--much more than was given to the rest of his brothers--and his verdict is totally changed, now, as to the dealings of the Lord with him. He, says, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." And now that his judgment has been set right, now that heart, tongue, judgement--all are right--his resolve is right, for he says, "I will sing unto the Lord." "Not only am I singing now, but I will make up my mind to this, I have been sighing long enough, I will now sing. I have been groaning and complaining, now I will sing! I will sing unto the Lord." I like this resolve, for it relates not only to present joy, but it is a resolution to project that joy throughout the whole of his life. "I will sing unto the Lord." I trust that some of you will go out of the Tabernacle, tonight, saying, "Well, I will sing. Yes, I will. God helping me, I will. I will sing unto the Lord. I will sing at my work. I will sing on my bed. I will sing when I wake in the morning. I will sing when I go to bed at night. The Lord has put a new song into my mouth and I cannot keep it there--I must sing it out. I must sing His praises." I am sure we will not try to stop you! We will encourage you to sing unto the Lord as much as possible. There is not half enough singing in the world. The music of the early mornings in the country, at this time of the year, always seems to chide me. The birds are up and they wake us up, and when they are up, the first thing they do is to sing! And there is a kind of contention among them, each one tries to sing the most sweetly and the most loudly. And one calls to another and the other answers him. They sing as they fly and they sing as they build their nests! And they make such a wonderful chorus of song that it often astonishes us that such little creatures can make such cataracts, such Niagara of music as they pour forth from their tiny throats! Oh, that God's people would sing more! I remember a servant who used to sing while she was at the washtub. Her mistress said to her, "Why, Jane, how is it that you are always singing?" She said, "It keeps bad thoughts away." I remember an old Methodist Brother who was pretty nearly eighty, and I never came across him, as he went along the street at a rather slow pace, without hearing him toot-tooting little bits of tunes as he walked. If you went by his door and heard a noise in his house, it was the old man singing! He never seemed to make any other noise but that of praising and blessing God. Oh, that we might do so continually!-- "Sing a hymn to Jesus, When the heart is faint! Tell it all to Jesus, Comfort or complaint," and, when you have done that, sing another! And when you have finished that, sing another! Whether it is a hymn of comfort or complaint, still sing to the praise of His name and make this your resolution as you go out tonight, "I will sing unto the Lord, my God, as long as I live." There are the two photographs. Put them into your album and take care of them. III. But how came this change to take place? What are THE CONNECTING LINKS BETWEEN THE MAN COMPLAINING AND THE MAN SINGING? How did No. 1 get to be No. 2? How did this howler become a singer? What process did he pass through? If you read this 13th Psalm over again when you get home, you will notice that the first thing David did was, he pleaded with God. He stated his case to the Lord. He mentioned the separate particulars of it and then he pleaded, "Consider and hear me, O Jehovah, my God: lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death." For you, mourners, the first step towards comfort is to go and take the matter to your God. You have Rabshakeh's letter in your pocket--it is a dreadful letter, enough to make you sad. While I have been preaching, you have been sighing to yourself, "Ah, me! When I get home, I shall be thinking about that letter. I shall be awake thinking of it." Some of you, who are rather of a nervous temperament, will let some little thing keep boring into you like an awl. You cannot get away from it. Now, I invite you to take that letter out of your pocket when you get home and spread it before the Lord. Many and many a time I have had great troubles--who can be the pastor of such a Church without them? I have done my very best with the matter that has perplexed me and I have only made it worse and, at last, I have laid it before the Lord and prayed over it. And in such cases I have always said to myself, "I will never have anything to do with that matter again; I have done with it." I advise you to do the same. Cast your burden upon the Lord! Put it upon that shelf. But then if you take it down, again, what good have you done? No, leave it there! Leave it there and have done with it! The Lord will bring you out of the difficulty when you clear yourself of it. Do not go on hugging your trouble--take it to the Lord in prayer! If you have a solicitor and there is a suit at law, and the person against whom the suit is laid comes to you and says, "I want to hear what you are going to do," do not say anything to him, except, "I have left that with my solicitor. You must be so good as to see him. I refer you to him." If there are two of you to manage the business, one will be a fool and I think I know who that one will be! Either do not have a solicitor, and be your own lawyer, or else, if you have somebody to attend to the suit for you, let him do it! Why keep dogs and bark, yourself? So let it be in all things. If you lay the matter before God, then do not begin to take it on your own back, as well. That will be an absurdity! Although I made you smile, just now, by quoting an old proverb, I do seriously urge upon you, my Friends, the impropriety of attempting to undertake a case which you have laid before God in prayer. Leave it there. If you have done so, let your Advocate see you through with the business. Come, Beloved, you shall soon begin to change your mode of talking if you will go and tell your trouble to God, straight away. "Well, I shall see my brother, tomorrow." Do not see your brother--go and see your Father! "Oh, but I want to call in a friend!" That is what I want you to do, but not the friend you are thinking of--call in the Friend of Friends! Tell Him everything about your trouble and your difficulty and when you have done that, have done with it and leave it with Him. You will, then, soon begin to sing. The next thing is that David, having prayed and brought his cause before God, trusted in the Lord. This is the chief point. Read the 5th verse and you will see that the whole story is made plain--"I have trusted in Your mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation." I seem as if I could leave all you troubled saints, now, just to say to any sinner here who is in deep soul trouble, what you have said to yourself, "That first photograph was very like me. I cannot say that I am at all like the second one." No, but you will be like that second one if you will, from your heart, say this, "I have trusted in Your mercy." This is the remedy for the disease of sin and for the disease of the heart--trust Jesus! There He hangs on yonder Cross. Trust Him! "I cannot realize that He is mine," you say. Did I tell you to realize that? Trust Him! "Oh, but I do not feel as if I had a good heart to bring to Him." Did I tell you to bring Him anything? Trust Him! Trust Him! Trust Him! Oh, child of God, this is the lesson you need to learn--TRUST! Oh, old sinner, this is the essential lesson for you if you would enter into Light of God and peace--TRUST! "I have so many sins." TRUST! "But I have such tendencies to sin." Trust Him to overcome those tendencies. "But I have tried." No, I did not say, try, but TRUST. "But I, I, I will try." No, do not try. I did not say, try. "Sir, I was going to say I will try to trust." I did not say try to trust! Trying to trust is the very reverse of trusting! If Christ is a liar, do not trust Him. If He is true, trust Him. If He cannot save you, do not trust Him, but as He is the Almighty Savior, trust Him. Oh, that I could shout that word loud as a thousand thunders speaking at once, TRUST! O Soul, the way of the Law is OBEY--a hard word, with which you cannot comply, for you are too weak. But the Gospel way is trust, trust, TRUST! When you have learned that way, you shall afterwards learn how to obey and you shall obey through trusting! But the first thing is, trust! Is your leg broken, so that you can not walk? Lean on Him who can carry you. Have you a great weight? Lean hard, then. Is it greater than ever it was? Lean harder, then! Trust, implicitly trust! As the blind man puts his hand into the hand of him who can see, that he may lead him, so trust in Jesus. Put your hand into the hand of Him who was crucified and trust Him tonight. There, you may put away that first photograph. You may sit down, now, if you have trusted, and we will take your likeness again, and I am sure your likeness will agree with the 6th verse, and you will say, "I will sing unto the Lord; I will go home singing! I have trusted. I have found salvation!" Lord, lead these people to trust You! Why can they not trust You? What have You ever done that they should doubt You? Lord Jesus, if I had a million souls, I would trust them all with You, fully persuaded that You could wash them all whiter than snow! Trust, then, beloved Friends! Trust Jesus. God help you to trust, for Christ's sake! Amen. EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON. PSALMS 12,13,14. Psalm 12:1. Help, LORD; for the godly man ceases; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. One might have thought that David still lived among us, his cry is so timely, so exactly true to the position of affairs today. What a prayer he offers! Driven away from confidence in men, be cries, "Help, Lord! You mighty One, put forth Your power! You faithful One, display Your Truth! 'Help, Lord; for the godly man ceases; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.'" 2. They speak vanity, every one with his neighbor: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. They speak vanity. There is nothing in it. It is all froth, no reality. Vain speech about vain subjects, having no real spiritual power to help the man that hears--"They speak vanity." "With a double heart do they speak," saying one thing and meaning an-other--trifling with words, orthodox to the ear--heterodox to the heart. Oh, how much there is of this falseness in these days! Still are there many who "speak with flattering lips and with a double heart." It is some comfort to us to know that no new thing has happened to us--we are merely going through an old part of the road which David traversed long ago. 3, 4. The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things: who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? There is the point in dispute! Man will be lord of himself and God will be Lord of all and everything--and there can be no compromise between these two. Not even a man's lips are really his own. Who gave the gift of speech? Who created the mouth? Who is LORD over us? Why, the answer is simple enough! He that made us, He that redeemed us, He should be Lord over us. Let us willingly put ourselves in subjection to Him. 5. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, says the LORD. God takes notice of the oppression of poor men and, especially, of poor saints when they are tried by the wickedness of the age--"Now will I arise, says the Lord." 5, 6. I will set him in safety from him that puffs at him. The Words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. There is no mistake about the words of this blessed Book. The very Words, themselves, are as accurate, as Infallible, as silver is pure when it has been refined seven times by the most skillful artist. There is no improving upon God's Words. We dare not leave one of them out. We would not presume to put one of our own side by side with them--"The Words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." 7, 8. You shall keep them, O LORD, You shall preserve them from this generation forever. The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted. When sin gets into the high places of the earth, then it becomes very abundant. Every evil man takes liberty to creep out into public life when some great leader in vice occupies the throne. God save the people when such is the case! Psalm 13:1, 2. How long will You forget me, O LORD? Forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? When you and I have to spread our complaints before God, we are not the first who have done so. When we complain of God's forsaking us, we are not alone. There was a greater than David who, even in the article of death, cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" 3, Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. When it is dark, very dark, we get drowsy. Sorrow induces sleep. Remember how the Savior found the disciples sleeping for sorrow? Therefore David asks for light. Light will help him to stay awake and he fears to sleep, so he prays, "Lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death." 4, 5. Lest my enemy says, I have prevailed against him; and these that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But. What a precious, "but," this is! You can hear the chain rattle as the anchor goes down to hold the vessel! 5, 6. I have trusted in Your mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing unto the LORD, because He has dealt bountifully with me. What a climb there is, in this Psalm, from the abyss of sorrow up to the summit of joy! "I will sing unto the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me." I hope many of us know what this blessed change means. If any of you are in great sorrow, tonight, may my Lord and Master lighten your eyes! Psalm 14:1. The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. He was a fool to think it. He was not fool enough, however, to say it except in his heart. Fools have grown more brazen-faced of late, for now they not only say it in their hearts, but they say with their tongues, "There is no God." Oh, no, I have made a mistake! They do not call them, "fools," now--they call them "philosophers." That, however, is often exactly the same thing! 1. They are corrupt, It is always so. When they will have no God, they will have no goodness "They are corrupt." That is the secret of infidelity. The Psalmist has put his finger on it--"They are corrupt." 1, 2. They have done abominable works, there is none that does good. The LORD looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. David represents God looking from the battlements of Heaven upon our fallen humanity and, at the time when He looked, He could see none that understood Him, or sought Him. By nature we are all in this condition. Until the Grace of God seeks us, we never seek God. Even God looked in vain. He was no stern critic--He was no hypercritic--"The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God." 3. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that does good, no, not one. "That was in old Testament times," says one. If you turn to the Epistle to the Romans, you will find that Paul quotes it as being true in his day. It is always true and it always will be true, apart from the Grace of God--"There is none that does good; no, not one." 4. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Are they all so foolish? 4. Who eat up My people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD. They think nothing of God's people. They could swallow them at a mouthful, they so despise them. Notice, that whenever a man despises God, he soon despises God's people--it is only natural that he should do so. Meanwhile, he, himself, will not call upon the Lord. 5. There were they in great fear. What? These very people who would not call upon God? Were they in great fear? Yes, God can bring great fear upon the men who seem most bold. It is noticed that the boldest blasphemers, when they become ill, are generally the most timid persons. These are the people who begin to cry and give up what they boasted of, when they get into deep waters--"There were they in great fear." 5. For God is in the generation of the righteous. He is with His people. He always will be with His people and when He makes bare His arm, fear takes possession of His enemies. 6. You have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge. They mocked at the idea of a man's trusting in God for his daily bread, or trusting in God for his eternal salvation, but, mock as men may, there is no other refuge for a soul but God! When the floods are out, there is no safety but in the ark with God. Oh, that men would trust in Him! 7. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When the LORD brings back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. May that time soon come! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ Our Lord's Last Cry from the Cross (No. 2311) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 4, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITATN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE 9, 1889. "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit: and having said this, He gave up the ghost." Luke 23:46. THESE were the dying words of our Lord Jesus Christ, "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit." It may be instructive if I remind you that the Words of Christ upon the Cross were seven. Calling each of His cries, or utterances, by the title of a Word, we speak of the seven last Words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me rehearse them in your hearing. The first, when they nailed Him to the Cross, was, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Luke has preserved that Word. Later, when one of the two thieves said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom," Jesus said to him, "Verily I say unto you, Today shall you be with Me in Paradise." This, also, Luke has carefully preserved. Farther on, our Lord, in His great agony, saw His mother, with breaking heart, standing by the Cross and looking up to Him with unutterable love and grief, and He said to her, "Woman, behold. your son!" and to the beloved Apostle, "Behold your mother!" and thus He provided a home for her when He, Himself, should be gone away. This utterance has only been preserved by John. The fourth and central Word of the seven was, "Eloi, Eloi, Lama, Sabachthani?" which is, being interpreted, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" This was the culmination of His grief, the central point of all His agony. That most awful word that ever fell from the lips of man, expressing the quintessence of exceeding agony, is well put fourth, as though it had need of three words before it, and three words after it, as its bodyguard. It tells of a good Man, a son of God, the Son of God, forsaken of His God! That central Word of the seven is found in Matthew and in Mark, but not in Luke or John. But the fifth Word has been preserved by John, that is, "I thirst," the shortest, but not quite the sharpest of all the Master's Words, though under a bodily aspect, perhaps the sharpest of them all. John has also treasured up another very precious saying of Jesus Christ on the Cross, that is the wondrous Word, "It is finished." This was the last word but one, "It is finished," the gathering up of all His lifework, for He had loft nothing undone, no thread was left raveling, the whole fabric of Redemption had been woven, like His garment, from the top throughout, and it was finished to perfection! After He had said, "It is finished," He uttered the last Word of all, "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit," which I have taken for a text, tonight, but to which I will not come immediately. There has been a great deal said about these seven cries from the Cross by many writers and though I have read what many of them have written, I cannot add anything to what they have said, since they have delighted to dwell upon these seven last cries, and here the most ancient writers, of what would be called the Romish school, are not to be excelled, even by Protestants, in their intense devotion to every letter of our Savior's dying Words. And they sometimes strike out new meanings, richer and more rare than any that have occurred to the far cooler minds of modern critics, who are, as a rule, greatly blessed with moles' eyes, able to see where there is nothing to be seen, but never able to see when there is anything worth seeing! Modern criticism, like modern theology, if it were put in the Garden of Eden, would not see a flower. It is like the sirocco that blasts and burns. It is without either dew or unction, in fact, it is the very opposite of these precious things, and proves itself to be unblessed of God and unblessed to men. Now concerning these seven cries from the Cross, many authors have drawn from them, lessons concerning seven duties. Listen. When our Lord said, "Father, forgive them," in effect, He said to us, "Forgive your enemies." Even when they despitefully use you and put you to terrible pain, be ready to pardon them! Be like the sandalwood tree which perfumes the axe that fells it. Be all gentleness, kindness and love--and be this your prayer, "Father, forgive them." The next duty is taken from the second cry, namely, that of penitence and faith in Christ, for He said to the dying thief, "Today shall you be with Me in Paradise." Have you, like he, confessed your sin? Have you his faith and his prayer-fulness? Then you shall be accepted even as he was! Learn, then, from the second cry, the duty of penitence and faith. When our Lord, in the third cry, said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son!" He taught us the duty of filial love. No Christian must ever be short of love to his mother, his father, or to any of those who are endeared to him by relationships which God has appointed for us to observe. Oh, by the dying love of Christ to His mother, let no man here unman himself by forgetting his mother! She bore you--bear her in her old age and lovingly cherish her even to the last. Jesus Christ's fourth cry teaches us the duty of clinging to God and trusting in God--"My God, my God." See how, with both hands, He takes hold of Him--"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" He cannot bear to be left of God. All else causes Him but little pain compared with the anguish of being forsaken of His God. So learn to cling to God, to grip Him with a double-handed faith, and if you do ever think that He has forsaken you, cry after Him, and say, "Show me why You contend with me, for I cannot bear to be without You." The fifth cry, "I thirst," teaches us to set a high value upon the fulfillment of God's Word. "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst." Take good heed, in all your grief and weakness, to still preserve the Word of your God, and to obey the precept. Learn the doctrine and delight in the promise. As your Lord, in His great anguish said, "I thirst," because it was written that so He would speak, have regard unto the Word of the Lord even in little things! That sixth cry, "It is finished," teaches us perfect obedience. Go through with your keeping of God's Commandments. Leave out no Command, keep on obeying till you can say, "It is finished." Work your lifework, obey your Master, suffer or serve according to His will, but rest not till you can say with your Lord, "It is finished." "I have finished the work which You gave Me to do." And that last Word, "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit," teaches us resignation. Yield all things. Yield up even your spirit to God at His bidding. Stand still and make a full surrender to the Lord, and let this be your watchword from the first even to the last, "Into Your hands, my Father, I commend my spirit." I think that this study of Christ's last Words should interest you, therefore let me linger a little longer upon it. Those seven cries from the Cross also teach us something about the attributes and offices of our Master. They are seven windows of agate and gates of carbuncle through which you may see Him and approach Him. First, would you see Him as Intercessor? Then He cries, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Would you look at Him as King? Then hear His second Word, "Verily I say unto you, Today shall you be with Me in Paradise." Would you mark Him as a tender Guardian? Hear Him say to Mary, "Woman, behold your son!" And to John, "Behold your mother!" Would you peer into the dark abyss of the agonies of His soul? Hear Him cry, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Would you understand the reality and the intensity of His bodily sufferings? Then hear Him say, "I thirst," for there is something exquisite in the torture of thirst when brought on by the fever of bleeding wounds. Men on the battlefield who have lost much blood, are devoured with thirst, and tell you that it is the worst pang of all. "I thirst," says Jesus. See the Sufferer in the body and understand how He can sympathize with you who suffer, since He suffered so much on the Cross. Would you see Him as the Finisher of your salvation? Then hear His cry, "Con-summatum est"--"It is finished." Oh, glorious note! Here you see the blessed Finisher of your faith! And would you then take one more gaze and understand how voluntary was His suffering? Then hear Him say, not as one who is robbed of life, but as one who takes His soul and hands it over to the keeping of another, "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit." Is there not much to be learned from these cries from the Cross? Surely these seven notes make a wondrous scale of music if we do but know how to listen to them! Let me run up the scale, again. Here, first, you have Christ's fellowship with men--"Father, forgive them." He stands side by side with sinners and tries to make an apology for them--"They know not what they do." Here is, next, His kingly power. He sets open Heaven's gate to the dying thief and bids him enter. "Today shall you be with Me in Paradise." Thirdly, behold His human relationship. How near of kin He is to us! "Woman, behold your son!" Remember how He says, "Whoever shall do the will of My Father who is in Heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother." He is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He belongs to the Human family. He is more of a Man than any man! As surely as He is very God of very God, He is also very Man of very man, taking into Himself the Nature, not of the Jew only, but of the Gentile, too. Belonging to His own nationality, but rising above all, He is the Man of men, the Son of Man. See, next, His taking our sin. You say, "Which note is that" Well, they are all to that effect, but this one, chiefly, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" It was because He bore our sins in His own body on the tree that He was forsaken of God. "He has made Him to be sin for us. who knew no sin," and hence the bitter cry, "Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani?" Behold Him, in that fifth cry, "I thirst," taking not only our sin, but also our infirmity--and all the suffering of our bodily nature. Then, if you would see His fullness as well as His weakness, if you would see His All-Sufficiency as well as His sorrow, hear Him cry, "It is finished." What a wonderful fullness there is in that note! Redemption is all accomplished! It is all complete! It is all perfect! There is nothing left, not a drop of bitterness in the cup of gall--Jesus has drained it dry! There is not a farthing to be added to the ransom price--Jesus has paid it all! Behold His fullness in the cry, "It is finished." And then, if you would see how He has reconciled us to Himself, behold Him, the Man who was made a curse for us, returning with a blessing to His Father and taking us with Him, as He draws us all up by that last dear word, "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit."-- "Now both the Surety and sinner are free." Christ goes back to the Father, for, "It is finished," and you and I come to the Father through His perfect work! I have only practiced two or three tunes that can be played upon this harp, but it is a wonderful instrument. If it is not a harp of ten strings, it is, at any rate, an instrument of seven strings, and neither time nor eternity shall ever be able to fetch all the music out of them! Those seven dying words of the ever-living Christ will make melody for us in Glory through all the ages of eternity. I shall now ask your attention for a little time to the text itself--"Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit." Do you see our Lord? He is dying and, as yet, His face is toward man. His last Word to man is the cry, "It is finished." Hear, all you sons of men, He speaks to you, "It is finished." Could you have a choicer Word with which He should say, "Adieu," to you in the hour of death? He tells you not to fear that His work is imperfect, not to tremble lest it should prove insufficient. He speaks to you and declares with His dying utterance, "It is finished." Now He has done with you and He turns His face the other way. His day's work is done, His more than Herculean toil is accomplished, and the great Champion is going back to His Father's Throne--and He speaks--but not to you. His last Word is addressed to His Father, "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit." These are His first Words in going Home to His Father, as, "It is finished," is His last Word as, for a while, He quits our company. Think of these words and may they be your first words, too, when you return to your Father! May you speak thus to your Divine Father in the hour of death! The words were much hackneyed in Romish times, but they are not spoilt even for that. They used to be said in the Latin by dying men, "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum." Every dying man used to try to say those words in Latin and if he did not, somebody tried to say them for him. They were made into a kind of spell of witch-craft--and so they lost that sweetness to our ears in the Latin--but in the English they shall always stand as the very essence of music for a dying saint, "Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit." It is very noteworthy that the last Words that our Lord used were quoted from the Scriptures. This sentence is taken, as I daresay most of you know, from the 31st Psalm, and the fifth verse. Let me read it to you. What a proof it is of how full Christ was of the Bible! He was not one of those who think little of the Word of God. He was saturated with it. He was as full of Scripture as the fleece of Gideon was full of dew. He could not speak, even in His death, without uttering Scripture. This is how David put it, "Into your hand I commit my spirit: You have redeemed me, O Lord God of Truth." Now, Beloved, the Savior altered this passage, or else it would not quite have suited Him. Do you see, first, He was obliged, in order to fit it to His own case, to add something to it? What did He add to it? Why, that word, "Father"! David said, "Into Your hand I commit my spirit," but Jesus said, "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit." Blessed advance! He knew more than David did, for He was more the Son of God than David could be. He was the Son of God in a very high and special sense by eternal filiation and so He begins the prayer with, "Father." But then He takes something away from it. It was necessary that He should do so, for David said, "Into Your hand I commit my spirit: You have redeemed me." Our blessed Master was not redeemed, for He was the Redeemer, and He could have said, "Into Your hand I commit My spirit, for I have redeemed My people." But that He did not choose to say. He simply took that part which suited Himself and used it as His own, "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit." Oh, my Brothers and Sisters, you will not do better, after all, than to quote Scripture, especially in prayer! There are no prayers so good as those that are full of the Word of God! May all our speech be flavored with texts! I wish that it were more so. They laughed at our Puritan forefathers because the very names of their children were fetched out of passages of Scripture, but I, for my part, had much rather be laughed at for talking much of Scripture than for talking much of trashy novels--novels with which (I am ashamed to say it) many a sermon nowadays is larded, yes, larded with novels that are not fit for decent men to read and which are coated over till one hardly knows whether he is hearing about a historical event, or only a piece of fiction--from which abomination, good Lord, deliver us! So, then, you see how well the Savior used Scripture, and how, from His first battle with the devil in the wilderness till His last struggle with death on the Cross, His weapon was always, "It is written." FATHERHOOD OF GOD Now, I am coming to the text, itself, and I am going to preach from it for only a very short time. In doing so, firstly, let us learn the doctrine of this last cry from the Cross. Secondly, let us practice the duty. And thirdly, let us enjoy the privilege. I. First, LET US LEARN THE DOCTRINE of our Lord's last cry from the Cross. What is the Doctrine of this last Word of our Lord Jesus Christ? God is His Father and God is our Father. He who, Himself, said, "Father," did not say for Himself, "Our Father," for the Father is Christ's Father in a higher sense than He is ours. But yet He is not more truly the Father of Christ than He is our Father if we have believed in Jesus! "You are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, "I ascend unto My Father and your Father; and to My God, and your God." Believe the Doctrine of the Fatherhood of God to His people! As I have warned you before, abhor the doctrine of the universal fatherhood of God, for it is a lie and a deep deception! It stabs at the heart, first, of the Doctrine of the Adoption which is taught in Scripture, for how can God adopt men if they are already all His children? In the second place, it stabs at the heart of the Doctrine of Regeneration, which is certainly taught in the Word of God. Now it is by regeneration and faith that we become the children of God, but how can that be if we are already the children of God? "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." How can God give to men the power to become His sons if they have it already? Believe not that lie of the devil, but believe this Truth of God, that Christ and all who are, by living faith in Christ, may rejoice in the Fatherhood of God! Next learn this Doctrine, that in this fact lies our chief comfort. In our hour of trouble, in our time of warfare, let us say, "Father." You notice that the first cry from the Cross is like the last--the highest note is like the lowest. Jesus begins with, "Father, forgive them," and He finishes with, "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit." To help you in a stern duty like forgiveness, cry, "Father." To help you in sore suffering and death, cry, "Father." Your main strength lies in your truly being a child of God! Learn the next Doctrine, that dying is going Home to our Father. I said to an old friend, not long ago, "Old Mr. So-and-so has gone Home." I meant that He was dead. He said, "Yes, where else would he go?" I thought that was a wise question. Where else would we go? When we grow gray, and our day's work is done, where should we go but home? So, when Christ has said, "It is finished," His next Word, of course, is, "Father." He has finished His earthly course and now He will go Home to Heaven. Just as a child runs to its mother's bosom when it is tired and wants to fall asleep, so Christ says, "Father," before He falls asleep in death. Learn another Doctrine, that if God is our Father, and we regard ourselves as going Home when we die, because we go to Him, then He will receive us. There is no hint that we can commit our spirit to God and yet that God will not have us. Remember how Stephen, beneath a shower of stones, cried, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"? Let us, however we may die, make this our last emotion if not our last expression, "Father, receive my spirit." Shall not our heavenly Father receive His children? If you, being evil, receive your children at nightfall, when they come home to sleep, shall not your Father, who is in Heaven, receive you when your day's work is done? That is the doctrine we are to learn from this last cry from the Cross--the Fatherhood of God and all that comes of it to Believers. II. Secondly, LET US PRACTICE THE DUTY. That duty seems to me to be, first, resignation. Whenever anything distresses and alarms you, resign yourself to God. Say, "Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit." Sing, with Faber-- "I bow me to Your will, O God, And all Your ways adore. And every day I live I'll seek To please You more and more." Learn, next, the duty of prayer. When you are in the very anguish of pain. When you are surrounded by bitter griefs of mind as well as of body, still pray. Drop not the, "Our Father." Let not your cries be addressed to the air. Let not your moans be to your physician, or your nurse, but cry, "Father." Does not a child so cry when it has lost its way? If it is in the dark at night, and it starts up in a lone room, does it not cry out, "Father!" And is not a father's heart touched by that cry? Is there anybody here who has never cried to God? Is there one here who has never said, "Father"? Then, my Father, put Your love into their hearts and make them say, tonight, "I will arise and go to my Father." You shall truly be known to be the sons of God if that cry is in your heart and on your lips. The next duty is the committal of ourselves to God by faith. Give yourselves up to God. Trust yourselves with God. Every morning, when you get up, take yourself and put yourself into God's custody--lock yourself up, as it were, in the box of Divine Protection--and every night, when you have unlocked the box, before you fall asleep, lock it again and give the key into the hand of Him who is able to keep you when the image of death is on your face. Before you sleep, commit yourself to God. I mean, do that when there is nothing to frighten you, when everything is going smoothly, when the wind blows softly from the south and the boat is speeding towards its desired haven--still make not yourself quiet with your own quieting! He who carves for himself will cut his fingers and get an empty plate. He who leaves God to carve for him shall often have fat things full of marrow placed before him. If you can trust, God will reward your trusting in a way that you know not as yet. And then practice one other duty, that of the personal and continual realization of God's Presence. "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit." "You are here; I know that You are. I realize that You are here in the time of sorrow, and of danger; and I put myself into Your hands. Just as I would give myself to the protection of a policeman, or a soldier, if anyone attacked me, so do I commit myself to You, You unseen Guardian of the night, You unwearied Keeper of the day! You shall cover my head in the day of battle. Beneath Your wings will I trust, as a chick hides beneath the hen." See, then, your duty. It is to resign yourself to God, pray to God, commit yourself to God and rest in a sense of the Presence of God. May the Spirit of God help you in the practice of such priceless duties as these! III. Now, lastly, LET US ENJOY THE PRIVILEGE. First, let us enjoy the high privilege of resting in God in all times of danger and pain. The doctor has just told you that you will have to undergo an operation. Say, "Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit." There is every probability that that weakness of yours, or that disease of yours, will increase upon you and that, by-and-by, you will have to take to your bed and lie there, perhaps, for many a day. Then say, "Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit." Do not fret, for that will not help you. Do not fear the future, for that will not aid you. Give yourself up (it is your privilege to do so) to the keeping of those dear hands that were pierced for you, to the love of that dear heart which was set abroach with the spear to purchase your redemption! It is wonderful what rest of spirit God can give to a man or a woman in the very worst condition. Oh, how some of the martyrs have sung at the stake! How they have rejoiced when on the rack! Bonner's coal-hole, across the water there, at Fulham, where he shut up the martyrs, was a wretched place to lie on a cold winter's night, but they said, "They did rouse them in the straw, as they lay in the coal-hole, with the sweetest singing out of Heaven! And when Donner said, 'Fie on them that they should make such a noise!' they told him that he, too, would make such a noise if he was as happy as they were." When you have commended your spirit to God, then you have sweet rest in time of danger and pain! The next privilege is that of a brave confidence, in the time of death, or in the fear of death. I was led to think over this text by using it a great many times last Thursday night. Perhaps none of you will ever forget last Thursday night. I do not think that I ever shall, if I live to be as old as Methuselah. From this place till I reached my home, it seemed one continued sheet of fire--and the further I went, the more vivid became the lightning flashes. But when I came, at last, to turn up Leigham Court Road, then the lightning seemed to come in very bars from the sky and, at last, as I reached the top of the hill, and a crash came of the most startling kind, down poured a torrent of hail--hailstones that I will not attempt to describe, for you might think that I exaggerated! And then I felt, and my friend with me, that we could hardly expect to reach home alive. We were there at the very center and summit of the storm. All around us, on every side, and all within us, as it were, seemed nothing but the electric fluid--and God's right arm seemed bared for war. I felt then, "Well, now, I am very likely going Home," and I commended my spirit to God. And from that moment, though I cannot say that I took much pleasure in the peals of thunder, and the flashes of lightning, yet I felt quite as calm as I do here at this present moment--perhaps a little more calm than I do in the presence of so many people--happy at the thought that, within a single moment, I might understand more than all I could ever learn on earth and see in an instant more than I could hope to see if I lived here for a century! I could only say to my friend, "Let us commit ourselves to God. We know that we are doing our duty in going on as we are going, and all is well with us." So we could only rejoice together in the prospect of being soon with God. We were not taken Home in the chariot of fire--we are still spared a little longer to go on with life's work--but I realize the sweetness of being able to have done with it all, to have no wish, no will, no word, scarcely a prayer, but just to take one's heart up and hand it over to the great Keeper, saying, "Father, take care of me. So let me live, so let me die. I have, henceforth, no desire about anything! Let it be as You please. Into Your hands I commend my spirit." This privilege is not only that of having rest in danger, and confidence in the prospect of death--it is also full of consummate joy. Beloved, if we know how to commit ourselves into the hands of God, what a place it is for us to be in! What a place to be in--in the hands of God! There are the myriads of stars. There is the universe, itself! God's hand upholds its everlasting pillars and they do not fall. If we got into the hands of God, we get where all things rest and we get home and happiness! We have got out of the nothingness of the creature into the All-Sufficiency of the Creator. Oh, get you there! Hasten to get there, beloved Friends, and live, henceforth, in the hands of God! "It is finished." You have not finished, but Christ has. It is all done. What you have to do will only be to work out what He has already finished for you, and show it to the sons of men in your lives. And because it is all finished, therefore say, "Now, Father, I return to You. My life, henceforth, shall be to be in You. My joy shall be to shrink to nothing in the Presence of the All-in-All, to die into the eternal life, to sink my ego into Jehovah, to let my manhood, my creature hood live only for its Creator and manifest only the Creator's Glory! O Beloved, begin tomorrow morning and end tonight with, "Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit." The Lord be with you all! Oh, if you have never prayed, God help you to begin to pray now, for Jesus' sake! Amen. EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON. LUKE23:27-49, MATTHEW27:50-54. Luke 23:27. And there followed Him a great company ofpeople, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him. Their best Friend, the Healer of their sick, the Lover of their children, was about to be put to death, so they might well bewail and lament. 28-30. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. Our Savior spoke of the terrible siege of Jerusalem, the most tragic of all human transactions. I think I do not exaggerate when I say that history contains nothing equal to it. It stands alone in the unutterable agony of men, women and children in that dreadful time of suffering. 31. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? If the Christ of God is put to death even while the Jewish capital seems vigorous and flourishing, what shall be done when it is all dry and dead, and the Roman legions are round about the doomed city? 32. And there were also two other malefactors, led with Him to be put to death. Every item of scorn was added to our Savior's death and yet the Scriptures were thus literally fulfilled, for, "He was numbered with the transgressors." 33. 34. And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted His raiment, and cast lots. Do you bear the hammer fall? "Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Do you see the bleeding hands and feet of Jesus? This is all that is extracted by that fearful pressure-- nothing but words of pardoning love, a prayer for those who are killing Him--"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." 35. And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided Him, saying, He saved others; let Him save Himself, if He is Christ, the chosen of God. You know how mockery puts salt and vinegar into a wound. A man does not at any time like to be reviled, but when he is full of physical and mental anguish and his heart is heavy within him, then ridicule is peculiarly full of acid to him. 36, 37. And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him, and offering Him vinegar, and saying, If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself. These rough soldiers knew how to put their jests in the most cruel shape and to press home their scoffs upon their suffering Victim. 38. And a superscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew. These were the three languages that could be understood by all the people round about. 38. THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. And so He is, and so He shall be. He has never quit the throne. The Son of David is still King of the Jews, though they continue to reject Him. But the day shall come when they shall recognize and receive the Messiah. "Then shall they look upon Him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for His only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for His first-born." 39. And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on Him, saying, If you are Christ, save Yourself and us. Matthew and Mark speak of both the thieves as railing at Jesus. We must take their expressions as being literally correct and, if so, both the malefactors at first cast reproaches in Christ's teeth. 40. 41. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Do not you fear God, seeing you are in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this Man has done nothing amiss. Not only has He done nothing worthy of death, but He has done nothing improper, nothing out of place. "This man has done nothing amiss." The thief bears testimony to the perfect Character of this wondrous Man, whom he, nevertheless, recognized to be Divine, as we shall see in the next verse. 42-47. And He said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto you, Today shall you be with Me in Paradise. And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the Temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit: and having said this, He gave up the ghost. Now when the centurion saw what was done, He glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous Man. He was set there at the head of the guard, to watch the execution, and he could not help saying, as he observed the wonderful signs in Heaven and earth, "Certainly this was a righteous Man." 48. And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned. What a change must have come over that ribald crowd! They had shouted, "Crucify Him!" They had stood there and mocked Him and now they are overcome with the sight, and they strike their breasts. Ah, dear Friends, their grief did not come to much! Men may strike their breasts, but unless God smites their hearts, all the outward signs of a gracious work will come to nothing at all. 49. And all His acquaintance, and the women that followed Him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things. Let "these things" be before your mind's eye this evening and think much of your crucified Lord, all you who are of His acquaintance, and who are numbered among His followers. (As the Exposition is shorter than usual, an appropriate extract is added from Mr. Spurgeon's Commentary on the Gospel According to Matthew). Matthew 27:50. Jesus, when He had cried again with a load voice, yielded up the ghost. Christ's strength was not exhausted. His last Word was uttered with a loud voice, like the shout of a conquering warrior! And what a Word it was, "It is finished"! Thousands of sermons have been preached upon that little sentence, but who can tell all the meaning that lies compacted within it? It is a kind of infinite expression for breadth, depth, length and height altogether immeasurable! Christ's life being finished, perfected, completed, He yielded up the ghost, willingly dying, laying down His life as He said He would--"I lay down My life for My sheep. I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." 51-53. And, behold, the veil of the Temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Christ's death was the end of Judaism! The veil of the Temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. As if shocked at the sacrilegious murder of her Lord, the Temple rent her garments, like one stricken with horror at some stupendous crime! The body of Christ being rent, the veil of the Temple was torn in two from the top to bottom. Now was there an entrance made into the holiest of all, by the blood of Jesus, and a way of access to God was opened for every sinner who trusted in Christ's atoning Sacrifice. See what marvels accompanied and followed the death of Christ! The earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened. Thus did the material world pay homage to Him whom man had rejected, while Nature's convulsions foretold what will happen when Christ's voice once more shakes not the earth, only, but also Heaven! These first miracles worked in connection with the death of Christ were typical of spiritual wonders that will be continued till He comes again--rocky hearts are rent, graves of sin are opened, those who have been dead in trespasses and sins, and buried in sepulchers of lust and evil, are quickened and come out from among the dead, and go unto the holy city, the New Jerusalem! 54. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God. These Roman soldiers had never witnessed such scenes in connection with an execution, before, and they could only come to one conclusion about the illustrious Prisoner whom they had put to death--"Truly this was the Son of God." It was strange that those men should confess what the chief priests and scribes and elders denied, yet since their day it has often happened that the most abandoned and profane have acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God while their religious rulers have denied His Divinity. __________________________________________________________________ Achsah's Asking--a Pattern of Prayer (No. 2312) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 11, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE 2, 1889. "And Caleb said, He that smites Kirjathsepher, and takes it, to him will I give Achsah, my daughter, to wife. And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah, his daughter, to wife. And it came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted from off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wiil you? And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for you ha ve given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb ga ve her the upper springs and the lower springs." Judges 1:12-15. IN domestic life we often meet with pictures of life in the House of God. I am sure that we are allowed to find them there, for our Savior said, "If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" God is a Father and He likens Himself to us as fathers. And we who are Believers are God's children and we are permitted to liken ourselves to our own children--and just as our children would deal with us and we would deal with them--so may we deal with God and expect God to deal with us! This little story of a daughter and her father is recorded twice in the Bible. You will find it in the 15th chapter of the Book of Joshua, as well as in this first chapter of the Book of Judges. It is not inserted twice without good reasons. I am going to use it, tonight, simply in this manner--the way in which this woman went to her father, and the way in which her father treated her. May it teach us how to go to our Father who is in Heaven--and what to expect if we go to Him in that fashion. I would hold up this good woman, Achsah, before you, tonight, as a kind of model or parable. Our parable shall be Achsah, the daughter of Caleb--she shall be the picture of the true successful pleader with our Father in Heaven. I. And the first thing that I ask you to notice is HER CONSIDERATION OF THE MATTER before she went to her father. She was newly-married and she had an estate to go with her to her husband. She naturally wished that her husband should find in that estate all that was convenient and all that might be profitable. And looking it all over, she saw what was needed. Before you pray, know what you are needing. That man, who blunders down on his knees, with nothing in his mind, will blunder up, again, and get nothing for his pains. When this young woman goes to her father to ask for something, she knows what she is going to ask. She will not open her mouth till first her heart has been filled with knowledge as to what she requires. She saw that the land her father gave her would be of very little use to her husband and herself because it needed water. So she, therefore, goes to her father with a very definite request, "Give me, also, springs of water." My dear Friends, do you always, before you pray, think of what you are going to ask for? "Oh!" somebody says, "I utter some good words." Does God need your words? Think what you are going to ask for before you begin to pray and then pray like business men. This woman does not say to her father, "Father, listen to me," and then utter some pretty little oration about nothing. No, she knows what she is going to ask for and why she is going to ask for it. She sees her need and she prizes the blessing she is about to request. Oh, take note, you who are much in prayer, that you rush not to the holy exercise "as the horse rushes into the battle"--that you venture not out upon the sea of prayer without knowing within a little whereabouts will be your port! I believe that God will make you think of many more things while you are in prayer. The Spirit will help your infirmities and suggest to you other petitions--but before a word escapes your lips, I counsel you to do what Achsah did--know what you really need. This good woman, before she went to her father with her petition, asked her husband's help. When she came to her husband, "she moved him to ask of her father a field." Now, Othniel was a very brave man and very brave men are generally very bashful men. It is your cowardly man who is often forward and impertinent, but Othniel was so bashful that he did not like asking his uncle Caleb to give him anything more--it looked like grasping. He had received a wife from him and he had received land from him, and he seemed to say, "No, my good wife, it is all very well for you to put me up to this, but I do not feel like asking for anything more for myself." Still, learn this lesson, good wives--prompt your husbands to pray with you. Brothers, ask your brothers to pray with you. Sisters, be not satisfied to approach the Throne of Grace, alone, but ask your sister to pray with you. It is often a great help in prayer for two of you to agree touching the thing that concerns Christ's Kingdom. A cordon of praying souls around the Throne of Grace will be sure to prevail. God help us to be anxious in prayer to get the help of others! A friend, some time ago, said to me, "My dear Pastor, whenever I cannot pray for myself, and there are times when I feel shut up about myself, I always take to praying for you." God bless him, at any rate! "And I have not long been praying for you before I begin to feel able to pray for myself." I should like to come in for many of those odd bits of prayer. Whenever any of you get stuck in the mud, pray for me! It will do you good and I shall get a blessing. Remember how it is written of Job, "The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends." While he prayed for himself, he remained a captive, but when he prayed for those unfriendly friends of his, then the Lord smiled upon him and loosed his captivity. So it is a good thing, in prayer, to imitate this woman, Achsah. Know what you need and then ask others to join with you in prayer. Wife, especially ask your husband. Husband, especially ask your wife. I think there is no sweeter praying on earth than the praying of a husband and a wife together when they plead for their children, when they invoke a blessing upon each other--and upon the work of the Lord. Next, Achsah bethought herself of this one thing, that she was going to present her request to her father. I suppose that she would not have gone to ask of anybody else, but she said to herself, "Come, Achsah, Caleb is your father. The gift I am going to ask is not of a stranger who does not know me, but of a father, in whose care I have been ever since I was born." This thought ought to help us in prayer. And it will help us when we remember that we do not go to ask of an enemy, nor to plead with a stranger, but we say, "Our Father, which are in Heaven." Do you mean it? Do you really believe that God is your Father? Do you feel the spirit of sonship in your heart? If so, this ought to help you to pray with a believing tone. Your Father will give you whatever you need! If there was anything that I needed and I should ask it of him, I expect that my dear father, old and feeble as he is, would give it to me if it were within the range of his possibility. And surely, our great and glorious Father, with whom we have lived ever since we were newborn, has favored us so much that we ought to ask very boldly and with a childlike familiarity, resting assured that our Father will never be vexed with us because we ask these things! Indeed, He knows what things we have need of before we ask Him! So this good woman, Achsah, feeling that it was her father of whom she was going to ask, and seeing that her husband hesitated to join her in her request, made the best of her way to go and pray alone. "Well, well, Othniel, I would have liked you to have gone with me, but as you will not, I am going alone." So she gets upon the ass, which was a familiar way for ladies to ride in that day, and she rides off to her father. The grand old man sees his daughter coming and, by the very look of her, he knows that she is coming on business. There is a something about her eyes that tells him she is coming with a request. This was not the first time that she had asked something of him. He knew her usual look when she was about to petition him, so he goes to meet her, and she alights from her ass, a token of great and deep respect, just as Rebecca, when she saw Isaac, alighted from the camel. She wished to show how deeply she reverenced that grand man, of whom it was an honor to be a child. Caleb survived Joshua a little while and still, in his old age, went out to fight the Canaanites and conquered Hebron, which the Lord had given him. Achsah pays reverence to her father, but yet she is very hearty in what she is going to say to him. Now, dear Friends, learn again from this good woman how to pray! She went humbly, yet eagerly. If others will not pray with you, go alone--but when you go, go very reverently. It is a shameful thing that there should ever be an irreverent prayer. You are on earth and God is in Heaven--multiply not your words as though you were talking to your equal. Do not speak to God as though you could order Him around and have your will with Him, and he were to be a lackey to you. Bow low before the Most High! Acknowledge yourself unworthy to approach Him, speaking in the tone of one who is pleading for that which must be a gift of great charity. So shall you draw near to God aright. But while you are humble, have desire in your eyes and expectation in your countenance. Pray as one who means to have what he asks for. Say not, as one did, "I ask once for what I need and if I do not get it, I never ask again." That is unchristian! Plead on if you know that what you are asking for is right. Be like the importunate widow--come again, and again, and again! Be like the Prophet's servant, "Go again seven times." You will, at last, prevail! This good woman had not to use importunity. The very look of her showed that she needed something and, therefore, her father said, "What will you?" I think that, at the outset of our meditation, we have learned something that ought to help us in prayer. If you put even this into practice, though no more was said, you might go away blessed thereby. God grant us to know our need, to be anxious to have the help of our fellow Believers, but to remember that, as we go to our Father, even if nobody will go with us, we may go alone, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and plead our case with our Father in Heaven! II. Now, secondly, in this story of Achsah, kindly notice HER ENCOURAGMENT. Here we have it--"She lighted from off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What will you?" "Oh!" one says, "I could ask anything if my father said to me, 'What will you?'" This is precisely what your great Father says to you, tonight--"What will you?" With all the magnanimity of His great heart, God manifests Himself to the praying man or pleading woman, and He says, "What will you? What is your petition and what is your request?" What do I gather from that question, "What will you?" Why, this. First, you should know what you need. Could some Christians here, if God were to say to each of them, "What will you?" answer Him? Do you not think that we get into such an indistinct, indiscriminate kind of a way of praying that we do not quite know what we really need? If it is so with you, do not expect to be heard till you know what you need! Get a distinct, definite request realized by your mind as a pressing need--get it right before your mind's eye as a thing that you must have. That is a blessed preparation for prayer! Caleb said to his daughter, "What will you?" and Christ says to you, tonight, "Dear child of Mine, what do you want of Me? Blood-bought daughter, what do you want of Me?" Will you not, some of you, begin to find up a request or two if you have not one ready on the tip of your tongue? I hope that you have many petitions lying in the center of your hearts and that they will not be long in leaping to your lips! Next, as you ought to know what you need, you are to ask for it. God's way of giving is through our asking. I suppose that He does that in order that He may give twice over, for a prayer is, itself, a blessing as well as the answer to prayer! Perhaps it sometimes does us as much good to pray for a blessing as to get the blessing. At any rate, this is God's way, "Ask, and you shall receive." He puts even His own Son, our blessed Savior, under this rule, for He says, even to Him, "Ask of Me, and I shall give You the heathen for Your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Your possession." It is a rule, then, without exception, that you are to know what you need, and you are to ask for it. Will you do this, dear Friend, while the Lord says to you, "What will you?" And when Caleb said, "What will you?" did he not as good as say to Achsah, "You shall have what you ask for"? Come, now, tonight is a sweet, fair night for praying! I do not know a night when it is not so, but tonight is a delightful night for prayer. You shall have what you ask for. "All things whatever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive." Desires written in your heart by the Holy Spirit will, all of them, be fulfilled! Come, then, think of these three things--you must know what you need, you must ask for what you need and you shall have what you need! Your Father says to you, as Caleb said to Achsah, "What will you?" And, once more, it shall be a pleasure to your Father to hear you ask. There stands Caleb, that good, brave, grand man, and he says to his daughter, "What will you?" He likes to see her open that mouth that is so dear to him! He loves to listen to the music of her voice! The father delights to hear his child tell him what she needs and it shall be no displeasure to your God to hear you pray, tonight! It shall be a joy to Him to have your petition spread before Him. Many fathers would quite as soon that their children did not tell them all their needs--in fact, the fewer their needs, the better pleased will their parents be! But our Father in Heaven feels a pleasure in giving to us all we need, for giving does not impoverish Him, and withholding would not enrich Him. He as much delights to give as the sun delights to shine! It is the very element of God to be scattering bounties! Come, then, and pray to Him--you will thus please Him more than you will please yourself! I wish that I could so speak, tonight, that every child of God here would say, "The preacher is talking to me. He means that I have to pray and that God will hear me, and bless me!" Yes, that is precisely what I mean! Take my advice and prove it to yourself, tonight, and see if it is not so, that God takes delight in your poor, feeble, broken prayer and grants your humble petition! Thus we have seen Achsah's consideration before prayer and her encouragement to pray. III. Now comes HER PRAYER itself. As soon as she found that she had an audience with her father of the kindest sort, she said to him, "Give me a blessing." I like that petition--it is a good beginning--"Give me a blessing." I should like to put that prayer into every believing mouth here, tonight, "Give me a blessing. Whatever You do not give me, give me a blessing! Whatever else You give me, do not fail to give me a blessing." A father's blessing is an inheritance to a loving child. "Give me a blessing." What is the blessing of God? If He shall say, "You are blessed," you may defy the devil to make you cursed! If the Lord calls you blessed, you are blessed! Though covered with boils, as Job was, you are blessed. Though near to death, like Lazarus, with the dogs licking his sores, you are blessed! If you should be dying, like Stephen, beneath the stones of murderous enemies, if God blesses you, what more can you wish for? No, Lord, put me anywhere that You will, as long as I get Your blessing. Deny me what You will, only give me Your blessing. I am rich in poverty if You bless me! So Achsah said to her father, "Give me a blessing." I wish that prayer might be prayed by everybody here, tonight. Printers here, tonight, pray for once, if you have not prayed before, "Lord, give me a blessing." Soldiers, pray your gracious God to give you a blessing! Young men and maidens, old men and fathers, take this prayer of Achsah's upon your hearts, tonight, "Give me a blessing." Why, if the Lord shall hear that prayer from everybody in this place, what a blessed company we shall be! And we shall go our way to be a blessing to this City of London beyond what we have ever been before! Notice next, in Achsah's prayer, how she mingled gratitude with her petition--"Give me a blessing: for you have given me a south land." We like, when people ask anything of us, to hear them say, "You did help me, you know, Sir, a month ago." But if they seem to come to you and quite forget that you ever helped them, and never thank you, never say a word about it, but come begging again and again, you say to yourself, "Why, I helped that fellow a month ago! He never said a word about that." "Have I not seen you before?" "No, Sir I do not know that you ever have." "Ah," you say to yourself, "he will get no more out of me. He is not grateful for what he has had." I believe that ingratitude seals up the springs of blessing. When we do not praise God for what we have received from Him, it seems to me that He should say, "I am not going to cast My pearls before swine. I shall not give My precious things to those who set no value upon them." When you are praying, take to praising, also--you will gather strength thereby! When a man has to take a long jump, you have seen him go back a good distance and then run forward to get a spring. Go back in grateful praise to God for what He has done for you in days gone by, and then get a spring for your leap for a future blessing, or a present blessing! Mingle gratitude with all your prayers! There was not only gratitude in this woman's prayer, but she used former gifts as a plea for more-- "You have given me a south land; give me also." Oh, yes, that is grand argument with God--"You have given me, therefore, give me some more." You cannot always use this argument with men, for if you remind them that they have given you so much, they say, "Well, now, I think that somebody else must have a turn. Could you not go next door?" It is never so with God. There is no argument with Him like this, "Lord, You have done this to me. You are always the same. Your All-Sufficiency is not abated, therefore, do again what You have done!" Make every gift that God gives you a plea for another gift! And when you have that other gift, make it a plea for another gift--He loves you to do this. Every blessing given contains the eggs of other blessings within it. You must take the blessing and find the hidden eggs and let them be hatched by your earnestness--and there shall be a whole brood of blessings springing out of a single blessing! But this good woman used this plea in a particular way--she said, "You have given me a south land; give me also springs of water." This was as much as to say, "Though you have given me the south land and I thank you for it, it is no good to me unless I have water for it. It is a very hot bit of ground, this south land--it needs irrigating. My husband and I cannot get a living from it unless you give us springs of water." Do you see the way you are to pray? "Lord, You have given me so much, and it will all be good for nothing if You do not give me more. If You do not finish, it is a pity that You did ever begin. You have given me very many mercies, but if I do not have many more, all Your generosity will be lost. You do not begin to build unless you mean to finish and so I come to You to say, 'You have given me a south land, but it is dry. Give me, also, springs of water to make it of real value to me." In this prayer of Achsah's there is a particularity and a specialty--"Give me also springs of water." She knew what she was praying for and that is the way to pray! When you ask of God, ask distinctly--"Give me springs of water." You may say, "Give me my daily bread." You may cry, "Give me a sense of pardoned sin." You may distinctly ask for anything which God has promised to give, but mind that, like this woman, you are distinct and plain in what you ask of God--"Give me springs of water." Now, it seems to me, tonight, as if I could pray that prayer, "Give me springs of water." "Lord, you have given me a south land--all this congregation, Sunday after Sunday, all this multitude of people--but, Lord, how can I preach to them if You do not give me springs of water? 'All my fresh springs are in You.' What is the use of the hearers if there is not the power of the Holy Spirit going with the Word to bless them? Give me springs of water." Now, I can suppose a Sunday school teacher here, tonight, saying, "Lord, I thank You for my interesting class and for the attention that the scholars pay to what I say to them. But, Lord, what is the good of my children to me unless You give me springs of water? Oh, that, out of myself, out of my very soul, might flow rivers of Living Water for my dear scholars and that I might have the power of Your Holy Spirit with all my teaching! Give me springs of water." I can imagine a Christian parent here saying, "Lord, I thank You for my wife and my children. I thank You that You have given me servants over whom I have influence. I thank You for all these, but what is the use of my being the head of a family unless You give me springs of Divine Grace that, like David, I may bless my household and see my children grow up in Your fear? Give me springs of water." The point of this petition is this, "O Lord, what You have given me is of little good to me unless You give me something more." dear Hearers, if God has given you money, pray that He will give you Grace to use it aright, or else, if you hoard it up or spend it, it may, in either case, prove a curse to you! Pray, "Give me springs of water! Give me Grace to use my wealth aright." Some here have many talents. Riches in the brain are among the best of riches. Be thankful to God for your talents, but cry, "Lord, give me of Your Grace, that I may use my talents for Your Glory. Give me springs of water, or else my talents shall be a dry and thirsty land, yielding no fruit to You. Give me springs of water." You see, the prayer is not merely for water, but for springs of water. "Give me a perpetual, eternal, always-flowing fountain. Give me Grace that shall never fail, but shall flow, and flow on, and flow forever! Give me a constant supply--"Give me springs of water." This woman's prayer, then, I have thus tried to commend to you. Oh, that we might all have Grace to copy her! IV. Now, lastly, see HER SUCCESS. Upon this I will not detain you more than a minute or two. "Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs." Observe, her father gave her what she asked for. She asked for springs and he gave her springs. "If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?" God gives us what we ask for when it is wise to do so. Sometimes we make mistakes and ask for the wrong thing--and then He is kind enough to put the pen through the petition and write another word into the prayer--and answer the amended prayer rather than the first foolish edition of it! Caleb gave Achsah what she asked. Next, he gave her in large measure. She asked for springs of water and he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. The Lord "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask, or think." Some use that passage in prayer and misquote it, "above what we can ask or even think." That is not in the Bible, because you can ask or even think anything you like. But it is, "above all that we ask, or think." Our asking or our thinking falls short, but God's giving never does! And her father gave her this without a word of upbraiding. He did not say, "Ah, Achsah, you are always begging of me!" He did not say, "Now that I have given you to your husband, it is too bad of him to let you come and ask for more from me, when I have already given you plenty." There are some gruff old fathers who would speak like that to their daughters, and say, "No, no, no! Come, come, I cannot stand this--you already have a good portion, my girl--and I have others to think of as well as you." No, Caleb gave her the upper and the lower springs and never said a word by way of blaming her. But I will be bound to say that he smiled on her, as he said, "Take the upper and the lower springs, and may you and your husband enjoy the whole! You have only asked, after all, what my heart delights to give you." Now, may the Lord grant unto us, tonight, to ask of Him in wisdom, and may He not have to upbraid us, but give us all manner of blessings both of the upper and the lower springs, both of Heaven and earth, both of eternity and time, and give them freely, and not say, even, a single word by way of upbraiding us! 1 have done with this last point when I have asked a plain question or two. Why is it that, tonight, some of you dear Friends have a very parched-up inheritance? The grass will not grow and the corn will not grow. Nothing good seems to grow. You have been plowing and turning the plot up, and sowing, and weeding--and yet nothing comes of it. You are a Believer, and you have an inheritance, but you are not very much given to song, not very cheery, not very happy. And you are sitting here, tonight, and singing, to the tune Job-- "Lord, what a wretched land is this, That yields us no supply!" Well, why is that? There is no need for it. Your heavenly Father does not want you to be in that miserable condition. There is something to be had that would lift you out of that state and change your tone altogether. May every child of God here go to his Father, just like Achsah went to Caleb! Pour out your heart before the Lord, with all the simple ease and naturalness of a trustful, loving child. Do you say, "Oh, I could not do that"? Then I shall have to ask you this question, "Are we truly the children of God if we never feel towards Him any of that holy boldness?" Do you not think that every child must feel a measure of that confidence towards his father? If there is a son in the world who says, "No, I-I-I really could not speak to my father," well, I shall not make any enquiries, but I know that there is something wrong up at his home--there is something not right either with the father or with the boy! Wherever there is a loving home, you never hear the son or daughter say, "You know, I-I-I could not ask my father." I hope that we have, none of us, got into that condition with regard to our earthly fathers! And let none of us be in that condition with regard to our heavenly Father-- "My soul, ask what you will, You cannot be too bold Since His own blood for you He spilled, What else can He withhold?" Come, then, while in the pew, tonight, before we gather at the Communion Table, and present your petition with a child-like confidence and expect it to be heard, and expect, tonight, to have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ! And you, poor Sinners, who cannot pray like children, what are you to do? Well, you remember how the Savior said to the Syrophenician woman, "It is not right to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs." But she answered, "Yes, Lord; yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs." You come in for the crumbs, tonight, but if a man is satisfied to eat crumbs with the dogs, God will not be satisfied till He makes him eat bread with the children! If you will take the lowest place, God will give you a higher place before long. Come to Jesus and trust in Him henceforth and forever. Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. MATTHEW7. Verse 1. Judge not, that you be not judged. You are not called to judge--you are not qualified to judge. "God is the Judge: He puts down one, and sets up another." There is much better work to be done by us than that of setting up as judges of others. 2. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. Do not judge the whole character of a man by one single action. Do not attempt to judge his motives. You cannot read his heart--you are not Omniscient--you are not Infallible. You will very soon find other people judging you and when, one of these days, you shall be falsely judged and condemned, you will not need to have any surprise if you have done the same thing, yourself--it will be only your corn measured back to you with the bushel you used in measuring other people's. 3. And why behold you the mote that is in your brother's eye, but consider not the beam that is in your own eye? There is something in yourself that is worthy of your consideration, something that you ought to consider--it is a big, blinding beam in your own eye! As for the mote that is in your brother's eye, there is no need that you should even see it. Why do you behold it? Charity is always a little blind to the faults of others, for it remembers so well its own. 4. Or how will you say to your brother, Let me pull out the mote out of your eye; and, behold, a beam is in your own eye? A blind man cannot be a good oculist. He should see well who tries to mend other people's eyes, but with a beam in one's own eye, it must be poor work to attempt to take motes out of the eyes of others. This does not prevent our using reproof and rebuke when they are needed. Even under the Law, the command was given, "You shall not hate your brother in your heart: you shall in any wise rebuke your neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him," as if it were a kind of hatred to avoid the duty of kindly and gentle rebuke. That is a very different thing from exposing the faults of others and aggravating and exaggerating the faults of others, as, alas, so many do! Oh, how much misery might be saved in the world if the scandal market were not so brisk! Perhaps tongues would not move so fast if eyes were used to a better purpose. 5, 6. You hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother's eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast you your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and tear you. There are some holy enjoyments, some gracious experiences, some deep doctrines of the Word of God, which it would be out of place to speak of before certain profane and unclean persons. They would only make a jest of them--perhaps they might persecute you on account of them. No, holy things are for holy men and, as of old, the crier in the Grecian temple was known to say, before the mysteries were performed, "Far hence, you profane!" so sometimes, before we enter into the innermost circle of Christian converse, it would be well for us to notice who is listening. 7, 8. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for everyone that asks receives. This is invariably the rule of God's Kingdom, whenever the request is a right one, and is presented in a right manner. 8-11. And he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven, give good things to them that ask Him? The point is, not only that God gives, but that He knows how to give. If He were always to give according to our prayers, it might be very injurious to us--He might give us that with which we could do hurt, as when a father should put a stone into a boy's hand. Or He might give us that which might do us hurt, as if a father were to give his child a serpent. He will do neither of these things, but He will answer us in discretion and, with prudence will He fulfill our desires. You know how to give to your children--how much more shall your infinitely wise Father, who from Heaven sees all the surroundings of men, give good things to them that ask Him? 12. Therefore all things whatever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the Law and the Prophets. "The Law and the Prophets" are here condensed into a single sentence. This is the golden rule, a handy rule, a perpetually applicable rule, useful in every condition--and it never makes a mistake. 13, 14. Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are which go in there: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leads unto life, and few there are that find it. It is a way of self-denial, it is a way of humility, it is a way which is distasteful to the natural pride of men! It is a precise way, it is a holy way, a strait way and, therefore, men do not care for it. They are too big, too proud to go along a narrow lane to Heaven--yet this is the right way. There are many broad ways, as Bunyan says, that abut upon it, but you may know them by their being broad, and you may know them by their being crowded! The Christian has to swim against the current--he has to do more than that, he has to go against himself--so strait is the road! But if you wish to go down to Hell, you have only to float with the stream and you can have any quantity of company that you like. 15. Beware offalse prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing. Dressed like Elijah. 15. But inwardly they are ravening wolves. Very Ahabs and Jezebels! And they will deceive you, if you are not Divinely guarded against them. 16. You shall know them--How? By their eloquence? No. Some of the worst of teachers have had great persuasiveness. You shall know them by their earnestness? No. Some have compassed sea and land to make proselytes to a lie. You shall know them how, then? 16. By their fruits. If their teaching makes you better, if it makes you love God, if it draws you to holiness, if it inspires you with noble and heroic sentiments so that you imitate Christ--then listen to them. 16-20. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you shall know them. After all, this is the best test of any doctrine, the practice to which it leads. I remember discussing, one day, with a person about the doctrine of future punishment. We were arguing and the gentleman who owned the vessel on which we were, said, "Come up on deck and enjoy the fresh air, and leave that subject. But," he said, "you, Sir, will kindly go as far as possible from my men, for they are bad enough as they are, and if you tell them there is no punishment for sin, they will be worse than ever. As for you, Mr. Spurgeon, you may go where you like--you won't do them any harm." I thought that rough and ready mode of argument was about as good a commendation as I could wish to have! 21. Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that does the will of My Father which is in Heaven. Not talking, but doing! Not loud profession, but quiet, practical godliness wins the day! 22,23. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? And in Your name have cast out devils? And in Your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, you that work iniquity. If Christ does not know us, it matters not what we do! Even if we work miracles, if we astound the world with our abilities--it is all nothing if Christ does not know us! Now, I think there are many here who can humbly but confidently say, "He knows me." He knows some of us, if by nothing else, by our constantly begging of Him. We have been at Him day and night in our necessities, pleading for His bounty, His mercy, His company--and He cannot say He does not know us. He knows a great deal about us through our prayers, if by no other way. 24. Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. What a mercy there is a Rock to build on! We could not have made one, but there is the Rock. 25. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew. For the best man will have his troubles. 25. And beat upon that house. For the best man will feel the troubles--they will come home to him. 25-27. And it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that hears these sayings of Mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended. For the worst of men will have their troubles. There is no escaping the trials of life by sin. 27. And the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. There was no building it again--it was altogether gone, swept right away--no vestige of it remained. 28, 29. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as One having authority, and not as the scribes. He touched their conscience. His teaching came home to them. They could not help feeling that it was true. Besides, He did not keep on quoting Rabbi This and Rabbi That, but He spoke from His own knowledge--"He taught them as One having authority, and not as the scribes." __________________________________________________________________ Charity and Purity (No. 2313) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 18, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 23, 1889. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world." James 1:27. THERE is a great deal said, a great deal written, a great deal of zeal on the one side and of anger on the other, expended upon the externals of religion. Some think that they should be very fine, not to say gaudy, very impressive, not to say imposing. They like what they call, "bright" services, though we might call them by another name. But the great question with many people is, "What are to be the externals of religion?" What dress is religion to wear? Shall it be robed in the plainness of Quakerdom, or shall it be adorned with all the brilliance of Romanism? Which shall it be? Well, dear Friends, after all, we may spend much time over that question and find no satisfactory answer to it. But the Biblical Ritualism, the pure external worship, the true embodiment of the inward principles of religion is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. Charity and purity are the two great garments of Christianity. Charity was once cried up by the Romanists to an extreme point--almsgiving seeming to be, to many--the beginning and the end of piety. It was an almsgiving which had a great deal that was excellent about it and which I cannot regard, as some do, altogether with abhorrence--an almsgiving which covered this land with houses of entertainment for the poor, so that they journeyed from one halting-place to another--and were freely lodged and housed. And we had, at least, no poor law, or workhouse, with all (I was about to say) the horrors which accompany the present system. But, unfortunately, charity was thought to be everything, and purity was too much neglected, so that even those houses which were originally built to be the abode of those who should help the poor and needy, and instruct the ignorant, became, to a sad degree, the haunts of luxury and vice! The monastery, which should have been a place of pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father, as it entertained the fatherless and the widows, was not famed for being unspotted by the world's sins, but, on the contrary, it was famous or infamous for its foulness! I have no doubt that this was a great deal exaggerated, but, at any rate, the accusation did seem to lie, to a very sad extent, against it, that those who were supposed to be dedicated to God were not such consecrated men as they professed to be. Purity went down and charity went up. Well, in these days, I sometimes fear lest we should by no means insist too much on purity, but should certainly insist too little upon charity! The visitation of the fatherless and widows in their affliction is not left optional. It is not to be the privilege of a few worldly men who give all their substance to orphanages. Every Christian is bound to wear his part of the external dress of religion, that is, charity! This charity is to be manifested especially to those who need it most, whose need cannot be a matter of imposture, but must be real. These are the fatherless and widows during the time of their destitution and affliction--when the orphans are not able to earn the bread that perishes--and the mother has her children weeping around her and pining in poverty. Not only may this charity be shown, but it must be manifested if we would have pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father. The increase of charity, of careful and discreet consideration for the poor and needy, would bring a great blessing with it, and is what is greatly needed, even in these times, when, perhaps, we fancy that we are doing almost enough in this direction, although we certainly are not. Yet charity without purity will be of no use. In vain should we give all our substance to the poor and give our bodies to be burned if we do not walk in the way of holiness, "without which no man shall see the Lord." If we do not come out from the world and keep ourselves from its polluting influence, we have not yet learned what pure and undefiled religion really is! We may be very orthodox in creed, or we may be very far advanced in our knowledge of religious matters. We may think ourselves to be Hebrews of the Hebrews, Pharisees of the Pharisees, and as touching the righteousness which is of the Law, blameless. But we are, in the sight of God, only as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal, unless, by Divine Grace, we have learned to keep ourselves unspotted from the world! Without forgetting what I have said to you about charity, we will examine those words in our text which especially speak of purity and, in doing so, I notice, first, that they indicate separation. Look below their surface and they certainly indicate that. Secondly, they impress upon us spotlessness--"to keep ourselves unspotted from the world." And, thirdly, they insist upon careful self-watching. I. First, then, beloved Friends, if you look below the surface of the words here, you will see that THEY INDICATE SEPARATION. "To keep ourselves unspotted from the world," implies that we are not a part of the world. We are in it, but evidently not of it. We are one thing and the world is another thing--and we are so much apart from the world that even a spot from the pools of the world would defile us. We are to be quite outside the world even while we are in it. Those of you who were here on Monday night must have been greatly amused and also instructed by what was said by a young seller of religious tracts. He was a little fellow--you remember him! He was going along with his pack on his back and a big man accosted him in this way, "Well, my little fellow, do you belong to the Militia?" "No, Sir, I do not, but I belong to the King's Own." "You little fool," said the man, "why, there is not any king in this country, so you cannot belong to the King's Own." The lad replied, "I don't know that I am a fool any more for that, for, do you know, I belong to another country?" "What do you mean by saying that you belong to another country? You are not a foreigner." "Well, I won't say that I am a foreigner, but I can say that I am a stranger in this land, and I belong, as I have already told you, to another country. And that I am not a fool is quite certain, for in the country to which I belong there is a King, and I am in His army. And if you would like to know how to enlist in it, I have a book in my pack which you can buy, and in which you can read all about my King and His army." It was well put and it also expressed nothing more than the real truth. Here, in the midst of this world, you and I, if we are truly born again from above, are strangers and pilgrims. We have come into this land as gypsies might have come--pitching our tent here and there--but having no abiding city anywhere. We are in this world as Abraham was in Canaan. We are not related to any of the Canaanites among whom we dwell. We are of another country, to wit, a heavenly one--and we are looking for "a city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God." There are some professing Christians who also try to be worldly, but a worldly Christian is an anomaly and a contradiction! No, beloved Friends, if we are truly the Lord's, we are severed from the world. I will mention two or three of the many ways in which we are thus separated. The first is by Divine Election. The Lord Jesus Christ had a people given to Him--a people whom He received of His Father, as He said--"Yours they were, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your Word." "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which You have given Me." These are they whom God chose in Christ Jesus from before the foundation of the world, having predestinated them, according to the good pleasure of His will, that they should be holy and without blame before Him in love--"for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the First-Born among many brethren." Now this eternal choice of God has severed Believers from the rest of mankind and they stand apart as much as Israel stood apart in Egypt, even in the midst of the plagues. Thus God's chosen ones constitute a people that shall dwell alone--they shall not be numbered among the nations. He has made them to be His portion, "for the Lord's portion is His people. Jacob is the lot of His inheritance." This Truth of God, some of you may say, leads us into the great mysteries of the Kingdom of God. Well, in due time, our separation from the world is the result of Divine calling as well as Divine election, for the Apostle writes, "moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called." There is a people in this world who have been called out from the world and they make up the ecclesia, the called-out assembly, the people to whom a Voice has come which others have not spiritually heard. They are the people who have been drawn by Christ and have run after Christ--the people who were dead and who have been quickened--the people who were slumbering and who have been awakened. They are the people who were afar off and who have been brought near, the people who have been brought out of darkness into Christ's marvelous light, the people whom He has separated unto Himself--and who shall show forth His praise. Do you know anything about this calling, my dear Hearers? Were you ever led, by conviction of sin, repentance and faith, to fly to Jesus? Have you come to Him? If so, in that wondrous calling out, you have one evidence that you are distinct from the world that lies in the Wicked One. Another clear distinguishing mark is redemption. The blood of the paschal lamb was on the lintel and the two side posts of the house of every family of Israel. It was not on the houses of the Egyptians and to their dwellings the Destroying Angel came with swift, sure, unerring blow, killing the first-born in every house throughout the land. It was the blood-mark that distinguished Israel from all the rest of the people! And today, only those who are sheltered by the sprinkled blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, are safe! Christ has redeemed His people from among men. He loved His Church and gave Himself for her--and He has redeemed that Church and brought her out of the Egyptian bondage of sin with a high hand and an outstretched arm, redeeming her by power as well as by price--and she shall be His forever. Has He not espoused her unto Himself and will He not have her of whom His soul was eternally enamored and to whom, in the Covenant of old, He was joined by bonds of everlasting wedlock? Yes, verily, He will have her to be His own bride, world without end! This is another mark of our separation from the world--the blood-red mark of redemption, effectual redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, Beloved, in due time, separation from the world comes out, externally, more fully in sanctification. There is a people in this world who have another nature from that of the men of this world. Would to God there were more of them! But there has come, by Divine Grace, a work of Christ in their heart which has changed their entire nature, aspirations, loves, hates--their whole selves--and made the whole world to become new to them because they are totally new to it. When this great change is worked in the heart of a man, it crucifies him to the world and the world to him. And he becomes a member of a community as much above the common race of humanity as a man is above a horse or a dog! He becomes possessed of a higher nature which was born in him by regeneration and which lifts him up into familiarity with God, so that he becomes a partaker of the Divine Nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. So says this Book on which we rest and I beseech you to believe that it speaks the Truth of God. Sanctification is the great open separator of Christians from the world! And they are so separate and so distinct that they will never be mixed together, not even in that day when their bones shall lie mingled in the same cemetery--when grave by grave the righteous shall sleep side by side with the wicked! There shall be a distinction in that day of resurrection when the dead in Christ shall rise first--"The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." There shall be a distinction in that day when the King's words, "Come, you blessed," or, "Depart, you cursed," shall make an everlasting division between them--and all the universe shall know that the Lord does put a difference between Israel and Egypt! Now, Beloved, you can judge for yourselves, tonight--I pray you to do it--whether you are separate from the world. If you are not, you will be judged with the world. If this day there falls to your lot, special Grace, as well as special joy--if you have a new life and a heavenly experience all your own, then, inasmuch as you are not of the world, hear again the words of my text and keep yourselves "unspotted from the world." Now, I want you to notice, before I leave this point, that, inasmuch as there is an evident separation between the people of God and the world, we make it a part of worship to manifest that separation. Observe what the text says--"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this...To keep ourselves unspotted from the world." Religion does not consist simply in meeting together for prayer, in singing hymns and hearing sermons. There is much of this that is profitable and glorifies God, but there is something more needed to complete real worship of God. When you and I live daily with the fear of God before our eyes, in the presence of men of the world who care not whether there is a God or not, then are we truly manifesting "pure and undefiled religion." When we judge all our conduct by thinking how it will appear in the sight of God. When, assailed by temptation, we say to ourselves, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" When we keep ourselves apart from every evil thing that might fascinate and entice us, saying, "So did not I, because of the fear of God," this is true worship! It is quite as real worship as the hymns we sing and the prayers we offer. Abstinence from evil and seeking that which is right will manifest our separation from the world, especially if the Glory of God is our one great objective in life. I like that word of my dear friend, Mr. George Muller, when he says, "Never begin a day without feeling joy in the Lord." I think that is a very blessed rule--to live constantly walking in such a way that you and God are on close terms of happy fellowship so that all that you do you do heartily as unto the Lord! Your common service as a domestic servant, or your public service as a preacher, you do in the Presence, not of the great Taskmaster, but of your great Father and Friend, of whom you have become an adopted child and to whom you are separated to be a priest serving Him every day! If everything is done, from the taking down of the shop shutters on the Monday morning to the putting of them up on Saturday night, as well as what is done on Sunday--if all is done for God's Glory, this will make a great gulf between you and the man of the world who lives for baser ends. Thus I have tried very plainly to show that the words in our text indicate separation. II. Now, in the second place, THEY IMPRESS UPON US SPOTLESSNESS--"To keep ourselves unspotted from the world." We learn from this, first, that the Christian never expects to get any good from the world. He is to keep himself from the world, specially from the spots of the world. Dr. Watts wisely asks-- "Is this vile world a friend to Grace, To help me on to God?" No, it never is. It never was. It will never be. There is enmity, today, between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent--and so there will be to the end of the chapter. You will never get anything out of the serpent, even though you stand and listen to his philosophical questions and his new explanations of God's Word. You will get nothing more out of him now than mother Eve did when she got from him a curse to all her posterity. You can get no good out of the world, nor out of the Prince of this world. It is implied in our text, also, that we cannot go and wallow in the world's filth. If there is any man here who is a professor of religion and who can go, tonight, and indulge himself in vice, or who can find himself at home with the world, well, he belongs to the world. Where you find your pleasure, there your heart is! Do not pretend to belong to the Church and to the world as well. I like the honesty of the man who finds that his life is not consistent with the life of Christ and, therefore, gives up his profession--that is plain sailing. But do not pretend that you can wallow in the mire of open sin or secret sin and yet belong to Christ, for that cannot be! Keep yourselves unspotted from the world's puddles. In particular, we must keep ourselves unspotted from the lepers of the world. There is a certain number of leprous men in the world. You can tell them by their conversation and, sometimes you cannot help going very near where they are. But if you hear them cry, "Unclean!" just give them a very wide berth. I wish that Christians were more careful about this leprosy in the matter of books. As soon as ever you see that there is leprosy there, do not go and play with it, and examine it, and look at it. You will catch it if you are not careful! Keep clear of it! Keep yourselves unspotted from the lepers of the world. "Well, that is easy enough," you say. Perhaps it is not as easy as you think. But, further, we are to keep ourselves from all spots of the world when we have to mingle with it. Notice, there are spots which come from your circumstances. Are you wealthy? Well, use your wealth for God, but mind that it does not spot you. There is a great deal of rust about riches. Mind that it does not eat into your soul as does a canker. Are you poor? Does your poverty compel you to live in a very low neighborhood with people of groveling tastes? Well, the poverty will not necessarily hurt you any more than the wealth will, but keep yourselves unspotted from it. You will need a deal of Divine Grace to live in some parts of London and not be spotted, even, by the people who have apartments in the house where you live. And not only will your circumstances be likely to spot you, but the favors and honors of the world will spot you. So you have received a degree, or you have had a rise in business and the people all speak well of you, do they? And there is that thoroughly worldly lady who has a secret admiration for you. Well, well, well, be careful! Joseph had the favor of Potiphar and of Pharaoh in Egypt, but he kept himself unspotted. Mind that the world's favor does not spot you. "Ah," says one, "I don't get much of that! I get all frowns." Very well--persecution, slander and frowning need not spot you, but they may, you know. There are many who cannot bear the cold atmosphere and biting frosts of persecution. Mind that you are not spotted in that way. Then we may be spotted, dear Friends, in trade. I suppose that a man has good need to be wide awake in order to stay honest. A man can soon do a wrong thing in business by simple negligence and, unless he keeps both his eyes open, his very servants may be doing, in his name, that which will be injurious to the honor of their master. Dear Friends, trade away all you can--go and prosper in it--but mind that you do not get spotted! Then there are politics. You know what party politics are. We are all trying to got in another set of maggots to eat the cheese! That is about all it amounts to--first turn out one lot and then turn in another. It comes to little more than that! Even in the pursuit of really good matters of policy, do you know any Christian who goes into politics who is the better for it? If I find such a man, I will have him stuffed if I can, for I have never seen such a specimen yet! I will not say, do not attend to politics, but I do say, do not let them spot you. Then there are the societies of life. A man goes in with his neighbors and he sits at their feast. The Savior sat at a feast with a Pharisee, but mind that it does not spot you--it did not spot Him, but it may spot you, so beware! And as to your ordinary conversation with men of the world, are you not conscious, when you go home at night, that you need washing? After shaking hands with a good many men of the world and talking with them, do you not feel that you are apt to get spotted? And the literature, the common literature of the world. I do not mean that which we should censure, and condemn, and burn--but the common literature that is all around you--mind that it does not spot you, Brothers and Sisters. If we would be spotless, we must beware of the vanities and pleasures of the world, the thoughts and the tendencies of the world. It is supposed to be something wonderful to see "the tendency of the age," "the current of the age," "the set of thought." It is all pollution and nothing else! Instead of wishing to be abreast of it, I only desire to be abreast of it in stemming it and, by opposing it, to drive it back. That is the only position for a Christian! If you go with the current of the age, you are swimming the wrong way, for all that is of the world comes of evil even to this day. There is no change in the Scripture and there is no change in the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. The current of human opinion always was, is and will be, till Christ shall come, an evil current that will bear you the wrong way if you yield to it. I might thus enlarge, but I will not, and will only say that we must keep ourselves unspotted from the sins of the world. What are they? Well, one of them is atheism. Keep yourselves unspotted from that horrible crime, hatred of Deity! Doubt of every kind is in the air--this is the day of doubt. Keep yourselves unspotted from the world's unbelief. This is the age of compromises--to many people, the Truth of God is not a matter of great importance, nowadays, and principle is of no account. They snip and cut and mar the Scriptures as Jehudi cut the Prophet's roll--they have no care as to what God has said. Avoid compromises and be unspotted of the world! This is the age of trifling! There is more money spent on recreation, today, than ever was since the world began, unless it was that day in which God swept all away by the Flood! Keep yourselves unspotted by the world! It is the age of hollowness and gigantic shams and bubbles. Be real! Be true! Keep yourselves unspotted from the world. This subject is endless. God give us Grace to carry it out! III. I must finish by noticing, in the third place, that the words in our text INSIST UPON CAREFUL SELF-WATCHING. Do you understand that it is your very person, your soul, your heart, your very self that is to be kept unspotted? What a man is, the man, before long, does. But keep yourselves clean, unspotted, my Brothers and Sisters. Do you say, "O Lord, how can I do this"? It is plain from the text that I am not to sit down, and say, "The Lord will do it, the Lord will do it and the Lord must do it, for I cannot." The language of the text is such that it calls the Christian, himself, to watchfulness and care. What must he do, then? Brethren, first, let us go and wash. We were washed once, many years ago. Jesus washed us and made us clean. But now, today, we have been going through the world and our feet have become muddied. Let us come to Him, again, tonight, before we go to rest. Dear Master, wash our feet, again, from any spots of the world which we have acquired by going along these dusty pathways! The fairest lily in the gardens near London gets spotted by the soot of this great city--you cannot help seeing its defilement! But the shower comes and the dew falls, and the lily washes its fair face, and its loveliness is restored. Let us go to our Lord, again, to be washed in His precious blood. It is never supposed in the Scriptures that we shall be without sin to confess, but it is written, "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 still need cleansing, even when we are walking in the Light of God! Let us get away to Christ, then, and say, "Lord, I would be, myself, unspotted. I come to You for washing." That done, avoid careless walking if you wish not to be spotted. In going home, after a shower, if you have to cross a road, it is very difficult to keep from being spotted. And if you run carelessly, you will plunge into a puddle and there will be splashes of mud all over you, before you know it! Now, do not run into the puddle--walk circumspectly. There is a clean way and it is called the way of holiness--the unclean shall not pass over it. The Lord help us to watch every action and, more than that, every thought and every word! I would like to be able to take my words out of my mouth and look at them before I speak them--and to have all the actions of my life done as under the watchful eye of God, to see whether they will look right in the Day of Judgment. If you cannot sleep over a thing, do not do it. As the good man said to his boy, "My boy, pay as you go." "Suppose I cannot pay, Father." "Then, don't go." So would I say to you, examine your life as you go. If you dare not examine an action, or look at it, then do not do it! When you do not know whether it is right, then it is always best to feel sure that it is wrong. Even though it might be right to another, it will be wrong to you if you have not faith that it is right, for, "whatever is not of faith is sin." If any question arises about moral conduct, that question makes it evil to you. Next, I would say that, as you would avoid careless walking, also avoid careless walkers. Very frequently, when I am riding alone, and I am not getting into any mud, an omnibus comes by and splashes me all over. It is no fault of mine, but then it is somebody near me that does it. As you walk along the street, you are very careful, but if your neighbor puts his foot in a puddle, the splash may come over you. So mind what company you keep! And when you find people getting rather "fast," or rather "loose," leave them--get away from them! You do not need to be muddied, so keep yourself unspotted from the world. Above all, cry to God to preserve you from evil. If you go out every day, covered and protected by Divine Grace, then, and then only, can you be kept unspotted from the world. I would like to see a Christian not kept in a glass case away from trial and temptation, but yet covered with an invisible shield, so that, wherever he went, he would be guarded and protected from the evil influences that are in the world in almost every place. Thus I have spoken to God's people, but I have said very little to sinners. Although I have not addressed them especially, tonight, if you, the people of God, will go and live godly lives, you will preach to sinners better than I shall. I have to say to you who fear God, keep yourselves unspotted from the world, but what am I to say to those who are not only in the world, but also of the world? Do you not know that "the earth, also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up"? What will become of you, then? And you who belong to the world and have your portion in this life--and your joy in this world--in that great day when the elements shall melt with fervent heat, where will you be? Then you may call to the rocks to hide you, but you will call in vain! If your portion is in this life, what will you do in the life to come? Some of you are living within the boundaries of this mortal existence and that is your all. Poor Soul! Poor Soul! Poor soul! Poor Soul! The Lord in His mercy bring you to know the life eternal! And when you once get that, your great desire will be to be delivered from the power of sin and to keep yourself unspotted from the world! The Lord bless you, for Christ's sake! Amen! EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. JAMES1. Verse 1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. "Where are the lost ten tribes?" asks somebody. They never were lost. That is a mere piece of nonsense! There were, and there still are, 12 tribes of Israel, as much one as the other. Ask any Jew if it is not so. James writes to all his compatriots by nature and to all the fellow citizens of the saints by Grace, and greets them. What a strange greeting it is! 2. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Or "trials." Do not be sorry about it, be thankful for it. The gold should be glad to be put into the crucible--the Christian should rejoice to be tested and tried. Not only count it joy, but count it, "all joy when you fall into divers temptations." 3, 4. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, needing nothing. You need to grow--you will not grow without trials. You need to learn--you will not learn without affliction. It is God's school for you. Be thankful, therefore, when these afflictions come. They are the rumbling wagons of your Father, in which He sends you choice treasure. They are black ships that come from afar, loaded with precious things. But mind that you get this patience and, that when you have it, you have still more of it-- "Let patience have her perfect work." 5. If any of you lack wisdom. Ah, James, you need not say, "If any of you lack wisdom," for we all lack it! We are all poor, foolish creatures--"If any of you lack wisdom." 5. Let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not; and it shall be given him. The Lord might very well upbraid us for our folly and say, "Poor child, I will give you wisdom; yet you are very foolish." But He does not say that. He "gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not." Let him who lacks wisdom ask of God, "and it shall be given him." Can the Lord give wisdom? Surely we must study, learn, and gain experience before we can know and then, afterwards, knowledge, rightly used, grows into wisdom. Can God give us wisdom ready made? Ah, yes, He can! He gives wisdom if we ask for it. 6. But let him ask in faith. A man who has no wisdom can have faith. Let him use his faith to get wisdom--"Let him ask in faith." 6, 7. Nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. He may receive something of the Lord, but he may not think that he shall. It may come as a spontaneous gift of Sovereign Grace, but we have no right to expect an answer to prayer when we pray in a wavering style. 8. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. He sees double. He runs after two objects and, therefore, he staggers across the street--he "is unstable in all his ways." 9. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted. Being lifted up by the Grace of God to sit among the princes of Israel! 10. But the rich, in that he is made low. Hard work, this! Still, the child of God should rejoice in it, for now that he is stripped of earthly things, he finds his all in God. 10-12. Because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower thereof falls, and the beauty of the fashion of it perishes: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endures temptation. Or, "endures trial." Blessed is the man who is tried and tested, and who lives through it--who conquers, notwithstanding all the battle and struggle through which he passes. We would say, "Blessed is the man who is not tried," but it is not so. He who, bearing the heavy load, receives gracious strength to sustain him under it, gets a greater blessing than the man who escapes the burden. 12,13, For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love Him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. That would be nonsense and falsehood! When a man is seduced to evil, when evil casts its attractive spell over him, let him not blame God! 13, 14. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. God tries men. God does not, in the sense in which the word is here used, tempt men. Satan tempts--God tries. But the same trial may be both a temptation and a trial--and it may be a trial from God's side, and a temptation from Satan's side, just as Job suffered from Satan and it was a temptation. But he also suffered from God through Satan, and so it was a trial to him. 15. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. That is the pedigree of sin--it is born of lust, and it brings forth dust. Any sin, whatever it is, if we cling to it and love it, will bring forth death--rest assured of that! The only hope we can have of eternal life is by being parted from sin. That must be taken away from us; for there shall never enter into Heaven anything that defiles. We have, from day to day, to fight against sin till it is utterly put away from us. 16, 17. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. God never turns from us, nor, in any way whatever, changes. He is the same God, ready always to bless us, ready to save us tonight as much as any other Thursday night! Ah, dear Friends, what variableness we have! The other day we were frostbitten and crying out with the cold. And now, tonight, perhaps, we feel dull, stupid and heavy because it is so hot! Yet, what a mercy it is that God has no vari- ableness, neither shadow of a turning, and we may come to Him, tonight, and say, "Lord, visit us as You are known to do! Revive us and refresh us. Put us into a lively, brisk, happy frame of mind tonight and send us on our way rejoicing." 18. Of His own will He begat us with the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind offirst fruits of His creatures. We are His creatures, but we are better than His other creatures, for he has made us twice over! We are his twice-born creatures and we are the first ripe fruit of His creation, dedicated to His praise, gathered to His Glory--"a kind of first fruits of His creatures." Oh, that God would help us to honor Him and to live truly consecrated to Him! 19. Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear. It is a great thing to have an open ear. Some are very slow to hear, especially to hear the Word of God and the voice of God speaking that Word. Oh, to have our ears unstopped that we may hear every syllable of the Truth of God gladly, cheerfully, retentively! God grant us that swiftness of hearing tonight! 19. Slow to speak, slow to wrath. For, sometimes, when men are very quick to speak, they are also very quick in other respects as well--and volubility may be accompanied by a tendency to heat or passion. "Slow to speak, slow to wrath." 20. For the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God. Satan does not cast out Satan! Anger does not overcome evil. We may think we do well to be angry, but that will very seldom be the case. 21. Therefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word of God which is able to save your souls. Perhaps you have seen a man grafting a tree. What a gash he makes in the tree before he puts in the graft! How he wounds it to make the sap flow into the new wood! If the Lord has made any of your hearts bleed, tonight, by the sharp cutting of His Spirit, we are not sorry, if it shall the better prepare you for receiving the grafts of His own Nature, and His own Word. 22. But be you doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. It is a pity when a man deceives him-self--he must be an arch-deceiver! 23-25. For if any is a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was. But whoso looks into the perfect Law of liberty, and continues therein. Perseverance to the end is needed--"Continues therein." 25. He being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. The blessedness of true religion lies very much in the practical effect of it. Hearing is pleasant, but doing is the effectual proof of Grace. 26. If any man among you seems to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain. James settles that matter off very peremptorily. An unbridled tongue indicates a godless heart. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. This is not the secret part of religion. Of that we read elsewhere. But this is the very dress that true religion puts on--charitably caring for the most destitute of our fellow creatures, and holy walking, that we are not as the men of the world are--"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world." __________________________________________________________________ Three Blessings of the Heavenly Charter (No. 2314) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 25, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE 16, 1889. "You have granted me life and favor, and Your visitation has preserved my spirit." Job 10:12. IT is well, sometimes, to sit down and take a grateful review of all that God has done for us, and with us, from our first day until now. We must not be like hogs under the oak, that eat the acorns but never thank the tree, or the Lord who made it grow. We must not receive the dew and yet never think of the Heaven from which it comes. To be ungrateful is to be unmanly--to be ungrateful to God is to commit high treason against the majesty of His goodness. I think that an hour would be well spent, by any person here, in sitting quietly and going over his autobiography. Turn over the pages of your diary--if you have none written, turn over the pages of your memory--and think of all that God has done for you from the day when you hung upon your mother's breast until the present moment-- "Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise." But God does not hear the songs ofpraise because we let the streams of mercy glide by unnoticed. Far too often, we-- "Let His mercies lie Forgotten in unthankfulness, And without praises die." We do not even put a tombstone over their graves, but let them lie as dead things, uncared for, forgotten, out of mind. If there is any time when it is unlikely for us to think of God's mercies, but when it would be especially wise for us to do so. If there is one time more unlikely than another, it is when we are in great trouble. Here is poor Job, covered with sore boils, sitting on a dunghill, scraping himself with a bit of a broken pot. His children are dead. His property destroyed and even his wife not giving him a word of comfort--and his friends acting in a most unfriendly manner. Now it is that he talks to his God and says, "You have granted me life and favor, and Your visitation has preserved my spirit." You are very ill--think of the time when you were well. You are poor--remember when you washed your feet in milk and your steps with butter--and had more than heart could wish. Friends have forsaken you--remember when you had plenty of friends. "Oh!" you say, "that will be rubbing salt into the wound." No, no, I trust not. You will remember that you were not always unhappy, that you were not always full of pain. God has spared your life and given you many favors. If you do not feel that you can bless Him for the present moment, yet forget not to bless Him for the past. And when you once begin to do that, you will soon find that your praise will overlap the past and cover the present--if it does not even run into the future! Only begin to praise God and you will find that he who praises God for mercy will never be long without a mercy for which to praise Him! I therefore invite those of you who are sad, tonight, to think of God's past goodness and, as I trust that the larger proportion here will not be found in that condition, I urge you to lead the way in taking a happy retrospect, tonight, of all that God has done for you in Providence and Grace. Job gives us, here, a charter with three blessings in it--"You have granted me life and favor, and Your visitation has preserved my spirit." These are choice favors! As we dwell upon them, may our hearts gratefully bless God for all that He has done for us! I. The first blessing of this heavenly charter is LIFE--"You have granted me life." Well, I think that we ought to thank God that we have lived at all. I know the pessimist version of the psalm of life is that, "'Tis something better not to be." Perhaps it would have been something better if that gentleman had not been-- better, I should think, for his wife and family if they had not had to live with such a miserable creature! But the most of us thank God for our being, as well as for our well-being. We count it something not to be stones, or plants, or "dumb, driven cattle." We are thankful to be intelligent beings with powers of thought and capable of mental and spiritual enjoyment. Truly, O Lord, it is no small thing to be, even to be a man, for what is man? Well, with all his sin, yet as You did make him, when he had no sin, he was but a little lower than the angels and You did make him to have dominion over all the works of Your hands. You have made him immortal! You have made him a king! You have crowned him with glory and honor and if he does but know his destiny, and works it out aright, You have made him to be glorified with Yourself--You have made him to stand even higher than the angels, now that You have redeemed him, for he has tasted of a love which unfallen angels could not know! If you choose to make your being to be your eternal curse, why, you must do it, I suppose--but not without our tears. But if you are rational beings, and use your reason reasonably, you will thank God that you live and pray that your life may always be a blessing to you. But we also thank God that we have lived on in spite of many perils. There are some here who ought very much to thank God that they live on after the perils through which they have passed. It was something to find ourselves alive after the terrible thunderstorm of the week before last. It is something to be alive after an earthquake, or a tremendous storm at sea, or to be alive in the midst of a pestilence, or alive after a battle, to be alive after some fearful accident--to be alive, I say, when there are so many gates to the grave-- "The rising morning can't assure That we shall end the day, For death stands ready at the door To take our lives away." And yet, despite all these things, we are still here! Some of you, not long ago, were very ill. It was thought that you would die--you thought so yourself, you were brought very low--and yet here you are! While others have died, you are still spared. You went hard by the gates of death and seemed to look into eternity for a while, but you were allowed to pass on and you are yet among the living, to praise God, as I hope you are doing this very day! Yes, it is God's Grace that has granted us life. I find that, in the Hebrew, it reads, "lives," as if we had several lives, as though, if we had not had many lives, we should not have had any life at this moment. But life upon life has come to us, like wave upon wave at sea and, whereas one might have washed us on the shore of death, another has carried us back to the sea of life, again, and still we live! I am addressing some from whom our text asks for gratitude because they are alive notwithstanding constitutional weakness. Perhaps from a child you were always feeble. Oftentimes you have asked yourself, "How is it that I have lived? Strong and hearty men and women have died before me and I, who have always been ailing, find that the creaking door hangs long on its hinges." Well, do not creak more than you can help, but bless God that you are not taken off the hinges! It is really very marvelous how some live, even, to old age when every day they seem to be on the very verge of departure. We account for their continued life by this fact, that they can say with Job, "You have granted me life." Let us praise God, then, even if we can only do it with a feeble tongue, for it is something, to still live. And I am speaking to a great many here to whom this text should commend itself because they have lived so long. I suppose that, in no other place in London, or perhaps in the world, is there so large a number of old men and women gathered together as in this Tabernacle. One is often struck with the snow that lies about this place on the heads of so many. Do not blame us for getting old! We were all young, together, and I remember that many here were introduced into the Church as young men and young women. Nearly 40 years ago they said of me, "He takes into the Church a parcel of boys and girls." Well, they have been cured of that fault, if it was a fault, long ago! And now, perhaps, some will complain that they are old! We do not complain--we are so much nearer Heaven. But when I look upon some dear friends, here, who have passed even their four-score years, who have quite run out their lease and now are living upon sufferance, as I trust they may for years to come--and when I remember what a poor tottering fabric this tent-body of ours is, I am amazed that we still live on!-- "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." Yet it has kept in tune so long and we ought to bless God, tonight, those of us who are somewhere between 50 and a hundred, and others who are somewhere between 60 and 200 ought to bless God, tonight, that we have been spared so long, and say, in the language of the text, "You have granted me life and favor." You need not be frightened about that 200 that I mentioned--you will not, any of you, be likely to reach that figure! If any of us live for a century, we shall have done exceedingly well! We may thank God if we do not live as long as that, for, while it is well to live here, it is better for us, after all, before our infirmities multiply, to be up and away to our Father's house above! Think of this a little longer, "You have granted me life." You have thought of the perils through which you have passed and the weaknesses that you have survived. Now think, beloved Friends, of the sin which might have provoked God to make an end of such a guilty life. Am I not speaking to some here who have lived without any thought of God, their Maker? Up till this time, God has fed you and preserved you in being, and yet you have not even given Him a thought! It is an amazing thing that He should have spared your life in the midst of such wicked ingratitude. Perhaps, my Friend--I hope it is not so--but perhaps you have been worse than this, and that mouth of yours has uttered blasphemies, and the members of your body have been given over to uncleanness. If you will look back, tonight, it will be a wonder to you, that you, perhaps professedly an atheist, possibly a drunk--you may be setting an evil example to wife and children and doing evil on all sides--but you have been spared! One seems to say, "Cut down that upas tree, it drips with poison!" But God puts away the axe and He still spares you. Did you not, this very day, imprecate a curse upon yourself, and yet the curse has not come? There was a tract that used to be given away and which did much good. It was called, "The Swearer's Prayer." If every swearer would look upon his dreadful imprecation as a prayer, for such it is, he might well wonder that God has not, long ago, blasted him as he has said, like some oak of the forest that we have seen struck by lightning, standing there with its stag's-horn branches high in the air, a monument of what Divine Judgment can do! God has granted you life, yet nothing in that life has been pleasing to Him, or good for your fellow men. Thank Him that He has not yet cut you down as a cumberer of the ground! But even if I speak to the best man and woman here, to those who have tried to be useful and are endeavoring to be holy, yet, dear Friends, what poor failures we are, after all! There is not one of us who can boast! We have to lay our hands upon our mouths and bow ourselves into the very dust. Truly, Lord, You have let us live, although we have done so little, and done that little so faultily. We can, tonight, praise You, and each one say, "You have granted me life." I might thus continue to show you that our preservation in life is a theme for great gratitude--"You have granted me life." But if we can say this in a higher sense, "You have granted me life," spiritual life, how much greater should our gratitude be! I could not even feel the guilt of sin, I was so dead, but You have granted me life to repent. I could not look to Jesus as my Savior and find rest in Him, but You have granted me life to believe in Him. Oh, what a mercy it is to have spiritual life! I do not like to ask you whether you have it. I do not think that that ever ought to be a matter of question with anybody. A man is either alive or dead and he must know which he is--and however faint and feeble he may be, the very feeling of faintness and feebleness is a sign of life--for the dead man does not even feel that! If, tonight, you have only life enough with which to groan, to weep and to cry to God, thank God for it, and say, "You have granted me life." But if you have that little life, do not be satisfied with it. Pray to have life more abundantly, that you may come to joy and peace through believing, that you may have the full assurance of faith, that you may be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, that you may tread down sin and may serve the Lord in your day and generation, and bring hundreds and thousands to Christ! Pray that it may be so and then, as each single increase of power comes to you, sing, in the words of the Patriarch, "You have granted me life." Oh, for more life! Do you feel dull and dead tonight? Cry to God to grant you life! Cry for Divine Grace and then, when it comes, gratefully say, "You have granted me life." II. The second blessing of this heavenly charter is DIVINE FAVOR--"You have granted me life and favor." Have you ever thought of the many favors that God has bestowed upon you, even upon some of you who, as yet, have never tasted of His Grace? What a favor it is to many to be sound in body! Dear friends are here tonight who have not seen the light of the sun for many a day. God is gracious to them in their blindness, but do you not think that we ought to praise Him for our eyesight? There are many beloved Christian friends who used to sit on this lower platform and around here, for although they were deaf, they could hear my voice in the preaching of the Gospel. But with great sorrow they have come to me, one by one, and said, "I cannot even hear with the trumpet now, I am getting so deaf." Bless God for your ears, if you still have the use of them--and take heed how you hear! Why, there is not a single faculty that God has given but what we ought to be thankful for it! When you see around you these who are crippled, those who are deprived of one limb or one sense, should you not say, "You have granted me life and favor"? They have favors, too, for which to thank God, but you have this particular favor which is denied to them. Do not fail to thank the Lord for it. It is a great mercy to have been born of good and honest parents and not to be the inheritors of disease, as some are who are born to a life of sorrow by no fault of their own. Be grateful for your ancestry, young man, if you have sprung of good sound stock, and say, "You have granted me life and favor." Do not go and give that body to the devil, I beseech you! Do not go and plunge yourself into vice and sin if God has restrained your ancestors from evil. By His Grace, may you also be kept back and enabled to say, "You have granted me life and favor, and I cannot sin against Your favor"! I cannot help reminding you, here, of the great favor of God in the matter of soundness of mind. There is a dear friend who has gladly heard the preaching of the Gospel, here, but now he has to be confined in an asylum, for it would be dangerous to have him at liberty. There is another and we often meet with such, who seemed as cheerful and happy as any of us, but he has now sunk into deep despondency. I have often prayed God to let me go anywhere sooner than into an asylum. It seems so dreadful to lose one's reason. Be grateful that you have your senses. Surely you must already be lunatics if you do not bless God that you are not lunatics! There must be a madness in your heart if you do not thank Him for sparing you from so terrible a trial. These favors are looked upon as very common things--a sound mind and a sound body--but if they were universal, they would still be mercies for which we ought specially to bless the name of the Lord. I speak to many here to whom God has also given a comfortable lot in life. You work and you work pretty hard, but still, you are not starved and you are not ground to death by forced labor. There are many in this House of Prayer who ought to be very grateful for the easy circumstances in which they are found. Why am I talking about these things? Why, because I want, by stirring you up to gratitude, to bind you with cords of thankfulness to God! Will you not thank Him who has done so much as this for you? If you were suddenly brought into the deepest poverty and the most painful sickness, and did not know where to lay your heads, you would then reproach yourselves to think that when your lives were cast in pleasant places, and you had a goodly heritage, you were not more grateful and more obedient to the God of Love. Some here, too, some few, at any rate, have been favored with much prosperity. O self-made men, do not begin to adore yourselves because you made yourselves, for if you made yourselves, you are poor sticks, I know! I would not trust myself to make myself, I would make an awful mess of myself. No, thank God for your prosperity and devote your wealth to His service, who granted it to you. Grow not purse-proud! Be not exalted above measure among your fellow men! The more you have, the more you owe to God--therefore be humble and be devoted to Him who has treated you with so much favor. And I may say, tonight, that in this congregation, God has given you the favor of hearing the Gospel--no mean favor, let me remind you. Multitudes, multitudes, multitudes are without it, perishing for lack of knowledge! And there are some who once heard the Gospel who are now far removed from the sound of it. Friends who once used to join in our great assembly are now far away in those parts of South America where as yet there is no Gospel teaching, or they are far away in the backwoods of America or Canada, or away in the bush in Australia, where, as yet, the Message of Mercy is not, at any rate, regularly brought to them, and they very much miss the means of Grace. Be thankful that you have the Gospel at almost every street corner and, if you are willing to hear it, you may hear it. Still, putting all these things together, they do not come up to this last point, that many of us have received the favors of saving Grace--"You have granted me life and favor." The highest favors of all, God has given to some of us--the favor of being chosen to be His from before the foundation of the world, the favor of being redeemed from among men, the favor of being called out by His effectual Grace, the favor of being renewed in the spirit of our minds, the favor of justification whereby we are made accepted in the Beloved--the favor of full, free, irreversible pardon, whereby our sin is blotted out forever, the favor of a Throne of Grace, the favor of answered prayer, the favor of Divine Providence which makes all things work together for our good, the favor of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is with us, and shall abide in us forever! I cannot run over the list of God's favors to His people, for it is too long. Only praise your God, each one of you, as you say tonight, "You have granted me life and favor." Happy people, thrice-happy people, of whom this is true! If we did not praise the Lord, the stones in the street might well cry out against us. III. The last blessing of the charter, upon which I shall be a little longer, is DIVINE VISITATION--"Your visitation has preserved my spirit." Does God ever come to man? Does He not? Yes, but it is a great wonder--"What is man, that You are mindful of him? And the son of man that You visit him?" May I remind some of you of how much you ought to praise God for His visitation? He visited you, first, with an awakening and conviction of sin. I remember when His Spirit came to me while I was yet a child, and made me feel a heavy burden on account of my childish sins. How I wept and cried, when alone, because I had been so guilty before God! And as a youth, that feeling still pursued me wherever I went. God visited me in the night, visited me often in the morning, when I woke up before anybody else, to read Baxter's, "Call to the Unconverted," and Alleine's, "Alarm," and suchlike books, over which I pored again and again, feeling the evil of my sin and having the sword of the Spirit piercing yet more deeply into my conscience at every page I read! I thank God for those early visitations! If any of you are having them now, quench not the Spirit of God! Be glad to know your real state as sinners while you are yet young. The visitations of God, in the form of conviction, if at first they bring us under bondage, are, nevertheless of the utmost value, for by these He preserves our spirit. After that first experience, there came visitations of enlightenment and conversion. Can you remember when Jesus first visited you and brought you up out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay? Does not your heart leap within you, even now, as you are ready to sing-- "Happy day! Happy day! When Jesus washed my sins away"? Yes, God's visitations, by revealing Christ to your broken heart, preserved your spirit! Perhaps since then you have had visitations of another kind. You have had chastisement, or you have had affliction in the house. God's visitations are sometimes very unwelcome. We dread that He should come to afflict or chastise us and yet, in looking back upon all such experiences, I think that you can say, "Your visitation has preserved my spirit." I saw a young Sister, just before this service, and I said to her, "When did you find the Lord?" She replied, "It was when I was very ill." Yes, it is often so--God makes us ill in body that we may have time to think of Him, and turn to Him. "Your visitation has preserved my spirit." What would become of some people if they were always in good health, or if they were always prospering? Tribulation is the black dog that goes after the stray sheep and barks them back to the Good Shepherd! I thank God that there are such things as the visitations of correction and of holy discipline to preserve our spirit and bring us to Christ. But then, dear Friends, we have had other visitations, visitations of revival and restoration. Do you not sometimes get very dull and dead? Then you are glad to go and hear a sermon, or read some godly, soul-stirring book, or meet with some Christian friend, and you say afterwards, "Well, I do not know how it is, but I seem quite different from what I was. I have made a new departure, I have started off again." I think that some of our friends have need to do that, tonight--it will not hurt any of us if we all seem to begin again, tonight, and take Jesus Christ into our heart once more, and let Him come as He came at the first, and be like a new Christ to us! Let us joy and rejoice in Him with our first love and our early delights. Lord, give us that visitation, tonight, and revive our spirits! Oh, what visitations of joy He sometimes gives us when He comes very near to us! We do not hardly know how to bear it! We cry when the vessel gets quite full, "Hold, Lord, I cannot bear more of Your joy." "Ah!" you say, "we do not know much about that experience." Do you not? Then pray the Lord to visit you often, that you may know more about it! The best of all is when the Lord visits us and never goes away, but stays with us always, so that we walk in the light of His Countenance, and go from strength to strength, always singing, "Your visitation never ended, daily continued, preserves my spirit." You have all heard the phrase, generally used by juries at a coroner's inquest when a man has died suddenly, "Died by the visitation of God." No doubt some do thus die, but I want you to live by the visitation of God! That is a very different thing and that is the only way in which we truly can live--by God's visiting us from day to day-- preserving our spirit from the dangers that surround us. Live, then, by the visitation of God! You are sick, my Friend. Your heart is sick. Sin, like a grievous disease, is destroying you. The cancer of an evil habit is eating into your very vitals. What is to be done with you? Nothing but that Jesus Christ the Lord should come and give you a gracious visitation, come and look you in the face and feel your pulse, and lay His hand on your heart, and change it, and make you a new creature! And He will do all that if you send for Him. Doctors have a night bell, you know, and a night-tube, by which they may be called in cases of urgency. Now ring God's night bell at once, and speak up that tube of prayer, "Lord, I am sick unto death! Come and heal me. Come and heal me!" Will not somebody in these pews, now, without the use of a word, yet say in the silence of his heart, "Lord, I am sorely vexed; I am sick unto death with sin; come and heal me"? And Jesus Christ will say, "I will come and heal you." Then will you say, "Your visitation has preserved my spirit." You know how a farm will sometimes get smothered with weeds and things seem to go all wrong. What is the matter? On enquiry, you find that the farmer has been out on the Continent, he has been away from his farm. Well, then, of course the farm goes wrong! But have him back, again, and the farmer's eye does more than his hand--his foot manures the ground wherever he stands--and things soon get on better. Now, if the farm of your nature has fallen into a bad state, you need the Husbandman back. You need the Lord Jesus to come and survey the estate and give directions as to what is to be done to it. He will soon set the whole place right! Yes, if your farm has become like a desert, bare as the palm of your hand, He can come and turn it to fertility--He can make the wilderness like Eden, and the desert like the Garden of the Lord. A visitation from the Lord Jesus Christ is what we all need when we are barren and dead. May we expect it? Yes, He came on a visit here, once. We did not see Him when He came, but there were some who saw Him. You remember how George Herbert quaintly sings of His laying aside His azure mantle and making the sky with it? And taking off His bright rings, and hanging them up as stars?-- "He did descend, undressing all the way And when they asked what He would wear, He smiled, and said as He did come, He had new clothes a-making here below." And poor clothes they were, when He was born of the Virgin and lived in our inferior clay! He paid us a visit, but men did not let Him lodge comfortably. There was no room for Him in the inn. It was a sorry entertainment that they gave Him, for they pierced His side before He went away, and He carried with Him the marks in His hands and feet that He had received in the house of His friends. Well, but still, having once come, and died on this earth, He knows the way-- and as He cannot die again, He will come again--and now, tonight, in spirit, by His Spirit, He will come to you, if you only cry to Him, "Come." If you cry to Him, "Come," tonight, that will be only the echo of what He says, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden." He cries, "Come," catch up that word, and say, "Come." Echo His, "Come," by your own, "Come"--and you two will meet before the service is over, though we have reached the last few minutes of it. May your, "Come," and Christ's, "Come," blend in one! Come, Lord Jesus, even so, come quickly, and set Your poor servants free from the taint of sin, and from the dread of the wrath of God! Yes, you need a visitation from Him who has already come and, beside that, He has sent His Holy Spirit to abide until He, Himself, descends from Heaven with a shout. The Holy Spirit is here in this assembly right now--plead and cry to Him for His visitation! And if my Lord will come anywhere, tonight, it is to you who think yourselves unfit for Him to come to you! To you who would give your eyes to have Him, but scarcely dare to hope that He will ever come to you! The Lord says, "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at My Word." Do you not belong to that kind of people, trembling at God's Word, wishing only that you dared to hope in His mercy? Come, now, and cast yourselves on Jesus! Come, now, and trust yourselves with the great Savior who has ascended on high to give repentance and remission of sins, and who is ready to give both the repentance and the remission to every soul that is willing to have them! If you would have them, they are yours! Believe for eternal life. Believe now! The Lord grant you such a visitation that you may be constrained to believe, for Jesus' sake! Amen and Amen. EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON. PSALMS 6, 8. Psalm 6: Here the Psalmist asks for a visit from God, for he is sick at heart, heavy and depressed. Be very thankful if that is not your case, but if it is, be very grateful that here is a prayer ready-made for you. Here you are taught how to cry to God and what to expect from Him. If you are very sick and sad, you are not worse off than David was. Send for David's Physician--you cannot have a better doctor than the royal Physician! He who waited on King David is prepared to wait on you. 1. O LORD, rebuke me not in Your anger. "Rebuke me. It will do me good. I need it, Lord, but not in anger! Be gentle and tender with me--'Rebuke me not in Your anger.'" 1. Neither chasten me in Your hot displeasure. "Chasten me. It may be that the rod will be very curative to me, but let not the chastening be given in Your hot displeasure. Be not very angry with Your poor sinful servant. If You do not turn away Your rod, yet turn away Your wrath. It is a sweet prayer. Some people cry to God about their sickness. It is much better to cry to God about the cause of it--that is to say if it is a chastisement for sin, get rid of the sin--and the rod will then be removed. 2. Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed. "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak." This was a sweet reason for David to urge--"For I am weak." He could not say, "For I am worthy." He would not have dared to say that. He could not say that when he said, "Have mercy," for mercy is for the unworthy. Justice is for the good! MERCY is for those who are guilty! "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed." Plead the greatness of your disease as a reason for the remedy. Do not come with your self-righteousness--that will hinder you. Come with your sorrow and your sin, your weakness and your pain, and plead these before God. 3. My soul is also sorely vexed. That is worse than the bones being vexed. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" 3. But You, O LORD, how long? There is the pith of the prayer. David is troubled because God is away from him. He has lost communion with his Lord. He has gotten out of fellowship with his God and here comes the most necessary cry of all-- 4. Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for Your mercies' sake. Will not that prayer suit you who are here, tonight, you who are full of sin and are heart-broken about it, and dread the wrath to come? I put this prayer into your mouths and pray the Holy Spirit to put it into your hearts--"Oh save me for Your mercies' sake." 5. For in death there is no remembrance of You: in the grave who shall give You thanks? As much as to say, "If You let me die, You will lose one singer out of Your earthly choir. But if You will let me live, I will remember You--I will praise You; I will give You thanks." Do you feel like saying, tonight, "Lord, if You shall destroy me, You will gain nothing by it. But if You will save me, there will be one who will give You thanks forever"? I have told you, sometimes, of that old woman who said, "If the Lord saves me, He shall never hear the last of it." And you and I can also say that if He saves us, He shall never hear the last of it--we will praise Him throughout eternity for His great salvation! 6. I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. David was in a very sorry case when he wrote these words. So great was his pain, so acute his sorrow that all the sluices of his eyes were pulled up and he seemed to float his bed in tears and to be like George Herbert when he wrote-- "O who will give me tears? Come, all you springs, Dwell in my head and eyes! Come, clouds and rain-- My grief has need of all the watery things, That Nature has produced! Let every vein suck up a river to supply my eyes, My weary, weeping eyes, too dry for me, Unless they get new conduits, new supplies, To bear them out and with my state agree." 7. My eyes are consumed because of grief. He had almost wept his eyes out--they grew red with his weeping, so that he could not see. 7. It waxes old because of all my enemies. His eyesight grew dim, like that of an old man. A cataract of grief had put a cataract of blindness into his eyes. 8. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. He needs his God to come to him, so he bids God's enemies clear out. If we keep company with the wicked, we cannot invite God to our house and expect Him to come. "Depart from me," says David, "all you workers of iniquity." "You who are singing what you call a jolly song, be off with you! You who are merry with your jokes against religion, be gone far from me." 8. For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. "And if He has heard my tears, I do not need you to be here. I cannot associate with God's enemies, now that He has heard the voice of my weeping." Is not that a beautiful expression, "The voice of my weeping"? Why, there was no sound, was there? Yet there are songs without words and there are voices without sounds. 9. The LORD has heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer. "I thought at first that He would not take my petition; but I see He stretches out His right hand. He receives my prayer--and if He receives my prayer, I shall soon receive His answer." 10. Let all my enemies be ashamed and sorely vexed: let them return and be suddenly ashamed. Now let us read the Eighth Psalm in which David expresses great wonder that God, whom he had asked to visit him, should deign to do so. I think I see him sitting with his window open. It is night and he is feeling better--and he bids them throw open the window and he sits and looks at the stars, glad of the cool, fresh air. Psalm 8:1. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth! Who has set Your Glory above the heavens? They are very high, but Your Glory is higher than the heavens. 2-4. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have You ordained strength because of Your enemies, that You might still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man, that You are mindful of Him? And the son of man, that You visit him? He, whose voice rolls the stars along, who makes those bright worlds to fly like sparks from the anvil of His Omnipotence, how can He stoop so low as to regard His fallen creature, man, who is so small, so insignificant? 5, 6. 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. Man is God's viceroy. He reigns over God's works in God's name. Let him not set up to be a king and try to usurp the honor of his great Lord, the Imperator, the Universal Governor! 7, 8. 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. What a king, man is! Let him not be cruel to the beasts of the field; let him not be a tyrant; God did not make him for that purpose. Let his reign be generous and kind--and if the animals must suffer, yet spare them as much suffering as possible. O man, be you a generous viceroy, for you are under a most generous King who is, Himself, the happy God and who delights in the happiness of all His creatures! 9. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth! Thus does the Psalmist finish as he began the Psalm, by praising the name of the Lord. __________________________________________________________________ Paul Apprehended and Apprehending (No. 2315) INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 2, 1893. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 30, 1889. "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfected; but I press on, that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12. OBSERVE the Apostle's condition when he wrote these words. I do not think that either you or I will be found to be in a better one. If any are, or think they are, I would suggest a question. I, for my part, would be satisfied to be just as Paul was. He was in a position of conscious safety. He was a saved man. He knew that he was saved, for he rejoiced in Christ Jesus and had no confidence in the flesh. He knew that he was justified by faith in Christ Jesus and he counted all his own works, which formerly were his ground of trust, to be as dross and dung, that he might win Christ. He was a saved man and he knew it! I do not think that he often had doubts about that point, but yet he was in a state of conscious imperfection--"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfected." He had not yet reached his own ideal of what a Christian might be. He had not yet obtained from Christ all that he expected to obtain. He was not sitting down to rest and be thankful, but he was still hurrying on, reaching after something which was yet beyond him. He could not say, "Soul, take your ease, you have much goods laid up for many years," but he still felt his own spiritual poverty, and he cried, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfected." But, Beloved, let not that thought be any kind of solace to you, for I would remind you that though consciously imperfect, Paul was zealously making progress. He says, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." I know many who say that they are imperfect and they seem to be quite satisfied to be so. That was never the case with the Apostle--as long as any trace of a sinful nature or a sinful tendency remained in him, it made him cry out, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" It was not because he was dead in sin that he cried in that way. It would be a new thing in this world for a sinner dead in sin to cry so, but because he was already largely delivered from sin and the reigning power of it had been broken! Therefore he felt the burden of any sort of contact with sin. A man who is in the sea, taking a plunge deep down under the water, does not feel the weight of the water. But bring him out on the shore, put a great tub of water on his head--and see what a weight that is to him! So, while a man is in sin as his element, it is no burden to him, but when he is out of it, and not under its power, then he feels the weight of it, he grows weary under it and would gladly be rid of every particle of it. The Apostle, I say, was conscious of imperfection, but he was also conscious that he was making progress, that he was running towards a mark, that he was leaving much behind him, and was pressing toward that which was before him. He was also in a state of anxious aspiration. He desired that he might be found in Christ, that he might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead, that he might, in a word, grasp that for which Christ had grasped him. I am going to talk about that double grasp, tonight--"That I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus," Notice that there are two forces here mentioned which are at work in every gracious man. There is Christ's power by which He apprehends us and then there is the new power, the new life of God-given faith, by which we, in our turn, seek to apprehend that for which Christ has apprehended us. Christ has apprehended us for a purpose--we wish to realize that purpose even to the fullest. That is the intent of the Apostle's words. Let us consider them in detail. I. First, let us think of PAUL'S APPREHENSION BY CHRIST JESUS. We do not often use the word, "apprehended," now, in the sense in which it is here used. The only instance that I remember is when we speak of a policeman apprehending a person, that is, laying hold upon him, seizing him. At his conversion, Paul had been apprehended by his Lord. Take the word, "apprehend," in the sense of arresting him, and it stands true of Saul of Tarsus. I need not repeat the story--you all know how that desperate rebel was going down to Damascus to persecute the saints of God. Nothing was further from his mind than the thought of becoming a Christian, but while he was riding the high horse and Damascus lay below him, just like a sheep within reach of a wolf, the Lord Jesus Christ stepped in and laid His hand on his shoulder-- "Thus the eternal counsel ran, 'Almighty Grace, arrest that man!'" And almighty Grace arrested him! He fell to the earth at the first blow. He was blinded with the second. No, not so much by a blow as by the greatness of the Light of God that shone round about him! And there he lay prostrate, broken in heart and blind in eyes--he had to be led into the city--and one of those poor men whom he had determined to haul to prison had to come and pray for him, that his eyes might be opened, that he might be baptized, and that he might thus make his confession of faith in Christ! He well says that he was "apprehended of Christ Jesus." The King sent no sheriffs officer to arrest him, but He came, Himself, and took him into Divine custody, laid him by the heels for three days in the dark--and then let him out into glorious liberty, an altogether changed man--to go forth to preach that faith which before he had sought to destroy! You may not all be able to remember any special day when you were apprehended by Christ, but some of us do. We remember when we, who had been formerly carried captive by the devil at his will, found ourselves arrested by One stronger than Satan. We managed, by Divine Grace, to escape from the clutches of the devil, but we could not escape from that dear pierced hand when once it was laid upon us! We surrendered ourselves prisoners. There was no resisting, any longer, when His mighty Grace came in to arrest us. I say that some of us remember that day. Other days, notable for great events, have been forgotten, but the day when we were apprehended of Christ Jesus is stamped upon our memory, and always must be, even throughout eternity! Since then, dear Friends, we have always felt that grip, just as Paul always felt himself in Christ's grasp. We have never got away from that one arrest. It was not the work of a few minutes to be remembered and to be then ended, and all over. No, at this moment we feel the same Divine hand upon us! We are prisoners, this day, unto Christ, who alone has set us free by capturing us! There was a legend among the heathen of old times, that if persons saw certain spirits in the woods, they became, from that moment, wonderfully changed--they became possessed by the spirit which they saw! They had, as we say in our language, a twist. I remember when-- "Isaw One hanging on a tree, In agonies and blood, Who fixed His languid eyes on me, As near His Cross I stood" and I have had a twist ever since! I never got over it and never expect to. I hope that twist will get a more and more powerful hold over me. It turned everything upside down. It changed the right into the left. It made the bitter sweet and the sweet bitter--the light darkness, and the darkness light. It was a wonderful twist and, as I say again, that twist still continues! When it has once been experienced, there is no escaping from it. We can say not only, "I was apprehended," but as the text has it, "I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." He still binds us with the fetters of His love. We still sit at His dear feet, enthralled by His beauties. We are still under the Omnipotent fascination of His altogether lovely face. We could not depart from Him if we would and we could not if we could! If we went away from Christ, to whom would we go? He has the Words of eternal life! His love holds and binds us faster than fetters of brass. We must forever be apprehended by Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, Beloved, this arrest of Paul by Christ was the force and motive of his whole later life. Because Paul had been apprehended by Christ, he began to live differently from what he had ever lived before. He had an apprehension that he had lived amiss. He had an apprehension that his evil life would end in eternal destruction. He fled away from all his apprehensions of the wrath to come, to the Christ who had apprehended him in quite another sense! He had thus been apprehended, pressed into the service of Christ and made, by that pressure, to become a volunteer, for here there is a paradox--all Christ's soldiers are pressed men and volunteers, too! There are two senses, the one in which Grace constrains them, and the other in which their will, being made truly free, runs delightfully after Christ! But having once been apprehended, the Apostle never shook off Christ's grasp--he began to live as an apprehended man. He said to himself, "I cannot follow the world, for Christ has apprehended me. I cannot go after false doctrine, for Christ has apprehended me and crucified me with Himself. I cannot cease to preach the Gospel. I cannot become a self-seeker. I cannot do anything but live for Him who died for me, for the Master has apprehended me. He has put me under parole to keep close to Him forever and I must not, cannot, dare not, would not leave Him! I am His apprehended one henceforth and even forever." I want your hearts to talk over this first part of the sermon. Never mind my faltering tongue--let your own hearts speak. If Christ has never apprehended you, well then, you have nothing to do with this matter, and you may leave it alone. But if He has arrested you, acknowledge the soft impeachment, tonight. Say in your heart, "Yes, He has, indeed, laid hold on me, and my heart's desire is that He would bring every thought into captivity to Him. From henceforth I would be led in triumph by Him, His captive all the days of my life, to show the power of His illustrious love, the victories of His Grace!" Oh, that we might, each one, say with Paul, "I am apprehended of Christ Jesus"! Ah, dear Souls, you who have never been apprehended of Him, I hope that you will be, tonight! I pray God that you may run away from your old master, the devil, and not give him even five minutes' notice, but just start off directly! And while you are a runaway slave, may my Divine Master come and lay His hand upon you and say, "You are Mine. You never did really belong to your old master and even though you promised and swore that you would be his, thus says the Lord, 'Your Covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with Hell shall not stand.' I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name, you are Mine, and now I only take what I bought on the tree. I take by power, by might, by main force, by Grace, what I purchased with the blood of My hands and feet and heart. I will have you, for you are Mine." Lord, will You thus arrest some sinner, tonight, to the praise of the glory of Your Grace? II. Now let us notice PAUL'S DESIRE TO APPREHEND THAT FOR WHICH THE LORD HAD APPREHENDED HIM. Well, why did Christ apprehend Paul? First, it was to convert him completely--to make a new man of him, to turn him from all his old ways and pursuits--and put him on quite a different road. Now, Brothers and Sisters, that is why the Lord apprehended us--to make us new creatures in Christ Jesus! Let us pray God to carry out that design to the fullest, to make us altogether new creatures. Do not let us be satisfied while there are any remains of the old nature--let us cry to the Lord to drive the Canaanites out--and though they have chariots of iron, let us, by Divine Grace, drive them all out! Pray, "Lord Jesus, You have come to turn me from every sin--turn me and I shall be turned! You have provided medicine for every disease--Lord, heal me and I shall be healed!" Do not be satisfied, any of you, with half a conversion! I am afraid that there are a great many who have not much more than half a conversion. I know a man--I hope he is converted, but I wish that the Lord would convert his temper. He prays very nicely, but you should see him when he is red in the face with anger at his wife! I know a man--I hope he is a Christian, it is not for me to judge--but I wish that the Lord would convert his pocket. It needs a button taken off, for it is very difficult to get it open! It is very easy to put something in, but hard to get anything out for any good purpose. I know a great many professing Christians who do not seem to have had what we might call a thorough conversion. We need the power which has arrested us to do its work completely--till there is not any part of us but what has been renewed by Grace and sanctified to the service and Glory of God. Brethren, seek to apprehend that for which Christ has apprehended you, namely, a thorough conversion, a turning of yourself from every evil way! But the Lord apprehended each one of His people, in the next place, to make them like to Christ This is the great design of electing love--"Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." That is the great objective of the very first act of Divine Love--and whatever the Holy Spirit does in us, He does it with this aim to make us like unto the Firstborn among many brethren. This will be our satisfaction in eternity--"I shall be satisfied when I awake with Your likeness." Come, then, Beloved, if Christ has arrested us to make us like Himself, let us not rest till we have become more like He! Perhaps the Lord has made you like Christ in some respects, but not in all. Or if you are like Christ in all respects, yet the likeness is dim, shadowy, rather in outline than in filling-up. Though we may be likenesses of Christ, there is not one of us who does not need many touches before we shall be good likenesses! Some, I fear, are caricaturesof Christ. May the Lord have pity upon us if that is the case, and go on with His work, and take out all the blotches and blemishes, and paint the true portrait till. at last. everybody who sees us will say, "There is Christ in that man--he is a likeness of Christ"! We may not all be paintings on ivory. We may not all be taken on a sheet of silver, but the Lord's portrait, even though it is on a piece of clay, has still great beauties in it. And as He intends to make us like Christ, O Beloved, let us aspire to this! Come, get it into your voice and get it into your heart! You are to be like Christ and as you are to be so, and this is the very reason why Christ has arrested you, pine after it, thirst after it, labor after it! Trust God to work in you to will and to do of His own good pleasure, and while He is doing that, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling because it is God that works in you! If you turn to Paul's description of his own conversion, which he gave to Agrippa, you will find that the Lord said to him that He had appeared to him to make him a witness of that which he had seen, and of that which He would afterwards reveal to him. So, in the third place, we have been apprehended of Christ that we may be witnesses for Him, first seeinga great deal and then tellingwhat we have seen, which is the other sense of the word, "witness." A witness sees or hears and then he tells in court what he has seen or heard and so he becomes a witness to others as once he was a witness to himself. Now, the Lord has apprehended every Christian, here, to see their Savior, to see His Grace, to see His love, to see His power, to see all the wonders which the Holy Spirit works among men--and then to go and talk of these things to others, that they, also, hearing from the lips of a witness, may be led to believe by the power of the Holy Spirit! Beloved, if the Lord Jesus Christ has apprehended you that you may be a witness, be on the lookout! Keep your eyes open! See all that you can see. Every Prophet of olden times was called a Seer. You cannot prophesy to others until you have been a seeryourself! Pray that you may see all that is in the Word. Cry, "Open You my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your Law." Pray that you may see the movements of God in Providence, and may see the hand of God in your own heart and your own experience. Pray God, first, to make you a witness, an observer--and then tell out to others what you have tasted and handled and felt of the Word of life--and be a faithful witness for your Lord and Master all your days. Do not some professing Christians, who are here, tonight, feel a little uncomfortable? You have not yet seen all that you should see and have you not kept very much to yourselves what you have seen? I would that you could apprehend that for which also you are apprehended of Christ Jesus, seeing what He means you to see and then, telling out what He means you to tell. May the Lord instruct us more and more that we may fulfill all His good pleasure! But, next, we were converted in order to be the instruments of the conversion of others. Paul, when he was speaking to Agrippa, expressly mentioned how the Lord said, "Delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send you, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me." So, you see, there was a certain number of souls for whom Paul was apprehended that he might be the instrument of their salvation! Our Lord Jesus Christ prayed, "Father, the hour is come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You: as You have given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him." Now, that power Christ distributes among His people. There is a certain number of persons who will receive eternal life through my ministry. There is a certain number who will receive eternal life through another man's ministry. I wonder how many have, in this way, been appointed to you, that you might be the means of their salvation? You were not saved that you might only go to Heaven--you were saved that you might take others there with you! In the olden days, when a man needed pigeons, he used to take a dove of his own and smear its wings all over with perfume, and then, when it was very sweet to smell, he threw it up into the air and it went into other dovecots, and all the pigeons went after it. And when it came back, it brought them home to its master. That was a roguish trick, but it is a blessed method of bringing poor flying doves to Christ! When your wings are sweet with Christ's love. When every time that you move, you perfume the air with holiness and mercy and Grace, others will flock around you and fly with you like doves to their windows! I like to think of the many that God has appointed me to bring to Him. I cannot tell you how many I have met during the past week--they have made my heart dance for joy. Last Tuesday, when we had a large company of deacons of our Metropolitan Churches here, one would steal up to me, as I sat there shaking hands, and say, "On such a day, I heard you preach from such a text. I was a careless young man, but you brought me to the Savior." Another would come and say, "God bless you, Sir! I remember when you were the means of leading me to the Savior." One took my hand with a ferocious grip and could not say a word till he had shed many a tear. These things make us very happy and my heart's desire is that I may get all that Christ means me to get, that I may apprehend all that, or them, for which He apprehended me! I want every Christian Brother and Sister, here, to feel the same. There is somebody in the world whom you have to bring to Christ. I do not know where he is, or who he is, but you had better look out for him. Come, seek now. Say, "I would not lose a single pearl, though it lies deep under the waves of the sea, if my great Lord intends me to dive for it, and bring it up into the Light." Get to your searching after the hidden treasures and be intent, day and night, in the power of the Spirit, that you may apprehend that measure of usefulness for which you were apprehended of Christ Jesus! It will be a high honor to appear, at last, as a winner of souls! Kings might doff their diadems and forget that they ever wore them, in comparison with that crown which God will give to those who turn many to righteousness, for they shall shine "as the stars forever and ever!" Aspire to this, my dear Friends, and lose none of those for which you have been apprehended of Christ Jesus your Lord. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that the Lord said to Ananias about Paul, "I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name's sake." Well, now, some of you were apprehended on purpose that you might suffer for Christ's sake. Did I see you wince at that word? Well, but if usefulness by labor is an honor, usefulness by suffering is a still greater honor! In Heaven, the brightest crown that any saint wears is that which is set with the rubies of martyrdom. When I have read the stories of those holy men and women who died in Roman amphitheatres, or were burned to death over at Smithfield, yonder, I must confess that I have envied them. To preach Christ seems so little compared with having Grace enough to suffer for His name's sake! As one reads of their intense suffering, one naturally shrinks from it and says, "I thank God that I am not called to endure that trial." But yet, if we were called to it, we would have Grace given to us to bear it What an honor it was for them, for the sake of the Prince of martyrs, the Leader of the sacramental hosts of God's elect, to be able and willing to give themselves up to death! Well, you may be called to suffer for Christ's sake, but, at any rate, you are called to this--to lay your all upon His altar, to devote yourself, your substance, all that you are and all that you have, to His honor and Glory! You are apprehended of Christ Jesus for this purpose--try to apprehend it. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, let us resolve to live wholly unto Christ! Let us bid Him take our hands, feet, heart, eyes, brain and every faculty of our being! May God get as much glory as He can, out of us, or reflect as much of His Glory as is possible through even our weakness and infirmities! But this is why we have been apprehended of Christ Jesus, that we may be wholly and only the Lord's, "For the love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died, and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again." Here is the prize of your high calling--are you ready to run for it? God help you to do so, to apprehend, in personal self-sacrifice, all that for which Christ has apprehended you! But that is not all. Paul said that he regarded himself as having been arrested by Christ that he might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead. Oh, when that trumpet peals out and the righteous arise, shall I arise? Or shall I lie rotting in the tomb another thousand years? And when He calls His saints together, when-- "EEast and west, and south and north, Speeds each glorious angel forth, Gathering in with glittering wings Zion's saints to Zion's King," shall we be there? Shall we behold the splendor of Christ's appearing? Shall we sit upon the Throne of God with Him, judging mankind? Shall we be forever with the Lord? It is for this that we are apprehended. Are you getting ready for this? Are you preparing, by His Grace, for that eternal future? I believe that all the saints will get to Heaven, but every saint ought to aspire not only to get there, but to carry, there, with him, that which will make his Heaven more glorious to God than it otherwise would be. Part of the joy of Heaven will be to remember what the Lord did by us. We are not going there to go to bed forever--we are going there to do some glorious work for Christ. How does He describe it? He says that if His servants have been faithful and diligent, He will say to one, "Have authority over ten cities," and another shall be ruler over five cities. As we have proved our ability, such will be the dominion that Christ shall give us throughout the ages to come! And a little failing, today, as it were the loss of a penny, may mean the loss of thousands of pennies in the world to come. You shall be as full as the greatest vessel, but you shall have smaller capacity. Look to that matter, now. I believe that every action in this mortal life thrills through eternity. Time and eternity are like one tremulous mass of jelly--if you touch one particle of it here, it trembles right through, and right throughout the ages. Not a word is spoken but the echo of it shall be heard when time shall be no more. Not a deed is done that dies, especially the deeds of quickened men and women! They know not what they do--they will be astonished to find, at the Last Great Day--what they have done, for the Lord will evidently surprise His people when He says, "I was hungry, and you gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink." They will say, "Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You? Or thirsty, and gave You drink?" And if you apprehend to the fullest the great purpose of Christ in apprehending you, that it is not of debt, but of Grace--not of works, but of faith, yet, in the ages to come, you shall be surprised to find how the little that you did shall bring you great reward! God gives His people good works and then rewards them for them! He works in us to will and to do, and then we will and do and He gives us a reward for willing and doing! I wish, dear Friends, that in Heaven we might feel, "Well, I did as God helped me. I apprehended that for which my Master apprehended me." You have no idea what you are going to do in Glory. I expect, one day, to preach to an assembled universe concerning my Lord and Master, to tell to principalities and powers what Christ has done--not to sit with a lot of you good people, some listening to me, and some, perhaps, not--but to have angels, and principalities, and powers to be my congregation! And I want to learn to preach well, here, that they may be attentive to me. Each one of you who has served your Lord shall be a monument of His love and His mercy--and the angels shall stop and read what is inscribed on you! Oh, that there might be some good letters written on you, that when Gabriel stops to read, he may clap his hands and then fly with swifter flight, as he says, "Bless the Lord for what He did for that poor man, for what He worked in that poor woman! His Grace is conspicuous there." As you are to be seen throughout all eternity, may you be fit to be seen! May the Lord, of His Grace, work in you that which shall be to the praise of His Glory! III. I have done when I just take a minute or two to show THE LESSONS WHICH PAUL IS TEACHING US BY THIS TEXT. The first is this, make sure of your apprehension by Christ Jesus, so that you can talk like Paul about it, "That for which I am apprehended." Pray the Lord that you may feel His hand on your shoulder, that you may feel His Grace in your heart, His blessed fetters on your feet, His Divine manacles upon your wrists. Pray that you may have no doubt about it, but may know beyond all doubt that the Lord has arrested you. This being known, do not let it make you idle. Do not say, "Christ has arrested me; I am saved; nothing more is needed." No. Why has He arrested you? He has a purpose in it. That arrest was but the beginning of a great lifework. Let it not make you idle, but let it be your encouragement. If Christ has arrested you to be holy, He will make you holy. If Christ has arrested you for usefulness, be confident in seeking it. If Christ has arrested you to make you an eternal monument of His Grace, believe that you will be, and press forward to the mark for the prize of your high calling! Finally, let this lead you to hope for the salvation of others. Go forward hopefully in your service for others. Teach that Sunday school class with a firm belief that you were apprehended on purpose that John and Tom might be converted! Go and teach the girls and say, "I was apprehended to bring Mary, and Jane, and Louisa to Christ--and do not be at all doubtful about it." This is the purpose of God--expect it to be worked out! Go to your street corner, my beloved Brother, and preach away--even when the mob disturbs you! Go from door to door with your tracts, even though they may be cast in your face. Go, city missionaries and Bible-women, to your holy and righteous toil. Go, each one of you, to the work for which God has apprehended you, for as the Lord has apprehended you, it is for a purpose! And rest not until that purpose is fully established. May the Lord arrest some sinners, tonight! Pray, as you go down the aisles, "Lord, arrest them! Bring them to Your dear feet and save them this night, for Jesus' sake!" Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. PHILIPPIANS 3. The Holy Spirit indited this Epistle by the pen of His servant, Paul. May He also write it on our hearts! Verse 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. When you get to, "finally." When you are very near the end of your journey, still, "rejoice in the Lord." "Finally," says Paul, as if this were the end of his Epistle, the conclusion of all his teaching--"Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord." But never do it finally! Never come to an end of it! Rejoice in the Lord and yet, again, rejoice, and yet, again, rejoice--and as long as you live, rejoice in the Lord. 1. To write the same things to you, to me, indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Some hearers are like the Athenian academicians--they want continually to hear something new. The Apostle says, "To have the same things written to you, is safe." So is it for you, dear Friends, to have the same Gospel, the same Jesus, the same Holy Spirit made known to you, is safe. New doctrine is dangerous doctrine! 2. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers. They are like dogs. If they fawn upon you, they will dirty you, if they do not bite you. 2, 3. Beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. There were some who had confidence in circumcision, who greatly troubled Paul. The Apostle says that they were, "the concision," the cutters off, of whom he would have the Philippians beware. 4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has of which he might trust in the flesh, I more. If any man might have had confidence in the flesh, truly Paul might. 5, 6. Circumcised the eighth day, the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the Law, blameless. So that I do not know what more he could have had. If a Jew had tried to select a man who had something to glory in, he could not have picked any man to stand in the front of Paul! He was truly a Jew. He had received the initiatory rite and on the right day. He was born of Law of God to the extreme. He tithed his mint and his cummin. Nobody could have anything to glory in which Paul had not. 7. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. So that, when we come to Christ, whatever we have to trust to, we must put away. We must write it on the other side of the ledger. We had entered it as a gain--now we must set it down as a loss--it is of no value, whatever! It is a loss if it shall tempt us to trust any less in Christ. 8. Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Those are sweet words, "my Lord." Remember how Thomas cried, in ecstasy, "My Lord and my God"? Paul, by faith putting his finger into the prints of the nails, says, "My Lord." 8, 9. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung