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        Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 45: 1899
   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
     __________________________________________________________________

Comfort for the Tempted

   (No. 2603)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 1, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 27, 1883.

   "There hats no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but
   God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you
   are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape,
   that you may be able to bear it" 1 Corinthians 10:13.

   THE children of God are all subject to temptation--some of them are
   tempted more than others, but I an persuaded that there is not one,
   except those who are too young to be conscious of evil, who will enter
   Heaven without having endured some temptation. If anyone could have
   escaped, surely it would have been "the First-Born among many
   brethren," but you will remember how He was led of the Spirit, straight
   from the waters of His Baptism, into the wilderness to be tempted of
   the devil. And the Apostle Paul informs us that He "was in all points
   tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Truly, the Lord Jesus might
   say to us who are His followers, "If I, your Master and Lord, have been
   tempted, you must not expect to escape temptation, for the disciple is
   not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord."

   The fact that we are tempted ought to humble us, for it is sad evidence
   that there is sin still remaining in us. I am old enough to remember
   the times when we used to strike with a flint upon the steel in order
   to get a light in the morning, and I recollect that I always left off
   trying to produce a spark when I found that there was no tinder in the
   box. I believe that the devil is no fool and that if there is a man who
   has no tinder in the box--that is, no corruption in his nature-- depend
   upon it, Satan will not long continue to tempt him! He does not waste
   his time in such a useless exercise. The man who believes that he is
   perfect can never pray the Lord's Prayer--he must offer one of his own
   making, for he will never be willing to say, "Lead us not into
   temptation." But, Beloved, because the devil thinks it worth his while
   to tempt us, we may conclude that there is something in us that is
   temptable--that sin still dwells there, notwithstanding that the Grace
   of God has renewed our hearts.

   The fact that we are tempted ought also to remind us of our weakness. I
   referred just now to the model prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
   contains the sentence, "Lead us not into temptation." The reason for
   presenting that petition must be because we are so weak and frail. We
   ask that we may not be burdened, for our back is not strong, and we
   plead that we may not have sin put before us in any of its enticing
   forms, for, oftentimes, the flesh borrows strength from the world and
   even from the devil! And these allied powers will be too much for us
   unless the Omnipotence of God shall be exerted on our behalf to hold us
   up lest we fall.

   Some children of God, whom I know of, are very greatly troubled because
   they are tempted. They think they could bear trial if it were trial
   dissociated from sin, though I do not see how we can, as a general
   rule, separate trial from temptation, for every trial that comes to us
   has in it some kind of temptation or other, either to unbelief, or to
   murmuring, or to the use of wrong means to escape from the trial. We
   are tempted by our mercies and we are tempted by our miseries-- that
   is, tempted in the sense of being tried by them--but, to the child of
   God, the most grievous thing is that, sometimes, he is tempted to do or
   say things which he utterly hates. He has set before him, in a pleasant
   aspect, sins which are perfectly abhorrent to him. He cannot bear the
   very name of them! Yet Satan comes and holds before the child of God
   the unclean meats which he will never touch. And I have known the devil
   to tempt the people of God by injecting into their mind blasphemous
   thoughts, hurling them into their ears as with a hurricane. Yes, even
   when you are in prayer it may happen to you that thoughts the very
   opposite of devotional, will come flocking into your brain. A little
   noise in the street will draw you off from communion with God and,
   almost before you are aware of it, your thoughts, like wild horses,
   will have gone galloping over hill and dale--and you hardly know how
   you shall ever catch them.

   Now, such temptations as these are dreadfully painful to a child of
   God. He cannot bear the poisoned breath of sin and when he finds that
   sin stands knocking at his door, shouting under his window, pestering
   him day and night, as it has occurred with some--I hope not with
   many--then he is sorely beset and is grievously troubled. It may help
   such a person if I remind him that there is no sin in being tempted.
   The sin is that of the tempter, not of the tempted. If you resist the
   temptation, there is something praiseworthy about your action. There is
   nothing praiseworthy about the temptation--that is evil and only evil,
   but you did not tempt yourself--he or she that tempted you must bear
   the blame of the temptation. You are evidently not blameworthy for
   thoughts that grieve you--they may prove that there is sin still
   remaining in you, but there is no sin in your being tempted. The sin is
   in your yieldingto the temptation, but blessed shall you be if you can
   stand up against it. If you can overcome it, if your spirit does not
   yield to it, you shall even be blessed through it! "Blessed is the man
   that endures temptation." There is a blessedness even in the temptation
   and though for the present it seems not to be joyous, but grievous,
   nevertheless, afterward, it yields blessed fruit to those who are
   exercised thereby.

   Moreover, there are worse things in this world than being tempted with
   painful temptations. It is much worse to be tempted with a pleasant
   temptation--to be gently sucked down into the destroyer's mouth--to be
   carried along the smooth current, afterwards to be hurled over the
   cataract. This is dreadful, but to fight against temptation--this is
   good. I say again that there are many worse things than to be tried
   with a temptation that arouses all the indignation of your spirit. An
   old divine used to say that he was more afraid of a sleeping devil than
   he was of a roaring one, and there is much truth in that observation,
   for, when you are left quite alone and no temptation assails you, you
   are apt to get carnally secure and to boastfully say, "I shall never be
   moved." I think no man is in such imminent danger as the man who thinks
   that there is no danger likely to befall him, so that anything that
   keeps us on the watchtower, even though it is, in itself, evil, is, so
   far, overruled for good. The most dangerous part of the road to Heaven
   is not the Valley of the Shadow of Death--we do not find that Christian
   went to sleep there when the hobgoblins were all about him and when he
   found it hard to feel the path and stay on it--but when he and Hopeful
   came to the Enchanted Ground, "whose air naturally tended to make one
   drowsy." Then were the pilgrims in great peril until Christian reminded
   his fellow traveler that they were warned by the shepherds not to sleep
   when they came to that treacherous part of the way.

   I think, then, that to be tempted with painful temptations--those that
   goad the spirit almost to madness. Bad as that trial is--grievous as it
   is to be borne--may be, spiritually, not the worst thing that can
   possibly happen to us. Of all evils that beset you, always choose that
   which is less than another and, as this is less than something else
   might be, do not be utterly driven to despair if it falls to your lot
   to be tempted as many before you have been.

   This will suffice by way of preface to a little talk about temptation
   with a view of comforting any who are sorely tempted of Satan. I know
   that I am speaking to many such and I would repeat to them the words of
   my text--"There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to
   man: but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond
   what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of
   escape, that you may be able to bear it." Remember, dear tried Friend,
   that you must not sit down in despair and say, "I am greatly tempted,
   now, and I am afraid that I shall be tempted worse and worse until my
   feet shall slide, and I shall fall and utterly perish." Do not say as
   David did when he had been hunted like a partridge upon the mountains,
   "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul," but believe that the
   Lord, who permitsyou to be tempted, will deliver you in His own good
   time!

   I. Here is your first comfort. THERE HAS BEEN A LIMIT IN ALL YOUR
   FORMER TRIALS. "There has no temptation taken you but such as is common
   to man."

   Temptation has sometimes laid hold of you, like a murderer takes a man
   by the throat, all of a sudden. It has seized you--perhaps that is as
   correct a word as I can use--temptation has seized you, unawares,
   pinioned you and seemed to grip you tightly. And yet, up till now, the
   temptations you have had to endure have only been such as are common to
   man!

   First, they are such as have been endured by your fellow Christians. I
   know that you are tempted to think that you are a lone traveler on a
   road that nobody has ever traversed before you, but if you carefully
   examine the track, you can discover the footprints of some of the best
   of God's servants who have passed along that wearisome way. It is a
   very dark lane, you say--one that might truly be called, "Cut-Throat
   Lane." Ah, but you will find that Apostles have been along that way,
   confessors have been that way, martyrs have been that way--and the best
   of God's saints have been tempted just as you now are. "Oh, but," says
   one, "I am tempted, as you said a little while ago, with blasphemous
   and horrible thoughts." So was Master John Bunyan. Read his Grace
   Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and see what he had to pass through.
   Many others have had a similar experience and among them are some of us
   who are alive to tell you that we know all about this special form of
   temptation, yet the Lord delivered us out of it.

   "Oh, but," says another tried soul, "I have been even tempted to
   self-destruction!" That, also, has not been an unusual temptation, even
   to God's dearest saints and, though He has preserved them and kept them
   alive, yet they have often felt like Job when he said, "My soul chooses
   strangling and death rather than my life." "Ah," cries another, "I am
   tempted to the very worst sins, the foulest sins. I would not dare to
   even mention to you the abominations Satan tempts me to commit!" You
   need not tell me and I trust that you will be kept from them by the
   almighty power of God's Holy Spirit, but I can assure you that even the
   saints in Heaven, if they could speak to you at this moment, would tell
   you that some of them were hard beset--even some of the bravest of them
   who walked nearest to God were hard beset by temptations which they
   would not have told to their fellow men, so troubled were they by them.
   Perhaps yet another friend says, "I have been actually tempted to
   self-righteousness, which is as great a temptation as can befall a man
   whose whole confidence is in Christ." Well, so was Master John Knox,
   that grand preacher of justification by faith. When he lay dying, he
   was tempted to glory in his own bravery for Christ--but he fought
   against that evil thought and overcame it-- and so may you!

   You think that when a man is very patient, he is not tempted to
   impatience? Brother, the Spirit of God says, by the pen of the Apostle
   James, "You have heard of the patience of Job." I suggest to you this
   question--Have you not heard of the impatienceof Job? You have heard,
   no doubt, of the strong faith of Peter. Have you never heard of Peter's
   unbelief? God's people usually fail in the very point for which they
   are most famous--and the man who has the greatest renown for any work
   of the Spirit of God in him, so far as the Bible biographies are
   concerned, has usually been the man who has made a failure at just the
   place where he thought he was strongest! "I have been reading the life
   of a good man," you say, "and I am not like he." Shall I tell you why?
   Because the whole of his life was not written! But when the Holy Spirit
   writes a man's life, He tells it all. When biographers write the lives
   of good men, of course they do not put down their inward struggles and
   fears, unless the subject happens to be a man like Martin Luther, whose
   life seemed to be all an inward struggle and who, while he was brave on
   the outside, was often a trembler within! When they write my life, they
   will tell you that I had strong faith, but they will not tell you all
   about the other side of it. And then you will, perhaps, get to
   thinking, "Oh, I cannot reach even to such a height as Mr. Spurgeon
   attained!" That all comes of your not knowing the inside of us, for if
   you knew the inside and the outside of the man who walks nearest to
   God--if he is a sincere, true-hearted man, he will tell you that the
   temptations you have to endure are just such temptations as he has had
   and, as he expects to have again and again and that, as the Apostle
   says, "there has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man."

   Then, again, no temptation has assailed you but such as fit for men to
   be tried with while they are in this state of trial This is not the
   time for the final victory, Brothers and Sisters, this is the hour of
   battle! And the weapons that are used against us are only such as have
   been employed against the armies of the faithful in all ages. You and I
   never were tempted as were the angels who kept their first estate and
   overcame the temptation. I cannot tell you how the Prince of Darkness
   was tempted, or how he went about tempting his fellow servants from
   their loyalty to the great King. But of this I am sure--you were never
   tried with a temptation suitable to an angel! Your temptation has only
   been such as is suitable to a man, and which as other men, like
   yourself, have overcome. Others have fought valiantly against similar
   temptations as yours and you must do the same, yes, and you shall do
   the same by the power of God's Spirit resting upon you!

   It is said, in the affairs of common life, that what man has done, man
   can do, and that is true with regard to the spiritual life. Temptations
   that have been grappled with by other men, can be grappled with by you
   if you seek the same source of strength and seek it in the same name as
   they did. The strength to overcome temptation comes from God, alone,
   and the conquering name is the name of Jesus Christ! Therefore, go
   forward in that strength and in that name against all your temptations.
   Up and at them, for they have been routed long before, and you shall
   rout them again! Tremble not to go from fight to fight and from victory
   to victory, even as did the others who have gone before you and who
   have now entered into their rest--

   "Once they were mourning here below, And wet their couch with tears.
   They wrestled hard, as we do now, With sins, and doubts, and fears."

   If you ask them from where their victory came, they ascribe it to the
   resources which are as open to you as they were to them--even to the
   mighty working of God the Holy Spirit and the blood and righteousness
   of the Lord Jesus Christ! There has no temptation happened to you but
   such as human beings can grapple with and overcome by the help of God!

   Again, there has no temptation ever happened to you but such as is
   common to man in this sense--that Christ has endured it. That great
   Head of manhood, that representative Man has suffered from the very
   temptation which is now pestering you. "In all their affliction--that
   is, the affliction of His people in the wilderness, which is just the
   same as yours if you are in the wilderness--"in all their affliction He
   was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them." He was
   compassed with infirmity, "a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief."
   To repeat the text I have already quoted, and which is so suitable
   here, He "was, in all points, tempted like as we are." "In all things
   it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a
   merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make
   reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He, Himself, has
   suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted." He
   knows all about the case of each one of us and He knows how to deal
   with it, and how to bear us up and bear us through.

   So you see, dear Friends, there has no temptation happened to you but
   such as is common to man in the sense of having been endured by men
   like yourselves, having been overcome by men such as you are and having
   been endured and vanquished by your blessed Representative, our Lord
   and Savior Jesus Christ.

   Come, then, Beloved, let all mystery with regard to your temptations be
   banished! Mystery puts an edge upon the sword of trial. Perhaps the
   hand that wrote upon the wall would not have frightened Belshazzar if
   he could have seen the body to which that hand belonged. There is no
   mystery, after all, about your trouble! Though you did write it down as
   being bigger than any that ever happened to a human being, that is not
   the truth--you are not an emperor in the realm of misery! You cannot
   truly say, "I am the man that has seen affliction above all others,"
   for your Lord endured far more than you have ever done--and many of His
   saints, who passed from the stake to the crown, must have suffered much
   more than you have been called to undergo thus far.

   II. Now let us turn to the second comfort revealed in our text. That
   is, THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD--"There has no temptation taken you but
   such as is common to man: but God is faithful."

   Oh, what a blessed word is this, "God is faithful"! Therefore, He is
   true to His promise. Even Balaam said, "God is not a man, that He
   should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: has He said,
   and shall He not do it ? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it
   good?" One of God's promises is, "I will never leave you, nor forsake
   you." "God is faithful," so He will fulfill that promise! Here is one
   of the promises of Christ, and Christ is God--"My sheep hear My voice,
   and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life;
   and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My
   hand." "God is faithful," so that promise shall be fulfilled! You have
   often heard this promise, "As your days, so shall your strength be." Do
   you believe it, or will you make God a liar? If you believe it, then
   banish from your mind all dark forebodings with this blessed little
   sentence, "God is faithful."

   Notice, next, that not only is God faithful, but He is master of the
   situation, so that He can keep His promise. Note what the text says.
   "Who will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are able to
   bear." Then you could not have been tempted if God had not allowed it
   to happen to you. God is far mightier than Satan. The devil could not
   touch Job except by Divine permission, neither can he try and tempt you
   except as God allows him. He must have a permit from the King of Kings
   before he can tempt a single saint! Why, Satan is not allowed to keep
   the key of his own house, for the keys of death and of Hell hang at the
   belt of Christ! And without God's permission, the dog of Hell cannot
   even open his mouth to bark at a child of God, much less can he come
   and worry any of the sheep whom the Lord has called by His Grace into
   His fold! So, then, Beloved, you have great cause for comfort from the
   fact that the temptation that tries you is still under the control of
   the faithful Creator, "who will not suffer you to be tempted beyond
   what you are able."

   That is a second reason for comfort--roll it under your tongue as a
   sweet morsel.

   III. The third comfort lies in THE RESTRAINT WHICH GOD PUTS UPON
   TEMPTATION. He "will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are
   able." The tide of trial shall rise to high-water mark and then God
   shall say, "Hitherto shall you come, but no further: and here shall
   your proud waves be stayed."

   He "will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are able." That
   may apply, sometimes, to the period when the temptation comes. I have
   carefully watched how God times the trials of His people. If
   such-and-such a trial had come to one of His children when he was
   young, I believe he could not have borne it. Or if he had lost some
   dear friend while he was, himself, sick, the double trouble would have
   crushed him. But God sends our trials at the right time and if He puts
   an extra burden on in one way, He takes something off in another. "He
   stays His rough wind in the day of the East wind." It is a very simple
   thing to say, but it is true--if the wind blows from the North, it does
   not, at the same time, blow from the South. And if one set of troubles
   comes to a Christian, another set of troubles generally departs from
   him. John Bradford, the famous martyr, was often subject to rheumatism
   and depression of spirit--in which I can greatly sympathize with
   him--but when he was laid by the heels in a foul damp dungeon and knew
   that he would never come out except to die, he wrote, "It is an amazing
   thing that ever since I have been in this prison and have had other
   trials to bear, I have had no touch of my rheumatism or my depression
   of spirit." Was not that a very blessed thing? And you will usually
   find that it is so--you shall not be tempted above what you are able to
   bear because God will permit the trial to come at a time when you are
   best able to stand up under it.

   There is also great kindness on God's part in the continuance of a
   trial. If some of our trials lasted much longer, they would be too
   heavy for us to bear. Concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, our Lord
   said, "Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be
   saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." And I
   have no doubt that, oftentimes, God makes quick work of His children's
   trials because if they were continued longer, they would have not a
   good, but an evil effect upon us. If a child must be whipped, let not
   the punishment last as if he were a criminal who must be sentenced for
   a long period--let him have his chastisement and have done with it. So
   is it often in the discipline of God's house, yet there are other
   trials which are protracted year after year because trial is an
   ingredient in their efficacy and they might not be blessed to us if
   they were shortened. In every case there is Infinite Wisdom which makes
   our troubles to be just as long as they are and no longer.

   So there is in the number of the trials. Blessed be God--

   "If He ordains the number ten, They never can be eleven."

   If He intends His servants to pass through the fire and not through the
   water, Satan himself cannot make them go through the water! God counts
   the drops of bitter tonic that He administers to His ailing saints and
   not one drop more shall they possibly have than He measures out to
   them. So, dear tried children of God, you shall not be tempted above
   what you are able so far as the number of your temptations and trials
   is concerned.

   It is the same, also, in the stress with which the temptation comes.
   Have you ever seen a great tree in the full blast of a tremendous
   tempest? It sways to and fro and seems scarcely able to recover itself
   from the powerful blows of the storm, yet the roots hold it. But now
   comes another tornado and it seems as if the tree must be torn up out
   of the earth, but the strain ceases just in time for the old oak to
   rock back into its place, again. But if there were a pound or two more
   force in that tremendous blast, the tree would be laid prone upon the
   grass! But God, in His people's case, at any rate, stops just at the
   right point. You may be tried till you have not an ounce of strength
   left. Sometimes, the Lord tests His people till it seems as if one more
   breath from Him would assuredly cause them to sink. Then it is that He
   puts under them the everlasting arms and no further trial is laid upon
   them. This is a blessed thing, for all of you have troubles of one sort
   or another, and you who are the people of God may take this text and
   rely implicitly upon it--"God is faithful, who will not suffer you to
   be tempted beyond what you are able."

   As for you who are not His people, I am very sorry for you. I am
   holding up these precious things, but they are not for you. God's Word
   declares, "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked." If you have not God to
   flee to, what will you do when the storms beat upon your boat? To whom
   or where can you flee? As for the Christian, he can sing--

   "Jesus, lover of my soul,

   Let me to Your bosom fly,

   While the nearer waters roll,

   While the tempest still is high!

   Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till the storm of life is past Safe into
   the haven guide. Oh receive my soul at last!

   But, poor dear souls who love not Christ, where can you find comfort in
   your seasons of sorrow and trial? You who have lost wife and
   children--you who are pinched with poverty--you who are racked with
   sickness and yet have no Savior, what can you do? Poor houseless people
   in a snowstorm--what can they do without even a bush to shelter them?
   That is your state and I grieve for you, and plead with you not to
   remain in such a pitiful condition a moment longer!--

   "Come, guilty souls, and flee away

   Like doves to Jesus' wounds.

   This is the welcome Gospel-day,

   Wherein free Grace abounds!

   Oh, that your sense of need might drive you to accept Christ as your
   Savior this very hour! As for His believing people, there is this solid
   comfort for them--they shall never be tempted above what they are able.

   IV. The next comfort we gather from our text relates to THE PROVISION
   WHICH THE LORD MAKES FOR THE TEMPTED "God is faithful, who...will with
   the temptation also make a way to escape."

   The Greek has it, "who will with the temptation also make the way to
   escape," for there is a proper way to escape from a temptation. There
   are 20 improper ways and woe to the man who makes use of any of them!
   But there is only one proper way out of a trial and that is the
   straight way, the way that God has made for His people to travel. God
   has made through all trials the way by which His servants may rightly
   come out of them. When the brave young Jews were tried by
   Nebuchadnezzar, there was one way by which they might have kept out of
   the burning fiery furnace. They had only to bow their knees before the
   great image when the flute, harp, sackbut and psaltery sounded. That
   way of escape would never have answered, for it was not the right one!
   The way for them was to be thrown into the furnace and there to have
   the Son of God walking with them in the midst of the fire that could
   not hurt them! In like manner, whenever you are exposed to any trial,
   mind that you do not try to escape from it in a wrong way.

   Notice especially that the right way is always of God's making and,
   therefore, any of you who are now exposed to temptation or trial have
   not to make your own way of escape out of it. God, and God alone, has
   to make it for you, so do not attempt to make it for yourselves. I knew
   a man who was in trouble because he was short of money--and the way he
   made for himself was to use somebody else's money with which he had
   been entrusted. That was not God's way of escape for him, so he only
   plunged himself into a worse trial than he was in before! I have known
   a man of business in great trouble and things were going wrong with
   him, so he speculated, gambled and ruined both his business and his
   personal character. That was not God's way for him to escape from his
   troubles! Sometimes the best thing a man in trouble can do is to do
   nothing at all--but to leave all in the hands of God. "Stand still, and
   see the salvation of the Lord."

   When the Israelites came out of Egypt, God led them in a way at which
   men might well have quibbled. There was nothing before them but the sea
   and behind them came Pharaoh in all his rage, crying, "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." Now, then,
   what was God's way of escape for them? Right through the Red Sea! And
   on the other side they sang, when the Egyptians were drowned, "Sing you
   to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider
   has He thrown into the sea." It would have been a great pity if they
   had tried to escape by any way of their own, or had attempted to turn
   around and fight Pharaoh--that would not have done at all--but the Lord
   made for His people the very best way of escape that could possibly
   have been devised.

   Notice, also, that the Lord makes the way of escape "with the
   temptation." He suffered the trial to come and, at the same time He
   made the way of escape from it. God has planned it all, my Brothers and
   Sisters, how you, His champion, shall go forth and fight valiantly in
   His strength--and how He will be your shield and your exceedingly great
   reward. He will lead you into the dangerous situation, but He can see
   the way out of it as well as the way into it, and He will take you
   safely through. Did not the Psalmist sing, "To Him which led His people
   through the wilderness: for His mercy endures forever"? He not only led
   them into the wilderness, but He led them through it, blessed be His
   holy name! And if He has brought you into the wilderness of trouble and
   affliction, He made the way out of it at the same time that He made the
   trouble. "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall you dwell in the
   land, and verily you shall be fed. Delight yourself, also, in the Lord;
   and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way unto
   the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He
   shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as
   the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: fret not
   yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who
   brings wicked devices to pass." "Seek you first the Kingdom of God and
   His righteousness," and all else that you need shall be added unto you.
   Keep clear of the sin of the temptation and you need not fear the
   sorrow of the temptation. If the trials do not drive you to your own
   devices, but drive you to your knees, they will, after all, be
   blessings to you.

   That is the fourth comfort, that God has made the way of escape for His
   people out of their trials. "Well, then," says someone, "I shall escape
   from this trial." Wait a moment, my Friend, and listen to the closing
   words of the text, with which I will conclude my discourse.

   V. This is the last point of comfort, THE SUPPORT WHICH GOD SUPPLIES IN
   THE TRIAL--"that you may be able to bear it."

   God's way of escape from trial is not for His people to avoid it, so as
   not to pass through it, but such an escape as leads them through the
   trouble and out at the other end--not an escape from the Red Sea, but
   an escape through the Red Sea from a still greater trial! If you,
   Beloved, are exposed to trial or temptation, you are to be made able to
   bear it. Now, pray, before you leave this building, that this last
   word, upon which I have not time to enlarge, may be fulfilled in your
   experience--"that you may be able to bear it."

   Suppose you are to be poor. Well, if God has so appointed it, you
   willbe poor, therefore pray that you may be able to bear it. With
   honest industry and stern integrity, struggle to attain to a better
   position, but, if all your efforts fail, then say to the Lord,
   "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." Perhaps your dear child
   is dying, or your wife is sickening. You dread the thought of losing
   them and you would willingly give your life, if you could, for them.
   Well, do all you can for their recovery, for life is precious, and any
   money spent to save it will be well spent. But, if health is not to be
   granted to them, pray that you may be able to bear even that heavy
   trial. It is wonderful how God helps His people to bear troubles which
   they thought would crush them. I have seen poor feeble women that I
   thought would die under their bereavement, become brave and strong! And
   I have seen men who were faint-hearted in the prospect of trouble,
   nevertheless bless the Lord for it when the blow has actually fallen!
   And you may do the same.

   Suppose you are to be sick. Well, that is a sore trial and I know that,
   personally, I would do anything I could to escape from the affliction
   that often besets me, but if it must not be, then I must change my note
   and pray that I may be able to bear it. I had a letter from a man of
   God, this morning, which sustained me very much. He said, "My dear
   Brother, I was sorry to hear that you were again in pain and depressed
   in spirit, and so forth, but, as I remembered how God had blessed you
   in so many ways, I thought to myself, 'Perhaps Mr. Spurgeon would not
   have kept to preaching the Doctrines of Grace, and would not have been
   so able to comfort God's poor people if he did not get these smart
   touches sometimes.' So," he said, "I congratulate you upon these
   trials!" And I accepted the congratulations. Will not you do the same,
   my afflicted Brother or Sister? Pray, "Lord, if it is possible, let
   this cup pass from me," but, if it must not, then here comes that other
   form of comfort, "that I may be able to bear it."

   And remember, dear Friends, while I tell you to make this passage into
   a prayer, it is really a promise, and there is no prayer like a promise
   that is turned, as it were, roundabout, and cut prayer-wise! God
   Himself has said, by His inspired Apostle, that He "will not suffer you
   to be tempted beyond what you are able; but will with the temptation
   also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it." Up with
   the banners, then! Forward, whatever obstructs the way! Let us sing,
   with good old John Ryland--

   "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!" The
   immortal life within us can never be destroyed! The Divine Nature,
   which God, the Holy Spirit, has implanted, shall never be trodden under
   foot! "Rejoice not against me, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall arise.
   When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me."

   But, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry am I, from the bottom of my soul,
   for you who know not the Lord, for this comfort is not for you! Seek
   Him, I pray you! Seek Him as your Savior. Look to Him and trust in
   Him--and then all the blessings of the Everlasting Covenant shall be
   yours, for the Father has given Him to be a Leader and Commander unto
   the people, and they that look to Him, and follow Him, shall live
   forever and ever! God bless you, for Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Open Praise and Public Confession

   (No. 2604)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 8, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11,
   1883.

   "I will praise You with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing
   praise unto You. I will worship toward Your holy Temple, and praise
   Your name for Your loving kindness and for Your Truth: for You have
   magnified Your Word above all Your name. In the day when I cried, You
   answered me, and strengthened me with strength in my soul." Psalm
   138:1-3.

   IT is a very grievous thing, to one who worships the only living and
   true God, to see others engaged in idolatrous worship. It stirs one's
   indignation to see a man worship--not his own hands, but what is even
   worse than that--the thing which he has made with his own hands and
   which must, therefore, be inferior to himself. As the righteous soul of
   Lot in Sodom was vexed with the filthy conversation of the inhabitants
   of that guilty city, so the righteous soul of David was vexed when he
   saw the many lords and gods before whom his neighbors were bowing down
   and, in like manner, as long as we are in this world, we shall often be
   troubled through seeing how others turn aside from the living God, how
   they forget His Truth, set up thoughts of their own in the place of the
   thoughts of God and dishonor the Holy Scripture by thinking that their
   own vain ideas can equal, if not even excel, the Revelation of God!

   David, in this matter, becomes a guide to us. What he did in the
   presence of the idols of the heathen is, to a great extent, what we
   should do in the presence of the false systems of religion and the
   errors which are all around us! You, dear Friends, cannot love the
   right if you do not hate the wrong! I would not give a penny for your
   love to the Truth of God if it is not accompanied with a hearty hatred
   of error. I have taken this text as an instruction to myself as well as
   to you. What David did with all his heart, as a man who loved Jehovah,
   the only true God, we also should do if, indeed, we love the Lord Jesus
   Christ and all the glorious Truths which cluster around His glorious
   Deity and His atoning Sacrifice.

   I. How, then, will we act? We will try to act exactly as David did, and
   if we do so, we shall, first of all, SING WITH WHOLE-HEARTED PRAISE. "I
   will praise You with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise
   unto You." This seems a very singular thing to do. Here is a man
   indignant with these false gods--one would suppose that he would begin
   to argue on behalf of the true God, that he would raise a controversy
   on behalf of Jehovah--but he does nothing of the kind. At least, this
   is not the first thing that he does. He begins to praise God and to
   sing that praise aloud! "I will praise You with my whole heart: before
   the gods will I sing praise unto You."

   This was a very singular method of procedure, yet a very wise one, for,
   first, his song would openly show his contempt for the false gods. What
   does it matter to him what these idols really are? Men call them gods,
   so, for the moment, he calls them gods, too. And he begins to sing, not
   to them, but to his own God, the only living and true God! He pitches
   the tune, he lifts up the strain, he sings a Psalm--and this is the
   theme of his music--"Glorious are You, O Jehovah!" And he does this in
   the very presence of the idol gods and their worshippers, as much as to
   say, "I take so little notice of them all that I will not even be
   disturbed about them. I was singing the praises of Jehovah and I shall
   go on singing them. I was full of holy joy and I intend, still, to be
   so. Those gods of the heathen are nothing, but our God made the
   heavens! Therefore, I will not rob Him of His Glory, or deprive Him of
   His full revenue of praise, by turning aside even for a single moment
   to pay any attention to these mere blocks of wood and stone." It was a
   wise way of acting on the part of David, and it was also a generous
   way, because he did not in words pour contempt upon the idols, but he
   showed his contempt for them by presenting his praise to Jehovah alone.

   Let us do the same, Beloved. Do not worry yourself about those who turn
   aside from the Truth of God and run in their own crooked ways. Warn
   them as best you can, but remember David's advice on another
   occasion--"Fret not yourself because of evildoers." You have better
   work to do than to fret about them! Begin to praise your God and go on
   praising Him! Sing as many songs unto Him as ever you did and let your
   heart be just as glad as ever it can be. "Why do the heathen rage and
   the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
   and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His
   anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their
   cords from us. He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall
   have them in derision." And if the Lord laughs, let us not cry! If He
   treats them with such calm contempt, let us do the same and lift up our
   voices again and again unto Him whose mercy endures forever, and whose
   throne is so established that all the leaguered hosts of earth and Hell
   cannot shake it for a single moment! "Say among the heathen that the
   Lord reigns." "The Lord sits upon the flood; yes, the Lord sits King
   forever." Therefore, let no man's heart fail him, but let all who love
   the Lord show their contempt for His adversaries by pouring out their
   joyful adoration unto the Most High!

   I like David's plan of dealing with the idols, by continuing his
   wholehearted praise to God, because, next, it would show his strong
   faith in the true God. I cannot tell any better way by which he could
   have shown his confidence in Jehovah. He had already poured contempt
   upon the false gods, but now his calm, happy singing proves his
   reverence for the Most High and makes men see that if they doubt, he
   does not! If they rail, he knows how vain their railing is. It proves
   to them that there is at least one man who has true faith in God, for
   he stands like a solid rock amid the surging sea. He is not moved. No,
   he is not affected enough to postpone his music, but he keeps on
   singing and singing the more loudly, as the more the sea roars and the
   fullness thereof. The more shrill the noise of the tumultuous
   idolaters, the more does he proclaim aloud his holy joy and his
   unshaken confidence in his God! True faith is one of the best of
   sermons. He who is--

   "Calm 'mid the bewildering cry, Confident of victory,"

   has, by that trustful calmness, done more to inspire the timid with
   confidence than if he were the most eloquent of men who had, with great
   vehemence, urged them to trust in God. Thank God, faith, as well as
   unbelief, is contagious! And if--

   "One sickly sheep infects the flock, And poisons all the rest"--

   there is another side to that Truth--one true Believer tends to
   strengthen all the rest and to make them "strong in the Lord, and in
   the power of His might." He who can sing as he goes to battle, if he is
   a leader, is likely to lead a tribe of heroes in his train! He who can
   sing in the time of shipwreck is likely to put courage into everyone of
   the crew, so that they do their best for the laboring vessel and, if it
   is possible, bring her safely into the haven. Sing, then, Brother!
   Sing, my Sister, for this will prove your child-like confidence in God,
   your implicit reliance upon Him! That is a second commendation of
   David's mode of action.

   The next is that by continuing to praise Jehovah in the presence of the
   idols, he declared his all-absorbing zeal for God's Glory. He did not
   need to stand up and say, "I love the Lord with all my heart." Hear him
   sing, "I will praise You with my whole heart." See what force he puts
   into every note! Listen to his jubilant song--you can tell by the very
   sound of his voice that his praise of Jehovah comes up from his
   heart--and from his whole heart. He is enthusiastic, he is full of
   confidence! If he had a doubt concerning Jehovah, he could not sing
   like that. And if he were lukewarm, he would not sing like that. But,
   as he is singing with his whole heart, those who are opposed to him say
   to themselves, "It is no use to trouble ourselves about thatman--we
   shall never turn him from the faith." They will sheer off, one by one,
   knowing that it is no use to attack such a firm Believer. He who
   praises God with his whole heart is like a man on fire--he is terrible
   to the adversaries of the Most High. When the great Spanish Armada was
   ready to swoop down upon the English coast, our brave Admiral Drake
   took some of his small ships and placed them where the wind would carry
   them right among the Spanish fleet. He filled the vessels with
   combustible material and set them afire. Then he had no need to go,
   himself, for the wind just took the fire-ships and drifted them up
   against the Spanish galleons that floated high out of the water--and
   exposed a vast surface to the air--and one and another of the big
   unwieldy monsters were soon on fire-- and a great victory was won
   without a blow being struck!

   So, I like to get a red-hot Christian full of music and praise unto
   Jehovah and just let him go, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, right
   into the middle of the adversaries of the Truth of God! They cannot
   make him out! They do not know how to handle a man on fire! If he would
   try to argue with them, they might overwhelm him with their logic. If
   he would fire a shot at them, they could shoot back at him. But he does
   nothing of the kind. He simply blazes and burns to the Glory of
   God--and that is a most effective mode of warfare with the Lord's
   enemies. Suppose, my Brothers and Sisters, that you were to have your
   hearts all on fire, burning and glowing with the intense conviction
   that the Gospel is true and that the God of Heaven and earth is the one
   living and true God--and that the atoning blood of the Divine Savior is
   the one hope of guilty sinners? Then you might do grand work for God!
   Tolerate no doubt in your spirit! Believe right up to the hilt with
   unstaggering confidence and then sing out your praises of Jehovah with
   a joyful confidence! Those who hate the Truth of God will not know what
   to make of you. They will probably get out of your way as quickly as
   possible, but, if they do not, then perhaps you will set them on fire
   and it may be, by the Grace of God, that you will burn up some of their
   errors and put them into a terrible state of confusion and anxiety if
   they still resolve to fight against the Lord of Hosts!

   It was a wise plan, this of David, of getting in among the heathen gods
   and singing to the praise of Jehovah! They could not understand him,
   but they were affected by his singing all the same. If he could have
   walked through any temple where all the idol gods could have been
   gathered together, and if he could have sung, there, the words of our
   grand Dox-ology--

   "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"--

   I would not have wondered if old Dagon had come tumbling down to the
   ground and if Chemosh, and Milcom, and Baal, and Ashtaroth and all
   those other abominations of the heathen had fallen prone upon the earth
   at the sound of this glorious song of praise unto Jehovah! Therefore,
   if we would overthrow the idols of our own day, let us imitate this
   wise mode of action on the part of the Psalmist.

   I believe, also, that David was quite right in singing with all his
   heart before the idol gods because it would shield him from all danger
   wherever he went. To walk among the wicked is a dangerous exercise. It
   is as though a man had to go into infected air, or traverse the wards
   of a leper hospital--he is, himself, apt to become affected by the
   poisonous atmosphere and to become infected with some deadly malady.
   But, oh, if you keep on, with all your heart, praising God all the day,
   you may go with confidence wherever duty calls you! Ah, you might go
   between the jaws of death, itself, and yet suffer no injury, for an
   atmosphere of praise would be the best deodorizer and disinfectant
   wherever you might be bid by the Lord to go. As long as you kept on
   praising God and magnifying His holy name, no adversary could do you
   any harm. Remember how the hosts of Jehoshaphat triumphed in the valley
   of Berachah when they began to sing praises unto God--then were their
   adversaries routed! Remember, also, how Paul and Silas could not be
   held in bonds when, at midnight, they sang praises unto God! Then the
   prison rocked, the chains were broken and the doors flew open, for
   there must be liberty where men can sing unto Jehovah! Where
   wholehearted songsters continually adore the Most High, the prisoners'
   fetters snap and the foundations of dungeons are moved! Therefore, dear
   Friends, mind that you keep up the spirit of praise.

   I used to know, years ago, a poor old laboring man. He was a Methodist
   of the good old-fashioned school. I never met him, or spoke with him
   without finding that, wherever he was, he was always singing. He was up
   in the morning at half-past five to get out to his farm work and he
   sang while he was dressing. He sang as he pulled on his corduroys. He
   sang as he put on his smock. He sang as he walked downstairs, he sang
   as he tramped off down the street and he sang all day as he was at his
   work. He did not keep on singing while I was preaching, but he seemed
   almost as if he wanted to do that. And, every now and then, he would
   burst out with, "Hallelujah!" or, "Praise the Lord!" He was so full of
   thanksgiving to God that sometimes he was obliged to give expression to
   his feelings even when it would have been more proper if he had kept
   quiet! He was one of the holiest men I ever knew and I used to account
   very much for his simple gentleness, integrity and happiness by the
   habit he had acquired of constantly singing the praises of God. He
   worked with some men who were in the habit of swearing, but he kept on
   singing and, after a time, they began to think that it was not the
   right thing for them to swear. He went among men who drank, but he
   never left off singing and, somehow, even among such men, there was a
   kind of respect for him. It was so with all who knew him. His employer
   tried to put him where he would have easier tasks than others as he
   grew old. And everybody loved him.

   I always wished that he had been a Baptist--that would have been just
   the finishing touch to make him perfect-- and then we would have lost
   him, for all perfect people go to Heaven at once! But if I mentioned
   that subject to him-- and sometimes I did--it was not long before he
   began to sing and he would ask me to join him, which I gladly did. His
   was a happy way of living. I wish that I and all of you could rise to
   it. Perhaps somebody says, "That good man was a very happy, gracious
   soul, but still he was very childish." Perhaps so, but I would like to
   be just as he was. I do not speak of him as having been childish, but
   child-like, always praising God like a happy child who is always
   singing. You know, dear Friends, you can keep on praising the Lord
   whatever else you may be doing. You can sit down in your house with the
   needle in your hand, or go abroad into the garden with the hoe and
   still be praising God. We do not have half enough of praise, Brothers
   and Sisters--I am sure the devil would be more angry with us it we
   would begin to praise God more--and since we certainly are under no
   obligations to Satan to keep from irritating his temper, let us sing
   unto the Lord as long as we live--and defy the devil to do his worst!
   As he likes neither music nor song in praise of Jehovah, let him have
   plenty of them both! Let us continually do as David declared that he
   would--"I will praise You with my whole heart: before the gods (or
   before the devils, before the kings or before the beggars, before the
   drunks, before the swearers, before anybody and everybody) will I sing
   praise unto You."

   That, then, was the first part of David's action--singing unto Jehovah
   with whole-hearted praise.

   II. The second thing that David did was to WORSHIP BY THE DESPISED
   RULE. Even in the presence of those who set up their idol gods, and
   their false systems, he declared to Jehovah, "I will worship toward
   Your holy Temple."

   Some said, "Worship this way." Others said, "Worship that way." In the
   present day some say that the Old Testament is not Inspired, that there
   is much that is very doubtful in the five Books of Moses. Some are
   going to worship in one way, some in another way of their own
   inventing. But if we are of David's mind, we shall say to the Lord, "I
   will worship toward Your holy Temple." Let every other man have his own
   way of worshipping if he will, but, Brothers and Sisters, as for me, I
   say to the Lord, with David, "I will worship toward Your holy Temple."

   I admire this declaration, first, because it is a quiet way of ignoring
   all will-worship. "Oh," says one, "I am resolved to worship God with
   all kinds of show, ceremony, flowers and millinery." Another says, "I
   intend to worship God out in the fields and never to mingle with His
   people at all." Very well, you go your own ways, but I ignore both of
   your ways, for my way is to worship toward God's holy Temple--that is
   the way in which the Apostles and the early Christians worshipped
   Christ, not forsaking the assembling of themselves together, as the
   manner of some is--the way in which they cheered their own hearts and
   the hearts of their fellow Believers, with Psalms and hymns and
   spiritual songs--the way in which they spoke as the Spirit gave them
   utterance--the way in which they gathered around the Table of their
   Lord to remember His great love to them. You may go and set up whatever
   novelty you like, but I shall keep to that--

   "Good old way, by our fathers trod"-- and I trust that every true child
   of God will make this personal declaration to the Lord, "I will worship
   toward Your holy Temple."

   What did David mean by that expression, "Your holy Temple"? Well, the
   Temple, like the Tabernacle in the wilderness, was typical of the
   adorable Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was not that the tent in
   the wilderness or the Temple on Mount Zion was anything of
   itself--these were the places where God was especially pleased to
   reveal Himself. Now, today the Temple of Jehovah is the body of our
   Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which He, Himself, expressly called "the
   Temple." Let others worship saints and angels, if they will, but we
   will worship the Incarnate Christ and Him, alone! Let others worship
   the man and think him nothing more than man, but we shall worship
   Christ as God. I was delighted to sing with you, a little while ago--

   "Jesus, my God! I know His name, His name is all my trust! Nor will He
   put my soul to shame, Nor let my hope be lost"

   Jesus is not only my Savior, but He is also my God! And my prayers are
   to be presented to the Father through Him and to come up unto the Most
   High through the Person of the God-Man, the Mediator between God and
   men, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! I will worship toward that
   shrine, the Person of the Son of God and God the Son!

   But the Temple was also the place of sacrifice and we shall only praise
   God aright as we trust to the one great Sacrifice. Oh, how many,
   nowadays, deny the great Truth of vicarious suffering, the
   substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, saying that He is our
   Exemplar, but not the Maker of propitiation and reconciliation by His
   blood. Well, do not trouble your head about these people and begin to
   argue with them, but say, "As for me, 'I will worship toward Your holy
   Temple.' I have not any hope of my prayers speeding except through the
   Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. I can have no assurance of being
   accepted by God unless I am 'accepted in the Beloved.' So I will offer
   no prayer but that which goes to God by the crimson road of the
   substitutionary death of Christ. 'I will worship toward Your holy
   Temple.'" Keep to that declaration with unshaken firmness of resolve
   and it will be the best answer that you can give to the idols, or to
   the devils, or to anyone else who may oppose the Most High.

   III. Now notice, thirdly, what David did. He went on from singing and
   worshipping to PRAISE THE QUESTIONED ATTRIBUTES--the very attributes
   which are being questioned in this present age. "I will praise Your
   name for Your loving kindness and for Your Truth."

   The true Believer should praise God, first, for His loving kindness and
   for that loving kindness in its universality. Some say that the God
   whom we preach cannot be a God of Love because He banishes unbelievers
   into endless misery. If they refuse His Son, He gives them no hope that
   there can be any hereafter for them except that of eternal banishment
   from His Presence and from the glory of His power. "The wicked shall be
   turned into Hell, and all the nations that forget God." And there are
   some preachers who cover up and try to hide this solemn Truth of God,
   or speak as if they had velvet in their mouths when they come to deal
   with it. I shall not do so! By God's Grace, I shall never do so! There
   is enough love in God to satisfy me and I shall not need to make
   another god in order that I may believe in his loving kindness! My
   heart delights to praise the very Jehovah of whom the Psalmist sings,
   "To Him that smote Egypt in their first-born: for His mercy endures
   forever: and brought out Israel from among them: for His mercy endures
   forever: with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm: for His
   mercy endures forever. To Him which divided the Red Sea into parts: for
   His mercy endures forever: and made Israel to pass through the midst of
   it: for His mercy endures forever: but overthrew Pharaoh and his host
   in the Red Sea: for His mercy endures forever."

   I am quite certain that He never executes judgment with a severity
   which will be questioned by right minds. And in the Last Great Day,
   when the whole of this dispensation is wound up, it will be seen that
   "God is Love." We may not be able to see it now--He may seem to be, as
   David says in another Psalm, "terrible out of His holy places." Jehovah
   Himself declares that He is a jealous God who will by no means clear
   the guilty--and there are many who quibble at that, but the Day shall
   declare it. When the veil is rolled up, to the astonishment of all
   God's creatures, it will be seen that He did the best, the wisest and
   the kindest thing which, all things considered, could have been done
   and, therefore, though I cannot yet understand all His dealings with
   the sons of men, yet I believe that they are right and I will praise
   His name for His loving kindness!

   There is a special note, here, which bids us think of God's loving
   kindness in its specialty. Many quibble at this great Truth of God
   which seems to me to be self-evident--that Christ should choose His own
   spouse. They want to have entrusted to them the selection of a bride
   for Him! They want God to be lackey to the free will of man and that
   none of His purposes should be carried out unless man permits it! Their
   notion is that the great Creator must sit and wait till He gets His
   creature's permission to be gracious. But as for us, Beloved, we adore
   the glorious Truth of His electing love. We admire the sovereignty of
   His Grace and we delight to know that He does as He wills among the
   inhabitants of this lower world and deals out His mercy, as Paul puts
   it, "according to the good pleasure of His will." Instead of disputing
   with idols, or devils, we begin to sing with all our heart concerning
   the special love of God to His chosen and the favor which He bears
   towards them that put their trust in Him! We cannot employ our time to
   better purpose--to argue and debate might be a waste of effort and
   might depress our own spirit. But to bless the name of the Lord will do
   us good and will also be to His honor and Glory!

   I find that the original bears another meaning--"I will praise Your
   name for Your Grace, and for Your Truth." Is it not a blessed thing to
   have that word, "Grace," always in the mouth? "Grace." Is it not one of
   the sweetest words that God ever permitted human lips to utter? And we
   often say, "Free Grace," even if some tell us that is tautology. If one
   tap of the hammer will not suffice, we will give two. If men do not
   understand what, "Grace," means, we will call it, "Free Grace" and we
   will bless and praise the name of the Lord that we have two such words
   in the language as, "Free Grace!"

   The other attribute for which David said that he would praise the name
   of the Lord is, God's Truth. Our heart may well be sad as we see how
   men are pecking at God's Truth. One part of the Bible is given up by
   one and another part is rejected by another. One of our wise men says,
   "I have given up all the Old Testament and a large part of the New."
   Well, Sir, you might just as well give it all up, because you evidently
   have no part nor lot in it, or else you would not talk like that! Those
   gentlemen who want to mend the Bible really need mending themselves!
   That is where the mischief lies in most cases. If they were savingly
   converted by the Grace of God, they would love every letter of the
   Book, from Genesis to Revelation, and find it food to their souls. But
   they do not know the inner meaning of it and, therefore, they despise
   the Scripture as being but husks to them. And I greatly fear that is
   all that it is to many of them. But as for us, we shall glory in God's
   Truth--in the historic accuracy of every Word of this blessed old
   Bible! In the absolute Truth of God of everything that is recorded
   here! In the certainty of the fulfillment of every promise and every
   threat that is in this Book! And, what is more, in the absolute
   correctness of every unfulfilled prophecy as being just as certain as
   certainty itself! There is where we mean to stand!

   We believe in plenary verbal Inspiration, with all its difficulties,
   for there are not half as many difficulties in that Doctrine as there
   are in any other kind of inspiration that men may imagine. If this Book
   is not the real solid foundation of our religion, what have we to build
   upon? If God has spoken a lie, where are we, Brothers and Sisters? And
   if this Book, for which the martyrs bled, and which sustained our sires
   in prison and on their deathbeds--if this precious Book which is today
   hugged to the heart of many a dying saint--is to be torn away from us,
   it shall not go without a struggle in which we will, if necessary,
   sacrifice even our lives! We will never give up the Bible! We will love
   it in life and in death, and we will still believe that it is the
   glorious and perfect Revelation, as far as our imperfect minds can
   discern it, of the loving kindness and Truth of God! And for it we will
   praise and bless His holy name!

   This is what David said he would do, and I recommend all tried saints
   to do the same.

   IV. Now, fourthly, there was another thing which David meant to do and
   that was to REVERENCE GOD'S

   WORD TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE. He puts it thus. "You have magnified Your
   Word above all Your name." My text is such a great one that I need
   half-a-dozen nights to discuss it, so I can only give you hints of what
   I would say if I had the time.

   God's name, dear Friends, is revealed in a measure in Nature. In
   Providence that name may be spelt out, but David tells us, here, that
   the Lord has magnified His Word above all His name. That is to say that
   Revelation is made by God to be infinitely superior to Creation and to
   Providence as a revealing of Himself, for, first, it is more clear If a
   man paints grand pictures, even if I never saw the man, I know a little
   about him when I see his paintings. Yes, but if he writes me a letter
   and in that letter tells me what is in his very heart, I know more
   about him by his words than I do by his works! And there is more of God
   in some passages of the Bible than in the whole universe besides! If
   science could be all known, it would not contain as much real Light of
   God as there is in a single verse of Scripture, for the best Light of
   God is in the Word! There is other light, too, but it is only moonlight
   as compared with the sunlight. God has magnified His Word, for its
   clearness, above every other method of revealing His name or Character.

   It is not only more clear, but it is also more sure. If we look into
   God's works, one man sees one thing and another man sees another. But
   if you look into God's Word and you have a childlike spirit, you will
   see what another childlike-spirited man sees. If you are God's child,
   you will see what others of God's children see there. And in the great
   fundamental Truths discoverable in His Word, the saints are almost
   entirely agreed. The whole universe is not big enough to mirror God in
   all His Glory. If He looks into the great and wide sea that He has
   made, the glass is too small to reflect more than a part of His Glory.
   Suppose that God should reveal Himself fully in Nature? It would soon
   be seen that the axles of the wheel would be all too weak to sustain
   the weight of Deity! It is only Revelation that can truly manifest Him
   to us.

   Think again--God's Word is more lasting than His other works. The
   Revelation of God in Nature is not unique. If He has made one world, He
   can make another. If He has made one universe, He can make 50
   universes! But after having given us one complete Revelation of His
   will, He will never give another--that one stands alone. What God has
   made known in the book of Nature will all pass away--there will come a
   day when the elements, themselves, shall be dissolved with fervent heat
   and, like a worn-out vesture, all this material creation shall be put
   away. But, "the Word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the Word
   which by the Gospel is preached unto you," so that God magnifies His
   Word by making it everlasting. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but
   My Words shall not pass away."

   Does not God magnify His Word in your hearts, dear Friends? You have
   sometimes been in the fields on the Sabbath and a sweet sense of rest
   has stolen over you. In the time of harvest, or on a bright morning
   when the sun has risen, you have been overwhelmed with a sense of the
   Glory of God. But, still, that sweet feeling never comes to the heart
   so as to affect its secret springs like a passage out of Scripture! A
   promise from God will cast more light into your soul than all the
   beauties of sea and land! I do not for a moment depreciate the wondrous
   Glory of God in all His works, but, still, I do say God is seen better
   in His Word than in all His works besides--and He has magnified His
   Word above all His name! They say that we ought to alter Scripture
   because scientists have found out something or other. Yes, I know all
   about that kind of talk! Scientists found out many things years ago and
   within 10 years somebody else rose up and found out that they were all
   wrong! The history of so-called philosophy is the history of fools! And
   the philosophers of this day are no more right than those of 50 years
   ago. The men are coming to the front who will confute the positive
   assertions of the present and, when they have made their own
   assertions, and made their bow, another set of wise men will be coming
   after them to confound them! They are all as the grass that withers,
   but, "the Word of the Lord endures forever." It has been tried in the
   furnace of earth, purified seven times and here it remains-- still the
   pure refined metal--and in this will we glory and not be ashamed!

   V. Lastly, David was going to PROVE ALL BY HIS OWN EXPERIENCE. A bit of
   experience is the best thing with which to close up my discourse. "In
   the day when I cried, You answered me, and strengthened me with
   strength in my soul."

   Ah, Brothers and Sisters, men say that facts are stubborn things, and
   so they are. And when a man once gets a fact with regard to the
   religion of Jesus Christ, he becomes a stubborn man. The man who is in
   the habit of praying to God and who is in the habit of having answers
   to his prayers--the man who lives a life of prayer and consequently who
   is enriched by innumerable mercies, says to those who deny the efficacy
   of prayer--"You may say what you like, but you cannot trouble us about
   this matter, because I am daily testing and daily proving in my own
   experience what prayer can accomplish." "Well," they say, "you did not
   get out of the trouble. You prayed, but you did not escape from it."
   That is quite true, I did not. But God strengthened me with strength in
   my soul and it is a grand thing when the mind becomes calm, when the
   soul grows strong, when courage increases, when confidence comes, when
   deep peace and quiet restfulness flow into the soul! All that is a
   blessed answer to prayer and as long as God gives us that, we cannot
   desert His standard, or deny His faithfulness and His Truth! Let those
   who will, go and leave the snows of Lebanon, and the pure flowing river
   of God for the broken cisterns that can hold no water, or for the muddy
   waters of Egypt--but we cannot, we dare not, we will not! God helping
   us, we will stand fast in our belief in the power of prayer! We have
   tried it, we have proved it and we are not to be shaken from our
   confidence in its efficacy!

   The Lord give to everyone of you who do not, at present know it, to
   prove it yourselves, to try it to your heart's joy and
   satisfaction--and you, also, shall stand fast in your confidence in Him
   even to the end! The Lord bless you, for Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM138.

   Verse 1. I will praise You with my whole heart before the gods wiil I
   sing praise unto You. ' 'Gods or no gods, whatever they may be, 'I will
   praise You with my whole heart.' I will not be ashamed to declare my
   confidence in Jehovah, whoever may listen to me."

   2. I will worship toward Your holy Temple, and praise Your name for
   Your loving kindness and for Your Truth: for You have magnified Your
   Word above all Your name. Now was his time to speak. The gods of the
   heathen had their worshippers. Then should Jehovah be deserted by His
   loyal subjects? "No," says David, "I will worship You, and I will
   praise You, whoever may oppose me."

   3. In the day when I cried, You answered me, and strengthened me with
   strength in my soul What worshipper of idols could ever say that of his
   god? "Ears have they," but they hear not the cries of their
   worshippers. "Hands have they," but they cannot deliver those who cry
   to them. "Feet have they," but they cannot come to the help of their
   votaries. But David declares that God had heard him in the day of his
   trouble and strengthened him with strength in his soul.

   4. All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord, when they hear
   the Words of Your mouth. He felt that he had had such good things to
   say concerning God, such blessed Words of God to make known, that even
   the kings of the earth, when they began to listen to him, would become
   attentive and would even become converts--and begin to praise Jehovah
   with him.

   5. Yes, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord: for great is the Glory
   of the Lord Think of that--kings singing in the ways of the Lord!
   Crowned princes becoming choristers in God's service. Someone has said
   that there are few in Heaven who wore crowns on earth. And I am afraid
   it is true that of all who are crowned on earth, few ever get to that
   land where all are kings and priests unto God. To have a crown on earth
   and a crown above is a rare thing! But David says that these kings
   "shall sing in the ways of Jehovah: for great is the Glory of Jehovah,"
   and they shall be overpowered by that Glory--melted, subdued, wooed,
   won, converted by its power!

   6. 7. Though the Lord is high, yet has He respect unto the lowly: but
   the proud He knows afar off Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You
   will revive me. He was a king, yet he expected trouble. And do you
   complain when it comes to your cottage, after it had been to David's
   palace? "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me."

   7. You shall stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
   and Your right hand shall save me. He expected, first, to be revived,
   and afterwards to be protected. He believed that God would stretch out
   His hand, as men do when they make a supreme effort, and put forth all
   their force--"You shall stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my
   enemies." David also expected ultimate preservation--"'Your right hand
   shall save me.' You will do it dexterously, readily, gladly, will You
   do it. 'Your right hand shall save me.'"

   8. The LORD will perfect that which concerns me. "All that has to do
   with me--my business, my family, my work, my temporal and my eternal
   interests--'that which concerns me,' and that which troubles me, moves
   my heart with the deepest concern, Jehovah will perfect."

   8. Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever: forsake not the works of Your
   own hands. And He will not do it! He will carry on unto completion the
   work which He has begun, blessed be His holy name!
     __________________________________________________________________

Death and Its Sentence Abolished

   (No. 2605)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 15, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 14, 1883.

   "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
   has He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
   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." Colossians 2:13,14.

   IT tends to excite gratitude in our hearts if we remember what the Lord
   has done for us. It is not wrong for us to think of all that we still
   need from God, but it would be exceedingly ungrateful if we were to
   forget what we have already received. By far the greater part of
   salvation is already ours and though, in some respects, we have not yet
   attained, neither are already perfect, yet in other respects we are
   complete in Christ Jesus. If we are truly believers in Christ, we are
   already saved--we are not merely in a salvable state, but we have
   really obtained salvation. In Christ we are delivered from the curse of
   the Law of God and we have an eternal inheritance already secured to
   us. I must not dwell on that blessed theme. I only mention it, in
   passing, to remind you that it encourages our gratitude if we remember
   what the Lord has done for us.

   It also stimulates us to hope for more blessings in the future. It puts
   a keener edge upon our prayers and helps us to plead with greater
   confidence, for we feel that, inasmuch as God has already given us so
   much and done so much for us, He will perfect that which concerns us,
   and will not forget the work of His own hands. The remembrance of what
   the Lord has done for us is also quite sure to inflame our love. We
   cannot be cold-hearted if we continue to remember God's goodness to us.
   We must be glad in the Lord and, with that gladness, there must come
   fervent love to Him who has worked all these things on our behalf and
   brought us into the blessed estate of those who are saved in the Lord
   with an everlasting salvation!

   This morning, [Sermon #1744, Volume 39--Where the "If Lies"] I talked
   to those who were seeking the Savior. They had their turn, then, so now
   I am going to speak to those who have found the Lord. Ah, dear Friends,
   how precious He is to you! I want you to see what He has done for
   you--what God the everlasting Father has done for you through Jesus
   Christ His Son--that you may come and sit at His feet in adoring love
   and feel your hearts burn within you as you meditate upon the riches of
   His amazing Grace. Our text speaks of two things which God has done for
   us through Christ Jesus. First, there is the removal of the death
   within us: "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of
   your flesh, has He quickened together with Christ, having forgiven you
   all trespasses." The second thing is the removal of the handwriting
   which was against us. This we have in the 14th verse. "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."

   Before I come to the subject of my discourse, I want every child of God
   whom I am addressing to feel, "The preacher's talk is to be about me
   and about what Christ has done for me," for, remember, dear Friends,
   that the work of Christ is as distinctly on behalf of each Believer as
   if he were the only object of Divine Love in the whole universe! And
   while it is true that Christ's work concerns all His people--and it is
   a very great comfort that it is so--yet it is also true that it
   concerns each one of His people and it is all the property of each one.
   I want you, just now, to eat your own morsel, to claim your own portion
   and to take home to your own heart what God has given to you by a
   Covenant of salt, and so given it to you that it can never be taken
   from you!

   I. First, then, the Lord has done this for all of us who believe in
   Him--HE HAS REMOVED OUR INWARD SPIRITUAL DEATH.

   Turn to the text to see what this death was. "You being dead in your
   sins." We were all, then--the regenerate as well as the rest of
   mankind--"dead in trespasses and sins." What kind of death was this?
   Certainly it was not physical death. We lived, moved and had our being.
   We exercised our wills and did as we pleased in our enmity and
   opposition to God. The Lord does not treat men as if they were sticks
   and stones, nor does He ever regard them as such. They are alive, and
   when they sin, they sin most sadly of their own accord.

   Neither was our death a mental death, for the ungodly can think as well
   as others, and they have all the powers of reason unless, indeed, they
   have dulled and destroyed them by certain forms of sin which produce
   that result. Alas, there are some of the most acute minds in the world
   that are not reconciled to God. The men are alive enough as to their
   minds, yet they are truly said to be dead! I could almost wish, for
   some people, that it wasa mental death rather than the kind of death
   they have, since now the quickness of their intellect only helps them
   to increase their guilt and to multiply the reasons for their
   condemnation.

   And yet again, as it is not a physical death, nor a mental death, so
   neither is it a moraldeath. Man is not so dead that he sins without
   guilt, or lives without responsibility. No man who remains out of
   Christ is without guilt on that account. He who continues an unbeliever
   may not say that he cannot help it--it is his fault and his sin that he
   does not believe. Indeed, our Lord told His disciples that the
   Comforter would convince the world of sin for this very
   reason--"Because," He said, "they believe not on Me." To Nicodemus, our
   Lord also said, "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the
   world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believes
   on Him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already,
   because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of
   God." O dear Hearers, if I could believe that you were mere machines,
   or that you had drifted along the stream of time like some stray timber
   on a Canadian river. If I believed that you could not in any way help
   yourselves, but were the mere creatures of your circumstances, then I
   might be comfortable concerning you, for you would be exempt from
   criminality. But it is not so--you are men and women living before the
   living God and you are responsible to Him for your actions and your
   words--and even for the thoughts and imaginations of your heart! For
   every rejection of His Gospel you will have to give account at the Last
   Great Day. And if you remain out of Christ, that account will seal your
   doom forever.

   The kind of death here spoken of is spiritual'death--death as to higher
   things than can be grasped by the hands, or seen with the eyes, or
   comprehended by the natural mind. Only the spiritual man knows what
   spiritual things are, for they have to be spiritually discerned. You
   would not think of teaching a horse the wonders of astronomy because
   there is no mind in the horse that could learn that science! Neither
   can we, of ourselves, teach spiritual things to our fellow men,
   because, until they are born again, born from above, they do not
   possess the faculty with which they can grasp spiritual things. Our
   Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is
   flesh"--and therefore can only lay hold of the things that are fleshly.
   "And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit"--and until a man is
   born of the Spirit, he is without the faculty of understanding and
   enjoying spiritual things.

   As far as spiritual things are concerned, man's understanding is dead.
   He can comprehend the highest and most wonderful of sciences, but he
   cannot--or, what is tantamount to it, he will not--understand the
   things of God. He turns on his heels and says, "I cannot make out what
   you mean." No, we know that you cannot, and we are not surprised at
   your lack of apprehension, for it is just what the Bible leads us to
   expect. We even find those who consider themselves to be learned
   divines rejecting the Gospel and saying that it is not consistent with
   their philosophy. We never thought that it was--and we never imagined
   that they could receive the Gospel until they are converted and become
   as little children. The great reason why men reject the Gospel is
   because they are not born again. Because they have not received the
   life of God into their souls. If they had, they would understand it so
   as to delight in it. But the understanding, spiritually, is under a
   cloud of night which the Word of God calls "death."

   So also is the human will dead to spiritual things. When a person is
   literally dead, he cannot will to come to life. Neither does any man
   ever will to come to Christ till the Spirit of God gives him that will,
   for his natural will is exerted in quite another direction, as our Lord
   said to the Jews, "You will not come to Me that you might have life."
   The will is a slave, it is held in chains, it is set on mischief and
   resolved not to subject itself to the will of the Most High. Not
   morally, nor mentally, but spiritually, the will of man is dead!

   So, too, is it true of the affections that they are dead to spiritual
   things. Men, in their unregenerate state, will not love that which is
   good. Alas, they will not love Christ. He is altogether lovely, yet
   unrenewed men see nothing in Him that they should love. Holiness,
   purity, the will of God--all these things are worthy of being loved,
   yet men do not love them. No, they love the very opposite until the
   Grace of God comes and quickens them.

   Now, Brothers and Sisters, is not all this a true description of what
   we were before the Spirit of God begin to deal with us in His
   regenerating power? Were we not dead to all spiritual things? Some of
   you used to come to the House of God, but you were here just as so many
   corpses might have been. You used to visit where there were Christian
   people, but you could not understand what they said about their
   experience. You had no enjoyment in their joys, neither did you sorrow
   in their sorrows. There was a deep gulf between you and them--and the
   secret was that you were natural men and they were spiritualmen! You
   loved not the things which they loved, even as they took no delight in
   the things which charmed you, for you were in a condition of spiritual
   death.

   Consider, next, dear Friends, what that spiritual death involved. The
   text puts it thus--"You being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision
   of your flesh."

   First, we were dead in sin. No, I quoted the text wrongly, for we were
   dead in our sins--the word is in the plural. They were our own sins,
   not the sins of our fate or destiny, or of our circumstances and
   surroundings, but our own sins. We willingly committed them. As the
   result of our death to everything that was holy, good and spiritual, we
   sinned and we took pleasure in sin. We repeated our old sins and we
   devised and invented new sins! They were, with an emphasis, our sins,
   our own actual, real, personal sins!

   These sins were very varied according to our condition and temperament.
   Some went after one sin, others after another. Some were quiet and
   gentle sinners, so that many persons thought that they were holy.
   Others were noisy outrageous sinners who were a nuisance to the parish
   in which they lived. Some were sinners under some sort of fear, but
   they would have sinned more if they had dared to do so. Others had cast
   off all fear, both of God and man, and plunged headlong into rioting,
   wantonness and all manner of unmentionable crimes. All these sins were
   accompaniments of spiritual death--they were just what winding-sheets
   are to dead men. There, then, is the picture of what we were and of
   what the unregenerate are--"dead in trespasses and sins"--lying there
   wrapped in the cerements of sin. We were surrounded, covered with sin,
   getting ready in that condition to soon be carried out to the eternal
   burial, to the place "where their worm dies not, and where the fire is
   not quenched." That is how I was by nature! That is how you were,
   Brothers and Sisters, who are now alive unto God. You may, perhaps,
   have seen an Egyptian mummy, bound from head to foot with the wrappings
   appertaining to death--so it was with you. Your sins were about your
   head, your heart, your hands, your feet! Sins surrounded you
   everywhere--and there you lay, as the text says--"dead in your sins."

   Now let us see how we were delivered. And as we lay our hands on our
   hearts and think of what God has done for us, let us prepare to bless
   and magnify His name. "You, being dead in your sins and the
   uncircumcision of your flesh, has He quickened"--He has made you to
   live--"you has He quickened together with Him." God, by His Grace, has
   made you to live in Christ. Do you not feel the difference between what
   you were and what you now are? Can you imagine what a change there
   would be if a dead man who had been lying in his grave clothes could
   suddenly sit upright, or rise out of the shell in which the undertaker
   had placed him? What a contrast between the state of death and the
   state of life! That is a very faint figure of the difference between
   what we now are and what we used to be. Do you not realize it, Brothers
   and Sisters? The things you once despised, you now value. And the
   things you then passed by with a sneer, you would now live for and die
   for! You used to hear about these things and it often seemed dull work
   to listen to a sermon. But now there is music in it from the first word
   to the last. That Bible of yours used to be like an old will to you,
   and old wills are very dry reading, but now you have found the record
   of a great legacy left to yourself and, oh, it is blessed work to read
   the will now--you could sit and study it all day long!

   Praying, also, used to be hard work. You managed to mutter, in a dead
   way, a few dead words, but prayer is now quite another thing with
   you--your whole spirit is alive when you draw near to God in
   supplication. In fact, you are a changed man altogether! I suppose that
   if you were to meet your old self, he would hardly know you, for you
   are so greatly altered. I daresay he would say to you, "Come, old
   fellow, let us go to the theater, or turn into this beer-shop, or let
   us go home and find some way of amusing ourselves." You would reply,
   "No, Sir. I cut your acquaintance a long time ago and I do not mean to
   have anything to do with you, so you may go about your business as soon
   as you like. I am not what I was, for I have been crucified with
   Christ--and I am dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God." There
   was one of the old saints who used to keep company with a woman in his
   ungodly days, and when he was converted, she met him in the street, and
   said to him, "Austin, you know me." "Well," he said, "yes, I do. But I
   am not Austin any longer. At least I am not the person that I used to
   be." Oh, it is a blessed thing when we can feel that we are not what we
   once were! True, we are not yet what we want to be and we are not what
   we shall be, but we are not what we used to be--and we shall never
   again be what we used to be! The Grace of God will prevent that, now
   that we have been quickened.

   But how are we quickened? Paul says that God has quickened us together
   with Christ. And by this he means, first, that we have been quickened
   mystically by Christ's Resurrection. That morning when Christ Jesus
   rose from the dead, all His people rose in Him! The sun was not yet up,
   but the Prince of Life and Glory had lingered long enough in the
   sepul-cher, so, awaking into life through Divine power, He began to
   unwrap Himself from the cerements of the tomb. He laid the napkin by
   itself for your use and mine, that we may wipe our eyes when our dear
   friends are taken away. But He took the grave clothes and put them
   together, that He might leave the house ready furnished against the
   time when we should be carried there--our last bed being thus supplied
   by Him with all the furniture we shall need when our time comes to
   sleep in it. Then He waited a while till the sheriffs officer came down
   to set the hostage free, for the angel descended from Heaven, the stone
   was rolled away and Jesus breathed the sweet morning air again. He that
   had been dead arose and left the tomb, no more to die! And, in that
   hour, everyone who is in Him was virtually made to rise. The
   resurrection of all whom He represented was guaranteed by His
   Resurrection, as He said to His disciples, "Because I live, you shall
   live also." That is the result of the mystical union between Christ and
   His people.

   But, as a matter of fact, and practically, you and I began to live,
   spiritually, when we became united to Christ by faith. Do you remember
   that glad hour when you first believed in Him, trusted Him, put your
   soul into His hands? Ah, then it was that you began to really live! Oh,
   what a difference that saving faith makes in us! In our Savior's
   parable about the two builders, there is one expression that seems to
   me very significant. Luke's account of it runs thus-- "Whoever comes to
   Me, and hears My sayings, and does them, I will show you to whom he is
   like: he is like a man which built an house, and dug deep, and laid the
   foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream bent
   vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded
   upon a rock. But he that hears, and does not, is like a man that
   without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the
   stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of
   that house was great."

   Did you notice, as I quoted the words, that in the second instance
   Christ left out all about coming to Him? Yet that coming to Him is the
   essential thing. If you come to Him and hear His Words, and do them,
   you will have a rock for the foundation of your eternal building, and
   it will stand any storm that may beat upon it. But if you do not come
   to Christ, even though you hear His Words, that hearing can be of no
   permanent profit to you. Indeed, it will really increase your
   condemnation! It is the coming to Him, the getting into union with Him
   which settles and decides the all-important point in connection with
   our new life. So, then, it was when we became one with Christ by an act
   of living faith that we were quickened, blessed be His holy name
   forever and ever! If we do, indeed, possess this new life, let us show
   it! Let us prove, by our conduct and conversation, that we are no
   longer numbered among the dead, that we have risen with Christ and
   cannot go back to the tomb! We will have nothing to do with
   whitewashing the outside of our old sepulcher. We have left the outside
   and the inside, too, and now we live unto God and have done forever
   with the old state of death. I have set forth all too feebly the great
   work of God in removing the death that was within us, but if you feel
   that my words are true concerning you, your heart will beat high with
   devout thanksgiving to the quickening Spirit who has worked this great
   miracle in you!

   II. Now I come, secondly, to notice the great deed of Christ in THE
   REMOVAL OF THE HANDWRITING THAT WAS AGAINST US.

   Consider, dear Friends, what this handwriting was. When a man has some
   charge or insinuation against him merely whispered about and floating
   in the air, he hardly knows what it is. And, perhaps, if he is a
   sensible man, he does not care much what it is, but he lets it fly
   about till it flies away. But when he has an accusation made against
   him in black and white--when there is a handwriting against him, a
   charge written down and laid before the court, an indictment upon which
   he is to be tried--that is a most serious matter. Handwriting,
   especially in legal matters, is generally more accurate than mere
   speech, and there is, against every ungodly man, something written with
   the finger of God which he cannot deny, for it is absolutely true.
   Handwriting also abides. The old Latin proverb says, "Litera scripta
   manet," that which is written remains. Be very careful as to what you
   put into black and white because it may be brought against you many
   years after you have written it--when you may think very differently
   concerning it. There is, against every unconverted man, a handwriting
   which will remain and which will be brought up against him at the great
   Day of Judgment. It is not a mere baseless rumor floating about, but
   something tangible which will last and which cannot be removed except
   by the almighty power of God.

   What is meant, in our text, by "he handwriting of ordinances that was
   against us"? I cannot give all the meaning in a word, but, does it not
   mean, first, that the moral law, which we have broken, has written out
   a curse against us? Each of the Ten Commandments has, as it were,
   united with the rest to draw up an indictment against us. The First
   Commandment says, "He has broken me." The Second cries, "He has broken
   me." The Third, "He has broken me," and the whole 10 together have laid
   the same charge against each one of us! That is the handwriting of the
   Law of God condemning every man of woman born while he remains in a
   state of nature. The Jews, you remember, came under another law--the
   Ceremonial Law. Did that Ceremonial Law draw up an indictment against
   them? Was it not intended to rid them of sin? I answer, No! There was a
   lamb slain every morning and that sacrifice must have reminded at least
   some of them that a perpetual atonement was provided, but, as with an
   undertone of thunder, it also reminded them all that such an atonement
   was still needed, that, after a thousand years of the offering of
   lambs, sacrifices were still required! There was ordained a Day of
   Atonement with specially solemn ceremonies, but what did that day say
   to the Jews? That an atonement was provided? No, but that an atonement
   was still needed, for, as soon as ever that year was up, the atonement
   had not been made and they must have another Day of Atonement!

   The Apostle Paul expressly says, "But in those sacrifices there is a
   remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that
   the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." There was a
   perpetual remembrance of sin in every one of the offerings under the
   Ceremonial Law. I need not stay to speak of them in detail, but they
   were intended-- the most of them, at any rate--to continually remind
   men that sin was not washed away. Thus all the ceremonies drew up a
   handwriting and said to the Jews, and to us, too, "You need an
   atonement by blood. You are guilty and there is no hope of your ever
   coming to God except by a sacrifice which these rams and bullocks
   represent, but the place of which they cannot possibly fill."

   Then there is another "handwriting of ordinances that was against us."
   I think there is written across the very face of Nature the great Truth
   of God that man has sinned. Sin has so marred the world which God made
   perfect that none can go through it without feeling inconvenience and
   often sorrow and pain. There are some men who pass through the world as
   though it were a burning fiery furnace threatening their destruction.
   Why howls the blast upon the sea and dashes the galleon upon the rocks?
   Why have we earthquake, tornado, cyclone, and the like? Why, because
   man is a sinner! And there is a handwriting in the very ordinances of
   Nature written, as it were, mystically upon the wall, as it was at
   Belshaz-zar's feast--and this is what it says, "You are weighed in the
   balances, and are found lacking." There is also another handwriting to
   the same effect--for God's works always sing the same tune--that is,
   the handwriting of conscience within the heart. Conscience writes, "You
   have sinned. You have done the things which you ought not to have done,
   and you have left undone the things which you ought to have done." And
   if conscience is permitted to write in its own bold and, it sets down
   this terrible message, "You are lost, ruined and undone! The wrath of
   God has gone out against you." This is "the handwriting of ordinances"
   which is in every part of God's creation, though, alas, many are unable
   or unwilling to read it!

   Now let us ask, concerning this "handwriting of ordinances," what is to
   become of it? It will certainly be impossible for us to answer it, for
   "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." There may be some
   men here who know of little pieces of handwriting that have cost them a
   great deal of trouble. A so-called friend came to see you--it would
   have been a good thing for you if it had been your worst enemy, for you
   might have been more on your guard against him. Your friend wanted just
   a little help for a time--he could not meet a certain liability just
   then, so he asked you merely to put your name on the back of a piece of
   paper. You would never see that document again--he would be quite able
   to meet it in three months--there was really no risk in the matter. The
   plausible man said, "You have only to put your name there. You will
   never be called upon in the least degree. I have plenty of money and
   have only to call it in when I need any, so it will be all right." You
   were persuaded by him and, like a fool, put your name at the back of
   his bill. You knew that you had not the money guaranteed by that paper,
   yet you promised to pay it! You did not believe that text in the Bible
   which tells you that, "He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for
   it; and he that hates suretyship is sure."

   I do not know when that bill will come due. Perhaps it will be next
   week, but I know that you are feeling uncommonly uncomfortable about it
   as you sit there in your pew--and well you may! You say that you will
   never do such a thing again--it is not likely that you will have the
   opportunity to do so, but you will find that it is sufficient to have
   that one piece of handwriting against you--your own handwriting, too!
   It will be brought home to you sooner or later, you will see it again!
   Do not comfort yourself with the foolish idea that you will get off
   Scot free, for you will not. Such a case as that rarely or never
   occurs. You have given the bond and the man who holds it will, like
   Shylock, demand his pound of flesh! And the worst of it is that the
   bond is one of your own making and you voluntarily incurred the debt. I
   wish I could tell you how to get clear of it, but I am glad that I can
   tell you how to get free from a worse bond even than that--one into
   which you have entered through your sin--the bond of your own
   indebtedness to the infinite Justice of God for all your rebellions
   against His Law, all your breaches of His Divine Covenant! You have
   sinned against Him and it is all down in black and white in the
   handwriting that is against you.

   Now listen, dear Friends. The Lord Jesus Christ has done this for all
   of us who are believers in Him. First, He has taken that handwriting
   and He has blotted it out, as our text says, "blotting out the
   handwriting of ordinances that was against us." The Greek original has
   the meaning of smearing over or expunging the handwriting so as to make
   it illegible as a document to be produced against us. With His own
   atoning blood, the Lord Jesus Christ has discharged all our debt! As
   believers in Him, there is nothing whatever due from us to the justice
   of Almighty God, for Christ has paid it all. We cannot, therefore, be
   punished for our sin, for that would be unjust, since God will not and
   cannot punish, first the Substitute, and then the sinners for whom that
   Substitute bled and died. God's justice cannot demand the payment
   twice--

   "First my bleeding Surety's hand, And then again at mine."

   Christ became the Surety of all who believe in Him and He was made to
   smart for it. But, by the carrying out of His suretyship, He discharged
   all your liabilities at the bar of God if you are a Believer and,
   therefore, He smeared over, expunged, erased, obliterated the
   handwriting of ordinances that was against you--and it can never again
   be laid to your charge. This was the Truth that inspired that brave
   challenge of the Apostle Paul, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of
   God's elect?"

   Christ has done something more than this for us. Look at the text
   again--"blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,
   which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way." First it is
   blotted out. Then it is taken away, lest the blotting out should not
   prevent it from being read--for you can sometimes trace through an
   erasure what was written there, and you say, "Oh, yes, I see what the
   entry was--'So-and-so, so many pounds in debt.'" Yes, but Christ says,
   "You need not worry yourselves about that handwriting, for I will take
   it away." So He removes the document, itself, out of sight! It lay in
   the court against you, but Christ first obliterated it and then took
   the accusation itself--the indictment, the charge upon which you were
   to be tried--and put it out of the way!

   Perhaps someone says, "But, possibly, after all, He may bring the
   accusation up again. He may only have hidden it for a while and laid it
   by that He may bring it out against me some other day. And when it is
   produced, some expert will examine it with his glass and through all
   the blotting he will make out the original charge and say, 'This man
   was guilty of such-and-such crimes.'" "No," says Christ, "He shall not
   do that, for I will let you see where I put the handwriting. I will
   take it quite out of the way, but I will fasten it up where you can see
   it"--"nailing it to His Cross." Ah, that is glorious! Just as Christ
   was fastened to the tree by those dreadful Roman nails, so has He
   nailed up all the sins of His people! And all that could be laid to
   their charge! I have heard that they used to drive a nail through the
   Bank of England notes when they were cashed--a hole was made right
   through the center and they could never be used again. And our blessed
   Lord has driven the nails right through the accusation that was against
   His people--and there you can see the handwriting hanging up upon His
   Cross!

   First He blotted it out. Then He took it out of the way and, finally,
   He nailed it up to His Cross and there it still is, its accusing and
   condemning power forever gone! Now, child of God, sit down and say to
   yourself, "As to all the sins I have ever committed, whatever they may
   have been, inasmuch as I believe in Jesus, the record is crossed out
   and, consequently, the very parchment upon which it was written (to use
   that figure) has been taken out of the way. And of that I may be quite
   sure that an end has been made of it, once and for all--my Lord has
   nailed it, as a crucified thing which He has put to death with Himself
   upon the tree of Sacrifice, and now it has no power to alarm or annoy
   me."

   What better way can there be of abolishing a debt than by paying it?
   And Christ has paid your debts and mine. What better way can there be
   of putting an end to sin than by bearing the punishment which was due
   to sin? The punishment which was due to sin was for us to lie forever
   under the wrath of God, but, owing to the majesty of Christ's Divine
   Person, the suffering which He endured upon the Cross was accepted as
   an equivalent for all that suffering which we deserved to endure
   forever! All the wrath due to Christ's people was condensed into that
   one cup of which He began to drink in Gethsemane. As He put His lips to
   it, and tasted it, so terrible was it that it covered Him with a bloody
   sweat! But He never ceased to drink until He turned the chalice upside
   down and not one black drop was found lingering there. At that one
   tremendous draught of love, the Lord had drunk damnation dry for all
   His people! And "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
   are in Christ Jesus." How could there be any when Christ endured it
   all?

   O Beloved Friends, go in thought to Calvary, and with joyful hearts
   trust in the Crucified! The great transaction is done, and done
   forever! He has blotted out the handwriting that was against you and
   put it away, "nailing it to His Cross." All this is true of everyone
   who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, trust yourself with Him,
   now, and my text shall be true of you at this moment and true forever!
   "You, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has
   He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
   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." God bless you all, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

   HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK--307, 430, 406.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: COLOSSIANS 2:6-23; 3:1-3.

   Colossians 2:6. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
   so walk you in Him. That is, keep on as you began. Christ was enough
   for you when, as poor, guilty sinners, you came and trusted Him, so
   keep on trusting Him in the same way as you did at the first. Do not
   try to live by feeling, after having lived by faith. Do not begin to
   live upon outward forms and ceremonies after having found salvation by
   Grace through faith. "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the
   Lord, so walk you in Him."

   7. Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as you
   have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Christians are
   to make progress in the heavenward road, but they are not to have any
   other foundation for their faith than they had at the beginning of
   their Christian career. We are still to stand fast as we stood at the
   first. We are to be rooted, grounded, "established in the faith,"
   keeping to the old Truth of God that saved our souls, and laying hold
   upon the same Savior with greater tenacity every hour of our lives. We
   are not to be like chaff driven before the wind--forever moving--but to
   be like the cedars of Lebanon, firmly rooted and withstanding the
   heaviest storms.

   8. Beware lest any man spoil you. Or, "rob you."

   8. Through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men,
   after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ Cleave to
   Christ, Beloved! Go no further than He leads you and turn not away from
   Him either to the right hand or to the left. In Him are contained all
   the riches of Grace and all the treasures of knowledge. If you would
   become truly wise, seek to know more of the wisdom of God in Christ
   Jesus.

   9, 10. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And
   you are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and
   power You have everything in Christ that you ought to need. You are
   fully furnished, completely supplied and equipped for all future
   service. You need not go to Christ for the supply of some of your needs
   and then go elsewhere for the supply of other needs, but, "you are
   complete in Him."

   11. 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 Anything good that there was in Judaism, you
   have secured to you in Christ.

   Whatever there was of blessing and privilege in the Covenant mark in
   the flesh of those whom God made to be His people in the olden time,
   you have handed on to you by the death of Christ.

   12-15. 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. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
   flesh, has He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all
   trespasses; 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 The Lord Jesus Christ has
   done everything for His people--fought their battle, won their victory
   and, on their behalf, celebrated the triumph in the streets of Heaven,
   "leading captivity captive." What more, then, do we need? Surely Christ
   is enough for us!

   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 days. Do not put
   yourself under the bondage of any rules and regulations that may be
   made by men. If you choose to do anything, or to abstain from something
   else because you judge it to be right and beneficial, do so. Christ is
   your only Ruler and Leader--and if He does not command anything, let it
   not matter to you who does command it.

   17. Which are a shadow of things to come. All this regard for meats,
   drinks, holy days and new moons is but a shadow--what is the great
   substance that is all-important?

   17, 18. But the body is of Christ Let no man beguile you of your reward
   in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels. Do not be beguiled
   by those who tell you that you ought to pay reverence to angels, saints
   and I know not what besides. One day is called St. Matthew's and
   another is St. Michael's. And one, I suppose, is St. Judas's day--there
   are all sorts of supposed saints, some of whom are never mentioned in
   the Bible and about whom nobody ought to care at all! "Let no man
   beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of
   angels."

   18-20. Intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed
   up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head, from which all the
   body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit
   together, increases with the increase of God. Therefore if you are dead
   with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in
   the world, are you subject to ordinances?Such ordinances as these--

   21, 22. (Touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with
   the using) after the commandments and doctrines of men? I have actually
   seen this text quoted as though it stood as a matter of
   teaching--"Touch not; taste not; handle not"--whereas the Apostle here
   means, "Why are you subject to such ordinances of men when Christ has
   set you free from them all? If, with a view to the good of your fellow
   men, you choose not to touch, or taste, or handle, you will act very
   wisely. But, as far as your own conscience is concerned, do not submit
   to any merely human regulations as to your manner of life."

   23. Which things have, indeed, a show of wisdom in wiil worship, and
   humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honor to the
   satisfying of the flesh.

   Colossians 3:1 If you then are risen with Christ Leave all these
   outward rituals, formalities and ordinances of men.

   1-3. Seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right
   hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the
   earth. For you are dead, andyour life is hid with Christ in God.
     __________________________________________________________________

Choice Teaching for the Chosen

   (No. 2606)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 22, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 21, 1883.

   "It is written in the Prophets, 'And they shall be all taught of God.'
   Every man, therefore, that has heard and has learned of the Father,
   comes unto Me." John 6:45.

   I SUPPOSE that you never noticed any great literary excellence in
   Bradshaw's Railway Guide. "No," you say, "one writing would be very
   much out of place in such a book as that--it is meant to be a plain
   direction to travelers. When we consult it, we do not wish to be
   entertained, we want to be guided as to the best and quickest route to
   our desired destination." Well, that is the sort of sermon I am going
   to try to preach--one which, I trust, shall be a guide to Heaven to
   some who hear it, or who may afterwards read it--I long, above all
   things, that through my words many may find rest and peace in Jesus
   Christ our Lord.

   Notice, dear Friends, what our Savior was aiming at in this discourse.
   The Jews had been murmuring at Him. Certain followers of the scribes
   and Pharisees, who always opposed Him, had been whispering among
   themselves and finding fault with Him. Our Lord did not condescend to
   come down to their level and parley with them. They pretended that
   their difficulty was that He was well known among them, that He was the
   son of Joseph, the carpenter, and that they knew His mother and His
   brothers and sisters. Our Lord does not appear directly to answer them,
   but He takes quite a different tack. He says, "Murmur not among
   yourselves about this matter. Do not imagine for a moment that I am
   disappointed because you do not believe in Me, and do not suppose that
   your unbelief will at all frustrate My Father's purpose or surprise
   Him. You may reject Me if you are determined to do so, but your folly
   and sin will make no difference to anybody except yourselves. On your
   own head shall be the guilt of your own blood. I knew that you would
   not believe in Me. I quite expected that you would not receive Me, for,
   'No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him:
   and I will raise him up at the last day.'" And, Beloved, in a similar
   manner, when we are pleading with you that you should believe in
   Christ, we must weep over you as Jesus wept over Jerusalem! And we may
   say, as Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, "We were gentle among you,
   even as a nurse cherishes her children," but when you come to this
   terrible decision--that you reject Christ and will not have Him reign
   over you, then we fall back upon the eternal purposes of God--and we
   tell you that you have not received either the electing love of God or
   the effectual working of the Holy Spirit. And you are left to perish in
   your sins!

   To the ungodly and the unspiritual this may sound like rather harsh
   language, but should not men be treated with some measure of harshness
   if they spurn the Christ who is set before them and, in their unbelief,
   wickedly reject Him? True love is all the more loving because it is
   outspoken and sometimes seems even severe. There is a spurious sort of
   love current, nowadays, which consists in saying, "Ah, yes, you are all
   right and I am all right! You say, 'No,' and I say, 'Yes,' but, no
   doubt, we are both equally correct. You are black and I am white--or I
   am black and you are white--but, in these days, black iswhite, and
   white is no color at all! Let us make things smooth and pleasant all
   round. You praise me and I will praise you! It does not really matter
   what you believe, or what you think--we shall all get right at last."
   That kind of talk, or the preaching which comes practically to the same
   point, is infernal cruelty to immortal souls! I dare not use a milder
   term to describe it. It may be cried up as charity, but there is no
   charity in it! It is a shameful selfishness which, for the sake of ease
   and popular favor, cries, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace, and
   seduces men to their own destruction--playing merry tunes to them when,
   all the while, they are dancing down to death and to Hell!

   Our Lord Jesus Christ was not a preacher of that order. When men
   refused Him, He flashed the red light of the Truth of God in their
   faces and made them know that if they rejected Him, they rejected their
   only hope of mercy--and if they turned against His Grace, it was
   because they did not know its power and were not under its influence.
   He taught these people, who murmured at Him, that they never would
   believe in Him unless the Father taught them. He plainly declared that
   the Father would teach all His own and that if those who were listening
   to Him did not come to Him, it would prove that the Father had not
   taught them, that they were not God's chosen and, therefore, they would
   perish in their carnal and guilty ignorance of Him!

   Now coming to the text, I shall ask you to notice, first, thepromise of
   the Father's teaching of His ownpeople. "It is written in the Prophets,
   'And they shall be all taught of God.'" Then, secondly, we shall
   examine the teaching itself. "They shall be all taught of God." And,
   thirdly, we shall consider the grand result of the teaching. "Every
   man, therefore, that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes
   unto Me."

   I. To begin, then, there is in the text, THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER'S
   TEACHING OF HIS OWN PEOPLE.

   Christ says, concerning this promise, "It is written in the Prophets."
   I greatly admire that sentence because if there was ever anyone in this
   world who might have spoken on His own authority, without quoting
   Scripture, it was our Lord Jesus Christ! "In Him dwells all the
   fullness of the Godhead bodily" and, therefore, all His sayings are the
   utterances of Omnipotence and He often, when upon the earth, made use
   of that great double Amen, "Verily, verily, I say unto you." Yet this
   Divine Teacher, who spoke as never man spoke, continually quoted from
   the Old Testament and supported His own teachings by quotations from
   "the Law and the Prophets," and the Psalmists and other Inspired
   writers. In this case, addressing Himself to the Jews, He says, "It is
   written in the Prophets." The tendency, nowadays, even among preachers,
   is to depreciate and dishonor Holy Scripture. I am often saddened as I
   find how many are quibbling at one part or another of the Sacred Word.
   To my heart, there is nothing more authoritative or more conclusive
   than this little sentence, "It is written." If God's message to men is
   written, that is enough for me--and my great concern shall be to find
   out what that message is! Every man must have Infallibility somewhere.
   Some find it in the Pope, but I frankly confess that I have never seen
   the slightest sign of it there! Some find it in what they call, "the
   church." I am sure I do not know in which church to look for it, for
   all of them seem to me to be very, very fallible. I find Infallibility
   only in the Inspired Word of God! Here is a harbor where I can drop
   down my anchor feeling certain that it will hold. Here is a place where
   I can find sure footing and, by the Grace of God, from this confidence
   I shall never be moved. "It is written in the Prophets," is quite
   enough for me! I trust, Beloved, that it is also sufficient for all of
   you.

   That we may learn the lesson that our Lord intended to teach, let us
   look at the Words which He quoted. He said, "It is written in the
   Prophets." And, truly, the passage or its equivalent may be found in
   more places than I shall be able to refer to, now, but will you kindly
   look, first, at the 54th Chapter of Isaiah, at the 13th verse? Ah, I
   see the eyes of you Bible-lovers flash and I think I hear you say,
   "Fifty-fourth of Isaiah? Why, of course, that follows just after the
   53rd of Isaiah!" Precisely so and, that 53rd of Isaiah, as you well
   know, is all about Christ's Substitutionary Sacrifice. There we have
   the full-length portrait of the bleeding Substitute--"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." Many of you know by heart that blessed chapter, so full of the
   doctrine of God laying upon Christ the sin of His people, and of Christ
   bearing all their iniquities that they might be forever free. Well,
   immediately after that great central Truth of the Christian faith,
   comes this 54th Chapter--"Sing, O barren, you that did not bear; break
   forth into singing, and cry aloud, you that did not travail with
   child," There is no better place for any to sing than at the foot of
   the Cross, gazing by faith upon the crucified Savior! O Earth, with all
   your barrenness! O heart of steel, with all your hardness! "Break forth
   into singing," for there is heavenly joy and there is the promise of
   Heaven, itself, in the death of Him who lived, and loved, and died for
   us!

   Further on in the 54th Chapter comes this 13th verse, from which our
   Savior quoted, "And all your children shall be taught of the Lord; and
   great shall be the peace of your children." This is apromise to the
   Lord's ownpeople. The teaching of Scripture is that Christ died for His
   chosen. "Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it." God's
   promise, "All your children shall be taught of the Lord," is made to
   His own Church and to all who are the children of that Church, namely,
   all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life! All God's
   chosen, all whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, all
   whom Christ has redeemed by His blood, shall be, each according to his
   measure, in due time taught of the Lord.

   That is the meaning of the promise as we get it in Isaiah's prophecy.
   First, it follows the Doctrine of Substitution and, next, it is made to
   God's chosen people.

   Now will you turn over a few pages in your Bible, and read what is
   written in the 31st Chapter of the prophecy of Jeremiah, beginning at
   the 31st verse? "Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make
   a new Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
   not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day
   that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt;
   which My Covenant they broke, although I was an husband unto them, says
   the Lord: but this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the
   house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord, I will put My Law in
   their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their
   God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every
   man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for
   they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of
   them, says the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will
   remember their sin no more."

   So, you see, this promise is joined with other blessings of the New
   Covenant Notice that when our Savior quoted the prophecy, He commenced
   with the word, "and." Now, as a general rule, when you make a
   quotation, you do not begin with, "and." That is a copulative
   conjunction which joins one sentence to another, yet our Lord begins
   with an, "and," as if to hint that there was a great deal going before
   it of which He could not speak fully, just then. There is "an
   Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure," which God has
   made with Christ Jesus, His Son, on our behalf. And all who were
   represented by Christ became, by virtue of their union with Him,
   partakers in all the blessings of that Covenant. Our side of it has
   been fulfilled by Christ, our Representative. He has done the Father's
   will perfectly and He has been able to say, concerning the part
   entrusted to Him, "It is finished." The side of the Covenant which has
   yet to be fulfilled is God the Father's portion--and that runs thus, "I
   will, and they shall"--"I will be their God, and they shall be My
   people. I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart
   from Me. I will instruct them so that they shall not need to have
   anyone to say to them, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me,
   from the least of them unto the greatest of them." What a wonderful
   promise this is! It is perfectly unconditional and freely made by the
   Father concerning all His chosen!

   As it stands in these two prophecies, as our Savior quotes it, it is a
   promise made to each individual of the chosen seed. "They shall be all
   taught of God." Then there shall not be one true child of God who shall
   not be taken into the Lord's school and be taught and trained by the
   Divine Father! Perhaps someone asks the very important question, "Do I
   belong to that blessed number?" Let me reply by making another enquiry,
   Have you been truly taught of the Lord? If so, you belong to the chosen
   company. If you have not been taught of the Lord, I cannot tell whether
   you are His or not. None of us can climb to Heaven and unroll the
   eternal parchments, to tell whose name is written there. And until
   there is some open and overt evidence of your being the Lord's, I
   cannot declare that you are. But by this test shall you know--if you
   have been taught of the Lord, you are one of His children, you are in
   the Covenant of Grace, and you shall have your full share of every good
   thing which the Lord has there laid up for His own.

   That, then, is the promise of the Father's teaching.

   II. Now, in the second place, let us briefly examine THE TEACHING
   ITSELF. "They shall be all taught of God."

   I want you to notice, first, that this teaching is practically the same
   thing as God's drawing. Let me read the previous verse. "No man can
   come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him. And they
   shall be all taught of God." The way in which God draws men to Christ
   is not merely by persuasion, but by instruction. The Father does not
   draw us to Christ by a force which is contrary to our nature and
   will--we are not sticks and stones--and He does not treat us as if we
   were. We are rational, responsible, free agents and He deals with us as
   such, never snapping even the finest strings in the instrument of human
   nature, so far as it is human nature. So, when He draws men, He draws
   them by teachingthem!

   I will show you how the Lord does this. He first teaches the poor soul
   what a great sinner he is--and that makes him look for a great Savior.
   He teaches that poor sinner the impossibility of his being saved by his
   own works--and that makes him look for the works of somebody else. He
   teaches that poor sinner that He has authorized Christ to stand in his
   place and, by His life and death, to meet all the Law's demands on that
   sinner's behalf--and the poor sinner says, "Why, that is exactly what I
   need!" So, while the Lord teaches him, He is really drawing him and, in
   like manner, there ought to be a great deal of teaching in all our
   attempts to draw men to Christ--I mean, in our efforts to be the
   instruments of drawing them. If I stand here and simply shout,
   "Believe, Believe, Believe," I cannot expect that any good and lasting
   result will come of my shouting. I must tell people what they are to
   believe! I may try to persuade men to do this and to do that--and there
   may be great force in the persuasion, but, unless they understand the
   reason for my pleading, little will come of it. God's way of working
   should be our way of working and He draws men by teaching them! Observe
   that very carefully.

   Now notice what kind of teaching is here promised. It is Divine
   teaching. "All your children shall be taught of the Lord." "They shall
   be all taught of God." There is no teaching but that which will ever
   save the soul. My dear Hearer, you may listen to the best preacher who
   ever lived, but unless God shall apply the Truth of God to your heart,
   you will not receive it. You may study the best books on theology as
   long as you like, but unless God the Holy Spirit shall give you the
   keys of this treasure house, you will never get at its precious things
   and secure them as your own. Means are to be used--as I will show you
   in a minute or two--but you must not trustin the means--you must not
   even rely on the best study that you can give to the Word of God,
   itself, as the sure means of your knowing the Truth. Over and above all
   that, you need the instruction and illumination of the Holy Spirit! "He
   shall teach you all things." But unless you have His teaching, you
   cannot and you will not know the Truth of God. I would like, if I
   could, to unlearn everything concerning the things of God that I have
   taught myself. I desire with all my heart that all I know may be what I
   have learned of the Spirit of God and, dear Soul, if ever you are to
   come to Christ, you will have to unlearn a great deal that you have
   been teaching yourself, for nothing will be of any real worth to you in
   the matter of your eternal salvation but what the Holy Spirit, Himself,
   shall write on your heart and teach you. So, the promise of the text
   concerns Divine teaching.

   Yet notice, also, that it is teaching through the usual means. "Every
   man, therefore, that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes
   unto Me." "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
   Though my hearing will not save me, yet, ordinarily, it is the channel
   by which God's Spirit works to the saving of the soul. Though my
   reading of the Scripture will not, of itself, save me, yet it is the
   usual way by which God enlightens the understanding through the Holy
   Spirit. Never neglect the means of Grace, I pray you, but, at the same
   time, never get into the condition that some are in who feel quite
   happy so long as they have been to a place of worship on Sunday, who
   return home and go to bed, just as if they had done all their duty for
   the day and had no need of anything further. They are like men who go
   to market, but do not buy anything. Or like persons who go into a
   field, but do not work in it. They are quite satisfied with having been
   to the market or the field. It must not be so with you, dear Hearers.
   If you want to find Christ--if you want to go to Heaven when you
   die--never be satisfied with mere hearing of the Word, but pray God the
   Holy Spirit that through the hearing you may be taught of the Lord.

   The most blessed thing about this Divine teaching is that it is
   effectual teaching. If you are taught by the ablest divine, you may yet
   learn nothing. But if you are taught of God, you will really know what
   you learn. If He teaches you what your sin really is, you will know
   it--perhaps even to despair. If He teaches you the meaning of His Law,
   you will know it as you lie at the foot of Sinai trembling. And if He
   teaches you the fullness of Christ, you will know that, and you will
   rejoice that He is just such a Christ as you need! Men are sure to
   learn whatever God teaches them by His Holy Spirit. There shall not be
   one who shall pass through His school and yet remain a fool. Though
   they were all fools when they entered it, yet, before they leave it,
   they shall be so instructed as to the way of holiness that they shall
   not err therein. My heart continues praying even while I am preaching,
   "Lord, teach me," and then it adds, "and, Lord, teach these people,
   too. Come and be their Instructor, for what can they know except that
   which You teach them ?"

   III. So I shall conclude with this last point--THE GRAND RESULT OF THIS
   TEACHING. We have read the promise of the teaching. We have thought
   over what kind of teaching it is. Now let us enquire--What is the
   result of it? "Every man, therefore, that has heard and has learned of
   the Father, comes unto Me."

   Some men say that they have been taught of God and then they go on to
   prove that what they know is of their own inventing. Our Lord's test
   concerning His disciples is, "By their fruits you shall know them." And
   this is the fruit-- every man who has heard the Word, and who has been
   taught of the Father, comes to Christ! Therefore, if any man preaches
   that which does not lead you to Christ, do not listen to it, for
   evidently he has not been taught of God. And, if you find in any book,
   teaching which makes you think less of Christ than you did before, burn
   the book! It will do you no good, and it may do you a great deal of
   mischief. All sound teaching leads to Christ, for if, when the Father,
   Himself, is the Teacher, the consummation of our scholarship is that we
   come to Christ. Surely, when we poor creatures are the teachers, we
   must be even more bound to begin and end with Christ Crucified. You
   were asking me, just now, whether you had been taught of the Father.
   You wanted to know whether you were one of His children. Well, here is
   the test-- have you come to Christ? If so, you have been taught of God!

   Coming to Christ is a very simple thing. It is the easiest thing in all
   the world, yet no man ever performed it until God the Father instructed
   him and taught him that sacred art. To wash in Jordan was a very simple
   thing, yet at first proud Naaman would not do it--he turned away in a
   rage! To believe in Jesus is a very simple thing--little children have
   believed in Him, persons who have scarcely been intellectually above an
   idiot have, nevertheless, been able to believe in Jesus! And yet, with
   all its simplicity, men never exercise it until they have been taught
   of the Father. I suppose it is because faith is so easy that they
   despise it. Naaman's servants said to him, "If the Prophet had bid you
   do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather, then,
   when he says to you, Wash, and be clean?" And it is only when the
   Divine Spirit humbles the heart and makes the man feel that he must
   stoop to anything so long as he may but be saved, that, at last, he
   goes down to wash in Jordan according to the saying of the man of God,
   or to believe in Jesus Christ according to the command of the Gospel.

   You are taught of the Lord, my dear Hearer, if you believe in Jesus
   Christ, that is, if you come and trust Him. And, if you do not trust
   Christ, you may be a Doctor of Divinity, but you have never been taught
   of the Lord. He is not to you "very God of very God," your sole and
   only Savior. It you do not trust Christ, you are a stranger to the
   Divine Light of God--that assuredly must be the case. You cannot be
   right in the rest unless you are trusting in Him. But, if you are truly
   believing in Him, then you are taught of the Lord. It is very wonderful
   how God brings His people to this point of trusting Jesus. I heard a
   little story which might have fitted very well into my morning sermon
   [Sermon #1745, Volume 29--

   Abijah--Or Some Good Thing Towards the Lord] but it was told to me
   after I had finished my discourse, so I will repeat it to you now. In a
   London court there was a little girl who had been to Sunday school and
   who had found Christ as her Savior. She heard that there was a poor
   woman lying very ill and all alone, up two flight of stairs, so the
   child went up to the room and pushed the door open. She did not show
   herself, but said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
   saved." A nurse came in the afternoon, to attend to the poor creature,
   and she fetched in a city missionary to see the woman, for she talked
   so strangely, the nurse thought. When the good man came in, the woman
   said, "I am so happy, I am believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and I am
   saved! An angel came to the door and I heard him speak, and he said,
   'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved,' and I did
   believe on Him, and I am saved!"

   It was not an angel at all, it was that little girl! But it did not
   matter in the least who said it, for it was just as true whether an
   angel or a child spoke the words. I long that God should lead you, my
   dear Friend, to feel, "It does not matter how the Gospel comes to me,
   for if it is true, I believe it and I accept the Christ whom it makes
   known to me." Some of you probably think that if an angel were to come
   flying through the Tabernacle and were to alight just against your seat
   and say to you, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
   saved," you would believe at once. But it would not make any difference
   in your believing, would it? It is the same message as I, who am,
   indeed, in the Scriptural sense, one of the angels or the Churches, put
   before you. You do not mind who brings the letter that is full of good
   news! I never trouble to send out to enquire the color of the postman's
   hair if he brings me a letter--I take it and read its contents-- and
   you need not stop to ask whether the message comes to you by an angel,
   or a babe, or a minister, or whoever it is! "Believe on the Lord Jesus
   Christ and you shall be saved"! And, if you do believe on Him, then I
   know that the Father taught you, I am persuaded that you are one of
   God's elect and I can turn and say to you, "Yes, though I have not read
   the secret roll of the redeemed, if you believe in Christ, your name is
   there," for there never was a soul yet that came to Christ except the
   Father drew him. And the Father never drew one by mistake and He never
   will! This is the blessed consummation of all God's teaching--that the
   taught ones come to Christ!

   But notice, before I close, that the Lord says, "Every man, therefore,
   that has heard and has learned of the Father, comes unto Me." He does
   not merely come once, but he keeps on coming. Do not make any mistake
   about faith in Christ, as if it were one single act and then were done
   with. The faith that saves the soul is an all-the-day faith and an
   everyday faith. If you believe in Christ, your faith must be of the
   kind that believes today, tomorrow and forever. If you say, "I believe
   that I believed in Christ 20 years ago and, therefore, I am saved," I
   do not believe anything of the kind! Unless you stillbelieve, you never
   truly believed in Christ Jesus, for the faith that God works in the
   soul is a continual faith! It has its ups and downs and, sometimes,
   like the moon, it is eclipsed, but it comes out of the darkness, again,
   and shines as brightly as ever! And, further, if you did ever really
   believe in Christ, you believe in Him now. "To whom coming," says the
   Apostle--not, "having once come to Christ, we now run from Him." But,
   "to whom coming," always coming, always trusting, always believing!

   And why is this? Because we are always being taught of the Father! I
   trusted Christ when I knew comparatively little of God's Word. And I
   confess that I still know but very little of its boundless height,
   depth, length and breadth, but I believe that as I grow to know more
   and more, I shall trust more. If that is not the result of your
   knowledge, it is not the knowledge that the Holy Spirit gives you! It
   is the knowledge that puffs up. If it were the Holy Spirit's teaching,
   you would rely more and more upon Christ and rest more entirely on Him.
   I pray for you, my dearly-beloved fellow Church members, that you and I
   may be taught of God till we grow less and less, and come to be nothing
   at all in our own esteem--till we vanish away into Christ and Christ
   becomes more than our necessary food, our life, our joy, our
   All-in-All!

   Everyone who is taught of the Father, in proportion as he is so taught,
   comes nearer and nearer to Christ until he comes perfectly to Christ in
   the Glory yet to be revealed. O blessed Master, we are still coming to
   You. We are, everyday, coming nearer to You. Your Spirit is making us
   more like You and making us long more for You! Your Father is creating
   in us more and more of a hungering and thirsting after You. Though we
   are very lame and do sadly limp, yet still we are coming to You. We can
   only feebly fly, yet still we are flying towards You and we expect that
   when You shall appear, and sit upon the Great White Throne, You will
   recognize that we are coming to You and You, Yourself will say to us,
   "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
   from the foundation of the world." We are coming, Lord, to You! Come to
   us! Yes, come quickly, even so, come, Lord Jesus! Amen and Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN6:25-51.

   These people had crossed the Sea of Galilee and gone to Capernaum,
   "seeking for Jesus." It seemed a very hopeful sign that they should be
   willing to make such efforts to find Christ, but see how the Lord
   Jesus, Himself, regarded it.

   Verses 25, 26. And when they had found Him on the other side of the
   sea, they said unto Him, Rabbi, when did You come here? Jesus answered
   them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, You seek Me, not because
   you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves, and were
   filled. What very plain talk this is! Our Lord does not try to gain
   popularity by the concealment of truth, but He tells these people to
   their faces, "You are only following Me because of what you get out of
   Me." "Oh," some worldly-wise man would have said, "that is a very
   imprudent speech--it will drive the people away." Just so and Christ
   seemed to say, on more than one occasion, "If people will be driven
   away by the Truth of God, let them be driven away." John the Baptist
   had declared that Christ had His fan in His hand and that He would
   thoroughly purge His floor. And if that floor is to be purged, there
   must be a driving away of the chaff! Our Lord's example should teach us
   to speak in His name nothing less and nothing more than the Truth of
   God in all love and kindness. After thus pointing out the true motive
   which made the people seek Him, our Savior uttered a very singular
   paradox.

   27. Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which
   endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
   you: for Him has God the Father sealed. Is it not strange that Christ
   says, "Labor not for the very thing which you cannot get without
   laboring for it"? And then He says, "Labor for that which you cannot
   get by laboring for it"? He virtually tells us that it is so, by adding
   the words, "which the Son of Man shall give unto you," plainly proving
   that it does not come as the result of human labor, but as the free
   gift of the Son of God. He that is wise will discover the meaning of
   the paradox, but he that is blind will stumble over the letter of it
   and not discern the spiritual interpretation.

   28. Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the
   works of God? ' 'We want to do the best works, the noblest works, the
   most acceptable works in all the world! Tell us what we should do in
   order to perform a God-like work."

   29. Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God. "The
   highest and best work which you can accomplish is"--

   29. That you believe on Him whom He has sent. Faith is the noblest of
   the Graces! It is the very essence of true worship! It contains within
   itself the germs of all excellence--and the man who believes in Christ
   has done that which is more pleasing to God than anything else in all
   the world!

   30, 31. They said, therefore, unto Him, What sign do You show, then,
   that we may see, and believe You? What do You do? Our fathers ate manna
   in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from Heaven to eat.
   Do you see the drift of their talk? They are still looking for the
   loaves and fishes and, therefore, whatever Christ may say, they turn
   the discourse round that way. If they can get from Christ something to
   eat, they will believe in Him--what groveling, earth-bound creatures
   they were!

   32, 33. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
   Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven; but My Father gives you the
   free Bread from Heaven. For the Bread of God is He which comes down
   from Heaven, and gives life unto the world. "The best and noblest
   bread--the bread which has Deity in it--the bread which can feed your
   souls, and sustain you with everlasting life, 'the Bread of God' is He
   which comes down from Heaven and gives life unto the world.'"

   34. Then said they unto Him, Lord, give us this bread. They said this
   not knowing what they said, and not understanding what He meant. Bread
   for the body was all that they wanted. Their cry was, "Give us bread,
   and we are content." They had no spiritual appetite for Christ, "the
   Bread of God."

   35, 36. And Jesus said unto them, I am the Bread of Life. He that comes
   to Me shall never hunger; and He that believes on Me shall never
   thirst. But I said to you, that you have seen Me, and believe not.
   These were the very people whom He had fed on the other side of the
   sea--yet they were craving for more. That kind of bread cannot stay
   their hunger for long. They had not received Him as their Savior,
   otherwise they would have been well content with Him and would have
   asked for nothing more.

   37-39. All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and Him that
   comes to Me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from Heaven,
   not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is
   the Father's will which has sent Me, that of all which He has given Me,
   I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
   Christ will not lose one whom the Father gave Him, no nor any part of
   one. He will not lose the body of any of His people any more than He
   will lose the soul of any.

   40. And this is the will ofHim that Me, that everyone which sees the
   Son, and believes on Him, mayhave everlasting life: and I will raise
   Him up at the last day. Christ will never have finished His work upon
   Believers till He has raised their bodies from the grave and glorified
   them like His own resurrection body. He will never cease from the work
   which He has commenced on any of His people till He has laid the top
   stone in the glorious perfections of Heaven! And this Truth of God is
   the joy of our hearts even now.

   41. The Jews then murmured at Him, because He said, I am the Bread
   which came down from Heaven. They muttered, murmured, whispered,
   growled among themselves at this saying of Christ.

   42. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
   and mother we know? How is it, then, that He says, I came down from
   Heaven?This is just the way with men--they judge by outward appearances
   and if the Gospel comes to them as a thing beloved of poor men, if it
   is preached without much eloquence, if the service is without the
   attractions of sweet music or of gaudy attire--straightway they say
   there can be nothing in it! O blind bats, when God veils Himself in
   human flesh, can it be otherwise?

   43. Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among
   yourselves. "I never thought you would believe in Me. I never imagined
   that I should win your confidence."

   44. No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw
   him. "You are not drawn unto Me, therefore it is clear that you are not
   the subjects of Divine Grace. You think you are judging Me, but in so
   doing you are really judging and condemning yourselves." Whenever men
   sit in judgment on the Gospel, they soon let us know what kind of
   spirit possesses them. It is not Christ who is on trial--it is they,
   themselves--and when they rail at Him, they do but prove that the Grace
   of the Father has never drawn them to Him. "No man can come to Me,
   except the Father which has sent Me draw him."

   44-46. And I will raise Him up at the last day. It is written in the
   Prophets, "And they shall be all taught of God." Every man, therefore,
   that has heard and has learned of the Father, comes unto Me. Not that
   any man has seen the Father, save he which is of God, He has seen the
   Father. "Do not suppose that even when you are taught of God, you will
   know the Father as I know Him, or see Him as I have seen Him." That
   Divine glance at Deity is not for us.

   47. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believes on Me has
   everlasting life. This was how our Lord spoke straight to the faces of
   those who had derided Him and said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of
   Joseph, whose father and mother we know?" With the strongest Words
   which He was in the habit of using, He says, "Verily, verily, I say
   unto you, he that believes on Me has everlasting life."

   48-51. Iam that Bread oflife. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness,
   andare dead. This is the bread which comes down from Heaven, that a man
   may eat, thereof, and not die. Iam the living bread which came down
   from Heaven: if any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever: and
   the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life
   of the world.
     __________________________________________________________________

Foretastes of the Heavenly Life

   (No. 2607)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 29, 1899, (C. H.
   SPURGEON MEMORIAL SABBATH).

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, EARLY IN THE YEAR 1857.

   "And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it
   down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land
   which the Lord our God does give us." Deuteronomy 1:25.

   You remember the occasion concerning which these words were written.
   The children of Israel sent 12 men as spies into the land of Canaan and
   they brought back with them the fruit of the land, among which was a
   bunch of grapes from Eshcol too heavy to be borne by one man, and
   which, therefore, two of them carried on a staff between them. I shall
   not say much, at this time, concerning the Israelites, but I want to
   show you that as they learned something of what Canaan was like by the
   fruit of the land brought to them by the spies, so you and I, even
   while we are on earth, if we are the Lord's chosen people, may learn
   something of what Heaven is--the state to which we are to attain
   hereafter--by certain blessings which are brought to us even while we
   are here.

   The Israelites were sure that Canaan was a fertile land when they saw
   the fruit of it which was brought by their brothers and when they ate
   some. Perhaps there was but little for so many and yet those who did
   eat were made at once to understand that it must have been a goodly
   soil that produced such fruit. In like manner, Beloved, we who love the
   Lord Jesus Christ have had clusters of the grapes of a bettor
   Eshcol--we have had some of the fruits of Heaven even while we have
   been on earth and by them we are able to judge of the richness of the
   soil of Paradise which brings forth such rare and choice delights.

   I shall, therefore, present to you a series of views of Heaven in order
   to give you some idea how it is that the Christian on earth enjoys a
   foretaste of the blessings that are yet to be revealed. Possibly there
   are scarcely two Christians who have exactly the same ideas concerning
   Heaven, though they all expect the same Heaven, yet the most prominent
   feature in it is different to each mind according to its constitution

   I. Now, I will confess to you what is, to me, the most prominent
   feature of Heaven, judging at the present moment. At another time, I
   may love Heaven better for another thing, but, just lately, I have
   learned to love Heaven as A PLACE OF SECURITY.

   We have been greatly saddened as we have seen some professors
   dishonoring their profession--yes, and worse, still, some of the Lord's
   own beloved committing grievous faults and slips which have brought
   disgrace upon their character and injury to their souls. And we have
   learned to look up to Heaven as a place where we shall never, never
   sin--where our feet shall be fixed firmly upon the Rock--where there is
   neither tripping nor slipping--where faults shall be unknown--where we
   shall have no need to keep watch against an indefatigable enemy because
   there is no foe that shall annoy us--where we shall not be on our guard
   day or night watching against the incursion of foes, for, "there the
   wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest." We have
   looked upon Heaven as the land of complete security, where the garment
   shall be always white, where the face shall be always anointed with
   fresh oil, where there is no fear of our turning away from our Lord,
   for there we shall stand fast forever! And I ask you, if that is a true
   view of Heaven-- and I am sure it is one feature of it--do not the
   saints, even on earth, in this sense, enjoy some fruits of Paradise? Do
   we not, even in these huts and villages below, sometimes taste the joys
   of blissful security? The Doctrine of God's Word is that all who are in
   union with the Lamb are safe, that all Believers must hold on their
   way, that those who have committed their souls to the keeping of Christ
   shall find Him a faithful and Immutable Keeper. Believing this
   Doctrine, we enjoy security even on earth--not that high and glorious
   security which renders us free from every slip and trip, but,
   nevertheless, a security well-nigh as great because it secures us
   against ultimate ruin and renders us certain that we shall attain to
   eternal happiness!

   And, Beloved, have you ever sat down and reflected on the Doctrine of
   the Perseverance of the Saints? I am sure you have and God has brought
   home to you a sense of your security in the Person of Christ. He has
   told you that your name is engraved on His hand. He has whispered in
   your ear the promise, "Fear you not, for I am with you." You have been
   led to look upon the great Surety of the Covenant as faithful and true
   and, therefore, bound and engaged to present you, the weakest of the
   family, with all the chosen race, before the Throne of God! And in such
   a sweet contemplation I am sure you have been drinking some of the
   juice of His spiced pomegranates, you have had some of the choice
   fruits of Paradise, you have had some of the enjoyments which the
   perfect saints above have in a sense of your complete and eternal
   security in Christ Jesus. Oh, how I love that Doctrine of the
   Perseverance of the Saints! I shall at once renounce the pulpit when I
   cannot preach it, for any other form of teaching seems to me to be a
   black desert and a howling wilderness, as unworthy of God as it would
   be beneath even my acceptance, frail worm as I am! I could never either
   believe or preach a Gospel which saves me today and rejects me
   tomorrow--a Gospel which puts me in Christ's family one hour, and makes
   me a child of the devil the next--a Gospel which first justifies and
   then condemns me--a Gospel which pardons me and afterwards casts me
   down to Hell. Such a Gospel is abhorrent to reason, itself! Much more
   is it contrary to the mind of the God whom we delight to serve. Every
   true Believer in Jesus can sing, with Toplady--

   "My name from the palms of His hand

   Eternity will not erase!

   Impressed on His heart it remains

   In marks of indelible Grace.

   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." Yes, Beloved, we enjoy a sense of
   perfect security even as we dwell in this land of wars and fighting. As
   the spies brought to their brethren in the wilderness bunches of the
   grapes of Canaan, so, in the security we enjoy, we have a foretaste and
   earnest of the bliss of Paradise!

   II. In the next place, most probably the greater part of you love to
   think of Heaven under another aspect, as A PLACE OF PERFECT REST.

   Son of toil, you love the sanctuary because it is there you sit to hear
   God's Word and rest your wearied limbs. When you have wiped the hot
   sweat from your burning brow, you have often thought of Heaven as the
   place where your labors shall be over and you have sung with sweet
   emphasis--

   "There shall I bathe my weary soul

   In seas of heavenly rest,

   And not a wave of trouble will roll

   Across my peaceful breast."

   Rest, rest, rest--this is what you need--and to me, also, this idea of
   Heaven is exceedingly beautiful. Rest I know I never shall have beneath
   this sky while Christ's servants continue to be so unreasonable as they
   are. I have served them to the utmost of my power, yet I am well-nigh
   hounded to my grave by Christian ministers perpetually wanting me to do
   impossibilities that they know no mortal strength can accomplish!
   Willing am I to labor till I drop, but I cannot do more than I am
   doing. Yet I am perpetually assailed on this side and the other, till,
   go where I may, there seems no rest for me till I slumber in my
   grave--and I look forward to Heaven, with great happiness, because
   there I shall rest from labors constant and arduous, though much loved.

   And you, too, dear Christian Friends who have been toiling long to gain
   an object you have eagerly sought--you will be glad when you get to
   Heaven. You have said that if you could attain your desire, you would
   gladly lie down and rest. You have longed to lay up a certain amount of
   riches. You have said that if you could once gain a pension, you would
   then make yourself at ease. Or you have been laboring long to secure a
   certain position and you have said that if you could only reach it, you
   would rest. Yes, but you have not reached it yet--and you love to think
   of Heaven because it is the goal to the racer, the target of the arrow
   of existence, the couch of repose for time's tired toilers! Yes, an
   eternal rest for the poor weary struggler upon earth. You love it
   because it is a place of rest--and do we ever enjoy a foretaste of
   Heaven upon earth in that sense? Oh, yes, Beloved! Blessed be God, "we
   who have believed do enter into rest." Our peace is like a river and
   our righteousness like the waves of the sea. God does give rest to His
   people even here--"there remains, therefore, a rest to the people of
   God." We have stormy trials and bitter troubles in the world, but we
   have learned to say, "Return unto your rest, O my Soul, for the Lord
   has dealt bountifully with you." Did you ever, in times of great
   distress, climb up to your closet and there, on your knees, pour out
   your heart before God? Did you ever feel, after you had so done, that
   you had, as it were, bathed yourself in rest, so that--

   "Let cares like a wild deluge come,

   And storms of sorrow fall,"

   you cared not one whit for them? Though wars and tumults were raging
   around you, you were kept in perfect peace, for you had found a great
   protecting shield in Christ. You were able to remain restful and calm,
   for you had looked upon the face of God's Anointed!

   Ah, Christian, that rest, so placid and serene, without a billow of
   disturbance, which in your deepest troubles you have been enabled to
   enjoy upon the bosom of Christ, is to you like a bunch from the vintage
   of Heaven, one grape of the heavenly cluster of which you shall soon
   partake in the land of the hereafter! Thus, again, you see, we can have
   a foretaste of Heaven and realize what it is even while we are here
   upon earth.

   III. That idea of Heaven as a place of rest will just suit some
   indolent professors, so I will turn the subject around and show you
   that the very opposite idea is also true, and may be more useful to
   certain people. I believe that one of the worst sins of which a man can
   be guilty is to be idle. I could almost forgive a drunk, rather than a
   lazy man. He who is idle has as good reason to be penitent before God
   as David had when he was an adulterer. Indeed, David's adultery
   probably resulted from his idleness. It is an abominable thing to let
   the grass grow up to your knees and do nothing towards making it into
   hay. God never sent a man into the world to be idle--but there are some
   who make a profession of being Christians who do nothing to serve the
   Lord from one year's end to the other.

   A true idea of Heaven is that it is A PLACE OF UNINTERRUPTED SERVICE.
   It is a land where they serve God day and night in His Temple and never
   know weariness, and never require slumber. Do you know, dear Friends,
   the deli-ciousness of work? Although I must complain when people expect
   impossibilities of me, it is the highest enjoyment of my life to be
   busily engaged for Christ. Tell me the day when I do not preach--I will
   tell you the day in which I am not happy! And the day in which it is my
   privilege to preach the Gospel and labor for God is generally the day
   of my peaceful and quiet enjoyment after all. Service is delight!
   Praising God is pleasure. Laboring for Him is the highest bliss a
   mortal can know. Oh, how sweet it must be to sing His praises and never
   feel that the throat is dry! Oh, how blessed to flap the wings forever
   and never feel them tire! Oh, what sweet enjoyment to fly upon His
   errands forevermore, to circle round the Throne of God in Heaven while
   eternity shall last and never once lay the head on the pillow, never
   once feel the throbbing of fatigue, never once the pangs that admonish
   us that we need to cease, but to keep on forever like eternity's own
   self--a broad river rolling on with perpetual floods of labor! Oh, that
   must be enjoyment! That must be Heaven, to serve God day and night in
   His Temple! Many of you have served God on earth and have had
   foretastes of that bliss.

   I wish some of you knew more of the sweets of labor, for although labor
   breeds sweat, it breeds sweets, too--more especially labor for Christ.
   There is a satisfaction before the work. There is a satisfaction in the
   work. There is a satisfaction after the work and there is a
   satisfaction in looking for the fruits of the work! And a great
   satisfaction when we get the fruits! Labor for Christ is, indeed, the
   dressing room of Heaven. If it is not Heaven, itself, it is one of the
   most blissful foretastes of it. Thank God, Christian, if you can do
   anything for your Master! Thank Him if it is your privilege to do the
   least thing for Him! But remember, in so doing, He is giving you a
   taste of the grapes of Eshcol! But you lazy people do not get the
   grapes of Eshcol because you are too lazy to carry the big bunches. You
   would like them to come into your mouths without the trouble of
   gathering them! You do not care to go forth and serve God. You sit
   still and look after yourselves, but what do you do for other people?
   You go to your place of worship--you talk about your Sunday school and
   Sick Visitation Society, yet you never teach in the Sunday school and
   you never visit a sick person--you take a great deal of credit to
   yourself while you do nothing at all! You cannot expect to know much of
   the enjoyments of heavenly Glory until you have experienced a little of
   the delight of working in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

   IV. Another view of Heaven is that it is A PLACE OF COMPLETE VICTORY
   AND GLORIOUS TRIUMPH. This is the battlefield--there is the triumphal
   procession. This is the land of the sword and the spear--there is the
   land of the wreath and the crown. This is the land of the garment
   rolled in blood and of the dust of the fight--there is the land of the
   trumpet's joyful sound, there is the place of the white robe and of the
   shout of conquest! Oh, what a thrill ofjoy shall shoot through the
   hearts of all the blessed when their conquests shall be complete in
   Heaven, when death, itself, the last of foes, shall be slain, when
   Satan shall be dragged captive at the chariot wheels of Christ, when
   Jesus shall have overthrown sin and trampled corruption as the mire of
   the streets, when the great song of universal victory shall rise from
   the hearts of all the redeemed! What a moment of pleasure shall that
   be!

   But, dear Brothers and Sisters, you and I have foretastes of even that
   joy. We know what conflicts, what soul-battles we have even here--did
   you never struggle against unbelief and at last overcome it? Oh, with
   what joy did you lift your eyes to Heaven, the tears flowing down your
   cheeks, and say, "Lord, I bless You that I have been able to vanquish
   that sin." Did you ever meet a strong temptation and wrestle hard with
   it, and know what it was to sing with great joy, "My feet well-nigh
   slipped; but Your mercy held me up"? Have you, like Bunyan's Christian,
   fought with old Apollyon and have you seen him flap his dragon wings
   and fly away? There you had a foretaste of Heaven! There you had just a
   hint of what the ultimate victory will be! In the death of that one
   Philistine, you saw the destruction of the whole army. That Goliath who
   fell through your sling and stone was but one out of the multitude who
   must yield their bodies to the fowls of Heaven. God gives you partial
   triumphs that they may be the earnest of ultimate and complete victory!
   Go on and conquer, and let each conquest, though a harder one and more
   strenuously contested, be to you as a grape of Eshcol, a foretaste of
   the joys of Heaven!

   V. Furthermore, without doubt, one of the best views we can ever give
   of Heaven is that it is A STATE OF COMPLETE ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD
   recognized and felt in the conscience. I suppose that a great part of
   the joy of the blessed saints consists in a knowledge that there is
   nothing in them to which God is hostile--that their peace with God has
   not anything to mar it--that they are so completely in union with the
   principles and thoughts of the Most High that His love is set on them,
   that their love is set on Him, and they are one with Him in every
   respect. Well, Beloved, and have we not enjoyed a sense of acceptance
   here below? Blotted and blurred by many doubts and fears, yet there
   have been moments when we have known ourselves as truly accepted as we
   shall know ourselves to be even when we stand before the Throne of God!
   There have been bright days with some of us, when we could set to our
   seal that God was true and when, afterwards, feeling that "the Lord
   knows them that are His," we could say, "And we know that we are His,
   too." Then have we known the meaning of Dr. Watts when he sang--

   "When I can say, 'My God is mine,' When I can feel Your glories shine,
   I tread the world beneath my feet And all that earth calls good or
   great. While such a scene of sacred joys Our raptured eyes and souls
   employ, Here we could sit and gaze sway A long, an everlasting day."

   We had such a clear view of the perfection of Christ's righteousness
   that we felt that God had accepted us and we could not be otherwise
   than happy! We had such a sense of the efficacy of the blood of Christ
   that we felt sure our sins were all pardoned and could never be
   mentioned against us forever!

   And, Beloved, though I have spoken of other joys, let me say this is
   the cream of all of them--to know ourselves accepted in God's sight.
   Oh, to feel that I, a guilty worm, am now at rest in my Father's bosom!
   That I, a lost prodigal, am now feasting at His table with delight!
   That I, who once heard the voice of His anger, now listen to the notes
   of His love! This is a joy that is worth more than all worlds! What
   more can they know up there than that? And were it not that our sense
   of it is so imperfect, we might bring Heaven down to earth and might at
   least dwell in the suburbs of the celestial city if we could not be
   privileged to go within the gates!

   So you see, again, we can have, in that sense, bunches of the grapes of
   Eshcol. Seeing that Heaven is a state of acceptance, we, too, can know
   and feel that acceptance and rejoice in it.

   VI. And again, Heaven is A STATE OF GREAT AND GLORIOUS MANIFESTATIONS.
   As you look forward to your experience in Heaven, you sing--

   "Then shall I see, and hear, and know All I desired or wished below.
   And every power find sweet employ In that eternal world ofjoy."

   You are now looking at it darkly, through a glass, but there you shall
   see face to face. Christ looks down on the Bible, and the Bible is His
   looking glass. You look into it and see the face of Christ as in a
   mirror, darkly. But soon you shall look upon Him face to face. You
   expect Heaven to be a place of peculiar manifestations. You believe
   that there Jesus will unveil His face to you, that--

   "Millions of years your wondering eyes Shall over your Savior's
   beauties rove."

   You are expecting to see His face and never, never sin. You are longing
   to know the secrets of His heart. You believe that, in that day you
   shall see Him as He is, and shall be like He in the world of spirits.
   Well, Beloved, though Christ does not manifest Himself to us as He does
   to the bright ones there, have we not had blessed manifestations even
   while we have been in this vale of tears ? Speak, Believer! Let your
   heart speak--have you not had visions of Calvary? Has not your Master
   sometimes touched your eyes with eye salve and let you see Him on His
   Cross? Have you not said--

   "Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,

   Which before the Cross I spend,

   Life, and health, and peace possessing,

   From the sinner's dying Friend.

   Here I'll sit forever viewing

   Mercy's streams, in streams of blood--

   Precious drops! My soul bedewing,

   Plead and claim my peace with God"? Have you not wept both for joy and
   for grief when you beheld Him nailed to the tree for your sakes and saw
   Him bleeding out His life for you ? Oh, yes! I know you have had such
   manifestations of Him! And have you not seen Him in His risen glories?
   Have you not beheld Him exalted on His Throne? Have you not, by faith,
   beheld Him as the Judge of the quick and the dead? And as the Prince of
   the kings of the earth? Have you not looked through the dim future and
   seen Him with the crown of all kingdoms on His head, with the diadems
   of all monarchs beneath His feet, and the scepters of all thrones in
   His hand? Have you not anticipated the moment of His most glorious
   triumphs, when--

   "He shall reign from pole to pole,

   With illimitable sway?"

   Yes, you have, and therein you have had foretastes of Heaven. When
   Christ has thus revealed Himself to you, you have looked within the
   veil and, therefore, you have seen what is there. You have had some
   glimpses of Jesus while here-- those glimpses of Jesus are but the
   beginning of what shall never end! Those joyous melodies of praise and
   thanksgiving are but the preludes of the songs of Paradise!

   VII. Lastly, the highest idea of Heaven is that it is A PLACE OF MOST
   HALLOWED AND BLISSFUL COMMUNION. I have not given you even half that I
   might have told you of the various characteristics of Heaven as
   described in God's Word, but communion is the best. Communion! That
   word so little spoken of, so seldom understood. Blessed word,
   communion! Dearly-Beloved, you hear us say, "And the communion of the
   Holy Spirit be with you all," but there are many of you who do not know
   the meaning of that sweet Heaven in a word--communion! It is the flower
   of language! It is the honeycomb of words--communion! You like to talk
   of corruption best, do you not? Well, if you like that ugly word, you
   are very willing to meditate upon it. I do so when I am forced to do
   it, but communion seems to me to be a far sweeter word than that! You
   like to talk a great deal about affliction, do you not? Well, if you
   love that black word--you may have reason to love it--and if you care
   to be happy about it, you may do so. But give me for my constant text
   and for my constant joy, communion, and I will not choose which kind of
   communion it shall be!

   Sweet Master, if You give me communion with You in Your sufferings. If
   I have to bear reproach and shame for Your name's sake, I will thank
   You if I may have fellowship with You in it! And if You will privilege
   me to suffer for Your sake, I will call it an honor, so that I can be a
   partaker of Your sufferings! And if You give me sweet enjoyments, if
   You raise me up and allow me to sit with You in heavenly places in
   Christ, I will bless You! I will bless God for
   ascension-communion--communion with Christ in His glories! Do you not
   say the same? And for communion with Christ in death--have you died
   unto the world, as Christ died unto it? Then have you had communion
   with Him in resurrection? Have you been raised to newness of life, even
   as He was raised from the grave? And have you had communion with Him in
   His ascension, so that you know yourself to be an heir to a throne in
   Glory? If so, you have had the best earnest you can receive of the joys
   of Paradise! To be in Heaven is to lean one's head upon the breast of
   Jesus--have you not done that on earth? Then you know what Heaven is!
   To be in Heaven is to talk to Jesus, to sit at His feet, to let our
   heart beat against His heart. If you have had that bliss on earth, you
   have already tasted some of the grapes of Heaven!

   Cherish, then, these foretastes of whatever kind they may have been in
   your individual case. Differently constituted, you will all look at
   Heaven in a different light. Keep your foretaste just as God gave it to
   you. He has given each of you a separate experience of it which is most
   suitable to your own condition. Treasure it up! Think much of it, but
   think more of your Master, for, remember, it is, "Christ in you, the
   hope of glory," that is your best foretaste of Heaven! And the more you
   realize that blessed Truth of God, the more fully prepared shall you be
   for the bliss of the joyous ones in the land of the happy!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GENESIS49.

   Verses 1-3. And Jacob called unto his sons and said, Gather yourselves
   together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last
   days. Gather yourselves together and hear, you sons of Jacob; and
   hearken unto Israel your father. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my
   might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and
   the excellency of power. All this was to Reuben's advantage, yet he was
   spoiled through one fault.

   4. Unstable as water, you shall not excel So it is clear that the
   greatest strength and dignity and power will not serve a man so as to
   make him excel if he is unstable. There are many such persons still
   remaining in the world. Their doctrine changes like the moon and we
   never know what it is. Their spirit and temper constantly change. Their
   pursuits are sometimes in one direction and sometimes in another. They
   are, "everything by starts, and nothing long," and to each of them it
   may be said, "Unstable as water, you shall not excel."

   4-7. Because you went up to your father's bed, then defledit: he went
   up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty
   are in their habitations. O my soul, come not into their secret; into
   their assembly, my honor, be not united: for in their anger they slew a
   man and in their self-will they dug down a wall Cursed be their anger,
   for it was fierce; and their wrath, for if was cruel: I will divide
   them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel It is a very remarkable
   circumstance, well worthy of notice, that this curse was turned into a
   real blessing, especially in the case of the tribe of Levi. It is true
   that they were divided and scattered, like handfuls of salt, throughout
   the whole of Israel, for they were attendants upon the Lord's priests
   and they had cities appointed to them so that while they dwelled here,
   and there, and everywhere, it was in order that they might reach the
   whole of the people and prove a blessing to them. Are any of you
   laboring under a very serious disadvantage? Does it look to you like a
   curse? Then pray to God to make it into a blessing! I believe that
   often the worst thing that can happen to Christian men is really the
   best thing, for, while Nature would cry out, "The clouds are to be
   dreaded," Grace can reply--

   "The clouds you so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In
   blessings on your head."

   8. Judah, you are he whom your brethren shall praise. His name was
   praise and such was his history to be, for David came of that tribe,
   and great David's greater Son, whom it is our joy to praise!

   8. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's
   children shall bow do wn before you. While that was true of Judah, it
   is still more true of Him who sprang out of Judah, even our Lord and
   King, the Lion of the tribe of Judah!

   9. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, you are gone up: he
   stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse
   him? Our Lord overcame His enemies even in the thicket of this world.
   And all power is given unto Him now that He has "gone up" again into
   His Glory. Let that man beware who would attack this Lion of the tribe
   of Judah--"Who shall rouse Him?" If you persecute His followers, you
   will rouse Him. If you deny His Truth, trample on the Doctrine of
   Atonement and reject His love, you will rouse Him! But beware in that
   day, for terrible is the King of Judah when He is once aroused!
   Therefore, submit yourselves to Him--"Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
   and you perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little."

   10. The scepter shallnot depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between
   his feet, untilShiloh comes and unto Him shall the gathering of the
   people be. When did the dominion depart from Judah till the Lord Jesus
   came as the Sent One? And unto Him, to this very day, the people gather
   and more and more shall gather in the latter days.

   11. 12. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the
   choice wine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the
   blood of grapes: his eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white
   with milk I t was literally so with Judah, but it is gloriously so with
   our Lord to this day. It was His blood which yielded the juice of those
   rare clusters of the choice vine and now, with garments dyed with His
   own blood, He comes from Edom, for He has trodden down His foes, and He
   cries, "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was
   none with Me."

   13. Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an
   haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Sidon. So did Zebulun
   dwell even until the day when our Lord came, for Matthew writes
   concerning Him, "Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into
   prison, He departed into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and
   dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of
   Zebulun and Nephthalim: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
   Isaiah the Prophet, saying, The land of Zebulun, and the land of
   Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the
   Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them
   which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up."

   14, 15. Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: and
   he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed
   his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute. This was a
   poor character for Issachar to possess. It was s tame-spirited tribe
   that loved rest and ease and, therefore, did not fight with the common
   foe. Issachar crouched down between the burdens instead of taking them
   up and bearing them! God grant that none of us may be of that lazy
   tribe! I think that I know some who are--they could do a great deal,
   but they see that rest is good and the land is pleasant--so they idle
   away their days.

   16, 17. Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel Dan
   shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the
   horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. Dan is noted among
   the tribes for its famous leap, capturing that distant part of the
   country for itself. Here good old Jacob, worn out by what he had
   already said, exhausted by the ecstasy into which as a Prophet he had
   been cast, paused awhile and panted.

   18. I have waited for Your salvation, O LORD. But He soon resumed His
   prophecy--

   19. Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last
   Many of God's servants belong to this tribe, for their life is spent in
   conflict. They do not seek it, but it comes to them and, for a time,
   they seem to be overcome, yet let them clutch at the promise given to
   Gad.

   20. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal
   dainties. Well fed and then yielding correspondingly. There are some
   people who like to have their bread to be fat, but they yield to the
   King no dainties. Let it not be so with us, but let us both feed well
   and yield well.

   21. Naphtali is a hind let loose. The type of what a Christian minister
   should be--indeed, what every Christian worker should be--"a hind let
   loose," one who can say with David, "O Lord, truly I am Your servant. I
   am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid. You have loosed my
   bonds."

   21. He gives goodly words. He has liberty in speech, freedom of
   utterance. He is not in bonds, he is as "a hind let loose."

   22. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well Where
   he can suck up abundant nutriment--

   22. Whose branches run over the wall. He does more than he is expected
   to do. Nothing seems to content him, his "branches run over the wall."

   23. 24. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated
   him: but his bow abode in strength. You know how sorely Joseph was
   persecuted by his brothers, yet how the Lord was with him in all his
   troubles. It appears from these words that he was, himself, an archer,
   and that he was not in a hurry to shoot his arrows--his bow remained
   still. It is the strong who can afford to be quiet. As you go across
   the village green, a goose will hiss at you, while the strong ox lies
   down calmly and takes no notice of you--"His bow abode in strength."

   24. And the arms of his hands. Not only his hands, but the arms of his
   hands--

   24-27. Were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob (from
   there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel) even by the God of your
   father, who shall help you; and by the Almighty, who shall bless you
   with blessings of Heaven above, blessings of the deep that lie under,
   blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: the blessings of your father
   have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors into the utmost
   bound of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph,
   and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his
   brethren. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf: in the morning he shall devour
   the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. Little Benjamin is
   the last of the tribes.

   28-33. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that
   their father spoke onto them, and blessed them; everyone according to
   his blessing he blessed them. And he charged them, and said unto them,
   I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave
   that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the
   field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which
   Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of
   a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife; there
   they buried Isaac and Rebecca, his wife; and there I buried Leah. The
   purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the
   children of Heth. And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his
   sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost,
   and was gathered unto his people. It is a very sweet thing to die with
   a blessing on your lips. And it is equally good to live in the same
   spirit. Our Lord Jesus was blessing His disciples when He was taken
   from them--and since we do not know when we shall be taken away from
   our relatives, let us be always blessing them. May the Lord, who has
   blessed us, make us a blessing to others!
     __________________________________________________________________

"There Is No Difference"

   (No. 2608)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 28, 1883.

   "The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto ail and
   upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have
   sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Romans 3:22,23.

   THE Apostle here says that "there is no difference," yet he does not
   mean that all men are alike in all respects. There are very many and
   important variations among men. It would be quite untrue and unjust to
   say that there are no differences of character even among unregenerate
   men, for there certainly are many varieties and gradations of sinners.
   There are some who have, as it were, sold themselves to work iniquity,
   and there are others who have, apparently, kept the Commandments of God
   from their youth up. There are some who delight in all manner of evil
   and there are others who, though they are not converted, hate the very
   mention of all the grosser vices and steer clear of such impurity.
   There are some people, not yet on the Lord's side, who are like that
   rich young man of whom it is said that when Christ looked upon him, He
   loved him, for He saw much in him that was admirable. But, on the other
   hand, there are some who are manifestly sons of perdition, like Judas,
   of whom our Lord said that he was a devil. All men are not demons, or
   demoniacal. All are not equally hardened in heart. All do not go to the
   same excess of evil. So when Paul said, "There is no difference," he
   did not mean that there are no differences of outward character.

   Let us not be carried away with the idea that it does not matter what
   our outward character is--it matters a great deal! It shall be found,
   at the last, that the greatly guilty shall be greatly punished. "That
   servant who knew his lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did
   according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that
   knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with
   few stripes." God is not unjust! Even in taking vengeance upon His
   adversaries, He strictly observes justice at all times. It is for your
   good and for the good of those about you that you should be moral,
   temperate, chaste and honest--and God grant that you may be all that!

   There are, then, differences of character among men, and there are, no
   doubt, differences of disposition which show themselves very early.
   Some children appear from the very first to be tender and docile, while
   others manifest a passionate and rebellious disposition. All of us
   probably know some friends who are not yet converted, but they are
   amiable, loving, considerate, kind--they have almost everything we
   could wish except the one thing necessary--God grant that they may soon
   have that, also! Though as yet they are not brought to Christ's feet,
   they seem to have had a religious tendency from their very childhood
   and they delight to be found in the House of God and, at least
   externally, in the ways of God. even if their hearts are not, at
   present, renewed by Grace. There are, alas, others whose dispositions
   are the very reverse of all this--they seem disposed to everything that
   is bad. We have met with cases in godly families where young men, from
   the first moment in which they could have their liberty, have delighted
   to do that which at last broke their parents' hearts. They have seemed
   to be, from the very first, fickle, vain, fond of pleasure, proud,
   willful and wicked. Beyond all question, there are differences of
   disposition in different persons. And when Paul says, "There is no
   difference," he does not refer either to character or to disposition.

   There are also in men who, as yet, are not saved, differences as to
   their readiness to receive the Word of God. There are some who are like
   the "honest and good ground" which is already plowed and harrowed--all
   that is needed is the handful of good Seed--and as soon as it is sown,
   they will take it in and, in due time, yield a harvest in return.
   Others are like the stony-ground hearers--apparently ready and prepared
   for the good Seed. They seem to receive the Word with joy, but, as the
   hard rock underneath has never been broken up and there has been no
   subsoil plowing, nothing permanent results from their hearing the
   Gospel message. There are others, again, who are like the hard-trodden
   highway-- you may sow upon them as much seed as you like, but the only
   result will be to feed the birds. The fowls of the air will devour
   whatever is scattered upon them. May none of us be hearers of that
   sort!

   So you see, dear Friends, that there are great differences among men in
   certain respects. The Apostle is speaking in this passage about one
   thing--and you must not stretch his meaning beyond that. There is one
   point in which there is no difference and that is that, "all have
   sinned." All have forfeited every claim to personal righteousness! All
   must be made righteous by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ
   to them--and all who would have that righteousness must believe in the
   Lord Jesus Christ, for there is one way of salvation, and only one--and
   whatever other differences there may be, there is no difference about
   this matter! If we are saved at all, we must all be saved in one way.
   My discourse is to run upon these lines. First, let us enlarge upon the
   doctrine that, in the matter of the Gospel and of salvation, "There is
   no difference." Secondly, let us show its practical bearing upon
   ourselves. And then, thirdly, let us rejoice in the doctrine--let our
   hearts sing over it--for there is the raw material of many a holy song
   and Psalm within these few words, "There is no difference."

   I. First, then, LET US ENLARGE UPON THIS DOCTRINE and, in so doing, we
   will make four observations.

   The first is this--there is no difference as to the message of
   salvation which is to be delivered to men. It may be my privilege, at
   one time, to speak to a convocation of highly-intelligent well-educated
   men. If so, I am to preach to them the Gospel of salvation by faith in
   the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, it has
   often been a great joy to me to preach to assemblies which certainly
   were not composed of the learned and great, but were gathered from the
   lowest classes of the people. How glad I have been to preach to them!
   And I had exactly the same message to deliver to them as to the other
   congregation--"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he
   that believes not shall be damned." If the true preacher of Christ were
   called to preach before a pit full of kings--as Napoleon once said to a
   noted singer, "If you will come to me, you shall sing before a pit full
   of kings"--if it were the preacher's business to address such an
   audience as that, he must preach nothing but, "Believe and live!" And
   if he were called to speak before an assembly of murderers about to
   die--the very scum of the earth--he could have no more suitable or
   appropriate message than this, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
   you shall be saved." Go where you may, my dear Brothers, you need not
   puzzle your head about the sort of Gospel you are bound to preach. To
   the jailor at Philippi, to the Areopagites on Mars' Hill, to the
   Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, to Nero at Rome, to barbarian, Scythian, bond,
   or free--to the very chief of sinners, to the greatest or the least of
   mankind, you have to deliver but one message--"God has set forth His
   Son, Jesus Christ, to be the propitiation for sin, that whoever
   believes in Him should not perish, but should have everlasting life."
   This is the essence of the one message we have to deliver to all men!
   "There is no difference."

   And, next, there is no difference as to man's need of this Gospel.
   There are some, as we have already admitted, who have been preserved
   from gross vice, whose lives have been moral and upright, yet they have
   as much need of the Gospel as those who are confined in our jails, or
   those who flaunt their unchastity in our public streets. The Gospel
   comes to deal with sin--and if a man has but one sin, he cannot get rid
   of that one sin apart from the Atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. But
   all men have not merely one sin, but many sins--they may not all be
   equally clear and manifest--some of them may be secret sins, but the
   secrecy of sin does not render it less sinful in the sight of God.
   There are no secrets from Him, He sees everything. And whether sin is
   open or covert, whether it is less or more than that of other men, it
   needs the atoning Sacrifice of Christ to remove it! The putting away of
   the sin of the most moral person who ever lived requires the
   propitiation of the Son of God. There is no bath that can take away a
   single stain of guilt except that--

   "Fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel's veins."

   All men have evil hearts, albeit their hearts may not all be equally
   inclined to the coarser vices in which some indulge, yet there is in
   every sinner the black spot of alienation from God, forgetfulness of
   God, love of sin and dislike to God when He is thoroughly known. And,
   to get this out of the heart requires a Divine operation in every case.
   No man can make his own heart clean. If it were possible for a man to
   change his arm or his foot, yet it would be clearly impossible for him
   to change his heart--that is so vital to himself that there cannot be a
   change there unless He that made all hearts should make that heart
   anew! To change the heart of the most amiable maiden requires the work
   of the Spirit of God as truly as to change the heart of the most
   debauched wretch that lives! It is no more possible for the honest man
   than for the practiced thief to make his heart right in the sight of
   God--it is equally impossible to either of them. Both cases are beyond
   human power and, therefore, the need of the work of the Spirit of God
   is the same. All of us, at this moment, either stand stripped naked
   before God, without a rag to cover us, or else we are wrapped in the
   glorious and resplendent righteousness of Jesus Christ. The need of the
   Gospel is the same to every individual in the world! Those who are
   elevated above their fellow creatures do not stand on high before
   God--the Queen needs the Grace of God to save her just as much as the
   poorest of her subjects. "There is no difference" as to the need of
   salvation.

   Next, this declaration is equally true as to the method of salvation.
   The way in which men are saved is the same in every case. "There is no
   difference." They do not all feel the same terrors, they do not all
   experience, to the same extent, the common joys. Each path is peculiar
   in some respects, yet there is but one road, and that is the narrow way
   that leads to eternal life. The plan of salvation is this--that we
   confess and acknowledge that our own righteousness is but filthy rags,
   that there is nothing in us that can merit anything of God. And, next,
   that we apprehend that the Lord has put His dear Son into our place,
   has laid on Him our sin and struck Him with the strokes that ought to
   have fallen upon us. He, on His part, willingly became our Surety and
   Substitute. We must believe this if we would be saved. That being done,
   we must accept what Christ has endured as being borne for us--and trust
   in it with our whole hearts. We must, in fact, change places with
   Christ--let Him stand, as He did stand, and be reckoned as the sinner,
   that we might stand here and be looked upon by God as if we had been
   like His Son--perfectly righteous and without sin. He clothes Himself
   in our rags and He puts on us His royal robes! Faith appropriates to
   itself the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and so is clothed
   with what is called in our text, "the righteousness of God."

   God's plan of salvation is a grand one and there is no other that can
   be of use to anybody in the whole world. This is the one way of
   life--that you acknowledge yourself to be nothing and take Christ to be
   your All-in-All--that you, with your sin and misery, by a simple act of
   faith, take to yourself Christ to be your righteousness and your
   strength--and, this being done, you are accepted in the Beloved, for
   now is it true of you that the righteousness of God, which is by faith
   in Jesus Christ, is unto you and upon you seeing that you have believed
   in Him. "There is no difference," then, about the method of salvation.

   Once more, there is no difference as to the efficacy of the plan of
   salvation. This man believed in Jesus Christ and was saved. So shall
   that other man be if he believes in Jesus Christ. All who believe in
   Christ are justified from all things. All who trust in Christ have
   eternal life and shall never perish. The blood of Jesus was never yet
   applied to a conscience without giving it peace. A persecutor is washed
   and his crimson stains are gone. A thief believes and he is, that day,
   with Christ in Paradise! Mary Magdalene believes and seven devils are
   cast out of her. A rough Philippian jailor believes and that night he
   is baptized, rejoicing in God with all his house. Never sinner yet did
   try this blessed remedy and find it fail! And none ever shall, for
   "there is no difference."

   II. Now, in the second place, I want to TURN THIS TRUTH TO PRACTICAL
   ACCOUNT by showing its bearing upon us.

   My first observation is what a leveler this doctrine is for pride!There
   is self-righteousness up there as a crown upon your forehead--it will
   have to come down, my Friend. You are covered with the beautiful
   garments of your own good deeds--take them off, Brothers and
   Sisters--take them off! They are all without merit in the sight of God
   until you have trusted His Son. All that you have done and all that you
   think you have done are only as so many cobwebs that must be swept
   away. There stands the gate through which the most fallen may
   enter--and you must go through the same gate. There is no private path
   made for a gentleman like you. There is no royal road to Heaven save
   only that one royal road which is opened for the very chief of sinners.
   Down, Mr. Pride! Here is a man who is born of Christian parents and,
   perhaps, he has listened to the lying logic of the present age which
   says, "Children born of godly parents do not need conversion--there is
   something good in them by nature." I tell you, Sirs, that I begin to
   tremble for the children of pious parents, for I think that they are
   more likely to be deceived than any others! They often fancy that they
   are converted when they are not and they get admitted into churches
   while they are unconverted. They are not like those who can see a great
   change in themselves through being taken right out of gross sin--they
   are very apt to be deceived and have need to be very careful lest they
   should make a fatal and eternal mistake. Instead of boasting of their
   godly ancestry, high privilege as it is, let them remember that
   regeneration is not of blood, nor of birth, nor of the will of man, but
   of God. And to them, as to all others, Christ's words apply, "You must
   be born again."

   There are some who imagine that they can get to Heaven by some special
   staircase because they are people of rank. Oh, believe me, Sir John,
   you will have to be saved in the same way as your groom, or not at all!
   Ah, my lord, everybody bows to you, but you must bow to Christ! You
   must be saved in the same way as the carpenter, the blacksmith and the
   chimney-sweep, or not at all. There are no two ways to Heaven! Jesus
   says, "I am the Way." There is no other way for your lordship, or your
   ladyship, in spite of your rank. There is a wealthy man who thinks that
   everything is to be bought, if he can find the price--but you cannot
   buy Heaven, Sir. The very stones of the street are of pure gold--you
   could not buy one of them, you have not enough money! Your wealth goes
   for nothing in the matter of salvation. You must be saved in the same
   way as the poorest of the poor. The pauper who was born in a workhouse
   and has never left it, has the same way of salvation as you have, for,
   "there is no difference" of any sort, whatever, with regard to birth,
   or rank, or wealth.

   But someone says, "I am a man of great abilities, a man of education,
   culture and learning." I am very glad to hear of it, my dear Sir. But
   do you expect the Lord is going to make a way of salvation by
   competitive examination as when people enter the Civil Service? Is
   there to be a special way of salvation for you Masters of Arts or
   Doctors of Divinity? It is not so! The Lord knew that the great bulk of
   people would be nothing of this sort, so He made a Gospel which is
   adapted to the poor--but is just as suitable for all. Those who are
   illiterate can, nevertheless, understand the way of salvation by faith
   in Christ and so they are saved and, my dear Sir, you will have to be
   saved in the same way, or else you will never get to Heaven. I have
   heard of a king of Sweden who, when he lay dying, had a bishop to pray
   with him. And when the bishop had finished his prayer, the king said,
   "Somehow I have derived no comfort from that prayer. I remember once
   hearing a shepherd pray in a hut when I had lost my way--will you send
   for him?" They did so, and when the shepherd poured out his heart in
   his own simple language, then the king saw the Light of God and died
   rejoicing! "There is no difference"--the king and the shepherd need the
   same Savior--and must go to Heaven by the same royal road. This
   doctrine dethrones pride, but that is not all that it does.

   Further, it is a great uplifter of those who are troubled with fears.
   "Oh," says one, "I am such a great sinner! I feel that I am the
   greatest sinner who ever lived." Ah, my dear Friend, but "there is no
   difference." You will enter Heaven at the same gate through which great
   saints go in if you do but trust the Lord Jesus Christ, for that is
   what they have to do and so they are saved, and so shall you be! I
   think that I hear another say, "But I find such evil in my very nature.
   I have such a hard heart. I cannot feel, I cannot love the Lord as I
   want to." Yes, I know all about it and I am very sorry for you, but, my
   dear Friend, "there is no difference." You believe that there are some
   Christians who are very tender of spirit, but the Lord had to make them
   tender--and He can make you tender. The same Lord that saves little
   children and that brought a young Josiah and an open-hearted Lydia to
   His feet, can bring you, also, for there is really no difference. It
   needed a Divine work in their case and it needs the same in yours. "I
   am very poor," says one. Yes, but, "there is no difference," blessed be
   God! You hardly know where you are going to sleep tonight, but I can
   tell you where you may rest, not only tonight, but all your days--that
   is, in Christ Jesus--if you come and put your trust in Him! He does not
   look to see whether you have a suit of broadcloth or a suit of fustian!
   "There is no difference" with regard to that matter.

   "But I am so ignorant," says one, "I cannot even read." I am very sorry
   for you and I think that you ought to try and learn. At the same time,
   there is many a man who can read his title clear to a mansion in the
   skies who does not know A from B! It does not need that you be a
   scholar in the schools of men to become a scholar in the school of
   Christ, but, just as you are, trust your soul in His hands and He will
   teach you all that is essential to be known, for in this matter, "there
   is no difference." I thought I heard someone say, very indistinctly,
   "Ah, Sir, but I am so old!" Yes, yes, and I think I hear a little boy
   or girl over yonder say, "But, Sir, I am so young!" Well, come along,
   both of you! Give me your hand, old Friend, and give me yours, dear
   child, for "there is no difference" between the oldest and the youngest
   as to this way of salvation! The child believes and is saved! And the
   old man believes with a childlike faith and is saved, too!

   My text also has a practical bearing in another direction, it helps to
   meet singularity of disposition. There are many persons in the world
   who believe that they are different from everybody else. I always
   sympathize very heartily with them because I know that I am, myself, a
   very odd body, a lot out of all catalogs, I often say, and so are you.
   You think there never was another like you! Perhaps you think it is a
   pity that there should be and very likely that is true. You are all by
   yourself, you say. Well, just listen to me, for my text can set you
   right--God grant that it may! After all, "there is no difference."
   Come, you strange Jack--you singular Mary--you that seem to be the odd
   bird in the nest--there is, after all, no difference! Your heart is
   evil, your life has been sinful--so has my life been, and so is it with
   all those round about you! And there is only one way of salvation for
   you odd people and for all you even people as well! There is not
   anybody that is so cut on the cross, so strange and so altogether out
   of harmony with the rest of mankind that he may say, "God left me out
   of His calculations." No, there is really no difference whatever
   between you and others in this matter of salvation!

   I must make yet one more practical use of my text and that is, to
   encourage you who labor for Christ. Where are you going to serve the
   Master, my Brother? "Oh," you reply, "I have a very tough bit of ground
   to till. I teach in a Ragged School on Stint Street and I visit the
   lodging houses." Another says, "I am trying to do something for Christ
   in Bethnal Green." Well, Friend, I reckon that I have about as hard a
   field of labor as you have. "Oh," you say, "but these look like very
   respectable people." Yes, they look so, but if you could read their
   hearts, you would see that they are uncommonly like those people on
   Stint Street and Bethnal Green among whom you are working. "As in
   water, face answers to face, so the heart of man to man." We all belong
   to the same race. There is but one blood in all of us. There is the
   same tendency to sin and the same need of a Savior for these
   respectable-looking folk as there is for the very roughest and the very
   dirtiest of mankind!

   I think I hear another say, "I am going to Africa as a missionary and I
   am sometimes afraid as to how I shall get on with the unenlightened
   people there." Another says, "I am going to India and I do not know how
   I shall succeed with those learned Brahmins." Another says, "I am going
   to China. I cannot hope to see many converted among those who are so
   devoted to Confucianism." Why not? "There is no difference." After all,
   it is the same sort of soil which we all have to plow either at home or
   abroad. There may be a slight contrast on the surface, but it all needs
   the same kind of plowing, the same sort of sowing and the same Divine
   power to cause the seed to grow! The gate of salvation is just as
   widely open to men in China as it is to you who have long been sitting
   under the sound of the Word. At bottom, "there is no difference"
   between man and man--they are all sinners, they are all depraved. "They
   are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable;
   there is none that does good, no, not one." I believe that it takes as
   much Grace to save an Englishman as it does to save a Hottentot. The
   Grace operates, too, in much the same way. The experience of the two
   men, when it is related, may sound different because of the varying
   measure of knowledge of the parties concerned, yet the essential items
   of all true Christian experience will be found to be the same in every
   case. Do not, therefore, say, dear Brother, "I shall not go to that
   place! It is such a difficult place." I have a notion that such a spot
   as that is the very best place to which anyone can go. "But there are
   such crowds of people there." All the better! It is good fishing where
   there are plenty of fish. "But, oh, they are so wild!" Just so. But if
   I were ever to go hunting, I would not hunt poor timid hares, I would
   like to go after lions, tigers, bears and wolves--there is excitement
   in such sport as that!

   And if you go in for soul-winning, do not be picking and choosing which
   souls you will try to win. The worse the region is, the more it needs
   the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I think that if I were a lamp and I could
   have my choice as to where I would be hung, I should not wish to be in
   one of the fine streets where there were plenty of other lamps, but I
   should like to go down some wretched court where there was no lamp at
   all, where the people break one another's heads and steal one another's
   goods in the dark, for I should be of more use there! So, dear Friends,
   be willing to go where you can be of most use! And wherever your sphere
   of service is, do not be discouraged, for over all men there hangs this
   motto, "There is no difference." They have all to be saved in the same
   way and the Omnipotence that can save one will abundantly suffice for
   the salvation of another!

   III. Now, in closing my discourse, I want to spend a minute or two in
   bidding you REJOICE OVER THIS GREAT

   TRUTH.

   I rejoice over the fact that there is no difference, in the matters of
   which I have been speaking, concerning the whole human race. I saw a
   picture of the Tower of Babel by an eminent painter. All the various
   races of mankind were represented as going off in different directions,
   some to the North, others to the South, to the West, or to the East,
   all being scattered over the face of the whole earth. It was a painful
   sight to see the great family broken up, never, as far as we could see,
   to be reunited again. But, dear Friends, hear how this text collects
   the whole family of mankind into one and gathers all these scattered
   ears of corn and makes one sheaf of them--"There is no difference." All
   men are fallen through sin, but whoever, out of them all, believes in
   Jesus Christ, shall have eternal life! There is one blessed bath of
   salvation in which all may be washed whiter than snow! There is one
   remedy, and only one, for the disease of sin--and all who apply to the
   great Physician are healed forever. I love to see the human race thus
   reunited.

   But there is something better than that. What glory it is to the Lord
   Jesus Christ that He should be the only Savior and that faith in Him
   should be the only way of salvation! I feel sure that we do not wish
   the Lord Jesus Christ to be put into competition with someone else in
   His work as our Savior. No, we want our Lord to have the monopoly in
   this matter and He has it! None can be saved except by faith in Him, by
   the application of His precious blood, glory be to His holy name! I
   feel a very peculiar joy over this Truth of God. I was thinking, as I
   came along to this service, "Suppose I had to preach a different gospel
   for every man?" There is a little book entitled, Every man his own
   lawyer. Well, nowadays, according to some people, it seems as if every
   man is to be his own savior! But if I had, say, a dozen gospels, and I
   had to sort them out and give the right gospel to the right man, what a
   fix I would be in! I believe that, oftentimes, I should be giving your
   gospel to someone else and someone else's gospel to you--and what a
   muddle it would all be! But now we have one universal cure! We have a
   Divine catholicon. The blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ will
   save every man who trusts Him, for "there is no difference."

   Wherever Christ is received, there shall be salvation. This makes it
   easy work for the preacher and what a blessing it is to you who are
   Believers, for, suppose you had to say, "Well, I have believed in
   such-and-such a salvation," but somebody might say, "That will not save
   you! You are a No. 2 man and you need No. 2 gospel, not No. 1." Suppose
   you should lay hold of that and one of these days your conscience
   should say to you, "No. 2 is not the medicine that you need, you ought
   to have No. 6." Suppose that it ran up to No. 14, No. 17, or No. 20?
   Why, when you lay dying, you might say, "I have taken the remedy No. 1,
   but I am afraid that I am a No.20 man. I took this one and it did give
   me some kind of relief, but I am afraid that I took the wrong
   medicine." But now it is one medicine for every disease--one Christ for
   every sinner--one blood with which to wash us--one salvation with which
   to rescue us--one righteousness with which to cover us! Therefore, such
   doubts as I have just mentioned can never come into the minds of those
   who believe in Jesus--blessed be God for that!

   And so to you, dear Hearers, who are seeking after Christ, is it not a
   great mercy that there is but one name whereby you can be saved?
   Otherwise the same awkward occurrence might happen to you and you would
   be saying, "At which door am I to go in?" You might get to the wrong
   entrance and the man in charge of it might say, "This is not the door
   for you. You have come to the wrong one, you must go to No. 6, or 7, or
   8." How puzzled we are when we go to Clap-ham Junction, or some such
   railway station, to know which staircase we are to go up--and a poor
   sinner would be much in the same kind of worry to know which way he was
   to be saved. But when it is just this, "Believe and be saved; look and
   live; trust yourself to Christ, rest in His atoning Sacrifice and you
   are saved"--all can understand it!

   When God gives us, by His Spirit, a simple faith in Jesus, we at once
   receive eternal life--and every soul that believes in Jesus Christ has
   that life. I pray God to bless this message to you who are still
   unsaved. Quarrel not with your only hope of salvation! Accept what God
   provides! Yield yourselves to the Divine decree, for God has decreed
   that no soul shall enter Heaven but by His Son, "the Way, the Truth and
   the Life." This name--this one name--you must rely on if you would be
   saved! This way--this one way--you must run in if you would enter
   Heaven! God help you to enter it at once, for our Lord Jesus Christ's
   sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS3.

   Verses 1, 2. What advantage, then, has the Jew? Or what profit is there
   in circumcision? Much every way; chief, because that unto them were
   committed the oracles of God. If it is so that, after all, no outward
   rite or birth privileges can bestow Grace, what advantage did the Jews
   possess? "Why," says Paul, "they had this very great privilege, 'that
   unto them were committed the oracles of God!'" It is no small blessing
   to have a Revelation from Jehovah and to have the means of knowing what
   that Revelation really is.

   3. For what if some did not believe?Many of the seed of Israel did not
   believe the Revelation that was made to them. Yet the privilege of
   hearing it was just as great, even though they slighted it.

   3-5. Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God
   forbid! Yes, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written,
   That You might be justified in Your sayings, and might overcome when
   You are judged. But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness
   of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance?
   Vengeance on a sin which is nevertheless made to turn to His glory?

   5-7. (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the
   world? For if the Truth of God has more abounded through my lie unto
   His glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner?Yet I shall be. If God
   shall overrule my sin to His own glory, that will mate no difference to
   my responsibility. If I have lied, if I have done wrong in any way, I
   must be judged and condemned on that account, whatever may be the
   ultimate result of my sin.

   8. And not rather, (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm
   that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? Whose damnation is
   just. If any man dares to say that, "Since God turns even evil into
   good, and by the forgiveness of sin brings glory to Himself, 'Let us do
   evil that good may come,'" he is twisting the Truth of God to his own
   destruction--and his "damnation is just."

   9. What then? Are we better than they? Are Jews better than Gentiles?
   Or, are Gentiles better than Jews?

   9. No, in no way, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles,
   that they are all under sin. Nobody can read the first chapter of the
   Epistle to the Romans and follow it by reading the second, without
   seeing how completely Paul has proved "that they are all under sin."

   10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. There is
   not, and there never has been, one of the human race, save our Lord,
   who also is God, who ever continued to live a righteous life! Adam
   began righteously, but how soon he fell! And all his descendants have
   both began and continued to be sinners. "There is none righteous, no,
   not one."

   11. There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God.
   That is, none do so by nature--those who seek after God are ledto do so
   by a work of Grace upon their hearts. Otherwise, men are blind. They do
   not see the right path. They are willful and do not seek after God.

   12. They are all gone out of the way, they are all together become
   unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one. This is God's
   verdict upon the whole human race! He has the best opportunity of
   seeing them and He has the best capacity for judging them. And this is
   what He says of all men as they are by nature, "There is none that does
   good, no, not one."

   13. Their throat is an open sepulcher. A reeking mass of corruption!

   13. With their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is
   under their lips. They are pleased to say a bad word about their
   neighbor. They are eager to repeat any slander that they hear and they
   are not unwilling, even, to invent it, themselves!

   14, 15. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are
   swift to shed blood. And when, by fear of the laws of the land, they
   are prevented from carrying out their evil purposes, yet their anger
   is, itself, murder in intent-- and into what human heart has not that
   sin glanced?

   16-19. Destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace
   have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we
   know that whatever the Law says, it says to them who are under the Law.
   All these passages, which Paul has put together in this dreadful
   mosaic, are taken from the Old Testament, so they apply to the Jews.
   And he had already proven, in the first Chapter, the intolerable vice
   of the Gentiles, so that now he has shown that both Jews and Gentiles
   are guilty.

   19. That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
   guilty before God. The 19th Century world, as well as the world of the
   1st Century--all the world, in all time, has "become guilty before
   God."

   20. Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shallno flesh be justified
   in His sight. Talk not, therefore, of righteousness by your own works!
   Dream not of meriting eternal life by any attempt to keep the Law of
   God, for this is the declaration of God's Holy Spirit, "By the deeds of
   the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight."

   20. For by the Law is the knowledge of sin. The Law is a mirror--you
   see your spots as you gaze into it. But no man ever washed his face in
   a mirror--it shows the spots, but it cannot remove them! The Law of God
   is the indicator and the revealer of sin, but it has no power whatever
   to put away sin.

   21-24. But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested,
   being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets; even the righteousness of
   God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
   believe: for there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come
   short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His Grace through
   the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That is a very wonderful verse,
   every word of it is full of meaning. "Justified"--that is, accounted
   just, made to be righteous in the sight of God. "Justified
   freely"--without any merit or purchase money. "Freely by His
   Grace"--not an act of justice, but an act of mercy has made sinners
   just in the sight of God! "Through the redemption"--there is the
   foundation of it all--we are redeemed by precious blood. "Through the
   redemption that is in Christ Jesus.'"

   25-27. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His
   blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
   past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time
   His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him
   which believes in Jesus. Where is boasting, then?Boasting is sure to be
   somewhere handy, ready to creep in if it can, for we are all prone to
   it--it is the common sin of our race! "Where is boasting, then?"

   27. It is excluded. By what law?\t is shut out! But by what law is it
   shut out?

   27. Of works?No, for whenever we think that we have been performing any
   good works, we at once begin to boast.

   27. No, but by the law of faith. For if we are saved by believing, if
   we are justified freely by God's Grace through the redemption that is
   in Christ Jesus, then there is no room for boasting.

   28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the
   deeds of the Law. "We conclude"--we are shut up to this belief, "that a
   man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law."

   29. Is He the God of the Jews only?Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes,
   of the Gentiles also. He saved Abraham by faith, and he saves us by
   faith. The same saving principle is applicable to all parts of the
   human race.

   30. 31. Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by
   faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the Law
   through faith?Some will be sure to say so, but it is not true.

   31. God forbid! Yes, we establish the Law. There is no one who so much
   loves the Law of God and delights in it after the inward man, as the
   one who is justified by faith! There is nothing that so honors the Law
   of God as "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ." It
   establishes forever the Law, even as Christ said to His disciples,
   "Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets: I am not
   come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till Heaven
   and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
   Law, till all is fulfilled."
     __________________________________________________________________

Our Thoughts About God's Thoughts

   (No. 2609)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   NOVEMBER 1, 1883.

   "How precious also aire Your thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the
   sum of them!If I should count them, they are more in number than the
   sand: when I awake, I am still with You." Psalm 139:17,18.

   This Psalm dilates upon the Omniscience of God. In the most forcible
   manner, it shows that God's eyes have always rested upon us and are
   resting upon us now. We are here made to see that God knew all about us
   before we were born, that He now reads our most secret thoughts and
   that our unspoken words are all known to Him. And I want you to notice
   that the Psalm is not at all in that mournful strain in which we
   sometimes speak of the Omniscience of God. It is a very solemn thing
   that God should be everywhere. "You God see me," is a note of the most
   serious kind when sounded in the sinner's ear, but, to those who are
   the people of God, there is nothing dreadful in the thought that God
   sees us. There is nothing to cause us to despond or to make us feel
   gloomy in the fact that God compasses our path and our lying down. In
   fact, in proportion as we are fully reconciled to God, love Him and
   rejoice in Him, it will become a cause ofjoy to reflect that our best
   Friend is never away from us--that our Protector's hand is never
   removed, that the great observant eyes of Divine Love are never closed!

   Oh, dear Friends, could we ever go to any place where God is not to be
   found, that would be the Hell of hells to His people! And if there
   could be a period in which the Lord did not look upon us, we might say,
   "Let that day be blotted out from the calendar." It is a joy, a bliss,
   a foretaste of Heaven to know that--

   "Wherever we seek Him, He is found" and even when we are not seeking
   Him, yet still He is above, beneath and all around us! He is never far
   from any of us. May we all have the Grace that will enable us to
   rejoice in a present God! We may judge as to our position before God by
   this test--is the thought of His constant observation of us a subject
   ofjoy or of dread? If we dread it, surely we have the old spirit of
   bondage still upon us! But if we rejoice in it, then we may know that
   we have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, "Abba, Father."

   I am going to try to speak, as God shall help me, first, upon God's
   thoughts of us. "How precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God!
   How great is the sum of them!" Then, secondly, I want to say a little
   upon our thoughts about God's thoughts. His thoughts become precious to
   us as we think about them. Then, thirdly, I wish to speak at somewhat
   greater length concerning our thoughts upon God Himself. "When I awake,
   I am still with You."

   I. First, then, let us meditate for a little while upon GOD'S THOUGHTS
   OF US.

   That the infinite Jehovah thinks of us is absolutely certain. He thinks
   about all the inhabitants of the whole world. There is a general
   Providence which has a superintendence over all that happens in all
   parts of the earth. I know that the notion of some men is that the
   world is like a watch and that God has done with it as we do with our
   watches--that is, wound it up, put it under His pillow and gone to
   sleep. But it is not so, for in this great world-watch--to keep up the
   figure--God is present with every wheel and every cog of every
   wheel--there is no action in it apart from His present putting forth of
   power to make it move. There is nothing that happens merely as the
   result of, "law," as some people seem to dream, for a law is nothing
   without a forceat the back of it! When we speak of certain things as
   being governed by law, we simply mean that as far as we have discerned,
   that is the general way in which this particular thing moves, or is
   acted upon, or acts upon some other thing. But, then, where is the
   force that enables it to act so, or that makes it to be so acted upon?
   "That is gravitation," says one. Yes, that is your name for that force,
   but it is really God who is everywhere at work! Though the law of
   gravitation may be said to be abiding, yet the force of gravity is but
   the force which proceeds from God. It is God still putting forth His
   power and operating after His own manner upon material substances.

   God, therefore, thinks upon the whole world--and I am glad that it is
   so! I do not like the idea of being put out to nurse, as it were, and
   left without my Heavenly Father's personal supervision. I like to be in
   a world that is really God's garden, a part of His own homestead in
   which He dwells and where I am always directly under the glance of His
   eyes. Rivers unknown to song, far distant from civilization, are
   nevertheless homely places to one who has learned to be at home with
   God.

   Now, as God thinks and must think of the whole material universe which
   He has created, much more does He think of men and most of all of us
   who are His own chosen people, to whom He stands in a very peculiar
   relationship as our Father, who has "begotten us again unto a lively
   hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." God must think
   of us--the blood would not flow in our veins, nor would the breath make
   our lungs to heave, nor would our various bodily processes go on
   without the perpetual exercise of His power. God must think of us
   especially in all the higher departments of our being, for they would
   speedily come to nothing apart from His constant care. There would be
   none of the spirit of prayer if He did not work it in us. There would
   be no spirit of sonship if the Holy Spirit did not teach us continually
   to cry, "Abba, Father." Faith and hope and love are plants that only
   live in the sunlight of God. And if the great Father of Lights
   withdrew, all these would die. "Without Me you can do nothing," is as
   certainly true of us who are His people, as of those who are far from
   Him by wicked worlds. We must be united to God, or else we shall perish
   and, therefore, as we know that we shall never perish, we are quite
   sure that our Heavenly Father thinks of us. Think of all the gracious
   influences that meet in your person to perpetuate your life--I mean,
   your spirituallife--your holiness, your comfort, your joy. Think of all
   the purposes of God that center in you in order that, by them, you may
   be made perfect and so be fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of
   the saints in light. Think of these things, I say, and you will at once
   see that for the grand design which God has concerning you, it is
   absolutely essential that He should think of you--and He does think of
   you!

   Next, God's thoughts of us must be very numerous. According to our text
   the sum of them is very great--how great, the Psalmist does not say.
   The number of God's thoughts is so vast that even if you could count
   the sand on the seashores, you could not count the thoughts of God
   concerning you! Oh, how important this makes us poor creatures, when we
   remember that God thinks of us! I would like you to sit still a minute
   and think over this wonderful Truth of God. You know that people are
   very proud if a king has merely looked at them. I have heard of a man
   who used to boast, all his life, that King George IV-- such a beauty as
   he was!--once spoke to him. He only said, "Get out of the road," but it
   was a king who said it, so the man felt greatly gratified thereby. But
   you and I, Beloved, can rejoice that God, before whom kings are as
   grasshoppers, actually thinks of us and thinks of us often. One or two
   thoughts would not suffice for our many needs--if He only thought of us
   now and then, what would we do in the meantime? But he thinks of us
   constantly! He says that He has engraved our names upon the palms of
   His hands, as if to show how continually we are before Him. David said,
   "I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinks upon me." And our Savior said
   to His disciples, "Your Father knows what things you have need of
   before you ask Him," proving that He had thought about them and had
   looked upon them with careful eyes and observed all their necessities.
   Yes, God does in very deed and of a truth think upon His people--and
   His thoughts concerning them are very numerous!

   And they are also very tender God never thinks of His people in a harsh
   way. He never has an unkind thought concerning even the most erring of
   those who are His own children. He looks upon them as a father looks
   upon his child, with intense affection, pitying them when they stray
   from Him. And if, sometimes, He chides them for their wrongdoing, even
   then He does but veil the purpose of His love that He may accomplish it
   the better. He is always aiming at that which will promote our best
   health, our truest wealth and our ultimate perfection. At times, clouds
   come between our souls and our God, but His love is always shining. O
   Beloved, if the Lord had not thought very tenderly of us, He would have
   cut some of us down long ago as cumberers to the ground. "He has not
   dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our
   iniquities." How often He has screened us from trouble! How frequently
   He has prepared us for a trial, so that, when it came, it did not crush
   us! How often He has rescued us out of sore perils! How often He has
   visited us in the night and given us songs amid our sorrow! "Your
   gentleness has made me great," said David, and many another child of
   God has said the same! There is nothing that can equal the tenderness
   of God towards us, His poor, frail and erring children.

   But while God's thoughts concerning us have been thus tender, they have
   also been very wise. To make a glass that should reflect without any
   color the object placed before it, was long the desire of those who
   made certain kinds of optical instruments. They worked a long time to
   no purpose, but, at last, someone discovered how to form an achromatic
   lens and then, lo and behold, when this man had thought out his plan
   perfectly in all its details, he was able to make a glass which was
   exactly like the eyes of an insect which I have often seen. So, when
   the man thought aright, he thought just as God thought and, after going
   a long way round about, when he did come to the right conclusion, he
   came just where God was. And, in like manner, if you and I were to try
   to work out the problem of our lives, and if we were wise enough to
   discover the best way in which we could get to Heaven, we would come
   exactly to the route which God has marked out for us and we would do
   with ourselves precisely what God does with us! Were we always wise, we
   would never murmur. Were we to be endowed with infinite wisdom, we
   would rejoice in the very things which now distress us--and the clouds
   and darkness which we now seek to avoid, we would willingly pass
   through if we did but see, as God sees, the end as well as the
   beginning! His thoughts are wise for the whole of our lives. He does
   not simply think how He shall make us happiest today, or how He should
   give us the most enjoyment for a week--that is how fond and foolish
   mothers think and plan for their boys. They make ducks of them--and
   they grow up geese. They indulge them and spoil them, but it is never
   so with God in His thoughts concerning the happiness of His children.
   He looks far ahead. He takes eternityinto the compass of His thoughts
   and He judges what is best to do for us, not merely under the aspect of
   an hour, or a week, or a month, or even of a whole life below, but He
   puts eternity into the scale and orders all things well for everlasting
   ages!

   You and I could not think like that, could we? We soon get puzzled with
   our little calculations and it is unwise for us to look too far ahead.
   If we begin considering 50 cares at once, they will prove to be too
   many for us. Our best way is to take them one by one and live by the
   day, or, better still, moment by moment. Such a course as that would
   not be wise for us if it were not that there is Another who, not living
   by the day, Himself, but filling all eternity, judges for us according
   to that blessed stanza of the Psalmist, "His mercy endures forever."

   These, then, are the thoughts of God concerning us--certain, numerous,
   tender and infinitely wise.

   And God's thoughts, too, are very practical. He does not think of us
   and let it end with thinking, but God's thoughts are really His acts,
   for, with Him, to will is to do. He utters His thought and, lo, it is
   accomplished! His fiat has achieved it. God might have thought much of
   us and the thought would have had no comfort in it if it had not moved
   His hand to succor and to help us. Think awhile of the practical
   thoughts of God for us in the eternity when He chose us before the
   daystar knew its place. Think of the Everlasting Covenant, ordered in
   all things and sure, made before the sun had shed a single ray of light
   upon the earth. Think especially of that part of the Covenant in which
   the Father made His Son to be our Covenant Head and gave Him to stand
   in our place as our Surety and Substitute. Oh, what a thought was
   that--how wonderfully practical--that God should take His Beloved Son
   from His bosom and give Him up to die that we might live! And, ever
   since, all along our history, God has thought of us. He thought of us
   when we were babes and we were nourished and cherished. He thought of
   us when we were children and we learned to lisp His name. He thought of
   us--

   "When, in the slippery paths of youth, With heedless haste we ran."

   He has thought of us since we have come to manhood. Yes, and in the
   case of many of us, He has thought of our children and of our
   children's children, too. And He is still thinking of us and He will
   continue to do so when our last thoughts die out in insensibility.
   Remember His ancient promise to His people--"Even to hoar hairs will I
   carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry and will
   deliver you." And we shall find it to be so! And each Believer may say,
   with David, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of
   my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." These,
   then, are God's thoughts concerning us--constant, kind, wise, tender,
   gracious, perfect, Divine--like He in whose infinite mind they are
   found!

   II. Now let us meditate for just a few minutes upon OUR THOUGHTS ABOUT
   GOD'S THOUGHTS.

   What do you say, my Heart, to this wondrous Truth of God--that the Lord
   thinks upon you? I have been ready to say what would be a very fair
   translation of the Hebrew--"how rare are Your thoughts!" You know that
   the word, "rare," was used in a different sense in olden times from
   what it is now. In Westminster Abbey there is s stone with these words
   upon it, "O rare Ben Jonson!"--meaning strange, special, peculiar,
   marked. So the thoughts of God are rare thoughts, the like of which
   cannot be found anywhere else! The thoughts of angels, or the thoughts
   of perfect spirits above must be something very wonderful, but, oh, the
   thoughts of God! If I were told that some bright angel was sent to
   think of me all day and all night long, that he was my Master's servant
   to watch over me, I would feel pleasure in the thought, yet that would
   be a poor, poor thing compared with the fact that God thinks upon us
   and watches over us! The Lord told Moses that His angel would go before
   the people through the wilderness, but you may have noticed how Moses
   pleaded against such a decision--"If Your Presence go not with me,
   carry us not up hence." We do not need angelic presence one hundredth
   as much as we need the Divine Presence! Here, then, in God's thoughts
   concerning us, is something rare and wonderful, indeed! And this is our
   thought about it, that there is no other thought that can, for a
   moment, be compared with it!

   How delightful, too, it is to be thought upon by God! I have already
   said that to some people, the Truth that God is looking upon them wears
   an aspect of awe and dread. "Oh," says one, "is it not terrible to
   think that God's eyes are always upon me?" It is not terrible to me--I
   am right glad that it should be so, and I pray, with David, "'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.' You
   will see much that will grieve You and much that You will have to
   amend, but still, I would not wish to hide anything from You, my Lord.
   Lies not all my hope, my very Heaven, that way? The glances of Your
   eyes, are they not the very medicine that shall cure my soul-sickness,
   or, at least, the means by which I shall get the medicine that will
   heal me of the dire disease of sin?"

   It is even so, and the true child of God wishes to always get more and
   more closely under the inspection of his Heavenly Father--and the
   thoughts of God towards him charm and delight him. Does God in very
   deed think of me, from the moment when I wake in the morning, and all
   through the day, till I lock up my heart at night and give Him the key?
   Does He keep on thinking of me while I lie asleep, unable to think of
   anything except poor wandering thoughts that come in my dreams? If so,
   blessed be His name that He condescends to do anything of the kind!
   "How precious are Your thoughts unto me, O God!" How delightful is it
   to be thus thought of by You! And how consoling it is, also!

   We all like to be thought of and remembered. I went to call on one who
   was sorely sick. The doctor had said that he must see no one, but when
   his friends told him I was there, he exclaimed, "Oh, let him come up!"
   "No," they replied, "he must not, for it might excite you, and do you
   harm." "Give him my love, then," he said, "and tell him that it does me
   good to know that he is downstairs." We like to be thought of, I am
   sure that we do. Even the thoughts of a little child towards us have
   comfort in them. There is many a mother who is made a widow and she
   sits down to weep as if her heart must break. But when her little one
   plucks her skirt, ignorant of the sorrow which it will one day have to
   feel with the mother, and the mother hears the child's merry little
   note, it is often the best form of consolation that God sends to her
   bereaved spirit!

   We all like to be kindly remembered, but, oh, what is it to be thought
   of by God? "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will
   take me up." And if men misrepresent us, and misinterpret us, and speak
   evil of us, and put us out of their company, what does it matter, as
   long as the Lord draws nearer to us than He did before? God's servants
   in Scotland had brave times among the heather when they had to watch
   for Claverhouse's dragoons and stood in jeopardy of their lives. The
   Lord was especially present among the lone crags and they heard His
   voice in the Psalm and then from above in the thunder! So near was the
   Lord to them in the dark days of persecution that afterwards, when
   peaceable times came and they could go to the kirk in quiet, there were
   some who looked with regret on those other days when they met at the
   peril of their lives and God was their Leader! So, God's thoughts are
   precious to us by way of consolation.

   They also have other effects upon us, for the thoughts of God often
   move the souls of Christians, strengthening them in faith, awakening
   them to love and stirring them to zeal. There is many a man who has
   done, under a sense of God's Presence, what he would never have dreamed
   of doing if he had not realized that the Lord was there. As the
   Highland chieftain, when he fell and was dying, said to the men of his
   clan, "I shall watch you, my children, as you rush to the fight," and
   so made them brave--when we think of God's watching us and of His eyes
   being upon us, we also become valiant and do exploits in His sight! And
   each one of us sings--

   "I can do all things, or can bear

   All sufferings, if my Lord is there!

   Sweet pleasures mingle with the pains,

   While His left hand my head sustains." His Presence is all that our
   heart requires. Indeed, Beloved, when we really drink in the thoughts
   of God towards us, our spirit is filled with all that it needs and is
   borne onward as with a mighty rush--a full tide of Grace--up to the
   Throne of Heaven!

   III. Now I come to the last part of my discourse, OUR THOUGHTS UPON GOD
   HIMSELF. David says, here, "When I awake, I am still with You."

   I want you to notice, first, that he seems to imply that our thoughts
   bring us near to God. Thinking of Him, we realize that we are in His
   immediate Presence. I cannot describe the feeling of a spirit
   consciously present with God, but, though I cannot describe it, I am
   sure that many of you know what it is, and I am equally sure that I,
   also, know what it is. There have been times with us when we did not
   actually walk by sight but, still, we had a very joyful experience of
   God's Presence with us. We not only believed in God's existence, but
   our spirits seemed enveloped in and encompassed with His Spirit and
   appeared to be, as it were, set on fire, as when the bush in the desert
   was all aglow with the indwelling God. It is not always so with us, but
   we have had times of extremely conscious nearness to God. After prayer,
   as we rose from our knees and looked at the clock, we perceived that a
   full half-hour had gone, whereas we thought that it was only a minute
   or two that we had been at our devotions. In our chamber, alone, as we
   have read the Word, the sacred page has seemed to glow with unusual
   brilliance. We do not remember noticing such glory in those words,
   before, but God has spoken to us through the Word and that has made the
   difference.

   Sometimes, as we have been sitting in the sanctuary, a solemn awe has
   manifestly been on every heart. And when we went away, we said to one
   another, "Surely God was in that place, and we knew it." You know how
   Paul says about his rapturous experience, "Whether in the body, I
   cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows."
   Such things have happened to many of God's people and I believe that
   the more we live in Him, and walk with Him, the more often will this be
   our experience till it may even come to be perpetual, and our soul
   shall be as certain of the Presence of God as we are of the presence of
   our body. We shall get to have as keen a sense and recognition of the
   Presence of God with us as we have of the atmosphere which surrounds
   us. David's declaration, "When I awake, I am still with You," implies
   that holy thoughts of the precious thoughts of God place us near to
   God!

   And, next, it implies that these thoughts help to keep us near to God.
   ' 'When I awake, I am still with You," said David, as if he meant, "I
   have a long time been in Your company. I have been now by the week, the
   month, the year, abiding in the light of Your Countenance, enjoying
   Your sweet society. Your Grace has kept me near You."

   Still further, such thoughts help to restore God's Presence to us if,
   for a while, we have lost it. "When I awake"-- that means, "I have been
   asleep and so have lost the consciousness of God's Presence." Have you
   ever known what it is, at night, to be quite sorry to go to sleep
   because you have been so full of holy joy that you were afraid you
   might lose it while you were unconscious? Have you never lain awake
   thinking and meditating upon your God, enjoying His Presence so much
   that you have said, "This is better than sleep. I wish that my eyes
   might be kept wide awake that they might forget their need of rest,
   that I might continue this hallowed communion"? But with our poor frail
   frames we must sleep, so, is it not sweet that when you awake, you
   should be where you left off, that, as your soul was holding fellowship
   with God as you fell asleep, when you opened your eyes, again, He was
   still there? You were ready to take up the happy employment where you
   left off, for you had not broken the thread--and you went on still
   communing with your God!

   This text evidently refers in part to natural slumber. When our
   thoughts are much with God, then it will happen that our sleep will
   make no break in our communion with Him. Were you ever pained by a
   dream? I will hold no man responsible for his dreams, but, if there
   were no sin in us, we would have no sin even in our dreams. If we were
   perfectly pure-- as some think that they are--we would be perfectly
   pure even in our dreams. Take off the bridles from the horses, remove
   the bits from their mouths and let them go where they will, yet, if
   they are thoroughly trained, they will not rush wildly about and they
   will still obey your call. If a house is perfectly clean, it will be
   just as clean if you take all the locks off and leave the doors open.
   If a man is perfectly pure, he would be pure in any case and in any
   condition. Therefore, even a dream may sometimes set us watching to
   know how such mischief could get into our thoughts. It could not have
   come there if sin had not been dwelling in us. But, oh, it is blessed
   to get so near to God that when you fall asleep, you seem to hear, even
   in your dreams, the music of His voice! And when you wake in the
   morning, you will wish to recall those blessed thoughts that came to
   you even when your whole being seemed steeped in sleep! The text says,
   "When I awake, I am still with You." And I think that it also means,
   "When I wake up from any temporary lethargy into which I may have
   fallen, I am still with You." We all, sometimes, get into that
   state--sleeping, though our heart is awake. We wish to be more brisk,
   more lively--but we cannot stir ourselves up. We sing--

   "Dear Lord! And shall we always lie

   At this poor dying rate?"

   We have fallen into a kind of stupor. What a blessing it is to be
   awakened out of it, possibly by a severe affliction, perhaps by an
   earnest discourse! Then the awakened one says, "Now I have come back to
   You, my God. There was a something within me that could not forget You,
   even for a while, though it lay still and dormant."

   And, best of all, what a grand thing it will be, one of these days, to
   go upstairs for the last time and stretch ourselves on the bed and say,
   "Adieu! Adieu!" to all we love below--and then put our head back on the
   pillow while those who are watching say, "He sleeps in Jesus!" "I shall
   be satisfied when I awake with Your likeness." "'When I awake, I am
   still with You.' I trusted You when I fell asleep and in the morning I
   awoke to find You still my Friend."

   Then, when my body wastes from its long sleep in the tomb, every rising
   bone of it shall acknowledge the Lord! My eyes shall see Him in that
   day--the God that loved me and died for me! Oh, how blessed it is to
   keep the whole heart so fixed upon God that come sleep, come life, come
   death, come what may, we shall be just like the needle in the compass
   which always turns to the pole! You may turn it around, if you like,
   but it always goes back and will not point anywhere but in that one
   direction. May it also be true of you and me that we can rest nowhere
   but in our God! I close my discourse, as I have often done before, with
   that sweet verse--

   "All that remains for me

   Is but to love and sing,

   And wait until the angels come

   To bear me to the King."

   I wish that all of you knew this blessed experience of which I have
   been speaking. Some of you do not. You are afraid of God. You are
   afraid of His seeing you. You are afraid to go to Him. See, then, here
   is Jesus Christ who took upon Him our nature though He is God! Go to
   Him, trust Him, believe in Him--then He will make you to be a child of
   God and you will not be afraid of your Father. God bless you, for
   Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM139.

   May the all-seeing God, of whom this Psalm speaks, look down upon us
   and bless us richly while we read it! Verse 1. O LORD You have searched
   me, and known me.' 'Known me perfectly, far better than I know myself.
   You have made an inquisition and investigated every secret thing
   concerning me. 'You have searched me, and known me.'"

   2. You know my sitting down and my rising up, You understand my
   thoughts afar off' 'Before I think it, while as yet it is not actually
   my thought, while it is still unformed and far away, You understand it.
   You not only know what it is, but You understand it--the motive from
   which it springs, the state of mind out of which it arises, and
   whereunto it tends--'You understand my thought afar off"

   3. You compass my path. "You are all round me--behind, before, above,
   beneath"--

   "Awake, asleep, at home, abroad, I am surrounded still with God." 3.
   And my lying down. "When wearied by my journey I lie down to rest, You
   still bless my lying down."

   3. And are acquainted with all my ways.' 'I cannot tell you anything
   which You do not know; nor can I hide anything from You. Whatever I
   have done, or am doing, or shall do, 'You are acquainted with all my
   ways.'"

   4. For there is not a wordin my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, You know it
   altogether--

   "He knows the words I mean to speak,

   Ere from my opening lips they break."

   God sees the word that is lying quietly on the tongue as well as the
   word which has been uttered by the tongue. "You know it altogether."
   God's knowledge is not partial or imperfect. He never misjudges any,
   for He is acquainted with every part of every man.

   5. You have beset me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.
   "You have come so near me that You touch me. You not only know my
   thoughts and my words, but You come into contact with me. You know me
   as I know a thing when I feel it with my hand--'You have laid Your hand
   upon me.'"

   6. 7. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot
   attain unto it Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Not that David
   desired to go away from God, but he wished to show the impossibility of
   escaping from the eyes of God. "Where shall I go from Your Spirit?"

   7. Or Where shall I flee from Your Presence?' 'You are everywhere and
   Your far-seeing eyes will behold me in every place. Vain is it,
   therefore, for me to think that I can ever flee from Your Presence." Is
   it not a very striking thought that every sin is committed in the
   Presence of God? He must be a very bold rebel who would insult his
   monarch to his face! Men are generally on their best behavior when they
   stand upon the palace floor--yet the whole earth is but the habitation
   of the great King eternal, immortal, invisible--and every time we sin,
   we sin in His very Presence, and with His eyes resting upon us.

   8-10. If I ascend up into Heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in
   Hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and
   dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Your hand
   lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me Well did Dr. Watts write--

   "If mounted on a morning ray

   I fly beyond the western sea,

   Your swifter hand would first arrive,

   And there arrest your fugitive." There is no hope of escaping from God
   by any speed to which we may attain, for if we could fly with the speed
   of light, yet would Jehovah be before us--His hand would lead as, and
   His right hand would hold us.

   11. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall
   be light about me. It shall be light to the eyes of God, for He depends
   not upon the light in order that He may see. Light is a most welcome
   aid to our poor eyes, but God sees just as well in the dark! "Even the
   night shall be light about me."

   12. Yes, the darkness hides not from You; but the night shines as the
   day: the darkness and the light are both alike to You. This is a very
   commonplace Truth of God and yet how seldom do men realize it! They
   still fancy that when the night comes on and they are not perceived by
   mortal eyes, they may do what they will. But there is no curtain in the
   night that can hide a deed of guilt from the eyes of the Omniscient
   Jehovah! "The darkness and the light are both alike to

   You."--

   "Almighty God, Your piercing eyes Strike through the shades of night
   And our most secret actions lie All open to Your sight."

   13. For You have possessed my reins. "The innermost parts of my
   being--You have possessed them as Your own. You know as much about them
   as a man knows of the rooms in his own house. 'You have possessed my
   reins.'"

   13, 14. You have coveredme in my mother's womb. I willpraise You. That
   is a very sweet thing for the Psalmist to say. Just when he felt
   stricken with awe by reason of this august attribute of the Omniscience
   of Jehovah, he looks up to his God and says, "I will praise You."

   14. For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Anyone who understands
   anatomy will tell you that man is strangely formed. So fearfully are we
   made that our life stands in constant jeopardy--it looks as if every
   breath might be our last and every pulse might speedily end our life.
   You cannot examine a blood vessel--especially some of the very small
   one through a microscope without being utterly astonished. Any medical
   man will tell you that there are many times in an hour--perhaps even in
   a minute--in which a very simple thing would put our life in imminent
   peril of destruction! Truly we are "fearfully and wonderfully made."--

   "Our life contains a thousand springs,

   And dies if one is gone!

   Strange, that a harp of thousand strings

   Should stay in tune so long!"

   Every man is a world of wonders. He need not go abroad for miracles,
   for he is, himself, a marvelous and miraculous combination!

   14. Marvelous are Your works; and that my soul knows right well How
   there can be a compound of spirit and matter--how the earth on which we
   tread should enter into our composition and yet we should be akin to
   angels. How there can be something about us that links us with the
   dust, yet much about us that joins us to God, Himself--these are
   extraordinary things which we do not understand Where is the point in
   which the spirit touches materialism? How is it that the will can move
   the hand or the finger? How does spirit act on matter? Those are
   questions much more easily asked than answered.

   15. My substance was not hid from You, when I was made in secret, and
   curiously made. Embroidered, as it were, with a needle. So
   extraordinary is the body of man that it may be compared to the
   needlework of God--"curiously made."

   15, 16. In the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes did see my
   substance, yet being imperfect And in Your book all my members mere
   written. Just as an architect sketches his plan for a building and
   specifies so much of this and that, so the Psalmist represents God as
   writing down in a book all the members of our body.

   16. Which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of
   them. God mapped out what He intended that we should be even when as
   yet we were not in existence! And from our earliest days He cared for
   us. If we look back upon our infancy--that considerable period of life
   in which we were utterly helpless and could do nothing whatever for
   ourselves--it ought to check our unbelief, because, if God took charge
   of us, then, and found means for our protection and our growing up when
   we were but little babes, if we should live to a second infancy, we may
   fairly trust that God will take care of us again! And if we should
   ever, through sickness, be reduced to such a helpless state that we can
   do nothing for ourselves, yet He that cared for us before we saw the
   Light of God, and when we saw it with feeble trembling eyes, will take
   care of us still!

   17-19. How precious, also, are Your thoughts unto me, O God! How great
   is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number
   than the sand: when I awake, I am still with You. Surely You will slay
   the wicked, O God. It must be so! God cannot let sinners continue to
   live and provoke Him to His face. He must, one day, take down the sword
   of Justice, unsheathe it, and slay the foes of righteousness! "Surely
   You will slay the wicked, O God."

   19. Depart from me, therefore, you bloody men.''Get away, lest, when He
   comes to kill you, I should have to see you die."

   20-22. For they speak against You wickedly, and Your enemies take Your
   name in vain. Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate You? And am not I
   grieved with those that rise up against You? I hate them with perfect
   hatred: I count them my enemies. We are to love our own enemies, but we
   are not to love God's enemies! We are to forgive our personal enemies,
   but we cannot forgive God's enemies! That man loves not the Truth of
   God who does not hate a lie and he loves not the right who has no anger
   against wrong. We are living in an age in which we are practically told
   that truth and error are the same, that the devil's lie and the Divine
   Revelation may lie down together! If we will not endorse this lie, men
   call us bigoted or dogmatic. Bless the Lord, we mean to be a great deal
   more dogmatic than we have been, and to stick even closer to the Truth
   of God than we have up to now done, if that is possible!

   23, 24. 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 Your
   way everlasting. That is a blessed prayer! May God hear it in the case
   of each one of us, for His dear Son's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Witness and a Partaker

   (No. 2610)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   NOVEMBER 4, 1883.

   "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a
   witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory
   that shall be revealed." 1 Peter 5:1.

   KINDLY notice, dear Friends, the Apostle's great gentleness. Peter was
   not always thus gentle, but the Spirit of God had rested upon him and
   now he writes with much tenderness. He does not say, "As an Apostle, I
   command," but, "As an elder, I exhort." It is always well to combine
   the suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re, that is, suavity in our
   method blended with strength in the thing, itself. There are some who
   are very blustering in their style of speech and there are others who,
   if they do not bluster, yet in the smallest matter always put forth
   their greatest force, or what they think to be so. They command and
   rebuke with all authority--yet here is Peter, who certainly was not a
   whit behind the very chief of the Apostles--and he speaks, not by way
   of command, but, addressing the elders, he tenderly exhorts them. Oh,
   that we may always manifest such a meek and gentle spirit--not drive
   men, but draw them to Christ--not terrify and threaten, but entice and
   woo to the Savior those to whom we are speaking or writing!

   Next, notice Peter's humility. "The elders which are among you I
   exhort, who am also an elder." He was an elder, most truly, as are all
   those who, in word and doctrine, feed the flock of God and who, at
   Christ's command, take the oversight of the souls of men. But Peter was
   much more than an elder, he was an Apostle. There were but few Apostles
   and those who were called to that high dignity were greatly
   favored--yet Peter does not mention his higher office, but, with true
   humility, he puts himself on a level with his Brothers. "The elders
   which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder." My Brother, if God
   has given to you extraordinary talent, do not exalt yourself on that
   account. If others willingly follow your leadership and you have the
   privilege of rendering to the Lord greater service than they can give,
   what have you that you have not received? And should not the chief
   among the saints be the servant of all? Is not he really the highest in
   Christ's esteem who is willing to be counted the lowest? Therefore, let
   no man exalt himself, or think highly of himself, for this he ought not
   to do. We admire in Peter--the once headstrong, impetuous Peter--the
   gentleness blended with humility which leads him to say, "The elders
   which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder."

   At the same time, let us especially note the wisdom of Peter, for it
   would have been an unwise thing for him to speak to the elders as an
   Apostle, for they might have replied to him, "You do not know the worry
   and toil and trouble of our service. You labor in a higher sphere. You,
   sitting on the Apostolic benches, are far above us. We, poor plain
   elders, cannot hope to attain to such eminence as yours." "No, my
   Brothers," says Peter, "I am one of you, for I, also, am an elder and,
   as a brother speaks to brother, so I exhort you. Knowing all your
   travail of heart and all your hard service in the cause of the Master,
   I, sympathizing with you, and altogether one with you, speak from my
   heart to your heart. Exhorting you, the elders, I, who am also an
   elder, say to you, Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the
   oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy
   lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage,
   but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall
   appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away."

   It will always be our wisdom, dear Friends, to put ourselves as much as
   we can into the position of those whom we address. It is a pity for
   anyone ever to seem to preach downto people--it is always better to be
   as nearly as possible on the same level as they are. Paul knew this
   and, therefore, he became "all things to all men." To the Jew, he was a
   Jew. Among Gentiles, he was a Gentile, for it so happened that he
   belonged to both classes. He was one with all men, barbarian, Scythian,
   bond or free. If he had to argue with the learned upon Mars' Hill, he
   could be a match for them. If he had to speak with the rough and
   illiterate, he threw out all beauty of language and talked to them in
   the plainest style. And you and I, if we want to win men to Christ,
   must act after the same wise fashion. Dear Sunday school teachers,
   would you be the means of blessing to the children under your charge?
   Then, be yourselves, children! Keep a child's heart throbbing beneath a
   manly breast. If you are a mother, go to the girls in your class as
   though you were still a girl, yourself, and you shall soon find the key
   of their heart and enter into the innermost chambers of their spirit. A
   true man welcomes a fellow man--he sees that he is a member of the
   great family of mankind and he says to him, "Come in." But if you, in
   your majestic greatness, speak to me like Jupiter thundering from a
   cloud, I shall not be likely to regard you. Or, if I do regard you,
   your message will be forgotten in the grandeur and glory of yourself!
   This is what never ought to happen, my Brothers--that people should
   think of us and forget our message Let us belittle ourselves that we
   may magnify our God. Let the Truth of God be borne before us like a
   shield! And though we are the Lord's armor bearers, let us hide behind
   the great shield which we lift up before the eyes of men. "'The elders
   which are among you I exhort'--not as Peter, the head of the College of
   Apostles--but as one who is a fellow elder with you." Therein, we see
   Peter's gentleness, humility and wisdom combined--and we shall be wise
   if we imitate him in all those respects.

   With this introduction, I now come to speak of the two great offices
   which Peter said that he filled. I cannot help calling them great, yet
   they are open to you and to me--and I hope that, by God's Grace, we
   have also, in our measure, been what Peter said that he was--"A witness
   of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that
   shall be revealed."

   I. First, then, let us think of Peter as "A WITNESS OF THE SUFFERINGS
   OF CHRIST." And, as far as possible, let us be witnesses with him.

   Peter was what we have not been, an eyewitness of the suffering of
   Christ. He actually and in very deed saw our Divine Master in His
   terrible griefs. Peter could never forget that he saw the Lord Jesus in
   His agony in the Garden. He was one of the three disciples who failed
   to watch with their Lord even for one hour and who, for very sorrow,
   fell asleep within a stone's cast of the place where Christ was
   "exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." Peter remembered how, when
   the Master rose from prayer, and said, "He is at hand that does betray
   Me," he was there and saw the traitor imprint that cruel kiss upon the
   cheek of Him who still called him, friend. Peter was, about that time,
   drawing his sword and cutting off the ear of Malchus--and he could not
   fail to remember the look upon his Master's face when he who had eaten
   bread with Him did lift up his heel against Him, and the Son of Man was
   betrayed with a kiss from the apostate Apostle. Peter was also an
   eyewitness of our Lord's being hurried away to the bar of Annas where
   He underwent His preliminary examination. He remembered seeing one
   strike Him on the mouth. He could recall how they charged Him with
   blasphemy. He could remember how, after the first examination was over,
   Annas sent Him, bound, to Caiaphas. Peter was in the palace of Annas,
   warming himself by the fire, so he was an eyewitness of all that
   transpired. I do not quite know how far that witnessing went, for the
   time came when he denied his Master, but he could never forget that
   gaze of concentrated agony and pity when Jesus looked at him--not so
   much reproachfully, perhaps, as mournfully--feeling in His own soul
   that sorrow which He knew that Peter must, before long, feel. A spark
   from the torch of the Savior's anguish set the heart of Peter on fire
   and he went out and wept bitterly.

   I believe--I cannot help believing--that Peter rallied, by-and-by, from
   his fit of cowardice and that he came to the front, again, and saw the
   Master in Pilate's judgment hall. You know the story of our Savior's
   griefs and woes and I think that Peter and others of the Apostles were
   eyewitnesses of His sufferings. They saw Him after He had been
   scourged. They marked Him after He had been despised, flouted and
   mocked. They saw Him as the Cross-Bearer and heard Him say," Daughters
   of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your
   children." They watched Him as He went in awful anguish along the Via
   Dolorosa t o the Mount of Crucifixion. And they stood and saw Him
   nailed to the tree, to die there, like a felon, with no relief or
   succor, for God Himself forsook Him. And the bitterest pain of all was
   that He had to cry," My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
   Possibly, Peter saw it all. Certainly he was an eyewitness of Christ's
   sufferings and, I think, when he was writing to these elders, he seemed
   to say to them, "Feed the flock of God, for I saw the Great Shepherd
   when He bought that flock. I was there when He purchased the sheep with
   His own blood. And, after He had risen from the dead, three times He
   said to me, 'Simon, son of Jonas, Do you love Me?' And when I answered,
   ''Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You," He said to me,'
   Feed My lambs. Shepherd My sheep. Feed My sheep.' Therefore, O my
   Brethren, by His agony and bloody sweat, by His Cross and passion, by
   His precious death and burial, by His glorious resurrection and
   ascension, I beseech you, 'feed the flock of God which He has purchased
   with Jesus' own blood.'" I see great force in this exhortation by the
   eyewitness who is writing to his fellow elders.

   But, dear Brothers and Sisters, you and I, never having seen Christ in
   His sufferings, might never have had a participation in this part of
   our text if there had not been another kind of witnessing, namely, the
   faith-witness. I do not place this second in importance, though I put
   it second in order, for, indeed, it is of the very greatest importance.
   There were thousands who were eyewitnesses of our Lord's sufferings
   who, nevertheless, saw not the true meaning of them. They saw the dear
   Sufferer besmeared with His own blood, but into His wounds they never
   looked by faith. Thousands saw the Savior die, but they simply went
   their way back to Jerusalem, some of them beating on their breasts, but
   none of them believing in Him, or really knowing the secret of that
   wondrous death. I trust that I am addressing many who could be grouped
   together as faith-witnesses of the sufferings of Christ. Speaking for
   myself, I remember well when my sins, like an intolerable burden,
   crushed me down. I dared not look up and I never would have been able
   to look up, or to speak to anyone of the joy which is now within my
   bosom if I had not, by faith, seen--

   "One hanging on a tree, In agonies and blood, Who fixed His languid
   eyes on me As near His Cross I stood. Sure never till my latest breath
   Can I forget that look! It seemed to charge me with His death, Though
   not a word He spoke. A second look He gave, which said, 'I f-eely all
   forgive. This blood is for your ransom paid, I die, that you may live.

   Then I saw not only that Christ Jesus died upon the Cross, but I also
   perceived who He was and why He died--and what He accomplished by that
   death. I was helped to learn that He "loved me and gave Himself for
   me." I understood that He took my place that I might take His
   place--that He took my sin that I might take His righteousness--that He
   bore my woe that I might share His joy. And when I saw that--I do
   notmean when I heard about it--I do notmean when I read of it--but when
   I saw it with my soul's inner eyes and not only understood it, but
   perceived my share in my Savior's Sacrifice, and believed in Him to the
   saving of my soul, oh, it was a blessed day for me! Many of you, dear
   Friends, know well what I mean, for you also had just such a sight as I
   have described. You were faith-witnesses of Christ's sufferings! With
   some of us, many days have passed since we had that first sight of our
   suffering Lord, yet that sight has been often renewed to us. Sitting at
   the Communion Table I have seen it most clearly--the bread and the wine
   have set forth Christ's broken body and poured out blood--and my soul
   has realized within herself His Godhead and His Manhood, His perfection
   and His grief, His sinlessness and yet His sin-bearing, His suretyship
   and the way He smarted for it. And it has been a great joy to see it,
   and to be able to sing--

   "He bore on the tree the sentence for me, And now both the Surety and
   sinner are free"-- for Jesus redeemed us completely and effectually
   when He died upon the Cross. Many of you, Beloved, have been in like
   manner, faith-witnesses of Christ's sufferings.

   There are some who depreciate this faith-witness, but, Sirs, it is
   faith that saves! You may be an eyewitness and yet perish as Judas did.
   You may be an eyewitness and yet be lost as Pilate was. You may be an
   eyewitness and still hate Christ as Caiaphas did. But if you become a
   faith-witness, then shall you be included among those of whom it is
   written, "They shall look upon Me 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 firstborn."
   Such a faith-view begets repentance, hope and love--and brings
   salvation to every soul that has it!

   Peter, then, was an eyewitness, but, better still, he was a
   faith-witness. And this being the case, he went on to be a testifying
   witness. If a man sees anything happen, he is a witness of it. But he
   is more manifestly a witness when he comes and says that he saw
   it--when he appears in court and bears a public testimony concerning
   it. I judge that the principal business of any minister of Christ, or
   of any elder of the Church of Christ, is to bear testimony to the
   sufferings of Christ. If the atoning sufferings of Christ are left out
   of a ministry, that ministry is worthless. "The blood is the life
   thereof," is as true about sermons as it is about animals and
   sacrifices. A bloodless gospel, a gospel without the Atonement, is a
   gospel of devils and not the Gospel of God. Many are laboring hard,
   till their oars bend, to get away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ--I
   mean hundreds of so-called ministers of Christ--but in proportion as
   they forsake the Gospel, they cease to be what they pretend to be. They
   are not the ministers of God, or of His Christ! They are not
   ambassadors telling of reconciliation to men if in their teaching the
   sufferings of Christ are hazy and their cause and motive and objective
   are obscured. It is the glory of some of us that whatever else we bear
   witness to, we certainly are witnesses of the sufferings of Christ. We
   declare to men that there is no hope for them but in Christ who died!
   We testify to them that we have, ourselves, exercised faith in His
   death and have, thereby, received eternal life! We tell them that we
   know that what we say is true--we are as sure of it as was that
   disciple who, when he saw the blood and water flowing from Christ's
   side, bore witness to it, and added--"He knows that what he says is
   true, that you might believe." These things are not like dreams to us,
   they are part of our very being! We have believed in the blood and
   righteousness of Jesus Christ and our troubled conscience has therein
   found peace. Our soul has been filled with all the fullness of God and,
   therefore, we are and must be witnesses to the sufferings of the
   crucified Son of God, to the reality of the Atonement that He made on
   the Cross and to the effect of that Atonement upon the heart and
   conscience of all those who receive it.

   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, this is not only the minister's work,
   but it is your work, too. We are all to be constantly bearing our
   witness to Christ and saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away
   the sin of the world." You know what the people said of John the
   Baptist when he was dead--it is a kind of epitaph which any one of us
   might be glad to have put on our tombstone--"John did no miracle, but
   all things that John spoke of this Man were true." He had no great
   talents. He was not noted for His eloquence. He was not s man of
   commanding presence. He had no recondite knowledge. He had no profound
   logical power, but all that he said concerning Christ was true! I would
   like to have John the Baptist's epitaph as my own and I would be glad
   for you to have it, too--that in life and death we might be known as
   true witnesses to the sufferings of Christ, the power of which we have
   felt in our own souls.

   There is one other view of this witness-bearing, and that is that Peter
   was, to a very large extent, a partaking witness in the sufferings of
   Christ. He does not say so in our text, but in the 13th verse of the
   fourth Chapter he wrote, "Rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of
   Christ's sufferings." And he could write like that because of what he
   had, himself, endured for Christ's sake. He had been mocked, despised,
   persecuted. His life had been sought and he knew that he would have to
   suffer a painful death, for His Master had said to him, "When you shall
   be old, you shall stretch forth your hands, and another shall gird you,
   and carry you where you would not." Putting all these things together,
   Peter could truly say that he was a witness of Christ's sufferings
   because he had, in a measure, participated in them.

   I hope I am addressing some who can also say--though to a far smaller
   degree than could the saints of old--"Yes, for Christ's sake we have
   been accounted fools. We have been reckoned among those who have not
   the courage to advance with the times. We have been willing to be
   mocked in the workshop, or in the pulpit, or wherever our lot has been
   cast among men. And we would cheerfully have borne far more if it had
   been imposed upon us." As the persecuted Believer looks up to his Lord,
   he can truthfully say--

   "If on my face for Your dear name, Shame and reproaches be, All hail
   reproach, and welcome shame, If You remember me."

   Thus you see how Peter was a witness of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
   May each of us be appointed to the same high and honorable position!

   II. The second thing which Peter says of himself is, perhaps, more
   remarkable than the first. He says that he was 'A PARTAKER OF THE GLORY
   THAT SHALL BE REVEALED.

   I like to see that word, "partaker," coming after the word, "witness,"
   for I do not think that any man can really be a useful witness for
   Christ unless he is a partaker. Can you go and talk to others about the
   bitterness of sin when you have never wept over it or repented of it,
   yourself? Can you speak of the sweets of Divine mercy of which you have
   never tasted? Will you magnify "precious faith" when you are, yourself,
   a stranger to the faith of God's elect? Will you set forth Christ,
   evidently crucified among men, when you have never seen Him, yourself?
   Can you describe the love which has never cheered your own heart? Will
   you tell of communion with Christ when you know nothing of its
   blessedness? Unhappy man! Your office would be, indeed, terrible if you
   were called to such a work! It were better for you to perform the most
   menial labor with the most grievous sweat and wear and tear of your
   very marrow and bones, than have to occupy a pulpit to talk of things
   which you have never tasted, handled and felt yourself. I would sooner
   not exist than be a preacher of the Truths of God which I had never
   believed in my own soul! The old writers used to speak of men who
   served in the shambles and butchers' shops and who saw and handled and
   sold the meat, but who, themselves, died of hunger. And they spoke of
   wretched folk who prepared dainties for their fellow men, but who did
   not, as they expressed it, get so much as a lick of their own fingers,
   but died of famine while they were feasting others.

   Oh horrible, horrible, must it be to be sick unto death and yet to be
   selling medicines that will heal! Oh, dreadful must it be to be
   hammering away building an ark, as Noah's carpenters did, and yet never
   to enter it, but to die in the deluge while the ship which you helped
   to build bears others over the wild waste of waters! Get home,
   minister! Tear off your gown and lay aside the very name that makes you
   appear to be a servant of God! Get down on your knees and cry, "God be
   merciful to me, a sinner, and forgive me for ever having dared to
   assume an office whose duties I could not fulfill! For how can I, who
   am blind, be the guide of others? And how shall I, who am spiritually
   deaf and dumb, make others hear? And how shall I tell of God and of His
   Covenant, and of His Grace, while I know not God experimentally and
   have no evidence that I am in the Covenant and have never tasted of His
   Grace?" That is right, Brother--you are getting on the right lines--if
   you would be a witness, you must first be a partaker! And you who teach
   in the Sunday school, you who preach at the street corners, you who go
   from house to house with your tracts--whoever you are who profess to be
   witnesses for Christ, take care that you are both witnesses and
   partakers. Join the two together--you cannot witness if you do not
   partake, or if you witness and do not partake, you only witness to your
   own condemnation!

   Very strangely, Peter here writes of himself as "a partaker of the
   glory." Did he mean that he was on the holy Mount of Transfiguration
   and saw the splendor of that sight when Christ was all aglow with a
   white light which gathered up all brightness and beauty into its
   solitary ray? Was he thinking of that memorable scene? I know not. It
   may have flitted across his mind but, in this passage, he says that he
   is "a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed." Not the glory that
   had been revealed, but that shall be revealed. Is that possible? Can a
   man be a partaker of a glory that, as yet, is not revealed?

   I answer that he may, first, by the closeness of his union with the
   glorified Christ. If I am, by faith, indissolubly one with Christ, then
   in His Glory I am glorified. On His Throne I am enthroned. By His
   victory I am "more than conqueror." If we are one with Him, then we are
   raised up together with Him and made to sit together with Him in the
   heavenly places. Oh, it is grand when a Believer does not so much think
   of himself as himself, but as part and parcel of his Lord! This is a
   very high attainment, yet Peter had reached it--and if you are vitally
   joined to Christ, you may reach it, too. If you have been, indeed,
   planted with Him in the likeness of Hs death, you shall also share the
   likeness of His resurrection--and you even now share it with Him, for
   as He is, so are you in this world! Was He humbled? Every saint
   underwent humiliation in Christ. Is He glorified? All His elect are
   virtually glorified in the glorification of their Covenant Head. It is
   indeed a blessed thing to know your union with Christ so completely
   that you are made "a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed" as
   far as you are personally concerned, but which is already revealed to
   Christ and, therefore, is already yours.

   I am sure that Peter also means that he had become a partaker of this
   glory to be revealed by the absolute certainty which he felt in his own
   soul that he should be ultimately, in very deed, a partaker of it When
   a man knows that he has such-and-such a possession in reversion, if he
   is very poor, he discounts it and begins to live upon its present
   worth. It is a very blessed thing when a child of God knows that
   because he is in Christ by faith, therefore, whatever things God has
   laid up for His people in general, He has laid up for him in
   particular! Whatever Christ has prepared for His redeemed, He has
   prepared for this redeemed one. Often his faith does, as it were,
   appropriate the future glory, and cry, "It is mine." The Believer
   begins to glorify God for it, though as yet he has not actually
   partaken of it, for faith brings him the substance of things hoped for,
   and is to him the evidence of things not seen. Brothers and Sisters,
   the next best thing to being actually in Heaven is to be assured that
   you will be there, and also to have this thought at the back of the
   assur-ance--that you may be there within the next five minutes! Oh, how
   speedily may you and I be in Glory! Before the clock ticks again, I may
   see the face of the King in His beauty, in the land that is very far
   off, in some respects, but very near in others. You know how John
   Newton puts it--

   "In vain my fancy strives to paint

   The moment after death,

   The glories that surround the saint,

   When yielding up his breath.

   One gentle sigh the fetter breaks--

   We scarce can say, 'They're gone!'

   Before the willing spirit takes

   Her mansion near the Throne." Well, since this glory is certain and may
   be so near, let us sit down and look at the golden gates--look until we
   see them--until they seem to come nearer and nearer and nearer, until
   the vision becomes so vivid that it ceases to be a vision and we are
   actually where we were thinking that we should soon be! It has so
   happened to many a child of God. There is one whom God favored with
   great wealth and to whom a friend said, "What a paradise this lovely
   garden is!" "Yes," he replied, "and I bless God for the assurance that,
   when I leave it, I shall go from one paradise to another and a better
   one." Some have said to a poor Christian, "What an ill-furnished place
   your room is! How scanty are your worldly goods!" "Ah," the man, has
   answered, "but I have enough to last me till I get Home, for I have the
   promise that bread shall be given me, water shall be sure and then I
   shall have Heaven to crown it all." When we have faith like that, then
   are we partakers of the Glory that shall be revealed!

   There is a step even beyond this when we advance from faith to positive
   enjoyment. There is such a thing as anticipating the glory to be
   revealedwith such a full, realizing faith that we begin to enjoy it
   even now! Surely, you have, at times, sat down with your fellow
   Believers, when the Word has been preached in the demonstration of the
   Spirit, and you have said, "Well, Heaven must be glorious, indeed, to
   be any better than this! My soul is all ablaze with love to Christ and
   even while my poor body is lingering here--

   "My heart is with Him on His Throne,

   And ill can brook delay.

   Each moment listening for the voice,

   'Rise up, and come away.'"

   And when the service has been over, you have said, "My soul was like
   the chariots of Amminadib--whether I was in the body or out the body, I
   could not tell." On your bed, sometimes, or in the chamber of sickness,
   or sitting alone in quiet meditation after you have been enraptured
   with a vision of your Lord, has it not seemed as if God had taken some
   dainty dish from off the table of the angels and passed it down to His
   waiting child below? Have you not heard stray notes of which you could
   almost say, "I am persuaded that is the angels' song"? And sweet sounds
   have reached your ears, like the music of "harpers harping with their
   harps," making you impatient of your exile here, but, at the same time,
   making you unspeakably happy until you shall be called up to join in
   the grand chorus of the Church of God above! "Unto Him that loved us,
   and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and
   priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever
   and ever!"

   Yes, Beloved, Peter could truly say that he was a partaker of the Glory
   yet to be revealed. I have no doubt that, sometimes, when he preached
   the Word, his soul was all aglow with holy fervor. I know that, often,
   I have been so graciously helped by the Holy Spirit to uplift my Lord
   and Master from this platform, that I have not wanted to go up those
   stairs any more. I would have liked to just finish up my discourse and
   say, "Amen," on earth, and at once begin to sing the everlasting song
   above! Have not you, dear Friend, also reached that blessed state? I am
   sure that Peter was often in that condition. And when he was
   persecuted, despised, imprisoned and his own brethren cast him out,
   there was often within his own bosom a company of the angels of God,
   Christ's sacred host--a very Mahanaim--and, still better, there was the
   Prince of Princes, the Angel of the Covenant, the Lord and Master of
   all the angels, speaking deep bliss into His servant's soul and filling
   him with unspeakable joy and glory!

   Now, my Brother or my Sister, if you get that Presence of Christ--and I
   pray that you may--you will be qualified to be a witness for Christ.
   People will say, "What makes those eyes so bright? What causes that man
   to be so happy? What is it that produces that calm, quiet spirit in the
   house? How is it that that man is not troubled as others are? He does
   not seem to have much cause for joy, but he is very serene and placid
   in spirit." They will perhaps say to you, "What is the secret of it
   all?" Then you will have an opportunity of saying, "I am a witness of
   Christ's sufferings, but I am also a partaker of the Glory that shall
   be revealed." Come with me, in thought, to Calvary, that you may learn
   the meaning of His sufferings, that you may afterwards be taught how
   you may share His Glory.

   I wish I could speak right to the very soul of some of you who do not
   know my Master--how I wish you did know Him! I cannot imagine what some
   of you have to comfort you which you can, for even a moment, compare
   with the bliss of knowing my Lord! I have seen your joys. I know
   something of what mirth can do and what relief laughter may be able to
   bring, but I also know that these things are of little use in the time
   of sickness, or when one is near death. It is just at such times that
   true joy in Christ becomes more deep, more sweet than ever! The less
   there is of the creature, the more room is there for the Creator. The
   more of suffering and sorrow we have to endure, the more of content and
   bliss can we enjoy. And oftentimes, when the body is weak and the head
   is aching, and the soul is faint, there is, as it were, a sweet swoon
   of Divine delight which comes over the spirit, which has more strength
   in it than strength, more joy in it than joy, and almost as much of
   Heaven in it as there is in Heaven! May you know this, for the sake of
   Him who has loved us and given Himself for us! God bless you all! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 CORINTHIANS 1.

   I am going to speak about the testimony of the Apostle Peter concerning
   his Lord, but we will first read together part of the writings of his
   "Beloved brother Paul," that we may see how these eminent servants of
   Christ agreed in their witness-bearing.

   Verses 1-3. Paul, called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ through the
   will of God, andSosthenes our brother, unto the church of God which is
   at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be
   saints, with all that in everyplace call upon the name of Jesus Christ
   our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God
   our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ So this is a message to us,
   also, who "call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord."

   4-9. I thank my God always on your behalf, for the Grace of God which
   is given you by Jesus Christ; that in everything we are enriched by
   Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony of
   Christ was confirmed in you: so that you come behind in no gift;
   waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm
   you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord
   Jesus Christ God is faithful, by whom you were called unto the
   fellowship ofHis Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul was going to blame
   them for some things that were not right, but he began by commending
   whatever good was in them by God's Grace.

   10-12. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
   Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no
   divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the
   same mind and in the same judgment For it has been declared to me of
   you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there
   are contentions among you. Now this I say, that everyone of you says, I
   am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ So that,
   at the least, there were four parties in that one little Church which
   ought to have been knit together in unbroken harmony! This is only one
   instance of what has happened hundreds of times since. These
   Corinthians had a great many speaking Brothers among them and they held
   services in which it was open to anybody to speak as he felt inclined.
   There was no reason why they should not do so, but what was the result
   of it? This Christian liberty of theirs, by-and-by, tended to mischief.
   They became divided into factions. They did not practice discipline as
   they ought to have done and, therefore, this community at Corinth is a
   beacon to all other churches, warning them not to carry on their
   worship in a similar style. It is a very curious thing that some people
   have taken these Corinthians as an example instead of a warning and,
   having copied their methods, the very same result has followed until
   there is no section of the Church of Christ that has become such a
   scandal, through its divisions and its intestine quarrels, as that
   which has imitated the Corinthians in their mode of worship! I suppose
   that while human nature is what it is, the same causes will produce the
   same results to the very end of the chapter. Paul does not tell them
   that their mode of worship was wrong--perhaps it was not--for great
   liberty is allowable to Christians, but he does lay the axe at the root
   of their divisions.

   13, 14. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you
   baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you,
   but Crispus and Gaius. They were such a quarrelsome set of people that
   he could not have taken any comfort from having baptized them. He was
   glad that they could not quote his name as having done so and thus it
   may be, have added still more to their division and strife.

   15-18. Lest any should say that I have baptized in my own name. And I
   baptized also the household of Stephanus: besides, I know not whether I
   baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach
   the Gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ should
   be made of no effect. For the preaching of the Cross is to them that
   perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
   I suppose that in that Church, with its many eloquent speakers and men
   of knowledge, there came to be a spirit of emulation among them as to
   which should speak best. And some were tempted to find novel meanings
   in the Word, and to come to the meetings to tell of their wonderful
   discoveries. The Apostle says that he did not so preach--he kept to the
   Cross of Christ, which some counted to be but foolishness. "We know all
   about that," they said. "Ah, but," replied the Apostle, "unto us which
   are saved it is the power of God."

   19-21. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and
   will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Where is the
   wiser, where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Has
   not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the
   wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
   foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God, in His
   infinite wisdom, raised up a number of philosophers just about the time
   of the coming of Christ and a little before that great event. If ever
   there were great minds upon the earth, it was then--yet these men, with
   all their schools of thought, knew not God--and the people did not
   follow after them, so that the earthly wisdom turned out to be a
   failure.

   22-29. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
   but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and
   unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews
   and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the
   foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is
   stronger than men for you see your calling, brethren, how that not many
   wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called:
   but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
   wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the
   things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which
   are despised, has God chosen, yes, and things which are not, to bring
   to nothing things that are: that no flesh should glory in His Presence.
   And, at this day, it is a great snare to the Church when she glories in
   her education, when she puts any confidence in the learning, or the
   wit, or the eloquence of her ministers, when she relies in any degree,
   whatever, upon an arm of flesh. The sword of the Spirit, if it is put
   into a velvet and embroidered scabbard, is all the worse for that. Pull
   it out! The Word of God cannot cut while it is hampered with human
   wisdom and human learning half as well as when its keen edge, alone, is
   used! It is the Lord, by the power of His Spirit, who must make the
   Word effectual. Oh, for more faith and truer faith in Him!

   30, 31. But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us
   wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifca-tion, and redemption: that,
   according as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord.
   There is no one else in whom we may glory! Away with every form of
   boasting except that of making our boast in the Lord, and especially of
   glorying in the great atoning Sacrifice of His dear Son, our Lord and
   Savior Jesus Christ!
     __________________________________________________________________

A Lost Christ Found

   (No. 2611)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A THURSDAY EVENING, EARLY IN
   THE YEAR 1857.

   "But they, supposing Him to have been in the company, went a day's
   journey; and they sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances.
   And when they found Him not, they turned back, again, to Jerusalem,
   seeking Him. And it came to pass that after three days they found Him
   in the Temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them
   and asking them questions." Luke 2:44-46.

   WHAT a precious treasure must the child Jesus have been to His parents!
   You who have children whom you love, not merely because they are yours,
   but because you discover in them traits of character which are signs of
   Divine Grace, can tell, in some measure, how precious the Child Jesus
   must have been. Born to His mother in a miraculous manner, her heart
   was set upon Him and, after all the wonderful things that had been said
   about Him by the angel, by Simeon and by Anna, you cannot wonder that
   she expected much, although she really expected less than she received.
   When you think of the perils and troubles to which His parents were
   exposed for His sake, by the sword of Herod, the flight into Egypt and
   the cruelty of Archelaus, you cannot wonder that He was a very choice
   treasure to them, carefully tended and well guarded and protected. They
   had felt how terrible it would be to lose Him. They knew His worth--at
   least they guessed something of that inestimable value which must
   always be attached to the perfect Manhood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

   Do you not marvel, therefore, that they could have lost Him? It seems
   not a little amazing that they could have allowed Him to go away from
   them even for a minute! Trustworthy as He was, yet He must have been a
   Child so dear to their hearts, His company must have been so precious
   to them that one would have thought His mother could scarcely have
   spared Him from her side for a single moment. You would hardly have
   imagined that in the midst of such a crowd as was assembled at
   Jerusalem she would have left Him alone for an instant. Surely, you
   would say, she would tend that precious treasure perpetually. If she
   took her Child to places where she might lose Him, she would, with the
   utmost care, watch over Him until she brought Him back. And yet Mary
   lost her Son--lost Him in Jerusalem--and even went a day's journey
   before she discovered her loss!

   Do not be astonished, O Believer, do not be amazed at Mary losing her
   Son! You have a treasure quite as precious, for it is the same blessed
   Person! Jesus Christ is yours--not your Son, but your Brother--not your
   child, but your Friend. No, more--your Savior! Yours spiritually, yours
   by precious experience, yours by gracious donation of Himself to you
   and yours by happy communing which He has held with you in many seasons
   of sweet refreshment. Yet some of you have lost Him--lost His
   company--but He has not lost you! His loving heart is still immutably
   the same towards you. You who have lost Him, as you think of your
   former joys, can join with deep emphasis in Cowper's lines--

   "Where is the blessedness I knew

   When first I saw the Lord?

   Where is the soul-refreshing view

   Of Jesus and His Word?

   What peaceful hours I then enjoyed!

   How sweet their memory still!

   But now I find an aching void

   The world can never fill."

   How is it you have lost Christ? One would have thought you would never
   have parted from Him. In such a wicked world as this, with Satan ever
   ready to rob you of Him, with ten thousand enemies trying to take Him
   away from you-- with such a precious Savior whose Presence is so sweet,
   whose words are so melodious and whose company is so dear to you--one
   might have thought you would have watched Him every moment and never
   allowed Him to stray from you. But, alas, you have let Him go! Your
   Jesus has left you and you are seeking Him, and crying, "Oh, that I
   knew where I might find Him!" And, possibly, you went many a day's
   journey before you discovered that you had lost Him. You thought He was
   still in your soul, when really He had gone from you and left you for a
   season, to let you find out your great need of Him that you might seek
   Him, again, with full purpose of heart.

   To you, therefore, I address myself, for I think there is something in
   this narrative especially suitable for you. There is, first, the loss
   of Christ Secondly, the seeking after Christ And, thirdly, the finding
   of Christ

   I. First, I have something to say concerning THE LOSS OF CHRIST.

   And I begin by saying that souls, very dear and precious to the
   Redeemer, may yet lose the sensible enjoyment of His Presence. His
   mother lost Him, His father lost Him. They were very dear to Him and He
   was very dear to them, yet they lost Him. Many of the Lord's beloved
   people have lost their Savior. Not lost Him wholly--that can never
   be--their substance is in them, even when they have lost their leaves.
   The holy Seed within them is the substance of their piety, but they
   have lost His visible Presence and yet they are dear to Him, as when,
   by faith, with Simeon, they took Him in their arms and kissed Him with
   the lips of ardent affection. The best of saints sometimes have to
   endure the hiding of God's Countenance and are made to walk through
   dark paths where they see not the shining of the sun. Shall I pause to
   give you instances? I might find you many such in God's Word, but
   instead, thereof, let me find them in your own hearts. Who among us,
   that has long known the Lord, has not had, sometimes, to mourn the
   absence of our Savior? Like the dove that has lost its mate,
   inconsolable until it has returned, we have been sitting alone and
   pouring out our moans and groans. We have sung, in plaintive tones--

   "Return, O holy Dove, return

   Sweet messenger of rest!

   I hate the sins that made You mourn,

   And drove You from my breast." We have cried to Him to come back, but
   He has hidden His face from us, and covered Himself in the thick
   darkness, nor would He manifest Himself to us.

   The first time that this great trouble surprises a true Christian, he
   usually draws this conclusion from it--"I am not the Lord's child, or
   else I would always have the smile of His love." It is a wrong
   conclusion! It is the logic of unbelief, it is a false logic, its
   conclusion is, therefore, untrue! A child does not always have its
   father's smile, though it is a fondly loved one, and is greatly
   delighted in--it is the offspring of its father's heart, very dear to
   him, sprung from his inmost soul as well as from his loins, yet it does
   not always have a smile, nor always a sweet word from him. There must
   be, sometimes, even in Christian families, sharp words from a wise
   parent's loving lips. It is not, therefore, a fair inference that
   Christ has left the soul on which He is not smiling. Oh, conclude not,
   you distressed one, you who have lost the evidence of Grace and the
   comforting Presence of your Master! Conclude not that He has shut up
   His heart of compassion when He has seemed to close His eyes of love.
   "I sleep, but My heart wakes," He says. "I shut My eyes upon you, but
   My heart is still loving you. I lift the rod and scourge you, but my
   heart, in its inmost recesses, has still your name inscribed upon it. I
   will not leave you, I will not forsake you, I have not cast you away. I
   have chastened you sorely, but I have not given you over unto death.
   The clouds have not quenched the sun, you shall yet see the light. I
   will yet shine upon you and once more will I manifest Myself to you."
   The losing of the conscious realization of Christ's Presence, the
   suspension of communion with Him is a very disagreeable and a very sad
   part of Christian experience, but let this be noted--it is often the
   experience of a true Christian and some of the very best and most
   highly favored of God's children have had to suffer it.

   Now please notice where the parents of Jesus lost Him. They lost Him at
   the feast at Jerusalem and if ever you lose the company of your Master,
   O Christian, you will most likely lose it at a feast! I never lost my
   Master's company at a funeral--such a thing is more than possible at a
   wedding. I have never lost my Savior's Presence in the house of
   mourning, by the bedside of the sick and dying--but I have sometimes
   felt suspension of fellowship with my Lord when the flute and the viol
   have been sounding in my ear and when joy and gladness ruled the hour.
   Our most happy moments are our most perilous ones! It is said that
   where the most beautiful cacti grow--the most glorious of
   flowers--there are to be found the most venomous of snakes and, truly,
   among our delights are to be found our dangers. As Cleopatra had an asp
   introduced to her in a basket of flowers, so have we many an asp
   brought to us in our joys. Take heed in the time of your joys,
   Believer--you are safer in your season of sorrow!

   Storms afford the safest sailing for a Christian, calms are, for him,
   more terrible than whirlwinds. Deep waters know no rocks, shallow
   waters that gaily ripple are the perils of the sea of our life. Far out
   upon the ocean, where the horizon has its round ring and nothing is
   within sight, the ship is seldom in danger, but near the shore, when
   the white cliff gladdens the eyes of the mariner--there the pilot must
   look well to his helm! In your troubles, God is often especially with
   you, but He is not always with you in your joys. Job's sons learned
   that there were dangers in feasts--God's sons may not learn the same
   lesson in so terrible a manner--but they may learn it in a very
   grievous way. It would have been better for David to have been sick on
   his bed than to have been walking on his housetop enjoying the evening
   breeze. And it would be better for you to be cast into the fiery
   furnace of affliction, where you can be refined, than to be left to lie
   down in the meads of happiness, where you may have poison poured into
   your ear by a wily adversary. Beware of your joys! There is more fear
   of losing Christ at a feast than anywhere else. You are a young
   Christian and you are going out to a party this week--mind what you do!
   I will not say to you--Do not go. If you can ask God's blessing in
   going, go. But I do say to you--Take care, take care! Mind you, be
   careful! Reef your sails when you get there. Go as fast as you like
   when you are alone, but mind what you are doing when you are in the
   society of others. Take care, take care, take care, especially in mixed
   company!

   And, ah, I am sorry to have to say--Take care, too, when you are in
   professedly Christian company, for what fine "Christian company" there
   is to be seen, sometimes. Christians that cannot find amusement enough
   for themselves, cannot talk about the Lord Jesus, cannot mention His
   name, cannot find pleasure enough in the things of Scripture, but must
   turn to other and meaner things to supply them with joy. Take heed of
   all doubtful company--there is little good to be gained in some of your
   gatherings. If you cannot spend your time in prayer and in seeking what
   Jesus said and did, you had better be at home. Christ is often lost at
   a feast--His Presence is often withdrawn from us when we get into
   company. Our Jesus loves seclusion--He will not strive, nor lift up His
   voice, nor cause it to be heard in the streets! He loves to dwell with
   His people in the privacy of the house. His message is, "Come, My
   people, enter into your chambers, and shut your door after you." You
   will not lose your Master there. Have Him with you in your own
   household--you will not lose Him there! Walk with Him, alone, and you
   will not lose Him. I do not say--Have no feasts--

   "Why should the children of a King Go mourning all their days?"

   I will not say--Have no hours of gladness--you have a right to them. I
   will not say--Do not meet together--do so, your meeting may be
   profitable to each of you. But I do say--Take care what you do. Christ
   Jesus was lost at a feast by His mother and He may be lost by you
   unless you are very careful.

   To young persons who are seriously inclined, yet not decided for God,
   let me solemnly say that evil company is a snare of the devil. Oh, how
   many have been ruined by it! If Satan can but get you back to your old
   companions, he thinks it will be all right for him and that he will be
   sure to have you at last. Nothing will do for a man who has kept evil
   company but to leave it altogether. You cannot bear much of it--you had
   better give it up, altogether--then you will be entirely safe. Or else
   there will be first, one, and then another enticing you a little way
   back, and then a little further back until who can tell?--All those
   fair beginnings, as you thought them to be, may end by being blighted
   and destroyed by the blast of carnal, frothy conversation! The Lord
   deliver us from losing Jesus at a feast!

   Observe, also, that Mary and Joseph lost Jesus for three days, from
   which I learn that it is possible for a Believer to lose the company of
   his Master for a long time, and yet find Him, again, after all. They
   did find Him after the three days and you, too, poor mourning Believer,
   will find your Savior again! There is a poor doubter yonder. He is sick
   at heart, for he has lost his Lord and he cannot find Him. Oh, how he
   has groaned and poured out his heart before God, but still no answer
   has come to his cry. He concludes, therefore, that he must perish! No,
   poor desponding one, the parents of Jesus found Him the third day, so
   seek Him once more! His absence is but temporary. It may be long, but
   the longest hiding of His face shall have an end. O poor, timid child,
   cry not at the eclipse--though it may last an hour, the sun's light is
   not quenched! O you poor Little-Faith, you may well sigh, but do not
   despair! If Jesus has left you for a while, He will yet return to you,
   you shall again behold His face, again bask in the sunshine of His love
   and know that He is yours and that you are His. If you have lost Him
   for months--yes, even for years, I had almost said--yet shall you find
   Him again! With your whole heart seek Him and He will be found of
   you--only give yourself up thoroughly to the search for Him and verily
   He will not entirely leave you, but you shall yet discover Him to your
   joy and gladness, and shall again be feasted with marrow and fatness.
   Three days was the Child Jesus lost, but yet He was found again by
   Joseph and Mary! So Christ may be for a long time, absent, and yet may
   the poor saint find comfort in Him once more.

   II. Now I come to notice THE SEEKING AFTER CHRIST. The father and
   mother of Jesus sought Him and those who have lost Christ's Presence
   will do well to imitate their example.

   Note, first, that they sought Him very judiciously, by which I mean
   that they sought Him in the right places. They went back to Jerusalem
   and sought Him. It was at Jerusalem they lost Him, so it was at
   Jerusalem that they might naturally expect to find Him. Tell me where
   you lost the company of Christ and I will tell you the most likely
   place for you to find Him again. Did you lose the company of Christ by
   forgetting prayers and becoming slack in your devotions? Have you lost
   Christ in the prayer closet? Then you will find Him there! Did you lose
   Christ through some sin? Then you will find Him in no other way but by
   the giving up of the sin and seeking, by the Holy Spirit, to mortify
   the member in which the lust dwells. Did you lose Christ by neglecting
   the Scriptures? Then you must find Christ in the Scriptures where you
   lost Him--you will find Him. It is a true saying, "Look for a thing
   where you dropped it, it is there." So look for Christ where you lost
   Him, for He has not gone away. It is hard work to go back for
   Christ--John Bunyan tells us that the pilgrim found the piece of the
   road back to the arbor of ease--that journey back that he had to travel
   to find his roll under the settle--the hardest piece he had to go.
   Twenty miles on the road is easier to go than one mile back for the
   lost evidence. Take care, then, when you find your Master, to cling
   more closely to Him! But if you have lost Him, go back and seek Him
   where you lost Him.

   And note, too, that they sought Him among His kinsfolk and
   acquaintances. And that is the right place for us, also, to find Him.
   If I am in distress of soul, where can I get relief? I saw a huge
   placard as I came along, just now, recommending persons who have the
   heartache to go to Charles Matthews to get it cured--I suppose, by
   seeing a play. Ah, they will go a long while, if it is realheartache,
   before they will get it taken away there. The theater is the place
   where they get the heartache, not where they lose it! People don't lose
   diseases, generally, where they catch them. If you catch a fever
   anywhere, I would not advise you to go to the same house to get rid of
   it. If you have the heartache through indulging in some sin, it is not
   by deeper draughts of sin that you can cure it! Drinking may stupefy
   and intoxicate you for a while, and make you forget it, but it is a bad
   thing to use intoxicating liquor instead of the real remedy. O you that
   have the heartache, you that have broken hearts, you that have troubles
   rolling over your heads--where can you expect to find Christ? Why,
   among His kinsfolk and acquaintances! Do not go to the giddy haunts of
   vice and sin--go not where there is revelry and mirth, but go where the
   disciples of Jesus are known to meet! Talk with His people, converse
   with those who have the most knowledge of His love and of His power to
   save. It is most likely that you will find your Savior among His
   kinsfolk and acquaintance--go not to the world to look for Him! Seek
   pearls where they lie deep down in the sea, but seek them not where
   such treasures never were discovered. Otherwise, you will go on a
   fool's errand in verity and truth.

   Mark, again, that while they sought Jesus judiciously, they sought Him
   continuously. They did not look for Him just one day and then give up
   the search--but they kept on looking until they found Him. So,
   Christian, if you have lost the precious joy of communion with your
   Lord, keep on seeking it and do not stop your prayers until you have
   recovered it. Be not content with one dive into the depths after this
   pearl, but dive again and again, with untiring perseverance, until you
   discover it. And yet, again, we are told that they sought Him
   sorrowfully. Mary said to Jesus, "Your father and I have sought You
   sorrowing." I know this--no true Believer will ever lose the company of
   His Lord without sorrowing over his loss--it would be impossible! I
   have heard some of you say that you have not had fellowship with Christ
   lately, but if you make that confession with a smile on your face, I
   have grave doubts about your piety. True Christians think it their
   greatest grief to lose their Master's Presence--they do not talk of it
   lightly--it is their misery that they have not the Prince of Mercy with
   them! They perpetually need His company and if it is withdrawn, even
   for an instant, they feel that the light of the sun is taken away from
   their eyes--

   "'Tis Heaven to dwell in His embrace,

   And nowhere else but there."

   The parents of Jesus sought Him sorrowfully and we must do the same if
   we have lost Him. The best messengers to find Christ are the penitent
   tears of His saints. Tears act on Divine mercy like the magnet on the
   needle--the tears of the Christian find the heart of God. Go after your
   Master with wet eyes and He will soon come to you. There is a sacred
   connection between Christ and weeping eyes, for it is Christ's office
   to wipe the mourner's eyes. And whenever He sees you weeping, His
   fingers are eager to be wiping them. He must wipe them. He cannot bear
   to see the tears and, if He wipes them, He must come to you. So, the
   surest way to find Him is to seek Him sorrowing. There is nothing like
   a sorrowing prayer if we have lost our Lord. Prayers from a heart that
   is wrung with the rough hand of sorrow are the most acceptable in the
   ears of the God of Sabaoth. If you are sorrowing, O Christian, then
   seek on and believe that you are all the nearer to finding your Lord
   when your sorrows increase! Tears are the bilge-water of the soul--the
   eyes are the pumps and thus God keeps you floating till He brings you,
   again, into the haven of rest and peace! It is a blessed thing to be
   able to seek Christ, though it is sorrowfully.

   III. Now I close by speaking concerning THE FINDING OF CHRIST. Mark,
   first, where the lost Christ was found. Do you know where His parents
   went to seek Him? When they went to Jerusalem, they asked all their
   kinsfolk and acquaintances, "Have you seen that dear lovely Child?" All
   knew Him, but they answered, "No, we have not seen Him." I suppose they
   then went to the house of entertainment, the inn where they had stayed,
   and asked, "Is our Son here? Is our Child here--that fair-haired Boy,
   the most beautiful you ever saw?" "Ah," the people would reply, "that
   is an old tale with women. Go away! We have not seen Him. He is not
   here." Christ was not in the inn. There was not room for Him there when
   He was born and there was not likely to be room for Him to remain there
   afterwards. They did not go to the palace to seek Him--not inside it,
   at any rate. They were afraid of Herod, for if Herod had laid hold of
   Him, there would have been an end of Him. I daresay they thought that
   the dear Child had been attracted by the splendid buildings that decked
   Jerusalem with glory, and that He would be sure to be in the crowd,
   gazing at some of the great and grand structures, so they went through
   the principal streets, thinking, surely, He would be there. And when
   they asked the curious people from foreign countries who were
   investigating all the wonders of the city, if they had seen the Child,
   they most likely stared them in the face, for Christ Jesus is not
   always to be found with the curious in their research. There was a
   mountebank in the street and a number of children had gathered around
   him and the performance might be likely to attract Jesus, so His
   parents went there, but folly knew nothing about the holy Child Jesus.

   At last, His mother thought that, possibly, He might be in the Temple.
   Yes, that was the place for Him! He was the King of the Temple, and a
   king should be in his palace--and there they found Him, humbling the
   pride of the doctors! So learn from this, O Christian, that you will
   never find your Master where folly exhibits herself to gazing
   multitudes. You will never find Him where curious learning studies with
   deep research to discover everything that is wonderful and profound.
   You will never find Him where giddy mirth is gathered in the assemblies
   of the ungodly. But if you would find Christ, you must find Him in His
   Temple, in the house of prayer! It is here that He makes His glories
   known! It is here that He speaks to His children. Here are set thrones
   ofjudgment, the thrones of the house of David--

   "The King Himself comes near,

   And feasts His saints today.

   Here we may sit and see Him here,

   And love, and praise, and pray.

   One day amidst the place

   Where my dear God has been,

   Is sweeter than ten thousand days

   Of pleasurable sin."

   Sinner, if you seek Christ, seek Him where He is to be found! If you
   seek happiness, peace and mercy, go after Him where He goes. Lie down
   at the pool of Bethesda and if God has not yet quickened you, oh, that
   you might be brought to the pool of Siloam, to the gate of Divine
   Mercy, for it is here that Jesus Christ loves to resort and work the
   great wonders of His Grace! To the saints, I wish to say just this--Do
   not rest if you have lost the society of your Lord. Do not give sleep
   to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids until you have had restored
   to you the communion that has been suspended. Do not live, oh, I
   beseech you, do not live--live, did I say?--it is notliving--do not
   continue to merely existin such a condition for another hour! If your
   fellowship with Christ is broken, run to your house, fall upon your
   knees and cry to Him to give you fresh manifestations of His love. It
   is dangerous to delay! O child of God, it is perilous to be without
   your Lord! This would be to make you like sheep without its shepherd, a
   tree without water at its roots, a sere leaf in the tempest, not bound
   to the Tree of Life. Oh, may Christ influence your heart, that you may
   first see your danger and then, with full purpose of heart, seek after
   Him who is waiting to be found of you! I beseech you, by your desire
   for usefulness and happiness. I beseech you, by the loveliness of
   Christ, by the fearful condition of being found out of fellowship with
   Him. I beseech you, by your own sorrow, which you have already
   suffered, and by the misery which will certainly increase unless you
   find Him! I beseech you rest not until you have found Christ, again, to
   the joy and gladness of your spirit!

   And as for those of you who know not the Savior, what I have been
   saying is as nothing to you--you are careless about these all-important
   matters--but I beseech you, by Him that lives and was dead, by the
   solemnities of Hell, by the dread mysteries of eternity, by the bliss
   of Heaven and by the terrors of the Day of Judgment--I beseech you as a
   dying man speaking to dying men, if you have never found Christ, let
   these words ring in your ears--you are without God, without Christ,
   without hope and strangers from the commonwealth of Israel! Let me say
   those words again, though they are like the tolling of a knell--
   Without God, without Christ, without hope and strangers from the
   commonwealth of Israel! Ponder over those two words, "Without Christ!
   Without Christ!" And if they do not stagger you, God help you! But if,
   my Hearer, they do cause you to start. If God shall make them break you
   up, then, Sinner, when He has broken you in pieces, remember that
   Christ Jesus is willing to save all those whom He has made willing to
   be saved! As certainly as you need Him, He wants you! Seek Him and you
   will find Him! Do but knock and the door of mercy shall be opened! Do
   but ask and you shall receive!

   O awakened Sinner, here is Christ's message to you! "He that believes
   and is baptized shall be saved." Oh, that you would believe in Christ
   and be baptized! Oh, that God would help all of you who have nothing of
   your own, to give yourselves up to Christ and take Him to be your
   All-in-All! But, hardened Sinner, I send you away with those dreadful
   words which I repeated, just now, and I hope they will ring in your
   ears all the week--when you walk the streets, when you are on your bed,
   when you are at your meals--without God, without Christ, without hope
   and strangers to the commonwealth of Israel And, therefore, without
   Heaven! Those who have the earnest of Heaven even now have a blessed
   "hope which makes not ashamed." May that hope be given to you, my
   Hearers, for Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH 57:10-21; 58:1-11.

   The Prophet has been giving a very terrible description of the sin of
   the nation. We need not read it all, but at last he says this--

   Verse 10. You are wearied in the greatness of your way. "You are worn
   out with your own way. You have been so zealous in your rebellion
   against God that you have actually fatigued yourself in the pursuit of
   evil." That is a true description of those who have worn themselves out
   in the ways of sin.

   10. Yet said you not, There is no hope: you have found the life of your
   hand; therefore you were not grieved. Though they had hunted for
   pleasure and had not found it, and had brought themselves into great
   distress, yet they would not give up the hope of, after all, succeeding
   in their rebellion. Oh, how obstinately are men set upon seeking
   satisfaction where it can never be found--namely, in the pursuit of
   sin! These people were still alive and they were content to be so, but
   they were not grieved although God had sorely chastened them.

   11. And of whom have you been afraid or feared, that you have lied and
   have not remembered Me?''Me, your Maker, your Friend, to whom you owe
   your very soul, unless that soul shall go down into the Pit, 'You have
   not remembered Me.'"

   11. Nor laid it to your heart; have not I held My peace even of old,
   and you do not fear Me?When God is very long-suffering and lets men
   alone in their sin, then, often, they quite forget Him and have no fear
   of Him.

   12. I will declare your righteousness, and your works; for they shall
   not profit you. If God once takes the self-righteous man's
   righteousness and explains what it really is, He will soon reveal to
   its owner that it is a mere delusion and sham that will not profit him
   at all.

   13. When you cry, let your companies deliver you.' 'When sickness,
   depression of spirit and death, itself, shall come to you, and you
   begin to dread what is to follow, and cry to those who comforted you in
   your time of health, what will they be able to do for you?"

   13. But the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but
   he that puts his trust in Me shall possess the land, and shall inherit
   My holy mountain. All confidence in men shall be blown away as chaff is
   driven by the wind--but faith in God wins the day.

   14, 15. And shall say, Cast you up, cast you up, prepare the way, take
   up the stumbling block out of the way of My people. For thus says the
   high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell
   in the high and holy place with him, also, that is of a contrite and
   humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the
   heart of the contrite ones. That is a wonderful verse! You notice that
   the prelude to it explains the greatness and the holiness of God and
   then, like an eagle swooping out of the sky even down to the earth, we
   find God coming from His high and lofty place to dwell with humble and
   contrite hearts! Not with the proud--not with you who think yourselves
   good and excellent--does God dwell, but with men who feel their sin and
   acknowledge it. With men who feel their unworthiness and confess it. I
   will read this verse again to impress it upon your memory. "Thus says
   the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I
   dwell in the high and holy place with him, also, that is of a contrite
   and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the
   heart of the contrite ones."

   16. For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always angry: for
   the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made. See
   the tender meaning of God's message in this verse. He has been
   encouraging the guilty one and making him feel the enormity of his
   offenses and then He says, "I will not do that any more, lest I should
   crush him. He is too weak to bear any more punishment or reproof.
   Therefore I will not any longer afflict him, but I will turn to him in
   mercy, 'for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I
   have made.'"

   17. For the iniquity ofhis covetousness was Iangry, andsmote him:
   Ihidand was angry, andhe went on forwardin the way ofhis heart. Here
   God shows that His chastening does not always produce a good result,
   for, sometimes, when men are tried on account of sin, they grow worse
   and worse. "I hid and was angry, and he went on forward in the way of
   his heart." What does God say of such a great sinner as that?

   18. I have seen his ways. "I have seen that he goes from bad to worse
   when I afflict him. Now I will try another plan. 'I have seen his
   ways,'"

   18, 19. And will heal him: I willleadhim, also, andrestore comforts
   unto him and to his mourners. Icreate the fruit of the lips; Peace,
   peace to him that is far off and to him that is near, says the LORD;
   and I will heal him. It is heart-melting to see the tenderness of God.
   "I will not further smite him, lest his spirit should fail before me. I
   will not continue to strike him because I can see that he only goes
   farther away from Me, the more I chastise him. I will deal with him in
   abounding love. 'I will heal him.'" I believe that there is many a
   sinner who runs away from God thinking that the Lord is his enemy and,
   as God pursues him, he does not dare look back. He thinks that it is
   the step of the Avenger that he hears, so he flees faster and farther
   away from God. But when he does venture to look back and sees that it
   is a loving Father's face that is gazing upon him, oh, how he regrets
   his folly in running from Him! Then he throws himself into the arms of
   the God of Love and wonders how he could have been the enemy of this,
   His greatest Friend. May such a happy turn as that happen to some whom
   I am now addressing!

   20, 21. But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest,
   whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, to
   the wicked. They may have the semblance of peace, or a false peace, but
   nothing which is worthy of being called peace.

   Isaiah 58:1, 2. 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. There are many nominally religious people
   who are full of sin. They have an external religion which allows them
   to live in rebellion against God. And such people are not easily
   convinced of sin. Hence the Prophet is bid to lift up his voice like a
   trumpet. Yet, even if he does so, they will not hear him. There are
   none so deaf as those that will not hear--and these men do not wish to
   hear what God has to say to them "Yet they seek Me daily"

   2. 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. They are always in
   a place of worship if possible. They cannot have too many services and
   sermons, yet they have no heart towards God. O my dear Friends, let us
   always be afraid of merely external religiousness! Genuine conversion,
   real devotion to God, true communion with God--these are sure
   things--but mere outward religiousness is nothing but so much varnish
   and tinsel! It is, indeed, but the ghastly coffin of a soul that never
   was quickened unto spiritual life. This is the way these sham
   religionists talked about their religion.

   3. Why have we fasted, they say, and You see not? Why have we afflicted
   our soul, and You take no notice? When God rejects a man's religion,
   what must be the reason of it? Here is the explanation.

   3. Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all
   your labors. "You fast, but you make your workmen toil on! You
   determine that they shall not have one atom of their labor abated and
   you make an amusement of what you call a fast. 'In the day of your fast
   you find pleasure.'"

   4. Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fiat
   of wickedness: you shall not fast as you do this day, to make your
   voice to be heard on high. The best sort of mere external religion will
   soon turn sour. If you do not worship the Lord in a right spirit, God
   will loathe the very form of your service! Why, you might, by
   hypocrisy, make even Prayer Meetings to be hateful in the sight of God!
   And the ordinances may be made as abominable to God as the "mass"
   itself! You can soon degrade hearing sermons into mere listening to
   oratory and the Sabbath may easily become an object only of
   superstitious and formal observance. The heart--the heart is
   everything! If that is wrong, it sours the sweetest things under
   Heaven.

   5. Is it such a fast that Ihave chosen? A day for a man to afflict his
   soul?Is it to bow down his headas a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth
   and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast and an acceptable day to
   the LORD? Does God care only for the externals of worship? Is He
   satisfied with sackcloth and ashes, and the hanging down of the head
   like a bulrush?

   6. Is not this the fast that Ihave chosen? To loose the bands of
   wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go
   free, and that to break everyyoke?Yes, this is true fasting before
   God--not to demand your pound of flesh and declare that you will have
   it. Not to grind down the poor man to the last farthing, but, "to loose
   the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens and to let the
   oppressed go free."

   7. Is it not to dealyour bread to the hungry, and thatyou bring thepoor
   that are cast out to yourhouse? When you see the naked, that you cover
   him; and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh? That is the
   kind of fast that the Lord approves--to deny yourself that you may give
   to those who are in need!

   8. 9. Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health
   shall spring forth speedily: then your righteousness shall go before
   you; the glory of the LORD shall be your reward. Then shall you call
   and the LORD shall answer; you shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am.
   If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the
   finger and speaking vanity. That is, if you shall take away all
   oppression, all wrong-doing to men, all talking of lies and speaking
   vanity, "Then shall your light break forth as the morning."

   10, 11. And if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the
   afflicted soul; then shall your light rise in obscurity and your
   darkness be as the new day: and the LORD shall guide you continually,
   and satisfy your soul in drought, and make fat your bones: and you
   shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose
   waters fail not What promises God gives to those who consider the poor
   and needy round about them! But if you shut your ears to the cry of the
   distressed, God will shut His ears to your cry.
     __________________________________________________________________

Questions and Answers Concerning Zion

   (No. 2612)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 5, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   NOVEMBER 8, 1883.

   "What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORRD has
   founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it." Isaiah
   14:32.

   ZION evidently attracted great attention in its own day and, I suppose,
   the term, "Zion," stood for the whole city. It was a city of many
   singularities and it was especially remarkable for its worship when
   Jerusalem was as it should be. It had a Temple, but there was no image
   in it. Worship was continually carried on there, but the God who was
   worshipped was invisible. This made Zion and its Temple different from
   all other cities and all other temples under Heaven, for, wherever else
   you went, you saw graven images set up and men prostrating themselves
   before the work of their own hands. It was not so in Zion. There, the
   one living and true God resided, and the Temple at Jerusalem was the
   center of His worship for all the faithful--and every type or symbol in
   His solemn service was meant to teach the people concerning Him. Zion
   was remarkable, not so much for the strength of its defenses, the
   beauty of its palaces and the glory of its Temple, as for being "the
   city of the great King." "God is in the midst of her, she shall not be
   moved." Hence, although Zion was but a little hill and other hills were
   great compared with it, yet the fame of it went forth even to the ends
   of the earth.

   Zion is always a type of the Church of the living God--and everywhere
   the Church of God is singular and, for that reason, noticeable. It is a
   power altogether unlike all other powers, a Kingdom quite different
   from the kingdoms of the earth. It uses not the force of arms--it has
   no defense except the indwelling Deity--it knows nothing of the pomp of
   earthly splendor, it exists for God's Glory and for no other purpose.
   Its reason for being a Church at all is that Jesus Christ may be
   honored and glorified in its midst and, therefore, the true Church of
   Christ is sure to be noticed, however obscure it may be in any
   particular place. You cannot plant a Christian Church in a village
   without its being discovered. It may be said of Christ's Church as it
   was said of Himself, "He could not be hidden" neither can His Church!
   And in any kingdom or country, though the true Christians may form a
   very small remnant, yet they are sure to be noticed. They are as a fire
   that gives light as well as heat and, therefore, their presence must be
   known and felt.

   I push this Truth of God a little further and say that if you are one
   of the citizens of this Zion, one of the members of the Church of God,
   you, also, will be known. You cannot go through the world unobserved!
   You are like Bunyan's pilgrim when he passed through Vanity Fair. He
   was but a humble individual, yet everybody looked at him because he
   hurried through the fair, neither attracted by its business nor
   detained by its wealth. Christian and his companion simply sped on and
   when the men of the place asked them, "What will you buy?" they gave no
   answer but this, "We buy the Truth," and hastened on as fast as they
   could! And you must do the same if you are bound for the Celestial
   City. It may be that they will not take you, as the people of Vanity
   Fair took Faithful, and send you to Heaven in a chariot of fire, but
   they will be sure to notice you. In a free country like this, you may
   be almost anything that you like except a Christian. There is no
   liberty for you and you will find that the dogs of Hell will bark at
   you because you are a stranger and a foreigner in this world! If you
   were a child at home, they would not trouble you, but you are of a
   different race from the men of the world who have their portion in this
   life--and, as you pass along, they will let you know that you do not
   belong to them.

   They do not wish to understand you and you will find that they will
   always be ready to misrepresent you. And when they have finished their
   misrepresentation, they will endeavor to laugh you to scorn. Of old,
   Zion was so remarkable that the nations sent messengers to enquire
   about it. And today the people of God are a remarkable people, a
   pilgrim race, strangers and sojourners in the world, passing on to "a
   city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God." If you are
   a true Believer in Christ, you will be sure to be noticed, questioned,
   quizzed, criticized, caricatured, misrepresented--never mind all
   that--it is the lot of all the holy Seed, and the citizens of Zion must
   expect such treatment until the Lord Himself shall come.

   Our text may be made to apply to all God's people and I shall use the
   Jews and Zion as the basis upon which I shall build up my discourse.
   From their history we shall try to gather the true meaning of the
   passage. In it we have the mention of messengers and we shall enquire,
   first, What do these messengers of the nation ask? Secondly, why should
   they be answered? And, thirdly, how shall they be answered? ' 'That the
   Lord has founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it."

   I. First, WHAT DO THESE MESSENGERS ASK?

   Messengers came from Babylon to Zion and, no doubt, one of the first
   questions they asked was, " What is the treasure of Zion?What is the
   wealth of this city? It stands not by the sea, like Tyre, so that it
   may flourish by its merchandize. It is not situated among the cedars of
   Lebanon, so that it may sell its precious wood or its carved work. This
   city stands in a strange place and yet we see that it is a wealthy
   place--what is the source and the extent of its wealth?" Unhappily,
   Hezekiah forgot how to answer that question aright, and he took the
   Babylonian messengers through his palace and showed them his
   material'treasures. He led them from one secret cabinet to another and
   let them see all his riches. And they looked on with wondering,
   covetous eyes and went home to tell what loot there would be there,
   what a grand place Jerusalem would be to sack and how all Babylon might
   be the richer because of the treasures that were hidden there. How
   unwise was Hezekiah! He ought to have given a far better answer. I have
   been in churches on the Continent where I have been asked by the guide
   whether I would like to see the treasury, and I have seen it. In one
   church, I saw what was estimated at about a million pounds sterling in
   the form of plates of different kinds for the adornment of the altar. I
   saw a treasure which was regarded as far more precious than gold and
   silver--a saint with all his bones laid bare, a skeleton saint
   decorated with emeralds, rubies and all kinds of precious stones--but
   it was a ghastly sight for all that! If I had purchased him, I would
   have speedily buried him. Should not such a treasure be buried in the
   earth? It is the best place for saints and sinners, too, when they are
   dead.

   I do not doubt that living saints are a precious treasure in the Church
   of God, yet it would not do, if the messengers of the nations asked us
   what our chief treasure is, to exhibit the members of the
   Church--saints alive or saints dead--or to talk about the wealth of the
   Church, or the intellect of the Church, or even the earnestness and
   prayerfulness of the Church, precious as these things are. There is a
   better answer to that question and our text tells us that the great
   treasure of the Church is the fact that Jehovah has founded her. His
   Grace is the inexhaustible storehouse from which she derives all her
   spiritual wealth!

   The messengers of the nations probably asked next, " What is Zion's
   confidence''" When city after city had been overthrown by Rabshakeh and
   Sennacherib, if messengers came into Jerusalem, no doubt they were
   amazed to find the people holding out against the great king who smote
   and overcame wherever he went. And they said and Rabshakeh said, "What
   is your confidence? Has not the king of Assyria smitten all the gods of
   the people whom he has fought? Upon whose arm do you rely?" If the
   people had taken the messengers and bid them look from the rocky sides
   of Zion, down the steep precipice into the ravines, and if they had
   said, "Who can climb up here?" Or if they had pointed to the tower of
   David, or to the walls of the city well jointed together, or to its
   massive gates and said, "These are our defenses," it would have been a
   poor and sorry reply, for no walls stood out long against the kings of
   Babylon! They brought their battering-rams and engines to the siege and
   very soon they cast up breast-works and all kinds of entrenchments and,
   before long, made a breach in the city walls and rushed in and slew the
   inhabitants.

   But what a good answer it would have been to say, "Jehovah is our
   confidence. He is our defense, our castle and high tower, our battleaxe
   and weapons of war. And He has said that Sennacherib shall not come
   into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with a
   shield, nor cast a bank against it. The adversary may come near enough
   to mark the walls and bulwarks of Zion and count her towers, but he
   shall not be able to capture her, for 'God shall help her, and that
   right early.' He is our defense! Not the valiant men that stand upon
   the watchtowers and shoot swift arrows against the foe. Not the trained
   armies that throng her gates and charge upon the adversary with sword
   and shield, but the Lord God is a wall of fire round about us and the
   glory in our midst." What a grand answer that would have been to the
   question of the messengers!

   Let us also, Beloved, give the same answer to all who ask what is our
   confidence. Let us tell them that our confidence is in God alone. If,
   dear Friends, we are truly citizens of Zion, this is one of the marks
   of our citizenship, that our entire confidence is in that unseen arm
   upon which alone we lean. We look only to God for our salvation, and we
   cast away all confidence in ourselves, or in our fellow men, reckoning
   all earthly supports as being like broken cisterns that can hold no
   water, and trusting alone to the deep eternal fountain of Grace that
   wells up in the heart of God Himself.

   No doubt the messengers of the nations also asked, " What is the
   history of this Zion?What is the story of the nation of which Jerusalem
   is the capital? Where did your fathers come from? Did they obtain
   possession of this land with their own bow and their own swords? Have
   they made advances, step by step, to the greatness whereof they now
   boast?" The right answer to that question was, "God has founded Zion."
   That was the secret of her glorious history and the messengers ought to
   have received no other reply but that to their enquiry! Sometimes,
   nowadays, men come to us and they say, "Where did your Church come
   from? What is the origin of it? From where did it arise?" Well, you may
   tell the story, if you give all the glory to God and if you reflect all
   honor upon the power of Divine Truth, but never fail to go back to the
   very beginning and answer, "God has founded Zion," for if there is a
   church which cannot trace its foundation to the eternal Truth of God's
   Word, to the eternal power of God's Spirit, to the eternal founding by
   God's own Sovereign Grace, it is not the Church of God at all!

   I hope you would give a similar answer to the question about your own
   history. If you are a believer in Christ, how came you to be a
   Christian? How was it that you ever began to love the Lord? How is it
   that you have a good hope of Heaven? How is it that you believe that
   you have eternal life? This is the answer for you to give--

   "Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God. He,
   to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood." Each saved
   soul must say, "It is of God's Grace that I am what I am. As God has
   founded Zion, so has He founded me."

   Another question which these messengers would be sure to ask would be
   this--" What is the expectation of Zion? You say that Jehovah built it
   and that He has, up to now, guarded and preserved it, but to what end
   is such a little city as this made so conspicuous? Why is it so honored
   by the Divine Presence?" Oh, then I hope the people opened their mouths
   wide and told the messengers that God had founded Zion and that the
   poor of His people would trust in it and that they added, "So we have
   the expectation of being provided for, preserved, delivered, magnified
   through God's mercy." And as for you and me, Beloved, when they say to
   us, "What do you expect?" let us open our mouth wide and tell what God
   has done and what we expect He will yet do for us--that He will guide
   us by His counsel and, afterwards, receive us to Glory--that He will
   correct and chasten us as a man chastens his own son--that He will
   perfect our education and then will take us Home to dwell with Him
   where sorrow and sighing can never come! Then let us tell them of the
   coming of our Lord and of the Glory that is wrapped up in His advent.
   And let our hearts burn and our eyes sparkle as, with joyful lips, we
   talk of the things which God has prepared for them that Love Him and
   which He has revealed to us by His Spirit!

   II. Now, secondly, WHY SHOULD THESE MESSENGERS BE ANSWERED?

   The question in our text is, "What will they answer the messengers of
   the nation?" But there is no hint of any question as to whether they
   are to be answered or not. It is taken for granted that a reply is to
   be given to their enquiries. I hope, dear Brothers and Sisters, that we
   shall always be ready to give an answer with meekness and fear to every
   man who asks of us a reason for the hope that is in us. Questions will
   be sure to be put to Christians, for they are men wondered at and,
   hence, there is a necessity for us to be well taught of God and to have
   our minds stored with heavenly knowledge, that we may not be dumb when
   we ought to speak, but may always be ready with such an answer as shall
   be acceptable to God and may be beneficial to those who ask the
   question.

   Some who come to Zion ask questions out of curiosity I should not
   wonder if the ambassadors who came to Jerusalem looked all about the
   city with wondering eyes and kept on enquiring, "What is this? What is
   that? What is the meaning of this memorial and what is the intention of
   this symbol?" They did not ask these questions because they cared
   particularly about what they saw--possibly they asked even more
   questions when they were in Epsom, or when they sauntered through the
   streets of Nineveh, but, having come to Jerusalem, they had a curiosity
   about what was to be seen there, so they began to enquire. In like
   manner, Beloved, there will come to you, to your Zion, to your house,
   persons who will make enquiries about your religion--not that they love
   it, or believe in it--but, still, they would like to know about it. Men
   are curious about religious matters. They jot down in their notebook
   information that they gather concerning them. They may not be,
   themselves, devout, but they would like to know what is the nature and
   extent of your devotion. They may not be, themselves, Believers, but
   they would be glad to learn what kind of faith yours is. Would you
   discourage this curiosity? I think you would be very unwise if you did
   so. No, rather try to make some use of it. It is, in itself, nothing
   particularly worthy of notice, but there is at least a measure of
   hopefulness about it. When men's minds once begin to work, we are led
   to hope and pray that the Spirit of God may work with them and work in
   them, according to the good pleasure of His Grace. It is a very hopeful
   thing when you, my Brothers in the ministry, get an attentive audience
   to listen to you. Mind that you always give them something worth
   listening to! It were an ill day for you and me, in trying to do good,
   if we could never persuade anyone to listen at all. Let us hold the
   wedding guest and detain him with our tale, though it may seem to him
   to be as sad as that of the Ancient Mariner of whom Coleridge speaks,
   let us try to hold him fast till we have told him--

   "The old, old story

   Of Jesus and His love!"

   We shall not complain if people ask, simply out of curiosity, about our
   religion, for that very curiosity will give us an opportunity to set
   things belonging to the Kingdom of God before minds which are somewhat
   receptive. If you ever lose your present access to those ears and they
   grow fast closed to your message, you will say, "I wish that even that
   curiosity would come back, again," for curiosity about the things of
   God may lead to something better, by-and-by, if you know how to use it
   wisely. So, we will answer the messengers of the nation even though
   they ask merely from curiosity.

   No doubt there are others who ask out of contempt The ambassadors of a
   great power like Babylon, when they passed inside the walls of Zion,
   most likely said, "So this is your precious capital, is it? This little
   pettifogging village that we could put in one corner of Babylon and
   never know that it was there--is the city of the great King, is it?"
   And they laughed within themselves for very scorn and said, "This
   little miserable dog hole is your wonderful city, is it? Why, in
   Babylon, we have hanging gardens, wondrous palaces and mighty works of
   art and yet you say, 'Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole
   earth is Mount Zion?'" And they gave a loud guffaw at the very thought
   of what seemed to them so absurd! Well, Brothers and Sisters, shall we
   refuse to answer when our questioners ask in contempt concerning our
   Zion? Sometimes we shall do well not to reply, for we are forbidden to
   cast pearls before swine, but, on other occasions we may answer them
   because we do not wish men to think that we are ashamed or afraid to
   declare our convictions, or that we have nothing to say concerning the
   faith that we hold. Oh, proclaim it, though all Philistia shall be
   listening! Proclaim it among the nations that the Lord reigns! Proclaim
   it amid a senate of philosophers or a parliament of kings!

   This Truth of God might well be written across the sky and the sun,
   itself, as it makes its daily circuit, should be the Mercury to bear
   this message everywhere! The heavens should proclaim the Glory of God
   and the firmament show His handiwork! And it is our desire and
   intention to let the Gospel be published wide as the light of day!
   Publish it even to the contemptuous, for, sometimes, even he who
   despises is not the last to be converted. And an enemy who has enough
   light to hate the Truth of God may have enough to be brought to love
   it! Think not that a man like Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the
   saints, is the most hopeless of mankind. God thought not so and He
   brought him in penitence to His feet and made him to be not a whit
   behind the very chief of His servants! Therefore, if men ask you about
   religion, even out of contempt, and you can see the sneer upon their
   faces as they ask the question, give them an answer! Tell them of
   Jesus' dying love and of all that wonderful plan of salvation arranged
   by the Sovereign Grace of God. You may even find your answer in our
   text--"The Lord has founded Zion and the poor of His people shall trust
   in it."

   But sometimes, no doubt, the messengers of the nations will ask out of
   admiration. There were some of them that came, like the Queen of Sheba,
   and asked about everything because they admired it all. And there are,
   perhaps among us, some whose hearts God has touched. They have the
   first signs and tokens of an affection for the Truth of God and for the
   Lord--and when they come where you are who love His dear name, they
   will ask you many questions most admiringly. Oh, never be slow to
   answer such enquirers! No, but set out before their eager eyes all the
   wonders of Zion and all the glories of your Lord! Tell them what the
   Lord has done for you and for all His people. Tell them how you were
   washed in the blood of the Lamb, how your heart has been changed,
   cheered and comforted. Tell them everything, for now that the Lord has
   given them some hungering and some thirsting after these things, now is
   your time to bring out the "butter in a lordly dish!" Now is your
   opportunity to set before them the Bread that came down from Heaven,
   even Christ Jesus who is the Bread of Life. Now let them all know about
   the "wines on the lees, well-refined," and the "fat things full of
   marrow," for you have before you those who will gladly feed on all the
   dainties and delights provided in the great banquet of the Gospel.

   And it may be that while you are telling the story, there will be some
   enquirers who will ask because they want to enjoy these good things for
   themselves. The spouse in the Canticles said, "I charge you, O
   daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved, that you tell Him, that
   I am lovesick." And they then asked her, "What is your Beloved more
   than another beloved, O you fairest among women? What is your Beloved
   more than another beloved, that you so charge us?" So the spouse sat
   down and told them of all His matchless beauties and finished up by
   saying, "This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, O daughters of
   Jerusalem." Then they enquired, "Where is your Beloved gone, O you
   fairest among women?--Where is your Beloved turned aside?--That we may
   seek Him with you." In like manner, dear Friends, when you see others
   who are willing to hear what you can say to them about Christ, do not
   hesitate to tell them, for perhaps they, too, will love your Savior!
   Perhaps they have a wish to participate in the merits of His blood and
   the blessings of His salvation--and that is exactly what you wish
   concerning them and concerning all mankind, for you often say--

   "His worth, if all the nations knew Surely the whole world would love
   Him, too." Therefore, tell all who are in the world about it, praying
   God's Spirit to open their hearts that they may receive the message and
   may trust in Jesus and be saved.

   O my dear Hearers who love the Lord, be none of you reticent about
   these precious things, but answer the messengers of the nation whenever
   you meet with them! It may do them good, contemptuous though they may
   be! It may do them good though they are, for the time, but
   curiosity-mongers. Therefore tell them. Tell them the story fully, for,
   at any rate, it will do you good. It is a very useful thing for a man
   to proclaim what spiritual Truth he knows, for he thereby teaches
   himself. It will increase your own sense of safety if you declare to
   others what the real defense of Zion is. It will increase your own
   sense of joy if you proclaim what is the true joy of Zion. For your own
   good, do this, and do it also for the Glory of God. You are to be God's
   mouth to man--let not God ever seem to be silent because you are idle!
   O you people of God, "You are God's heritage"--the word the Apostle
   uses means, "You are God's clergy, so I charge you, be not dumb dogs
   that cannot bark, but let others know what the Lord has done for your
   souls! "You that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence," but speak
   and speak, and speak yet again, and give to the messengers of the
   nations an answer to their enquiries concerning Zion and the Church of
   the living God!

   III. Now I come to the closing and most important point. How SHALL
   THESE ENQUIRERS BE ANSWERED?

   According to our text, they are to be answered by this
   declaration--"The LORD has founded Zion." Whenever any religious
   enquiry is put to you, let it be definitely made known in your answer
   that every good thing that you have, or that the Church of God has,
   comes from God. Leave your hearer in no doubt about this matter--do not
   let him suppose that it came by your own exertion or merit--but say
   most plainly, "The Lord has founded Zion." If one soul is saved, God
   has done it. If 500 souls are saved and banded together in Christian
   fellowship, "this is the finger of God." And if there are tens of
   thousands of saved saints in the world, this is what the Lord has done
   by His own Almighty power! It is not ofman, neither is it byman, but it
   is of the Lord alone! Make that Truth of God very conspicuous in your
   answers to all enquirers.

   And that being done, make this Truth equally plain, that the Lord is
   the Founder of His Church--His true Church--that all her doctrines are
   revealed in His Word and are her doctrines because He has given them to
   her--that her ordinances are taught by Christ, Himself, in His own Word
   and, therefore--and for that reason only--are they ordinances of His
   Church! Lay this down with the utmost emphasis, that the Lord has
   founded Zion as to her doctrines and her ordinances and also as to all
   the polished stones that He has built into all her walls. Christ is the
   one Foundation of His Church and God has laid Him in Zion as the chief
   Cornerstone--elect, precious--but every stone that is laid upon Him is
   laid there according to the Divine purpose and predestination, yes, and
   by the effectual working of the power of the Holy Spirit who brings men
   up from the quarry of sin and builds them upon the Foundation of Christ
   Crucified!

   To make our answer to these messengers complete, they will want to know
   all about our Church and our Zion, so let us acknowledge our own
   poverty. You notice, in the text, that the answer is, "The Lord has
   founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it." Say to the
   enquirers, "Ah, you must not look for anything great in us! We are poor
   by nature and poor by practice, too. And in ourselves we are less than
   nothing and vanity." There may be some very good people in the world
   who think that they are perfect. We are not among them--we could not,
   dare not, will not stand up and say, "We thank God that we are not as
   other men are." We have rather, each one of us, to smite upon our
   breasts and say, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." It is most
   important, in our testimony, that we should confess our spiritual
   poverty, for our Lord Jesus is never magnified unless He is set forth
   as the Savior of sinners. And Grace is never glorified unless sin is
   denounced and bemoaned. O Beloved, let your own poverty be a black foil
   that shall make the precious gem of Divine Grace shine the more
   gloriously in the eyes of men!

   Then say also that, as God has founded Zion, we mean to cleave to her
   That is to say, if this Bible is God's Book, we believe in it from
   cover to cover. If any doctrine, however mysterious, is taught by the
   Spirit of God, we accept it. If we do not understand it, we believe it.
   If there are any ordinance commanded by God, we will obey it to the
   best of our ability as it is delivered to us. I cannot agree with those
   who say that they have "new truth" to teach. The two words seem to me
   to contradict each other--that which is new is not true. It is the old
   that is true, for truth is as old as God. Albeit that its locks are
   bushy and black as a raven for strength and force, yet I might say of
   every Truth of God that its head and its hair are white like wool, as
   white as snow, for its antiquity. "Ah, but," they say, "we are wise in
   this generation; we have learned much from this source and that." Have
   you? Then keep your precious knowledge to yourselves--we do not covet
   it. We are content to believe concerning this Word, that the Lord has
   founded it and, we poor simpletons mean to trust in it, and to cleave
   to it, come what may.

   Do you notice how sweetly is put in the text the resolve to trust in
   what God has founded? "The poor of His people shall trust in it." The
   inhabitants of Jerusalem sheltered behind the walls of Zion and they
   felt perfectly safe. There was Sennacherib coming up with hordes of
   Assyrians, apparently numerous enough to eat them all up, but when they
   knew that God had founded Zion and meant to preserve her, they might
   smile at the king of Babylon, and they did so. "The virgin, the
   daughter of Zion, has despised you, and laughed you to scorn; the
   daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you." If Zion is founded
   by God, vain is all the might and malice of man or devil against it--it
   shall stand against all who oppose it. I can fancy Luther talking like
   this, only with stronger sentences than I can put together, and bidding
   the people join in singing that favorite Psalm of his, the 46th -"God
   is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore
   will we not fear though the earth is removed and though the mountains
   are carried into the midst of the sea."

   Let us, also, have this brave confidence, my Brothers and Sisters!
   Trust in Jehovah and be at ease concerning His Truth and cause. Let
   nothing daunt or disturb you. God has routed greater men than the
   wiseacres of the 19th Century! And when they are all swept into the
   nothingness from which they came, His Truth shall still live and
   triumph, glory be to the name of Him who sent it to us and, thereby,
   founded the one only Eternal City, the Church of the living God, the
   pillar and ground of His Truth! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH14'

   Verse 1. For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose
   Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be
   joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. This
   promise had a measure of fulfillment when Israel was brought back from
   Babylon. And it is still true that when God's people come to their
   worst, there is always something better before them. On the other hand,
   it is equally sure that when sinners come to their best, there is
   always something terrible awaiting them. The Apostle Paul wrote to the
   Romans, "God has not cast away His people which He foreknew." And his
   declaration agrees with this prophecy, "The Lord will have mercy on
   Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land" I
   believe that there will be a far grander fulfillment of this prophecy
   in that day when God shall bring back His chosen people to their own
   country--and then shall be the fullness of blessing to the Gentiles,
   also. "The strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave
   to the house of Jacob."

   2. And the people shall take them and bring them to their place: and
   the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for
   servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose
   captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. The
   chosen people now have the worst of it in many parts of the world, but
   they shall have the best of it, by-and-by. They shall not always be
   trampled on--their time of uplifting shall come at the last. And there
   is nothing after the last--that which is last, lasts forever.

   3, 4. And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give you
   rest frown your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard bondage
   wherein you were made to serve, that you shall take up this proverb
   against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the oppressor ceased! The
   golden city ceased!O child of God, you shall, by-and-by, have a
   glorious season of rest! Today is your time of labor. You are now under
   hard bondage, but you shall yet come forth into the fullness of your
   liberty in Christ Jesus. In that day Jehovah, Himself, shall give you
   rest from all your grief and fears. You shall obtain joy and gladness,
   and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. This was a great prophecy for
   Isaiah to utter, for, in his day there was no power on earth equal to
   that of Babylon. That great city abounded in palaces and extraordinary
   wealth--and its power was such that no kingdom could stand against it.
   For a while it broke in pieces all those who fought against it, yet God
   broke Babylon in His own time. And here is a song of rejoicing in
   anticipation of its overthrow, "How has the oppressor ceased! The
   golden city ceased!"

   5. The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the
   rulers. No power can ever be permanently strong that is founded upon
   wickedness. Sooner or later it will have to come to an end. A falsehood
   may array itself in the garments of wisdom and strength and go forth to
   fight hopefully for victory, but, in the end, it must die. The stone of
   the Truth of God will reveal the giant's brow and lay him headlong in
   death.

   6, 7. He who emote the people in wrath with a continual stroke. He that
   ruled the nations in anger is persecuted, and none hinders. The whole
   earth is at rest, and is quiet they break forth into singing. The
   Babylon that none could resist becomes, herself, destroyed and there is
   no one to come to her assistance. Go at this day and see where the owl
   dwells, and mark the habitation of the dragons, and say to yourself,
   "This is Babylon, the great city that was the queen over all nations.
   But she did evil in the sight of the Lord, and spoke extremely proudly
   and, behold, Jehovah has crumbled her in the dust and, now that Babylon
   is gone, 'the whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth
   into singing.'"

   8. Yes, the fir trees rejoice at you, and the cedars of Lebanon,
   saying, Since you are laid down, no feller is come up against us. For
   the cruel kings of Babylon cut down the nations as the woodman with his
   axe fells the trees of the forest. But when the power of Babylon was
   broken, peace and quietness reigned everywhere. O Brothers and Sisters,
   what a blissful day it will be when the modern Babylon is taken away,
   for to this hour she is the troubler among the nations! Wherever the
   blight of Popery comes, there is evil, there is oppression, there is
   bondage--and only when Romanism shall be utterly swept away and cast
   like a millstone into the flood, will it be said, "The whole earth is
   at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing." Here is s very
   wonderful picture of the king of Babylon going down to the grave!

   9, 10. Hades from beneath is moved foryou to meetyou at your coming: it
   stirs up the dead foryou, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has
   raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they
   shall speak and say unto you, Are you also become weak as we? Are you
   become like unto us?I t is a fine pictorial representation of the
   spirits of departed kings lifting themselves up from their beds of dust
   and saying, "Are you, king of Babylon, that slew us, also come here?
   The mighty conqueror--are you yourself conquered--and brought to the
   grave?"

   11-15, Your pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of your
   viols: the worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you. How are
   you fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How are you cut
   down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For you have said in
   your heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the
   stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in
   the sides of the north: I will ascend above the height of the clouds; I
   will be like the Most High. Yet you shall be brought down to Hades, to
   the sides of the Pit. God hates pride with a perfect hatred! He drives
   His sword through the very heart of it and cuts it in pieces. None can
   be great and mighty, and boast of what they are able to do without
   provoking the King of Kings to put forth against them some of His great
   power! Oh, let none of as talk about climbing to Heaven by our good
   works, or getting there by our merits, lest it should happen to us,
   also, that we should "be brought down to Hades, to the sides of the
   Pit."

   16-18. They that see you shall narrowly look upon you, and consider
   you, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did
   shake kkngdoms; that made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the
   cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? All the
   kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his
   own house. That is, they lie in state, each one in the mausoleum of his
   family. They went down to death and they were buried with all the honor
   and glory that were supposed to be due to their high position.

   19. But you are cast out of your grave like an abominable branch, and
   as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword,
   that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet.
   So total, so terrible, so disgraceful was the destruction of Babylon,
   that no honor or glory remained to it.

   20-22. You shall not be joined with them in burial because you have
   destroyed your land and slain your people: the seed of evildoers shall
   never be removed. Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity
   of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill
   the face of the world with cities. For I will rise up against them,
   says the LORD of Hosts. And he has done it. It seemed the most unlikely
   thing to happen, but the Lord spoke, and it was done--all the glory of
   Babylon was swept away. "I will rise up against them, says the Lord of
   Hosts."

   22-27. And cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and
   nephew, says the LORD. I will also make it a possession for the bittern
   and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the boom of destruction,
   says the LORD of Hosts. The LORD ofHosts has sworn, saying, Surely as
   Ihave thought, so shall it come to pass; andas I have purposed, so
   shall it stand: that I will break the Assyrian in My land, and upon My
   mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off
   them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the
   purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this in the hand
   that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the LORD ofHosts has
   purposed, and who shall disannul it? And His hand is stretched out, and
   who shall turn it back? And God did this to the Assyrians in the day
   when Sennacherib invaded the land and the Angel of Destruction slew the
   whole host in one night! What a striking simile the Lord uses here!
   "This is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the
   Lord of Hosts has purposed, and who shall disannul it? And His hand is
   stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" Conceive in your mind the
   picture drawn here--Jehovah Himself puts out the hand of His
   almightiness and challenges the nations to stand up in opposition to
   it!

   28. In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden. About this time,
   the Philistines had plucked up courage and had invaded Judah.

   29. Rejoice not, whole Palestina, because the rod that smote you is
   broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice,
   and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. Ahaz was defeated, but
   Hezekiah was raised up to be the leader of the LORD's people.

   30. And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie
   down in safety: and I will kill your root with famine, and he shall
   slay your remnant. If God's enemies have a bright day or two, it shall
   soon be stormy weather with them. They may for the moment exult over
   God's people, but He knows that their day of reckoning is coming.

   31. Howl, O gate; cry, O city; you, Palestina, are dissolved: for there
   shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his
   appointed times. That is the way the Babylonians would come running
   down from the north. No one would be able to hide himself from them,
   not a single person would find a shelter, or escape from their terrible
   adversaries.

   32. What will they answer the messengers ofthe nation? That the LORD
   has foundedZion, and thepoor ofHispeo-ple shall trust in it. Though the
   passage seems dark at first, yet it is full of consolation to the
   people of God and is of similar import to that other gracious
   promise--"No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every
   tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn."
     __________________________________________________________________

Sonship Questioned

   (No. 2613)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 12, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   NOVEMBER 16, 1883.

   "And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If You are the Son of God."
   Matthew 4:3.

   IN speaking upon the temptation of our Lord, I first want to say a few
   words that ought always to be remembered by those who are tempted, lest
   they encounter unnecessary sorrow. And to begin with, I remark that
   there is no sin in being tempted. Even when our first parents were in
   their perfect state, they were liable to temptation. The serpent came
   and beguiled them. It was not their fault that they were tempted--their
   sin was that they yielded to the temptation. We know that our blessed
   Lord was personally without the slightest taint of sin--"holy,
   harmless, undefiled"--yet He was tempted by Satan, himself, the prince
   and leader of all tempters, and He was tempted to what would have been
   the worst of sins. Still, there was no blame attached to Him on that
   account, for He did not yield to the assaults of the Evil One. So, dear
   Friends, should you be tempted while you are about your lawful calling,
   or when you are in the House of God, distinctly engaged in His service
   and worship, do not be surprised! Who are you that you should escape
   temptation when your Lord had to endure it? Do not be cast down by the
   fact of your being tempted, as though it were, in itself, a sin. The
   guilt lies with him who tempts--not with the tempted one until he
   yields to the temptation. Let that always be remembered.

   And remember, next, that temptation does not necessitate sinning. It
   did not in the case of our Lord, for He "was in all points tempted like
   as we are, yet without sin." And that which was possible of Him, in His
   life on earth, can also be possible of you by Him with whom all things
   are possible! A man need not fall into avarice because he is tempted to
   cov-etousness. A man need not become unchaste because he is tempted to
   lewdness. Remember the case of Joseph--he was none the less pure
   because he was so foully tempted. A man need not be false to his
   convictions because someone tries to bribe him to be so--rather, he may
   prove the honesty and uprightness of his heart by recoiling from the
   very touch of the briber. He who is tempted need not, therefore, sin,
   for God, who permits the temptation to come will, with the temptation,
   make a way of escape for him that he may be able to bear it. A man may
   walk in the midst of a furnace of temptation, yet not even the smell of
   fire shall be upon him. He may be "kept by the power of God through
   faith unto salvation" and kept as well amid the most furious
   temptations as if he lived in a region that was most helpful to his
   Graces. A child of God may be specially, peculiarly, singularly and
   emphatically tempted, and yet he may be preserved from sin. In the case
   before us, we see that our Lord was not only tempted, but that He was
   tempted by Satan, by him who has the greatest power and the most
   cunning sleight of hand of all tempters and, though the arch-tempter
   put before Him the subtlest of temptations, yet He did not yield in any
   respect whatever. So may you, dear Friend, pass unharmed, as it were,
   between the very jaws of Hell, preserved and upheld by the Sovereign,
   Omnipotent Grace of God!

   Note, yet again, that it may be necessary for you to be tempted. It
   evidently was so in the case of our Lord, for He did not fall into
   temptation through unwatchfulness. He did not go into temptation
   presumptuously, but we read of Him, that He was "led up by the Spirit
   into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil," so that He was in His
   right place--He was in the path of duty even when He had to go through
   this, His great threefold trial in the desert. It was necessary that it
   should be so with Him that He might be made, in all points, like unto
   His brethren, that He might have full sympathy with us in all our
   temptations and that He might make His life-work complete in every
   respect.

   Temptation may be necessary for us for the purpose of testing and
   trying us. We read, in the Book of Genesis, "It came to pass after
   these things, that God did tempt (or, try) Abraham." That is, God
   testedhim, put his faith to a very severe test. There are no champions
   in God's army who are mere fair-weather soldiers. They must all endure
   hardships and their valor must be tried and proved. God sends none of
   His ships to sea without having first tested them--and when their
   seaworthiness is proved, then they may go on their long voyages. You,
   tried Believer, are to be tested, that the great Angel of the Covenant
   may say to you, as He said to the father of the faithful, "Now I know
   that you fear God." God already knows this through His Omniscience, but
   He would know it practically by testing us and it is, therefore,
   necessary that we should be tempted in order that we may be tested.
   Temptation may also be necessary to us for our spiritual growth.
   Muscles are not developed except by exercise and if we were to be,
   spiritually, put under a glass case, and never suffered to endure
   temptation, we would become dwarfed and stunted--and some of our
   virtues would never be developed at all. Where would our patience be if
   there were no suffering to test it? Where would be the Grace of
   forgiveness if we never had to suffer injury from our fellows? It is
   for our growth in Divine Grace that the stormy winds of temptation are
   let loose upon us, that, like a stalwart oak, we may take firm
   root-hold. By this stern experience, Christian men grow "strong in the
   Lord and in the power of His might." They sit loose to the world and
   they take a firmer grip on the invisible things of God as they are
   tried and tempted by Satan.

   It may also be necessary for us to be tempted to increase our
   usefulness. He that was never tempted cannot help those who are
   tempted! He lacks sympathy because he has never passed through the
   fiery trial to which they are exposed. Dear young man, it may be that
   you wonder why you have such a stormy inward life. Perhaps God is going
   to make you greatly useful as a dispenser of comfort to others. Men
   might be Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder, without trouble, but you
   could not be a Barnabas, a son of consolation, unless you had first
   known what it was to be comforted in time of trial. God might use you
   to scatter His Seed with a hand that was never wounded, but He could
   not use you to bind up the broken in heart unless that hand had been
   rendered tender and sensitive by trial. Your present experience, though
   painful, is a necessary preparation for something which will give you
   tenfold joy--so you may endure the present trial even with cheerfulness
   because of the blessed result that will come from it!

   Beside that, Brothers and Sisters, we must be tempted, or else we
   cannot be victorious. The rule of the Kingdom is-- no battles, no
   crowns; no conflicts, no conquests! We must stand foot to foot in
   deadly combat with the archenemy of souls or else we can never have a
   memorial pillar set up by the wayside, like that one of which Mr.
   Bunyan speaks, where Christian met Apollyon and it was recorded of
   him--

   "The man so bravely played the man, He made the fiend to fly-- Of which
   a monument I stand, The same to testify."

   The great reason why God's children are tempted is for God's Glory,
   for, when they stand fast and defeat the foe, then the strong man is
   overcome by a stronger and then He that is the strongest of all--the
   mighty Son of God--gets fresh crowns upon His head as, one after the
   other, the weakest among His people put to rout the great adversary.
   There is a necessity, then, that you should, at times, be "in heaviness
   through manifold temptations" and, though you may pray not to be led
   into temptation and are bound to do so, yet sometimes it may be
   necessary that, like your Lord, you should be brought into the
   wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

   Note, once more, that solitude will not prevent temptation. "Oh," said
   a young man, "I think that I must give up my job, for it involves me in
   so many temptations." "Ah," said a Christian woman, "I wish that I
   could get right away into some sisterhood where I should have no
   temptations." Yes, and if you did, as some foolish women have done, you
   would have your temptations greatly increased! I am afraid that,
   sometimes, solitude is a helpto temptations and that Christian people
   who are much tormented by Satan would do well to mix more often with
   other Believers, and tell out their sorrows. A good burst of tears and
   a narration of your grief to a sympathetic friend may be the best
   possible way for you to find relief from your sorrows. Do not be so
   shut up within yourself as to refuse to tell of the heartache that is
   wearing into your very soul--seek help from some Christian Brother or
   Sister, for we are bid to bear one another's burdens, and

   1 trust we are not slow to do so. Having thus introduced the general
   subject of temptation at rather unusual length, I want, now, to speak
   with some brevity, but to practical purpose concerning the temptation
   of our LORD.

   The text I have taken shows that Satan is apt at writing prefaces. He
   is cunning and crafty, if not wise. He does not come to the Savior and
   say at once, "Command that these stones be made bread," but he begins
   thus, "If You are the Son of God." This is his old plan of insinuating
   doubts, by which Eve was vanquished in the Garden of Eden! And this is
   the sharp end of the wedge with which he thought to separate the Son of
   God from His Father. And notice, too, that Satan knows how to fire a
   double-shotted gun, for, while he began by insinuating doubt--"If You
   are the Son of God"--he linked it with rebellion--"Command that these
   stones be made bread." Thus there were two temptations at the same
   moment and, sometimes, our mind is greatly perplexed and our heart is
   wounded by two attacks at one time, or one following very closely upon
   the heels of the other. It is a part of Satan's tactics to be quick
   with his temptations so that we scarcely recover from one blow before
   he deals another--and then another--that, if possible, he may drive us
   out of our wits and overcome us by his cunning.

   I. Let us look closely into this double temptation with which he
   attacked the Savior. "If You are the Son of God, command that these
   stones be made bread." And notice, first, that THE TEMPTER BEGINS BY
   ASSAILING THE

   SAVIOR WITH AN, "IF."

   Note that he does not begin with a point-blank denial, saying, "You are
   not the Son of God," but he suggests a doubt upon the point--"IYou are
   the Son of God." At the present time there is a spirit of infidelity
   creeping over the Christian Church and it puzzles and perplexes me to
   lay hold of it because of its very vagueness. Ministers and others of
   the modern-thought school do not positively assert that the Scriptures
   are not Inspired, but they have a theory of inspiration which
   practically comes to that conclusion. They do not actually say that
   Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, but they try to explain away His
   Divinity in such a fashion that they might just as well deny it at
   once. As for the Fall--oh, of course, there was a fall, but it was a
   matter of very small importance and the idea that the serpent tempted
   Eve is held up to positive ridicule as a myth, an ancient fable! The
   depravity of the human heart is admitted in words, but it is really
   denied when you come to see what those words actually mean. There is a
   new theology, lately sprung up, which has taken every pea out of the
   pod and every kernel out of the shell--and its advocates present us
   with the empty shucks and shells and say, "Do not quarrel with us. We
   are all brothers and there is very little difference between what we
   hold and what you teach, only we are not so dogmatic and positive as
   you are." Yet, all the while, they are throwing doubts upon that which
   is our very life! And we cannot help feeling that they have learned the
   devil's way of dealing with the Truth of God--"If, if, if."

   That is just how Satan comes to each Believer. He will not positively
   say, "You are not a child of God," but he tries to inject a doubt into
   our minds, "fyou are a child of God." He will not declare that Christ's
   people will certainly perish, but he asks, "Suppose they should?"
   Often, when I have heard a great many suppositions, I have felt more
   indignation at them than I have ever felt at a point-blank denial.
   Somebody once said to Mr. Gough, "Now, Mr. Gough, suppose you were in a
   beer parlor." Mr. Gough said, "I will not allow you to suppose anything
   of the kind! With my convictions about the drink traffic, I will not
   have you suppose such a thing!" And I do not know what better answer he
   could have given. Yet people come to us with their supposing and
   insinuations--and we feel as indignant as Mr. Gough did. It is the
   devil's plan to assail with an, "if," and we have met with many who
   have adopted his tactics. One says, "I am not an infidel. I am not a
   freethinker! I am practically the same as you are. I hold the same
   views, I subscribe to the same creed, I am in the same Union and
   Association!" Yet, as we go on talking with him, he undermines the
   whole thing with some dreadful, dreary, "if," concerning the faith
   which we hold dear.

   Notice, next, that the devil grafts his, "if," upon a holy thing. He
   says, "If You are the Son of God." This is the very title that had been
   applied to Christ by His Father at His Baptism--"This is My beloved
   Son." Yet Satan attacks it by trying to graft an, "if," on it. Thus
   does the devil still seek to do with every precious Truth of God and we
   must be always on the watch against him as those who are not ignorant
   of his devices. What a blessed stock is that glorious Doctrine of the
   Adoption of Believers into God's family, but, with an, "if," grafted
   upon it, what sour grapes it bears! It is with great joy we sing--

   "Behold what wondrous Grace The Father has bestowed On sinners of a
   mortal race, To call them sons of God!"

   But put an, "if," on it, and then, ah, me! All the joy and all the
   wonder vanish at once.

   Moreover, on this occasion, Satan put an, "if," upon a plain utterance
   of God. The Father had said, "This is My beloved Son," yet this
   impudent fiend dares, in the face of God's Only-Begotten, to quote that
   title with an, "if," added to it. I am never afraid of what any text of
   Scripture may teach, but I am often afraid of the gloss that has been
   put on a text and this Satanic glossing is the most mischievous of all
   mischief! It matters not how plainly any Truth may be revealed in the
   Scriptures, nor how clear is the language in which it is stated, so
   that we can see that it is certainly taught to us by God, but the devil
   will come and put an, "if," on it. I suppose that some of us who have
   been Christians for many years have had to fight over every Doctrine in
   the Word of God. There is scarcely one Truth of God I believe for which
   I have not had to contend in my own soul. David said that he rejoiced
   over God's Word "as one that finds great spoil." Now, spoil is found
   after a battle, and God's Truth is, to most of His people, a thing for
   which they have had to fight with the powers of darkness and they have
   had to take the Doctrine from the enemy by main force through the aid
   of the Holy Spirit. "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty?" No, that
   which has been gained in battle by such soul-conflict as we have had
   shall be held fast till we die! Yet, while we say this, we know that
   Satan has the impertinence to come and write over many of the great
   Truths of Scripture his ugly, insinuating, "if."

   Yes, and not only does he put an, "if," on Scripture, but he puts an,
   "if," also on past manifestations. You enjoyed, some time ago, a
   blessed visit from God. You thought that you never could forget it--you
   said that you would never doubt again. The sacred Dove rested upon you
   and you were full of holy calm. The voice and witness of the Spirit
   were within you and you knew that you were a child of God and that you
   lived in Jehovah's love. But the devil will come and say to you, "All
   that was fancy and excitement! There was nothing in it." Or if he is
   not so positive, he questions it with an, "if." With his great black
   pen, he scrawls, "if," right across all our sweet experiences, all the
   tops of Tabor--all the communion tables where we have met our Lord, all
   the places of secret retirement where our soul has been made like the
   chariots of Amminadib! And then, unless our Lord comes to our help, we
   lose the comfort of these past manifestations.

   In this case, the devil puts an, "if" across nearly the whole of
   Christ's life. Our Lord had already had 30 years of retirement and
   preparation for His public ministry. I do not know whether Satan had
   tempted Him while He was in His obscurity, living with His father and
   mother in quiet. One would think that after 30 years of holy
   retirement, there must be a certainty of His being the Son of God, yet
   Satan has a bronze forehead and he says, "if," even to Him after all
   that! Some of us have been more than 30 years in God's ways. Some,
   perhaps, for 50 years have enjoyed the Lord's Presence and blessing,
   yet Satan will come and say, "If--if you are a child of God." Yes, and
   he has whispered that insinuation in the ears of dying saints whose
   faces have begun to glow with the Glory to be revealed! He has
   persecuted them with his cruel, "ifs," even to the last moment! Do not
   be astonished at it, Beloved, for our Lord Jesus Christ had no sin in
   Him-- He had never done anything that could have made His sonship
   questionable, and yet, with a perfectly pure and holy and consecrated
   life before Him, this arch-enemy dares to sneer at it and to spit upon
   it one of his abominable, "ifs." "If You are the Son of God." There was
   our Divine Master, fully assured that He was the Son of God. His
   unerring consciousness told Him that He was so. He knew it, He was sure
   of it, as sure of it as He was of His own existence--and yet the fiend
   dared to say to Him, "If You are the Son of God." And you, Beloved, may
   feel the pulsing of the heavenly life--your heart may beat high with
   immortality--yet the hiss of the old serpent may be heard in your
   spirit, "If you are a child of God." That is his usual mode of attack,
   so be on your guard against it!

   II. But, now, secondly, notice that THE TEMPTER AIMS THE, "IF," AT A
   VERY VITAL PLACE. "If You are the Son of God."

   In like manner, with his poisoned arrow of an, "if," he will attack a
   child of God, sometimes, with doubts as to whether Christ is God. "If
   He is the Son of God." Oh, but that Doctrine of the Godhead of our
   Savior is a thing which we must be prepared to defend even with our
   life, if necessary--we can never give up that great Truth of God! It
   has been assailed all through the history of the Christian Church. The
   devil has seemed to say to his fiendish archers, "Fight neither with
   small nor great, save only with the King of Israel." If he can get men
   to deny the Godhead of Christ, he knows that the chief Truth of God is
   assailed. If that were gone, there would be nothing left that would be
   worth having!

   When he has not assailed the Godhead of Christ, he has often attacked
   our sonship. "Oh," he says, "are you a child of God? You, with all your
   imperfections and infirmities--are you a child of God?" And he puts it
   to you, over and over again, as a matter of question, until, at last,
   you are driven almost out of your wits. This questioning of Satan is
   always with an evil intention. He knows that he is assailing us in a
   very vital place--he is attacking our faith--and faith is vital to a
   Christian. If faith should fail us, then our life has failed us.

   He also, by this means, attacks our childlike spirit, for, if we are
   not children of God, why should we submit to His will? Why should we
   not kick and struggle against our daily trials? If we are childlike, we
   trust, we obey, we believe, we endure, we persevere--but Satan puts an,
   "if," on all that and so he tries to disarm us.

   Moreover, he is here aiming at our Father's honor, for he as much as
   says, "Is He your Father? If He is your Father, why does He allow you
   to be tried as you are? Why are you so poor? Why are you so ill? Why
   are you so depressed in spirit? He certainly does not act towards you
   as if He were your Father." Thus the devil tries to take from us all
   our comfort and all our delight, for if God is not the Father of us who
   believe, then are we orphans, indeed! We are strangers in this land and
   we have no other land to go to if God is not our Father and Heaven is
   not our home. The world has rejected us and if God does not acknowledge
   us, we are, of all men, most miserable. So, Satan attacks us with that,
   "if," in the most tender place where he can most wound us. If he could
   succeed in his assault, he would, indeed, leave us naked, poor and
   miserable. He would prevent our prayers, destroy our patience and
   hinder us in every respect. And he does this that he may then make room
   in our hearts for any other form of temptation that he likes. If you
   are not a child of God and God will not take care of you, then
   something whispers to you, "Take care of yourself. Rob your fellow men.
   Do a dishonest thing, do something or other by which you can escape
   from your present difficulty." This is what Satan is aiming
   at--therefore, my Brothers and Sisters, I earnestly entreat you to look
   well to this vulnerable part--your faith--your firm conviction of your
   sonship in relation to the Most High.

   III. Thirdly, SATAN SUPPORTS HIS, "IF," WITH OUR CIRCUMSTANCES.

   I will dwell only a minute or two upon this point. I think that the
   devil seemed to say to Christ, as he looked round the desert and saw
   that there was not a disciple or friend or anybody about--no guards to
   take care of this Prince of the blood--" You, the Son of God, alone,
   deserted, forsaken, in a wilderness? You, the Son of God?"

   And, sometimes, he has come upon us when we have been all alone. We
   have looked and there was no man to help us. We had to war a warfare
   all by ourselves. Friends were all gone--some were dead, others had
   proved false--and then he said, "You, a child of God? While He would
   have given His angels charge concerning you if you had been one of His
   children, He would not have left you all alone like this."

   And then Satan, with a glance of his cruel eyes all around us, has
   seemed to say, " You are in a desert There is nothing but sand and
   stones--no food to eat, no water to drink, no shrubs or trees to
   shelter you. This is a pretty place for a child of God! Why, surely, if
   you had been one of His children, you would have been in a paradise!
   Was not that where God put Adam? How can you be a child of God and be
   in a desert?" Has he ever said something like this to you, Beloved?
   "You have had trials all around you. Losses, crosses, bereavements,
   afflictions, poverty--nothing but troubles and nobody to help you out
   of them." And you have echoed the devil's words, "Alone and in a
   desert!" And then the question has come, "Can I really be a child of
   God?"

   Our Lord was also with the wildbeastsand I have no doubt that Satan
   pointed them out to Him, and said, " You, the Son of God, along with
   lions and bears and leopards and wolves?" So, sometimes, you have gone
   out into what has been a desert to you and all day long you have been
   among wild beasts. When you have been at work, you have not heard a
   word to comfort or cheer you--you have been surrounded by blasphemers
   and filthy talkers. You have said, "Woe is me, that I sojourn in
   Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar." The misery of your
   surroundings has gone right home to your heart and then the devil has
   said, "You, a child of God, and put into such a position as this?"

   Then, last of all, we read that Jesus hungered. And, after 40 days
   fasting, well He might--and hunger is a hard thing to overcome. It
   bites and gnaws most terribly. It was then that the devil said to Him,
   "If you are the Son of God," and threw a sardonic sneer into it--"a
   hungeringSon of God!" So, you see, Satan backs up his insinuations by
   appealing to the circumstances in which we are found. And I will put it
   to you now, whether there is anybody here--even the very bravest of
   us--who could endure such temptation as this!

   Suppose you had to go out of that door, tonight, with ragged garments
   on you, without a single penny in your pocket, without a solitary
   friend left and no place where you could lay your head? Do you not
   think that it is very likely that you would begin to be afraid that,
   after all, you were not a child of God? Supposing that you had eaten
   nothing all this day, and for many days before, and you were faint and
   weary, and no man gave you anything--if the devil said to you, then,
   "If you are a child of God," I am afraid that you would say, "Ah,
   Satan, now that it has come to this pass, I am afraid that I am not!"

   Or I will put it in another way. If there should knock at your door,
   tonight, a man without shoes on his feet, one who had nowhere to sleep,
   and was all in rage, and he told you that he had not broken his fast
   for days, would you believe that he was one of your Brothers in Christ,
   and that he was a child of God? Well, perhaps, you might, but I know a
   good many who would not--they would say, "No, no, no! You are an
   impostor and if you do not leave, I will call in a policeman." Do you
   see, then, what pith and force there is in the temptation, when,
   finding the Savior without a place to lay His head, hungering, alone,
   with the wild beasts and in a wilderness, the devil comes to Him, and
   says, "Are you, indeed, the Son of God?" It was only the true Son of
   God who could answer him with confidence when in such a plight as that!

   IV. To close my discourse, let me remind you that IF THE TEMPTER CAN BE
   OVERCOME, IT WILL BE EXCEEDINGLY HELPFUL TO US ALL THE REST OF OUR
   LIFE.

   For, first, note that, if an, "if," about our being a child of God
   comes from the devil, it is as good as a certificate stating we
   are!"Oh," you say, "how is that?" Why, the devil never puts an, "if,"
   to anything that is not true! Whenever he says, "if," to a thing, we
   may be sure that it is true! If he comes along and finds a text of
   Scripture, and says, "If it is true," that is the best homage which he
   can pay to it by trying to undermine it! I believe that your sonship is
   true when the devil tells you that it is not! If you were not a child
   of God, the devil would not be likely to utter an, "if," about it. I
   hope I am not, in any sense, a servant of the devil, and whenever I see
   anyone in my congregation who is puffed up with carnal conceit and who
   thinks that he is a child of God, I say to myself, "I will try to
   preach, next Sunday, in such a way as to make him question whether he
   is or is not a Christian, for he ought most seriously to question it."
   It is true, as Cowper says--

   "He that never doubted of his state,

   He may perhaps--perhaps he may--too late."

   It is no part of the devil's work to make the self-deceived and
   hypocrites question themselves--he rather lulls them into deeper
   slumber--but when he does suggest to any man the doubt, "If you are a
   child of God," you may depend upon it that the man is a child of God,
   or else the devil would never think it worth his while to raise a
   question about it! So you may take Satan's insinuation for a
   certificate of your sonship!

   When you are once able to battle with his evil suggestion, you may say,
   "If I were Satan's own, he would not worry me. If I belonged to him, he
   would try to make me content in his service--and these doubts and
   fears, these questions, this self-examination, these great searching of
   heart are all evidences that I have escaped from the talons of the old
   dragon and that he worries me because he cannot devour me." So we get a
   confirmation of our sonship even from Satan, himself!

   Thus, dear Fiends, if you once thoroughly overcome that "if," it is
   very likely that it will not occur to you again for many a day, for, as
   far as I know, our blessed Lord had not that, "if," put to Him any more
   for years. The devil departed and angels came and ministered to Him,
   and He spoke with a holy confidence and joy in His Father's love all
   the rest of His life. At the last, when He was in a still worse plight
   and His hands were nailed to the Cross, and He was faint with thirst
   and near to death, then cruel men stood around Him and repeated the
   Satanic insinuation, "If You are the Son of God." Oh, but our blessed
   Master must have inwardly smiled as He thought, "You cannot tempt Me
   with that, 'if,'--I have been tempted, long ago, by a far greater
   adversary than any of you--even by your master and lord, the
   arch-fiend, himself! In the wilderness, he said to Me, 'If You are the
   Son of God,' and I repulsed him, and turned the edge of his sword upon
   himself. And now you have only tried to pierce me with a blunted
   weapon--you cannot wound Me as you cry, 'If You are the Son of God.'"
   Do you not see, Brothers and Sisters, that a temptation overcome may be
   used, the next time, to overcome another one? You may lay up this
   conquered temptation, just as David laid up Goliath's sword and, one of
   these days, when you come the same way and need a sword, you will say,
   "There is none like it! Give it to me." And you will be glad to get the
   old sword into your hand again. So, temptations vanquished may be of
   service to us even on our dying bed and, as our Master triumphed on the
   Cross over a temptation which He had defeated in the desert, so, when
   we come to die, we may have peace and joy because of those early trials
   in which we were enabled to overcome our great adversary by the blood
   of the Lamb.

   I have been all this while talking to God's children about the "if."
   Yet I fear that I am addressing some to whom the devil will not say,
   "if," for he knows, and perhaps your own conscience knows, that you are
   not a child of God. O dear Friends, do not deceive yourselves about
   this matter! If you are not His children, do not pretend that you are,
   but remember that if you are not the children of God, you are children
   of the Evil One and heirs of wrath, even as others. Oh, may Infinite
   Mercy adopt you into the family of God! And the way that mercy works is
   by leading you to trust in Christ Crucified. Then you shall be put
   among the children--adopted into the Lord's family--yes, born into it
   by a new birth through faith in Jesus Christ! The Lord grant it to
   every unconverted one here and grant it now, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 3:13-17; 4:1-11.

   Matthew 3:13, 14. Then came Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to
   be baptized of him. But John forbade Him, saying, I have need to be
   baptized of You, and do You come to me.?Who among us would not have
   felt as John did? Shall the servant baptize the Master and such a
   Master even his Lord and Savior? But mark the condescension of our
   blessed Lord! He would do everything that He wished His people to do
   afterwards and, therefore, He would be baptized and set the example
   that He would have them all follow.

   15. And Jesus answering said unto him, Allow it to be so now: for thus
   it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed Him. We are
   never to be so modest as to become disobedient to Christ's commands! We
   have known some who have allowed their humility to grow alone in the
   garden of their heart without the other sweet flowers that should have
   sprung up side by side with it--and thus their very humility has
   developed into a kind of pride. John was easily persuaded to do what
   his feelings, at first, seemed to forbid. "Then he allowed Him."

   16, 17. And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the
   water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit
   of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and lo, a Voice
   from Heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am wellpleased.
   It has also happened unto the servants of Christ, as well as to their
   Master, that in keeping the Commandments of God there has been a sweet
   attestation borne by the Holy Spirit. I trust that we, too, according
   to our measure of sonship, have heard in our hearts the Voice from
   Heaven, saying, "This is My beloved son," and that we have experienced
   the descending of the dove-like Spirit, bringing us peace of mind and
   gentleness of nature.

   Matthew 4:1. Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to
   be tempted of the devil What a change it seems from the descent of the
   Holy Spirit to being led up into the wilderness to be tempted of the
   devil! Dear Friends, be especially on the watch after a great spiritual
   joy, for it is just then that you may have some terrible temptation!
   Perhaps the voice from Heaven is to prepare you to do battle with the
   enemy. I have noticed that the Lord has two special seasons of blessing
   His people--sometimes, before a great trial, to prepare them for
   it--and, at other times, after a great affliction, to remove the
   weakness which has been thereby occasioned. Think not that you can come
   up out of the waters of Baptism and then live without watchfulness!
   Imagine not, because the Spirit has sealed you, and borne witness with
   your spirit that you are the Lord's child, that, therefore, you are out
   of gunshot of the enemy. Oh, no! At that very time he will be preparing
   his most subtle temptations for you, just as Jesus was led up by the
   Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil immediately after
   His Baptism and His Father's testimony, "This is My beloved Son, in
   whom I am well pleased."

   2. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He afterward was
   hungry. I suppose that He was not "hungry" during His long fast, and
   this renders it a fast altogether by itself. We are here told, "He
   afterward was hungry."

   3. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If You are the Son of
   God, command that these stones be made bread. "You can do it if You
   are, indeed, the Son of God. You are hungry, therefore feed Yourself.
   Your Father has forgotten You. His Providence has failed You! Be Your
   own Providence--work a miracle for Yourself." How little the tempter,
   with all his knowledge, understood the true Character of Christ! Our
   Lord never worked a miracle in order to supply His own needs.

   4. But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by
   bread, alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
   He had been attacked as a man who was hungry, so He quoted a text which
   evidently belonged to man--"Man shall not live by bread, alone." It was
   a wilderness text. It concerned the children of Israel in the desert,
   so it was suitable to the position of our Lord in that wilderness. He
   meant to let the tempter know that as God once fed man by manna from
   the skies, He could do it again. At any rate, this glorious Man, this
   true Son of God, was determined not to interfere with the ordinary
   working of Providence, but He left Himself and His needs in His
   Father's hands.

   5, 6. Then the devil took Him up into the Holy City and set Him on a
   pinnacle of the Temple, and said to Him, If You are the Son of God,
   cast Yourself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge
   concerning you: and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest at any
   time you dash your foot against a stone. "It is written." Thus the
   devil tried to turn Christ's own sword against Himself--that two-edged
   sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God! And the devil can still
   quote Scripture to suit his own purpose. Yet it was a misquotation as
   to the letter of it, for he left out the essential words, "to keep you
   in all your ways." And it was a worse misquotation as to the spirit of
   it, for in the true meaning of the passage there is nothing to tempt us
   to presumption. There is a guarantee of safety when we are walking
   where we should walk, but not in leaping from a temple's pinnacle down
   into the abyss!

   7. Jesus said to Him, It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord
   your God. Here was a plain, positive precept, which clearly forbade
   Christ to tempt God by such a presumptuous action as casting Himself
   down from the pinnacle of the Temple! And we must always follow the
   precepts of Scripture whatever the tempter may say.

   8. Again, the devil took Him up into an exceedingly high mountain
   andshowedHim all the kingdoms ofthe world, and the glory of them.
   Notice that these temptations were in high places. Alas, high places
   are often full of trial, whether they are places of wealth and rank, or
   of eminent service in the Church of God. A pinnacle is a dangerous
   position, even if it is a pinnacle of the Temple. And the summit of an
   exceedingly high mountain is a perilous place even if the view from it
   is not the poverty of the city, nor the sin of the people, but the
   glory of the kingdoms of the world. Even with such a view as that, the
   mountain's brow is full of danger to our weak heads.

   9. And said to Him, All these things will I give You, if You will fall
   down and worship me. Why, they were Christ's already! They never
   belonged to Satan and, though, for a while, he had, to some extent,
   usurped authority over them, it was only his impudence to offer to give
   away what was not his own!

   10. Then Jesus said to Him, Get you hence, Satan: for it is written,
   You shall worship the Lordyour God, andHim only shall you serve. Let
   the bribe be what it may, you must not worship or serve either yourself
   or the devil! Your God alone claims your homage. And if the whole earth
   might be yours through one act of sin, you would not be justified in
   committing it.

   11. Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered
   unto Him. What a change! When the devil goes, the angels come! Perhaps
   some of you are just now sorely tempted and much troubled. Oh, that you
   might speedily come to Mahanaim, of which we read, "And Jacob went on
   his way, and the angels of God met him"--that there you might be met by
   troops of angels coming to minister to you, weary with the conflict
   with the Evil One, just as they ministered to your Lord! You need them
   as much as He did and, therefore, you are as sure to have them if you
   look up to Him and ask Him to send them to you.

   --Adapted from The C. H. Spurgeon Collection, Ages Software,
   1.800.297.4307

   PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMON TO BRING MANY TO A SAVING
   KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST.
     __________________________________________________________________

Strange Things

   (No. 2614)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 19, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   NOVEMBER 18, 1883.

   "We have seen strange things today." Luke 5:26.

   THE world is growing very old, dull and commonplace. One takes the
   newspaper and, often, after glancing through it, has to say, "There is
   really nothing in it." The reason probably being that there is nothing
   fresh or new happening on the earth--it is the same old sad story of
   sin and sorrow constantly repeated. The world seems to be like a
   cluster from the vine when all its generous juice has been pressed out.
   Life, to many persons, has come to be excessively humdrum. The human
   mind is always craving after novelties and, to find these novelties, it
   makes "much ado about nothing." It runs raving mad over that which is
   not worth thinking of and whips itself up into an intense excitement
   about a matter that is of no more importance than a drop in a bucket,
   or the small dust of the balance. The fact is, man wants something
   really fresh and strange and if he can get it, he feels delighted! I
   hardly think that when our good friend, Mr. John Ashworth, brought out
   his book, he would have achieved so great a success with it if he had
   not called it Strange Tales. But the strangeness was the attraction.
   The stories in it were strange tales to the mass of mankind, though to
   some of us they are very familiar things--but the strangenesswas the
   point that attracted readers.

   No man ever spent a day with Jesus Christ without being filled with the
   sight of strange things! No man ever entered into communion with the
   Lord Jesus without being delighted with wonders of love, of mercy, of
   Divine Grace, of the Truths of God, of goodness for, while His Gospel
   is the old, old Gospel, yet it always has a new face upon it and is
   continually fresh and new--it never gets stale! We read of our Lord
   that when John saw Him, "His head and His hairs were white like wool,
   as white as snow," to denote His antiquity. And yet the spouse said of
   Him, "His locks are bushy and black as a raven," as if to indicate His
   perpetual youth, His unfailing strength and His unfading beauty.
   Believe me, dear Friends, if you want to see that which is truly
   strange, you must get into that spiritual realm where Christ is
   acknowledged as King, the new Heaven and new earth wherein dwell
   righteousness.

   If you want to continue to be astounded, amazed, astonished, filled
   with holy awe, you must come and be familiar with the Savior, His
   person, His work, His offices and everything that has to do with Him
   and, when you have become familiar with all these things, then you will
   have to say constantly, "We have seen strange things today. Something
   has occurred that has surprised even us who have grown used to
   surprises. Our Lord has seemed to outdone Himself, though we thought
   Him to be higher than the heavens--and His mercy has appeared to go
   deeper than ever before, though we judged that it had already gone
   deeper than the abyss, itself!" "O world of wonders! I can say no
   less." He that enters this spiritual world where Christ is adored as
   God and King has unlocked a cabinet of marvels that shall astonish him
   during all his lifetime here and even throughout eternity! I am going
   to speak about strange things and I pray that God will make what is
   said to be of service to many.

   I. First, I ask you to MARK THE STRANGE THINGS OF THAT PARTICULAR DAY
   which are mentioned in our text. It was so full of wonders that the
   people said, "We have seen strange things today." Well, what did they
   see?

   First, they had that day seen Christ disturbed in preaching, greatly
   disturbed, and yet delighted to be so disturbed and accepting the
   disturbance as part of His usual experience and the means of doing
   further good to men. The Lord Jesus has gone into the square covered
   court of a house--the people have pressed in behind Him, one after
   another, till they are packed in a dense mass--and there are still
   others around the door vainly trying to enter. Here come four men--it
   is rather remarkable that there should be four such earnest men--who
   have brought a sick neighbor on his bed, with ropes tied to the four
   corners. But they find that they cannot get in through the crowd. They
   push, they squeeze, they struggle, but there is no getting in! And
   their poor paralyzed friend seems to be effectually shut out from
   Christ. They go up the outside stairs of the house. They get on the
   roof which covers the square where Christ and the people are--and they
   begin ripping off the tiling! And now, look! The man is being let down
   by the four ropes right before the Savior's face! There must be some
   measure of dust, even if something still heavier does not come tumbling
   down upon the Preacher's head, but here comes the bed with the man on
   it! The people are sure to make room for him, now, or else he will be
   supported on their heads! They seemed to be squeezed as tightly as they
   could be, but they feel that they must, somehow or other, get a little
   more closely together and so the man is gradually let down by his four
   friends who carefully let out the four ropes at the same rate, keeping
   good time together, lest one end of the bed should be too high and he
   should fall.

   That must have been a great disturbance to our Lord! I know some
   preachers who cannot bear to have even a baby crying during the sermon.
   I do not feel especially delighted with that sweet music, yet I rejoice
   that the good woman did not stay away from the service! As far as I am
   concerned, she may bring her baby, even if it should sometimes cry--I
   am glad to have her here that God may bless her. Perhaps a friend has
   just dropped his cane in the aisle and made a loud noise just when the
   preacher was trying to be very earnest. Well, that is a pity, but the
   dear Savior was much more rudely interrupted by all the falling stuff
   from the ceiling and the sick man coming down into the midst of the
   crowd before Him! If there had been any "thread" in His sermon, He
   certainly would have lost it--but His discourses were made of better
   material than that. They were made, indeed, of fire, and fell like
   fire-flakes on men's heads and hearts. He still spoke on, after He had
   paused a while to attend to this man's case, and He did attend to it
   very sweetly. He looked at the four men who had brought him and He saw
   that they had great trust in Him. And, seeing their faith, He worked
   the cure upon the sick man.

   It was a strange thing that it should be so, but how much I would like
   to see more of this strange kind of work! I don't know where I am to
   find four men who are so in love with one of their friends that they
   will break up ceilings and roofs to get him where Christ can bless him!
   They will probably be four very imprudent and rash men, in the opinion
   of others--the Lord bless the imprudent and the rash! They are
   generally the best sort of men for such a task as this. Your more
   prudent men would have stopped till the service was over and the people
   had come out and, very likely, they would have waited till Christ had
   gone out at another door--and so their friend would have missed Him.
   But these rash, headstrong, ardent lovers of their sick neighbor must
   somehow get him to Christ! So they break up the roof and there he is,
   right in the Presence of Christ! It was a strange thing to do, but,
   Brothers and Sisters, do not hesitate to do strange things in order to
   save souls! Hardly mind what you do, so long as you can get them to
   Christ. Your Lord will not blame you. He is so strangely loving--so
   strangely full of goodwill to men--that even should you be guilty of an
   indiscretion in your zeal, He will not upbraid you for it. Oh, labor
   for the souls of your children, your servants, your neighbors--and the
   Lord will accept that service, and you may yet have the delight of
   seeing them made whole by Christ! That was a strange thing to begin
   with. I am bound to say that the people who witnessed it talked all
   their lives about the man coming down from the ceiling and Jesus Christ
   healing Him!

   But now they saw a greater wonder than that--the Christ of God
   forgiving this man his sins! We talk about the forgiveness of sins, I
   fear, rather glibly, without always realizing what a great thing it is.
   You know that when Martin Luther was in deep distress of soul, a good
   old monk said to him, "Brother, can you not say the Credo?" "Yes," said
   Luther. "Well, then," replied the old man, "in the Credo you say, 'I
   believe in the forgiveness of sins.'" "Yes," said Luther, "I know that.
   I have often said it." "Then," enquired the other, "do you believe in
   the forgiveness of your own sin? For, if not, how can you say, 'I
   believe in the forgiveness of sins'?" This great Truth is sometimes
   spoken of as though forgiveness were an impalpable something that was
   done and yet not done, but Christ never meant it to be so. His death
   was not a shadowy, vague Atonement that might possibly be available for
   sinners, but a real and complete putting away of sin and, as many as
   believe in Him may know for sure that their sin is put away and is as
   completely gone as if it had actually ceased to be, seeing that Christ
   bore the punishment of it. Yes, and the sin, itself, was, by
   imputation, laid upon Him, as it is written, "The Lord has laid on Him
   the iniquity of us all." "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."

   Whenever a sinner has his sin forgiven, it is a strange, a wondrous
   thing! Never think of it as a mere commonplace matter of no account,
   for it is a marvel of marvels. The angels--a far nobler race than
   men--fell from their first estate, but never has any of the devils bean
   pardoned for his rebellion against the Most High. No Savior has
   espoused their cause, no sacrifice has been offered for their guilt, no
   Gospel is ever proclaimed in their ears! When they sinned, they fell
   finally and now they are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness
   unto the judgment of the great day." Yet man, who was not a pure
   spirit, like the angels, but a spirit allied with materialism, an
   inferior being, fell--and for him God left His throne to come and bleed
   on earth to offer up an expiation! For men, sin became pardonable! No,
   more, to multitudes of the sons of men sin has been forgiven and an act
   of amnesty and oblivion has been passed concerning their rebellion!
   What a wonderful Truth of God is this! Whenever you feel a sense of
   pardoned sin, or whenever you know that your fellow man has received
   absolution from the great High Priest, the Son of God, you may at once
   say, "We have seen strange things today."

   When these people around our Lord had seen that wonder, they saw
   something else which must have greatly surprised them--they saw an
   exhibition of thought-reading. I have heard and read many curious
   things about thought-reading. Some I have believed, and some I have
   not. That any man can read my thoughts, I shall take leave to question!
   At any rate, he may read this thought, for I will tell him what is on
   my mind--that I do not believe him! But our Lord Jesus Christ, as He
   looked at the Pharisees and the scribes, read their unexpressed
   thoughts and, at once, saw what was passing within their minds! It was
   not an easy thing, I should think, to read thoughts like these, "Who is
   this which speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God, alone?"
   But our Lord Jesus read those thoughts and answered them, though the
   men before Him had not as yet spoken a single word! I have seen
   wonderful exhibitions of thought-reading in this Tabernacle--not by me,
   but by the Lord Himself! Many of you are witnesses of how I have
   uttered from this platform the very words you have spoken when you were
   coming here--and what you said in your bedchamber, where nobody heard,
   perhaps, but some one companion, has been repeated in this place and
   you have been astounded as you discovered that the Word of God, which
   is quick and powerful, searches the heart and cuts asunder, just as you
   have seen an animal split from head to foot by a butcher and its
   innermost parts laid bare to the view of every passerby!

   The Word of God often does that--discovers the secret thoughts and
   intents of the heart and makes the man see himself as God sees him--and
   makes him stand astonished that it should be so! We have frequently
   seen this sort of thing happen as we sometimes tell to one another some
   of the extraordinary instances in which men's very flesh has seemed to
   creep as the things they said and did have been made known to them. It
   will probably happen in like manner to many others--and those to whom
   God will thus speak will say, as these people did--"We have seen
   strange things today."

   There was another strange thing they saw and, with that, I will
   conclude this first part of my discourse. They saw a sick man who could
   not lift hand or foot made, in a single moment, to walk and carry his
   bed, at the word of the Lord, Jesus Christ! That must have been a
   strange sight to those who knew this poor paralyzed man, when they saw
   him stand up from the bed and glorify God as he did what Jesus bade him
   do. And when the Lord speaks with power to a soul, as He constantly
   does, and the man who knew not God learns to know Him, and the one who
   feared not the Lord is brought to trust and love and serve Him, what a
   marvelous thing it is! I sometimes wonder whether any person would
   doubt the Inspiration of Scripture and the Divine origin and power of
   the Gospel if he could live each day as I live and see what I see of
   the wonders that are worked by the Gospel. Last Sunday night there came
   into Exeter Hall a man who did not care for the things of God, but he
   sat and heard the sermon. His brother had brought him--and was praying
   earnestly for him. As he was going out, a friend, who had observed him
   during the service, said to this man who had entered the hall utterly
   careless and Christless, "You were interested in the sermon tonight,
   were you not?" "I was," he answered, "very much." "Do you believe in
   the Lord Jesus Christ?" The man at once replied, "I do believe in Him
   with all my heart and all my soul." His brother, who was with him, and
   who had been praying over him, said, "I was astonished beyond measure
   to hear him make such a declaration of his faith!"

   Beside that one, there were 12 other persons who came forward when the
   service was over and distinctly declared that they had found the Savior
   that night under the preaching of the Gospel. Though they had not been
   religious people, and had scarcely ever thought of their souls, yet God
   had found them! And these strange things do not occur with us,
   alone--they happen every day with our beloved friends, Moody and Sankey
   and, indeed, in a great measure, with all who preach the Gospel! It is
   its own evidence of its almighty power and, as it wins its way, men are
   saved, they are healed of the deadly paralysis of sin and made to leap
   with active obedience and joyful service in the cause of Christ!
   Whenever you see this miracle of mercy worked, you can say, "We have
   seen strange things today." ' II. Now, with great brevity, I ask you TO
   MARK THE STRANGE THINGS OF CHRIST'S DAY.

   If you had ever beheld our Lord's life and work with the eyes of faith,
   you must have seen many strange things. First, the Maker of men became
   a Man! He that is Infinite became an Infant--He that made all things
   was wrapped in swaddling clothes! He who fills all space was laid in a
   manger and the Son of the Highest was known as the Son of Mary! We have
   heard strange things when we have heard the Doctrine of the
   Incarnation! "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." Truly, this was a strange thing!

   Further, He who was Lord of All, became Servant of All! "Being found in
   fashion as a Man," He lived a life of perfect obedience to His Father's
   will and went about healing the sick, raising the dead and ministering
   to all who came near Him. Most marvelous of all, on Him who knew no
   sin, the sin of man was laid, and the righteous God meted out to Him,
   the Innocent One, the chastisement due to the guilty! This is the
   ground of our hope and the only foundation of hope for sinners, that
   He, the innocent Christ, was made sin for us, "that we might be made
   the righteousness of God in Him." But what a wonder it is! The guilty
   go free because He who is free from guilt suffers in their place! Tell
   all men that wonder of wonders!

   Yet that was not all. Jesus died on the Cross! And loving friends laid
   Him in the tomb. Death had conquered Him, but, in that moment, Death
   was conquered--

   "He Death by dying slew."

   That day He led Death, itself, captive to His own supremacy. Wonder of
   wonders--Death put to death by death! Jesus Christ, by His dying, puts
   dying out of the way for all His people. Yet, even that wonder is not
   the last. Look, there He lies, for a while, wrapped in the grave
   clothes and Death appears to have the mastery over Him. But that
   Scripture must be fulfilled--"You will not leave My soul in Hades;
   neither will You suffer Your Holy One to see corruption." He must wait
   there till the appointed hour strikes and then, early in the morning,
   before the break of day, He was up and away! An angel rolled away the
   stone, for He that had been dead was alive, again, and Jesus left the
   abode of Death, no more to die! What a wonder it is that He who was
   dead worked out our resurrection! And now, since He rose from the
   grave, so all His followers must.

   You may take what point you please in the history of the Lord Jesus
   Christ and, if you really understand it, you will say concerning every
   part of it, "We have seen strange things" in this matter. It is a chain
   of miracles! It is like Alps on Alps and more than that, for the
   mountains of mercy tower above the stars and reach even to the Throne
   of God and God, Himself, was never more lofty and glorious than when He
   was occupied in the stupendous labors of His Son Jesus Christ. Only
   spend your time in the company of the great Wonder-Worker, and you will
   continually be able to say, "We have seen strange things today."

   III. Now I must close by asking you to MARK THE STRANGE THINGS STILL TO
   BE SEEN IN THOSE IN

   WHOM CHRIST WORKS. If He comes and blesses us, we shall often say, "We
   have seen strange things today."

   First, we have seen a self-condemned sinner justified by Christ. I can
   tell you what I saw, one day, and I never shall forget the sight
   throughout eternity! I saw a sinner whom I know right well--and I can
   say no good of him, but much, very much that is evil, without at all
   slandering him. He had been proud and haughty in his opinion of
   himself, but there shone a light into his soul which unveiled to him
   his deep corruption and depravity, the sin that mixed with all his best
   things, and the still more dreadful sin that fermented in his worst
   things. I saw that sinner--for I know him well--self-condemned. He
   wrote his own sentence and he handed it to the Judge. He said that he
   deserved to be cast away forever from the Presence of God and the Glory
   of His power. And, as he passed up his own death-warrant, he dropped a
   tear upon it and he said, "I now trust myself to the Sovereign Mercy of
   God in Christ Jesus." I remember it well and I saw that self-condemned
   sinner pardoned in a moment! The Lord said to him, "Your sins, which
   are many, are all forgiven," and his face changed from darkness and
   gloom into shining light and joy! And he has never lost the impression
   of that blessed day--and, as he stands here to tell you the story, he
   can truly say that he saw strange things that day! But, Brothers and

   Sisters, there are hosts of you who have undergone the same blessed
   operation! Self-condemnation brought you where the Savior absolved you
   and, though it seems so easy to talk about it now, oh, how blessed it
   was when first we felt it! My heart did leap for joy! I was never so
   happy before and I sometimes think that I have scarcely ever been quite
   as jubilant as I was on that day of holy excitement and exhilaration!

   I remember, also, a natural heart renewed by Divine Grace. I have gone
   into my garden and I have seen a great number of trees that have new
   branches which have been grafted into them, but I never yet saw a tree
   get a new heart. I have seen it get new bark and many changes have
   happened to it, but it cannot change its heart. There are some living
   creatures that shed their claws and grow fresh ones, but I never heard
   of a living creature that grew a new heart. That must be a strange, a
   wondrous thing, to change the very center and source of life! Yet the
   Lord Jesus Christ is constantly doing it--giving men new motives, new
   desires, new wishes, new habits--changing them entirely and,
   especially, creating in them new hearts and right spirits! Whenever you
   see that miracle of Grace worked, you can say. "We have seen strange
   things today." A woman came to see me and cast herself down at my feet.
   She said that she had been such a sinner that she was not fit to speak
   with me. I bade her rise, for I said I, also, was a sinner. And she
   told me what she had been--I will not tell you the sad story, for I
   should have to use words of shame if I described her. But she is among
   us now, washed and sanctified--and she delights to serve her God and
   honor and glorify Him! What changed that woman? Was it fear? No, she
   was a brave spirit who would have dared any kind of devil, but the
   Grace of God changed and transformed her, and made her into a loving
   servant of the living Savior. Oh, whenever we see this deed of Grace
   done--and we see it continu-ally--we say, "We have seen strange things
   today."

   Another marvel is, a soul preserved in spiritual life amid killing
   evils. Did you ever see a bush burn and yet not be consumed? Did you
   ever see a spark float in the sea and yet not be quenched? Many persons
   here are, to themselves, just such wonders. They are living godly lives
   in the midst of temptation--holy in the midst of impurity--serving God
   in spite of all opposition. These are strange things!

   Did you ever see evil turned into good?. There are many of God's
   children who constantly see it. "All things work together for good to
   them who love God." They are made rich by poverty, made healthy by
   sickness, made strong by weakness, made alive by killing, made to go up
   by going down! You who live the new life know the meaning of these
   paradoxes and understand how these strange things make up a Christian's
   progress to the Eternal City of God. Strange things do the people of
   God see in their own lives as they find Heaven on earth! It is a
   singular thing for anyone to be on earth and yet in Heaven, but we have
   proved it to be so! We have seen men sick and we have seen men
   dying--and yet as full of bliss as they could hold, as thankful in
   their room of poverty--and almost as joyful, as if they had been among
   the angels before the Throne of God above! There are surprises all the
   way along the road to Glory, but what will it be when we come to the
   end of it?

   Did you ever try to picture the first half-hour in Heaven? Have you
   ever thought of the sensations that will pass through you in the first
   few days there? I think that we can very well judge what they will be,
   for they have been revealed to us by the Spirit. We shall have the same
   joys as we have here, only carried to a far higher pitch, for the life
   of God in Heaven is the life of God in the heart on earth! Heaven is
   but the outgrowth of a holy consecrated life and he that lives with
   Christ below is already in the lower chamber of the Father's House. He
   has but to climb a pair of stairs and be in the upper chamber where all
   the glorified meet together with their Lord! Still, I doubt not that it
   will be passing strange to go from earth into Glory.

   Whenever I begin to talk about this matter, I always wonder who will be
   the first among us to be called away, for it happens every week that
   some out of our great congregation go Home. Sometimes, in a single
   week, six or seven of our Church members go to the great Father's
   House--whose turn will it be to go next? We have not the choice,
   otherwise some of us might venture to put in an early claim that we
   might enjoy our rest. I know some old folk and some sick ones, and some
   who are greatly beset by Satan, and some who are sorely troubled with
   doubts and fears who would gladly say, "Would God it were time for us
   to go!" Well, dear Friends, rest assured that you are not
   forgotten--the messenger will come to you, perhaps soon, and he will
   say to you, "By tomorrow, you shall see the King in His Glory." You
   will have to go down into the flood--to cross the dark river, as they
   call it--but I do not believe that it is dark at all. I have seen the
   light shining on the faces of many of the pilgrims as they have looked
   back at me, when I have stood upon the river's brink to comfort
   them--and it has not seemed at all dark. The happiest company I ever
   keep is that of dying saints! I come away right merry, sometimes, from
   their bedside, for they say to me, "O dear Pastor, the Truth of God you
   preach is good to live upon and good to die upon!"

   I saw a man and his wife, both of them very ill, lying in bed,
   together, but not a syllable of sympathy did they appear to need from
   me. And they seemed delighted to say to me, "We learned Christ from
   your lips. We have lived on the Gospel you preached and it holds us up,
   now that we are lying here. We are glad to go home to Heaven--we are
   full of life and full of immortality even now!" Oh, yes, these are
   strange things--except to those who form part of this strange company
   with God, who is, to many, a stranger in His own world, and with
   Christ, who is a stranger, sometimes, in His own Church! We can say,
   and we shall say at the close of our lives, "We have seen strange
   things today."

   There is one strange sight which I wish that you, dear Friends, if you
   are unconverted, would look upon--I wish that you would see Jesus as
   your own Savior. He is not far from any one of you. O look, look, look
   at Him and, as you look at Him, you shall live! That is God's appointed
   way of salvation. "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the
   earth." And, dear Heart, if you should see that strange
   being--yourself--a saved sinner, I would like you to see another
   strange sight, namely, all your family saved! It will be such joy to
   you to have your wife rejoicing in Christ with you, joining in your
   daily prayer, and your children, even in their childhood, loving their
   father's God. There is a text for you to lay hold of, supposing that
   you are not yet converted. It was the middle of the night when, in
   Philippi, the jail began to rock to and fro. The jailer's house was up
   above, and he knew that he had two strange prisoners down in the vaults
   below. They had been singing in the night and the other prisoners had
   heard them and, as the jail rocked and reeled, and the doors flew open,
   the jailer, a stern Roman legionary, thought that his prisoners must
   have escaped and that he would be put to death for allowing it.

   So he was about to thrust his sword into his own heart, but Paul
   shouted to him, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here." Then, when
   a light was brought, that man fell down before Paul and Silas and said
   to them, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they answered,
   "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your
   house." Do not leave out those last three words, "and your house." Do
   not seek your own salvation without that of your household, also! Look
   up the passage in Acts 16:31-34--"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
   you shall be saved, and your house. And they spoke to him the Word of
   the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same
   hour of the night and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and
   all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he
   set food before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his
   house."

   It was a midnight service and Baptism of the whole household upon a
   profession of their faith! God send you a like blessing! You will see
   strange things, then! Many of us have seen already them in our families
   and we hope to see them repeated a thousand times! The Lord give you,
   every one, a personal blessing, and then bless your households, also,
   for Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 5:12-32.

   Verse 12. And it came to pass, when He was in a certain city, behold, a
   man full of leprosy. What a contrast there was between these two
   persons--the Lord Jesus full of purity--and this man full of
   impurity--full of leprosy! He could not be more than full. He had as
   much leprosy as a man could contain.

   12. Who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought Him, saying, Lord,
   if You will, You can make me clean. This was splendid faith! Here was
   adoration of the noblest kind! No angel before the Throne of God could
   render the Son of God more honor than this poor leprous man did. He
   believed in Christ's power at once to rid him of that otherwise
   incurable disease. "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean."

   13. And He put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be you
   clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. This is what
   Christ can also do in the spiritual realm. If a man is full of sin, let
   him but fall down on his face before Jesus and say, "Lord, if You will,
   You can make me clean," and the Lord will put out His hand, touch him,
   and he will be clean in a moment. "Immediately," not needing the lapse
   of a single hour--"immediately the leprosy departed from him."

   14. And He charged him to tell no man but go, and show yourself to the
   priest, and offer for your cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for
   a testimony unto them. As long as the Ceremonial Law was in force,
   Christ very diligently obeyed it and bade others do the same. That Law
   is now abolished and the Jewish priesthood has also ceased to be. But
   mark the modesty of our Savior. As Man, He sought no fame or honor,
   but, as far as He could do so, He suppressed the voices that would have
   brought Him notoriety. Yet grateful tongues could not all be silenced,
   even at His bidding.

   15. But so much the more went there a fame abroad of Him: and great
   multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their
   infirmities. There was s double attraction about the Lord Jesus--His
   sweet, instructive speech, and His gracious, healing hand. There is a
   still somewhat similar attraction in every true Gospel ministry, not
   the attraction of the mere words of human eloquence, but in the Truths
   of God which every faithful minister preaches and in that matchless
   soul-healing power which goes with the Word wherever it is believingly
   heard.

   16. And He withdrew Himself into the wilderness and prayed. That is
   just what you and I would probably nothave done under such
   circumstances. We would have said, "We must seize this golden
   opportunity of publishing our message. There is a tide in the affairs
   of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to plenitude of blessing and
   we must take advantage of it." But our Savior did not wish for fame, He
   cared nothing about excitement and popularity, so, "He withdrew Himself
   into the wilderness and prayed" for more of that real power which
   touches the hearts of men so as to save them, caring nothing for that
   power which merely attracts a crowd and excites momentary attention. O
   servant of God, when you are best succeeding in your service, imitate
   your Lord--withdraw yourself and pray!

   17. And it came to pass on a certain days, as He was teaching, that
   there were Pharisees and doctors ofthe law sitting by, which had come
   out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem; and the power
   ofthe Lord was present to heal them. To heal the people? Yes, and to
   heal the doctors, too! And that was a far more difficult thing than to
   heal the ordinary folk. It must have been a time of great mercy and
   favor when Christ was ready to bless even the Pharisees and doctors of
   the law who were sitting by.

   18. And, behold--For it was a great wonder--

   18. Men brought in a bed, a man which was taken with palsy. A paralyzed
   man.

   18, 19. And they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before
   Him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in
   because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop. There was, no
   doubt, a staircase outside, as there usually is to Eastern houses.
   "They went upon the housetop,"

   19-21. And let him down through the tiling with his couch into the
   midst before Jesus. And when He saw their faith, He said unto him, Man,
   your sins are forgiven you. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to
   reason, saying, Who is this which speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive
   sins, but God alone?Most true, O Pharisees and, therefore, He isGod,
   for He can forgive sins and He has forgiven this poor sinner!

   22, 23. But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He, answering, said
   unto them, What reason you in your hearts? Whether it is easier to say,
   Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, rise up and walk? "Does not each
   of these require the same Divine power? If I am able to bid him rise up
   and walk, I am also able, by the same Divine authority, to forgive his
   sins."

   24-26. But that you may know that the Son of Man has power upon earth
   to forgive sins, (He said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto you,
   Arise, and take up your couch, and go into your house. And immediately
   he rose up before them and took up that on which he lay, and departed
   to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they
   glorified God, and were filled with fear With a reverent awe!

   26, 27. Saying, We have seen strange things today. And after these
   things He went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the
   receipt of custom. This Levi, or Matthew, was a tax collector. Not like
   those of our own day, but one who collected the taxes for the Roman
   governor and made what he could for himself out of them. At least that
   is what many of the "publicans" did.

   27, 28. And He said unto him, Follow Me. And he left all, rose up, and
   followed Him. This was just a parallel case to that of curing the
   palsied man--it is precisely the same morally as the other was
   physically. The office of a publican was disreputable in the eyes of
   the Jews, and this Levi was probably making fast money at the cost of
   his own countrymen. He was morally paralyzed as the other man was
   physically,but as soon as Christ said to him, "Follow Me," "he left
   all, rose up, and followed Him."

   29, 30. And Levi made Him a great feast in his own house: and there was
   a great company ofpublicans and of others that sat down with them. But
   the scribes and Pharisees murmured against His disciples, saying, Why
   do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners?'t seems that there can
   never be a great wonder worked by Christ without somebody or other
   objecting to it! I suppose that the sun never rises without annoying
   thieves who would like a longer time to perpetrate their deeds of
   darkness. And no miracle of mercy is ever worked without somebody
   finding fault with it for some reason or other. Be not dismayed,
   therefore, now that in these modern days there have arisen many cunning
   objectors to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let them object to it, as the
   dog barks at the moon--the moon still shines on in her silver
   brightness! So, when all objectors shall have howled themselves to
   silence, the eternal Gospel will shine on with never-failing splendor.
   These scribes and Pharisees murmured against Christ's disciples and
   said to them, "Why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners?"
   Their Master did not leave them to defend themselves, but He took the
   case into His own hands.

   31. And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole--"Such as
   you scribes and Pharisees claim to be

   31. Need not a physician; but they that are sick ' 'You regard them as
   sick and I regard them in the same way and, therefore, am I found where
   these sick ones are. Why should I turn aside from them to insult you,
   who are so wonderfully healthy and think yourselves so good?"

   32. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Anxious Enquirer

   (No. 2615)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 26, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, EARLY IN THE YEAR 1857.

   "Oh that I knew where I might find Him!" Job 23:3.

   WE will say nothing at this time concerning Job. We will leave the
   Patriarch out of the question and take these words as the exclamation
   forced from the aching heart of a sinner when he finds that he is lost
   on account of sin and can only be saved by Christ. "Oh that I knew
   where I might find Him"--my Savior--"That I might be saved by His love
   and blood!" There are some who tell us that a man, can, if he pleases,
   in one moment obtain peace with God and joy in the Holy Spirit. Such
   persons may know something of religion in their own hearts, but I think
   they are not competent to be judges of others. God may have given them
   some peace through believing and brought them into an immediate state
   of joy--He may have given them some repentance for sin and then quickly
   made them to rejoice in Jesus. But I believe that in many more cases,
   God begins by breaking the stony heart in pieces and often makes a
   delay of days, of weeks and even of months, before He heals the soul
   which He has wounded and gives life to the spirit which He has killed.
   Many of God's people have been, even, for years seeking peace and,
   finding none, they have known their sins, they have been permitted to
   feel their guilt and yet, notwithstanding that they have sought the
   Lord earnestly with tears, they have not attained to a knowledge of
   their justification by faith in Christ.

   Such was the case with John Bunyan. For many a dreary month he walked
   the earth in desolation and said he knew himself to be lost without
   Christ. On his bended knees, with tears pouring like showers from his
   eye, he sought mercy, but he found it not. Terrible words continually
   haunted him! Dreadful passages of Scripture kept ringing in his ears
   and he found no consolation until, afterwards, God was pleased to
   appear unto him in all the plentitude of Divine Grace and lead him to
   cast himself on the Savior!

   I think there may be some here who have been for a long while under the
   hand of God--some who have been brought so far toward Heaven as to know
   that they are undone forever unless Christ shall save them. I may be
   addressing some who have begun to pray--many a time the walls of their
   chamber have resounded with their supplications. Not once, nor twice,
   nor 50 times, but very often have they bent their knees in agonizing
   prayer and yet, up to this moment, so far as their own feelings are
   concerned, their prayers are unanswered. Christ has not smiled upon
   them. They have not received the application of His precious blood and,
   perhaps, each one of them is at this hour saying, "I am ready to give
   up in despair. Jesus said He would receive all who came to Him, but
   apparently He has rejected me." Take heart, O Mourner! I have a sweet
   message for you and I pray the Lord that you may find Christ on the
   spot where you are now standing or sitting--and rejoice in a pardon
   bought with blood!

   I shall now proceed to consider the case of a man who is awakened and
   is seeking Christ, but who, at present, has not, to his own
   apprehension, found Him. First, I shall notice some hopeful signs in
   this man's case. Secondly, I shall try to give some reasons why it is
   that a gracious God delays an answer to prayer in the case of penitent
   sinners. And then, thirdly, I shall close by giving some brief and
   suitable advice to those who have been seeking Christ, but have, up to
   the present time, found it a hopeless search.

   I. First, then, observe that THERE ARE SOME VERY HOPEFUL SIGNS IN THE
   CASE OF THE MAN WHO HAS BEEN SEEKING CHRIST, THOUGH HE MAY NOT HAVE
   FOUND HIM.

   Taking the text as the basis of observation, I notice as one hopeful
   sign that the man has only one objective--that he may find Christ. "Oh
   that I knew where I might find Him!" The worldling's cry is, "Who will
   show us any good--this good, that good, or any other good--fifty kinds
   of good! Who will show us any of these?" But the quickened sinner knows
   of only one good and he cries, "Oh that I knew where I might find HIM!"
   When the sinner is truly awakened to feel his guilt, if you could pour
   the gold of India at his feet, he would say, "Take it away! I need to
   find HIM." If you could then give him all the joys and delights of the
   flesh, he would tell you he had tried all these and they but soured his
   appetite. His only cry is, "Oh that I knew where I might find HIM!"--

   "These will never satisfy! Give me Christ, or else I die!" It is a
   blessed thing for a man when he has brought his desires into a focus.
   While he has 50 different wishes, his heart resembles a pool of water
   which is spread over a marsh, breeding foul air and pestilence. But
   when all his desires are brought into one channel, his heart becomes
   like a river of pure water, running along and fertilizing the fields.
   Happy is the man who has only one desire, if that one desire is set on
   Christ, even though it may not yet have been realized. If it is his
   desire, it is a blessed sign of the Divine work within him. Such a man
   will never be content with mere ordinances. Other men will go up to
   God's House and when they have heard the sermon, they will be
   satisfied. But not so this man! He will say, "Oh that I knew where I
   might find HIM!" His neighbor, who hears the sermon, will be content,
   but this man will say, "I need more than that! I want to find Christ in
   it." Another man will go to the Communion Table--he will eat the bread
   and drink the wine--and that will be enough for him. But the quickened
   sinner will say, "No bread, no wine, will satisfy me! I need Christ. I
   must have Him! Mere ordinances are of no use to me. I want not the
   Savior's clothes, I want Him! Do not offer me these things--you are
   only bringing me the empty pitcher while I am dying of thirst! Give me
   water, the Water of Life, or I shall die. It is Christ that I want."
   This man's cry is, as we have it here in our text, "Oh that I knew
   where I might find Him!"

   Is this your condition, my Friend, at this moment? Have you but one
   desire, and is that desire that you may find Christ? Then, as the Lord
   lives, you are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven. Have you but one
   wish in your heart, and is that one wish that you may be washed from
   all your sins in Jesus' blood? Can you really say, "I would give all I
   have to be a Christian--I would give up everything I have and hope for
   if I might but feel that I have an interest in the Person and death of
   Christ"? Then, poor Soul, despite all your fears, be of good cheer--the
   Lord loves you and you shall soon come out into the daylight and
   rejoice in the liberty in which Christ makes men free.

   There is another hopeful sign about this anxious enquirer. Not only has
   the man this one desire, but it is an intense desire. Hear the text
   again. "Oh that I knew where I might find Him!" There is an, "Oh,"
   here. This proves an intensity of desire. There are some men who are
   apparently very religious, but their religion is never more than skin
   deep--it does not reach as far as their heart. They can talk of it
   finely, but they never feel it--it does not well up from the heart and
   that is a bad spring that only comes from the lips. But this character
   whom I am describing is no hypocrite--he means what he says. Other men
   will say, "Yes, we would like to be Christians. We would like to be
   pardoned and we would like to be forgiven." And so they would--but they
   would like to go on in sin, too! They would like to be saved, but they
   would also like to live in sin! They want to hold with the hare and run
   with the hounds. They have no desire whatever to give up their
   sins--they would like to be pardoned for all their past
   transgressions--but go on just the same as before. Their wish is of no
   use because it is so superficial! But when the sinner is really
   quickened, there is nothing superficial about him. Then his cry is, "Oh
   that I knew where I might find Him!" and that cry comes from his very
   heart!

   Are you in that condition, my Friend? Is your sigh a real one? Is your
   groan no mere fancy, but a real groan from the heart? Is that tear
   which steals down your cheek a genuine tear of penitence, which is the
   evidence of the grief of your spirit? I think I hear you saying, "Sir,
   if you knew me, you would not ask me that question. My friends say I am
   miserable day after day and so, indeed, I am. I go to my chamber at the
   top of the house and I often cry to God. Yes, Sir, I cry in such a
   style that I would not have anyone hear me. I cry with groans and tears
   that I may be brought near to God. I mean what I say." Then, Beloved,
   you shall be saved! So surely as it is a real emotion of the heart, God
   will not let you perish. Never was there a sinner whose inmost spirit
   cried to the Lord for salvation who was not already loved of God! Never
   was there one who, with all his might, desired to be saved and whose
   soul groaned out that desire in hearty prayer, who was cast away by
   God! His mercy may tarry, but it will come. Pray on--He will hear you
   at last--and you shall yet "rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

   But notice again that in the text there is an admission of ignorance,
   which is another very hopeful sign. "Oh that I knew!" Many people think
   they know everything and, consequently, they know nothing. I think it
   is Seneca who says, "Many a man would have been wise if he had not
   thought himself so. If he had but known himself to be a fool, he would
   have become wise." The doorstep to the Temple of Wisdom is a knowledge
   of our own ignorance. He cannot learn aright who has not first been
   taught that he knows nothing. A sense of ignorance is a very excellent
   sign of Grace. It is an amazing thing that every man seems to think
   himself qualified to be a Doctor of Divinity--a man who knows nothing
   of any other science, fancies he perfectly understands this greatest of
   all sciences and, alas, alas, for those who think they know so much
   about God's things and yet have never been taught of God! Man's school
   is not God's school. A man may go to all the Colleges in creation and
   know as little of theology when he comes out as when he went into them.
   It is a good thing for a man to feel that he is only beginning to learn
   and to be willing to open his mind to the teaching of God's Spirit,
   that he may be guided in everything by Him. He that is foolish enough
   to fancy that he knows everything need not think himself a Christian.
   He that boasts that he understands all mysteries, needs to fear as to
   his true state. But the quickened soul prays to the Lord, "Teach me."
   We become little children when God begins to deal with us. Before that
   we were big, tall, men and women, and oh, so wise! But when He takes us
   in hand, He cuts us down to the stature of children and we put on the
   form of humility to learn the true lessons of wisdom--and then we are
   taught the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. Happy are you, O Man, if
   you know yourself to know nothing! If God has emptied you of your
   carnal wisdom, He will fill you with that which is heavenly. If He has
   taught you your ignorance, He will teach you His wisdom and bring You
   to Himself! And if you are taught to reject all you know and know it,
   God will certainly reveal Himself to you.

   There is one more hopeful sign in my text that I must mention. It is
   this--the person I have spoken of is very careless about where it is he
   seeks Christ, so that he does find Him. Do you know, Beloved, that
   people, when they really feel the weight and the guilt of their sins,
   are the worst people in the world to stick up for denominations? Other
   men can fight with their fellow creatures about various minor matters,
   but a poor awakened sinner says, "Lord, I will be glad to meet You
   anywhere!" When we have never seen ourselves to be sinners, we are the
   most respectable religionists in the world-- we venerate every nail in
   the church or chapel door--and we would not have anyone differ from us
   on any point of doctrine or practice! But when we feel our sins, we
   say, "Lord, if I could find You anywhere, I would be happy. If I could
   find you at the Baptist Meeting House. If I could find you in the
   Independent Chapel, I would be glad enough to go there. I have always
   attended a large, handsome church, but if I could find You in that
   little despised Meeting House, I would be glad to go there. Though it
   would be degrading to my rank and respectability, I would go there to
   find my Savior." Some are foolish enough to think that they would
   rather not have Christ if He goes anywhere except to their own
   church--they must keep to their own denomination and can, by no means,
   overstep the line.

   It is a marvelous thing, but I believe I describe the experience of
   many whom I am now addressing, when I say that there are very few of
   you who were brought to know the Lord where you were in the habit of
   attending. You have, perhaps, worshipped there since you were
   converted, but it was not your father's church, not the place where you
   were born and bred, but some other into which you strayed for a time,
   where the King's arrows stuck fast in your heart! I know it was so with
   me--I never thought of going to the Chapel where I was first brought to
   know the Lord, but it snowed so hard that I could not go to my ordinary
   place of worship, so I was obliged to go to the little Primitive
   Methodist meeting. And when I got in, the preacher read his text--"Look
   unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth." It was a blessed
   text and it was blessedly applied to my soul! But if there had been any
   opportunity as to going into other places, I would not have been there!
   So the awakened sinner says, "'Oh that I knew where I might find Him!'
   Only let me know where Christ is to be found! Let the minister be the
   most despised in the world, I will go and hear him! Let the
   denomination to which he belongs be the most calumniated and slandered,
   there I will be found seeking Him! If I can but find Christ, I will be
   content to meet Him anywhere!"

   If divers can go into the deeps to bring up pearls, we should not be
   ashamed, sometimes, to dive deep to bring up precious jewels of Divine
   Grace. Men will do anything to get gold--they will work in the most
   muddy streams, or under the most scorching sun--surely, then, we ought
   not to mind how much we stoop if we find that which is more precious
   than gold and silver, even "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Is this
   how you feel? Then, Beloved, I have not only a hope for you, but I have
   a certainty concerning you! If you are brought to cry out, in all the
   senses I have mentioned, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him!" then,
   assuredly, the Lord has begun a good work in you and He will carry it
   on even unto the end.

   II. But now, for my second point, I SHALL ENDEAVOR TO GIVE SOME REASONS
   WHY IT IS THAT A GRACIOUS GOD DELAYS AN ANSWER TO THE PRAYER OF
   PENITENT SINNERS. I think I hear someone asking,

   "How is it that God does not give a man comfort as soon as he repents?
   Why is it that the Lord makes some of His people wait in bondage when
   they are longing for liberty?"

   In the first place, it is to display His own Sovereignty. Ah, that is a
   word that is not often mentioned in pulpits! Divine Sovereignty is a
   very unfashionable Doctrine. Few people care to hear of a God who does
   as He pleases, who is absolute monarch over man, who knows of no law
   but His own will--which is always the will to do that which is right,
   to do good to those whom He has ordained unto eternal life--and to
   scatter mercy lavishly upon all His creatures. But we assert that there
   is such a thing as Divine Sovereignty and, more especially in the work
   of salvation! God seems to me to argue thus, "If I gave to all men
   peace as soon as they asked for it, they would begin to think they had
   a rightto it. Now, I will make some of them wait so that they may see
   that the mercy is absolutely in My hands and that if I chose to
   withhold it altogether, I might do so most justly. And so I will make
   men see that it is a gift of My Free Grace and not of their own merit."
   In some of our squares, where the owners are anxious to keep the right
   of way in their own hands, they sometimes shut the gates, not because
   they would inconvenience us, but because they would have the public see
   that, although they may let them through, yet they have no right of way
   and might be excluded if the proprietors please. So is it with God--He
   says, "Man, if I save you, it is entirely of My own will and pleasure.
   I give My Grace, not because you deserve it, for then it were not
   Grace, but I give it to the most undeserving of men that I may maintain
   My right to dispense it as I please." And I take it that this is the
   best way of proving God's Sovereignty, namely, His making a delay
   between penitence and faith, or between penitence and that faith which
   brings peace with God and joy in the Holy Spirit. I think that is one
   very important reason.

   But there is another. God sometimes delays manifesting His forgiving
   mercy to men in order that they may find out some secret sin. There is
   something hidden in their hearts of which they do not know. They come
   to God confessing their sins and they think they have make a clean
   breast of all their transgressions. "No," says God, "I will not give
   you pardon yet, or I will not, at present, apply it to your conscience.
   There is a secret sin you have not yet discovered." And He sets the
   heart to examine itself again--as Jerusalem is searched with
   candles--and, lo, there is some iniquity dragged out from the corner in
   which it was hidden! Conscience says, "I never knew of this sin. I
   never felt it to be a sin! Lord, I repent of it--will You not forgive
   me?" "Ah," says the mighty Maker, "now I have proved you, tried you and
   cast out this dross. I will now speak to you the word of consolation
   and comfort." Are you, then, a mourner seeking rest, and not finding
   it? I beseech you, look into your heart once more! Perhaps there is
   some hidden lust there, some secret sin. If so, turn the traitor out!
   Then will the Holy Spirit come and dwell in your soul and give you "the
   peace of God which passes all understanding."

   Another reason why God delays His mercy is that He may make us more
   useful in later life. A man is never made thoroughly useful until he
   has passed through suffering. I do not think there is much good done by
   a man who has never been afflicted. We must first prove in our own
   hearts and lives the Truths of God we are afterwards to preach, or we
   shall never preach them with effect! And if we are private Christians,
   we can never be of much use to our fellow men unless we have passed
   through trials similar to those which they have had to endure. So God
   makes some of His people wait a long time before He gives them the
   manifestation of their pardon, in order that, in later days, they may
   comfort others. The Lord is saying to many a tried soul, "I need you to
   be a consolation to others. Therefore I will make you full of grief and
   drunk with wormwood so that when you shall, in later years, meet with
   the mourner, you may say to him, 'I have suffered and endured the same
   trial that you are passing through.'" There are none so fit to comfort
   others as those who have once needed comfort themselves. Then take
   heart, poor afflicted one, perhaps the Lord designs you for a great
   work! He is keeping you low in bondage, doubt and fear, that He may
   bring you out more clearly and make your light like the light of seven
   days, and bring forth your righteousness "fair as the moor, clear as
   the sun and terrible as an army with banners." Wait, then, with
   patience, for God intends good to you and good to others through you,
   by this delay.

   But the delay often arises not so much from God, as from ourselves. It
   is ignorance of the way of salvation which keeps many a man longer in
   doubt than he would be if he knew more about it. I do not hesitate to
   affirm that one of the hardest things for a sinner to understand is the
   way of salvation. It seems the plainest thing in all the world--nothing
   appears more simple than, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you
   shall be saved." But when the sinner is led to feel himself a sinner,
   he finds it not so easy to understand as he thought. We tell a man that
   with all their blackness, sinners may be pardoned. That with all their
   sins, they can be freely forgiven for Christ's sake. "But," says the
   man when he feels himself to be black, "do you mean to tell me that I
   am to be made whiter than snow? Do you really mean that I, who am lost,
   am to be saved, not through anything I do, or hope to do, but purely
   through what Another did ?" He can hardly believe it possible! He will
   have it that he must dosomething--he must do this, or that, or the
   other to help Christ--and the hardest thing in the world is to bring a
   man to see that salvation is of the Lord, alone, and not at all of
   himself! That it is God's free and perfect gift which leaves nothing of
   ours to be added to it, but is given to us to cover us completely, from
   head to foot, without anything of our own!

   Men will conceive what God would not have them imagine and they will
   not receive that which God would have them embrace! It may be very easy
   to talk of certain cures and to read of them. We may say,
   "Such-and-such a medicine is very effective and will work such-and-such
   a cure." But when we, ourselves, are sick, we are often very dubious
   about the medicine! And if, having taken draught after draught of it,
   we find that it does not help us, perhaps we are brought to think that
   though it may cure others, it cannot cure us, because there has been
   such delay in its operation. So the poor soul thinks of the Gospel,
   "Certainly it cannot heal me" And then he misunderstands the nature of
   the sacred medicine, altogether, and begins to take the Law instead of
   the Gospel. Now the Law never saved anyone yet, though it has condemned
   full many in its time--and will condemn us all unless we receive the
   Gospel.

   If any here should be in doubt on account of ignorance, let me, as
   plainly as I can, state the Gospel. I believe it to be wrapped up in
   one word--Substitution. I have always considered, with Luther and
   Calvin, that the sum and substance of the Gospel lies in that word,
   Substitution--Christ standing in the place of man. If I understand the
   Gospel, it is this--I deserve to be lost and ruined. The only reason
   why I should not be damned is that Christ was punished in my place and
   there is no need to execute a sentence twice for the same sin. On the
   other hand, I know that I cannot enter Heaven unless I have a perfect
   righteousness. I am absolutely certain I shall never have one of my
   own, for I find that I sin every day. But then Christ had a perfect
   righteousness and He said, "Here, take My garment, put it on--you shall
   stand before God as if you were Christ--and I will stand before God as
   if I had been you. I will suffer in your place and you shall be
   rewarded for works which you did not do, but which I did for you."

   I think the whole substance of salvation lies in the thought that
   Christ stood in the place of man. The prisoner is in the dock. He is
   about to be taken away to death. He deserves to die, for he has been a
   great criminal. But before he is removed, the Judge asks whether there
   is any possible plan whereby the prisoner's life can be spared. Up
   rises One who is, Himself, pure and perfect, has known no sin and, by
   the allowance of the Judge, for that is necessary, He steps into the
   dock and says, "Consider Me to be the prisoner. Pass the sentence on Me
   and let Me die. Reckon the prisoner to be Myself. I have fought for My
   country. I have deserved a reward for what I have done--reward him as
   if he had done good-and punish Me as if I had committed the sin."
   "But," you say, "Such a thing could not occur in an earthly court of
   law." No, but it has happened in God's Court of Law, in the great Court
   of King's Bench where God is the Judge of All, it has happened! The
   Savior said, "The sinner deserves to die. Let Me die in his place and
   let him be clothed in My righteousness."

   To illustrate this, I will give you two instances. One is that of an
   ancient King who enacted a law against a certain crime--the punishment
   of anyone who committed the crime was that he should have both his eyes
   put out. His own son committed the crime. The king, as a strict judge,
   said, "I cannot alter the law. I have said that the loss of two eyes
   shall be the penalty--take out one of mine and one of his." So, you
   see, he strictly carried out the law, but, at the same time, he was
   able to have mercy, in part, upon his son. But the case of Christ goes
   further than that. He did not say, "Exact half the penalty on Me and
   half on the sinner." He said, "Put both My eyes out; nail Me to the
   tree; let Me die; let Me take all the guilt away and then the sinner
   may go free." We have heard of another case, that of two brothers, one
   of whom had been a great criminal and was about to die, when his
   brother, coming into the court, decorated with medals and having many
   wounds upon him, rose up to plead with the judge that he would have
   mercy on the criminal for his sake. Then he began to strip himself and
   show his scars--how here and there on his big broad chest he had
   received saber cuts in defense of his country. "By these wounds," he
   said, and he lifted up one arm, the other having been cut away, "by
   these, my wounds, and the sufferings I have endured for my country, I
   beseech you, have mercy on him." For his brother's sake, the criminal
   was allowed to escape the punishment that was hanging over his head. It
   was even so with Christ. "The sinner," He said, "deserves to die. Then
   I will die in his place. He deserves not to enter Heaven, for he has
   not kept the Law of God, but I have kept the Law for him--he shall have
   My righteousness and I will take his sin--and so the Just shall die for
   the unjust, to bring him to God."

   III. I have thus turned aside from the subject, somewhat, in order to
   clear away any ignorance that might exist in the minds of certain of my
   hearers as to this essential point of the Gospel plan. And now I am, in
   closing my discourse, to give SOME ADVICE TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN
   SEEKING CHRIST, BUT WHO HAVE NEVER FOUND HIM,

   AS TO HOW THEY MIGHT FIND HIM.

   In the first place, let me say, Go wherever Christ goes. If Christ were
   to walk this earth again and heal the sick, as He did when He was here,
   before, many sick people would enquire, "Where will Christ be
   tomorrow?" And, as soon as they found out where He would take His
   walks, there they would be, lying on the pavement, in the hope that as
   He passed by, He would heal them. Go up, then, sick Soul, to Christ's
   House! It is there that He meets with His people. Read His Word! It is
   there that He blesses them by applying sweet promises to them. Observe
   His ordinances. Do not neglect them. Christ comes to Bethesda Pool, so
   lie by the water and wait till He arrives. If you cannot put in your
   foot, be where Christ comes. Thomas did not get the blessing, for He
   was not with the other disciples when the Master came to them. Stay not
   away from the House of God, poor seeking Soul--be there whenever the
   doors are opened, so that, when Jesus passes by, He may look on you and
   say, "Your sins are forgiven you."

   And whatever else you do, when Christ passes by, cry after Him with all
   your might! Never be satisfied until you make Him stop. And if He
   should frown on you, seemingly for the moment, do not be silenced or
   stayed. If you are a little stirred by a sermon, pray over it--do not
   lose the auspicious moment. If you hear anything read which gives you
   some hope, lift up your heart in prayer at once! When the wind blows,
   then should the sails be set, and it may happen that God will give you
   Grace to reach the harbor's mouth and you may find the haven of
   perpetual rest. There was a man who was born blind and who longed to
   have his sight. As he sat by the roadway, one day, he was told that
   Jesus was passing by. And when he heard that, he cried after Him,
   "Jesus, You Son of David, have mercy on me!" The people wanted to hear
   Christ preach, so they tried to hush the poor man, but he cried again,
   "You Son of David, have mercy on me!" The Son of David turned not His
   head. He did not look upon the man, but continued His discourse. But
   still the man shouted, "Jesus, You Son of David, have mercy on me!"

   And then Jesus stopped. The disciples ran to the poor man and said, "Be
   still, trouble not the Master." But he cried so much the more, "Jesus,
   You Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus at last asked him, "What
   will you that I should do unto you?" He answered, "Lord, that I might
   receive my sight." He received it "and followed Jesus in the way."
   Perhaps your doubts say to you, "Hush! Do not pray any more." Or Satan
   says, "Be still! Do not cry to Christ any more." Tell your doubts and
   fears, and the devil, too, that you will give Christ no rest till He
   turns His eyes upon you in love and heals your diseases. Cry aloud to
   Him, O you awakened Sinner, when He is passing by!

   The next piece of advice I would give you is this--think very much of
   Christ. No way that I know of will bring you faith in Christ as well as
   thinking of Him. I would advise you, conscience-stricken Sinner, to
   spend an hour in meditation on Christ. You do not need to devote that
   time to meditation on yourself--you will get very little good from
   that--you may know beforehand that there is no hope for you in
   yourself. But spend an hour in meditation on Christ. Go, Beloved, to
   your most private place of seclusion. Sit down and picture Christ in
   the garden--think you see Him there, sweating, as it were, great drops
   of blood falling down to the ground. Then view Him standing in Pilate's
   Hall. Behold Him with His hands bound, His back streaming with blood!
   Then follow Him till you see Him coming to the hill called Calvary.
   Think you see Him hurled backwards and nailed to the Cross. Then let
   your imagination, or rather your faith, bring before you the Cross
   lifted up and dashed into its socket, when every bone of Christ was
   jerked out of joint. Look at Him. Look at His crown of thorns and watch
   the beaded drops of blood trickling down His cheeks--

   "See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled
   down!

   Did ever such love and sorrow meet,

   Or thorns compose so rich a crown!

   His dying crimson, like a robe,

   Spreads over His body on the tree,

   Then am I dead to all the globe,

   And all the globe is dead to me." I know of no means, under God, so
   profitable for producing faith as thinking of Christ, for while you are
   looking at Him, you will say, "Blessed Jesus, did You die for sinners?
   Then, surely, my Soul, His death is sufficient for you." He is able to
   save unto the uttermost all those who trust in Him. You may think of a
   doctrine forever and get no good from it, if you are not already saved.
   But think of the Person of Christ and specially of His death, for that
   will bring you faith. Think of Him everywhere, wherever you go. Try to
   meditate on Him in all your leisure moments and then He will reveal
   Himself to you and give you peace.

   None of us, not even the best of Christians, think and say enough of
   Christ. I went into a friend's house, one day, and he said to me, as a
   sort of hint, I suppose, "I have known So-and-So these 30 years,
   without hearing anything of his religion." I said, "You will not know
   me 30 minutes without hearing something of mine." It is a fact that
   many Christian people spend their Sunday afternoons in talking about
   other subjects and Jesus Christ is scarcely ever mentioned. As for poor
   ungodly worldlings, of course they neither say nor think anything of
   Him. But oh, you that know yourself to be a sinner, despise not the Man
   of Sorrows! Let His bleeding hands rest on you! Look at His pierced
   side and, looking, you shall live! Remember, it is only by looking to
   Christ that we shall be saved, not by doing anythingourselves.

   This brings me to close by saying to every awakened sinner--If you
   would have peace with God, and have it now, venture on Christ. We must
   venture on Christ, and venture wholly, or else we can never be saved.
   Yet it is hardly right to say venture, for it is no venture--there is
   not a grain of chance in it. He that trusts Himself to Christ need
   never fear. "But," someone asks, "how am I to trust Christ? What do you
   mean by trusting in Christ??" Why, I mean just what I say--fully trust
   on what Christ did for the salvation of sinners. A Negro slave, when he
   was asked how he believed, said, "Massa, dis is how I believe--I fall
   flat down on de promise, I can't fall no lower." He had just the right
   idea about believing in Jesus. Believing is falling down on Christ and
   looking to Him to hold you up. I will illustrate it by an anecdote
   which I have often told. A boy at sea who was very fond of mounting to
   the masthead, one day climbed to the maintop, and could not get down.
   The sea was very rough and it was seen that, in a little while, the boy
   would fall on the deck and be dashed to pieces. His father saw but one
   way of saving his life. Seizing a speaking-trumpet, he shouted, "Boy,
   the next time the ship lurches, drop into the sea." The next time the
   ship lurched, the boy looked down and, not at all liking the idea of
   throwing himself into the sea, still clung to the mast. The father, who
   saw that the boy's strength would soon fail him, took a gun in his hand
   and cried out, "Boy, if you don't drop into the sea the next time the
   ship lurches, I'll shoot you!"

   The boy knew his father meant it--and the next time the ship lurched,
   he leaped into the sea. It seemed liked certain destruction, but out
   went a dozen brawny arms and he was saved. The sinner, in the midst of
   the storm, thinks he must cling to the mast of his good works, and so
   be saved. Says the Gospel, "Let go your own works, and drop into the
   ocean of God's Grace." "No," says the sinner, "it is a long way between
   me and God's Grace. I will perish if I trust to that. I must have some
   other reliance." "If you have any other reliance than that, you are
   lost." Up comes the thundering Law of God and declares to the sinner
   that unless he gives up every dependence, he will be lost. Then follows
   the happy moment when the sinner says, "Dear Lord, I give up all my
   dependence, and cast myself on You. I take You, Jesus, to be my one
   objective in life, My only trust, the refuge of my soul."

   Can any of you say that in your hearts? I know there are some of you
   who can, but are there any who could not say it when they came here,
   but who can say it now? Oh, I would rejoice if one such were brought to
   God! I am conscious that I have not preached to you as I desired, but
   if one such has been brought to believe and trust in the Savior, I
   rejoice, for thereby God will be glorified!

   But, alas, for such of you as will go away and say, "The man has talked
   about salvation, but what does it matter to us?" You think you can
   afford to laugh at God and His Gospel today, but remember, men cannot
   afford to despise boats when their vessel is going down in a storm,
   although they may do so on land. Death is after you and will soon seize
   you--your pulse must soon cease to beat. Strong as you are, now, your
   bones are not made of brass, nor are your ribs of steel. Sooner or
   later you must lie on your lowly pallet and there breathe out your
   last. Or, if you are ever so rich, you must die on your curtained beds
   and must depart from all your enjoyment into everlasting punishment!
   You will find it hard work to laugh at Christ, then! You will find it
   dreadful work to scoff at religion, then, in that day when Death gets
   hold of you, and asks, "Will you laugh now, Scoffer?" "Ah," you will
   say, "I find it different from what I supposed. I cannot laugh now
   death is near me."

   Take warning, then, before death comes! Take warning! He must be a poor
   ignorant man who does not insure his house before it is on fire and he
   must be the greatest of fools who thinks it unnecessary to seek the
   salvation of his soul till he comes to the last moment and is in peril
   of his life! May God give you thought and consideration, so that you
   may be led to flee from sin and fly to Jesus! And may God, the
   Everlasting Father, give you what I cannot--His Grace, which saves the
   soul and makes sinners into saints and lands them in Heaven!

   I can only close by repeating the Words of the Gospel, "He that
   believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall
   be damned." Having said this, if I had said no more, I would have
   preached Christ's Gospel to you. The Lord give you understanding in all
   things and help you to believe, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Christ's Care of His Disciples

   (No. 2616)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 2, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, EARLY IN
   THE YEAR 1857.

   "If, therefore, you seek Me, let these go their way." John 18:8.

   WE need but hint at the circumstances under which these words were
   uttered. Our Savior was in the Garden of Geth-semane with His disciples
   when a multitude came with the officers commissioned by the High Priest
   to seize Him. He went boldly towards them and asked, "Whom do you
   seek?" They answered, "Jesus of Nazareth." At His words, "I am He,"
   "they drew back and fell to the ground," and then Jesus said to them,
   "I have told you that I am He. If, therefore, you seek Me, let these go
   their way."

   Now, in a very simple manner, I shall try, first of all, to draw a few
   lessons from this occurrence and then, secondly, to bring out a great
   Truth of God which I think is foreshadowed in this utterance of our
   Redeemer.

   I. First, let us CONSIDER THE LESSONS OF THE OCCURRENCE ITSELF. Our
   Savior said to these people, "If, therefore, you seek Me, let these go
   their way."

   In this incident, our Master proved His own willingness to die. This
   word of His was a mandate so powerful that none of the disciples were
   seized, much less put to death. There was Peter, who had drawn his
   sword and cut off the ear of the High Priest's servant. We should
   naturally have expected that he would have been arrested, or smitten to
   the earth, but so powerful was the command of Christ that not a finger
   was laid upon His hasty-tempered disciple. Peter and John later went
   into the judgment hall--into the very teeth of our Lord's enemies--but,
   with the exception of a few jeers, they were allowed to go their way.
   John did even more than that, for he went within the range of the
   spears of the Roman soldiers and stood at the foot of Christ's Cross
   and wept--yet not a finger was laid on him, nor on any of Christ's
   disciples--not for lack of will, for, you remember, they seized a young
   man who left his garment in their hands, and fled naked--evidently
   supposing him to have been a disciple of Christ. This shows, then, the
   power of Christ's mandate that, in that hour of darkness, not so much
   as one of His disciples was maltreated, but all were allowed to go
   their way. If Christ, then, by His simple word, delivered His
   disciples, how much more could He have delivered Himself? And in His
   not doing so, you cannot fail to see how willing He was to die. One
   word threw them to the ground. Another word would have hurled them into
   the arms of death! But our Savior would not speak the word which might
   have saved Himself, for He came to save others, not Himself.

   There is something very courageous in the Savior's saying, "If you seek
   Me." You know that when Adam sinned, God had to seek the culprit, but,
   in this case, when Christ stood as the Surety for His people, instead
   of being sought, He seemed to seek His executioners! "If you seek Me,"
   He said--and He put in an, "if," as though it were not so much their
   seeking Him as His seeking them--for He had come into their very midst
   to die. Our blessed Lord was well acquainted with the circumstances of
   His own death. He sat at the table, at the institution of the Lord's
   Supper on that memorable evening--why could He not wait and be seized
   there? But no, dauntless, "the Lion of the tribe of Judah" steps out
   and boldly faces His enemy! He does not wait to be attacked, but goes
   forth to meet death, to give Himself up for us. Scarcely any martyr has
   done such a deed as this! God has helped them to die when they have
   been delivered into the hands of their enemies, but our Savior goes to
   His enemies and says, "Here I am. If you seek Me, I have come to give
   Myself up. I will put you to no trouble in searching for Me. There is
   no necessity to hunt through the length and breadth of Jerusalem to
   find Me. Here I am. If you seek Me, I am ready to die. Take Me, I have
   no opposition to make. 'If you seek Me,' all I have to say is, 'Let
   these go their way.' As for Myself, I am willing enough to die!"

   Learn, then, Christian, the readiness of your Master to suffer for you.
   He was no unwilling Savior. You have, sometimes, borrowed money from a
   friend and when you have taken it from him, it was a grief to you to
   accept it, for he looked upon you as a beggar, or even as a robber who
   had demanded spoil of him. But when you take Christ's favors, there is
   this sweet consideration with them, that they are all given willingly!
   The blood that you drink and the flesh that you eat, spiritually, is no
   dole of a strained benevolence, but the voluntary, munificent gift from
   the heart of Jesus to you and to your brethren. Rejoice, then, in the
   willingness of Christ to suffer for you!

   In the second place, upon the very face of our text we read the care of
   Christ towards His people. "If, therefore, you seek Me, let these go
   their way." Oh, the agony of the Savior's heart at that moment! A
   friend in trouble is frequently forgetful--expect not a man in great
   grief to remember you--the heart is then so full of its own bitterness
   it has no time to think of others. I would pardon any man for not
   noticing me in the street if he were ill. I would easily forgive anyone
   for forgetting anything when loaded with pain and sorrow and surely,
   Beloved, we might have thought it not hard of Jesus if He had forgotten
   His disciples in His hour of grief! But mark how kind His heart
   is--"'If you seek Me'--I say nothing about how you should treat Me--but
   'let these'--these disciples were the only ones He cared about. He
   cared not for Himself--'let these go their way.'"

   Like the mother in the snowstorm who takes off her own clothes to wrap
   around her cold shivering baby--what does she care though the cold
   blast should find out her inmost soul, and though her body is frozen
   like ice, if her baby but lives? Her first thought, after she is
   restored to consciousness, when she has been well-nigh benumbed to
   death, but chafed to life by kindness, is concerning that baby! It was
   even so with Jesus. "Let these go their way."--

   "When Justice, by our sins provoked,

   Drew forth its dreadful sword,

   He gave His soul up to the stroke

   Without a murmuring word.

   This was compassion like a God,

   That when the Savor knew

   The price of pardon was His blood,

   His pity ne'er withdrew.

   Now though He reigns exalted high,

   His love is still as great.

   Well He remembers Calvary,

   Nor lets His saints forget."

   They are all remembered, all borne upon His heart and still cared for.
   Therefore you are cared for, you lamb of the flock! You are cared for,
   poor Ready-to-Halt! You are remembered, Miss Despondency! You are
   regarded with the eyes of love, timid Mr. Fearing! Though you stumble
   at every stone, yet your Savior's love fails not! He remembers you, for
   He cared for His disciples in His hour of greatest sorrow.

   In the next place, learn from this incident our Savior's wisdom. When
   He said, "Let these go their way," there was wisdom in it. How? Because
   they were not prepared to suffer and it would have been unwise to have
   allowed them to suffer, then, even if they had been prepared--for if
   they had suffered, then, it would have been thought that at least they
   shared the honor of our redemption--therefore Christ would have none
   but thieves upon the mount of doom, lest any should suppose that He had
   a helper! He tread the winepress alone and of the people there were
   none with Him. Besides, these disciples were but infants in Divine
   Grace--they had not received the plenitude of the Spirit. They were not
   fit to suffer. Therefore Christ said, "If you seek Me, let these go
   their way." These raw recruits must not yet bear the brunt of the
   battle. Let them tarry until, by a greater experience and by greater
   Grace, they shall be made brave to die and shall, each of them in his
   turn, wear the crown of martyrdom. But not now. Christ spared His
   people at that moment since it would have been unwise to have allowed
   them to die then.

   Learn also, Christians, from your Master's example, the duty of putting
   yourselves in the way of suffering when you can save your Brothers and
   Sisters. Oh, there is something glorious in the spirit Christ
   manifested in placing Himself first. "If you seek Me, let these go
   their way." That is the spirit all Christians ought to have--the spirit
   of heroic selfsacrifice for the disciples' sake. The mere professor
   says, "Let me go my way, seek another to be put to death." But if we
   were what we should be, we would, each one, say, "If you seek me, let
   these go their way." How many of us would be ready to escape martyrdom
   and allow our Brethren to be burned! That would not be the spirit of
   our Master. How frequently you are ready to allow ridicule and shame to
   fall upon the Church if you can but be spared! How very frequently you
   will allow a Brother to perform a duty, at much inconvenience, which
   you could do without any trouble to yourself! Now, if you were like
   your Master, you would say, "'Let these go their way.' If there is
   sufficient ground for it, let me suffer. If there is a painful duty,
   let me do it. Let others escape, let them go free--lo, I will be,
   myself, a willing substitute for them in this matter." Oh, we need,
   everywhere, more of this spirit to be able to say to the poor saint,
   "Poverty is seeking you. I will, in some degree, bear the inconvenience
   that you may be spared. You are sick. I will watch you. You are in
   need. I will clothe you. You are hungry. I will feed you. I will stand
   in your place as far as I am able, that you may go your way."

   These seem to me to be the lessons to be learned from our Savior's
   words, "If, therefore, you seek Me, let these go their way."

   II. Now I come to notice, secondly, THE GREAT DOCTRINE WHICH THIS
   INCIDENT SEEMS TO FORESHADOW.

   Will you please observe the next verse to the text? "That the saying
   might be fulfilled, which He spoke, 'Of them which You gave Me have I
   lost none.'" If I had quoted this passage in such a connection, you
   would have told me it was a misquotation. You would have said, "Why, my
   dear Sir, that has nothing to do with the disciples going their way or
   not!" Ah, but you would be quite in error if you talked like that!
   God's Spirit knows how to quote, if we do not. Very often we refer our
   hearers to a text which we think is exactly adapted and pertinent to
   the point before us when it has really nothing to do with the matter.
   And, often, the Holy Spirit quotes a text which we think unsuitable,
   but, on closer examination, we find that the very gist of it bears
   directly upon the subject. This was the beginning of Christ's
   deliverances which He would, through eternity, vouchsafe to all His
   children. Inasmuch as He then said, "Let these go their way," it was
   the foreshadowing, the picturing of the greet deed of Substitution
   whereby Christ would be able to say, "If, therefore, you seek Me, let
   these go their way." This point will appear dearly if we look at how
   Christ treats His people in Providence and at the bar of Justice.

   It has always seemed to me as if Christ had borne the brunt of
   Providence for His peopleso that now all things work together for their
   good! When Christ came into the world, He did, in spirit, say something
   like this, "You wild beasts of the field, you are against My
   people--come, now, be against Me and, then, let these go their way."
   This was according to the ancient prophecy--"I will 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." Christ seemed to say, "Stones,
   you are enemies to My flock--take Me for their Substitute and be at
   enmity against Me. And then it shall be written, 'The stones of the
   field shall be in league with them.'" Christ, as it were, said to
   Providence, "Your black and bitter face shall look on Me. Your quiver,
   full of fiery darts, shall be emptied, and they shall all find their
   target here in My bosom. Your dread aspect shall be seen by Me, but,
   'Let these go their way.'"

   Providence has indicted its evils on Christ and has now only good for
   God's people! "What? Only good, Sir?" you say, "why, I am poor, I am
   sick!" Yes, but it is only good, for that is good which works good.
   "All things work together for good to them that love God." Christ even
   says to kings, "Touch not My anointed and do My prophets no harm." "Let
   these go their way." The kings of the earth have been seeking Christ's
   Church, to destroy and to devour it, so Christ lets them find Him and
   put Him to death! And before He dies, He turns round to the kings, and
   says, "Touch not My anointed and do My prophets no harm." He speaks to
   trouble, to trial, to grief, to accident and to peril as He says, "You
   have sought Me, now let My people go their way." We would never have
   known the sweetness of the Psalm--

   "He that has made his refuge God, Shall find a most secure abode"-- if
   Christ had not died! The only way that you and I can have a refuge is
   by Christ bearing the brunt of our trouble. How does a shield save me?
   It saves me by bearing the blows, itself. The shield does, as it were,
   say to the swords of the enemy, "If you seek me, let this warrior go
   his way." So Christ, our Shield and God's Anointed, bears the brunt of
   Providence, the evil and the woe, thereof, and He now says to the
   mysterious dispensations of God concerning all the children of the
   Lord, "'Let these go their way.' Never, never work ill to them, but let
   them have only good."

   The other thought is, Christ has said this ofHispeople even to Justice.
   Before the Throne of God, fiery Justice once drew his sword and went
   out after sinners, to find many and to cast them into the Pit. His
   sword thirsted for the blood of all that had sinned. But there stood a
   chosen multitude, reserved by love and chosen by Grace, and Justice
   said, "They are sinners. I will have them, I will sheathe this sword in
   their hearts, for they are sinners and they must perish." Then Christ
   came forward and asked him, "Whom do you seek?" "Sinners," answered
   Justice. Then Jesus said, "They are not sinners. They were sinners,
   once, but they are now righteous, clothed in My righteousness. If you
   seek the sinner, here am I." "What?" said Justice, "are You the
   sinner?" "No, not the sinner, but I am the sinner's Substitute. All the
   sinner's guilt was imputed to Me. All his unrighteousness is Mine and
   all My righteousness is his. I, the Savior, am the sinner's Substitute.
   Take Me." And Justice accepted the substitution, took the Savior,
   crucified Him, nailed Him to that Cross whose agonies we commemorate at
   the Communion Table. In that hour Jesus cried, "If you seek Me, let
   these go their way." Who are they that are to go their way? Why, the
   very men whose former way was one of iniquity and whose end would have
   been destruction if the curse had not been made to fall upon the head
   of Jesus!

   "Let these go their way." Oh, that a wonderful sentence! I never knew
   its sweetness till I found the Lord, but I did know something of its
   power. Do you ask, "How was that?" Why, long before you know the Lord,
   you have some of the power of the blood of Christ resting upon you.
   "How so?" do you ask? Why, do you not know it to be a fact that--

   "Determined to save, He watched o'er our path, When Satan's blind
   slaves, we sported with death"? And so, some of the benefits of
   Christ's death were ours before we knew Him and before we loved Him!
   The reason why I was not damned before I knew the Savior was that He
   had said, "Let him go his way. I have died for him." You would have
   been in Hell these 20 years, Saint, for you were then unregenerate. But
   Christ said, "Let him go his way. If you seek Me, he shall go his way,
   sinner though he is." And now, when gloomy fears arise, and dark
   thoughts roll over our mind, let this be our comfort! We are still
   sinners--guilty and vile--but the same voice says, "Let these go their
   way." It is the "let" of command--and who can hinder when God lets in
   this sense? "Let these go their way." You are going up Bun-yan's Hill
   Difficulty and there are lions at the top. Christians remember this
   message, "Let these go their way." You will, perhaps, get into Giant
   Despair's dungeon. Here is a key that will fit the lock--"Let these go
   their way." You will be tumbling about in the Slough of Despond--here
   is a stone to put your foot on to help you to get out--"Let these go
   their way." Why? Because they pray? No. Because they serve God? No--the
   mandate was given before they did either the one or the other. "Let
   these go their way" because Christ died in their place!

   The day is coming, and shall soon be here, when you and I shall stretch
   our wings and fly away to the land that is very far off. I think I
   might picture in my imagination the soul when it has left the body. The
   Believer speeds his way up to his native city, Jerusalem, "the mother
   of us all." But at the gate one stands and he says, "Have you a right
   to admission here? It is written, 'He that walks righteously, and
   speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of oppressions, that shakes
   his hands from holding of bribes, that stops his ears from hearing of
   blood, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high.'
   Are you such an one?" "Ah," says the soul, "I hope by Grace I have been
   made so; but I cannot claim to have always been so, for 'I the chief of
   sinners am.'" "Then how came you here? This gate gives no admission to
   those who are sinners." While the angel is thus parleying, I hear a
   Voice crying, "Let these go their way" and, forthwith, the gates of
   Heaven are opened and every soul for whom Christ died enters into
   Paradise!

   Come, Saint, close up this simple meditation by looking yonder. See
   Christ, with Justice, Vengeance, Wrath, all seeking Him. Lo, they have
   found Him! They have slain Him! He is buried! He has risen again! Oh,
   see them seeking Him and, as you sit down at His Table, think, "When
   they sought Him, they let me go my way." And what a sweet way it is! I
   am allowed to come to His Table of Communion. Why? Because they sought
   Him. I am invited to hold fellowship with Jesus. Why? Because they
   sought Him. I am permitted to have a good hope through Divine Grace
   and, more than that, "I know that when this earthly house of my
   tabernacle is dissolved, I have a building of God, a house not made
   with hands, eternal in the heavens."

   Why am I to go that way? Why? Because they sought Himand found Him!
   Otherwise, where had I been now? My place might have been on the
   alehouse bench, or, perhaps, in the seat of the scorner. And what would
   have been my prospect? Why, that, at the last, I would be in Hell among
   the fiends and the lost spirits of the Pit! But now I tread the paths
   of righteousness and the ways of Grace. Oh, let me remember why I do
   so--it is because they sought You, O precious Lord of mine! They sought
   You, my dear Redeemer and my God! They sought Your heart and broke it!
   They sought Your head and crowned it with thorns! They sought Your
   hands and nailed them to the tree! They sought Your feet and pierced
   them! They sought Your body, they slew and buried it! And now, though
   the roaring lion may seek me ever so much, he cannot devour me! Never
   can I be torn in pieces, never can I be destroyed, for I carry with me
   this sweet passport of the King of Heaven, "Let these go their way."

   O child of God, take this with you for your safe conduct everywhere!
   When men travel abroad, they carry with them a permit to go to this
   town and the other. Take this little sentence, Brother or Sister in
   Jesus, and when Unbelief stops you, draw it out, and say, "He has said,
   'Let these go their way.'" And when Satan stops you, hold out to him
   this Divine Mandate, "Let these go their way." And when Death shall
   stop you, take out this sweet permit from your Master, "Let these go
   their way." And when the Throne of Judgment shall be set and you stand
   before it, plead this sentence, plead it even before Your Maker, "My
   Master said, 'Let these go their way.'"

   Oh, cheering words! I could weep them all out, but I will say no more.
   I hope many of you will enjoy the sweetness of them while we gather
   around the Lord's Table, in obedience to His gracious command, "This do
   in remembrance of Me."

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN 17; 18:1-9.

   John 17:1. These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to Heaven,
   and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son may
   also glorify You. Jesus is going forth to die and He knows it, yet He
   prays to His Father, "Glorify Your Son." There was no way of His coming
   to that Glory except by passing through tears, blood, agony and death.
   He only asks that He may be glorified in what He is about to do and
   suffer--and He is ready for it all--"Father, the hour is come; glorify
   Your Son, that Your Son may also glorify You."

   2. As You have given Him power over all flesh, that He should give
   eternal life to as many as You have given Him. In that saying of our
   Lord's we have an explanation of what He did by His redemption. There
   was a universal aspect of it-- "You have given Him power over all
   flesh." There was a special design in it--"That He should give eternal
   life to as many as You have given Him." Sometimes, two views of the
   same thing may appear to contradict each other, but when we are taught
   of God, we soon discover that they do not really do so, and that a
   grand Truth may be contained in the two descriptions of it. Christ had,
   by virtue of His death, power over all flesh, but it was for a distinct
   purpose--"that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given
   Him."

   3. And this is eternallife, that theymight know You, the only true God,
   andJesus Christ, whom You have sent By this, then, dear Friends, we can
   know whether we have eternal life or not. Do we know the Father? Do we
   know Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Sent One? Are we resting in that
   blessed knowledge? If so, He has given us eternal life.

   4. 5. I have glorified You on the earth: I have finished the work which
   You gave Me to do, And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself
   with the Glory which I had with You before the world was. In deep
   humility, Jesus had laid that Glory aside for a while. He had
   tabernacled in human flesh--and when He spoke these words, the time was
   approaching when--

   "AllHis world and warfare done,"

   He would go back to His pristine Glory with something more added to it.

   6. I have manifested Your name unto the men which You gave Me out of
   the world. They had not, all of them, clearly seen that manifestation.
   Jesus had to ask the question, "Have I been so long with you, and yet
   have you not known Me, Philip?" Still, that was not the fault of the
   manifestation. Christ had manifested the name--that is, the Character--
   of God unto those who had been given to Him out of the world.

   6. Yours they were and You gave them to Me; and they have kept Your
   Word. We might have expected that the verse would end, "and I have kept
   them." But their keeping God's Word is the evidence that Christ has
   kept them! Whenever a soul loves the Word of God, delights in the
   teaching of Christ, glories in those things which the world calls
   dogmas--as if they were so much dog's meat--when you and I can feed
   upon these things--when every utterance of Christ is dear and precious
   to us--that is good evidence of our being called out of the world and
   separated unto Christ! It is one of the marks of Divine Grace which
   Jesus works in those whom the Father has given Him. "Yours they were
   and You gave them to Me; and they have kept Your Word."

   7. Now they have known that all things whatever You have given Me are
   of You. The Father gives Christ the Truth which Christ gives to us. The
   Father gives Christ the souls which Jesus keeps until the day of His
   power. There is mutual communion between God the Father and His blessed
   Son--let us never say a word that might look as if we did not
   understand the Oneness, the everlasting and Infinite Oneness--which
   there is between the sacred Persons of the Divine Unity.

   8. For I have given unto them the Words which You gave Me. You know how
   men talk against "verbal Inspiration." Yet Christ says, "I have given
   unto them the Words which You gave Me." Many are trifling with the
   teaching of God's Word as if it were of no importance at all. Not so
   Christ! "I have given unto them the Words which You gave Me."

   8. And they have received them, and have known surely that I came out
   from You, and they have believed that You did send Me. Firmly do we
   believe this and in our heart of hearts we accept every part of the
   teaching of Christ, no matter what it is. I hear people say, sometimes,
   "Oh, but that is not essential!" There is a great deal of mischief
   hatched out of that egg! O Friends, it is essential that Christ's
   disciples should treasure whatever He has said! Never trifle with that
   part of the Word of God which seems to be less essential to salvation
   than another portion, for if it is not essential to salvation, it may
   be essential to your comfort, or your holiness, or your strength, or
   your usefulness. And if it be essential to God's Glory, let us never
   trample it in the mire, or in any way dishonor it. Who am I that I
   should say, "This which God has spoken is important, but that other is
   not"? It does not do for us to presume to judge the Word of God--we
   should rather let the Word of God judge us.

   9. I pray for them.--Blessed Words! Christ prays for His own people. "I
   pray for them." I pray not for the world, but for them which You have
   given Me. In that last hour, just before His Passion, His thoughts were
   separating the precious from the vile and His prayer ascended for His
   own people. "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them
   which You have given Me."

   9, 10. For they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours and Yours are Mine;
   and Iam glorified in them. It is a wonderful thing that Christ should
   be glorified in His people! Can it be that He shall be glorified in me?
   Dear child of God, you sometimes sit in the corner and think to
   yourself, "How insignificant I am! The Church on earth would not miss
   me if I were taken away. And the choirs of Heaven cannot need me." Oh,
   but your Lord is glorified in You! If you are one of His chosen and
   redeemed people, in your very weakness and need He finds opportunity to
   glorify His strength and His fullness! He knows the truth about this
   matter and He says, "I am glorified in them."

   11. And now I am no more in the world. He was going away. He has now
   gone.

   11. But these are in the world. We know we are, do we not, Brothers and
   Sisters? We have a thousand things, some of them very painful and
   humiliating, to remind us that we are still in the world.

   11. And I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your own name those
   whom You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are. Oh, what
   blessed keeping is that--to be kept in spiritual oneness! I do not
   expect to see the people of God in visible oneness, but as there was a
   secret, invisible Union, most real and most true, between the Father
   and the Son, so there is, at this time, a secret union in the hearts of
   all Believers, most deep, most real, most true! I may never have seen
   that good friend before, but as soon as we begin to talk of Jesus and
   His love, if we are the living children of the living God, the bond of
   unity is felt at once by both of us! "One is your Master, even Christ;
   and all you are brethren."

   12. While I was with them in the world, Ikept them in Your name: those
   that You gave Me Ihave kept, andnone of them is lost, but the son of
   perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled. What a blessed
   Shepherd is this who never lost a sheep! Judas crept in among the
   flock, but he was never truly one of the flock. He was never a son of
   God. He was "the son of perdition" all along. Christ has kept all His
   sheep and all His lambs--and He will do the same, dear Friends, even to
   the end.

   13. And now come I to You and these things I speak in the world, that
   they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves. What an unselfish
   Savior! His heart is ready to break with His impending sufferings and
   yet He prays for us, that we may be filled with His joy! I suppose that
   it is true that the Man of Sorrows was the happiest man who ever lived.
   "For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the Cross, despising
   the shame." And, notwithstanding His boundless and bottomless grief,
   there was within Him such communion with God, love to men and the
   certainty of His ultimate triumph that kept Him still joyous above the
   seas of tribulation! He prays that that same joy may be fulfilled in
   us. May God graciously grant it to all of us who believe in Jesus!

   14, 15. Ihave given them Your Word; and the world has hated them,
   because they are not of the world, even as Iam not of the world. I pray
   not that You should take them out of the world, but that You should
   keep them from the Evil One. There is a reason for God's elect being
   allowed to remain in the world. They are never left like wheat in the
   field, to perish through the damp and cold, or to be devoured by the
   birds of the air. Oh, no! We are left for God's Glory, that men may see
   what the Grace of God can do in poor frail bodies. We are left for the
   service of Christ's Church, that we may be here for a while to carry on
   the cause of God, to be the means of comforting the little ones and to
   seek the conversion of sinners. We are to be like salt to prevent
   putrefaction. We are God's preventive men, to prevent as much of the
   evil as we can--and we are to fight with the evil that cannot be
   prevented and to seek to overthrow it in Christ's name.

   16. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Many,
   nowadays, say that we ought to blend the Church with the congregation
   and that it is a great pity to have any division between them. A great
   many good people are outside the Church--therefore try to make the
   Church as much like the world as you can! That is a silly trick of the
   devil which the wise servants of God will answer by saying, "To whom we
   give place for subjection? No, not for an hour!" There must always be a
   broad line of demarcation between the Church of Christ and the
   world--it will be an evil day when that line is abolished. The sons of
   God took to themselves wives of the daughters of men, but that kind of
   union brought mischief with it, and it will always do so.

   17. Sanctify them through Your Truth: Your Word is Truth. We cannot
   afford to give up God's Inspired Word because it is a means of our
   sanctification. If this is taken away, it is not such-and-such a dogma,
   as they call it, put into the background, but it is the Truth of God
   that would sanctify us which is discarded, it is God's own Word that is
   flung to the dogs! And that must never be.

   18. 19. As You have sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent
   them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they,
   also, might be sanctified through the Truth. "I set Myself apart unto
   holiness, that they, also, might be set apart unto holy uses through
   the Truth."

   20. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them, also, which shall
   believe on Me through their word. Our Lord knew that the little circle
   around Him would grow into a multitude that no man can number, out of
   all nations, kindreds, people and tongues--so He prayed for all whom
   His Father had given Him.

   21, 22. That they all may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in
   You, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that
   You have sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me Ihave given them;
   that they may be one, even as We are One. The Church will never know
   her true Glory till she knows her perfect oneness--the One Church will
   be the glorious Church!

   23. Iin them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and
   that the worldmay know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as
   You have loved Me. That is a grand expression--"You have loved them, as
   You have loved Me." What? With the same love? It is even so--a love
   without beginning, a love without change, a love without bounds, a love
   without end! "You have loved them as You have loved Me."

   24-26. Father, I will that they, also, whom You have given Me, be with
   Me where I am; that they may behold My Glory, which You have given me:
   for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous
   Father, the world has not known You: but Ihave known You, and these
   have known that You have sent Me. And I have declared unto them Your
   name, and will declare it: that the love in which You have loved Me may
   be in them, and I in them. This blessed prayer was heard by the Father.
   All of it must be fulfilled--and untold blessings do and shall come to
   us through this intercession of our Lord. Blessed be His holy name!

   John 18:1. When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His
   disciples over the brook Kidron, where was a garden, into which He
   entered, and His disciples. Our Lord could not cross that "brook
   Kidron" without being reminded of the time when David went that way in
   the hour of his sorrow, though He knew that He had to face a far
   greater trial than that of David. The very brook would remind Him of
   His approaching Sacrifice, for through it flowed the blood and refuse
   from the Temple.

   2. And Judas, also, which betrayed Him, knew the place: for Jesus often
   resorted there with His disciples. The place of our Lord's frequent
   retirement for private prayer was well known to Judas, who had often
   gone there with his Lord and his fellow disciples.

   3. Judas, then, having received a band of men and officers from the
   chief priests and Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and
   weapons. How completely the traitor must have been in the power of
   Satan--and how hardened and callous he must have grown, that he could
   lead, "there," the men who were going to arrest the Savior! Truly it
   was by wicked hands that Christ was taken, crucified and slain! Yet,
   unconsciously, these evil men were carrying out "the determinate
   counsel and foreknowledge of God." How strangely were they equipped for
   their deed of darkness! "With lanterns and torches and weapons." They
   were coming to the Light of the world bearing "lanterns and torches!"
   And armed with "weapons" that they might use against "the Lamb of God."
   If He had wished to deliver Himself, all their "weapons" would have
   been in vain--and their "lanterns and torches" would not have revealed
   Him, even with the help of the full moon, which was probably shining at
   the time.

   4. 5. Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him,
   went forth and said unto them, Whom do you seek? They answered Him,
   Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am He. And Judas also, which
   betrayed Him, stood with them. Notice, dear Friends, that the word,
   "He" is in italics, showing that it is not in the original. Our Lord
   here twice used the name of Jehovah, I AM--as He did on certain other
   memorable occasions. It was most fitting that, as He was going out to
   die, He should declare that it was no mere man who was about to suffer
   on the Cross, but that, while He was truly Man, He was also "very God
   of very God."

   6. As soon, then, as He had said unto them, I am He, they drew back and
   fell to the ground. The simple utterance of His name drove them from
   Him and drove them to the earth! What would have happened if He had put
   forth His almighty power?

   7-9. Then He asked them again, Whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus
   of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told You that I am He. If,
   therefore, You seek Me, let these go their way: that the saying might
   be fulfilled, which He spoke, Of them which You gave Me, I have lost
   none.
     __________________________________________________________________

Shining Christians

   (No. 2617)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 9, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY 1, 1882.

   "Arise shine; for your light is come, and the Glory ofthe LORD is risen
   upon you." Isaiah 60:1.

   I BELIEVE that this text refers to the Church of God. I am aware that
   it is considered by some to have a special reference to Israel, but I
   also know that "no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private
   interpretation," and that this particular Scripture may be most justly
   and fitly applied to every child of God. I pray the Holy Spirit to bear
   witness to that fact, even while I am speaking, by applying the text to
   all Believers who are assembled here. The first word of it is, "Arise."
   There is much need, dear Friends, that we should be, sometimes at
   least, awakened. Here are persons in the light--the day has dawned upon
   them, but they are fast asleep--so the trumpet is sounded in their ears
   and the watchman shouts aloud, "Arise, shine; for your light is come."
   I believe that there are some Christians who have wasted a large part
   of their lives for need of somebody or something to wake them up. There
   is more evil worked in the world by lack of thought than by downright
   malice and there is more good left undone through lack of thought than
   through any aversion to the doing of good! Some Christians appear to
   have been born in the land of slumber and they continually live in
   their native country of dreams. They occasionally rub their eyes and
   suppose themselves to be wide awake, but they are in the Enchanted
   Ground and though they know it not, they are little better than
   sleepwalkers most of their days.

   All of us may be conscious that, at times, we are startled into
   something better than our ordinary mode of life. We have been going on
   quietly, doing some good, but, all at once, we have been impressed with
   the value of an immortal soul--we have been struck with the nearness of
   eternity by the sudden death of a friend, or we have been awakened by
   the special application to our conscience of some eminently-powerful
   Scripture--or even the sight of some grievous sin has shocked us into
   holy action.

   For a time we have been quite different from our ordinary selves and
   those who have observed us have thought that there was more in us than
   they ever expected to see. Certainly more came out of us than we had
   ever seen before, but, alas, we have soon slipped back into our former
   quiescent state until, perhaps, something else of an unusual character
   has happened and startled us again. I have known some in whom, happily,
   the process of awakening has been a really effectual one. There came,
   once, to a meeting I was addressing, a Brother who had been, for years,
   earnest after the ordinary fashion of Christian young men--and the Lord
   so guided me that I spoke about the usefulness that some men might
   acquire if they would but bestir themselves. I urged the desirability
   of some attempting to preach in the street, who might find their gifts
   abundant for that work,

   Well, this young man went back and tried what he could do for Christ
   and God greatly blessed him. That young man was Mr. W. P. Lockhart, of
   Liverpool, who is, at this moment, pastor of the church meeting in the
   Toxteth Tabernacle, a large edifice erected by the people whom he
   gathered by his preaching! Our friend has, with much acceptance,
   occupied this pulpit and been of great service to our denomination.
   But, if it had not been for God's awakening him under that particular
   address, he might have remained just the ordinary trader that he was,
   serving the Lord in a very proper way, but nothing noteworthy might
   have come of it. I wonder whether there is anybody here who needs, as
   it were, to be dragged out and impressed into the service of
   Christ--some Brother, perhaps, from Liverpool, or Manchester, or
   Birmingham, or Glasgow, or from this great London, itself--someone who
   is "not slothful in business," yet not "fervent in spirit, serving the
   Lord." Such a man may be, really, a fine fellow with great capacity,
   but most of his talent is latent and dormant so far as the Word of Cod
   is concerned.

   My dear Friend, you have been sluggish quite long enough. Is it not
   time for me to cry to you, "Arise," and is it not time for you to lift
   yourself up from that couch of indolence, and say, "Yes, I have been
   hearing sermons for a good long while. I have been a member of a
   Christian Church and have been attending communions for many years. It
   is high time that I ceased from sloth and began to do something to show
   that God is with me and in me and, by His Grace, so it shall be"? Happy
   will the preacher be if that shall be the result of calling your
   attention to this first word of the text, "Arise." We all need to hear
   the clarion call of Charles Wesley's hymn--

   "Soldiers of Christ, arise

   And put your armor on!

   Strong in the strength which God supplies

   Through His eternal Son!"

   It is high time that all of us did arise. "Let us not sleep, as do
   others." Loved by our God from all eternity, predestinated unto
   everlasting life, bought with the precious blood of Jesus, helped by
   the Spirit of God, and indwelt by Him, it is, indeed, time that we did
   something worthy of our pedigree, something worthy of the price with
   which we have been bought, something worthy of the love which set us
   apart unto itself before the world was! I have no doubt that I am
   addressing some who do not lack grace--God has given them that. They
   are not without a saving knowledge of the truth--they do know Christ,
   but what they need is somebody to start them on a higher and nobler
   career. There are some who are just like Elijah's sacrifice, with the
   wood all laid in order on the altar, and the bullock on the wood. O
   Lord, send the fire from Heaven, that the sacrifice may be completely
   consumed! Let the man be given to you as a whole burnt offering unto
   the Most High! It may be that this poor weak hand may strike the match
   that shall set that sacrifice on a blaze. So may it be, and God shall
   have all the Glory!

   The text says, "Arise," but then it goes on to say, "Arise, shine; for
   your light is come, and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon you." In
   these words I see three things for me to do. First, to remind you of
   your privilege--"your light is come." Secondly, to awaken you to your
   service--"Arise, shine." And then, thirdly, to rally you to your work,
   by a few remarks which the context will suggest.

   I. I am now speaking only to the people of God. There are some of you
   whose light has never come, but you are in darkness even now. The Lord
   have mercy upon you, but, to God's own people who have believed in the
   Lord Jesus, this is my first message, REMEMBER YOUR PRIVILEGE. Your
   light has come!

   Remember, first, out of what darkness that Light of God has delivered
   you. You are no longer in the darkness of sin, the darkness of
   spiritual ignorance, the darkness of spiritual death. Neither are you
   any longer in that darkness of distress and despair which might be
   felt. You are now in the Light of God, but think a little while of what
   your state of darkness used to be. It is not so many years ago that
   there was a young man who did not know his right hand from his left in
   spiritual things. He put darkness for light, and light for darkness,
   bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter--but that man, not as young now,
   knows the Savior--he has learned the evil of sin and he has rejoiced in
   all the delights of pardon! Was that young man yourself? If so, you may
   well prize your present privileges. It is not so long ago that there
   was a man who was in the darkness of soul-agony. His sin was heavy upon
   him. God's hand pressed him till all the moisture of his being seemed
   to exude and he was like a plant withered in the long droughts of
   autumn. He cried to the Lord, but for a while he received no response
   to his petitions. He begged for mercy, but it did not come.

   Now, that same person is sitting here, thankful that he is pardoned and
   that he knows how he has been delivered from the wrath of God! And he
   blesses that Divine Substitute who took upon Himself his sin and with
   it that sin's penalty, and so delivered the guilty one from the wrath
   to come. Oh, what a change there is in that young man! That young man
   is yourself, is he not? Sister, it has been the same with you, too! Oh,
   what a difference there is between the knowledge which God the Holy
   Spirit has imparted to you--and the blindness in which Satan held you
   captive! Oh, the difference between the misery into which conviction
   and despair had brought you--and the peace and restfulness which you
   feel at this moment through faith in Jesus Christ, your Lord and
   Savior! Is it not true that your light has come, and do you not bless
   God for it? Oh, I think you must and that you will use that blessed
   fact to help me in my argument when I come to enforce the lesson of the
   text--"Arise, shine; for your light is come." If God has given you
   light out of such horrible darkness, it well becomes you to shine to
   His praise as brightly as you can!

   Please notice, next, that this light, which God has given you, is His
   own Glory. "And the Glory of the Lord is risen upon you." Oh, but that
   is wonderful--that God would not only give us light, but that that
   light should be His own Glory! Creation is a part of God's Glory, but
   it is only a moonlight Glory compared with that of Redemption! God, in
   the gift of Jesus Christ, displayed the whole of His Nature. Creation
   is not a canvas large enough for the whole image of God to be stamped
   upon it. Byron speaks of God's face being mirrored in the sea, but
   there is not space enough for the face of Deity to be fully reflected
   in the broad Atlantic, or in all the oceans put together! The image of
   God is to be fully seen in Jesus Christ, and nowhere else, for there
   you behold attributes which Creation cannot display. Creation can
   manifest love, power, wisdom and much else, but how can Creation
   manifest justice, and justice lying side by side with mercy, like the
   lion and the lamb? It is only in Christ that you can see this wondrous
   sight--God hating sin with perfect hatred, but yet loving sinners with
   much more than the tenderness of a mother towards her child!

   It is upon you, dear Friend, that this light of the Glory of God has
   fallen. In your history, in your case, the Glory of God's attributes
   has been illustrated. You have seen it, yourself, in a measure, and
   others are also to see it in you. Your light has come, the Glory of the
   Lord has risen upon you. Therefore, God's Glory is to shine through you
   and in you, and by you, and through you God shall manifest Himself to
   angels and principalities and powers in the ages yet to come! I confess
   that I am talking about what I do not fully understand. I am quite out
   of my depth here. I see the light of the Glory of God in the face of
   Jesus Christ, but to describe it is quite impossible. When I first saw
   the electric light, if you had asked me what it was like, I could have
   only told you something about its candle-power or its brilliance in
   comparison with gas, but I could not have made you understand it. But
   what is the electric light compared with the glory of the sun to one
   who sees it for the first time? And what are all the suns that could
   ever be created compared with the wondrous blaze of the Glory of God?
   Yet such a marvelous light as that has fallen upon you, my Brother, my
   Sister--"the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of
   Jesus Christ."

   There is also this blessed thing to be said about this Light of
   God--you will never lose it. I dwell upon that thought for a minute,
   that you may rejoice in it. Read the 30th verse. "Your sun shall no
   more go down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself: for the Lord
   shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be
   ended." The light that God has given you will never be taken away from
   you! Ah, you have feared a good many times that it would be, but it
   never has and it never will! You have put your hand before your eyes
   and then you have thought that the sun was blotted out, but it was not.
   Clouds have sometimes arisen between you and your God, but the light of
   His everlasting love has gone on shining all the while and so it always
   will. We bless God that we have not to preach to you of temporary
   salvation, a salvation that saves people for a quarter of a year, or
   that saves them for a few years and then away they go back, again, to
   the world! No, no, our comforts may be slower in the making than are
   those of others, but they last when they are made, for they are made by
   the Grace of God! We are not saved by a sudden jump into something--we
   know not what--but by a new creation, by a new birth, by a total and
   radical change. Now, if the Light of God has risen upon you in that
   way, so as to change your very heart and the whole nature of your
   being, that Light will go on shining forever! Drink in that thought.
   You have, by Grace, laid hold of that which you will never lose and One
   has laid hold of you who will never let you slip out of His grasp, for
   it is written, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they
   follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
   perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand."

   I must not get on that glorious theme of the Final Preservation of the
   Saints because it is one that always sets my heart leaping with delight
   whenever I turn to it! But I say to you that if you take away from me
   the Doctrine of the Final Perseverance of the Saints and all that is
   involved in it, I have not anything left that is worth keeping! I
   should not care about the Gospel if that essential feature of it were
   gone. That Truth of God seems to me to be the very soul of it--
   everlasting love making an everlasting covenant and taking the objects
   of that everlasting love into everlasting union with Christ and giving
   them everlasting life by virtue of that union with Him! So, Believer,
   that light of yours will never burn out--it shall shine on forever and
   ever. "Your light has come" and it shall never go away. Oh, joy, joy,
   joy! Let God be praised continually for such a blessed gift as this!

   Now I must leave that part of my subject, only asking you to turn it
   over in your minds and to rejoice if the text is true of you, "Your
   light is come." I wish that some here who have been in the dark till
   now, might know it to be true in their case, and each one be able to
   say, "I do believe! I will believe in Christ Jesus as my Savior." If
   you do, your light has come!

   II. But I am going to speak further to those who know that their light
   hascome. Dear Friends, as soon as you have received this light of the
   Glory of God--this very same light that makes Heaven what it is--this
   light which never will be dim and which you will never lose--I want to
   push you on to my second point, which is this, TO AWAKEN YOU TO
   SERVICE. "Arise, shine; for your light is come." A man cannot shine if
   he has not any light, but as soon as ever he has the Light of God, what
   is he to do? Why, shine, of course! He must not put away his light as
   in a dark lantern, but the moment he receives it, he is bound to show
   it!

   First, my dear Friend, since your light has come, shine by holy
   cheerfulness. I am very sorry whenever I meet with Christians who have
   no joy. I am most of all vexed with myself whenever my own joy burns
   dimly, for we who have the light of the Glory of God ought to have
   shining faces. We have been forgiven! We are God's children! We are on
   the way to Heaven! Then, surely, if anybody's mouth ought to be full of
   laughter and if any tongue should be tuned to sweetest music, it should
   certainly be ours! There are none who have such a right to lead
   perfectly happy lives as Christians. I know that there are some who I
   cannot doubt are good people, but who are a very surly sort of folk.
   Dear Hearts, they will be all right when they get to Heaven, but I
   would not like to meet a Heaven full of them if they are in Heaven as
   they are here! There are some persons who never can be content.
   Providence never pleases them. The weather is always wrong. Their
   dinners are always ill cooked--nothing goes right, nothing has gone
   right with them for years--and they are very snappish and snarling.

   This style of living will not do, my Brother! "Arise, shine." I would
   like to lay those words on your breakfast plate tomorrow morning.
   Before you go out to business, put this passage between two pieces of
   bread and butter, "Arise, shine; for your light is come." It may be
   that you will wake up in the morning rather gloomy and you will say to
   yourself, "I have to go out and battle with the world again." Take this
   text, "Arise, shine; for your light is come," and say to yourself, "I
   must shine. Come, come, come, come, come! I must not let myself get
   down in the dumps, I must not begin the day mourning. God has given me
   light, so I must and I will shine to His praise and Glory." May God
   help you to do it, for that is one way in which we can adorn the Gospel
   of Jesus Christ, our Savior, by the cheerfulness of our deportment!

   The next way of shining is by a gracious godliness. True Christians
   ought to shine by their lives. The stars do not say anything, but they
   keep on shining. Did you look up at the sky, the other night, and see
   Jupiter hard by the moon and Saturn apparently just a little way off?
   There has been a wonderful beauty about various planets during the past
   month--perhaps never was the sky more interesting than it has been of
   late, but never a word was said among the shining bodies in the
   heavens! I kept company with the pole star, I think, for 12 long hours
   as I was traveling home from the South of France I kept seeing him out
   of the carriage window. He never said a word to me all the time, but
   one thing he did do, he continued shining! And I also gazed at all the
   stars of Ursa Major, as I remained wakeful the whole night long, but
   not a syllable did they say to me. They do not need to speak, for they
   shine! In like manner, you Christian people who cannot talk--the women
   especially. I mean that you cannot preach, you are not allowed to
   preach--I want you to shine. Some people seem to think that there is no
   shining without talking, whereas the very best shining is that of
   Christian women, who, if they have little to say, have a great deal to
   do. They make the house so bright with heavenly grace and decorate it
   so sweetly with the flowers of their cheerful piety, that those round
   about them are won to Christ by them! Therefore, shine, dear Brothers
   and Sisters, by your gracious godliness, for so you will bring Glory to
   God!

   Then, thirdly, shine by zealous earnestness. We do not often meet with
   people who are too much in earnest. I can only thank God that I hear,
   in certain places, an outcry against fanaticism. We have been such a
   long time without it, so we may be almost glad to have a little of it,
   especially as the so-called fanaticism is probably only zeal thoroughly
   awakened. If there are some people who seem to be wildly enthusiastic,
   let us imitate them! We have had so much slumbering, so much coldness,
   so much death, that we can put up with a little extravagance and
   excess. Still it would be better if, judiciously, one went steaming
   straight ahead in the service of God with a resolution never to be
   beaten, never to cease every earnest endeavor to make known the Gospel
   of Christ--and to reflect the Light of God which has shone upon us from
   above! Oh, for a zealous earnestness! May God pour it out upon this
   Church yet more abundantly! May you go into your Master's service with
   all your might and main, and may the Spirit of God, as a spirit of
   burning, rest upon everyone of you far more abundantly than in the
   past!

   This would lead, dear Friends, to your shining by a secret bravery.
   There are some dear people whom I must encourage to be a little more
   bold. We have some friends, here and there, to whom I could hint, only
   very gently, that they are quite forward enough, but there are many
   good people who always keep in the background. They might do so much
   for Christ if only they had a little courage! Do, dear Friends, break
   through the ice this year! If you have felt that you ought to do
   something for your Lord, and yet have never begun to do it, begin at
   once! Do you ask, "What is the best way to try to serve Christ?" Well,
   I think the best way is to doit. "But how should I begin?" Well, I
   would begin by beginning! "When shall I begin?" Begin now! This very
   hour. "But in what way?" In the first way that comes to hand--"whatever
   your hand finds to do, do it with all your might," for our text says,
   "Arise, shine." If you have the Light of God, emit it, distribute it,
   scatter it somehow or other! Have pluck--that is a plain English word,
   but I do not know how to put my meaning better. Have pluck enough to
   come out and be a Christian--do not always be like a rat behind the
   wall, but come out and acknowledge yourself on Jesus Christ's side and
   promote the everlasting Gospel wherever you have the opportunity!

   So runs the text, "Arise, shine; for your light is come."

   III. Now, in closing, I want TO RALLY YOU TO THIS SHINING BY ONE OR TWO
   ARGUMENTS.

   And, first, by the world's great need. Read the second verse of this
   chapter--"Behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross
   darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon you, and His Glory
   shall be seen upon you." Oh, the darkness and the death shade still
   over the people! Over this London of ours there hangs a pall of deadly
   nightshade, a darkness that may be felt! Then, little glowworm, even
   you must not hide your light! Sparks, tiny sparks, you that have but
   one little flash, you must not conceal it, for the night is dark, and
   the darkness deepens! The devil, drunkenness and lewdness, Romanism in
   all its forms, false doctrine, infidel teaching, skepticism in a
   thousand shapes--all these make night hideous and further deepen the
   dense shades of darkness! You who have the light--show it! If it is not
   the Light of God, say so, and renounce it. But if it is the Light of
   God, in the name of the eternal God, good man, I pray you, let your
   light be seen! Arise, shine; for darkness covers the earth, and gross
   darkness the people!

   Shine, next, because of the great results that will surely come of it.
   If all Christians were once to shine--and that means if you were to
   shine, and your neighbor, and I and my neighbor--if all of us were to
   shine, then it would come to pass that Gentiles would speed to the
   Light of God, and kings to the brightness of the rising! Then, from all
   lands and from the sea, would converts come, till nations should crowd
   to Christ like flocks of doves flying to their dovecotes. And the
   Church of God would be multiplied beyond all count. We often keep from
   work for Christ because we despair of its success. We neglect effort
   because we are afraid that effort will be useless. Doubt no longer! He
   that bids you sow intends to give a harvest and He will bless your
   sowing if you will but sow in faith. We may well be encouraged to do so
   when we think such thoughts as these, "Shine, for your light shall be
   seen; shine, for your light shall be useful to save lives like a
   lighthouse on the rock--useful to direct others home, like the
   cottager's candle in the window to guide her husband to his resting
   place." Shine, then, because of the good that will come of it to the
   world.

   Shine, next, because of the great blessing that it will bring to the
   Church, for, if all Christians rally to serve God as they should, then
   shall the Church have the days of her great glory--"The glory of
   Lebanon shall come unto you, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box
   together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the
   place of My feet glorious. The sons, also, of them that afflicted you,
   shall come bending unto you; and all they that despised you shall bow
   themselves down at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you The
   City of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas you have
   been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through you, I will make
   you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations." A shining Church
   will be a happy Church, but if we do not shine, we will be miserable.
   But if we will shine for Christ, we shall see great prosperity for the
   Church of the living God!

   And, best of all, we must do this because of the argument used in the
   21st verse. I will not speak upon it, I shall leave it with you--"that
   I may be glorified." It is God your Father who says that! It is Christ
   who has bought you with His blood who says it! It is the Holy Spirit
   who is your indwelling Comforter who says it! There is no argument that
   eloquence could state, or that reason could suggest that can have such
   force with a loyal heart as this--"that I might be glorified." Do you
   not pray, "Father, glorify Your Son"? Now, in the power of the Holy
   Spirit, prove the sincerity of your prayer by giving out whatever light
   God has given to you and, since your light has come, arise and shine,
   as you have ability, from this very hour! The Lord grant it, dear
   Brothers and Sisters, to me and to you, for His name's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 103; ISAIAH 59:16-21; ISAIAH
   60:1-16.

   What more appropriate passage than the 103rd Psalm can we read, on this
   first Sabbath night of another year, to express the gratitude of our
   thankful hearts? I will only interject a sentence here and there, but
   let me beg all to try to worship God in the spirit while we once more
   read together the familiar words of this much-loved Psalm.

   Psalm 103:1. Bless the LORD, Omysoul. O my Soul, be not thoughtless and
   wandering, but give this holy hour to the sacred employment of praising
   and blessing your God!

   1. And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Let every string of
   my heart be now touched by the fingers of the Holy Spirit, let every
   faculty of my being wake up to praise the Lord--"and all that is within
   me, bless His holy name."

   2. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. They are
   very memorable. They deserve to be "engraved as in eternal brass." To
   be forgetful of them will be a base form of ingratitude. Come, my
   memory, wake up! "Forget not all His benefits." Here are a few of the
   choicest of the gems in this cabinet--the jewels are too many for me to
   exhibit them all.

   3. Who forgives all your iniquities. The Lord has done it and continues
   to do it--"who forgives"--not some of your iniquities, but all of them,
   so that you can sing, "The depths have covered them: there is not one
   of them left." Why, there is enough to sing of in that, alone! We need
   never leave off praising God for that one mercy of forgiven sin --it is
   the first of God's favors and prepares us to enjoy the rest.

   3. Who heals all your diseases. Many times has my heart had to sing
   about the gift from my God of this precious pearl, "who heals all your
   diseases," and some of you have also had occasion, in your restored
   health, to praise the Lord for this privilege. But, oh, to think that,
   every day, He is healing us of the great disease of sin--our very
   afflictions being, often but the lancet and the knife with which He is
   removing from us the foul taint of evil. "Who heals all your diseases."

   4. Who redeems your life from destruction. You have a life that can
   never die, for He has redeemed it. Then, bless your Lord for
   Redemption! If you do not sing for this cause, the very stones in the
   street will cry out against you!

   4. Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. What a
   crown! What gems are on it! No gold or silver can ever equal
   this--"loving kindness and tender mercies." Every child of God is a
   crowned king--shall we not, for this, also, sing aloud, "Bless the
   Lord, O my soul"?

   5. Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is
   renewed like the eagle's. If you enjoy sweet inward contentment and
   satisfaction with your God, you must praise Him, "who satisfies your
   mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's"
   With renewed strength, can you, will you, be silent? I am sure you
   cannot, but you must use all the strength that God has given back to
   you to His praise and Glory.

   6. The LORD executes righteousness and judgment for all that are
   oppressed. Blessed be His name for this! He is the supreme Governor of
   the world and He will rectify all its wrongs in His own time and way.
   There is a great power that makes for righteousness and that power is
   on the Throne of God. "The Lord reigns."

   7-9. He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of
   Israel The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous
   in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger
   forever Let your heart keep praising the Lord as we read every one of
   these sentences, for there is a theme for everlasting music in each
   line of this Psalm. "He will not always chide," Hallelujah! "Neither
   will he keep His anger forever." And again we say, "Hallelujah !"

   10. He has not dealt with us after our sins. Blessed be His holy name!

   10. Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Forever adored be His
   long-suffering and His tender mercy.

   11. For as the Heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy
   toward them that fear Him. Therefore praise

   Him--

   "Loud as His thunders, shout His praise,

   And sound it lofty as His throne!"

   If He is such a God as this, you can never overdo His praises. It is
   impossible to exaggerate your exaltation of Him!

   12. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our
   transgressions from us. They are gone! They are removed to an infinite
   distance--they will never come back. It is not possible that they
   should ever again be laid to our charge.

   13. Like as a father pities his children, so the LORDpities them that
   fear Him. Do not stop the music of thanksgiving. Let your hearts, if
   not your voices, keep on saying, "Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord!" Oh,
   what pity you and I have needed! What tenderness and compassion! And--

   "Such pity as a father has Unto his children dear"--

   such pity has God had upon us!

   14-16. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust As for
   man, his days are asgrass: as a flower ofthe field, so he flourishes.
   For the windpasses over it, andit is gone; and the place thereof shall
   know it no more. As a congregation, we have had most grievous proof of
   this Truth of God during the last two or three months. It has seemed to
   me as if everybody was dying. Our ranks have been thinned wondrously--

   "And we are to the margin come, And we expect to die."

   17-19. But the mercy ofthe LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon
   them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children; to
   such as keep His Covenant, and to those that remember His Commandments
   to do them. The LORD has prepared His Throne in the heavens; and His
   kingdom rules over all Do not believe the people who attribute sickness
   and death to the devil, and so try to make it appear that God has left
   His Throne. He still reigns! He reigns forever, "King of kings, and
   Lord of lords, Hallelujah!" "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" "The Lord has
   prepared His Throne in the heavens; and His kingdom rules over all."

   20-22. Bless the LORD, you His angels, that excel in strength, that do
   His Commandments, hearkening unto the voice ofHis Word. Blessyou the
   LORD, allyou His hosts;you ministers ofHis that do Hispleasure. Bless
   the LORD, all His works in all places ofHis dominion: bless the LORD, O
   my soul. For well you may, O my Soul, for the Lord has dealt
   bountifully with you! Lead the song and may the whole world join you in
   joyful adoration of the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
   Now we will read the passage that especially relates to the message I
   have to deliver to you presently in my Master's name. Turn to Isaiah
   59, verse 16--

   Isaiah 59:16. And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there
   was no intercessor: therefore His arm brought salvation unto Him; and
   His righteousness, it sustained Him. Man's extremity was Christ's
   opportunity. There was no one left to save poor fallen manhood, no one
   who could lift a hand or a finger for our rescue. Therefore, Jesus
   came, and fought, and bled, and died, and conquered on our behalf.

   17-19. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of
   salvation upon His head; and He put on the garments of vengeance for
   clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds,
   accordingly He will repay fury to His adversaries, recompense to His
   enemies; to the islands He will repay recompense. So shall they fear
   the name ofthe LORD from the west, and His Glory from the rising ofthe
   sun. Christ came once and He is to come a second time because He will
   be again needed here. And when He returns, He will ease Himself of His
   adversaries, and speedily win the victory for truth and righteousness.
   Then shall the whole earth know what Christ can do.

   19-21. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit ofthe LORD
   shall lift up a standard against him. And the redeemer shall come to
   Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says the
   LORD. As for Me, this is My Covenant with them, says the LORD; My
   Spirit that is upon you, and My Words which Ihave put in your month,
   shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out ofthe mouth of your seed,
   nor out ofthe mouth of your seed's seed, says the LORD, from henceforth
   and forever. The Church of God shall have the Spirit of Truth and the
   Word of Truth ever abiding in her midst. God will not break His
   Covenant by withdrawing His Spirit from His Church. The Redeemer has
   come and His work of Redemption is accomplished. The Spirit also has
   come, but His work is not as yet done--it is being performed from day
   to day and the Spirit will never be withdrawn while any part of His
   ministry remains unfulfilled. The consequence of all this is the Glory
   of the true Church of the living God. There are better days coming for
   the cause of Christ and of His Truth. Listen, and be encouraged, all
   you that are heavy of heart!

   Isaiah 60:1-3. Arise, shine; for your lightt is come, and the Glory of
   the LORD is risen upon you. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the
   earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon
   you, and His Glory shall be seen upon you. And the Gentiles shall come
   to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. The Church
   of God is one, whether it is among Jews or Gentiles. That poor Church
   seemed abandoned and forsaken. Dark days came and it looked as if the
   Church must even cease to exist, but it did not. Now God has brought in
   many sinners of the Gentiles and He will bring them in much more
   numerously in the future times of refreshing. They shall come in
   armies, in hosts, in nations--and the Church of God shall be
   exceedingly glorious!

   4,5. Lift up your eyes round about and see: all they gather themselves
   together, they come to you: your sons shall come from far, and your
   daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see, and flow
   together, and your heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the
   abundance of the sea shall be converted unto you, the forces of the
   Gentiles shall come unto you. All the strength of the land and of the
   sea--the armies and the navies shall come and prostrate themselves
   before the Church of God. The supreme power on earth shall yet be the
   Christ in the midst of His Church.

   6. The multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian
   and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come. The Easterns shall bow
   before the King; they that of old had some light shall come to the yet
   greater light. In those holy lands which afterwards became so unholy,
   there shall yet be a return to the Truth of God and all the false
   prophets shall be expelled. Where Mohammed's crescent has cursed the
   nations, there shall shine again the Sun of Righteousness, with healing
   in His wings.

   6, 7. They shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the
   praises of the LORD. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together
   unto you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto you: they shall come
   up with acceptance on My altar, and I will glorify the house of My
   Glory. Wandering tribes of wild Arabs shall come and bow before Christ,
   and lay their wealth at His feet.

   8. Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their
   windows?The growing Church sees a greater multitude coming to her than
   even the populous East could muster. From where do they come? Listen,
   Brothers and Sisters, and look around and see for yourselves.

   9. Surely the isles shall wait forMe, and the ships ofTarshish first,
   to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them,
   unto the name of the LORD your God, and to the Holy One of Israel,
   because He has glorified you. In ships from these remote islands, and
   from countries that were dimly spoken of, in the East, as, "lands of
   Tarshish," far away, great multitudes were to come to Christ. Are they
   not coming today from this Ultima Thule, this distant land beyond the
   pillars of Hercules, are they not coming to Christ "as a cloud, and as
   the doves to their windows"?

   10-16. And the sons of strangers shall build up your walls, and their
   kings shall minister unto you: for in My wrath I smote you, but in My
   favor have I had mercy on you. Therefore your gates shall be
   continually open; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may
   bring unto you the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be
   brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall
   perish; yes, those nations shall be utterly wasted. The glory of
   Lebanon shall come unto you, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box
   together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the
   place of My feet glorious. The sons, also, of them that afflicted you
   shall come bending unto you; and all they that despised you shall bow
   themselves down at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you, The
   City of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas you have
   been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through you, I will make
   you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. You shall also
   drink the milk of the Gentiles, and milk the breast of kings: and you
   shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the
   Mighty One of Jacob. In God's good time, all this shall come to pass.
     __________________________________________________________________

"Straightway"

   (No. 2618)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 16, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY 15, 1882.

   "They straightway left their nets, and followed Him." Matthew 4:20.

   "THEY straightway left their nets." Immediately, without hesitation,
   without question. At once, on the spot, then and there,
   instantaneously--at the Master's call they "left their nets, and
   followed Him." It was one mark of our Savior's authority and power
   that. when He commanded, men obeyed. Your memories will help you to
   recall many instances in which persons and even inanimate things
   instantly obeyed when Christ gave them the word of command. Satan and
   legions of demons, diseases of every kind and even winds and
   waves--those things which usually seem to be lawless and wild always
   gave heed to the Law which issued from His lips. When He spoke, it was
   done, for His Word was with power.

   This is a mark of the effectual calling by Divine Grace--whenever it
   comes, men are led "straightway" to obey it. I may call you as long as
   I please, yet you will not come to Christ for all my calling. But if
   Christ shall call you by His Spirit, you will come. Yes, and come
   "straightway." When the command of Christ is applied to the soul with
   Divine energy, there is an immediate yielding of the heart to Him and
   His Law is obeyed. Judge yourselves, therefore, dear Friends, whether
   the Word of God has come with power to you or not, for if it has not
   come with almighty power, but you merely hear it as I speak it, you
   will say to me, as Felix said to Paul, "Go your way for a time; when I
   have a convenient season, I will call for you." But if the Truth of God
   proclaimed shall be accompanied with the energy of the Holy Spirit,
   then, as soon as the Lord says, "Seek you My face," your heart will
   respond to Him, "Your face, Lord, will I seek." Pray to the Lord, you
   who have heard and answered the call of His Spirit, that the same call
   may be given to others, and be effectually applied to them, to the
   praise of the Glory of God's Grace.

   I am going to use, in two ways, one word in my text--"straightway."
   First, I suggest that this word, "straightway," should be a motto for
   all Christians. All disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ should take that
   word as their guiding star! Secondly, let all seekers take if as their
   motto, too--"straightway." If you would find Christ, seek Him at once--
   "straightway."

   I. First, then, let this word, "straightway," be THE MOTTO OF EVERY
   DISCIPLE OF THE LORD JESUS

   CHRIST.

   When I preached, many years ago, in the cathedral at Geneva, after the
   service was ended, the Brothers presented me with a large bronze
   commemorative medal of John Calvin, on which is this passage, "He
   endured, as seeing Him who is invisible," which was a most suitable
   motto text for him. Upon the covers of his works are these words, which
   are also truly descriptive of the man, "Prompte et sincere in opere
   Domini"--"Prompt and sincere in the work of the Lord." I was pleased
   with both those mottos and my prayer, then, was, and still is, that
   they may both be mine as well as Calvin's. I pray that I may endure, as
   seeing Him who is invisible, and that I may also live to earn that
   other commendation, "prompt and sincere in the work of the Lord."
   Sincere, I trust we all are, who love the Savior, but we are not all as
   prompt as we are sincere! You know, in business, people like a man of
   prompt payments upon whom they can always depend. We also like persons
   to be prompt in carrying out their promises, but, oh, to be prompt in
   the work of the Lord, so as to not only do the right thing, but to do
   it at the right time--and that right time almost always is the time
   suggested by my text, "straightway." "Whatever your hand finds to do,
   do it with all your might," and do it at once. Leave it not to lie by
   among the lumber of good intentions, but if you are prompted to do it,
   set to work and do it immediately!

   "Straightway," then, is to be the motto of the Christian, first, in
   obeying Christ's Laws. The moment, my dear Friend, that you find
   yourself in the Kingdom of Heaven by faith in Christ, endeavor to be a
   loyal, Law-keeping subject. Mary said to the servants at the marriage
   feast of Cana, concerning her Son, "Whatever He says unto you, do it."
   And I say the same. "Whatever He says unto you"--He whom you have now
   taken to be your Lord and King--do not merely talk about it, or think
   of it, but do it and do it at once! "I counsel you," said Solomon, "to
   keep the King's commandment." Take Solomon's advice and let me add as a
   rider to it, "Keep the King's commandments straightway." As soon as
   ever a man becomes a Believer in Christ, the next step for him to take
   is to be baptized. The two things are constantly joined together in the
   New Testament. Our Lord said, "He that believes and is baptized shall
   be saved." When the eunuch came to a certain water, he asked Philip,
   "What does hinder me to be baptized?" Philip answered, "If you believe
   with all your heart, you may." I add to that, "If you believe with all
   your heart, you not only may, but you are bound to do it according to
   the Law of the Kingdom of Christ!" Do you tell me that you cannot see
   it to be your duty? I would advise you candidly to search the
   Scriptures and find out the teaching and practice of our Lord and His
   Apostles concerning Believers' Baptism. If, after that, you still say
   the same, I must leave you to your Master--I am not your judge.

   I hope there will be no question with any of you who love the Lord
   about the next point. It is the duty of every Believer in Christ to
   come to His Table. He said, "This do in remembrance of Me." He bids us
   gather in His name and commemorate His death in the breaking of bread
   and the pouring out of wine. So how can you say that you are His
   obedient disciple if you have lived, to now, in total negligence of
   that great commemorative ordinance? "Straightway," Friend--
   "straightway" obey boththe ordinances of the Kingdom--and delay no
   longer!

   "Straightway," also, unite yourself with the people of God. Christ's
   servants--Christ's blood-bought ones--are called "sheep." Sheep are
   gregarious creatures--they always go in flocks. Join yourself to your
   Brothers and Sisters somewhere. If they are evilly spoken of, go and be
   evilly spoken of with them. Do not attempt to fare better than the rest
   of your Master's servants, but take up Christ's Cross and follow Him.
   Give yourselves first to Christ and afterwards to us, or to some other
   Christian Church, according to the will of God. And do this
   "straightway!" And whatever else appears to be the Law of the
   House--and the Law of Christ's House is very plainly written in the
   Gospels and the Epistles--obey the Law of the House--and obey it
   "straightway."

   Next, dear Friends, make this word, "straightway," your motto in
   entrance upon Christian service. Do you ask, "When should a Believer
   begin to work for Christ?" I answer, "Straightway." There are no
   laborers for the Master who are so useful as those who begin to be
   useful while they are young. Sometimes God converts men in mid life, or
   even in old age, and uses them in His service, but, still, I venture to
   assert that Church History will show that the most useful servants of
   Christ were those who were caught early and who, from their youth up,
   bore testimony to the Gospel of Christ. At any rate, as soon as you are
   converted, I pray you to begin to do something for Jesus so as to get
   your hand in for future labor. In the case of some old people who have
   been professors of religion for years, but who have done next to
   nothing for Christ, I find it very difficult to ever stir them up at
   all. When I do get a saddle on them, they are very restless creatures,
   like a horse that has never been broken in--but if I break them in
   while they are colts, they get used to their work, it becomes a delight
   to them and they would not be happy unless they had something to do for
   the Lord Jesus! If Christ has redeemed, you, Beloved, and you know it,
   get to His service "straightway." Let there be no delay whatever, but
   at once commence to labor for your Lord!

   I remember having a considerable share of sneers and rebukes from some
   who thought themselves very wise men because I began preaching at the
   age of sixteen. I was recommended to tarry at Jericho till my beard had
   grown, and a great many other pieces of advice were given to me, but I
   confess that I have never regretted that I was a "boy-preacher" of the
   Word of God--and if I could have my time over, again, I would like to
   do just the same as I did then. O you young men who are just converted,
   try to serve God at once, for, if you idle away your years until the
   boy has ripened into a full-grown man and his beard adorns his chin, I
   question whether he will not be "a lazy-beard" all the rest of his
   life. No, no--get to work at once--"straightway!" Find out your niche
   and stand in it. Ask the Master to allot you your portion of the great
   harvest field and go to work in it with all your might. And keep on at
   it, God helping you, till your dying day. "Straightway," then, is to be
   your motto concerning the service of the Master.

   And while I give this motto for the commencement of our whole lifework,
   I beg to propose it to all Christian friends as a suitable motto for
   each work as it arises. If there is anything good to be done, when
   shall I do it? "Straightway." There is no time like the present for the
   fulfillment of a good design. How many excellent projects have been
   postponed for a time and, therefore, never carried out for the benefit
   of men! Now, dear Friends, especially you who have your children around
   you, if you ask me, "When shall I commence to train them for God?" I
   answer, "Straightway." "But they are so young." Well, never mind how
   young they are, you will find bad tempers and many other evils
   springing up from the hearts of even the smallest children! And the
   time to repress them is as soon as they appear. You will find that
   Satan will take the earliest hour that he can find for doing his deadly
   work. He is always up early in the morning and he will try, if he can,
   to sow the tares in that little plot of ground. Take as early an hour
   as Satan takes and ask God, by His Grace, that you may teach your child
   the things of eternal life "straightway." I would say to you, dear
   Mother, if you have never talked with your daughter about her soul, do
   it this very night. "But," you reply, "when I get home, she will be in
   bed." If so, then wake her up, but do talk and pray with her tonight!
   And then let her fall asleep again. Begin this holy service at once if
   you have neglected it until now.

   And you, dear Father, if you have never yet personally spoken to your
   children about the Savior, you cannot tell the power you might have
   over them if you would do so. I shall never forget when my father spoke
   to me, as a boy, about my soul, and asked me to pray. I remember with
   what shamefacedness I declined the attempt--and how wounded I felt, in
   my heart, to think that I was not able to pray. I had my groans and
   crying unto God in secret, but they were deepened and intensified by
   the question that he had put to me. O dear parents, do begin at once,
   that they may become God's children while yet they are your children! A
   little boy once said, "Father, please take me to Chapel with you
   tonight." "My Dear," the father replied, "you are too young. I will
   take you when you grow older." "Father," answered the child, "if I
   don't go now, very likely when I get older, I shall not want to go at
   all." And, alas, that is often the case! Take them, therefore, while
   they are yet little, where they may get a benefit to their souls and
   "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

   Then, with regard to any individuals with whom you may meet, take care
   to speak to them about the Savior. If you ask me when you shall speak
   to them, I answer, "Straightway"--tomorrow morning, across the counter,
   or in the workshop, or whenever there is a quiet minute or two that you
   can use. Perhaps the friend to whom you think of speaking may be dead
   if you delay until the end of the week, so go to him "straightway."
   There is a minister now preaching the Gospel, and God is greatly
   blessing him, who says he owes his earnestness to a remark I made in a
   certain College that I visited. I was asked, as we say, "on the spur of
   the moment," to speak a word to the students, and I said, "Well,
   Brothers, I have nothing to say to you except this--whenever you see
   the devil, have a shot at him." The young man told me that he
   remembered that sentence and it had often been of service to him. So I
   say it again to every Christian here--Whenever you see the devil, have
   a shot at him! If you see sin, rebuke it! If you see doubt, try to
   remove it! If you see darkness, bring the Light of God to bear upon
   it--and do it "straightway," for opportunities are flying and will soon
   be gone unless we seize them as they come near us!

   There is a lamentable story told of a man in a boat being carried down
   a waterfall and drowned and, an hour after, one who had been standing
   with others on the shore said, "I could have saved him if I had thought
   of it before." They asked him, "How would you have done it?" And he
   laid before them a perfectly feasible commonsense plan that might have
   been easily carried out and, I think, he went home very miserable, for
   all the spectators of the disaster seemed to say, "Why did you not
   think of it before? You are wise too late." So, when certain men have
   died, I think some of you must have known what it was to say, "Oh, I
   wish I had spoken to him! That Gospel which saved me might have been a
   blessing to him, but now he is gone and I have thought of the remedy
   too late!" Do not let it be possible to have such regrets, but,
   whenever you find an opportunity of speaking about salvation to others,
   do it "straightway."

   And, once again, let this word, "straightway," be your motto with
   regard to your own soul. Whenever you find your spiritual life
   declining, your faith growing weak and your love getting cold, go back
   to Jesus and ask for quicken-ing--and do it "straightway." Always nip
   these things in the bud! Most diseases must have the remedies applied
   at once if they are to be cured. If they are allowed to remain
   unchecked for a time, they gather strength to the great injury of the
   patient. The moment you feel that you have not the power in prayer that
   you once had, go "straightway" to Jesus! The instant you realize that
   you have not the love for souls that you once had, fly away to Jesus
   and tell Him all about your sad condition. Oh, if we always took heed
   to our backsliding as soon as it began, how much of sorrow and how much
   of sin might be spared! So, dear Friends, if I am describing your case,
   I implore you to renew your communion with your Lord--get back to
   Christ, ask for pardon at His hands--and do all this "straightway."

   Dear Christian Brothers and Sisters, this is the motto for you,
   "STRAIGHTWAY!" Let it flame like a lightning flash through the place!
   Whatever ought to be done, let it be done at once, without even a
   second thought. O Beloved, will you still delay in such a matter of
   urgency as this? Then let me further plead with you for a minute or two
   before I turn to the other part of my subject. Imagine the day of
   battle and a colonel issuing the order to his regiment to march into
   the midst of the fray. Do the men hesitate? Do they stand still? Then
   there is mutiny in the ranks! "Forward!" he said, but the troops stay
   where they are. They are disloyal. How can the battle be won by men who
   act like that? But see how the faithful soldiers in the army behave.
   The command is given, "Charge!" It matters not how many are their
   foes-- away they go like a whirlwind--who can stop them? Let it be so
   with you, dear Friends. Good soldiers of Jesus Christ must not
   hesitate, but must obey the Captain of their salvation "straightway."

   Have you a vivid imagination? Can you, in your mind's eye, picture an
   angel up yonder before the burning Throne of God? The voice of Jehovah
   has said to him, "Descend to earth." Can you imagine Gabriel staying
   there, with his finger on his lips, deliberating whether he shall fly
   or not? Do you not often ask that you may do God's will on earth as
   angels do it in Heaven? Then, how can you hesitate, even for an
   instant, to do what you are clearly commanded by Christ to do? Let me
   ask you another question--Did Christ delay His great mission of mercy?
   No, for it was with Him as good Dr. Watts sings--

   "Plunged in a gulf of dark despair

   We wretched sinners lay

   Without one cheerful beam of hope,

   Or spark of glimmering day.

   With pitying eyes, the Prince of Grace

   Beheld our helpless grief

   He saw, and oh, amazing love,

   He ran to our relief!

   Down from the shining seats above

   With joyful haste He fled,

   Entered the grave in mortal flesh,

   And dwelt among the dead." There was no hesitating in Christ! Then,
   shall there be any in you who are called by His name?

   Further, did God lose any time before He saved you when you cried to
   Him? Does He delay to bless you now? If there is a seeming delay, it is
   Infinite Wisdom that makes you wait, only that the blessing may be all
   the more valued by you when it comes! But He is always ready to bless
   you. He stands prepared to give you all that you need. I charge you,
   therefore, by all these reasons, take this word, "straightway," as your
   motto. You are, yourself, a dying man, and if you do not accomplish
   your life-work "straightway," when will you perform it? Others are
   dying all around you! If you are not made a blessing to them
   "straightway," when may you hope to do them good? If anything is right,
   do it at once--there cannot be a good reason for any delay! Why should
   you ask for second thoughts about a plain duty? In such a case, first
   thoughts are best, and those first thoughts should be followed by
   immediate and energetic action. "Straightway!" Write it on your
   banners! Let it wave in the breeze, for victory will be given to the
   Church of Christ when she advances to the fight with all her hosts
   "straightway!"

   II. Now I ask the prayers of all Believers while, during the rest of my
   discourse, I try to speak to those who are "out of the way." In this
   large congregation there must be many who are not saved. It is idle to
   suppose that we are, all of us, the children of God and the servants of
   Christ, for we are not. There are some here who are not saved--but
   among them there are, I hope, some who wish to be saved. Well, if you
   really desire to be Christians. If the Holy Spirit has made you start
   seeking the Savior, I ask you to put this word into your bosom and bear
   it home with you, "straightway," for IT IS

   A MOST SUITABLE MOTTO FOR ALL SEEKERS.

   Are you seeking the Lord? Again, I pray you, hear the Gospel
   "straightway." The Gospel is not preached everywhere. Some go to
   certain places of worship because the music is admirable. Others
   because the preacher is clever. Some because it is considered
   "respectable" to go to such a place. I charge you, if you have not
   found Christ, care for nothing but finding Him! And where will you find
   Him except where He is fully and faithfully preached? If He is the head
   and front of the minister's discourses, then go there--not where they
   preach the "modern gospel," which would not save a mouse--but where
   Christ on the Cross is lifted high as the one hope for the salvation of
   sinners! Go there, go at once, and make a habit of going where Christ
   Crucified is constantly proclaimed! Remember how the Lord gave the
   invitation to the heavenly feast even by the mouth of the Prophet
   Isaiah. "Ho, everyone that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that
   has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk
   without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which
   is not bread? And you labor for that which satisfies not? Hearken
   diligently unto Me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul
   delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto Me: hear, and
   your soul shall live; and I will make an Everlasting Covenant with you,
   even the sure mercies of David."

   But when you are hearing the Gospel, be not content with merely
   hearing, but repent "straightway." You cannot have Christ and keep your
   sins, therefore, give up all evil at once! May God's blessed Spirit now
   separate you from your sins! Have you been inclined to drunkenness?
   Turn the intoxicating cup bottom upwards once and for all, and have
   done with it! What has been your particular besetting sin? Though it
   were dear as your right eye, pluck it out! Though it were precious as
   your right arm, cut it off and cast it from you! And do it
   "straightway." "Oh," you say, "I will see about it tomorrow!" Then, I
   know that God's Spirit is not effectually calling you, or you would be
   ready at once to turn from every false way, to Him, and then the time
   of your deliverance would have come. Therefore, I repeat--Repent
   "straightway." But then you must also pray "straightway." Plead with
   the Lord just where you are now in your seat, or, if you desire quiet
   and retirement, pray as soon as you reach your house--yes, pray in the
   street, on the road home! Lift up your heart to God and cry, "God be
   merciful to me a sinner!" But do it at once, or, as the text says,
   "straightway."

   Above all, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ ' 'straightway." That word,
   "straightway," is implied in every Gospel exhortation! We are not sent
   to preach to our Hearers, "'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ tomorrow!"
   No minister of Christ is authorized to say, "Put off faith in Christ
   for a week." No, but our message is, "Behold, nowis the accepted time!
   Behold, nowis the day of salvation!" Believe in Jesus and believe in
   Him now! And if the Spirit of God is really working in your spirit, you
   will be moved to believe now. If it is only my talk and my persuasion,
   you will still say, "Tomorrow." But if it is God's Word, it will go
   with power to your heart and you will say, "Now, Lord, even now, bring
   my soul out of prison, that I may trust Your Son and praise Your holy
   name." For a man to delay, who has nothing to depend upon but the
   breath in his nostrils, is the height of folly! For a man to delay, who
   stands on the brink of the grave, when that grave will conduct him to
   Hell, is indeed terrible!

   Delay is dangerous, but I confess that I do not understand men and
   their criminal carelessness. I daresay you read in the papers, a short
   time ago, about the destruction of the Swiss village of Elm. What an
   extraordinary affair it was, that the people should have had it
   reported to them, for months, that the forest which overhung the
   village was often seen to tremble when the rocks were blasted at the
   quarry. They knew that, sooner or later, the mountain above them would
   inevitably come down and crush them! Yet they went to church on the
   Sunday morning, and were gathered together as comfortably and quietly
   as if nothing alarming could ever happen to them. Many of you, no
   doubt, remember the story and, therefore, I need not tell you how, all
   of a sudden, the great forest above the village seemed to come down
   upon them--and when stalwart men from the upper end of the village
   hurried to help their fellow countrymen, they had scarcely arrived
   before the mountain, itself, descended in one tremendous mass and
   buried the whole village in a moment! The people knew that such a
   calamity as that would certainly happen--they had been warned of it
   again and again--yet they persisted in living there.

   I do not know how men could get so accustomed to impending danger as
   they did, and I must blame the foolhardi-ness of those who willfully
   ran such a risk of destruction. But it is nothing compared with the
   madness of man and women who see the great mountain of Divine Wrath
   trembling and about to fall upon them, to crush them to all eternity
   and yet they go on with their games and occupy themselves with their
   sports, just as if there were no God to judge them, no Heaven to be
   sought, no Hell to be shunned! They sin as if iniquity were mere
   child's play and there were no punishment for it in the world to come!
   Delay is dangerous at all times, but I feel moved to say that it is
   especially dangerous for some of you just now, for, as the Lord lives,
   unless you find salvation within another week, you will be in the world
   where it shall be impossible for you either to seek or to find it! If
   not saved soon, you will be lost forever. Delay is dangerous--
   therefore escape for your lives and escape at once!

   Besides, delay will be a great loss to you. If I were unsaved at this
   moment and in my right senses, I would wish to be saved here and now. I
   do not know what has been done with the two men who have been lying in
   prison for the last two years under what is believed to be a false
   accusation. We heard that the Home Secretary had fetched them up from
   Chatham to Pentonville to Millbank and that they were brought up in
   their own clothes, with a view to setting them free tomorrow, but I
   guarantee you, if I had been in their position and had been asked,
   "Would you prefer to be set at liberty on Saturday, or wait till
   Monday?" I would have said, "Oh, set me free at once, straightway!" Any
   delay would be to my loss. Who wants to stay in prison on a Sunday when
   he can walk at large? Who wishes to be there five minutes longer than
   he is compelled to be? And, in like manner, who would be unconverted
   five minutes longer than he needs to be? It is a loss to a man to be
   unsaved--even if he is ultimately saved, all the time that went before
   his conversion is just so long spent in prison--it is dead time, lost
   time! Therefore, let there be no delay in trusting Christ, for all
   delay is a loss.

   And, besides, delay makes it more difficult to get into the way of
   life. A person, on a certain line of railway, wants to go North, but he
   gets into the wrong train and, therefore, travels South. After he has
   gone a little way, he puts his head out and says, "This is not the
   station that I ought to pass!" And, as the porters cry out a name
   altogether different from what he expected to hear, he exclaims, "Why,
   I am on the wrong train!" What does he do then? Go on and say, "Well, I
   will get out by-and-by"? Not he! If he is a man of business and needs
   to keep an appointment, he jumps out at the first station after he
   discovers his mistake, and he says, "Tell me, please, when is there a
   train back? I have evidently come South instead of going North, and I
   need to return as quickly as possible." My dear Friends, some of you
   are traveling on the wrong line and you have come to a station,
   tonight! It is not a station where you ought to be. Do not, I entreat
   you, go on to another in the same direction, but I pray God, by His
   Grace, that you may get out of the train in which you have been
   traveling on the down line, and say, "Which is the train for Heaven? I
   must get into it somewhere--first class, second class, third class, or
   in the goods wagon--I do not care where I am, as long as I do but get
   in, for I have made a mistake, and I would not continue to make it--for
   the longer I remain as I am, the more difficult will it be for me to
   get right."

   Do you not also know, dear Friends, that every moment in which a man
   delays he is committing more sin? When I am not doing that which is
   right, I sin by omission. When a man neglects a duty for a week, how
   many times does he sin? "Once," you answer. Ah, no! It is his duty to
   do it now, but he has not done it, so that is sin. It will be equally
   his duty in five minutes' time, and every moment he puts it off, he
   keeps on committing sin upon sin! The longer he delays, he continues to
   sin. Have you ever heard the legend of one who had often delayed his
   repentance till he was taken into a forest where he saw an old man
   chopping sticks for his fire. He cut away till he had enough to make a
   large pile of firewood and then he tied the firewood up and stooped to
   put it on his shoulders, but it was too heavy for him to lift. The old
   man sighed, took his axe and cut down some more branches and added them
   to his bundle. But when he tried to take it up, of course it was still
   heavier than before! So the foolish old man, with many a sigh, went on
   cutting more wood and put that on the heap, and then tried to lift it,
   but of course it was heavier still! And the longer he delayed, the
   heavier the burden became. That is just your case, dear Friend, if you
   are delaying to repent--

   "Longer wisdom you despise, Harder is she to be won."

   There is all the more sin to be repented of, there is the more hardness
   of heart to be overcome, so you are adding to the difficulty every
   moment that you delay! "Grandfather," said a little child, "the
   preacher talked about loving Jesus. Do you love Him?" "No, child," said
   the old man. "I have never thought of those things, but I hope that you
   will while your heart is tender." "But, Grandfather, you will die soon.
   Please, won't you love Jesus?" "No, child," replied the old man, "my
   heart is too hard, now. It is no use for me to think about it." Many a
   man has said that! It is a great mistake, for the Lord can soften the
   hardest heart and bring the oldest man or woman to Himself. Still,
   there is great force in the grandfather's words and it is a blessed
   thing when we begin to serve the Lord early, for there is a hardening
   process that goes on every hour of delay, which I pray God, of His
   Infinite Mercy, to prevent by bringing every one of you to Jesus Christ
   "straightway."

   Shall I tell you one thing more before I finish? It is this--whenever a
   man will not have Christ "straightway." Whenever he will not give up
   his sin "straightway." Whenever he will not believe in Jesus
   "straightway," that is a roundabout method of saying, "No," to Christ!
   The father in the parable said to the son, "Go, work today in my
   vineyard," and he replied, "I go, Sir." That is to say, "I am going,
   Sir. I mean to go. Give me just a little time to think it over. It is
   all right, Sir, I will go." But how does the parable put it? "He said,
   I go, Sir, and went not." It was an indirect way of saying that, after
   all, he did not mean to go. Alas, that is what I fear some of you will
   do tonight. You will say, "Yes, what the preacher says is quite
   correct. We should seek Christ and plead for mercy--and we will do
   so--by-and-by. Soon--not immediately. Of course we cannot be in a hurry
   about these things, but we will attend to them some day." I tell you,
   Sirs, plainly, that you will not! You are the sort of people who will
   not come to Christ! You have not the moral courage to say, "No," but
   you mean, "No," all the while! And if you said, "No," I would have more
   hope of you, for the rest of the parable runs thus--"He said to the
   other son, Go, work today in my vineyard. And he said, I will not."
   That was pretty plain. "But afterwards he repented, and went." Now, I
   would rather have you say, "I will not," and then afterwards go home
   and repent and come to Christ, than I would have you beat about the
   bush and say, "Oh, yes, yes, yes," thinking that you are complimenting
   Christ with your lying--I dare not use a milder term! That "yes, yes,
   yes," means that you will not!

   Have you never noticed, when you have been collecting subscriptions, if
   you go to a person who does not say, "No," straight out, but says,
   "Well, let me look at your list--yes, what is the objective of it?"
   that he usually adds, "I have many calls. I will think about it"? I
   have known such people, "think about it," a very long while, but
   nothing ever came of all their thinking! You smile at what people do
   with regard to a subscription list--and it is, in some respects, a
   thing to smile over. But beware lest you do the same with your soul! Do
   not, I pray you, act like that towards the Lord Jesus Christ! Do not
   merely think about it, but doit! Go straight to Him and think of it
   afterwards--and you will then have to think, with joy--and delight,
   that the best day's work His Grace ever enabled you to do was this
   getting away to Christ and casting yourself on Him!

   God bless you, dear Friends! May we all meet in Heaven, through Jesus
   Christ our Lord! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW25:1-13.

   Verses 1, 2. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten
   virgins which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
   And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. What a division this
   makes in the visible Church of God! Let us hope that we are not to
   gather from this that as many as half the professors of Christianity at
   any time are like these foolish virgins! Yet our Lord would not have
   mentioned so high a proportion if there were not a very large mixture
   of foolish with the wise--"Five of them were wise, and five were
   foolish."

   3. They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them.
   They thought that if they had the external, it would be quite enough.
   The secret store of oil they judged to be unnecessary because it would
   be unseen. They would employ one hand in carrying the lamp, but to
   occupy the other hand by holding the oil-flask seemed to them to be
   doing too much--giving themselves up too thoroughly to the work--so
   they "took their lamps, and took no oil with them." They might just as
   well have had no lamps at all!

   4. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Oil in
   their lamps and oil with their lamps. Lamps are of no use without oil,
   yet the oil needs the lamp, or else it cannot be rightly used. The
   light of profession cannot be truly sustained without the oil of Grace.
   Grace, wherever it exists, ought to show itself, as the oil is made to
   burn by means of the lamp, but it is no use to attempt to make a show
   unless there is that secret store somewhere by which the external part
   of religion may be maintained.

   5. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept Both the
   wise and the foolish fell into a state which seemed alike in them both.
   In the case of good men, Christ's delaying His coming often causes
   disappointment, weariness and then lethargy. And even the true Church
   falls into a deep slumber. In the foolish--the mere professors--this
   condition goes much further. There being in them no true life, the very
   name to live becomes abandoned and, before long they give up even the
   profession of religion when there is no secret oil of Grace to sustain
   it.

   6. And at midnight when things had come to the worst "At midnight"--the
   coldest and darkest hour, when everybody was asleep.

   6. There was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to
   meet him. That was a cry which startled everybody! None of the virgins
   could sleep when once it was announced that the bridegroom was coming.
   I wish, dear Friends, that we thought more of the great Truth of the
   Second Advent. The more often it is preached in due proportion with
   other Truths of God, the better. We still need to hear that midnight
   cry, "Go you out to meet Him."

   7. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. They could
   not sleep any longer. They were fairly startled and awakened.

   8. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us some of your oil Ah, me!
   Now they began to value what they had, before, despised! They were
   foolish enough to think that oil was unnecessary, but now they saw that
   it was the one essential thing, so they cried to the wise virgins,
   "Give us some of your oil." And hear the dreadful reason--

   8. For our lamps are gone out I do not know any more terrible words
   than those, "Our lamps are gone out." It is worse to have a lamp that
   has gone out than never to have had a lamp at all. "'Our lamps are gone
   out.' We once rejoiced in them. We promised ourselves a bright future.
   We said, 'All is well for the marriage supper.' But 'our lamps are gone
   out,' and we have no oil with which to replenish them." O Sirs, may
   none of us ever have to lift up that mournful cry! On a dying bed, in
   the extremity of pain, in the depth of human weakness it is an awful
   thing to find one's profession burning low, one's hope of Heaven going
   out like the snuff of a candle!

   9. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for
   us and you: but go you rather to them that sell, and buy for
   yourselves. It is no easy matter to go and wake up the seller of oil
   when the midnight hour has struck. O you who are putting off repentance
   to a dying bed, you are foolish virgins, indeed! Your folly has reached
   the utmost height! You will have more than enough to do when you lie
   there with the death-sweat cold upon your brow, without then having to
   seek the Grace which you are neglecting to obtain today, but which you
   will value then!

   10. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came. While they were
   not there.

   10, 11. And they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and
   the door was shut Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord,
   Lord, open to us. Too late! So that they could not enter.

   12. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not' 'I
   never knew you," says Christ in another place, and this knowledge of
   His is always bound up with affection. He loves no heart that He knows
   not in this sense. Those whom He knows, He loves. Will He ever say to
   me or to you, dear Friend, "I know you not"? God grant that He never
   may have cause to do so!

   13. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein
   the Son ofMan comes
     __________________________________________________________________

The Captain of Our Salvation

   (No. 2619)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 23, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY
   19, 1882.

   "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all
   things, in bringing many sons to Glory, to make the Captain of their
   salvation perfect through sufferings." Hebrews 2:10.

   OBSERVE, dear Friends, how glorious God is. The description given here
   by the Apostle contains but few words, and those nearly all little
   ones, but how full of meaning they are! "Him, for whom are all things,
   and by whom are all things." Here you have God set forth as being both
   the beginning and the end of everything! All things are frHim--to do
   His bidding, to accomplish His purpose, to act forth His Glory and this
   because all things are byHim--in their first creation, in their
   subsequent preservation and in all that is yet to come of them! Of whom
   speaks the Apostle this but of the Triune God, to whom be glory forever
   and ever? Of whom speaks He this--if we would be still more exact--but
   of the Father who has made His Son perfect in bringing many sons to
   Glory? It is the Father "for whom are all things, and by whom are all
   things."

   And, my dear Brothers and Sisters, the Apostle was wisely guided by the
   Holy Spirit to give this title to the Father in this particular place.
   Sometimes, in prayer, men call God by one or another of His names and
   each name may be correct, yet it may not be well chosen for that
   special occasion. But you will notice that if the Holy Spirit describes
   either God the Father or the Lord Jesus by any term other than His
   usual name, the title is always very wisely chosen and is most
   appropriate in that place. Now, in the matter of our salvation, we need
   One, "by whom are all things," for none but the Creator can create us
   anew in Christ Jesus. No one who has less power than the Divine
   Preserver of men can keep us from falling. And none but the Divine
   Being who encompasses all things within the range of His Infinite mind,
   can guard us against the many terrible perils on the way to Heaven. If
   ever we are to be brought to Glory, it must be by the God "by whom are
   all things." And certainly, if we are brought there, as I pray that we
   all may be--it will be by Him "for whom are all things"--and we shall
   forever adore the mystery of His Grace which landed us safely on the
   heavenly shore!

   Every part of the great plan of salvation sets forth the splendor of
   the Grace of the Most High God. What do we see in our election but His
   Grace? What do we see in our redemption but His Grace? What do we see
   in our conversion but His Grace? What do we see in our justification,
   sanctification, adoption and final preservation but His Grace? By Him,
   in Grace as well as in Nature, are all things--and for Him, in Grace as
   well as in Nature, are all things. Unto Him belongs both the power and
   the glory, the two must always go together. He works all our works in
   us and to Him be all the praise, world without end!

   We start, then, with this as a sort of keynote--that the great Father,
   who has purposed our salvation, is able to fully carry out what He has
   planned, for by Him are all things. And He also has an admirable reason
   for accomplishing it, because it will bring Him glory, and for Him are
   all things. If our salvation would degrade His name in any sense or
   respect. If the salvation of sinners would even obscure the severity of
   His justice, it might be a question as to whether it would ever be
   accomplished. But, since there is nothing about this work but what will
   bring Him honor and glory, we rest assured that, having put His hand to
   it, He will not withdraw His arm until He has fully accomplished His
   eternal purpose to the praise of the glory of His Grace!

   Our text sets before us some most precious Truth concerning our Lord
   Jesus Christ and His people. First, here is a high enterprise--the
   bringing of many sons to Glory. In the second place, this enterprise is
   being carried out by an ordained Captain--there is a Captain of our
   salvation through whom the many sons are to be brought to Glory. And,
   thirdly, we are to notice the becoming work of the Father upon Him who
   is Captain. "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom
   are all things, in bringing many sons to Glory, to make the Captain of
   their salvation perfect through sufferings."

   I. First, then, here IS A HIGH ENTERPRISE--the bringing of many sons to
   Glory.

   I think that you will find the historical parallel of this enterprise
   in the Lord's great work of bringing the tribes of Israel out of Egypt,
   through the Red Sea, through the wilderness and into Canaan. The Lord,
   in His deliverance of His ancient people, gives us a type of what He is
   doing and will do for all His chosen. The exodus was not merely the
   bringing of the people out of Egypt into the wilderness, for then they
   might truly have said to Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt,
   have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?" But the whole
   transaction was not completed, the enterprise was not finished, until
   all those whom the Lord intended to bless had actually crossed the
   Jordan and had taken possession of the promised land. He led not the
   children of Israel merely out of Egypt, but He led them into Canaan--
   and His leadership of them through the desert is a picture and emblem
   of Christ's leadership of the many sons whom He is bringing to Glory. I
   want you to think of the salvation of the redeemed in that light.

   To begin at the end, the Lord Jesus is bringing many sons to Glory,
   just as God brought His ancient people into Canaan. The ultimate
   destination of every Believer is eternal Glory. There is not one of us
   who will be perfect and complete until we stand at the right hand of
   God, even the Father. There is no secondary position where some of the
   redeemed may be satisfied to remain, but the many sons are all to be
   brought to "Glory." That is the word--one of the biggest words that can
   be spoken by any mortal mouth. Do you know all its meaning? No, my
   Brothers and Sisters, you do not, and there is another word that comes
   before it--"The Lord will give Grace and Glory." Do you know all the
   meanings, even, of, "Grace"? No, you do not--yet you have tasted of
   God's Grace and if you know not all the meaning of that of which you
   daily partake, I am sure you do not know the meaning of that, "Glory,"
   which you have not yet obtained.

   Heaven is rightly called, "Glory." I do not doubt that it is a very
   glorious place. People have written books in which they have sought to
   give us some idea of Heaven as perfecting all the joys of our earthly
   domestic life. And artists have tried to depict the plains of Heaven,
   but the books and the works of art are equally worthy to be burnt, for
   they fall so infinitely short of what the reality must be that they are
   only a caricature and a mockery of what "Glory" must really be. No,
   Beloved, no tongue can tell what it is, and no pencil can depict the
   Glory of the place, itself, the Father's House, where the many mansions
   are--

   "Eye has not seen it, my gentle boy-- Ear has not heard its sweet songs
   of joy!"

   Nor shall your imagination be able to bring these things down to you,
   for there is a spiritual Glory which must far exceed all the glories of
   which you know anything on earth!

   I think, also, that Heaven is called, "Glory," because its inhabitants
   follow glorious pursuits. What they are doing there all day long, I
   shall not attempt to guess, but we are told that "the Throne of God and
   of the Lamb shall be in it and His servants shall serve Him. They shall
   see His face and His name shall be on their foreheads." They will have
   enough to do to cast their crowns at His dear feet who gave them all
   the joy they have--and to make known to principalities and powers in
   heavenly places the manifold wisdom of God! Of this we are quite
   sure--all their pursuits will be glorious, there will be nothing low,
   nothing groveling, nothing selfish done in Heaven--certainly, nothing
   wearisome, nothing laborious that can bring sweat to the brow, again,
   that comes here because of the Curse. No, it is a glorious place where
   the happy dwellers are engaged in glorious pursuits!

   And they also have glorious pleasures. They realize to the fullest what
   David said, "In Your Presence is fullness of joy. At Your right hand
   there are pleasures forevermore." Did you ever think--have you the
   power to conceive--what the pleasures of God must be? What is the joy
   of the Lord--the infinite satisfaction of the Eternal--the profound
   bliss of Him who is most blessed forever? It is that joy, that bliss,
   that peace of which they shall have a share, as the Master says to each
   one of them, "Enter you into the joy of your Lord." As high as the
   heavens are above the earth, so high is God's joy above our joy.
   Therefore we cannot attempt to describe it, but we can only say of it
   that the joy of Heaven is Glory! The bliss of Heaven is "from Glory to
   Glory" forever and ever!

   And, as Heaven is a glorious place for glorious pursuits and glorious
   pleasures, so all there will be glorious persons. There is not one low
   or mean inhabitant of Heaven! There are many there who were despised on
   earth--the lowly and the suffering and the persecuted--but they are no
   longer despised. God has put eternal honor upon them. They are all
   priests and kings unto God! The priestly garments they wear are more
   grand than Aaron's raiment of glory and beauty and in their royal robes
   they keep high holiday, where the sun goes down no more, and the days
   of their mourning are forever ended. It is all glorious and I do not
   wonder that Heaven is called, "Glory," and that we have so little said
   about it. There is just this great word--"Glory"--which by itself says
   more than I would be able to say if I kept you here till the clock
   tolled out the midnight hour!

   This is the high enterprise of God, to bring His many sons to Glory. I
   call it a high enterprise, and so it is, for He will bring them to
   Glory despite all difficulties. Where do the redeemed begin their
   march? Down there, at the iron furnace, where they have lain among the
   pots, and where their slavery has been hard and cruel. Their march
   begins with Pharaoh to oppose them, but, with a high hand and an
   outstretched arm, God brings them up out of the bondage of Nature, and
   out of the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the
   children of God! How gloriously does He lead them through the Red Sea
   and destroy their adversaries with the precious blood of Jesus, till
   the depths have covered them, and there is not one of them left! And
   the rest of the passage of His people, from that high day at the Red
   Sea onward till they reach Glory--what is it but a march of miracles,
   an ever-moving panorama of wonders? I do but speak of the experience of
   the true Christian when I say that he is opposed from within and from
   without and that he is his own greatest enemy--and that is not saying a
   small thing when I remind you that the world, the flesh and the devil
   are all leagued against him!

   It is with push of pike that I make my way to Heaven, disputing with my
   fierce foe every inch of the road. Yet I shall win the day, for He, "by
   whom are all things," has undertaken to lead His sons to Glory--and He
   willead them there! If they had to cut their way through a whole legion
   of devils, as when men reap their path through a thick cornfield, yet
   should they, everyone of them, pass through unharmed! If there were
   seven thousand Hells between them and Heaven, yet they would reach it
   in safety because He, "for whom are all things, and by whom are all
   things," has determined to bring them there! Yet it is no easy march
   and it will be no little glory that shall redound to Him who will lead
   us all through the wilderness and bring us to the Canaan which is
   above, that is, to "Glory."

   I want you to notice, next, that this high enterprise on God's part is
   concerning the bringing of "many sons to Glory." In the second part of
   The Pilgrim's Progress, we read about Mr. Great-Heart, who had a tough
   task to lead those women and children all the way to the Celestial
   City. They caused him a deal of trouble and he is a picture of many a
   Christian minister. Some of us have not to go before a few
   faint-hearted pilgrims, but we have to lead hundreds, or even
   thousands! Every morning before breakfast, I have to kill a giant for
   somebody or other, and hard fighting it is! And as soon as ever I have
   killed him, I hear one of the dear children crying out that he is going
   to be eaten up alive by another, so that I have to keep my sword always
   drawn! It is no easy task to be, under Christ, helping to bring some of
   these sons to Glory!

   But think of the work that God has undertaken--to bring many sons to
   Glory--untold millions of them! I shall not attempt to use figures to
   represent the numbers of the saved, for I believe my Master's redeemed
   ones will be as the dew of the morning, as the drops of the spray, as
   the sands on the seashore and far excelling the starry hosts marshaled
   on the midnight plains. Many sons will be brought to Glory by the great
   Father. Sometimes, in the old days of war, there used to be a number of
   little ships wanting to cross the sea, but the privateers were on the
   watch, so the seamen were afraid to hoist the sail and get away from
   the shelter of the shore, for they would soon be caught by their
   enemies, like doves by the hawk. Well, what was done? There they lay,
   in port, until His Majesty sent down a man-of-war, perhaps two or
   three, to be a convoy. Then the little ships would all be safe--their
   crews need not any longer be afraid of the Frenchmen or the Spaniards.
   So is it with those who are under the protection of God. We, weak
   little vessels, could never, by ourselves, reach our desired haven,
   but, lo, the Lord High Admiral of the seas and the great Emperor of the
   land has come forth in the majesty of His power to conduct us to Glory!
   And we shall get there safely, even though our enemies should be beyond
   all count. It was a grand thing when those convoys brought many little
   ships into harbor, but what a fleet the Lord will bring into the Fair
   Havens of eternal happiness! We read that on one occasion, when the
   Lord Jesus was crossing the Sea of Galilee, "there were also with Him
   other little ships." And there are still with Him many other little
   ships, but He will bring them all safely into the harbor. Let the enemy
   attack them if he dares to do so, but their Protector will preserve
   them all, for it is His purpose to bring many sons to Glory.

   I have not yet said all I need to say about this high enterprise, for
   perhaps the chief wonder of it all is that He, "for whom are all
   things, and by whom are all things," has resolved to bring to Glory
   many sons. They shall, all of them, be His sons! Oh, what a marvel it
   is that they should be His sons! Who will have them for sons? I am sure
   that there is many a man who might be ashamed to take for sons those
   whom God takes--the most depraved, debased and fallen--whom men have
   passed by, as those to whom they could not even speak. The Lord, in
   Infinite Love, has taken them to be His children and He has said of
   them, "I will be a Father to them, and they shall be My sons and
   daughters." But, oh, what a work is needed in order to turn these
   rebels into children! What a wonder of Grace it is that they should
   first be regenerated and so get the nature of children! And then that
   they should be adopted and so have the status of children! And then
   that they should be sanctified and so exhibit, from day to day, those
   qualities that must be found in the children of a holy God! To make
   them sons is, indeed, an amazing work!

   God did not do as much as that for the people in the wilderness. In
   that respect, the type broke down, for the Israelites would not be
   God's sons. He acted as a father towards them, but they were rebels
   against Him and, therefore, the carcasses of that first generation fell
   in the wilderness. What a mercy it is that God does not now write the
   Law on tablets of stone, but on the fleshy tablets of our hearts! And
   the Law of God being written there, He gives us the Grace to obey it
   and, especially, He gives us Grace to believe in Jesus and to receive
   Him! John wrote, "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to
   become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." And it
   is still true of all who receive Him and believe on His name! Oh, what
   a mercy it is that guilty sinners may so receive the adoption of
   children! What a blessed thing it is that God will not only bring us to
   Glory, but that we shall be sons when He gets us there! He will bring
   us to Glory as sons--we shall be His sons while on the road and we
   shall be acknowledged as His sons in the presence of the entire
   universe in that day when the righteous shall "shine forth as the sun
   in the Kingdom of their Father," for that is the glorious Kingdom to
   which He is going to bring us!

   Blessed be His name that He should ever make us sons and resolve to
   bring us to Glory! Ah, well, He has set His heart upon doing it and He
   can do it--therefore let us again bless and praise His holy name!

   II. Now I turn to my second point, which is concerning THE ORDAINED
   CAPTAIN. God intends to bring "many sons to Glory," but He means to do
   it by the hand of a chosen Captain, greater than Joshua, who will fight
   for His people and conduct them safely into the Canaan of "Glory."

   The word here translated, "Captain," is, in another place, rendered,
   "Author," and, in yet another passage, "Prince." In fact, it is twice
   translated, "Prince." But I feel perfectly satisfied to take the term
   as our Authorized Version gives it and to say that the Lord our God
   leads His people to Glory by a Captain. He might have done it, if so it
   had pleased Him, by His own power and might, apart from a Mediator, but
   He has not done so. He has ordained everything by the hand of a
   Mediator and it is an essential part of His arrangement of the whole
   system of Grace that the Father should work by the Son to bring the
   many sons to Glory, that the Son should bring them there by being the
   Captain in their midst, representing Him among men, being clothed with
   His power, effecting His Divine purpose for them. God will bring no
   sons to Glory except through this Captain! None may ever hope to enter
   Glory except by Christ Jesus! He Himself has said, "I am the way." And
   He is the only way. Therefore, woe be to those who refuse to come to
   God by Him! God will bring all His sons to Glory, but it must be by the
   Captain whom He has ordained. Let us think for a little while what a
   captain is and what a captain has to do, for that will help us to
   understand the office and work of the Captain of our salvation.

   First, then, the Lord Jesus Christ has come to conduct us to Glory by
   making all arrangements for the march. There is a great deal of
   responsibility connected with the leader of an army, not only in
   deciding as to where his troops shall encamp for the night, but where
   they shall march on the morrow, and in what direction they will be
   likely to be needed many days ahead. The commissariat of an army
   requires great thoughtfulness and care on the part of the leader and
   our Captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, has made all necessary arrangements
   for His people between here and Heaven! I am quite sure that we shall
   never come to a halting place between here and Glory, of which we shall
   be able to say that no provision has been made for us there.
   Providence, or seeing beforehand, is always at work on behalf of the
   Lord's people. God is always looking ahead and Christ makes every
   arrangement for the salvation of all His people, even down to the
   minutest details. He is a most blessed Captain.

   A captain's work, after he has arranged for the march, is, next, to
   give thee word of command. "Go," he says, or, "Stay." "Do this," or,
   "Be still." The soldier's one business is to obey his orders. He has
   not any right to choose what he will do. His marching orders are to be
   his law. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ will lead many sons to the Glory of
   His Father by giving those gracious commands which always bring a
   blessing with them whenever they are obeyed.

   Captains, however, do more than command, for, if they are wise, they
   lead the way. I have heard that a Turkish officer says to his men, "Go
   along," and stays behind and watches the soldiers. But when a British
   officer cries, "Come on!" he leads the way! That is what our Lord has
   done. In the sternest fight, He is always conspicuous, and there is no
   weary march that He bids us tramp in which He does not foot it at our
   side. You shall never climb so high that you will not find the
   footprint of the Crucified there, nor shall you be called to descend
   even into the depths of the sea but you shall find that He has been
   there, too, for He leads us always as the Captain of our salvation!

   It is a captain's business, also, to encourage his men. How often the
   presence of a true leader has effected more for the army than all their
   own strength could do! When Basing could not be taken by the
   Parliamentary troops in Cromwell's day, "Old Noll" went down and he
   took Basing, directly, as he did every other place that he determined
   to capture! And infinitely more glorious is the Captain of our
   salvation, whose Presence secures victory to the most discouraged band
   if they do but see Him, and say, "It is He!" The next word is, "Be not
   afraid," for where He comes, devils fly. The earth shakes at the
   Presence of the Christ of God! It is the captain's business to
   encourage his men, and that our great Captain does continually!

   Sometimes it is the captain's delight to reward his followers. A wise
   leader gives words of praise when they are deserved and, on special
   occasions, he distributes more substantial things. As for our blessed
   Lord, His gracious commendation, "Well done, good and faithful
   servant," would more than repay us for the toils of a lifetime--even if
   our lifetime were longer than Methuselah's! Let us, then, be faithful
   and true as we have such a Captain as our Lord Jesus Christ who can do
   for us all that captains should do for their soldiers, and a great deal
   more.

   Now, seeing that it is the will of the Lord to lead us to Glory by the
   Captain of our salvation, I want you to be worthy of your Leader. Do
   you not think that, sometimes, we act as if we had no Captain? We fancy
   that we have to fight our way to Heaven by the might of our own right
   hand and by our own skill, but it is not so. If you start before your
   Captain gives you the order to march, you will have to come back. And
   if you try to fight without your Captain, you will rue the day. "Oh,"
   says one, "but I have been thinking today what I shall do if
   such-and-such happens." My dear Brother, it would be a great deal
   better for you to remember that "the Lord lives," and to leave the
   thinking and arranging in His hands. There are a great many ifs in the
   world that are like a swarm of wasps--if you let those ifs out, they
   will sting you from head to foot! But there is one glorious if that
   will kill them all! It is this--if the Lord Jesus Christ could fail--if
   He could desert us, then all would be lost! That kills all the other
   ifs, because it is an impossible if. He cannot fail us or leave us! He
   must live, He must conquer and while that is the case, the other ifs do
   not mean anything to us. Therefore, cast yourselves on your Captain's
   care. March onward though you cannot see your way! Fly at the enemy
   though they seem to outnumber you by ten to one, for greater is He that
   is for you than all that can be against you! Be not afraid of anything,
   for your Captain is equal to all emergencies.

   When the Lord our God chose Him as our Leader and Commander, He laid
   help upon One that was mighty. He did not take some poor weak mortal to
   be the captain of such a company as we are! He did not even select an
   angel for this great task. He exalted One chosen out of the people who
   was most suitable for the position--and God's wisdom would be
   dishonored if Christ were found incapable of bringing the many sons to
   Glory! But He is blessedly capable of all that is required of Him--and
   the ancient prophecies concerning Him shall be completely fulfilled!
   "He shall not fail nor be discouraged." "and the pleasure of the Lord
   shall prosper in His hands."

   III. Thus far, then, we have seen that the Great Father will bring His
   many sons to Glory by a Captain. But the meat of the text lies in the
   part we have now to consider, and that is, THE BECOMING WORK OF THE
   FATHER UPON OUR CAPTAIN. "It became Him, in bringing many sons to
   Glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through
   sufferings."

   God always acts becomingly and, therefore, it was right that Christ
   should suffer. I have sometimes heard discussions as to whether the
   Lord might not have saved sinners without a Mediator, or, if through a
   Mediator, whether we might not have been saved by some other method
   without the death of Christ. I do not think it is right for us to form
   any kind of judgment upon that matter, but to say, as our risen Lord
   said to His disciples, "It behooved Christ to suffer." It was becoming
   that Christ should die. "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him." It was a
   seemly and proper thing, in the sight of Him, "for whom are all things,
   and by whom are all things," that we should be saved by a Mediator, and
   that the chosen Mediator should not have us apart from His own terrible
   sufferings.

   It was becoming that our Captain should be made perfect, complete,
   fully equipped for saving us by suffering. The agony could not be left
   out. The cup must not pass from Him without His drinking its awful
   contents. It was becoming that Christ should be poor--so He had not
   where to lay His head. It was becoming that He should be hungry--so He
   fasted for 40 days. It was becoming that He should sweat great drops of
   blood. It was a becoming thing in the sight of God that there should be
   suffering on the part of His chosen Captain. It was becoming that He
   should be spit upon-- that He should be mocked--that He should be
   scourged--that He should be nailed to a tree--that He should be parched
   with fever and, in awful depression of spirit, should cry, "My God, My
   God, why have You forsaken Me?" It was becoming that all this should
   happen and, therefore, it did happen. Let that be a sufficient answer
   to us whenever we are asked any questions about Christ's suffering--it
   was becoming in God's sight.

   And let those who deny the Atonement, and those precious critics who
   sneer at every hymn that tells of the agonies of Christ, understand
   that it was becoming that He should endure all this and that we are not
   ashamed to sing of what God counts becoming. I, for one, mean still to
   sing--

   "His dying crimson, like a robe, Spreads o'er His body on the tree."

   I mean, still, to sing--

   "Well might the sun in darkness hide, And shut its glories in, When
   God, the mighty Maker, died For man, the creature's sin."

   Even though it seems to some as if we knew Christ after the flesh, I
   would rather know Him so than not at all. And some seem to wish not to
   know Him at all. They want, especially, to get rid of the blood--"the
   offense of the Cross" has not yet ceased--it is still a cause of
   stumbling to a great many! But, oh, I pray you who are offended at the
   Cross, not to think that you will ever get to Heaven, for God and you
   would not agree, there, for He counts the Cross becoming, and you count
   it foolishness--so there is a radical difference of opinion between you
   two and one Heaven would not hold you! You must get agreed with God
   about that matter, or else, depend upon it, you will never enter the
   pearly gates! You must honor the Son even as you honor the Father, and
   honor the Son in His blood and wounds and in all His agony and death,
   or else you shall not come where the Father takes pleasure in the
   Well-Beloved.

   Further, the text seems to say that it was becoming that Christ should
   be made perfect through suffering. There are many points in which
   Christ could not save us without suffering. He could not be a perfect
   Substitute unless He bore our sin and shame. He could not be a perfect
   Sympathizer unless He bore our suffering. This, perhaps, is the main
   point in which Christ is perfected. He becomes capable of entering into
   all the griefs that disturb the many sons whom He is to lead to Glory.
   In our Elder Brother, the heir of all things, there is an epitome of
   all the sorrows of all the rest of the family. In Christ there is every
   pang that rends the heart, every grief that forces tears from the
   eyes--except such griefs as are sinful and could not enter into His
   holy bosom--but everything that is inevitable to flesh and blood, to
   hearts that break, spirits that are depressed and everything of that
   kind, Jesus knows.

   Sometimes I have been where none of you have ever been, but I have
   never been where I could not find Christ. And some of you, my dear
   Brothers and Sisters, have been in heartbreaking trouble that I never
   knew. But the Master has been there, if the Pastor has not, and if the
   dearest Christian friend has not--and so He has become perfect through
   suffering. "I know their sorrows," He says, "I know their sorrows, not
   by having read or heard about them, but by having suffered them." Of
   all the bitter medicine in the great apothecary's store, Christ has had
   a draught. He knows all about them and this makes Him "perfect through
   sufferings."

   Finally, it was becoming on the part of God, "for whom are all things,
   and by whom are all things," that He should perfect His Son as our
   Captain through sufferings. But the original Greek gives us a fuller
   meaning than this--that God should glorify His Son. It is becoming on
   God's part that He should give to Christ everything that can make Him
   glorious and honorable. Seeing that He bowed His head to suffer and to
   die, it was right that God should raise Him from the dead, that He
   should set Him at His own right hand, that He should crown Him with
   many crowns, that He should grant Him to "have dominion from sea to
   sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth." It is becoming that
   Christ should have all honor and Glory paid to Him, that men should
   honor the Son even as they honor the Father. In prayer, when I need an
   argument that I know will prevail with God, I say to Him, "Father,
   glorify Your Son! You love Him, look at Him, is He not lovely in Your
   eyes as the suffering, obedient Son of Your love? Do You not admire Him
   beyond all conception? Therefore, hear my supplication and grant my
   petition for His sake."

   I like, sometimes, to leave off praying and singing, and to sit still,
   and just gaze upward till my inmost soul has seen my Lord. Then I say,
   "He is inexpressibly lovely. Yes, He is altogether lovely!" If He is
   that to my poor eyes, which are so dull and dim that they cannot half
   discern His beauties, what must He be in the eyes of God? In the eyes
   of God He is so precious that, as my text says, "It became Him, for
   whom are all things, and by whom are all things"--it was becoming even
   in Him, "in bringing many sons to Glory, to make the Captain of their
   salvation perfect through sufferings"-- glorified beyond all imaginable
   glory and to have universal homage paid to Him throughout the universe
   forever and ever! God sees it to be becoming and, therefore, we delight
   in it. Amen and amen!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 2:1-15.

   Verse 1. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things
   which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. We have
   heard them. Do not let us forget them! Let them not be like the
   driftwood which goes floating down the stream. Let us make a desperate
   effort to retain them in our memories and, above all, to ponder them in
   our hearts.

   2. 3. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every
   transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward;
   how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? They could not
   trifle with the angels' message without receiving just punishment from
   God. Much less, then, can we trifle with Christ's Gospel! We have not
   an angelic savior, but God Himself, in the Person of His Son, has
   deigned to be the Mediator of the New Covenant. Therefore, let us see
   to it that we do not trifle with these things. You see, dear Friends,
   that we need not be great open sinners in order to perish--it is merely
   a matter of neglect. See how it is put here. "How shall we escape, if
   we neglectso great a salvation?" You need not go to the trouble of
   despising it, or resisting it, or opposing it. You can be lost readily
   enough simply by neglecting it. In fact, the great mass of those who
   perish are those who neglect the great salvation!

   3. Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed
   unto me by them that heard Him. The Apostles and the other followers of
   our Lord constantly bore witness to His miracles and His Resurrection.

   4. God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with
   divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own
   will. Those who doubt the Truth of the Gospel, or who say they do, are
   often found believing historical statements that are not half as well
   proved. A man sits down and reads a book of the Gallic wars and he
   believes that Julius Caesar wrote it--yet there is not a half or a
   tenthas much evidence to prove that he did write it as there is to
   prove that our Lord Jesus lived, died and rose again from the dead! The
   witness to the truth of these great matters of fact has been borne by
   God, Himself, with signs, wonders and miracles. Honest and true men,
   Apostles and others, have witnessed them--and they have also been
   certified by Incarnate Deity, even by the Lord who deigns to speak to
   us by His Spirit. We cannot, therefore, trifle with this Gospel without
   incurring most serious guilt!

   5. For to the angels He has not put in subjection the world to come, of
   which we speak. We are the preachers of it-- not the angels! And the
   great Author and Finisher of our faith is the Man, Christ Jesus--not an
   angel. We have not, now, the ministry of angels, but the ministry of
   men, by whom the Lord of the angels sends His messages to their
   fellows.

   6-8. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that
   You are mindful of him? Or the son of man, that You visit him? You made
   him a little lower than the angles; You crowned him with glory and
   honor, and did set Him over the works of Your hands: You have put all
   things in subjection under his feet This was the original status of
   man. God made him to be His vicegerent on earth and he would still hold
   that position were it not that since he has rebelled against his own
   Sovereign, even the beasts of the field take liberty to be rebellious
   against him. Man is not now in his original estate and, therefore, he
   no longer rules. And we see many men who are very far from being royal
   beings, for they are mean and groveling. Yet the glory of man is not
   all lost, as we shall see.

   8, 9. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing
   that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under
   him. But we see Jesus. Here is the representative Man who is supreme
   over all. "We see Jesus."

   9, Who was made a little lower than the angels for suffering of death,
   crowned with glory and honor; that He, by the Grace of God, should
   taste death for every man. Oh, how glorious it is to realize our
   position in Christ and to see how He has lifted us up, not merely to
   the place from which the first Adam fell, but He has made us stand so
   securely there that we shall not again descend around the ruins of the
   Fall! Glory be to His holy name!

   10, 11. For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all
   things, in bringing many sons to Glory, to make the Captain of their
   salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He that sanctifies and
   they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not
   ashamed to call them brethren. The Christ and the Christian are
   one--the Man, Christ Jesus, and the men whom He redefined are one! He
   has so become partaker of our nature that now we are one family and He
   is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. Am I addressing any who
   are ashamed of Christ, or who are ashamed of God's poor people, and who
   would not like to be known to be members of a poor Church? Ah, how you
   ought to be ashamed of yourselvesfor having any such pride in your
   hearts, for Christ is not ashamed to call His people brethren! Oh, what
   wondrous condescension! He has done this many times in the Psalms where
   He speaks of His brethren.

   12. Saying, I will declare Your name to My brethren, in the midst of
   the church will I sing praise to You. That is a quotation from the 22nd
   Psalm.

   13. And again, I will put My trust in Him. Thus entering into the very
   faith of His people!

   13, 14. And again, Behold I and the children which God has given Me.
   Inasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood. As
   you know to your cost, for perhaps you have aches and pains about you
   at this very moment. Verily, you are "partakers of flesh and blood."
   Perhaps you are suffering from despondency and depression of spirit. If
   so, that reminds you that however much you may, in spirit, sometimes
   soar to Heaven, yet you are still "partakers of flesh and blood."

   14, 15. He also, Himself, likewise took part of the same; that through
   death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the
   devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
   lifetime subject to bondage. He so took upon Himself flesh and blood as
   to die in our nature, that thus He might slay death, and might set us
   free from all fear of death. Do you not see that if the representative
   Man, Christ Jesus, died, He also rose again, and also that so will all
   who are in Him rise, too? If you are in Him, You shall rise again!
   Therefore, fear not to lie down in your last sleep, for the trumpet
   shall awaken you and your bodies shall be molded afresh like to His
   glorious body and your soul and body together shall dwell in infinite
   bliss forever! "Therefore comfort one another with these words."
     __________________________________________________________________

Christ's Prayer for Peter

   (No. 2620)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 30, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY 22, 1882.

   "But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not." Luke 22:32.

   SATAN has a deadly hatred towards all good men and they may rest
   assured that somewhere or other, he will meet them on their way to the
   Celestial City. John Bunyan, in his immortal allegory, placed him in
   one particular spot and described him as Apollyon straddling the road
   and swearing by his infernal den that the pilgrim should go no further,
   but that then and there he would spill poor Christian's soul. But the
   encounter with Apollyon does not happen in the same place to all
   pilgrims. I have known some of them assailed by him most fiercely at
   the outset of their march to Zion. Their first days as Christians have
   been truly terrible to them by reason of the Satanic attacks they have
   had to endure, but, afterwards, when the devil has left them, angels
   have ministered to them and they have had years of peace and joy. You
   remember that in the case of our Savior, no sooner was He baptized than
   He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the
   devil. In like manner, there are those whose fiercest trials from the
   adversary come at the beginning of their public ministry. Others meet
   with their greatest conflicts in middle life when, perhaps, they are
   too apt to think themselves secure against the assaults of Satan and to
   fancy that their experience and their knowledge will suffice to
   preserve them against his wiles. I know some, like Martin Luther, in
   whose voyage of life, the middle passage has been full of storm and
   tempest, and they have scarcely known what it was to have a moment's
   rest during all that period. Then there have been others, the first
   part of whose career has been singularly calm. Their life has been like
   a sea of glass--scarcely a ripple has been upon the waters--and yet,
   towards the end, the enemy has made up for it, and he has attacked them
   most ferociously right up to the last! I have known many instances of
   eminent saints who have had to die, sword in hand, and enter Heaven--I
   was about to say, with the marks of their stern conflict fresh upon
   them. At any rate, they have been crowned on the battlefield and have
   fallen asleep at the close of a tremendous fight.

   With the most of us who are really going to Heaven--I will not say that
   it is a rule without any exception--but with the most of us, at some
   time or another, we shall know the extreme value of this prayer, "Lead
   us not into temptation of any kind, but deliver us from the Evil One,
   who, beyond all others, is especially to be dreaded." There is little
   to be got out of him, even if we conquer him. He usually leaves some
   mark of his prowess upon us which we may carry to our graves. It were
   better to leap over hedge and ditch and to go a thousand miles further
   on our pilgrim road than ever to have a conflict with him, except for
   those great purposes of which I shall presently speak for a moment. The
   fight with Apollyon is a terrible ordeal--an ordeal, however, which a
   brave Christian will never think of shirking! No, he rather will
   rejoice that he has an enemy worthy of his steel, that true Damascus
   blade with which he is armed. And, in the name of God, he will
   determine, though he wrestles not with flesh and blood, that he will
   contend against principalities and powers and with the very leader of
   them all--that there may be all the more Glory to the great King who
   makes the weakest of His followers to be so strong that they put the
   old dragon, himself, to flight!

   So, dear Friends, rest assured that Satan hates every good man and
   woman, and that, some time or other, he is pretty sure to show that
   hatred in a very cruel and deadly attack upon them.

   Further, because of his hatred, Satan earnestly desires to put
   Believers into his sieve that he may sift them as wheat-- not that he
   wants to get the shaft away from them--but simply that he may agitate
   them. You see the corn in the sieve, how it goes up and down, to and
   fro. There is not a single grain of it that is allowed to have a
   moment's rest--it is all in commotion and confusion--and the man who is
   sifting it takes care to sift first one way and next, another way, and
   then all sorts of ways. Now, that is just what Satan does with those
   whom he hates, when he gets the opportunity. He sifts them in all
   manner of ways and puts their whole being into agitation and turmoil.
   When he gets a hold of us, it is a shaking and sifting, indeed! He
   takes care that anything like rest or breathing space shall be denied
   us.

   Satan desires thus to sift the saints in his sieve and, at times, God
   grants his desire. If you look at the Revised Version, in the margin
   you learn the true idea of Satan having asked, or rather obtained by
   asking, the power to sift Peter as wheat. God sometimes gives Satan the
   permission to sift as wheat those who are undoubtedly His people--and
   then Satan tosses them to and fro, indeed. That record in the Book of
   Job, of Satan appearing before God, is repeated in this story of Peter,
   for the devil had obtained from God liberty to try and test poor
   boasting Peter. If Christ had not obtained of God, in answer to His
   intercession, the promise of the preservation of Peter, then had it
   gone ill, indeed, with the self-confident Apostle! God grants to Satan
   permission to try His people in this way because He knows how He will
   overrule it to His own Glory and their good. There are certain Graces
   which are never produced in Christians, to a high degree, except by
   severe temptation. "I noticed," said one, "in what a chastened spirit a
   certain minister preached when he had been the subject of most painful
   temptation." There is a peculiar tenderness without which one is not
   qualified to shepherd Christ's sheep, or to feed His lambs--a
   tenderness without which one cannot strengthen his brethren, as Peter
   was afterwards to do, a tenderness which does not usually come--at any
   rate, to such a man as Peter, except by his being put into the sieve
   and tossed up and down by Satanic temptation!

   Let that stand as the preface of my sermon, for I shall not have so
   much to say upon that as upon another point.

   First, observe, in our text, the grand point of Satan's attack. We can
   see that from the place where Jesus puts the strongest line of
   defense--"I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not." The point
   of Satan's chief attack on a Believer, then, is his faith Observe,
   secondly, the peculiar danger of faith--"That your faith fail not."
   That is the danger--not merely lest it should be slackened and
   weakened, but lest it should fail And then observe, thirdly, the
   Believer's grand defense--"I have prayed for you, that your faith fail
   not."

   I. Notice carefully, in the first place, THE GRAND POINT OF SATAN'S
   ATTACK.

   When he assails a child of God, his main assault is upon his faith, and
   I suppose that the reason is, first, because faith is the vital point
   in the Christian. We are engrafted into Christ by faith and faith is
   the point of contact between the believing soul and the living Christ.
   If, therefore, Satan could manage to cut through the graft there, then
   he would defeat the Savior's work most completely. Faith is the very
   heart of true godliness, for, "the just shall live by faith." Take
   faith away and you have torn the heart out of the gracious man. Hence,
   Satan, as far as he can, aims his fiery darts at a Believer's faith. If
   he can only destroy faith, then he has destroyed the very life of the
   Christian! "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Therefore,
   if the devil could but get our faith away from us, we should cease to
   be pleasing to God and should cease to be "accepted in the Beloved."
   Therefore, Brothers and Sisters, look well to your faith! It is the
   very head and heart of your being as before God. The Lord grant that it
   may never fail you!

   I suppose that Satan also attacks faith because it is the chief of all
   our Divine Graces. Love, under some aspects, is the choicest, but to
   lead the van in conflict, faith must come first. And there are some
   things which are ascribed solely and entirely to faith that are never
   ascribed to love. If any man were to speak of our being justified by
   love, it would grate upon the ears of the godly! If any were to talk of
   our being justified by repentance, those of us who know our Bible would
   be up in arms against such a perversion of the Truth of God! But they
   may speak as long as they like of our "being justified by faith," for
   that is a quotation from the Scriptures. In the matter of
   justification, faith stands alone. It lays hold on Christ's Sacrifice
   and His righteousness and, thereby, the soul is justified. Faith, if I
   may say so, is the leader of the Graces in the day of battle and hence
   Satan says to his demoniacal archers, "Fight neither with small nor
   great, save only with the King of Israel--shoot at faith, kill it if
   possible." If faith is slain, where is love, where is hope, where is
   repentance, where is patience? If, faith is conquered, then it is as
   when a standard-bearer faints. The victory is virtually won by the
   arch-enemy if he is able to conquer faith, for faith is the noble
   chieftain among the Graces of a saint!

   I suppose, again, that Satan makes a dead set upon the faith of the
   Christian became it is the nourishing Grace. All the other Graces
   within us derive strength from our faith. If faith is at a low ebb,
   love is sure to burn very feebly. If faith should begin to fail, then
   would hope grow dim. Where is courage? It is a poor puny thing when
   faith is weak. Take any

   Grace you please, and you shall see that its nourishing depends upon
   the healthy condition of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ! To take faith
   away, therefore, would be to take the fountain away from the stream--it
   would be to withdraw the sun from its rays if light. If you destroy the
   source, of course that which comes out of it ceases. Therefore,
   Beloved, take the utmost possible care of your faith, for I may truly
   say of it that out of it are the issues of life to all your Graces.
   Faith is that virtuous woman who clothes the whole household in scarlet
   and feeds them all with luscious and strengthening food. But if faith
   is gone, the household soon becomes naked, poor, blind and miserable.
   Everything in a Christian fails when faith ceases to nourish it!

   Next to this, Satan attacks faith because it is the great preserving
   Grace. The Apostle says, "Above all"--that is, "over all," "covering
   all"--"taking the shield of faith with which you shall be able to
   quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." Sometimes, the Eastern
   soldiers had shields so large that they were like doors, and they
   covered the man from head to foot. Others of them, who used smaller
   shields, nevertheless handled them so deftly and moved them so rapidly
   that it was tantamount to the shield covering the entire person. An
   arrow is aimed at the forehead, up goes the shield and the sharp point
   rings on the metal! A javelin is hurled at the heart, but the shield
   turns it aside. The fierce foe aims a poisonous dart at the leg, but
   the shield intercepts it. Virtually, the shield is all-surrounding--and
   so it is with your faith. As one has well said, "It is armor upon
   armor, for the helmet protects the head, but the shield protects both
   helmet and head. The breastplate guards the breast, but the bucker or
   shield defends the breastplate as well as the breast." Faith is a
   Divine Grace to protect the other Graces--there is nothing like it and,
   therefore, I do not wonder that Satan attacks faith when he sees its
   prominent position and its important influence in the entire town of
   Mansoul.

   I cannot help saying, also, that I wonder not that Satan attacks faith
   because it is the effective or efficient Grace. You know what a
   wonderful chapter that 11th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews
   is--it is a triumphal arch erected in honor of what? Of faith!
   According to that Chapter, faith did everything--it quenched the fire,
   stopped the mouths of lions, turned to flight the armies of the aliens,
   received the dead who were raised and so on. Faith is the soul's right
   hand. Faith works by love, but, still, it is faith that works, and you
   can do nothing acceptably before God unless you do it by that right
   hand of faith. Hence, Satan cannot stand faith--he hates that most of
   all. Pharaoh tried to have all the male children thrown into the river
   because they were the fighting force of Israel. He did not mind having
   the women to grow up to bear burdens--it was the men whom he feared.
   And, in like manner, the devil says, "I must stamp out faith, for that
   is the secret of strength." He will not trouble himself so much about
   your other Graces--he will probably attack them when he can, but, first
   of all he says--"Down with faith! That is the man-child that must be
   destroyed!" And he aims his sharpest and deadliest darts at it.

   I believe, also, that faith is attacked by Satan, most of all, because
   it is most obnoxious to him. He cannot endure faith. How do I know
   that? Why, because God loves it! And if God loves faith and if Christ
   crowns faith, I am sure that Satan hates it. What are we told
   concerning the work of Jesus being hindered by unbelief? "He could not
   do many mighty works there because of their unbelief." Now, I will turn
   that text around and say of Satan, that he cannot do many mighty works
   against some men because of their faith! Oh, how he sneaks off when he
   discovers a right royal faith in a man! He knows when he has met his
   master and he says, "Why should I waste my arrows upon a shield carried
   by such a man as that? He believes in God, he believes in Christ, he
   believes in the Holy Spirit--he is more than a match for me." To those
   that are under his leadership, he cries, "To your tents!" He bids them
   flee away and escape, for he knows that there can be no victory for
   them when they come into collision with true God-given faith! He cannot
   bear to look at it. It blinds him--the lustrous splendor of that great
   shield of faith which shines as though a man did hang the sun upon his
   arm and bear it before him into the fray--blinds even the mighty Prince
   of Darkness! Satan does but glance at it and straightway he takes to
   flight, for he cannot stand it. He knows it is the thing which most of
   all helps to overthrow his kingdom and destroy his power! Therefore,
   Believer, cling to your faith! Be like the young Spartan warrior who
   would either bring his shield home with him or be brought home dead
   upon his shield. "Cast not away your confidence, which has great
   recompense of reward." Whatever else you have not, "have faith in God."
   Believe in the Christ of God. Rest your soul's entire confidence upon
   the faithful promise and the faithful Promiser and, if you do so,
   Satan's attacks upon you will all be in vain!

   That is my first point--observe the grand point of Satanic attack.

   II. Now, secondly, observe THE PECULIAR DANGER OF FAITH. "That your
   faith fail not."

   Did Peter's faith fail? Yes, and no. It failed in a measure, but it did
   not altogether fail. It failed in a measure, for he was human, but it
   did not altogether fail, for, at the back of it, there was the
   superhuman power which comes through the pleading of Christ. Poor
   Peter! He denied his Master, yet his faith did not utterly fail and, I
   will show you why it did not. If you and I, Beloved, are ever permitted
   to dishonor God and to deny our Lord, as Peter did, yet may God in
   mercy keep us from the utter and entire failure of our faith as He kept
   Peter!

   Notice, first, there was still some faith in Peter, even when he had
   denied his Master, for when the Lord turned and looked at him, he went
   out and wept bitterly If there had still not been the true faith in
   Peter, the Master might have looked upon him long before a tear would
   have coursed down his cheeks. The Lord not only looked on Judas, but He
   gave him a sop with Him out of the dish. And He even let the traitor
   put his lips on Him and kiss Him. But all that had no weight with
   Judas. The reason why Christ's look had such an effect on Peter was
   because there was still some faith in Peter. You may blow as long as
   you like at the cold coals, but you will get no fire. But I have,
   sometimes, seen a servant kneel down when there has been just a little
   flame left in the coal in a corner of the grate, and she has blown it
   tenderly and gently so as to revive it. "It is not quite out," she says
   and, at last, there has been a good fire once again! May God grant that
   we may never come to that sad condition, but, if we do, may He, of His
   Grace, grant that there may still be that blessed little faith left,
   that weak and feeble faith which, through the breathing upon it of the
   Spirit of God, shall yet be fanned into a flame!

   We are sure that there was this faith still in Peter or else what would
   he have done? What did Judas do? Judas did two things. First, he went
   to a priest, or to priests, and confessed to them. And then he went out
   and hanged himself-- the two things were strangely connected. Peter did
   neither, yet, if he had not had faith, he might have done both. To
   publicly deny his Master three times and to support his denial with
   oaths and curses, even when that Master was close by and in His
   greatest need, must have put Peter into most imminent peril. And if
   there had not been, within his heart, faith that his Master could yet
   pardon and restore him, he might, in his despair, have done precisely
   what the traitor Judas did. Or, if he had not gone to that extremity of
   guilt, he would have hidden himself away from the rest of the Apostles.
   But, instead of doing so, we soon find him, again, with John--I do not
   wonder that he was with John. They were old companions, but, in
   addition to that, the Beloved John had so often leaned his head on the
   Master's bosom that he had caught the sweet infection of his Savior's
   tenderness and, therefore, he was just the one with whom Peter would
   wish to associate.

   I think that if I had ever denied my Lord as Peter did, in that public
   way, I would have run away and hidden myself from all my former
   companions. But Peter did not, you see. He seemed to say to himself,
   "The Master, with His dear tender heart, can still forgive me and
   receive me." So he clings to the disciples and especially to John. Yes,
   and notice that on the day of our Lord's Resurrection, Peter was the
   first disciple to enter the sepulcher, for, though "the other disciple
   did outrun Peter" and reach the grave first, "yet he went not in" until
   Peter led the way. "The Lord is risen, indeed, and has appeared to
   Simon," is a remarkable passage. Paul, writing concerning Christ's
   Resurrection, says that, "He was seen of Cephas," that is, Peter. There
   was some special manifestation of our blessed Master to Simon Peter who
   was waiting for it, and privileged to witness it--and this showed that
   his faith was kept from failing through the Savior's prayers.

   Now, Beloved, I say no more about Peter, but I speak to you about your
   own faith. Are you greatly troubled? Then I pray that your faith may
   not fail. It is shaken. It is severely tried, but God grant that it may
   not fail! Something whispers within your heart, "Give up all religion,
   it is not true." To that lie, answer, "Get you behind me, Satan, for
   the religion of Jesus Christ is eternally, assuredly, Infallibly true."
   Cling to it, for it is your life! Or, perhaps, the fiend whispers, "It
   is true enough to others, but it is not meant for you, you are not one
   of the Lord's people." Well, if you cannot come to Christ as a saint,
   come to Him as a sinner! If you dare not come as a child to sit at His
   Table, come as a dog to eat the crumbs that fall under it! Only come
   and never give up your faith!

   If the arch-fiend whispers, again, "You have been a deceiver! Your
   profession is all a mistake, or a lie!" Say to him, "Well, if it is so,
   there is still forgiveness in Christ for all who come unto God by Him."
   Perhaps you are coming to the Savior for the first time--you mean to
   cast yourself upon the blood and merit of Jesus even if you have never
   done so before. I pray for you, dear coming one! O gracious Savior, do
   not let Satan crush out the faith of even the weakest of Your people!
   Blessed Intercessor, plead for that poor trembler in whom faith is
   almost dying out! Great High Priest, intercede for him, that his faith
   may not utterly fail him and that he may still cling to You!

   What is to become of us if we have not faith in Jesus? I know that
   there are some who seem to get on well without it. So may the dogs. So
   may the wild beasts. They get on well enough without the children's
   garments or the children's bread--but you and I cannot. The moment I am
   unbelieving, I am unhappy. It is not a vain thing for me to believe in
   Christ--it is my life, it is my strength, it is my joy! I am a lost man
   and it were better for me that I had never been born unless I have the
   privilege of believing! Give up faith? Remember what Satan said
   concerning Job, "Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has will he give
   for his life"? And our life is wrapped up in our faith in Christ! We
   cannot give it up and we will not give it up! Come on, fiends of Hell,
   or mockers of earth--we will not give it up, we will hold it fast, for
   it is part of the very warp and woof of our being! We believe in God
   and in His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And it is our great
   concern that our faith should be well guarded and protected, for we
   know the peculiar danger to which it is exposed when it is assailed by
   Satan.

   III. Now I will close my discourse by speaking, for only a very few
   minutes, upon THE BELIEVER'S GREAT PRESERVATIVE AND DEFENSE.

   What is the great protection of our faith? Our Savior's intercession!
   Prayer is always good, it is always a blessed thing, but notice that
   great letter-word in the text, "I have prayed for you." It is the
   intercession of Christthat preserves our faith--and there are three
   things about it which make it precious beyond all price--it is
   prevalent, prevenient and pertinent. First, it is prevalent, for, if
   Jesus pleads, He must prevail. It is prevenient, for, before the
   temptation comes to Peter, He says, "I have prayed for you. Satan has
   but obtained, by his asking, the permission to tempt you, but I have
   already prayed for you."

   And, then, it was pertinent, that is, to the point. Christ had prayed
   the best prayer possible--"that your faith fail not." Peter would not
   have known that this was to be the chief point of attack by Satan. He
   might have thought that Satan would attack his love. The Lord seems to
   hint at His thought about that by saying to him, afterwards, "Simon,
   son of Jonas, do you love Me?" But the Savior knew that the hottest
   part of the battle would rage around Fort Faith and, therefore, He
   prayed that the fortress might be well garrisoned and never be captured
   by the enemy. And it was not!

   Whenever I begin to talk to you about the intercession of Christ, I
   feel inclined to sit down and let you think, and look up, and listen
   till you hear that Voice, matchless in its music, pleading, pleading,
   pleading, with the Father! It were much better for you to realize it
   than for me to describe it. It was a blessed thing to hear one's mother
   pray--by accident, as we say--to pass the door that was ajar and to
   hear Mother pleading for her boy or her girl. It is a very touching
   thing to hear your child praying for her father, or your wife breathing
   out her warm desires for her Beloved. I do not know anything more
   charming than to hear, now and then, a stray prayer that was never
   meant to be heard on earth, but only in Heaven. I like such
   eaves-droppings. Oh, but listen! It is Jesus who is praying! He shows
   His wounds and pleads the merit of His great Sacrifice and, wonder of
   wonders, He pleads for me, and for you! Happy man, happy woman, to have
   our faith preserved by such a mighty preservative as this--the
   intercession of Christ!

   I want you to especially notice that this intercession is the pleading
   of One who, in the text, seems to directly oppose Himself to the great
   adversary ' 'Satan has asked for you by asking that he may sift you as
   wheat; but I have prayed for you by asking," (so I will venture to
   paraphrase it) "that your faith fail not." There stands Satan. You
   cannot see him and you need not want to, but that grim monster who has
   made kings and princes tremble, and has plucked angels from their
   spheres of light, and hurled bright spirits down from Heaven to Hell,
   stands there to assail you! And you may well be afraid, for God,
   Himself, permits him to sift you! Ah, but there also stands the
   Ever-Blessed One, before whom an angel, fallen or unfallen, is but a
   tiny spark compared with the sun! There He stands, girt about the chest
   with the golden girdle of His faithfulness, robed in the fair white
   linen of His matchless righteousness. Upon His head is a crown of glory
   that far outshines all constellations of stars and suns! And He opposes
   His Divine pleading to the demoniacal asking of the fallen one. Are you
   still afraid? It seems to me unspeakably blessed to see it written
   here, "Satan has desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat,"
   and then to see over the top of it these words, "but I have prayed for
   you." Oh, blessed, "but"! How it seems to cast the fallen angel back
   into the bottomless Pit and to bind him with chains, and set a seal
   upon his prison--"But I have prayed for you." Tempt on, then, O Satan!
   Tempt at your worst, for there is no fear when this glorious shield of
   gold, the intercession of the Savior, covers the entire person of the
   poor attacked one! "I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not."

   And then my last word is this--it is an intercession which is
   absolutely certain of success. In fact, He who offers it anticipates
   its success and discounts it by giving this precept to His
   servant--"and when you are converted." Sure pledge, then, that he will
   beconverted, that he will be turned back, however far he wanders! When
   you are restored, "strengthen your brethren." Then, for certain, he
   will be restored, or else the Savior would not have given him a precept
   which could only be available if a certain, unlikely contingency should
   occur! O you who are a true child of God, you may be drenched, but you
   shall never be drowned! O warrior of the Cross, your shield may be
   covered with fiery darts, thick as the saplings of a young forest--but
   no dart shall ever reach your heart! You may be wounded in head and
   hand and foot. You may be a mass of scars, but your life is given you!
   To Christ are you given and you shall come out even from between the
   jaws of death--and you shall overcome Satan by Christ's power! Only
   trust Christ! Only trust Him! Cling to your faith, Beloved. Cling to
   your faith! I would like to get a hold of that young man who has lately
   been listening to skeptical teachers, and to whisper in his ear, "Cling
   to your faith, young man, for, in losing that, you will lose all."

   And to you who, alas, have fallen into sin after having made a
   profession of religion, let me say that, however far you have gone
   astray, still believe that Jesus is able to forgive you! Come back to
   Him and seek His pardon now! And you, my hoary-headed Brothers and
   Sisters, whose hair is whitening for Heaven, are you sorely beset by
   all sorts of temptations? Well, give me your hand, for I, too, know
   what this warfare means. Let us believe in God, my Brothers and
   Sisters--let us believe in God! Though He should break us down worse
   than ever. Though He should set us up as a target and let the devil
   shoot all the arrows from his quiver at us, let us still believe in God
   and come to this point to which my soul has come full often, and to
   which Job came of old, "'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.'
   Whatever He does to me-- if He shall never smile upon me again--I will
   still believe Him, I can do no other." I dare not doubt Him! I must
   confide in Him! Where is there any ground for confidence if it is not
   in the God that cannot lie, and in the Christ of the Everlasting
   Covenant whom He has set forth to be the propitiation for human sin,
   and in the Holy Spirit, whose work it is to take of the things of
   Christ and reveal them to us?

   May the blessed Trinity save and keep us all, for our Lord Jesus
   Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE22:7-34; 54-62.

   Verses 7-20. Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover
   must be killed. And He sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us
   the Passover, that we may eat And they said unto Him, Where will You
   that we prepare? And He said unto them, Behold, when you are entered
   into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water;
   follow him into the house where he enters. And you shall say unto the
   good man of the house, The Master says unto you, Where is the guest
   chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with My disciples? And he shall
   show you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. And they went
   and found as He had said unto them: and they made ready the Passover
   And when the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve Apostles with
   Him. And He said unto them. With desire I have desired to eat this
   Passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not any
   more eat thereof until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. And He
   took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among
   yourselves: for I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the
   wine, until the Kingdom of God shall come. And He took bread, and gave
   thanks, and broke it, and gave unto them, saying, This is My body which
   is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me. Likewise also the cup
   after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament--(Or, Covenant).

   20, 21. In My blood, which is shed for you. But, behold, the hand of
   him that betrays Me is with Me on the table. What a shadow this
   revelation must have cast over that solemn feast, over the Savior's
   heart and over the minds of all His attached disciples! We can scarcely
   imagine what pangs tore His loving spirit. He could have used the
   language of David with even deeper emphasis, and said, "It was not an
   enemy that reproached Me. Then I could have borne it: neither was it he
   that hated Me that did magnify himself against Me. Then I would have
   hid Myself from him. But it was you, a man My equal, My guide and My
   acquaintance." "The hand of him that betrays Me is with Me on the
   table." O Beloved, I pray that you and I may never betray our Master!
   If ever we should so fail as to deny Him, may the Lord stop us where
   Peter fell and never suffer us to betray Him as Judas did!

   22. And truly thee Son of Man goes, as it was determined: but woe unto
   that man by whom He is betrayed! The decree of God does not lessen the
   responsibility of man for his action. Even though it is predetermined
   of God, the man does it of his own free will--and on him falls the full
   guilt of it.

   23, 24. And they began to enquire among themselves, which of them it
   was that should do this thing. And there was also a strife among them,
   which of them should be accounted the greatest. Be astonished, dear
   Friends, as you read, in such a connection as this, "There was also a
   strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest."
   What? While yet the anxious question as to which of them was the
   traitor was being passed round, "Lord, is it I?" Is it so closely
   followed by another question, "Which of us shall be highest in the
   Kingdom?" Oh, the awful intrusiveness of pride and ambition! How it
   will come in and defile the very Holy of Holies! May God prevent our
   falling victims to it! The last question for a Christian to ever ask
   is, "How may I win honor among men?" The one question for a Believer
   should be, "How can I glorify my Master ?" Very often, that can best be
   done by taking the very lowest place in his Church.

   25, 26. And He said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise
   lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are
   called benefactors. But you shall not be so: but he that is greatest
   among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that
   serves. Let every respect be given to the elder and let such as God
   honors be honored among us--but let no man honor himself, or seek honor
   for himself! After all, in Christ's Kingdom, the way to ascend is to
   descend! Did not the Master act thus? He descended that He might ascend
   and fill all things! And so must His disciples! Less, and less, and
   less, and less must we become--and so we shall really be, in His
   sight--more, and more, and more, and more!

   27. For who is greater, he that sits at meat, or he that serves?Is it
   not he that sits at meat? But I am among you as He that serves. For He
   had just then taken a towel and girded Himself, and washed their
   feet--so becoming Servus ser-vorum, the Servant of Servants, though He
   was, in very truth, the King of Kings!

   28. You are they who have continued with Me in My temptations. There is
   a reward to the righteous, though they serve not for reward, for the
   Lord says--

   29. 30. AndIappoint unto you a Kingdom, as My Father has appointed unto
   Me; that you may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom, and sit on
   thrones judging the twelve tribes ofIsrael. Ah, but see what follows!
   No sooner, in this Chapter, does the thought seem to rise than it is
   dashed down again! The brightness always has a shadow cast across it,

   31, 32. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to
   have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for you,
   that your faith fail not: and when you are converted, strengthen your
   brethren. We are thinking about thrones and about which of us shall
   have the loftiest throne--but see how the Master is thinking about the
   necessary while we are doting upon the superfluous! He thinks of our
   needs while we are dreaming of something great. What a blessing it is
   that we have our Savior praying for us when we, ourselves, may be
   fancying that we need not pray! Our hands are ready for the scepter and
   we are anxious to sit down on the throne--when the Lord knows that our
   proper place is at the footstool, pleading for mercy!

   33. And he said unto Him, Lord, I am ready to go with You, both into
   prison, and to death. That is bravely spoken, Peter--and yet it is very
   foolishly said, too! He spoke out of his very heart and he meant what
   he said, but Peter did not know what a poor weak body Peter really was!
   His Master understood him far better.

   34. And He said, I tellyou, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day,
   before that you shall thrice deny that you know Me. And so it came to
   pass. Let as read a part of the sad story, beginning at the 54th verse.

   54. Then took they Him, andled Him, and brought Him into the High
   Priest's house. And Peter followedafar off. I do not think that Peter
   was to be blamed for that. I do not see how he could very well have
   followed any nearer, for he was already a marked man. That cutting off
   of the ear of Malchus had made him especially prominent among the
   Apostles, even if he had not been well known before! He got into the
   crowd and came after his Master at such a distance as seemed safe for
   him.

   55. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were
   set down together, Peter sat down among them. I do think that he was to
   be blamed for that action, for it brought him into dangerous company.
   Better be cold, than go and warm your hands in ungodly society!

   56. But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly
   looked upon him. As the flame came flashing up every now and then, she
   looked at him, and Peter was troubled by her gaze--she, "earnestly
   looked upon him."

   56-59. And said, This man was also with Him. And he denied Him, saying,
   Woman, I know Him not And after a little while another saw him, and
   said, You are also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not And about the
   space of one hour, later, another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a
   truth, this fellow also was with Him; for he is a Galilean. For he got
   to talking to this evil company and his speech had betrayed him!

   60. And Peter said, Man, I know not what you say. Another Evangelist
   tells us that he began to curse and to swear, as if that was the surest
   proof that he could possibly give that he did not know Jesus--for, when
   you hear a man swear, you know at once that he is no Christian--you may
   conclude that safely enough! So Peter thought that to prove that he was
   no follower of Christ, he would use such evil language as the ungodly
   speak.

   60, 61. And immediately, while he yet spoke, the rooster crowed. And
   the Lord turned and looked upon Peter God has all things in His hands.
   He has servants everywhere and the rooster shall crow, by the secret
   movement of His Providence, just when God wills! And there is, perhaps,
   as much of Divine ordination about the crowing of a rooster as about
   the ascending of an emperor to his throne! Things are only little and
   great according to their bearings and God reckoned not the crowing bird
   to be a small thing since it was to bring a wanderer back to his
   Savior, for, just as the rooster crowed, "the Lord turned and looked
   upon Peter." That was a different look from the one which the girl had
   given him, but that look broke his heart.

   62. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said unto
   him, Before the roster crows, you shall deny me thrice. And Peter went
   out and wept bitterly. How many there are who sin with Peter, but who
   never weep with Peter! Oh, if we have ever transgressed in such a way
   as he did, let us never cease to weep! Above all, let us begin at once
   to lament it and rest not till the Master looks again, and says by that
   look, "I have blotted out all your transgressions; return unto Me."
     __________________________________________________________________

The Sinner's Refuge

   (No. 2621)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 7, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, EARLY IN
   THE YEAR 1857.

   "Then you shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that
   the slayer may flee there, who kills any person at unawares." Numbers
   35:11.

   YOU are aware that the principle of blood-revenge is a deep-seated one
   in the Eastern mind. From the earliest ages it was always the custom
   with the Orientals, when a man was murdered, or slain without malice
   aforethought, for the nearest relative, his heir, or any person related
   to him, to take revenge for him upon the person who, either
   intentionally or unintentionally, was the means of his death. This
   revenge was a very special thing to the Oriental mind. The avenger of
   blood would hunt his victim for 40 years--yes, until he died, if he was
   not able to reach him before--and would be on his trail all his life,
   that he might slay him. It was not necessary that the manslayer should
   have any trial before a judge-- his victim was dead and if the one who
   killed him was not put to death, it was reckoned among some tribes to
   be legitimate to kill his father, or indeed any member of his
   tribe--and until someone in that tribe was put to death, as a revenge
   for the man who had been slain, by accident or otherwise, a deadly feud
   existed between the two clans which never could be quenched except by
   blood.

   Now, when the Lord gave to the Jews this Law concerning the cities of
   refuge, he took advantage of their deep-rooted love towards the system
   of the revenge of blood by the nearest relative. God acted wisely in
   this, as He has done in all things. There are two matters mentioned in
   Scripture which I do not believe God ever approved, but which, finding
   they were deep-seated, He did not forbid to the Jews. One was polygamy,
   the practice of marrying many wives had become so established that,
   though God abhorred it, yet He permitted it to the Jews because He
   foresaw that they would inevitably have broken the commandment if He
   had made an ordinance that they should have but one wife. It was the
   same with this matter of blood-revenge--it was so firmly fixed in the
   mind of the people that God, instead of refusing to the Jews what they
   regarded as the privilege of taking vengeance upon their fellows,
   enacted a Law which rendered it almost impossible that a man should be
   killed unless he were really a murderer, for He appointed six cities,
   at convenient distances, so that when one man killed another by
   accident, and so committed homicide, he might at once flee to one of
   those cities. And though he might have to remain there all his life,
   yet the avenger of blood could never touch him, if he were innocent. He
   would have a fair trial, but even if he were found innocent, he must
   stay within the city into which the avenger of blood could not, by any
   possibility, come. If he went out of the city, the avenger might kill
   him. He was, therefore, to suffer perpetual banishment, even for
   causing death accidentally, in order that it might be seen how much God
   regarded the rights of blood and how fearful a thing it is to put a man
   to death in any way. You see, dear Friends, that this prevented. the
   likelihood of anyone being killed who was not guilty of murder, for, as
   soon as one man struck another to the ground by accident, by a stone,
   or any other means, he fled to a city of refuge. He had a head start
   from the pursuer and if he arrived there first, he was secure and safe.

   I wish to use this custom of the Jews as a metaphor and type to set
   forth the salvation of men through Jesus Christ our Lord. I shall give
   you, first, an explanation and, then, an exhortation.

   I. I SHALL ATTEMPT AN EXPLANATION OF THIS TYPE. Note, first, the person
   for whom the city of refuge was provided. It was not a place of shelter
   for the willful murderer--if he fled there, after a fair trial he must
   be dragged out of it and given up to the avenger. And the avenger of
   death was to kill him and so have blood for blood, and life for life.
   But, in case of an accident, when one man had slain another without
   malice aforethought and had, therefore, only committed homicide, the
   man fleeing there was perfectly safe.

   Here, however, the type does not adequately represent the work of our
   Lord Jesus Christ. He is not a refuge provided for men who are
   innocent, but for men who are guilty--not for those who have
   accidentally transgressed, but for those who have willfully gone
   astray! Our Savior has come into the world to save not those who have,
   by mistake and error, committed sin, but those who have fearfully
   transgressed against well-known Divine Commandments and who have
   followed the sinful dictates of their own free will, their own
   perversity leading them to rebel against God.

   Note, next, the avenger of blood. In explaining this portion of the
   type, I must, of course, take every part of the figure. The avenger of
   blood, I have said, was usually the next of kin to the one who had been
   slain. But I believe any other member of the family was held to be
   competent to act as the avenger. If, for instance, my brother had been
   killed, it would have been my duty, as the first of the family, to
   avenge his blood, if possible, then and there --to go after the
   murderer, or the man who had accidentally caused his death--and to put
   him to death at once. If I could not do that, it would be my business
   and that of my father and, indeed, of every male member of the family,
   to hunt and pursue that man until God should deliver him into our hands
   so that we might put him to death. I mean not that it is nowour duty,
   but it would have been so regarded under the old Jewish dispensation.
   It was allowed, by the Mosaic Law, that those who were the relatives of
   the man killed would be the avengers of his blood.

   We find the counterpart of this type, for the sinner, in the Law of
   God. Sinner, the Law of God is the blood-avenger that is on your trail!
   You have willfully transgressed--you have, as it were, killed God's
   Commandments, you have trampled them under your feet--and so the Law of
   God is the avenger of blood. It is after you and it will have you in
   its grasp before long! Condemnation is hanging over your head and it
   shall surely overtake you! Though it may not reach you in this life,
   yet, in the world to come, the avenger of blood, the Moses, the Law of
   the Lord, shall execute vengeance upon you and you shall be utterly
   destroyed!

   But, further, there was a city of refuge provided under the Law of
   God--no, more, there were six cites of refuge, in order that one of
   them might be at a convenient distance from any part of the country.
   Now, there are not six Christs-- there is but one, but there is a
   Christ everywhere. "The Word of God is near you, even in your mouth and
   in your heart, that is, the Word of faith which we preach, that if you
   shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your
   heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For
   with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth
   confession is made unto salvation."

   The city of refuge was a priestly city--a city of the Levites, and it
   afforded protection for life to the manslayer. He might never go out of
   it till the death of the then reigning High Priest, after which he
   might go free without being touched by the avenger of blood. But,
   during the time of his sojourn there, he was housed and fed
   gratuitously-- everything was provided for him and he was kept entirely
   safe! And I would have you mark that he was safe in this city, not
   because of its walls, or bolts, or bars, but simply because it was the
   place Divinely appointed for shelter. Do you see the man running
   towards it? The avenger is after him, fast and furious! The manslayer
   has just reached the borders of the city--in a moment the avenger
   stops--he knows it is no use going any further after him, not because
   the city walls are strong, nor because the gates are barred, nor
   because an army stands outside to resist, but because God has said the
   man shall be safe as soon as he has crossed the border and has come
   into the suburbs of the city! Divine appointment was the only thing
   which made the city of refuge secure! Now, Beloved, our Lord Jesus
   Christ is the Divinely-appointed way of salvation! Whoever among us
   shall make haste from our sins and flee to Christ, being convinced of
   our guilt, and helped by God's Spirit to enter that road, shall,
   without doubt, find absolute and eternal security! The curse of the Law
   of God shall not touch us, Satan shall not harm us, vengeance shall not
   reach us, for the Divine appointment, stronger than gates of iron or
   brass, shields everyone of us "who have fled for refuge to lay hold
   upon the hope set before us" in the Gospel!

   The city of refuge, I must have you note, too, had around it, suburbs
   of a very great extent. Two thousand cubits were allowed for grazing
   land for the cattle of the priests and a thousand cubits within these
   for fields and vineyards. Now, no sooner did the man reach the suburbs
   of the city, than he was safe--it was not necessary for him to get
   within the walls, but the outskirts, themselves, were sufficient
   protection. Learn, then, that if you do but touch the hem of

   Christ's garment, you shall be made whole! If you do but lay hold of
   Him with "faith as a grain of mustard seed," with faith which is very
   feeble, but is truly a living principle, you are safe--

   "A little genuine Grace ensures

   The death of all our sins!"

   Get anywhere within the borders of the city of refuge and you are, at
   once and forever, secure from the avenger!

   We have some interesting particulars, also, with regard to the distance
   of these cities from the habitations of men in ancient Judea. It is
   said that wherever the crime of homicide might be committed by any man,
   he might get to a city of refuge within half a day and, verily,
   Beloved, it is no great distance from a guilty sinner to the sheltering
   breast of Christ! It is but a simple renunciation of our own powers and
   a laying hold of Christ, to be our All-in-All, that is required in
   order to our being found within the city of refuge! Then, with regard
   to the roads to the city, we are told that they were strictly preserved
   in good order. Every river was bridged. As far as possible, the road
   was made level and every obstruction removed so that the man who fled
   might find an easy passage to the city. Once a year the elders of the
   city went along the route to see that it was in proper repair and to
   assure, as far as they could, that nothing might occur through the
   breaking down of bridges, or the blocking of the highway, to impede the
   flight of any manslayer and cause him to be overtaken and killed.
   Wherever there were by-roads and turns, there were legible sign-posts
   with this word plainly visible upon them, "Refuge"--"Refuge"--pointing
   out the way in which the man should flee if he wished to reach the
   city. There were two people always kept on the road, so that in case
   the avenger of blood should overtake a man, they might intercept him
   and entreat him to stay his hand until the man had reached the city,
   lest innocent blood should be shed without a fair trial--and so the
   avenger himself would be proved guilty of murder. The risk, of course,
   was upon the head of the avenger if he put one to death who did not
   deserve to die.

   Now, Beloved, I think this is a picture of the road to Christ Jesus. It
   is no roundabout road of the Law--it is no obeying this, that, and the
   other command--it is a straight road. "Believe, and live." It is a road
   so hard that no self-righteous man will ever tread it, but it is a road
   so easy that every man who knows himself to be a sinner may, by it,
   find his way to Christ and his way to Heaven! And lest any should be
   mistaken, God has set me and my Brothers in the ministry to be like
   hand-posts in the way, to point poor sinners to Jesus! And we desire to
   always have on our lips the cry, "Refuge! Refge/REFUGE!" Sinner, this
   is the way! Walk you therein and you shall be saved!

   I think I have thus given the explanation of the type. Christ is the
   true City of Refuge and He preserves all those who flee to Him for
   mercy. He does that because He is the Divinely-appointed Savior, able
   to save unto the uttermost all them that come to God by Him.

   II. Now, in the second place, I HAVE TO GIVE AN EXHORTATION.

   You must allow me to picture a scene. You see that man in the field? He
   has been at work. He has taken an ox-goad in his hand, to use it in
   some part of his farm work. Unfortunately, instead of doing what he
   desires to do, he strikes a companion of his in the heart and he falls
   down dead! You see the poor fellow with horror in his face. He is a
   guiltless man, but, oh, what misery he feels when he gazes upon the
   corpse lying at his feet! A pang shoots through his heart, such as you
   and I have never felt--horror, dread, desolation! Yes, some of us have
   felt something akin to it spiritually--we will not allude to the when
   and the why--but who can describe the agony of a man who beholds his
   companion fall lifeless by his side? Words are incapable of expressing
   the anguish of his spirit! He looks upon him, he tries to lift him up--
   he makes sure that he is really dead--what does he do next? Do you not
   see him? In a moment, he flies out of the field where he was at labor
   and runs along the road with all his might! He has many weary miles
   before him--six long hours of hard running--and as he passes the gate,
   he turns his head and there is the man's brother! He has just come into
   the field and seen his brother lying dead!

   Oh, can you conceive how the manslayer's heart palpitates with fear? He
   has a little head start on the road--he sees the avenger of blood, with
   red face, hot and fiery, rushing out of the field with the ox-goad in
   his hand, and running after him! The way lies through the village where
   the dead man's father lives--how fast the poor fugitive flees through
   the streets! He does not even stop to bid good-bye to his wife, nor to
   kiss his children--but on, on, he speeds for his very life! The
   relative calls to his father and his other friends--and now they all
   rush after him. Now there is quite a troop on the road--the man is
   still ahead, there is no rest for him. Though one of his pursuers may
   pause for a while, or turn back, the others still trail him. There is a
   horse in the village. They mount it and pursue him. If they can find
   any animal that can assist their swiftness, they will take it. Can you
   not conceive of the manslayer crying, "Oh, that I had wings, that I
   might fly to the city of refuge"? See how he spurns the earth beneath
   his feet! What, to him, are the green fields on either hand? What are
   the babbling brooks? He stops not even so much as to wet his lips! The
   sun is scorching him, but still on, on, on, he runs! He casts aside one
   garment after another! He still rushes on and the pursuers are close
   behind him. He feels like the poor stag hunted by the hounds--he knows
   they are eager for his blood and that if they do but once overtake him,
   it will be a word, a blow--and he will be a dead man. Watch how he
   speeds on his way! Do you see him now? A town is rising into sight! He
   perceives the towers of the city of refuge--but his weary feet almost
   refuse to carry him further! The veins are standing out on his brow
   like whipcords! The blood spurts from his nostrils--he is straining all
   his powers to the utmost as he rushes on--he would go faster if he had
   any more strength. The pursuers are after him--they have almost caught
   him, but see, and rejoice! He has just reached the outskirts of the
   city--there is the line of demarcation--he leaps over it and falls
   senseless to the ground--but there is joy in his heart.

   The pursuers come and look at him, but they dare not slay him. The
   knife is in their hands and the stones, too, but they dare not touch
   him. He is safe, he is secure! His running has been just fast
   enough--he has managed to leap into the kingdom of life and to avoid a
   cruel and terrible death.

   Sinner, that picture I have given you is a picture of yourself, in all
   but the man's guiltlessness, for you area guilty man! Oh, if you did
   but know that the avenger of blood is after you! Oh, that God would
   give you Grace that you might have a sense of your danger tonight! You
   would then not stop a solitary instant without fleeing to Christ. You
   would say, even while sitting in your pew, "Let me get away, away,
   away, where mercy is to be found," and you would give neither sleep to
   your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids till you had found in Christ a
   refuge for your guilty spirit! I am come, then, to exhort you to flee
   to Jesus now!

   Let me pick out one of you, to be a specimen of all the rest. There is
   a young man here who is guilty. The proofs of his guilt lie close at
   hand. He knows himself to be a great transgressor--he has foully
   offended against God's Law. Young man, young man, as you are guilty,
   the avenger of blood is after you! Oh, that avenger--God's fiery
   Law--did you ever see it? It speaks words of flame! It has eyes like
   lamps of fire! If you could once see the Law of God and mark the dread
   sharpness of its terrible sword, you might, as you sat in your pew,
   quiver almost to death in horror at your impending doom! Sinner, I
   think if this avenger shall seize you, it will not be merely temporal
   death that will be your portion--it will be death eternally! Sinner,
   remember, if the Law of God lays its hands on you, and Christ does not
   deliver you, you are damned! Do you know what damnation means? Say, can
   you tell what are the billows of eternal wrath and what the worm that
   never dies are? What the Lake of Fire, what the Pit that is bottomless
   are? No, you cannot know how dreadful these things are! Surely, if you
   could, Man, you would be up on your feet and fleeing for life--eternal
   life! You would be like that man in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress who put
   his fingers in his ears and ran sway! And when his neighbors ran after
   him, he cried, "Eternal life! Eternal life!"

   O stolid stupidity! O sottish ignorance! O worse than brutal folly that
   makes men sit down in their sins and rest content! The drunk still
   drinks his bowl--he knows not that in its dregs there lies wrath. The
   swearer still indulges in his blasphemy--he knows not that, one day,
   his oath shall return upon his own head! You will go your way and eat
   the fat, and drink the sweet, and live merrily and happily, but, ah,
   poor Souls, if you knew that the avenger of blood was after you, you
   would not act so foolishly! Would you suppose that the man, after he
   had killed his neighbor, and when he saw the avenger coming, would
   coolly take his seat and wait to be slain, when there was a city of
   refuge provided? No, that consummate folly is reserved for such as you
   are! God has left that to be the top stone of the folly of the human
   race, the most glittering jewel in the crown of free will--the dress of
   death wherein free will does robe itself. Oh, you will not flee to
   Christ, you will stay where you are, you will rest contented and, one
   day, the Law of God will seize you--and then wrath, eternal wrath, will
   lay hold upon you! How foolish is the man who wastes his time and
   carelessly loiters when the city of refuge is before him, and the
   avenger of blood is after him!

   Suppose, now, I take another case. There is a young man here, who says,
   "Why, Sir, it is no use my trying to be saved. I shall not think of
   prayer or faith, or anything of that sort, because there is no city of
   refuge for me." Suppose that poor man, who had killed his neighbor, had
   talked like that? Suppose he had sat still, folded his arms and said,
   "There is no city of refuge for me." I cannot imagine such folly! And,
   surely, you do not mean what you said just now! If you thought there
   was no city of refuge for you, I know what you would do--you would
   shriek, and cry, and groan!

   There is a kind of despair that some people have which is a sham
   despair. I have met with many who say, "We do not believe we could ever
   be saved," and they seem not to care whether they are saved or not. How
   foolish would the man be who would sit still and so let the avenger
   slay him because he fancied there was no entrance for him into the
   city! But your folly is just as great and even worse, if you sit still
   and say, "The Lord will never have mercy on me." He is as much a
   suicide who refuses the medicine because he thinks it will not cure
   him, as the man who takes the knife and stabs himself in the heart! You
   have no right, Sir, to let your despair triumph over the promise of
   God! He has said it and He means it--"Whoever shall call on the name of
   the Lord shall be saved." If He has shown you your guilt, depend upon
   it, there is a city of refuge for you! Run to it! Run to it! May God
   help you to take yourselves to it now! Oh, if men only knew how
   dreadful is the wrath to come and how terrible will be the Day of
   Judgment, how swiftly would they flee away to Jesus! There is not a
   hearer of mine here who would delay an hour to flee to Christ if he did
   but know how fearful is his condition out of Christ! When God the Holy
   Spirit once convinces us of our sin, there is no stopping, then! The
   Spirit says, "Today, if you will hear His voice," and we cry, "Today,
   Lord, today, we hear Your voice!" There is no pausing, then! It is on,
   on, on, for our very life! I beseech you, my Hearers, you who have
   sinned against God, and know it--you who want to be delivered from the
   wrath to come--I beseech you, by Him that lives and was dead, flee to
   Christ!

   Take heed that it is to Christ you flee, for, if the man who had slain
   his neighbor had fled to another city, it would have been of no avail.
   Had he fled to a place that was not an ordained city of refuge, he
   might have sped on with all the impetuosity of desire and yet have been
   slain within the city gates. So, you self-righteous ones, you may flee
   to your good works, you may flee to your baptism and your
   confirmation--and your church or your chapel attendance--you may be all
   that is good and excellent, but you are fleeing to the wrong city and
   the avenger of blood will find you, after all! Poor Soul! Remember that
   Christ Jesus the Lord is the only Refuge for a guilty sinner--His
   blood, His wounds, His agonies, His sufferings, His death--these are
   the gates and walls of the city of salvation! But if we trust not in
   these, without a doubt, trust where we may, our hope shall be as a
   broken reed and we shall perish after all!

   I may have one here who is newly awakened, just led to see his sin, as
   if it were the corpse of a murdered man lying at his feet. It seems to
   me that God has sent me to that one individual in particular. Man, God
   has shown you your guilt and He has seat me to tell you that there is a
   Refuge for you! Though you are guilty, He is gracious! Though you have
   revolted and rebelled against Him, He will have mercy on all who repent
   and trust in the merits of His Son! He has bid me to say to you, "Flee!
   Flee! Flee!" And, in God's name, I say to you, "Flee to Christ." He has
   bid me warn you against delays. He has bid me remind you that death
   surprises men when they least expect it. He has bid me assure you that
   the avenger will not spare, neither will his eyes pity--his sword was
   forged for vengeance, and vengeance it will have! God has also bid me
   exhort you, by the terror of the Lord, by the Day of Judgment, by the
   wrath to come, by the uncertainty of life and by the nearness of death,
   to flee to Christ this very moment--

   "Hasten, traveler, hasten! The night comes on! And you far off from
   rest and home, Hasten, traveler, hasten!"

   But, oh, how much more earnest is our cry, when we say, "Hasten,
   Sinner, hasten!" Not only does the night come on, but, look, the
   avenger of blood is close behind! Already he has slain his
   thousands--let the shrieks of souls, already damned, come up in your
   ears! Already the avenger has worked wonders of wrath--let the howling
   of Gehenna startle you, let the torments of Hell amaze you! What? Will
   you pause with such an avenger in swift pursuit? What? Young man, will
   you stop this night? God has convinced you of your sin--will you go to
   your rest once more without a prayer for pardon? Will you live another
   day without seeing to Christ? No, I think I see signs that the Spirit
   of God is working in you and I think I hear what He makes you say, "God
   helping me, I give myself to Christ even now! And if He will not, at
   once, shed abroad his love in my heart, this is my firm resolve--no
   rest will I find anywhere till Christ shall look on me and seal, with
   His Holy Spirit, my pardon bought with blood."

   But if you sit still, young man--and you will do so, if left to your
   own free will--I can do no more for you than weep for you in secret.
   Alas for you, my Hearer! Alas for you! The ox led to the slaughter is
   more wise than you are! The sheep that goes to its death is not so
   foolish as you are! Alas for you, my Hearer, that your pulse should
   beat a march to Hell! Alas that yonder clock, like the muffled drum,
   should be the music of the funeral march of your soul! Alas! Alas that
   you should fold your arms in pleasure when the knife is at your heart!
   Alas! Alas for you, that you should sing and make merriment when the
   rope is around your neck and the fatal drop is about to be given to
   you! Alas for you, that you should go your way and live joyfully and
   happily, and yet be lost! You remind me of the silly moth that dances
   round the flame, singeing itself for a while and then, at last,
   plunging to its death--such are you! Young woman, with your butterfly
   clothing, you are leaping round the flame that shall destroy you! Young
   man, light and frothy in your conversation, joyful in your life, you
   are dancing to Hell! You are singing your way to damnation and
   promenading the road to destruction! Alas! Alas! Alas that you should
   be spinning your own winding-sheets--that you should, every day, by
   your sins, be building your own gallows--that by your transgressions
   you should be digging your own graves and working hard to pile the
   firewood for your own eternal burning! Oh, that you were wise, that you
   understood this, that you would consider your latter end! Oh, that you
   would flee from the wrath to come!

   O my Hearers, think of the wrath to come, the wrath to come! How
   terrible that wrath is! These lips dare not venture to describe it! At
   the very thought of it, this heart fills with agony! O my Hearers, are
   there not some of you who will soon be proving what the wrath to come
   really is? There are some of you who, if you were now to drop dead in
   your pews, must be damned. Ah, you know it! You know it! You dare not
   deny it! I know you know it! As you hang down your heads, you seem to
   say, "It is true. I have no Christ to trust to, no robe of
   righteousness to wear, no Heaven to hope for!" My Hearer, give me your
   hand! Never did father plead with son with more impassioned earnestness
   than I would plead with you. Why do you sit still when Hell is burning
   almost in your very face? "Why will you die, O house of Israel?" O God!
   Must I yearn over these people in vain? Must I continue to preach to
   them and be "a savor of death unto death" to them and not "a savor of
   life unto life"? And must I help to make their Hell more intolerable?
   Must it be so? Must the people who now listen to us, like the people of
   Chorazin and Bethsaida in the days of our Lord, have a more terrible
   doom than the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah? O you who are left to
   your own free will to choose the way to Hell--as all men do when left
   to themselves--let these eyes run down with tears for you because you
   will not weep for yourselves!

   It is strange that I should feel more concern for your souls than you
   do for yourselves. My God knows there is not a stone that I would leave
   unturned to save each one of you. There is nothing that human strength
   could do, or human study could learn which I would not seek after if I
   might but be the instrument of saving you from Hell! And yet you act as
   though it concerned you not, whom it should concern the most. It is my
   business, but it is far more yours. Sirs, if you are lost, remember
   that it is yourselves who will be lost! And if you perish, bear me
   witness that I am clear of your blood. If you flee not from the wrath
   to come, forget not that I have warned you. I could not bear to have
   the blood upon my head which some, even of those who like sound
   doctrine, I fear, will have at the last day of account! I tremble for
   some I know who preach God's Gospel, in some sense idly, but who never
   warn sinners. A member of my Church said to me lately, "I heard
   So-and-So preach-- he is called a sound-doctrine-man. I listened to him
   for nine years and I was attending the theater all the time. I could
   curse, I could swear, I could sin and I never had a warning from that
   man's lips during the whole nine years."

   Ah, me! I would not like one of my Hearers to say that concerning my
   preaching. Let this world hiss me! Let me wear the coat that sparkles,
   and the cap that garnishes a fool! Let earth condemn me and let the
   fools of the universe spurn me, but I will be free from the blood of my
   Hearers! The only thing I seek in this world is to be faithful to my
   Hearers' souls. If you are damned, it will not be for lack of faithful
   preaching, nor of earnest warning. Young men and maidens, old men with
   gray heads, merchants and tradesmen, servants, fathers, mothers,
   children--I have warned you this night--you are in danger of Hell! And,
   as God lives, before whom I stand, you will soon be there unless you
   flee from the wrath to come! Remember, none but Jesus can save you! But
   if God shall enable you to see your danger and give you Grace to flee
   to Christ, He will have mercy upon you and the avenger of blood shall
   never find you! No, not even when the red lightning shall be flashing
   from the hands of God in the Day of Judgment! His City of Refuge shall
   shelter you forever! And in Heaven with Jesus, triumphant, blessed,
   secure, you shall sing of the blood and righteousness of Christ who
   delivers penitent sinners from the wrath to come. God bless and save
   you all! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 CORINTHIANS 10:1-14.

   Verses 1-4. Moreover, brethren, I would not that you be ignorant how
   that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the
   sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and
   did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same
   spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed
   them; and that Rock was Christ. The history of Israel in coming out of
   Egypt was a very instructive type of the history of the visible Church
   of Christ. They were in slavery in Egypt as all men are in bondage to
   sin and Satan. They were brought out of Egypt as all the redeemed are
   delivered by the almighty Grace of God. With a high hand and an
   outstretched arm, the Lord brought Israel out of the house of bondage
   and, by a very wonderful Baptism, "in the cloud and in the sea," they
   commenced their career as God's separated people. Then they all shared
   in the same spiritual ordinances--"They did all eat the same spiritual
   meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink." Yet, for all that,
   they were not all God's people. They were so nominally and visibly--but
   they were not all really so. And, as there was a mixed multitude that
   came up out of Egypt, together with the true Seed of promise, so is
   there an alien element in every Church at this present day. Among those
   who have been baptized into Christ, there are still some who, while
   they eat the spiritual meat and drink the spiritual drink, yet for all
   that have not been brought into true communion with Christ and do not,
   in reality, know the Lord.

   5. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were
   overthrown in the wilderness. There was no evidence of faith in many of
   them and, "without faith it is impossible to please God." Is it not a
   sad thing that in a people so highly favored as they were, there should
   have been so large a proportion of those who had not the faith which
   renders men pleasing to God? So they did literally come out into the
   wilderness to die there--and they never entered into the rest of God.

   6. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we. We professed
   Christians--we, Church members.

   6. Should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. They gave
   way to their carnal appetites. They craved for meat when God had
   already given them angels' food. Now, if we act like this, we cannot be
   pleasing to God.

   7. Neither be you idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written,
   The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. That is, to
   go through those unclean rites and ceremonies before their idols which
   are here called, "play." Ah, dear Friends, may God keep us from the
   worship of anything which we can see with our eyes, or hear with our
   ears! May we never become idolaters! You know we can very easily make
   idols of our children. We can make idols of our own persons! We can
   make idols of our talents, of our respectability and so forth. But, oh,
   it matters not what the idol is--it is no more pleasing to God if it is
   of silver and gold than if it were of the mud of the river.
   No--"Neither be you idolaters, as were some of them."

   8. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and
   fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Fornication in God's people
   is peculiarly black and filthy. In the ordinary man of the world, it is
   evil enough, but when a man professes to be a Christian, he must flee
   from even the very thought of it, and keep himself chaste, for his body
   is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Oh, may none of us ever come anywhere
   near to this great evil, but in purity of heart may we walk before our
   God!

   9. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted Him, and
   were destroyed by serpents. I cannot stay to mention the many ways in
   which we can tempt Christ, but we can still readily do so. What a
   dreadful doom it was to be destroyed by serpents! Yet is it not amazing
   that in connection with this great sin, and its awful punishment, the
   bronze serpent was lifted high, that whoever looked at it might live?
   And now, if any have tempted Christ by presumptuous sin, by their
   delay, or by their infidelity, let them bless God that they are not yet
   destroyed by serpents because Christ has been lifted up even as the
   serpent of brass was exalted above the camp of Israel! Remember our
   Lord's words to Nicode-mus--"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the
   wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whoever
   believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

   10. Neither murmur you, as some of them also murmured, and were
   destroyed by the destroyer It is a dreadful habit to get into--that of
   complaining against God. Occasional murmuring is doubtless sinful, but
   habitual murmuring becomes a very great evil! I am afraid that there
   are some who quibble at God's Providence and at His Word till they come
   to be quibblers and nothing else! And what good is a man who can do
   nothing else but carp, quibble and criticize? O Beloved, "neither
   murmur you, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the
   destroyer."

   11. Now all these things happened to them for examples. They were like
   a book in which we might read our own history in large characters. We
   see ourselves foreshadowed in them and we read our happiness or our
   misery in their behavior.

   11, 12. And they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of
   the world are come. Therefore let him that thinks he stands take heed
   lest he fall For if he begins to think that he stands, it may be that
   it is nothing but his own imagination--there may be no real standing
   about it. And there is no surer sign of the falsity of a man's estimate
   of himself than the fact that it is a high one. He that thinks himself
   good has not begun to be good, for the door of the palace of wisdom is
   humility, and the gate of the temple of virtue is lowliness of mind.

   13, 14. There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man:
   but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what
   you are able; but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape,
   that you may be able to bear it Therefore, my dearly beloved, flee from
   idolatry. I would like to see this verse put over the top of every
   "sacramental" table in every "church" in England--"Therefore, my dearly
   beloved, flee from idolatry." If this text were properly understood,
   every crucifix would be broken to pieces and the altars, themselves,
   would be cleared away to make room for what should be there--the Table
   of the Lord--and we would have no more worship of visible things, which
   is idolatry! O you who are the dearly-beloved of God, flee from it!
   Keep as far from it as you can.

   I remember reading of a man of God who was the rector of a certain
   parish and who had in the church a very ancient and famous painted
   window of which he was somewhat proud. In the design there was a
   representation of the Godhead--the Father was there, and oh, how
   blasphemous! He was represented as an aged man! And, one day, this
   clergyman, who had seen no evil in the window, heard a rustic
   explaining to a companion that that was the God whom they worshipped.
   The rector did not hesitate for a moment, but he threw a stone right
   through that part of the painted window. I suppose that was an offense
   against the law of man, but certainly it was not against the Law of
   God! He would never have that figure replaced on any account, whatever,
   and I think that he did well! "Dearly Beloved, flee from idolatry." Put
   it out of your sight! Do not tamper with it, but hate it with a perfect
   hatred! In God's eyes, it is one of the most fearful of sins. He has
   said, "I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God," and He will have
   nothing to come between us and the pure and simple worship of His own
   invisible Self.
     __________________________________________________________________

Watching to See

   (No. 2622)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 14, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY
   26, 1882.

   "I will stand my watch, and set myself on the tower, and will watch to
   see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am
   reproved. And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and
   make it plain on tablets, that he may run that reads it For the vision
   is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not
   lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will
   not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him:
   but the just shall live by his faith." Habakkuk 2:1-4.

   I KNOW that, on Thursday nights, there is a large number of friends
   here who are engaged in the work of the Lord, and sometimes it is meet
   to address them, mainly, because, if the bread be put into the hands of
   the disciples, they will pass it on to the multitude. In the day of
   battle, if the command is given to the officers, they will repeat it to
   the various sections of the army, and so the whole mass shall be moved
   forward with one aim and objective. Habakkuk was, like ourselves,
   called of God to labor for the good of the people among whom he dwelt.
   He was one of the later Prophets who came to warn God's ancient people
   before the Lord meted out their last terrible measure of chastisement.
   He saw, in vision, his country given up to the Chaldeans, and he
   pleaded with God about the matter. He had a burden on his heart which
   pressed very heavily upon him. He saw the nation crushed beneath the
   oppressors and he asked, "Why is this?" The Lord replied, "Because of
   the iniquity of the people." Habakkuk understood that, but then it
   occurred to him that the Chaldeans, who were treading down the people,
   were themselves far greater sinners--that, certainly, in the matter of
   oppression and bloodthirstiness, they were a far more guilty people
   than those whom they came to punish! So he used this fact partly as an
   argument with God that He would withdraw the Chaldeans and overthrow
   them. And partly he set it before the Lord as a difficulty which
   troubled his mind. He said, "You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
   and cannot look on iniquity: why look You upon them that deal
   treacherously and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours the man that
   is more righteous than he?" Habakkuk was puzzled, as David had been
   before him, and as many a child of God has been since. He felt as if he
   could not do his work rightly, so, in his perplexity, he came to
   consult God concerning it. And having laid the case before the Lord, he
   made use of the memorable and instructive words which we are now to
   consider under the gracious guidance of the Holy Spirit.

   I. So, first, dear Friends, we shall notice, in our text, THE ATTITUDE
   OF THE LORD'S SERVANT.

   That is expressed in the one word, "watch." When you are puzzled--when
   you are troubled, when you do not know what to do, then may God help
   you to say, "'I will stand my watch, and set myself on the tower, and
   will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer
   when I am reproved." Before we can do any real service for God, we must
   first of all receive our commission from Him. We cannot teach others
   aright unless we are, ourselves, taught of God--and His truest servants
   are those who continue waiting upon Him that they may receive from Him
   the words which afterwards they are to speak to the people in His name.
   Habakkuk is a model to us in this respect. Troubled in heart, he
   resolves to set himself to watch his God and to listen for the message
   he is afterwards to deliver.

   We learn from him that the attitude of the Lord's servant towards God
   is, first, an attentive attitude. "I will stand my watch, and set
   myself on the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me."
   If we have a deaf ear towards our Lord, we must not marvel if He gives
   us, also, a dumb tongue. If we will not hear what God speaks, we may
   not expect to be able, ourselves, to speak in His name. Or, if we pour
   forth a flood of words, yet we may not expect that they will be such as
   He will approve and bless. O dear Friends, if we would work for God in
   the right spirit, we must begin as Jesus did, of whom it was written in
   prophecy long before He came to the earth, "The Lord God has given Me
   the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in
   season to him that is weary: He wakens morning by morning, He wakens My
   ears to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ears and I was
   not rebellious, neither turned away back." In the fullness of time,
   Jesus came forth and taught to others what he had thus learned in
   secret, and, if we would teach others, we must first be taught by the
   Spirit of God.

   How much more we might know if we were only willing to listen to the
   Lord's messages! There is, in the Word of God, a voice which is often
   inaudible because we are so engrossed with other things. There is,
   also, the voice of the Christian ministry which oftentimes speaks to
   us, but it is like the cry of one in a wilderness--it is not heard by
   us. There is, too, a voice in God's Providence. How much the Lord says
   to his flock by every stroke of his rod and by every blessing of His
   daily Providence! There is a voice from every grave--a message in every
   bereavement when friends are taken away. There are voices everywhere
   speaking to those whose ears are open. Above all, there is the blessed
   Spirit always waiting to communicate to us the things of God by that
   soft mysterious whisper which none know but those who are, themselves,
   spiritual--and which they know at once to be the very voice of God
   within their spirits. Brothers, we must be attentive! We must not allow
   a single sound from the Lord to escape us. Some men seem God must speak
   thunder and lightning before they will ever hear Him, but His true
   children sit at His feet that they may catch the slightest movement of
   His lips and not let a single syllable from the Lord fall to the
   ground. The attitude of the Christian worker must be one of attention.

   But, next, it must be a patient attitude. Observe what Habakkuk says,
   "I will stand my watch." Not merely, "I will be upon my watch for a
   moment," but, "I will take my place like a sentinel who remains on
   guard until his time of watching is over." Then the Prophet puts it
   again, "I will set myself on the tower"--as if he took his position
   firmly and resolutely upon the tower, there to stand and not to stir
   till he had seen and heard what God the Lord would have him see and
   hear. Do you think, dear Friends, that we are sufficiently resolved to
   know our Master's will? Do we frequently enough get upstairs alone and,
   with our open Bibles, search out what God would have us learn? And do
   we pray over the Word till we have wormed ourselves into the very heart
   of the Truth of God--till we have eaten our way into it, as the weevil
   eats its way through the shell, and then lives upon and in the kernel?
   Do we do this? Do we set ourselves upon the tower, determined that we
   will not go forth to speak for the Lord till the Lord has spoken to us,
   lest we go upon a fool's errand, to deliver our own inventions, instead
   of proclaiming the message that comes from God Himself? Your attitude,
   my Brother, if you are a servant of the Lord, is that of attention and
   patience. To which I may add that it is often a solitary attitude. "I
   will stand my watch." The Church has gone to sleep, but, "I will stand
   my watch." Like flocks of sheep, they lie all around us, the multitudes
   of souls for whom we have to care, but there are still shepherds
   keeping watch over their flocks by night, to whom the Glory of the Lord
   is often revealed when the sheep perceive it not. The city lies wrapped
   in slumber and no sound is heard among her ten thousand sleepers, but
   there is one who knows no sleep, nor gives slumber to his eyelids, for
   he is the appointed watchman of the night and he keeps to his tower and
   sets himself in his place, firmly resolved that till the morning breaks
   there shall be somebody to keep guard over the city. Well, sometimes, I
   say, watchmen have to be quite alone. O Brothers, it would be better
   for us if we had more solitude! It often becomes necessary to us
   because we cannot find kindred spirits that can watch with us a single
   hour. The higher you get up in the Church of God, the more solitary you
   will be. For the sheep, there are many companions, but even for an
   under-shepherd, there are but few. As for that Great Shepherd of the
   sheep, the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls, the Good Shepherd, you
   know that His most favored Apostles could not watch with Him even one
   hour, but He had to endure His terrible agony in Gethsemane alone. And
   such of His servants as He honors most will know best what is the
   meaning of Gethsemane, the olive press and the solitude which often
   accompanies the stern watch that the faithful servant of God must keep.

   Never mind if all others around you say that you are hot-headed,
   zealous, enthusiastic, foolish and I know not what! Say to yourself, "I
   will stand my watch." What if they should think that you carry things
   much too far and have too much religion, or are too consecrated? Reply,
   "I will set myself upon the tower, and will still watch, for that is my
   business even if I must attend to it alone." The man who has God for
   his Companion has the best of company! And he that is a solitary
   watcher for the Most High God shall, one day, stand amidst yon shining
   legions of angels, and he will, himself shine forth as the sun in the
   Kingdom of his Father. Expect, therefore, if you are a servant of the
   Lord, to sometimes have to watch alone--and be thankful for that
   position if God honors you by calling you to occupy it!

   Observe, further, that the attitude of the child of God who is called
   to be a prophet to his people--as I know that many of you are--is one
   in which the mind must be entirely engrossed. The true servant of the
   Lord thinks of nothing else than this--"I will stand my watch, and set
   myself on the tower, and will watch to see what the Lord will say unto
   me." He is wholly taken up with that one matter! Many of you have your
   secular callings to follow, but, without neglecting them, you can
   still, in spirit, be watching and waiting to hear the voice of God, for
   God speaks to us not only when we are in the study, or kneeling in
   prayer by our bedside, but He has ways of talking with us while we are
   going along the road and so He makes our hearts to burn within us. He
   can speak with us in the thick of the greatest throng and, perhaps,
   some of us were never more conscious of the voice of God than amid the
   rushing of ten thousand spindles, or in the midst of the crowded
   street! At such times, the noise and turmoil of this busy world have
   not been able to drown the gentle voice of God within our spirit. May
   you, Beloved, be thus engrossed! If you intend to serve the Lord, give
   your whole soul to the learning of His Truth and the hearing of what He
   has to say to you, that you may afterwards be able to tell to others
   what you have, yourselves, been taught of God.

   Observe, also, that the Prophet was entirely submissive to the will of
   God. He put himself into this attitude, that he might hear whatever God
   would say to him, and that his only thought, all the while, should be,
   "What shall I answer when I am reproved?" We need to be, as much as
   possible, like clean white paper for God to write upon. Our mind is
   often far too much occupied and too prejudiced to receive a clear
   impression of the will of the Lord. How many make up their mind as to
   what they will see in a text and so they never learn what the passage
   would teach them if it were allowed to speak freely to them. If you
   would serve God, say to your soul, "I will stand my watch, and set
   myself on the tower, and I will give both my ears and all my heart to
   understand what God would have me know, and to learn what He would
   teach me." May this be the happy privilege of us all!

   The last remark I will make upon this first head is that the attitude
   of the Lord's servant was eminently practical The Prophet did not watch
   and wait merely that he might know the secrets of the future, or be
   able to prophesy, or show his wonderful knowledge. No, but he wanted to
   know what he should answer when he was reproved. He knew that when he
   went out into the world, men would begin to reprove him for being a
   Prophet--they would rebuke him for his zeal and his earnestness! And so
   he waited that he might have the right answer to give, with meekness
   and fear, to all who opposed him. That should be your wish and mine,
   Beloved, for, if we serve God faithfully, we are sure to meet with
   objectors. Well, if this opposition is only against us, it does not
   matter much, but, alas, sometimes their critical and cruel remarks are
   against the Truth of God itself, and, worst of all, against our blessed
   Lord! In such a case it is well to have something with which we can
   stop the mouths of the snarling dogs. It is a blessing to have heard
   God's voice, for, if you repeat the message He speaks to you, even the
   echo of God's voice will break the rocks in pieces and cause the cedars
   of Lebanon to split in two! There is nothing that can stand against the
   Word of the Lord! In the 29th Psalm, David says, "The voice of the Lord
   is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty" and, if we have
   heard that voice, and know how, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to
   echo its mighty tones, they will strike the objector dumb! And even
   when he hates the Truth of God, he will still be compelled to feel what
   force there is in it. So the servant of the Lord says, "I will watch
   and wait to hear what God will say to me, for then I shall know what to
   answer when I am rebuked and reproached for the Truth's sake."

   This, then, is to be the attitude of the children of God. Get away to
   your watchtowers, Brethren! Get away to your tower by the brook Jabbok
   and wrestle with the Angel! Get away to the top of Carmel and put your
   head between your knees and cry unto the Lord until the heavens are
   covered with clouds, and the thirsty earth is refreshed with rain! "The
   effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much," but they who
   do not hear God's voice cannot effectually pray, for God will not hear
   their voice if they will not hear His. If we have been deaf to Him, He
   will be deaf to us. The communion necessary to prevailing prayer
   renders it absolutely essential that we should first set ourselves to
   hear the voice of God and then, again, it shall be said that the Lord
   listened to the voice of a man, for the man first listened to the voice
   of the Lord!

   II. The second part of our subject is, THE WORK OF THE LORD'S SERVANT.

   We have seen what Habakkuk's attitude was. The next verse tells us
   about his work--"The Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and
   make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that reads it." It was not
   long before the waiting Prophet heard God speak and if you and I wait
   upon Him, it will not be long before we hear something that will be
   worth our waiting for and, especially, we shall receive plain
   directions as to our duty!

   Habakkuk was, first, to see the vision. The first name for a Prophet
   was, "a Seer." You, my Brother, cannot be a teller of the good tidings
   of salvation unless you are first a seer. Mind that you see well all
   that is to be seen. Use your eyes to the best advantage and also to be
   able to see what God sets before you. It is curious how the different
   senses are mingled in these verses. Did you notice the expression in
   that first verse, "I will watch to see what He will say unto me"? When
   God speaks to us, we can hear with our eyes as well as with our ears.
   There is an inner sense which sees the meaning of the Lord's language,
   and the inner ear hears the very tones in which that meaning is
   expressed. So, the Prophet was first to be a seer--he was to wait to
   see what God would say unto him.

   Then, next, he was to "write the vision," that is, to make it known
   and, Beloved, when you and I have seen or heard anything which God has
   revealed to us, let us go and write it down or make it known by some
   other means. God has not put the treasure into the earthen vessel
   merely for the vessel's own sake, but that the treasure may afterwards
   be poured out from it, that others may thereby be enriched! You have
   not been privileged to see, merely to make glad your eyes, and to charm
   your soul--you have been permitted to see in order that you may make
   others see--that you may go forth and report what the Lord has allowed
   you to perceive. God does not usually favor His servants with visions
   that they may keep them to themselves. Paul hid for 14 years one that
   he saw, but he was obliged to let it out at last and, I suppose, that
   if he had had more visions, he would not have been able to keep that
   one concealed so long. John no sooner became the seer of Patmos than he
   heard a voice that said to him, "Write." He could not speak to others,
   for he was on an island where he was exiled, but he could write--and he
   did. And, often, he who writes, addresses a larger audience than the
   man who merely uses his tongue. It is a happy thing when the tongue is
   aided by the pen of a ready writer and so gets a wider audience and a
   more permanent influence than if it merely uttered certain sounds and
   the words died away when the ears had heard them. The first thing which
   you have to do, if God has called you to serve Him, is, after hearing
   what He has said to you, to make it known to somebody else--"Write the
   vision."

   And take care, dear Friends, that, in the spreading of the Truth of
   God, you use as permanent a means of doing so as you can. "Write the
   vision," that is to say, if you cannot write with a pen, if you have
   not that special gift, yet write it on men's hearts! Do not merely
   speak it, but seek to reach the inmost soul of your fellow beings and,
   by the power of the Holy Spirit, write the Truth there! God help you
   not merely to sound it in their ears, but to write it on the fleshy
   tablets of their heart--and to leave the Truth of God deeply engraved
   upon their memory! I have sometimes been greatly favored in this way.
   Indeed, it has often been the case, for I almost daily meet with
   persons who say, "We remember hearing you preach more than 20 years
   ago, and we remember what you said." And they will quote something
   which they then heard. I remember visiting, in one of our hospitals, a
   man who had heard me years before. He said to me, "While I was lying
   here, one night, I thought I heard the very tones of your voice"--and
   he told me some similes that I had used when he listened to me. I am
   glad to be successful in producing permanent impressions upon my
   Hearers, but I wish I could be more so. Mr. Jay used to say that in
   preaching, we must say things that will "strike and stick." It is well
   when we can do so and I urge you, who are the servants of the Lord, to
   be sure that when you teach the Truth, you so teach it that it shall be
   permanently learned under your instruction. "Write the vision...upon
   tablets."

   Then the next duty of the servant of God is to "make it plain." I have
   sometimes thought that certain ministers fancied that it was their duty
   to make the message elaborate--to go to the very bottom of the subject
   and stir up all the mud they could find, there, till you could not
   possibly see them, nor could they see their own way at all. I could not
   help, the other morning, comparing some preaching to a boy who was in
   front of me, one summer's day, wanting a penny, and sweeping the
   crossing for me in such a fashion that he enveloped me in clouds of
   dust in order to clear my way! Have I not seen preachers do just the
   very same thing? They tell people all the difficulties they have
   discovered in the Bible--which difficulties most of their Hearers would
   never have heard of unless their ministers had told them--and they
   raise a cloud of dust in order to make a pathway for a poor troubled
   soul! We would rather that they let the dust lie still, for we,
   ourselves, raise enough dust without their help!

   "Write the vision, and make it plain." I suggest that as a motto to you
   who preach in the open air and to you who speak in the lodging houses
   or anywhere else. "Make it plain." It is wonderful how plain we must
   make the Gospel before some people will be able to understand it. They
   have no idea what we mean by many of the expressions that we use. The
   most common language among Christians is often an unknown dialect to
   worldlings--they cannot make heads or tails of it. You and I, speaking
   together of our Christian experience, perfectly understand one another,
   but if we were to say the same things outside to the majority of the
   people, we might just as well preach to them in Dutch! If you have a
   loaf of bread and you want to feed a hungry child with it, it is
   hopeless to try to put that loaf of bread inside the child just as it
   is. Crumble it up, Brother, crumble it up as small as you can! And pour
   over it some of the nice warm milk of your own hearty love--and in that
   way the child and the loaf will come into contact before long! There is
   no way of getting many great Truths of God in the lump into most
   people's minds--we must break them up into small pieces, or, to use the
   words of the text, when we "write the vision," we must "make it plain."

   Another important point is to make it practical I have heard this text
   misquoted a great many times, "that he that runs may read it." Kindly
   look at the passage and see whether that is correct. It does not say,
   "that he that runs may read it," but it does say, "that he mayrun that
   reads it." That is a different thing and that is what we want to see.
   But I have known some people who have had the Gospel delivered to them
   and they have slept that heard it! There has been something about the
   prophet's very tone, and voice, and manner that has tended to fill the
   ears with somniferous influences. "Ah," said one to me, "I cannot help
   believing in mesmerism and so would you if you could see how our
   minister mesmerizes the people all round the gallery every Sunday! They
   can sleep soundly enough after he has been preaching a little while."
   Now, dear Brothers, if we want to do any good to our fellow creatures,
   we must hear God's voice ourselves-- and that will not send us to
   sleep, but it will wake us up! and then we must go and tell the people
   very plainly what we have heard, and also tell it to them so earnestly
   "that he may run that reads it." I believe that I could easily make
   some of you run if I were to take up a telegram from the table and
   read, "Mr. So-and-So's house is on fire. He is requested to hurry home
   as fast as possible." Away he would go down the aisle as soon as the
   words were out of my mouth! You see, that message is something that
   concerns him personally, something that may mean great peril to his
   property, so he runs that reads it, or hears it read! I wish I could
   always preach about the wrath to come in such a way that every unsaved
   man who heard me would take to his heels and run for his life from the
   City of Destruction! Or that I could so speak about the glories of
   Heaven and the preciousness of Christ, that men would straightway run
   to Him, even to the Holy One of Israel, whom God has glorified! Let us
   always try to write on men's hearts in a good running hand, that he
   that reads the message may at once begin to run to escape from judgment
   and to find the Savior and to enter into eternal life!

   There, child of God, is your attitude, and there is your work.

   III. Now, in the third place, the next verse brings out our difficulty,
   that is, THE TARRYING OF TRUTH, "for the vision is yet for an appointed
   time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait
   for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."

   We preach a Gospel whose chief glory lies in the future. The blessings
   which we proclaim have a most important bearing upon the present, but
   the stress and emphasis of them relate to the future and, therefore, it
   is that, oftentimes, men reject our testimony because, to them, the
   time is not yet, or they doubt its truth because they do not at once
   see the results produced which we foretell.

   Brethren, every promise of God's Word has its own appointed time of
   fulfillment and every doctrine or privilege has its own allotted hour.
   There is an election of Grace, but we shall not know all who are
   included in it till we shall meet the whole company of the faithful at
   the right hand of God! There is a redemption by blood, but the fullness
   of that redemption will not affect these mortal bodies until the
   trumpet of the Resurrection has sounded out its mighty blast over land
   and sea! Then shall we see how Christ has redeemed the bodies as well
   as the souls of His chosen ones. Take any blessing that you please and
   the same rule applies. Although there is much in the Covenant of Grace
   to be enjoyed, today, there is much more that is yet to come.

   The servant of God is still a prophet. He says, "Believe on the Lord
   Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved"--that is a prophecy! He says,
   "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you"--that is a
   prophecy! He says, "They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion,
   which cannot be removed, but abides forever"--that is a prophecy! He
   says, "The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall
   hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto
   the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
   resurrection of damnation"--that is a prophecy! And the testimony of
   Jesus is still the spirit of prophecy and each prophecy has an
   appointed time in which it will be fulfilled.

   And, further, it is absolutely certain to be fulfilled. There is no
   word which God's servant rightly speaks for his Lord which will not
   come true. Ye have not followed cunningly-devised fables and,
   therefore, you need not speak your Master's message as though you were
   old wives rehearsing the gossip of a country village! You are telling
   what God the Holy Spirit has revealed in the Word and applied to your
   own soul--therefore, tell it boldly! Now, then, you are ambassadors for
   Christ, as though God did beseech sinners by you, and you are to go and
   pray them, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God! Do you not see,
   dear Brothers, the position you are to take up? May you be helped to
   take it up! You are a prophet and your prophecy has a time for
   fulfillment--and it is absolutely certain to come to pass!

   But, sometimes, it apparently tarries. You tell men of the blessedness
   that comes of true religion and they say, "There is such-and-such a
   Believer who is very sorrowful." "Oh, yes," you reply, "in his case the
   vision is tarrying." "There is such-and-such a child of God who does
   not enjoy the Light of the Lord's Countenance." Just so. We did not say
   that he always would, but we do say that he will, one day, walk in the
   Light of God. "Ah," says one, "I have been seeking the Lord for years,
   but I have not obtained peace and comfort." Just so--He did not promise
   that you would obtain the blessing immediately. It may be that, for a
   while, you shall "walk in darkness, and see no light," to test your
   faith. But, though the vision may seem to tarry, it will not really
   tarry--it will come in God's good. time. Oh, how often have you and I,
   struggling to live by faith and to glorify God, geo into a maze and we
   have said, "We shall get out of it." But we did not get out of it for a
   long time. "Oh," we have said, "surely God will deliver us!" Yet, for a
   while, He did not deliver us. We even got into still worse trouble than
   before and then the arch-enemy began to whisper--

   "The Lord has forsaken you! Your God will be gracious no more"-- and
   what little faith we had began to waver, for we said, "We did not think
   that we should be tried like this! We thought we would come out of the
   darkness much sooner than this." But now, Brothers and Sisters, in
   looking back upon those past exercises and experiences, what do you say
   of them? Did the Lord tarry, after all? "Well," you reply, "He tarried
   as I would like Him to always tarry--

   'He hid the purpose of His Grace, To make it better known.'

   He allowed the clouds to collect more thickly to give all the heavier
   shower of blessing, by-and-by. He did permit me to begin to sink. He
   did let me nearly go down, but it was only to make me know how weak I
   was, that I might the more firmly cling to His hand when He plucked me
   out of the waves and bade me stand still by His side."

   I can personally say, at the present moment, that I would not like to
   have had one ache less, or one depression of spirit less, or one
   affliction less of any sort. I would rather not have any more--as
   everybody says--but yet I am glad that my "rathers" count for nothing
   with God and that I have not any permission or need to manage for
   myself! How much better everything is arranged by Him! As for the past,
   it is all right and, blessed be His holy name, it has been so right
   that it could not be better! It has not only been good, but it has been
   better. Yes, it has been best of all! So shall every child of God find
   it. You may say, "This life of faith is difficult. This hanging on so
   long, almost by one's eyelashes--will it not soon come to an end?" The
   end will come at the right time--

   "Godis never before His time: He is never too late."

   Remember how Israel went out of Egypt at the appointed time? It is
   written, "And it came to pass the same day, that the Lord did bring the
   children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies," and on
   that same day when Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Grace shall know that
   it is better for you to be delivered, you shall be delivered to the
   praise of the glory of God's Grace!

   IV. The fourth verse gives us our last point, but I will only just hint
   at what I would have said if there had been more time. THIS TARRYING OF
   TRUTH BECOMES A TESTING OF THE PEOPLE because that Gospel which we are
   to tell does not bring forth all its fruit at once to those who hear
   us. What then? Why, this is the winnowing-fan, this is the sieve, this
   is the way by which God discerns between the righteous and the wicked!

   As for the wicked man, he says, "I do not see any present good coming
   out of religion. Look at that poor, miserable, sighing, groaning,
   poverty-stricken Christian over there! What good has his religion ever
   done him? I do not believe in it." Just so. Now we know who and what
   you are, for our text says, "His soul which is lifted up is not upright
   in him." He is so proud that he judges God's Word and condemns it! He
   will not have Christ to reign over him. He will not believe God. He
   will not wait for God and the reason is that his soul is not upright in
   him. Follow him home and you shall see, in his life, that his soul is
   not upright in him. The man who judges God is one whom God will judge
   and who shall not be able to stand in the Day of Judgment. I will not
   say that every man who rejects Christ is necessarily immoral, but I
   will say that, in nine cases out of ten, it is so and that when you
   trace an infidel's life, there is something there that accounts for his
   infidelity. He wants a cover on his unbelief for that is something he
   has good need to cover! There is something about his daily walk that
   does not agree with holiness--some darling sin that spoils his hope of
   being saved as a Christian. So he tries, as much as he can, to get a
   hope out of lies, out of contradicting God. "His heart is not upright
   in him."

   But how does this test discern the righteous? Why thus--"The just shall
   live by his faith." You know that a Christian, a holy man, a just man,
   a justified man talks thus--"Yes, if God has spoken anything, it is
   true. If God has said that, it will be fulfilled. I will wait. Troubles
   may multiply, cares may come like a deluge, but I will wait. I am sure
   that God is true and I will wait and watch for the unfolding of His
   purposes. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. I will never give
   up reliance upon Him." Now, that man is a just man, and that is the man
   who will live! It is always well when these three things go
   together--righteousness, faith, life. They ought not to be found apart.
   They should always be together.

   "The just man"--that is, the righteous man--"shall live." Ah, there is
   no true life without that righteousness! "Shall live by his faith"--and
   there is no true life without faith and no true righteousness without
   faith. These three go together--may we all have them and may it be your
   joy and mine to keep on telling others what God has revealed to us,
   that we may thus gather out His own believing people, His elect and
   redeemed ones, while the graceless will, perhaps, despise and hate what
   they may see and so will ripen for the flames of Hell! God grant, of
   His Grace, that they may yet be delivered, for our Lord Jesus Christ's
   sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HABAKKUK 2:1-11.

   Verse 1. I will stand my watch, and set myself on the tower, and will
   watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I
   am reproved. ' 'I shall look to God and I shall also look to myself.
   There shall be an expectation as I gaze upward to my Lord and there
   shall also be an examination as I look within at my empty, guilty,
   good-for-nothing self."

   2. And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it
   plain upon tablets, that he may run that reads it. The Prophets were
   accustomed to write their messages upon wax tablets and the Lord bade
   Habakkuk thus write what he had seen. God would have both His Law and
   His Gospel plainly revealed to men so that they might know and
   understand His will. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "We use great
   plainness of speech." And the Lord would have all His servants do
   likewise. It is not for us to bury the Gospel under a mass of fine
   words, but to set it forth in the simplest and clearest possible
   language--for it is not the power of human words that God blesses, but
   the Truth, itself, as it is applied to the heart by His Spirit.

   3. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall
   speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will
   surely come, it will not tarry. Is that a contradiction--"Though it
   tarry...it will not tarry"? No. To us it appears to tarry, but, in
   God's way of reckoning, it does not really tarry. To our impatient
   spirits it seems long in coming, but God knows that it will not be a
   moment beyond the appointed time.

   4. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the
   just shall live by his faith. This grand text was quoted by Paul when
   he wrote his Epistles to the Romans, the Galatians and the Hebrews. It
   proves that Old Testament saints understood New Testament life! David
   and Abraham lived by faith, even as Paul and Peter and the other
   Apostles did.

   5. Yes also, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man,
   neither keeps at home, who enlarges his desire as Hell, and is as
   death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers unto him all nations, and
   heaps unto him all people. This was spoken of the Chaldeans, an
   ambitious nation so exceedingly greedy that it seemed as if the whole
   world would not be large enough to satisfy their voracious appetite.
   Their great kings enlarged their mouths like Gehenna and they seemed as
   insatiable as the very jaws of Death itself. They heaped up nation upon
   nation to make a huge empire for themselves.

   6. Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting
   proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increases that which is
   not his? How long? And to him that loads himself with thick clay! That
   which is said of ambition may also be said of covetousness. What an
   idle task it is for a man to go on perpetually hoarding--heaping
   together more than he can possibly enjoy, as if it were made for nobody
   but for one man, and he must grasp all the wealth of the world. There
   is scope enough for the loftiest ambition when you seek the nobler joys
   of Grace. There is room for a sacred covetousness when you "covet
   earnestly the best gifts," but, in every other respect may these two
   things--ambition and covetousness--be always thrust far from us!

   7. Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite you, and awake that
   shall vex you, and you shall be for booty unto them? So it happened to
   Chaldea that the nations which they had spoiled, by-and-by, grew strong
   enough to take vengeance upon them and to spoil them in their turn.
   Usually, when men do wrong, it comes home to them sooner or later. The
   chickens they hatch come home to roost at night, at any rate, if not
   before. Towards the end of life, a man begins to gather the fruit of
   his doings, or, if he does not reap it in this world, certainly he will
   in the world to come.

   8. 9. Because you have spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the
   people shall spoil you; because of men's blood, and for the violence of
   the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. Woe to him that
   covets an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on
   high, that he may be delivered from thepower of evil! He fancies, when
   he gets rich by oppressing others, that he will, himself, rise out of
   harm's way. He says that he will make the main chance sure. He who has
   plenty of gold fancies that he will be able to preserve himself from
   sorrow, but this is what God has to say about that matter--

   10, 11. You have consulted shame to your house by cutting off many
   people and have sinned against your soul For the stone shall cry out of
   the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it These
   Chaldeans were great builders, as we know by the vast ruins that still
   remain. And most of their buildings were erected by labor exacted from
   the people whom they oppressed. They received no wages for their work,
   so even today, from the ruins, the stone cries out of the walls and the
   beams out of the timber answers it. Let all men know that, sooner or
   later, God will execute justice even upon the greatest nations! If they
   will be destroyers, they shall be destroyed. Their evil policy shall,
   by-and-by, sweep them away. "There is a something in the world," says
   one, "that makes for righteousness." Indeed there is, only it is more
   than a something--it is God himself who is always working in all things
   towards the vindication of His own righteous and holy Law.
     __________________________________________________________________

How Faith Comes

   (No. 2623)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 21, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   FEBRUARY 2, 1882.

   "And many ofthe Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the saying
   of the woman who testified, He told me all that I ever did. So when the
   Samaritans were come unto Him, they sought Him that He would tarry with
   them: and He abode there two days. And many more believed because of
   His own word; and said unto the woman, Now we believe not because of
   your saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is,
   indeed, the Christ, the Savior of the world." John 4:39-42.

   WHEREVER faith exists, it is the gift of God. It is a plant that never
   sprang up spontaneously from the soil of corrupt human nature. Whether
   it is little faith or great faith, it is equally of Divine origin, and
   wherever it is found-- whether in the child of pious parents who was
   brought up with the utmost care, or in one who has lived all the former
   part of his life in the vilest sin--it is equally and alike the fruit
   of the Spirit and the effect of God's Grace. From this fact I gather
   great encouragement because, if it needs Divine power to implant faith
   in the heart that looks more favorable, it needs no more to implant and
   preserve it in the soul that appears most unprepared to receive it.
   Casting our eyes over the whole map of Palestine, we might have said
   that Samaria was probably as unlikely a place as any in the entire
   country in which we might expect to find followers of the Lord Jesus,
   for, at the very threshold of Christ's announcing Himself, there would
   be found this prejudice, that the Samaritans would not believe in a
   Jew.

   They would not even listen to a Jew, for, while the Jews had no
   dealings with the Samaritans, the Samaritans reciprocated the feeling
   and had no dealings with the Jews. Yet it was among the Samaritans, the
   members of the mongrel faith into which Judaism had deteriorated, that
   Christ was to find a large number of His followers! My Brothers, you
   will be wise to go, first, to those places where there seems to be
   least likelihood of conversions. You will often find that God judges
   not as man judges--"Man looks on the outward appearance"--but God, who
   reads the hearts of men, can see a certain readiness where we reckon
   that there is the most unreadiness! The Lord knows that the soil where
   the Seed of the Kingdom is sown may be in the best condition for
   fruitfulness even when we fancy that it cannot possibly yield us any
   return for our labor. If faith is the work of God--a supernatural
   thing--as it certainly is, what have you and I to do with judging
   according to natural appearances?

   You may go and speak, my Brother, feeble as you feel yourself to be,
   for the Seed owes very little, indeed, to the hand that sows it. And
   you may go, my Brother or my Sister, and scatter this precious Seed
   upon what you may regard as waste soil, but the Seed owes very little,
   after all, to the soil! God can make it spring up like a root out of a
   dry ground and, as of old He brought water out of the rock, and oil out
   of the flinty rock, so can He bring a harvest to His Glory where
   everything seems utterly barren. If it is God's work, let us have no
   doubts, much lese any despondencies, concerning it, but let us continue
   to put ourselves into His hands that He may use us anywhere that He
   pleases, for we know not where He will most glorify His name through
   our feeble instrumentality.

   I am going to talk about faith--faith as it came to these Samaritans.
   And we shall notice, first, faith's annunciation--"Now we believe."
   Secondly, faith's nativity--where it is born. Thirdly, faith's
   upbringing--faith's Nazareth-- for, according to the text, it grows and
   takes higher ground as it develops. "Now we believe, not because of
   your saying: for we have heard Him ourselves." I give these names to my
   three divisions in order to assist your memories.

   I. First, then, I call your attention to FAITH'S ANNUNCIATION. Here we
   have it, in the 42nd verse--"we believe."

   Genuine faith may, through timidity, be hidden for a little while, or,
   possibly, the love of carnal ease may lead some to conceal their faith
   in Christ. But it is of the very nature of faith that it should make
   its appearance known and felt. As Christ had what our Church of England
   friends call His Epiphany, when He was manifested to men, so faith,
   though it may, for a while, be swaddled and laid in a manger, and kept
   in a stable, must have its coming out--it must have its manifestation
   and men must see it! Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea managed, for
   three years or so, to conceal their faith to a great degree. Every now
   and then the light would burn a hole through the bushel, for they could
   not quite hide the fire that was within them, but when Jesus died, then
   the thoughts of many hearts were revealed and both these men stood out
   in the clear light of day as His avowed disciples. They could not help
   it! The occasion had come when their faith must be manifested and they
   must, by their actions, say, "Now we believe." Our Lord has always put,
   side by side with the faith that saves, the duty of confession of that
   faith. His own words are, "He that believes and is baptized shall be
   saved." And Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, wrote, "If you shall
   confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart
   that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the
   heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is
   made unto salvation." Christ loves not a tongue-tied faith--He would
   not have Faith dumb, but would have her speak to the glorifying of her
   Lord on whom she depends! So these Samaritans, when they had come to
   believe in Jesus, must confess their faith and they did so by saying,
   "Now we believe."

   Possibly, dear Friends, they felt some little difficulty--I suppose
   that it was but little in their case--in saying, "Now we believe,"
   because they had previously undergone a period of doubt Evidently these
   people did not receive the woman's testimony, although others had done
   so. They listened to it and were sufficiently moved by it to go out and
   see the Teacher of whom she spoke, but they were not brought to faith
   by it. Perhaps they even battled with her and raised questions--I will
   not say quibbles--but, at last, to her great joy, they said to her,
   "'Now we believe.' We have got out of all the muddle and confusion in
   which we were. We have left the darkness, the doubt and the difficulty.
   And 'now we believe.'"

   Are there any of you, dear Friends, who have been amusing yourselves
   for years with the notion that you were infidels? Have you tried to
   make up, in your own minds, a sort of belief that you were "agnostics"?
   I think that is the favorite word for those who are proud of being know
   as nothings or ignoramuses. Have you tried to bolster up in your mind
   the idea that you were something very amazing in the form of a
   skeptical person--all the while, I doubt not, believing a great deal
   more than you liked to admit--believing and trembling at the same time?
   But have you played that foolish game out and have you now truly
   trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Savior? If so, then do not
   be ashamed to say, "Now I believe." You may have to eat your own
   words--well, then, eat them! You may have to be very humble when you
   meet your old friends--well, then, be humble--there will be no harm to
   you in that! And, perhaps, they will bring against you some of your own
   arguments. Well, it will serve you right if they do and, besides, it
   will give you the pleasure of breaking those arguments in pieces and,
   perhaps, of winning your friends for Christ, for you have seen those
   fallacies broken in your own case and you may be the means, in the hand
   of God, of breaking the bow and cutting the spear in sunder in the case
   of those who have been your fellow doubters!

   Do not be ashamed of confessing your past folly. I think a man who
   says, "I was wrong," really says, in effect, "I am a little wiser,
   today, than I was yesterday." But he who never admits that he has made
   a mistake and who claims that he has always been in the right, has
   evidently never made much growth in knowledge of himself. So, do not be
   ashamed to say, "Now I believe," though that confession may have been
   preceded by many a doubt.

   And do not hesitate to say it to the person who has, up to now, been
   baffled by you. I expect the tears were in that poor woman's eyes when
   she said to the men, "You remember what sort of person I used to be,
   and you see the change that has been worked in me. You know that I
   always spoke straight out what I believed, and this blessed Man, who
   read my very soul, is the Christ! I know He is. Then, why do you not
   believe what I say about Him?" I should not wonder if she pleaded very
   hard with them, and prayed, and entreated them to believe her
   testimony. And now, at last, when they did believe, it was due to her
   that they should cheer her heart by saying, "Now we believe." And, even
   though they had to add, "not because of your saying," that
   qualification would not grieve her. "Oh," she would say, "so long as
   you believe, I do not mind how you came into that happy condition! I
   would have been glad if God had used my saying to bring you to faith,
   but, inasmuch as He blessed the saying of the great Preacher, the Lord
   and Master, Himself, I am the more glad on that account, for He will
   have all the glory of it and, so long as you do but believe, you give
   gladness to my heart."

   There are some of you, dear Friends, to whom I have preached in vain
   for a long while and God knows that when I have been laid aside, I have
   often felt a holy joy in my heart at the thought that the man who has
   been preaching for me will be blessed by God to some who have never
   been converted under my ministry. Sometimes, when I have longed to be
   fishing for souls, but could not even stand and, therefore, had to lie
   at home in pain, it has been my hope that some other fisherman would
   throw the fly better than I might have done, and that you would take
   the bait from him, though you have often refused it from me. And when
   you come forward to join the Church, and say to me, as many have done,
   "Sir, we believe, but it was through Fullerton and Smith's mission,"
   or, "it was through the teaching in the Sunday school," or, "it was
   through the agency of someone who spoke to us in the aisle," I am sure
   that I have been just as glad and happy as if you had told me that it
   was by my own personal testimony that you had found the Lord. Glad,
   indeed, am I to be the instrument of saving souls, but still, if you
   are saved, the instrumentality by which that blessed result is reached
   is, after all, a very small matter! But, when you do really believe in
   our Lord Jesus Christ, take care that you tell us, for we have wept
   over you and prayed for you. And when you are converted, it seems but a
   fair and honest recompense that you should say to the individual whom
   God has honored to be your spiritual parent, "Now we believe." By doing
   so, you will strengthen and encourage him to go on with his work more
   earnestly than before! Perhaps you will even stave off a heartbreak and
   make the Christian sower fill his hands the fuller and scatter the seed
   more deftly because he knows that he has not labored in vain, nor spent
   his strength for nothing!

   In this annunciation of faith, I want you to observe, also, that it was
   very speedy. The Lord Jesus Christ was only in that place for two days,
   so that those who said, "Now we believe," must have testified very
   speedily after they believed. I do not think that it is the duty of
   people to wait several months before they come forward and confess
   Christ--it may sometimes be the wisdom of the officers and members of
   the Church to say to some persons, "We would like to see a little of
   your life, that we may judge by your fruit, before we receive you into
   fellowship." It may even be their dutyto say that, and to keep them
   waiting outside the Church for a while to test their genuineness, but
   it is not the duty of the candidate, himself. His business is, as
   speedily as may be convenient after he has believed in Jesus, to
   confess his faith and to seek to be baptized and added to the Church.
   You do not find Paul waiting several months, after he was converted,
   before he was baptized. You see, in Scripture, no trace of what our old
   people in the country used to practice, namely, "summering and
   wintering" converts, to see what they were like before they permitted
   them to make a confession of their faith in Jesus. No, no--if you have
   believed in Him, come along with you!

   The next step is to say so, and to say it as quickly as you can, "Now
   we believe." If tonight you are brought to faith in Jesus Christ, I
   would say to you, find some Christian Brother and tell him at once that
   you have believed in Jesus. When this precious child of the Spirit of
   God, namely, Faith, is born, let it be known to the King's house that
   it has come! In Heaven they make such blessed tidings known for, "there
   is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that
   repents." Though it is but the initial stage of faith, hold not the
   glad news back from the Church of God, but let it be speedily
   proclaimed, "Now we believe." What a joyous moment it is when any can
   say, "Now we believe!" It is the end of suspense--it is the end of the
   kingdom of darkness, it is the end of fear, it is the end of
   despair--it is the dawn of hope, it is the dawn of Heaven! Oh, what a
   world of meaning there is in those three words! What glory is opened up
   to the poor tearful eye by faith! What sights are visible when we can
   say, "Now we believe!"

   O my dear Hearers, can you all say, "Now we believe"? If you can do so,
   truthfully, you can say a greater thing than Cicero or Demosthenes,
   with all their eloquence, ever uttered! Have you been seekers for
   months and years? Have you been tempest-tossed and driven up and down
   upon the sea of doubt? May you now cast your anchor overboard into the
   depths of Jehovah's love and when you find that it holds, may you cry
   out, with ecstasy, "Now we believe!" There, then, is the annunciation
   of faith.

   II. Now, very briefly, I want you to look, in the second place, on
   FAITH'S NATIVITY. How does faith come into men's hearts?

   According to the plain teaching of Scripture, "Faith comes by hearing,
   and hearing by the Word of God." But faith is not always created in the
   human heart by the same form of instrumentality. It is always the fruit
   of the Spirit of God but it comes in different ways. Some of these
   Samaritans believed because of the saying of the woman and, I suppose
   that in the Christian Church, a very large number derive their faith
   through the power of God's Spirit, from the personal witness of others
   who have been converted. Now look, dear Friends, all of you, at this
   woman, and be encouraged to use your personal testimony for Christ! She
   was the spiritual mother of many a Samaritan believer, yet she was a
   woman of bad character. An ill savor was about her name--everybody in
   Sychar must have looked upon her as a dangerous person of fickle love
   and of foul ways--and yet, after she had found Christ, she did not
   hesitate to tell her neighbors about Him--and God did not refuse to
   bless her testimony! I believe that there are thousands of persons whom
   no man would ordain, but who are ordained of God, for all that--and
   there are many whom we would say that the Church could not employ, whom
   the great Head of the Church employs, and employs grandly, too! What if
   you have been converted from great sin? Be careful and watchful that
   you sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto you, but let not shame
   with regard to the past make you ashamed to confess the Christ of the
   present, and to acknowledge that He has worked a great work upon you!
   Here was a poor fallen woman and yet, after her conversion, she became
   a missionary of Christ to the city of Sychar! She was, altogether,
   quite an unofficial person. She does not appear to have been called a
   sister of mercy, or to have put on any peculiar garb, but she ran
   straightway to the people with whom she had lived and, perhaps, to the
   very men with whom she had sinned! She went to tell the story that
   Christ had come to her and had given to her that Living Water, of
   which, if a man shall drink, he shall never thirst again! Well,
   Believer, if no man sends you, go all the same, for Godsends you!
   Perhaps no man has laid his hands upon you, but of what use is the
   laying on of hands? Full often I fear it is only empty hands laid on
   empty heads--so, if no man has laid his hands on you, go without the
   laying on of hands, in the name of Him who has laid His pierced hands
   upon you and said to you, "Fear not, for I am with you: be not
   dismayed, for I am your God: I will strengthen you, yes, I will help
   you, yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness."

   If you ask, "What shall my message be?" let your message be your own
   personal testimony--what you have, yourself, seen, heard, tasted,
   handled and felt of the good Word of God. I do not suppose that this
   woman arranged her discourse under three heads, or that she had an
   introduction and a conclusion and all that, but she just went to the
   men of the city and said, "Come see a Man who told me all things that I
   ever did--is not this the Christ?" That was her little sermon and as
   often as she repeated it over and over again, she spoke out and bore
   her personal testimony--and so she brought the men of Sychar to Christ.
   "Go home," said Christ to one whom He had healed, "go home to your
   friends and tell them how great things the Lord has done for you, and
   has had compassion on you." It is amazing how attractive a personal
   narrative is! If you begin to explain to some people the doctrines of
   the Gospel, your audience will diminish one by one. But tell them your
   own experience of the power of Christ and they will listen as listened
   the wedding guest when "the ancient mariner" laid his hand upon him,
   detained him and told him that strange legend of the sea! You will have
   attentive hearers when you speak about your own dealings with Christ,
   the wonders that Christ has worked in you and for you, and of which you
   can testify because they are your own experience! That is, in many a
   case, the nativity of faith. The mother tells her child, the husband
   tells his wife, the brother tells his sister and, more often, still,
   the sister tells her brother. One man communicates it to his
   co-workers--a gentleman speaks of it in the drawing room to those of
   his own class--and so faith is born in other hearts as the result of
   the personal testimony of Believers!

   But, dear Friends, there are some persons who do not seem as if they
   would ever be converted by that means. Personal testimony evidently
   fails with them as it did with some of these Samaritans. What, then,
   remains? Why, it will suffice if personal testimony leads the way and
   excites attention to the subject! Then, if the man is wise, he asks for
   time and thought--and our Lord Jesus is always ready to attend to those
   who are anxious about spiritual matters, but are not quick to believe.
   Two days did He remain in Sychar and those unbelievers who were candid
   sat at His feet and heard Him through the two days. Now, what did Jesus
   preach during those two days? Turn to your New Testaments and find the
   sermon. Even though you look very carefully, you will not discover it,
   for it is not there! And it is a very curious thing that when the woman
   preached, we have notes of her sermon, but when Christ preached, we are
   not told what He said. Very remarkable is it that, frequently, we have
   those discourses of Christ which did not convert anybody and we have
   not those discourses which didconvert people! Why is that? I suppose
   that the Holy Spirit gives us the discourses which were rejected in
   order to let us see that there was no fault in the sermon, but that the
   fault was in the people. But as for those that were received, He simply
   tells us the result and does not state the particular form of the
   discourse. I would infinitely rather preach sermons that win souls and
   are then forgotten, than go on preaching and having my discourses
   printed from week to week, and hear of no results! Happily, I have not
   to choose either alternative, but these people who were not persuaded
   to believe by the witness of the woman, were converted through hearing
   Christ, Himself.

   "Well," says one, "but we cannot personally come to Christ right now."
   No, I know that you cannot, but you can do what is very much like it. I
   recommend every man who finds faith to be a difficult thing, to
   carefully read through the four Gospels, asking the Holy Spirit to
   enable him to believe what is recorded and revealed there. I usually
   find that the greatest doubters are the people who do not read the
   Bible. Holy Scripture has within itself a mighty convincing power--and
   when men lie soaking in it, it soon penetrates into their very souls! A
   man says, "I cannot believe," and yet he does not read or hear about
   the very thing that is to be believed! He keeps out of the way of it
   and yet says, "I cannot believe it." If there is something in the
   newspaper today, about which you felt compelled to say, "Other people
   seem to believe it, but, somehow, I am unable to do so--I would be very
   glad to believe it, but I cannot"--what would you do? You would read
   the statement again! You would refer to any other account that would be
   likely to confirm it. You would candidly examine the whole affair to
   see whether it was true or not. Yet how few--how very, very few have
   thus come to Holy Scripture, itself, and virtually listened to Jesus,
   Himself, and then have gone away and still said, "We do not believe."
   Unless they are really given up to hardness of heart, the result, in
   every case, seems to be that when they search the Scriptures, and seek
   to know what Christ did and said, they are soon subdued by His sweet
   power and are found sitting at His feet, believing in His name! If
   anybody has not done this and yet remains an unbeliever, I charge his
   unbelief upon himself as his own fault and sin. If I will not examine
   the evidence, I am to blame if I do not believe the

   Truth of God!

   Do you ask, "What evidence shall I examine?" I say again, examine the
   documents themselves! Let Christ speak for Himself. "Had I not better
   read a, 'Life of Christ'?" Listen, there is no, "Life of Christ,"
   extant but the one written by the four Evangelists. All the attempts
   that have been made at lives of Christ, whatever value they may have,
   are not biographies of Christ! They are somebody's idea of what He may
   have been. We need no other, "Life of Christ," than the fourfold one
   given to us in the Gospels! Those Inspired Evangelists have told us all
   we ought to wish to know. And if you read those Books--not men's books
   which have been written upon those Books--I believe that through the
   blessing of God the Holy Spirit, you will yet be able to say, with
   these Samaritans, "Now we believe." God grant that it may be so! It is
   in this way that faith is often born. Holy Scripture is the Bethlehem
   of faith! There is this blessed Child brought forth and happy are they
   who take it, and nurse it, that it may grow.

   III. This is our last point, FAITH'S UPBRINGING, or, as I called it,
   "faith's Nazareth."

   It is possible that there were some of the Samaritans who believed and
   who, when they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of your
   saying, for we have heard Him ourselves," meant that they did, at
   first, believe because of the woman's saying, but, after a while, they
   outgrew that first stage of faith and they came to believe in Jesus
   still more strongly because they had heard Him themselves.

   This was a higher form of faith. The beginnings of faith are as a
   spider's web. It would be difficult to say how little a thing faith may
   be at first. I doubt not that many believe the Bible because they were
   always taught by their parents that it is the Word of God--although
   they have never thoroughly examined that question for themselves. Some
   have believed the Truth of God, at first, because their minister
   preached it. Well, I would not discourage even that form of faith, for
   it may be like a very tiny thread which may be fastened to a
   string--and the string may be tied to a rope and the rope be attached
   to a cable--and, at last, the shipwrecked mariner may thus be saved
   from drowning! Anything that links men to Christ may, nevertheless, be
   overruled of God to their salvation. When that woman said, concerning
   our Lord, "If I may but touch His clothes, I shall be made whole," I
   fear that there was some superstition in the notion, but, nevertheless,
   Christ overlooked that and, seeing the real faith that lay hidden
   underneath, took care that it should live. Do not discourage anything
   that tends towards faith in Christ, but it is a grand thing when men
   grow, by God's Grace, till they can say, "Now I do not believe simply
   because of what my dear mother taught me. I do not believe merely
   because of what my minister preached. I do not believe because of any
   human being at all, but I believe because I have heard Christ for
   myself, I have had personal dealings with Him and, now, 'I know whom I
   have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I
   have committed unto Him against that day.'"

   The faith that sprang from Christ's own testimony would also be much
   more vivid faith. The other day there was a meeting held to protest
   against the barbarities indicted on our Jewish brethren. All the
   speakers spoke very strongly, but if any one of you had seen what has
   been done and had come fresh from the deeds of blood, I guarantee that
   you would have spoken very intensely, indeed. Your indignation would
   have flamed fiercely if you had seen the homes of the people burned
   down and men murdered and women ravished, for the sight of the
   cruelties and abominations would have affected you far more than merely
   hearing about them! So, when Faith gets to deal with Christ for
   herself--when she sees sin forgiven--when she feels the weight taken
   from her troubles--when she realizes the great possessions of joy which
   Christ has given to her--to her, herself--then she becomes much more
   vivid and truly living than the faith that rests simply upon the
   testimony of others!

   And, Beloved, as our faith becomes more vivid, so, also, it becomes
   more independent. We need more independent Christian people in the
   present day! I hope that we are growing a race of them, here, and I
   pray that we may grow far more of them. I have seen young people and,
   for all that matter, old people, too, behave excellently and seem to be
   admirable Christians while they have lived here in the midst of other
   warm-hearted Believers. But they have gone down into the country to
   live and it has been very grievous to see how cold-hearted they have
   become--how some of them have even, at last, forsaken the assemblies of
   God's House and, if they have not utterly turned aside, yet they have
   been very different from their former selves! Beloved, if you have seen
   Christ and are truly one with Him, you will live with Him when all
   Christian association is withdrawn! Look at many of the houses in our
   London streets. If a giant were to pull one of them out of the middle
   of the row, they would all come tumbling down! They only stand because
   they lean on one another. But Christians should be detached houses--no,
   semi-detached--for they must be attached to Christ--but they ought to
   stand alone, apart from men, because of their living faith in Him!

   This kind of faith has grown beyond that which was at first exercised
   and it has become broader. If you will kindly look at the chapter, you
   will notice that all the woman could tell the men was this, "Come, see
   a Man who told me all things that I ever did--is not this the Christ?"
   But these men had learned more than that, for they had listened to
   Jesus Himself! They wondered, at first, that He, being a Jew, should
   care for them. But, by-and-by, it darted into their mind that He had
   not come to be the Savior of Jews, alone, so they said, "We have heard
   Him, ourselves, and know that this is, indeed, the Christ, the Savior
   of the world." Oh, that was grand, broad faith, when they saw that this
   Christ was not the Jews' Christ alone, but the Christ of the
   Samaritans--the Christ of the Gentiles, too--the Savior of sinners all
   over the world! May your faith and mine, dear Friends, grow broad! May
   we believe for others! May we hope for others! May we expect to see
   God's salvation extending even unto the ends of the earth and, moved by
   this faith, may we be stirred up to go out and find the lost sheep,
   that we may bring them to the Great Shepherd, that He may fold them in
   safety by His tender care! Let us be so much with Christ that we may
   catch His spirit, and that our faith may grow exceedingly, and our love
   to all the saints be increased!

   The Lord give His blessing, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN4:1-42.

   Verses 1-6. When, therefore, the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard
   that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (though Jesus
   Himself baptized not, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed
   again into Galilee. And He must needs go through Samaria. Then came He
   to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of
   ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there.
   Jesus, therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well:
   and it was about the sixth hour Do not be surprised, dear Brothers and
   Sisters, if you sometimes grow weary in the Lord's work. I trust that,
   even then, you will not be weary of it, but that you will believe that
   your blessed Master can still use even His tired servants and bless
   their labors. The Lord Jesus Christ worked great marvels even when He
   sat wearily on the brink of Jacob's well--and you, perhaps, are at this
   moment as fatigued and worn as you well can be--yet, will you not
   awaken all the energies of your soul if you should see an opportunity
   of doing good, even if it should be to some poor fallen woman, as in
   the case here mentioned? It is a blessed thing never to be too tired to
   pray and to never be too tired to speak to an anxious enquirer!

   7. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water Providence was at work
   so that when Christ reached the well, this woman was on her way there.
   It was very late in the day for anyone to go to draw water, but,
   probably, the other women, who went to the well early in the morning,
   were not willing to associate with her, so she had to go by herself.
   Late as she was, however, she was all in good time, for she reached the
   spot just when Christ was waiting to bless her!

   7, 8. Jesus said unto her, Give Me to drink (For His disciples were
   gone away unto the city to buy meat). Or else they might have drawn
   water from the well to refresh Him.

   9, 10. Then said the woman of Samaria to Him, How is it that You, being
   a Jew, asks drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have
   no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If
   you knew the gift of God, and Who it is that says to you, Give Me to
   drink; you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living
   water. See the deadly mischief of ignorance concerning spiritual
   things? If she had known, she would have asked, and Christ would have
   given! But the first link was missing and, therefore, the rest of the
   chain was not drawn on. Sometimes all that people need is a little wise
   instruction and they will then trust the Savior. God grant that we may
   always be ready to give it! Alas, there are some who need much more
   than that, but Christ could truly say to this Samaritan woman, "If you
   had known, you would have asked, and I would have given." O dear
   Hearers, do not perish through ignorance! You have your Bibles--then,
   search them! You have a Gospel ministry among you--take care that you
   give diligent heed to what you hear from the servants of the Lord!

   11. The woman said unto Him, Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and
   the well is deep: from where, then, have You that living water?Christ
   told the woman that He could give her living water, but it puzzled her
   to know how He could get at it. The well where they had met was deep
   and He had nothing to draw the water out of it--how, then, could He go
   still deeper to get the living water of which He had spoken? She could
   not understand His simile and, to this day, it is the same with many of
   our Hearers. The simplest language of God's ministers goes right over
   the heads of the people. They take our words literally when they ought
   to see that they are spiritual and, on the other hand, I have known
   them spirit them away when they ought to be accepted literally. Such is
   the perversity of man's mind that, often, he will not understand the
   Truth of God.

   12-14. Are You greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well,
   and drank thereof himself and his children, and his cattle? Jesus
   answered and said unto her, Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst
   again: but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall
   never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a
   well of water springing up into everlasting life. These words set forth
   the wonderful nature of Divine Grace! They greatly err who suppose that
   we can receive it and yet, after all, be left to perish without it! No,
   but when it is once imparted to us, it continues to spring up within us
   like a well that never runs dry! It is the living and incorruptible
   seed, "which lives and abides forever." It is of the very nature and
   essence of the Grace of God that it is indestructible--it cannot be
   taken away from the heart in which it has been implanted by the Holy
   Spirit!

   15, The woman said unto Him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst
   not, neither come here to draw. This was an ignorant prayer on the part
   of the woman, but it is one which I would commend to every enlightened
   soul--"Sir, give me this water." Do you want a form of prayer? Here is
   one for you! "Sir," Lord--"give me this water." The Lord is ready to
   hear that petition and to give this precious living water even now.

   16, 17. Jesus said unto her, Go, call your husband and come here. The
   woman answered and said, I have no husband. The Lord Jesus knew all
   about her character and here He touched the weakest point in it. His
   plainest teaching had so far missed the mark, for He had not reached
   her conscience--but He was about to do so.

   17, 18. Jesus said unto her, You have weel said, Ihave no husband: for
   you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your
   husband: in that said you truly. You can imagine her astonishment--her
   blank amazement as the secret story of her life was thus repeated to
   her!

   19. The woman said unto Him, Sir, I perceive that You are a Prophet I t
   would have been a sign of better things if she had said, "Lord, I
   perceive that I am a sinner," but that confession had to be made a
   little farther on. How apt people are rather to think about the
   preacher than about themselves! If half the criticisms which are passed
   upon ministers of Christ were bestowed upon the hearers, themselves,
   how much sooner they might receive the blessing they need! The woman
   then asked our Lord a question about religion which was strangely out
   of place from such a woman as she. Yet, often, those who have least
   morality will have the most ceremonialism and concern about the
   externalsof worship!

   20. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. This Mount Gerizim--

   20. And You say that in Jerusalem is theplace where men ought to
   worship. This she thought was a very important matter.

   21. Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe Me, the hour comes when you
   shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the
   Father ' 'There shall be an abolition of all specially-holy shrines,
   for all places shall be, alike, holy. There shall be a putting an end
   to all your traditions and your forms of worship, for God shall be
   worshipped after another fashion than that which is merely formal and
   superficial."

   22-26. You worship what you do not know: we know what we worship, for
   salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes and now is, when the true
   worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the
   Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that
   worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The woman said
   unto Him, I know that Messiah comes, who is called Christ: when He is
   come, He will tell us all things. Jesus said unto her, I that speak
   unto you am He. That majestic word of Christ carried conviction with
   it--the woman believed it then and there!

   27, 28. And upon this came His disciples, and marveled that He talked
   with the woman: yet no man said, What do You seek? or, Why do You talk
   with her? The woman then left her water pot She was too glad, too happy
   to recollect so poor a thing as a water pot! It was much to her before,
   but very little now. As one who finds a precious pearl forgets some
   trifle that he carried in his hands, so she "left her water pot."

   28, 29. And went her way into the city, and said to the men, Come, see
   a Man, who told me all things that I ever did--is not this the
   Christ?Her notion was that when Christ came, He would tell all things.
   Here was a Man who revealed her innermost secrets--was not He the
   Christ?

   30-32. Then they went out of the city and came unto Him. In the
   meantime, His disciples urged Him, saying, Master, eat But He said unto
   them, I have meat to eat that you know not of O Beloved, there is a
   wonderful fascination about the blessed work of soul-seeking! When one
   is really anxious to bring a sinner to the Savior, eating and drinking
   are often forgotten! As the hunter of the chamois, in the heat of the
   chase leaps from crag to crag, and is oblivious of danger, and forgets
   all about the time for his meals, so he that hunts after a precious
   soul, to win it for Christ, forgets everything else! He is altogether
   absorbed in this holy pursuit--the Master was more absorbed in it than
   any of us are ever likely to be.

   33-35. Therefore said the disciples, one to another, Has any man
   brought Him anything to eat? Jesus said unto them, My meat is to do the
   will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work Say not you, There are
   yet four months, and then comes harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift
   up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white, already, to
   harvest. That was probably an old Oriental proverb, used by lazy men
   who never thought it time to get to work, but Jesus said, "Do not use
   the idler's language any longer. Now, at once, there is work for you to
   do."

   36-42. And he that reaps receives wages, andgathers fruit unto life
   eternal: that both he that sows andhe that reaps may rejoice together
   And herein is that saying true, One sows, and another reaps. I sent you
   to reap that whereon you bestowed no labor: other men labored and you
   are entered into their labors. And many of the Samaritans of that city
   believed on Him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told
   me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans were come unto Him, they
   besought Him that He would tarry with them: and He abode there two
   days. And many more believed because of His own word and said unto the
   woman, Now we believe, not because of your saying: for we have heard
   Him, ourselves, and know that this is, indeed, the Christ, the Savior
   of the world. The Lord bring us all to trust in Him for His dear name's
   sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Secondhand

   (No. 2624)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 28, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   FEBRUARY 12, 1882.

   "Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this
   concerning Me?" John 18:34.

   I EXPLAINED this morning, [Sermon #1644, Volume 28--" Our Lord's First
   Appearance before Plate"] why our Savior put that question to Pilate.
   The Roman governor had asked Him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" And
   Jesus as good as said to him, "Have you, of your own knowledge, seen
   anything in Me that looks like setting up to be a king in opposition to
   Caesar? You intend, by asking Me that question, to enquire whether I
   have led a rebellion against your government, or the imperial authority
   which you represent. Now, has there been anything which you have
   observed which would have led you to make this enquiry, or do you only
   ask it because of what the Jews have been saying in their enmity
   against Me?" You will see, dear Friends, that our Lord asked this
   question in order that He might get from Pilate's own lips the
   acknowledgment that he had not seen any sign of sedition or rebellion
   in Him and that it might be proved that the charge had been brought to
   Pilate by those outside, and had not come from the Roman governor
   himself.

   We will, now, forget Pilate for a while, for I want to use this
   question in two ways with reference to ourselves. First, I shall
   utilize it as a warning against secondhand quibbles at Christ and His
   Gospel Some people have a large stock of them and we might say to each
   one of these quibblers, "Are you speaking for yourself about this, or
   did others tell you this?" Then, in the second place, I shall use the
   text as a warning against all secondhand religion, pressing this
   question home upon each one who speaks up for Christ, "Are you speaking
   for yourself about this, or did others tell you this?"

   I. We will begin with the opponents of the Lord Jesus and consider our
   text, first, as A WARNING AGAINST SECONDHAND QUIBBLES AT CHRIST AND HIS
   GOSPEL.

   There are a great many people in the world who really do not know why
   they oppose religion--and if you ask them the reason, they repeat some
   old bit of scandal, some stale slander upon Jesus and His Cross--and
   they give that as their answer. I firmly believe that there are
   thousands, who are ranked among the opposers of the Gospel who have not
   anything to say against Christ of their own knowledge, but others have
   told them something or other, and they go on repeating and reiterating
   the old exploded obsolete objections that have been demolished
   thousands of times! And I suppose they and others of their kind will
   keep on doing the same thing right to the end of time.

   As soon as Jesus Christ's Gospel was launched upon the world's sea, it
   had to encounter opposing winds, storms and tempests. Like a scarred
   veteran, the Gospel has had battle after battle to fight. In our Lord's
   own day it was opposed most vigorously. His Apostles found that
   wherever they went, their feet were dogged by those who railed at Jesus
   and His Word. And when the Apostles had all fallen asleep, the early
   Churches found that they had need of an order of men who became the
   apologists for the Gospel and who bravely stood up to defend it against
   the attacks of divers heathen philosophers, skeptics and heretics who
   arose wherever the Truth of God was preached. There was opposition
   everywhere to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ--and His servants
   girded up their loins to do battle for Him and for His Truth.

   That great campaign has continued even down to this day and there is
   this very remarkable fact about it, that, at the present moment, most
   of the objections that are brought against the Gospel are those that
   were answered and silenced some hundreds of years ago! And even when
   they appeared, all those centuries ago, they were then only
   reproductions of some older objections which had been answered and, as
   the defenders of the faith thought, had been trampled out, like sparks
   of fire trodden under foot! But, somehow an ill wind has begun to blow,
   again, and the fire, which some hoped was finally extinguished, has
   burned up once more. Originality in skepticism has almost ceased to
   be--we scarcely ever hear anything fresh in the way of heresy nowadays.
   We are troubled with the very errors which our forefathers answered a
   hundred years ago, yet the adversaries of the Truth of God go on
   cleaning and sharpening their blunted shafts, that they may once more
   shoot them at the great shield of faith which is impervious to their
   puny assaults, for it can quench even the most fiery darts of the devil
   himself! The modern arrows of skepticism will be broken against that
   glorious shield, yet they will probably be gathered up by another
   generation that will follow the present one and the heretics and
   objectors in the future will do just as their fathers did before them.
   I want, at this time, to put to any quibbler whom I may be addressing,
   the question of our Lord to Pilate, "Are you speaking for yourself
   about this, or did others tell you this?"

   And, first, I ask you to observe that there are many unreasonable
   prejudices. Some persons have great prejudices against the Bible. I
   will not repeat what they say, but I would like to ask every person who
   thinks ill of this blessed Book, "Have you read the Bible through, and
   read it thoroughly? Have you studied it? Are your objections your own?
   Come, now, did you make them yourself?" It is almost always found that
   objections are like the axe the young Prophet was using--they are
   borrowed--and often they are objections against a Book which has not
   been read at all, and which has not been allowed to exercise its own
   influence upon the heart and the judgment of the person who is
   prejudiced against it to his own hurt! Other people have told men,
   such-and-such things, so they shut the Book and refuse to look into it
   for themselves.

   There are other people who are prejudiced against public worship. You
   see, I am starting at the very beginning-- those matters with regard to
   religion which are elementary. Of course, we are told that we shut
   ourselves up on Sunday in these dreary buildings of ours, and here we
   sit, in a horrible state of misery, listening to the most awful twaddle
   that ever was taught, our singing being nothing better than droning and
   the whole of our worship being something very terrible! If I were to
   read to you the descriptions of an English Sabbath which I have
   sometimes seen in newspapers, they might make you almost weep tears of
   blood to think that we poor souls should suffer so much as we do! Only
   you know that we are altogether unconscious of any such suffering! We
   really have been under the notion that we very much enjoyed ourselves
   while worshipping the Lord in His House. Many of us have the idea that
   the Sabbath is the happiest day in all the week and that, when we hear
   the Gospel preached, it is sweeter than music to us and makes our
   hearts leap within us for very joy!

   Of course we are very much obliged to our friends for telling us how
   dull and how unhappy we are and for wishing us to be in a better
   condition. We can only say that, not being enabled to perceive any of
   these sorrows, we would advise them to retain their pity and exercise
   it upon themselves--for they certainly need it far more than we do! To
   any of you who make remarks of the kind I have indicated, I ask--"Do
   your difficulties concerning public worship really arise out of your
   attending the House of God, out of your hearing the Gospel
   preached--out of your joining in the songs and praises of God's
   people?" Oh, no! It is those people who never come to our services who
   believe the Sabbath to be dull, the House of God to be dreary and the
   preaching of the Gospel to be a monotonous sound from which every
   sensible man would escape! I put the question of my text to every
   person who is prejudiced against the Bible, and prejudiced against our
   public worship in God's House, "Are you speaking for yourself about
   this, or did others tell you this?"

   Sometimes, the prejudice concerns the preacher. I will not say that it
   is so about myself, though I have had, in my time, more than my fair
   share of it. "Hear him?" says one, "I would not go across the road to
   listen to such a fellow." Many have said that and the preacher, whoever
   he may be, is condemned without a hearing. If the objector were asked
   to give a reason for his prejudice, he might answer by quoting the old
   lines--

   "I do not like you, Dr. Fell. The reason why, I cannot tell, But this I
   know, and know full well-- I do not like you, Dr. Fell."

   I should like to say to everybody who is prejudiced against any servant
   of Christ, "Do you say this of yourself?" Those absurd stories about
   the preacher--did you really hear them, yourself, or did somebody tell
   you them? Would you like to be judged by the mere idle tittle-tattle of
   the street or of the newspapers? And if you would not, then be an
   honest, reasonable man and at least give the servant of God a hearing
   before you condemn him or his message! And, take my word for it, the
   most-abused preacher is very likely to be the very man whom God will
   bless the most! Not the one who is most praised, but the one who is
   most censured by the world, is probably the man who has been most
   faithful to his Master and to the Gospel committed to his charge. At
   any rate, be honest enough to reply to the question which our Lord put
   to Pilate, "Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others
   tell you this?"

   There is a remark sometimes made, and I fear it is a very common one,
   "Oh, I would not be a Christian, I would not be religious, for it makes
   men so dreadfully miserable" Now, Friend, do you say this, yourself, or
   did somebody else tell you? Come, now, you say that religion is such a
   miserable thing--have you tried it for yourself? Have you experienced
   the misery that comes out of prayer--out of faith--out of
   repentance--out of love to God--out of being pardoned-- out of having a
   good hope of Heaven? Have you ever proved what that dreadful misery is?
   I think if you had ever really tested these things for yourself, your
   verdict would be the very reverse and you would join with us in singing
   the lines that express what many of us most firmly believe about this
   matter--

   "'Tis religion that can give

   Sweetest pleasures while we live!

   'Tis religion must supply

   Solid comfort when we die."

   Yet you go on repeating that slander upon religion though you cannot
   prove it to be true and might easily learn its falseness! Let me appeal
   to you. Had you a godly mother? "Yes," you say, "and it was her life
   that prevents my being altogether an unbeliever." I thought so, but, if
   I remember her aright, she was a quiet good soul who, in her home,
   tried to make everybody happy. And though she had not much pleasure in
   her son, for he was wayward and willful, yet there was no unkindness on
   her lips--the law of love always ruled the house. She was a weak and
   feeble creature who derived but slender gratification from any of the
   outward enjoyments of life, but she had a deep, secret spring of peace
   and joy which kept her calm, quiet and happy. And now that she has gone
   to be with God, she has left a gleam of sunlight still behind in her
   sweet memory. You did not get from your mother, nor from other godly
   friends, your belief that religion makes men miserable! And I venture
   to say that, so far as you have had any actual personal observation of
   it, you have been inclined to come to quite the opposite verdict and to
   confess that, though you do not know how it is, yet, somehow or other,
   godliness does give to the people who possess it, peace of mind,
   happiness of heart and usefulness of life.

   There is another slander that is spread abroad very widely, and that is
   that the Doctrine of the Grace of God--the Doctrine which we try to
   preach from this pulpit--has no sanctifying effect. That, on the
   contrary, it is likely to lead people into sin. They say that if we
   preach, "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life," and do not
   preach up good works as the way of salvation, it is clear that such
   teaching will lead people into sin! Clear, is it? It is not so to me!
   But, my Friend, will you answer this question, "Are you speaking for
   yourself about this, or did others tell you this?" Is it not a matter
   of history that there never have been stricter living men than the
   Puritans? What is the great quarrel against John Calvin, himself, but
   that when he ruled in Geneva he was too stern and too exacting in his
   requirements? It is an odd thing--is it not--that these Doctrines of
   Grace should, on the one hand, make men too strict as a matter of fact,
   and yet that the wiseacres who object to them should say that these
   doctrines are likely to lead into sin those who accept them? It is not
   found to be so by those who believe them!

   Let me again appeal to any candid objector. My dear Sir, did you ever
   prove what it is to believe in the great love of God to you--that, for
   the sake of His dear Son, out of pure, unmerited Grace, He has chosen
   you, saved you and appointed you to eternal life? Did you ever believe
   that and then feel, as a natural consequence, that you would go and
   live in sin? I know that you never did, but that it was quite the
   reverse! "Here," said some boys to a companion, "we are going to rob an
   orchard. Come along with us, Jack." "No," he said, "my father would not
   approve of such a thing." "But your father is very fond of you and
   never beats you as our fathers do." "Yes," said the boy, "my father
   loves me very much and I love him very much--and that is the reason why
   I am not going to rob the orchard and so grieve him." Now, you believe
   in the beating of the boys by the rod of the Law, do you not? And we,
   on the other hand, feel that because God loves us and will, in His
   infinite mercy continue to love us, therefore we must keep out of sin
   as much as we possibly can. We cannot do that horrible thing which
   would grieve His blessed Spirit. So I ask you, as truthful men, not to
   repeat that old slander concerning the Doctrines of Grace leading to
   sin until you have really had some reason to assert it because of what
   you, yourselves, have witnessed in the lives of Christian people! Do
   not say it again until you can truly say it from your own experience or
   observation! Do not repeat it simply because others tell you it is so.

   Yes, and there are some who say that there is no power in prayer, that
   we may pray, if we like, but that we cannot change the purposes of
   God--that the laws of nature are fixed and immutable and, therefore, to
   pray is a piece of absurdity. "Are you speaking for yourself about
   this, or did others tell you this?" I will speak personally to you. Did
   you ever try to pray? Did you ever put this matter to the test--whether
   God will hear prayer or not? I do not think you can have put it to a
   fair test and I would like you to see whether God will or will not hear
   even yourprayer if you cry to Him. If any say to me, "God does not hear
   prayer," I have scarcely the patience to give them an answer! I live
   from day to day crying to God for this or that favor which I receive as
   certainly and as constantly as ever my sons had their meals when they
   sat at my table! I knew how to give good gifts to my children and I
   know that my Heavenly Father gives good gifts to me. My evidence, of
   course, is only that of one man--and it may not suffice to convince
   others, though many of you, here, could add your testimony to mine--but
   I should like all objectors just to give prayer a fair trial before
   they are quite so sure about the inefficacy of it. Let them see whether
   real prayer, offered in the name of Jesus Christ, will not be heard
   even in their case!

   I am certain that there is not a praying man anywhere on the face of
   the globe who does not bear this testimony-- that God hears him. And if
   any say, "We do not pray and do not believe that God hears prayer,"
   what evidence have you to bring? You are altogether out of court, for
   you know nothing about the matter! But the man who does pray and then
   says, "God hears me," is the man to be a witness, and the one who has a
   right to be heard. I have told you, more than once, what the Irishman
   said when there were five witnesses to prove that he had committed
   murder. He said to the judge, "You must not condemn me on their
   evidence--there are only five people here who saw me do it--I can bring
   50 people who did not see me do it!" But that was no evidence at all
   and, in like manner, there are many who say, "You bring a certain
   number of people who pray, to prove that God hears them. But we can
   bring ten times as many, who do not pray, and who do not get heard."
   What has that to do with the matter? Where is the evidence? You say it
   not of yourself but merely repeat, secondhand, what has been said by
   others, so often and so foolishly, that it sickens one to hear it!

   It is beginning to be questioned in many quarters, nowadays, whether
   there is any real effect produced by prayer, except that of exciting
   certain pious emotions in the breasts of those who pray. This is a very
   pretty statement! We ought to be extremely obliged to those superior
   persons who allow that even so much may be done! I am amazed they do
   not assert that prayer is ridiculous, or hypocritical, or immoral!
   Their moderation puts us under obligations. And yet I do not know--when
   I look again at their admission, I thank them for nothing--for they as
   good as call us fools! Do they think that we perform a useless exercise
   merely for the sake of exciting pious emotions? We must be grievous
   idiots if we can receive benefit from a senseless function! We are not
   willing to whistle to the wind for the sake of the exercise. We should
   not be content to go on praying to a god who could be proven to be both
   deaf and dumb. We have still some little common sense left, despite
   what our judicious friends consider to be our fanaticism. We are sure
   that we obtain answers to prayer! Of this fact I am certain and I
   solemnly declare that I have received of the Lord that which I have
   asked at His hands. I am not alone in such testimony, for I am
   associated with multitudes of men and women who bear witness to the
   same fact and declare that they sought the Lord and He heard them. Take
   care, Brothers and Sisters, to record all instances of answered prayer
   so as to leave this unbelieving generation without excuse. Accumulate
   the facts and demonstrate the grand Truth of God! Multiply the
   testimonies till even the philosophers are obliged to admit both the
   phenomena and the deduction rightly drawn from them.

   There is one other gross slander to which I would reply, and that is a
   saying that goes round among troubled consciences--that Christ will not
   receive sinners--that the very guilty cannot be saved. They say that
   Christ can forgive and deliver up to a certain point, but if you get
   beyond that, He is no longer willing to pardon. Dear Hearer, has that
   foolish and wicked notion entered your head? Then I ask you, "Are you
   speaking for yourself about this?" Did you ever prove it to be true?
   Have you ever sought His face? Have you cried to Him for mercy? "Yes,"
   you say, "I have." And then, further, have you thrown yourself at His
   feet, trusting Him to save you, and have you been refused? I know you
   have not! There was never a sinner, yet, who fell down before Him and
   determined to lie there and perish if He did not speak a word of mercy,
   to whom the Lord has not, sooner or later, spoken the Grace-word which
   has sent that poor sinner on his way rejoicing! I would at least like
   you to go and see whether Christ will receive you or not before you say
   that He will not do so.

   Say not that the door of His mercy is shut, but go in while it is still
   open! If He casts you out, then He will have broken His word, for He
   has said, "Him that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out." Do not
   call Him a liar and say that He will cast you out till you have,
   yourself, proved that it is so! And that, I know, will never be the
   case. I am afraid that there is another being who has been whispering
   that vile insinuation into your ear--and he is your archenemy who is
   seeking your destruction and, therefore, he has come and told you this
   lie against the infinitely-loving and gracious Savior! Believe him not,
   but come even now and put your trust in Jesus and you shall find that
   He will give you eternal life!

   I have thus examined the question of my text with reference to the
   opponents of the Gospel. I shall now leave that part of the subject,
   praying the Holy Spirit to bless it to all whom it may concern.

   II. Now, in the second place, I am going to speak briefly, but with
   much earnestness, to the many here present who are friends of the
   Gospel, but who have only a SECONDHAND RELIGION, if they have any at
   all. I want to have a word with you, dear Friends, about this matter.
   You and I have been talking a great deal about Christ. Now, have we
   been simply quoting what others have said? Have we been making extracts
   from other people's experience, or is what we have said something that
   we can say of ourselves, and not what others have told us?

   For, Brothers and Sisters, first, a secondhand testimony for Christ is
   a powerless thing. Take a man--as I am afraid is often done--with no
   Grace in his heart and send him to Oxford or Cambridge, with the view
   of making him a parson. Teach him the sciences, languages, mathematics
   and give him a degree. His friends want to get a living for him and the
   bishop's chaplain proceeds to examine him. The first question ought to
   be, Is this young man a Christian? Is he truly converted? Does he know
   the Lord? Does he understand, in his own soul, the things he is going
   to preach to others? For, if he does not, what good can he do in the
   Christian ministry? Perhaps he is sent to a school of theology to learn
   the various systems of doctrine. He must read the judicious Hooker. He
   must study Jeremy Taylor. He must take lessons in elocution and
   rhetoric. Then, possibly, his friends buy him some lithographed sermons
   that he may read and they get him some books, that he may make extracts
   from them to put into the sermons he preaches. Suppose that man is, all
   the while, unconverted? Suppose that he does not know anything about
   the working of the Grace of God in his own soul? What is the good of
   him as a teacher of others? No good at all! At any rate, at the best,
   he may be only as good as one of those newly invented phonographs which
   can repeat what is spoken into them. This man can read out what he has
   selected from other books, but that is all. We will suppose that he is
   a very decent sort of fellow--an amiable gentleman, well-instructed,
   well-behaved and so on--but all that he has to say is what other people
   have told him!

   But now put into that man's pulpit, only for one Lord's-Day, a preacher
   who has known what it is to feel the burden of sin and to have it
   removed by faith in Jesus. Let him begin to speak to the people in
   downright earnest about the pangs and sorrows of true repentance. Let
   him tell them about their need of the new birth and about his
   experience of obtaining that great blessing and how, by Sovereign
   Grace, he was brought out of the darkness into the light, and even from
   death to life. Let that man be moved to speak of the peace of pardon
   through the precious blood and of the joys of Heaven laid up for all
   Believers--and then the people will wake up, I will guarantee you! This
   is something very different from the preaching to which they have been
   accustomed--and they will soon feel the power of it.

   Yet the Lord sometimes uses even a preacher who does not, himself,
   understand the Truth he proclaims. I know a man who went and heard a
   certain minister preach, or rather, read a sermon, and it was such a
   good one that the hearer's conscience was smitten by it. The discourse
   was about the new birth and, the next morning, the man went off to the
   clergyman, and said, "Sir, I want you to explain this matter further to
   me, for I am dreadfully distressed by what you preached last night."
   What, do you think, this preacher said? He said, "Well, Jonathan, I am
   sure I never meant to cause anybody any uneasiness. What was it that
   gave you such trouble?" "Why," he replied, "it was that part of the
   sermon where you said that we must be born again." So the preacher
   said, "Well, here is the discourse. You see, by the dates upon it, that
   I have used it 13 times before, so I could not have made it with any
   special view to your case. I am very sorry, indeed, that it caused you
   any discomfort, and I will never preach it again if it brings people
   into trouble in this style." That was all the help the poor man could
   get from the parson, so he went out and found a true servant of God who
   knew the Truth of God, himself, and was not a secondhand retailer of
   it, and, through conversation with him and prayer, and the reading of
   the Scriptures, he was brought into peace and liberty! I need hardly
   tell you that he does not go to hear that secondhand preacher now! He
   listens to a far humbler minister, who, nevertheless, preaches what he
   has tasted and handled of the good Word of Life.

   Now, if any of you are going to be Sunday school teachers, or
   street-preachers, do not begin to talk about what somebody else has
   told you. Go and say what you, yourself, know, of a heart first broken
   by the power of the Holy Spirit, and then bound up by the application
   of the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ! Proclaim your message in a
   living way from the heart to the heart, or else your hearers will feel
   that there is no power about it, however nicely you put the Truth and
   however sweetly you describe it. There is all the difference between
   personal testimony to the Truth of God and a parrot-like repetition of
   it, that there is between the living and the dead! Let us only bear
   witness to what we really know--and then no one will need to ask us
   what our Lord asked Pilate, "Are you speaking for yourself about this,
   or did others tell you this?"

   Now, further, the same thing is true with regard to professors. We have
   many friends who come, at different times, to join the Church, and
   their stories vary greatly. Some who come to see me cannot say much and
   they think that I shall be very dissatisfied with them because they
   make a great muddle of their narrative, and there is not much, after
   all, that comes out. But the people with whom I am least satisfied are
   those who reel off their yarn by the yard--they have it all ready to
   repeat and everything is arranged as prettily as possible! Yes, and as
   I listen to it, I know that someone has told them what to say and they
   have memorized it all for me to hear! But I like far better the
   testimony that I have to pick out in little bits, but which I know
   comes fresh from the heart of the trembling convert! Sometimes it costs
   the poor soul a tear or a real good cry--and I have to go round about
   in all manner of ways to get hold of the story at all--but that shows
   that it is true and that the man never borrowed it. I like to hear the
   experience of a Believer, when he comes straight out of the world and
   out of the ways of sin, to confess his faith in Christ. He does not
   know anything about the terms that Christian people use. He has not
   learned our phrases and it is a great delight to hear it all fresh and
   new. Yet it is always the same story in all the essential parts of it.
   However strangely he may narrate it, it tallies with that of others in
   the main points. Take the experience of a Christian man who has been
   brought up in the sanctuary from his childhood and extract the pith and
   marrow of it. Now take the experience of a man who has been a gambler,
   a drunk, a swearer, but who has been truly converted--and extract the
   pith of that. Talk to a peer of the realm who has become an heir of the
   Kingdom of Heaven and take the pith of his experience. Now get a
   chimney-sweep who has been brought to the Lord and get the pith of his
   experience. Put them all side by side and you will not know one from
   the other! There are always the same essential marks--death, birth,
   life, food--Christ in the death, the life, the birth, the
   food--repentance, faith, joy, the work of the Spirit of God! But it is
   very sweet to hear the story told in the many different ways in which
   the converts tell it. The true child of Grace is always the same in
   heart, although the outward appearance may continually vary.

   But, dear Friends, whenever you begin to make a profession of religion,
   take care that you never profess more than you really possess! Go just
   as far as you can go, yourself, by the Grace of God, and do not repeat
   what others tell you. To borrow another man's experience is dishonest.
   If it is not mine, how dare I say that it is? It is also very apt to be
   self-deceptive, for a man may repeat another person's experience until
   he really thinks he didpass through it, himself, just as a man may
   repeat a lie until it almost ceases to be a lie because he, himself,
   gets to believe what at first he knows was not true! That borrowing of
   the experience of others is usually worthless with those who have had
   much to do with men, for we who do know the Lord and are familiar with
   His people, very readily trip up those who only repeat what they have
   learned! Freemasons recognize one another by various grips and signs. A
   man may, perhaps, find out one of the grips, but he does not learn them
   all and, at last, he gets caught--and people say to him, "You are
   pretending to be what you really are not."

   Take, again, a man's handwriting. Someone may imitate my writing for a
   long while, but, at last, he does not copy some peculiar dash, or
   stroke, or mark which is characteristic of my style. And those who
   know, say, "That is not Mr. Spurgeon's writing--it is a forgery." So
   there is a something--a sort of freemasonry--about Christianity. People
   may learn some of our grips, signs and passwords, but, by-and-by, they
   make a blunder and we say, "Ah, you are an impostor!" They may try to
   write after the fashion of a child of God and they may make the
   pot-hooks, hangers and straight strokes, but, as they get on further,
   there is a something or other that comes out in the long run which
   proves that they are only copyists after all. Therefore, I say to you,
   dear Friends--Do not attempt to repeat what others have told you about
   experimental godliness, but let your testimony only consist of what you
   can truly say out of your own heart and soul!

   Let this be the case, also, with regard to every man, whether he makes
   a profession of religion or not May God grant that all that we think we
   know, we may really know in our own souls and not have because we have
   borrowed it from others! In religion, proxies and sponsors are
   altogether out of place. I pray you never to be guilty of that horrible
   blasphemy--for I think that it is nothing less than that--of standing
   up before God and promising that a child shall keep His Commandments
   and walk in the same all the days of its life! Remember that in
   religion, there are certain things that must be personal. For instance,
   every man must be, himself, born--another person cannot be born for
   you. In like manner, "You must be born again"--personally, for
   yourself! There is no possibility of another person experiencing that
   new birth for you. If a man lives, he must eat for himself. You cannot
   take my meals for me--it is I, myself, who must eat them. And we must
   eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ by faith, each one for
   himself or herself--nobody can do it for another. In daily life each
   man must be clothed for himself. You may wear silk and satin, you may
   be dressed in the best broadcloth, but you cannot be clothed on my
   behalf--I must be dressed myself, or else go naked. So must each man
   put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, or be naked, to his shame,
   before God. Every man must repent of his own sin-- make confession of
   his own sin, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for himself--love God for
   himself, obey the Lord for himself. There is no possibility of any
   other person, by any means, doing this for you! There must be personal
   godliness, or else there is no godliness at all. So, whenever you feel
   inclined to say for yourself, "I believe that I am a Christian. I
   believe this and I believe that," let this question come home to you,
   "Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you
   this?"

   And, lastly, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, let me utter a word
   specially for your ears. Never get, in your prayers, or in your talk,
   an inch beyond your actual experience. Our calling is a very high one
   and one of the most serious difficulties in the way of ever attaining
   its greatest height is the impression that we have reached it when we
   have not. My own impression is that some Brothers and Sisters might
   have been almost perfect if they had not thought that they were so
   already! But they missed the blessing through that very thought! Many a
   man might have become wise, but he imagined that he had learned wisdom,
   so he was never really wise. You know that if you see a man who thinks
   that he is wise, you say to yourself, "How very foolish he is!" And you
   speak truly, too. The doorstep of wisdom is a consciousness of
   ignorance and the gateway of perfection is a deep sense of
   imperfection. Paul was never so nearly perfect as when he cried, "O
   wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
   death?" But if he had sat down and said, "I have attained and am
   already perfect," then would he have been in a fair way of missing the
   blessing of God. No, dear Brothers or Sisters, say no more than you can
   justify. There are many who do that in business--mind that you do not
   so act in spiritual matters! Look at that shop window--what a wonderful
   display! Now go inside the shop. Why, there is nothing there! No, for
   the man has all his goods in the window! You would at once say to
   yourself, if he wanted to deal with you, "I shall not trust him very
   deeply." Ah, and do we not know some who, spiritually, have all their
   goods in the window? It is a grand thing to have a great stock in
   reserve. Never mind if it is in the cellar, where you cannot see it--it
   is none the worse for being out of sight!

   The great thing for all Christians is to have a good background,
   something behind that is real so that, if you pray, or if you speak to
   another, you will be prepared to back it up! I remember trying to be a
   blessing to a very shrewd boy in a Sunday school class when first I
   knew the Lord. I told him the Gospel--"He that believes and is baptized
   shall be saved." Then he asked me a straight question, "Teacher, have
   you believed?" I replied, "Yes, I hope so." He said, "Don't you know,
   Teacher? You ought to." "Yes," I answered, "yes, I do know. I have
   believed in Jesus." "Well, Teacher," he enquired next, "have you been
   baptized?" I replied, "Yes, I have." "Then," he said, "Teacher, you are
   saved." I said, "I hope so." "But," he insisted, "you are." Just so,
   and I found that I must say so, too--that I must not use even Christ's
   words unless I meant to back them up by my own consistent
   character--otherwise I am throwing suspicion on my Master's
   truthfulness! May the Lord bring us up to this point of Christian
   honesty--that when we cannot truthfully say a thing from our own
   experience, we will be honest enough to resolve, "I shall not say it
   till I can truly say it."

   When you think of a verse of a hymn, and it is a little in advance of
   your own position, wait till you come up to that point. There are
   numbers of hymns that I laid by, in that fashion, years ago. I wished
   that I could sing them, yet they seemed to stick in my throat and I
   could not. But my throat has been cleared a good deal lately, and I
   have been obliged, at last, to feel that I must have those very hymns,
   for they have become true to my soul and have made my experience a very
   happy one. Do not be in too much of a hurry in spiritual things any
   more than in temporal things. If you cannot eat meat, stick to your
   milk. Milk is for babes, so keep to milk till you outgrow it, You will
   choke with that tough bit of meat--you had better leave it for somebody
   else. Do not find fault with it, it is good for strong men, they do not
   need to be always drinking milk. Do not deny the strong man his meat,
   but let him have as much as he likes of it! As for yourself, if you are
   a babe in Grace, keep to your milk diet. But, in all your testimony, do
   not go beyond what is actually true to yourself. Often let my text lay
   its hand upon your shoulder and repeat this searching enquiry, "Are you
   speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this?"

   May God grant a rich blessing to you all, dear Friends, for our Lord
   Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Dumb Singing

   (No. 2625)

   INTENDED FOR READING OR LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 4, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT SHOULDHAM STREET CHAPEL, ON WEDNESDAY MORNING, APRIL 29, 1857.

   "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf
   shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the
   tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out,
   and streams in the desert." Isaiah 35:5.

   WHAT a difference Divine Grace makes, wherever it enters the heart! In
   our text we find the blind mentioned, but they are no longer blind when
   once Grace has touched their eyes! "Then the eyes of the blind" are
   "opened." We read also of the deaf, but they are not deaf after Grace
   has operated upon them! "The ears of the deaf are "unstopped." Here are
   men who have been "lame," but when once the Omnipotent influence of
   Divine Grace has come upon them, they leap like a hart! And those who
   used to be speechless, so far from being dumb any longer, have
   experienced a change that must be radical, for its effects are
   surprising. "The tongue of the dumb" not only speaks, but it sings!
   Divine Grace makes a great difference in a man when it enters into him.

   How vain, then, are the boasts and professions of some persons who
   declare themselves to be the children of God and yet continue to live
   in sin! There is no perceivable difference in their conduct from what
   it formerly was--they are still what they used to be before their
   pretended conversion--they are not changed in their acts, even in the
   least degree. And yet they most positively affirm that they are the
   called and living children of God, although they are entirely
   unchanged! Let such people know that their pretensions are lies and
   that falsehood is the only groundwork they have for their hopes, for
   wherever the Grace of God comes, it makes men to differ from what they
   were before. A graceless man is not like a gracious man, and gracious
   men are not like graceless ones--we are "new creatures in Christ
   Jesus." When God looks upon us with the eyes of love and works in us
   conversion and regeneration, He makes us as opposite from what we were
   before as light is from darkness, and as Heaven, itself, is from Hell!
   He works in man a change so great that no mere reformation can even
   imitate it--it is an entire change--a change of the will, of the
   affections, of the desires, of the dislikes and of the likes. The man
   becomes, in every respect, new, when Divine Grace enters his heart. Yet
   you say of yourself, "I am converted," and remain just as you were I
   tell you once again to your face, that you say what is not true--you
   have no ground for saying it! If grace permits you to sin as you were
   known to do, then that grace is not Divine Grace! That grace is not
   worth having which permits a man to be, after he receives it, what he
   was before. No, Beloved, we must always hold and teach the great
   Doctrine of Sanctification. Where God truly justifies, He also really
   sanctifies. And where there is the remission of sin, there is also the
   forsaking of it! Where God has blotted out transgression, He also
   removes our love of it, makes us seek after holiness and walk in the
   ways of the Lord. I think we may fairly infer this from the text as a
   prelude to the observations I have to make concerning it.

   I want you, first of all, to notice the sort of people whom God has
   chosen to sing His praises and to sing them eternally. Then, in the
   second place, I shall enter into a fuller description of the dumb
   people here mentioned. Then, thirdly, I shall try to mention certain
   special times and seasons when those dumb people sing more sweetly than
   at others.

   I. First, then, THE PERSONS WHOM GOD HAS CHOSEN TO SING HIS PRAISES
   FOREVER. "The tongue of the dumb shall sing."

   I ask you, first, to note that there is no difference, by nature,
   between the elect and others. Those who are now glorified in Heaven and
   who walk the golden streets clad in robes of purity, were, by nature as
   unholy, defiled and as far from original righteousness as those who, by
   their own rejection of Christ and by their love of sin, have brought
   themselves into the pit of eternal torment as punishment for their
   iniquities! The only reason why there is a difference between those who
   are in Heaven and those who are in Hell is because of Divine Grace, and
   Divine Grace alone. Those in Heaven would have been cast away had not
   everlasting mercy stretched out its hand and rescued them. They were,
   by nature, not one whit superior to others! They would as certainly
   have rejected Christ and have trod under foot the blood of Jesus as did
   those who were cast away if Grace, Free Grace, had not prevented them
   from committing that sin! The reason why they are Christians is not
   because they did naturally will to be so, nor because they did, by
   nature, desire to know Christ, or to be found of Him--they are now
   saints simply because God made them so! He gave them the desire to be
   saved. He put into them the will to seek after Him. He helped them in
   their seeking and afterwards brought them to feel that peace which is
   the fruit of justification! But, by nature, they were just the same as
   others, and if there is any difference, we are obliged to say that the
   difference does not lie in their favor. In very many cases, those who
   now "rejoice in hope of the glory of God" were the very worst of men!
   There are multitudes who now bless God for their redemption who once
   blasphemed Him--who, as frequently as they dared to do so, implored
   that the curse of God might rest upon their fellows and upon
   themselves! Many of the Lord's anointed were once the very castaways of
   Satan, the sweepings of society, the refuse of the earth! They were
   those whom no man cared for, who were called outcasts, but whom God has
   now called desired ones, seeing that He has loved them!

   I am led to these thoughts from the fact that we are told here that
   those who sing were dumb by nature. Their singing does not come
   naturally from themselves--they were not born songsters. No, they were
   dumb ones whom God would have to sing His praises. It does not say the
   tongue of the stammerer, or the tongue of him who blasphemed, or of him
   who misused his tongue, but, "the tongue of the dumb"--those who have
   gone furthest from any thought of singing, those who have no power or
   will to sing--the tongue of such as these shall yet be made to sing
   God's praises! It is a strange choice that God has made. Strange for
   its graciousness, strangely manifesting the Sovereignty of His will.
   When God resolved to build for Himself a palace in Heaven of living
   stones, where did He get them? Did He go to look for the richest and
   purest marble in the quarries of earthly perfection? No, you saints,
   "Look unto the rock from which you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit
   from where you were dug." So far from being stones that were white with
   purity, you were black with defilement, seemingly utterly unfit to be
   built into the spiritual temple which would be the dwelling place of
   the Most High!

   Yet He chose you to be trophies of His Grace and of His power to save!
   Goldsmiths make exquisite forms from precious material. They fashion
   the bracelet and the ring from gold, but God makes His precious things
   out of base material. From among the black pebbles of the muddy pond He
   has taken up stones which He has set in the golden ring of His
   Immutable Love, to make them into gems to sparkle on His finger
   forever! He has not selected the best, but apparently the worst of men,
   to be the monuments of His Grace! And when He would have a choir in
   Heaven that would, with harmonious tongues, sing His praises--a chorus
   that would forever chant hallelujahs louder than the noise of many
   waters and, like great thunders--He did not send Mercy down to seek
   earth's songsters and call from us those who have the sweetest voices!
   No, but He said, "Go, Mercy, and find out the dumb, and touch their
   lips, and make them sing. The virgin tongues that never sang My
   praises, before, that have been silent until now, shall break forth in
   sublime rhapsodies and they shall lead the song--even angels shall but
   attend behind and catch the notes from the lips of those who once were
   dumb."

   Oh, what a fountain of consolation this opens for you and for me! Yes,
   Beloved, if God did not choose the base things of this world, He would
   never have chosen us! If He had regard unto the countenances of men. If
   He were a respecter of persons, where would you and I be this day? We
   would had never been the subjects of His love and mercy! No, as we look
   upon ourselves, now, and remember what we once were, we are often
   obliged to ask our Lord--

   "Why was I made to hear Your voice,

   And enter while there's room

   When thousands make a wretched choice,

   And rather starve than come?" And we have no difficulty in finding the
   right answer in the next verse of the hymn--

   "'Twas the same love that spread the feast,

   That sweetly forced us in,

   Else we had still refused to taste, And perished in our sin."

   Grace is always Grace, but it never seems so gracious as when we see it
   brought to our unworthy selves. Yes, my Friends, you may be Arminians
   in your doctrine, but you can never be Arminians in your feelings--you
   are obliged to confess that salvation is all of Grace and to cast away
   the thought that the Lord chose you because of your foreseen faith or
   good works! We are obliged to come to this point--to feel and know that
   it must have been of mercy, free mercy, and of that, alone--that we
   were not capable of doing good works without His Grace enabling us to
   do them and, therefore, they never could have been the motive for the
   Lord's love, nor the reason why it flowed towards us! O you unworthy
   ones, you saints that feel your deep natural depravity and mourn over
   your ruin by the fall of Adam, lift up your hearts to God! He has
   delivered you from all the impediments which Adam cast upon you! Your
   tongue is now loosed--Adam made it dumb, but God has loosed it! Your
   eyes, which were blinded by Adam's fall, are now opened by Him who has
   lifted you up from the horrible pit and the miry clay! What Adam lost
   for us, Christ has regained for us. He has set our feet upon a rock and
   established our goings--and He has put a new song into our mouth, even
   praise unto our God!

   Before I leave this point, I must remind you how this ought to give you
   encouragement in seeking to do good to others. Why, my Brothers and
   Sisters, I can never think any man too far gone for God's mercy since I
   know that He saved me! Whenever I have felt despondent about any of my
   hearers who have, for a long time, persevered in guilt, I have only had
   to reach down my own biography from the shelves of my memory and think
   what I was till Divine Grace rescued me and brought me to my Savior's
   feet. And then I have said, "It will be no wonder if that man is
   saved--after what the Lord has done for me, I can believe anything of
   my Master! If He has blotted out my transgressions. If He has put away
   mysins, then I can never despair of any ofmy fellow creatures. They may
   be dumb, now, but He can make them sing."

   Your son John is a sad reprobate--keep on praying for him, mother--God
   can change his very nature. Your daughter's heart seems hard as
   adamant, but He who makes the dumb sing can cause even that rock to
   melt! Believe in God for your children, as well as for yourselves! Take
   their cases before His Throne of Grace! Rely upon Him to save them and
   believe that in answer to earnest prayer, He will do so. And if you
   have neighbors who are full of the pestilence of sin, whose vices come
   up before you as a stench in your nostrils, yet fear not to carry the
   Gospel to them! Though they are harlots, drunks, swearers, be not
   afraid to tell them of the Savior's dying love. He makes the dumb
   sing--He does not ask for even a voice to begin with--they are dumb and
   He does not ask of them even the power of speech, but He gives them the
   power! If you have neighbors who keep not the Sabbath, love not God and
   are not willing to come to His House--and even despise Christ--if you
   find them as far gone as they can be, remember, He makes the dumb to
   sing and, therefore, He can make them live!

   He needs no goodness in them to begin with--all He needs is the rough,
   raw material, uncut, unpolished--and He does not even need good
   material! Bad as the material may be, He can make it into something
   inestimably precious, something that is worthy of His precious blood!
   Go on with your work for Christ, dear Friends, and fear not concerning
   the worst of men and women--if the dumb can be made to sing, then
   surely you can never say that any man need be cast away because Christ
   cannot save them!

   II. I am now to enter into A FULLER DESCRIPTION OF THESE DUMB PEOPLE.
   Who are they? Sometimes I get a good thought out of Cruden's
   Concordance. I believe that is the best commentary to the Bible and I
   like to study it. I opened it lately at the word, "dumb," and I found
   Master Cruden describing five different kinds of dumb people, but I
   shall name only four of them. The first dumb people he mentions are
   those who cannotspeak. Then, secondly, those who willnotspeak. Thirdly,
   those who darenotspeak and, fourthly, those who have nothingto say and,
   therefore, are dumb.

   Among the dumb people who shall sing are, first, those who cannot
   speak. That is the usual meaning of the word, dumb.The others are, of
   course, only figurative applications of the term. We call a man dumb
   when he cannot speak. Now, spiritually, the man who is still in
   trespasses and sins is dumb, for he is dead and there is none so dumb
   as a dead man! We used to hear, in our childhood, that they buried none
   but deaf and dumb persons in certain churchyards! That saying was
   intended to tickle our childish fancies and it misled us a little, but
   the meaning was that none but dead people were buried there. The Word
   of God assures us that unregenerate men are spiritually dead. It
   follows, then, that they must be spiritually dumb. They cannot sing
   God's praises. They know Him not and, therefore, they cannot exalt His
   glorious name. They cannot, in their natural state, confess their sins.
   They may utter the words of confession, but they cannot really confess,
   for they do not know the evil of sin, nor have they been taught to feel
   what a bitter thing it is. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but
   by the Holy Spirit," and these people cannot truly do so. It may be
   they can talk well of the Doctrines of Grace, but they cannot speak of
   them out of the fullness of their hearts, as living and vital
   principles which they possess in themselves. They cannot join in the
   songs, nor can they take part in the conversation of Christians. If
   they sit for a while with the saints, perhaps they let it be known that
   they have culled a few phrases which they use and apply to certain
   things about which they know nothing. They talk a language the meaning
   of which they do not comprehend--like Milton's daughters reading to
   their father strange tongues which they did not understand. So far as
   the essence of the matter is concerned, these spiritually dead people
   are dumb. But, hail to Sovereign Grace! "The tongue of the dumb shall
   sing!" God will have His darlings made what they should be. They are
   dumb by nature, but He will not leave them so. They cannot now sing His
   praises, but they shall do it! They do not now confess their sins, but
   He will yet bring them to their knees and make them pour out their
   hearts before Him! They cannot now talk the tongue of Canaan, or speak
   the language of Zion, but they shall do it soon! Grace, Omnipotent
   Grace, will have its way with them! They shall be taught to pray! Their
   eyes shall be made to flow with tears of penitence and then, after
   that, their lips shall sing to the praise of Sovereign Grace!

   I need not dwell upon this point because there are many here who once
   were dumb, who can bless God that they now can sing. Does it not
   sometimes seem to you, Beloved, a very strange thing that you are what
   you are? I should think it must be one of the strangest things in the
   world for a dumb man to speak--because he has no idea how a man feels
   when he is speaking, he has no notion of the thing at all! A man, blind
   from his birth, has no idea what kind of a thing sight can be. I have
   heard of a blind man who supposed that the color scarlet must be very
   much like the sound of a trumpet. He knew no other way of describing
   it. So, the dumb man has no notion of the way to talk. Do you not think
   it is a strange thing that you are what you are? You said once, "I will
   never be one of those canting Methodists. Do you think I shall ever
   make a profession of religion? What? I attend a Prayer Meeting? It is
   not likely!" And you went along the streets in all your gaiety of mirth
   and said, "What? I become a little child and give up my mind to simple
   faith, and not reason at all? What? Am I to abandon all argument about
   things and simply take them for granted because God has said them? No,
   that never can be!" Yet that is what hashappened and I will be bound to
   say it will be a wonder to you, as long as you are here, that you are a
   child of God! And even in Heaven, itself, your greatest wonder will be
   that you were ever brought to know the Savior!

   But there are, next, some dumb people who will not speak. They are
   mentioned by Isaiah. He said some of the watchmen in his day were "dumb
   dogs." I bless God that we have not so many of these dumb people as we
   used to have. God has raised up, of late, especially in the Church of
   England, a large number of thoroughly Evangelical men who are not
   afraid to declare the whole counsel of God. There are many such
   faithful preachers of the Gospel to be found. [Stated in 1882.] There
   is no reason why the Church of England should not be thoroughly
   Evangelical. If it keeps to its Articles, it ought to be! It is the
   most inconsistent church in all the world if it is not Calvinistic--and
   it will be inconsistent unless it keeps to those grand fundamental
   Truths of God which are written in its Articles and which are a code of
   faith to be received by all Believers!

   But, oh, there are a great many preachers among Dissenters and in the
   Church of England, too, that are "dumb dogs." There are still plenty
   who hardly know anything about the Gospel! They preach about a great
   many things, but little or nothing about Jesus Christ! They buy their
   sermons cheaply and preach them at their ease. They ask God to teach
   them what to say and then pull their manuscripts out of their pockets!
   We have had to mourn, especially in years gone by, that we could look
   from parish to parish and find only "dumb dogs" in the pulpits. And
   some men who might have spoken with a little earnestness, if they had
   liked, let the people slumber under them instead of preaching the Word
   with true fidelity, remembering that they will have to give account to
   God at the last! My aged grandfather tells a story which I believe he
   could verify, of a person who once resided near him and called himself
   a preacher of the Gospel. He was visited by a poor woman who asked him
   what was the meaning of the new birth, and he replied, "My good woman,
   why do you come to me about that matter? Nicodemus, a ruler of the
   Jews, was a wise man, yet he did not understand about the new
   birth--how do you think I should?" And she had to go away with only
   that answer.

   The time was when such an answer as that might have been given by a
   great many who were reckoned to be the authorized teachers of religion,
   but who really knew nothing about the matter. They understood a great
   deal more about fox-hunting than about preaching--and more about
   farming their land than about the spiritual husbandry of God's Church!
   But we bless God that there are not so many of that sort, now, and we
   pray that the race may become quite extinct--and that every pulpit may
   be filled with a man who has a tongue of fire and a heart of flame and
   who shuns not to declare the whole counsel of God, neither seeking the
   smiles of men nor dreading their frowns!

   We have, in our text, a promise that it shall be so. "The tongue of the
   dumb shall sing." And ah, when God makes them sing, they sing well! You
   remember Rowland Hill's story, in "The Village Dialogues" about Mr.
   Merriman? He was a sad scapegrace of a parson and was to be seen at
   every fair and revel, and was seldom to be found in his pulpit when he
   should have been. But when, by God's Grace, he was converted, he began
   to preach with tears running down his face! The Church soon became
   crowded, but the squire would not go--he even locked up his pew. So Mr.
   Merriman had a little ladder made outside the door, as he did not wish
   to break it open, and the people used to sit on the steps, up one side
   and down the other, so that there was twice as much room as there was
   before!

   No people make such good preachers as those who were once dumb! If the
   Lord opens their mouths, they will think they cannot preach often
   enough, or earnestly enough to make up for the mischief they did
   before! Chalmers himself might never have been so eloquent a preacher
   had he not been, for a long time, a dumb dog! He preached morality, he
   said, till he made all the people in his parish immoral! He kept on
   urging them to keep God's Law till he made them break it! But when he
   turned round and began to preach Christ's Gospel, then the dumb began
   to sing! Oh, may God work this change in every one of us! If we are
   dumb as professed ministers, may He open our mouths and force us to
   speak forth His Word, lest, at the Last Day, the blood of our hearers'
   souls should be found upon our garments and we should be cast away as
   unfaithful stewards!

   I now introduce you to a third sort of dumb people. They are dumb
   because they dare not speak They are good people, blessed souls. Listen
   to one of them--"I was dumb, I opened not my mouth because You did it."
   Ah, it is blessed to be dumb in that fashion! The Lord's servant will
   often have to be dumb under trials and troubles. When Satan tempts him
   to repine, he will put his finger to his lips and say, "Hush, murmuring
   heart! Be still!" "Why does a living man complain, a man for the
   punishment of his sins?" Even the child of God will sometimes do as Job
   did when he sat down upon the ground for seven days and seven nights
   and said not a word, for he felt that his trouble was so heavy that he
   could say nothing. It would have been as well if he had kept his mouth
   shut for the next few days--silence would not have been so bad as some
   things that he uttered! There are times when you and I, Beloved, are
   obliged to keep the bridle on our tongues lest we should murmur against
   God. We are in evil company. Perhaps our spirit is hot within us and we
   want to take vengeance for the Lord. We are like the friends of David
   who would have slain Shimei. "Let us cut off this dead dog's head," we
   say, and then Jesus tells us to put our sword into its scabbard, for,
   "the servant of the Lord must not strive." How often have we thus been
   dumb!

   Sometimes, when there have been slanders against our character and men
   have maligned us, oh, how our fingers have itched to be at them! But we
   have said, "No. Our Master did not answer His accusers and He has left
   us an example that we should follow His steps." The chief priests
   accused Him of many things, but, "He answered them not a word." We have
   found it difficult to be dumb, like the sheep when it is brought to the
   shearer, or the lamb when it is in the slaughterhouse. We could
   scarcely keep quiet. When we have been upon our beds in sickness we
   have tried to quench every murmuring word. We have not let a sentence
   escape our lips when we could possibly avoid it, but, notwithstanding
   all that, we have found it hard work to keep dumb--though it is blessed
   work when we are enabled to do it.

   Now, you who have been dumb under great sorrow. You whose songs have
   been suspended because you dare not open your lips lest sighs should
   usurp the place of praise, come, listen to this promise--"The tongue of
   the dumb shall sing." Yes, though you are now in the deepest trouble
   and are obliged to be silent, you shall yet sing! Though, like Jonah,
   you are in the belly of Hell, as he called it--though the earth with
   her bars seems to be about you forever, and the weeds are wrapped about
   your head--yet you shall look again towards His holy Temple! Though you
   have hung your harp upon the willows, bless God that you have not
   broken it. You will have farther use for it, by-and-by, and you shall
   take it down from its resting place and--

   "Loud to the praise of Love Divine,

   Bid every string awake!"

   If you have no songs in the night, yet the Lord shall compass you about
   with songs of deliverance! If you cannot sing His praises now, you
   shall do so, by-and-by, when greater Grace shall have been poured into
   your heart, or when delivering mercy shall be the subject of your song
   in better days that are yet to come! But, blessed be God, we are not
   always to be silent in affliction. We are bound to sing. Though we are
   dumb as to murmuring, we ought to sing God's praises! An old Puritan
   said, "God's people are like certain birds--they sing best in cages."
   He meant, "God's people often sing the best when they are in the
   deepest trouble." Said old Master Brooks, "The deeper the flood was,
   the higher the ark went up toward Heaven." So is it with the child of
   God--the deeper his troubles, the nearer to Heaven he rises if he lives
   close to his Master. Troubles are called weights and weights, you know,
   generally clog us and keep us down to the earth. But there are ways, by
   the use of the laws of mechanics, by which you can make a weight lift
   you--and so it is possible to make your troubles lift you nearer Heaven
   instead of letting them sink you! God has sometimes opened our mouth
   when we were dumb--when we were ungrateful and did not praise Him. He
   has opened our mouth by a trial and though, when we had a thousand
   mercies, we did not praise Him, yet when He sent a sharp affliction,
   then we began to do so! He has thus made the tongue of the dumb to
   sing.

   I will mention one more kind of dumb people and then I shall have done
   with this part of my subject. There are those who have nothing to
   sayand, therefore, they are dumb. I will give you an instance. Solomon
   says, in the Proverbs, "Open your mouth for the dumb" and he shows, by
   the context, that he means those who, in the court of judgment, have
   nothing to plead for themselves and must stand dumb before the bar.
   Like that man of old who, when the king came in to see the guests, had
   not on a wedding garment--and when the king said, "Friend, how came you
   in here not having a wedding garment?" He stood speechless, not because
   he could not speak, but because he had nothing to say! Have not you and
   I been dumb? Are we not now dumb when we stand on lawterms with God,
   when we forget that Jesus Christ and His blood and righteousness were
   our full acquittal?

   Are we not obliged to be dumb when the Commandments are laid bare
   before us and when the Law of God is brought home to our conscience?
   There was a time with each of us, and not long ago with some here
   present, when we stood before Moses' seat and heard the Commandments
   read. And when we were asked, "Sinner, can you claim to have kept those
   Commandments?" we were dumb. Then we were asked, "Sinner, can you give
   any atonement for the breach of those Commandments?" And we were dumb.
   We were asked, "Sinner, can you, by a future obedience, wipe out your
   past sins?" We knew it was impossible and we were dumb. Then we were
   asked, "Can you endure the penalty? Can you bear to suffer forever in
   the flames of Hell? Can you endure torments that shall never cease? Can
   you dwell with everlasting burnings and abide with eternal fires?" And
   we were dumb.

   Then we were asked the question, "Prisoner at the bar, have you any
   reason to plead why you should not be condemned?" And we were dumb. And
   we were asked, "Prisoner, have you any helper? Have you anyone who can
   deliver you?" And we stood dumb, for we had nothing to say. Yes, but
   blessed be God, the tongue of the dumb can now sing! And shall I tell
   you what we can sing? Why, we can sing this, "Who shall lay anything to
   the charge of God's elect?" Not God, for He has justified us! "Who is
   he that condemns?" Not Christ, for "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." We who had not a word to say for
   ourselves, can now say everything! We can say to our Lord--

   "Bold shall I stand in that great day, For who anything to my charge
   shall lay? While through Your blood absolved I am From sin's tremendous
   curse and shame?"

   Yes, the dumb ones can sing! So shall you, poor dumb one, if God has
   made you dumb by taking away all the names of Baal out of your
   mouth--if He has taken away all your self-righteousness and all your
   trust in yourself--as truly as ever He has shut your mouth, He will
   open it! If God has killed your self-righteousness, He will give you a
   better one! If He has knocked down all your refuges of lies, He will
   build you up a good refuge! He has not come to destroy you. He has shut
   your mouth that He may fill it with His praise. Be of good cheer! Cast
   your eyes to the Cross! Look to Jesus! Put your confidence in Him and
   even you, who think yourself a castaway--even you, poor weeping
   Mary--even you shall yet sing of redeeming Grace and dying love!

   III. Now I have to conclude by noticing THE OCCASIONS WHEN THE TONGUE
   OF THESE DUMB PEOPLE SINGS THE BEST.

   When does the tongue of the dumb sing? Why, I think it sings always,
   little or much! If it is once set at liberty, it will never leave off
   singing. There are some of you people who say that this world is a
   howling wilderness. Well, if so, you are the howlers, you make all the
   howling! If you choose to howl, I cannot help it, but I prefer the
   promise of my text, "Then shall the tongue of the dumb," not howl, but,
   "sing!" Yes, they sing always, little or much! Sometimes it is in a low
   note. Sometimes they have to go rather deep in the bass, but there are
   other times when they can mount to the highest notes of all. They have
   special times of singing. When they lost their burden at the foot of
   the Cross--that is the time when they begin to sing! Never did a harp
   of Heaven sound so sweetly as when touched by the finger of some
   returning prodigal! Not even the songs of the angels seem to me to be
   so sweet as that first song of rapture which rushes forth from the
   inmost soul of the forgiven child of God! You know how John Bunyan
   describes it. He says when poor Christian lost his burden at the Cross,
   he gave three great leaps and went on his way singing! We have not
   forgotten those three great leaps--they were great leaps of praise! We
   have leaped many times since then with joy and gratitude, but we think
   we never leaped so high as we did at the time when we saw our many sins
   all gone and our transgressions covered up in the tomb of the Savior!
   So you see, dear Friends, that is one time when we can sing--when we
   lose our burden at the Cross.

   And after that, do God's people sing? Yes, they have sweet singing
   times in their hours of communion. Oh, the music of that word,
   "communion," when it is heard in the soul--communion with Jesus,
   fellowship with Jesus--whether in His sufferings or in His glories!
   These are singing times, when the heart is lifted up to feel its
   oneness with Christ, and its vital union with Him, and is enabled to
   "rejoice in hope of the glory of God," through communion with the
   Savior!

   Have you not had some precious singing times at the Lord's Table? Ah,
   when the bread has been broken, and the wine poured out, how often has
   it been to me a time of song when the people have all joined in
   singing--

   "Gethsemane, can I forget? Or there Your conflict see Your agony and
   bloody sweat, And not remember Thee? When to the Cross I turn my eyes,
   And rest on Calvary,

   Lamb of God! My Sacrifice!

   1 must remember Thee."

   I am in the House of God, I think--every day. I believe that David
   could not have asked for more than I have received when he prayed that
   he might dwell in the House of the Lord forever, for I spend more of my
   time in the House of God than I do anywhere else. But my best moments
   are at the Lord's Table. I rejoice then, when I have no thought of what
   I have to say to others, but simply sit down among the Lord's family
   and taste my morsel of bread, and have my sip of the wine. Oh, it is
   then that the soul finds its Savior precious! I look forward for every
   month to come when I may once more sit at the table of my Master and
   spiritually eat His flesh and drink His blood, and feel that I have,
   indeed, life in Him because I am in true union with Him. Ah, these are
   singing times to the family of God! And so, sometimes, are preaching
   times and hearing times. Prayer Meetings are often special singing
   times--in fact, all the means of Grace will very frequently be blessed
   of God to be to us the occasions of song!

   But, lastly, my dear Friends, for I cannot stop to mention all these
   singing times, the best we shall have will be when we come to die! Ah,
   there are some of you who will be like what is fabled of the swan. The
   ancients said that the swan never sang in his lifetime, but always sang
   as he was about to die. Now, there are many of God's desponding
   children who seem to go live their life under a cloud, but they get a
   swan's song before they die. The river of their life comes running
   down, perhaps, black and miry with troubles--and when it begins to
   touch the white foam of the sea, there comes a little glistening in its
   waters. So, Beloved, though we may have been very much dispirited by
   reason of the burden of the way, when we get to the end we shall have
   sweet songs! Are you afraid of dying? Oh, never be afraid of that! Be
   afraid of living! Living is the only thing which can do us
   mischief--dying never can hurt a Christian! Afraid of the grave? It is
   like the bath of Esther in which she lay for a time, to purify herself
   with spices. The grave fits the body for Heaven. There it lies and
   corruption, earth, and worms do but refine and purify our flesh!

   Be not afraid of dying--it does not take any time at all. Death is
   emancipation, deliverance, Heaven's bliss to a child of God! Never fear
   it--it will be a singing time. You are afraid of dying, you say,
   because of the pains of death. No, they are the pains of life--of life
   struggling to continue. Death has no pain--death, itself, is but one
   gentle sigh--the fetter is broken and the spirit released. The best
   moment of a Christian's life is his last one because it is the one that
   is nearest Heaven--and then it is that he begins to strike the keynote
   of the song which he shall sing to all eternity! Oh, what a song will
   that be! It is a poor noise we make, now, when we join the song here.
   Perhaps we are almost ashamed to sing! But up there our voices shall be
   clear and good! And there--

   "Loudest of the crowd we'll sing,

   While Heaven's resounding mansions ring

   With shouts of Sovereign Grace!" The thought struck me, the other day,
   that the Lord will have in Heaven some of those very big sinners--ones
   who have gone further astray than anybody else that ever lived--just to
   make the melody complete by singing some of those alto notes we
   sometimes hear which you and I, because we have not gone so far astray,
   will never be able to utter! I wonder whether one has stepped into this
   Chapel, this morning, whom God has selected to take some of those alto
   notes in the scale of praise? Perhaps there is one such here. Oh, how
   loudly will he sing, if Grace, Free Grace, shall have mercy upon him!

   And now, farewell, with just this parting word. My Brothers and
   Sisters, members of this Church, strive together in your prayers, that
   God may bless you. Be not content with what you are, however prosperous
   you may be, but seek to increase more and more. Pray that you and your
   children may be added to the Church of Christ, here, and may live to
   see others added, too. Do not neglect your Prayer Meetings. Christmas
   Evans gives us a good idea about prayer. He says, "Prayer is the rope
   in the belfry. We pull it and it rings the bell up in Heaven." And so
   it is. Mind you keep that bell going! Pull it often at home and come up
   to the Prayer Meetings and keep on pulling it! And though the bell is
   up so high that you cannot hear it ring, depend upon it, it can be
   heard in the tower of Heaven and it is ringing before the Throne of
   God, who will give you answers of peace according to your faith. May
   your faith be large and plentiful, and so will be the answers! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

"Peace in Believing"

   (No. 2626)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 11, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   FEBRUARY 19, 1882.

   "Peace in believing." Romans 15:13.

   ON whatever subjects I may be called to preach, I feel it to be a duty
   which I dare not neglect to be continually going back to the Doctrine
   of the Cross--the fundamental Truth of God of justification by faith
   which is in Christ Jesus. This topic is essential to the life of the
   soul. Men are not saved but by faith in Jesus and, therefore, to this
   great central point we must return again and again and again, hoping
   that God will bless His own Word to those who hear it proclaimed. I
   notice that some of our friends, who are bakers, have in their shop
   windows divers articles of confectionery, and I suppose they have their
   set days for making their various kinds of cake and sweetmeats. But one
   thing I know they never forget to do and that is to bake, every day, a
   batch of bread because, if their customers do not need this or that
   confectionery, they always need bread--and what is the good of a baker
   if he has no bread? I wish that every preacher felt that, albeit there
   are certain things which are sweet and toothsome, which some mouths are
   always craving, yet the chief business of the minister, like that of
   the baker, is to have a constant supply of good bread. It may be a very
   ordinary kind of food.

   Some may even call it commonplace and what a mercy it is when bread is
   a commonplace thing! I have known some people who would have been glad
   if they could place it in common upon their tables, but they have not
   been able to get it, and the necessity has grown into a luxury. And
   what a mercy it is when the Gospel is a commonplace thing--when you
   have so much of it that you really understand it, enjoy it and feed
   upon it! It is then as it ought always to be with the true ministry of
   the Gospel. So, preacher, whatever you choose to neglect, never neglect
   to preach Christ Crucified and the simple, soul-saving precept, "Look
   and live."

   What if there are some prophetic passages which you cannot understand?
   The day shall declare them! What if there are certain deep Doctrines
   that are too profound for you? You and your people shall learn them in
   eternity, if you learn them not in time! But as for this Doctrine,
   that, "he that believes on the Son has everlasting life"--it must be
   learned now or never! And if it is not learned now, men will be shut
   out of Heaven eternally. Therefore, let this Truth of God be proclaimed
   again and again and again! Let it still be preached, even though some
   who have itching ears weary of it, for there is an urgent necessity
   that it should be made known whether men will hear or whether they will
   forbear. Better that the sun should not rise than that Christ should
   not be preached! Better that the wheels of time should stand still than
   that the name of Jesus should not be sounded forth! Better that the
   dews be withheld and the rain fall not again upon the earth, than that
   the glorious Gospel of the blessed God be hidden from the sons of men!

   So, then, this is my reason for coming to you, again, as I have come so
   many hundreds of times before, with the same old message, "Believe and
   live." I am comforted by the persuasion that all who are saved by
   believing are the most ready to hear this story over and over again. It
   is not what I do not know so much as what I do know that I delight to
   hear-- and many others are of the same opinion as I am in that matter.
   It is a curious phase of human nature, but it is true. You may talk to
   a congregation about discoveries in the center of Africa and yet you
   may lose their attention. But if you speak about the village, or
   hamlet, or street in which one of them was born or lived, he will prick
   up his ears at once. The very thing that he knows best is that which,
   somehow, holds his attention the most. So have I often seen it in the
   highest affairs--they who understand the Gospel best are the most ready
   to hear of it again and yet again. If I were to take Luther on the
   Galatians, intending to give it as a present to someone who would be
   sure to appreciate it, I would not bestow it upon a man who was not a
   believer in Jesus Christ, or give it to one who did not understand the
   Doctrine of salvation by faith--I would hand it over to the man who has
   long believed in Christ and found rest in Him--for I would be certain
   that the strong and racy utterances of the great Reformer would be
   appreciated by him. They love the Gospel most who know it best!

   Another thing comforts me, too, namely, that in such a congregation as
   this there are always some persons who are just ready to believe. I
   throw the fly with confidence because there are always fish rising to
   it. God is plowing the hearts of many and so preparing the soul for the
   good Seed of the Kingdom! Little children die. Aged mothers are carried
   away. There is sickness in the body, or loss in the business, or
   suffering of various kinds--all this is the passing of God's great plow
   up and down these furrows--and when I scatter the good Seed, I know
   that the furrows are gaping for it. They are hungry for it, so they
   gladly receive it! Here are many of those who are ordained unto eternal
   life to whom the Truth of God concerning "peace in believing" comes as
   the very message of God to their soul, the good news that they are most
   glad to hear! So they receive it and go on their way rejoicing.
   Doubtless, there are some hearers of that kind here right now--oh, that
   we may very soon hear of their conversion, for it would gladden our
   heart to have such good tidings! Therefore, by the help of God, let us
   at once get to our work.

   I. And, first, having to talk about faith and one of its sweet
   results--for our subject is that faith brings peace to the soul, "peace
   in believing"--the first head shall be that IT IS A FILLING PEACE.

   In the verse from which our text is taken, the Apostle says, "Now the
   God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing," so that the
   peace which arises from faith is a filling peace. There is, in the
   heart of an awakened man, a great vacuum caused by sin. He is like some
   of those great artificial harbors which I have seen, in various places,
   out of which they sometimes allow all the water to run and there
   remains a dreary expanse of mud. What is the use of it? What is needed
   in order to make it of service once more? Why, simply that the tide
   should come into it, fill it and cover up all that mud! As I look on
   some of you, dear Friends, I know that your heart is just like that
   great harbor full of mire. What is to be done for you? What is to be
   done withyou? Well, the Grace of God can come in and cover all your
   transgressions and your iniquities till they shall never be mentioned
   against you ever again! What a blessed peace that is which quiets the
   conscience--which takes away the sense of guilt and puts in the place
   of it, consciousness of perfect pardon, of justification and of
   acceptance before God! This is "peace in believing." It fills the
   vacuum that sin has made.

   Then this Divine flood, when it has covered that part of our distress,
   flows in over our sinfulness as well as our sins, for, in addition to
   our actual transgression, there is the defilement of our nature. And
   when a man is awakened, it is a cause of moaning and unrest to him that
   he not only has sin, but that he issin--that his very nature is a
   fountain of evil containing much that is adverse to God and in
   alienation from Him. But, by believing, there flows into the heart a
   flood of life which removes our death--a purifying stream which takes
   away our corruption and we have peace with God, for "we which have
   believed do enter into rest" about that matter, too. And though we
   sometimes have to cry, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me
   from the body of this death?" Yet we "thank God, through Jesus Christ
   our Lord," that we are delivered from the dominion of sin and that we
   shall, by-and-by, be delivered from the very existence of it and shall
   be like unto God in purity and true holiness. That is, indeed, a
   blessed peace--a peace that comes of a changed nature, of a renewed
   heart and of reconciliation to God.

   You will tell me that those blessings are enough to fill a man with
   peace and, truly, I think they are. But as when the tide comes in, it
   not only rolls up the main stream of the Thames, but it also flows into
   every creek and fills every tiny streamlet, so is it with the Grace of
   God. There is a black stream that sometimes runs into the river of a
   man's life and makes it turbid--that is the fear of death. But, oh, I
   have seen the great flood of eternal life come rolling up and drive the
   black stream back till all was pure, all was quiet and calm! Is it not
   so with the man who believes in Jesus? He loses the fear of death.
   Sometimes, instead of fearing it, he almost longs for it! As Mr.
   Flavel, when living in sweetest communion with Christ, said, "I never
   saw a face more beautiful than that of death when I saw the light from
   the face of Christ fall on it. Then I longed to die much more than to
   live." And good Dr. Watts sang--

   "Oh, if my Lord would come and meet, My soul should stretch her wings
   in haste, Fly fearless through Death's iron gate, Nor feel the terrors
   as she passed!"

   Yes, this "peace in believing" will fill your soul so as to drown the
   fear of death!

   Perhaps another says, " The fear of life is that which is upon me, the
   fear of the troubles incident to my condition and my position among my
   fellow men, the fear which arises out of those three questions, 'What
   shall we eat? What shall we drink? And how shall we be clothed?'"
   Beloved, the peace which comes through believing will chase these fears
   away and fill your soul with perfect rest concerning them. Indeed,
   these things will seem to you to be only trifles after which the
   Gentiles seek--and you will scorn to be troubled by them, for you will
   remember that "your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all
   these things," and He will supply your need in His own good time and
   way.

   Then, sometimes, will come upon us, to break our peace, the cravings of
   desire. A man is never perfectly at peace if he is ambitious and
   craving for this or that which, as yet, is beyond his reach. "Peace in
   believing" makes us say of Christ, "He is all my salvation and all my
   desire." He loves us to know that all things are ours and, therefore,
   that there is nothing left in the region of desire, for--

   "All things are ours--the gift of God-- The purchase of a Savior's
   blood! While the good Spirit shows us how To use and to improve them
   too." Oh, what a blessed, blessed rest it is when a man's desires are
   satisfied with the favor of God!

   One very natural cause of disturbance of mind is solicitude about our
   families--anxiety as to how we shall bring them up in the fear of God,
   earnest longing that they may become believers in Christ, honorable
   Christian men and women, but Faith learns to bear even this without
   having her peace broken, for she pleads the promise, "Unto you, and to
   your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord
   our God shall call." Faith falls back upon the Inspired Word--"But the
   mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
   fear Him, and His righteousness unto the children's children, to such
   as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do
   them." I know of no cause of disquietude which faith will not remove. I
   know of no groundswell disturbing the mind which faith cannot quiet. I
   know of nothing on earth, in Heaven, in Hell, in time, in eternity, in
   life, in death which is not fully met by the Covenant blessings which
   are within reach of faith and which faith learns to appropriate. This
   "peace in believing" is a sea that has no bottom nor shore--it is a
   peace of intense restfulness! Oh, that we were all plunged in it this
   very hour!

   II. Now, very briefly, let me remind you that, according to the text,
   IT IS FAITH'S PEACE that is such a filling peace as I have tried to
   describe.

   I may be addressing some persons who are needing to find peace for
   their souls, but they have never sought faith's peace. There is a false
   peace that some get--the peace of carelessness--they do not even think
   about eternity. They "count it one of the wisest things to drive dull
   care away." They scarcely think of what will happen even a month ahead,
   but they say that they are content to live by the day. This is the way
   in which the man protects himself when, after the thief has broken into
   his house, he covers up his head, lies in bed and thinks that he and
   his property must be safe because he cannot hear the burglar at work.
   This is the kind of philosophy of men who, when they are ready to fail
   in business, shut up their books and never take stock because they
   would be so disturbed if they knew their real condition! It is a
   beggarly, cowardly kind of peace that is fit for fools and madmen, but
   is not fit for you who are reasonable, responsible beings. Oh, I would
   scorn to have a peace in my heart which consisted in shutting my eyes!
   The truth ought to be faced and, the more dangerous the truth, the more
   urgently does it call upon us to look at it! And he is the wise man who
   can stand before the truth that frightens most men and, having looked
   it in the face, can say, "Now I am not afraid. I am, rather, the more
   established in my conviction of my safety, now that I have seen that
   which would have destroyed me if it had not been for faith in Christ."
   Shun, I pray you, the safety which is but in appearance, and does but
   thinly film the deadly ulcer that needs to be eradicated from your
   body!

   Some others seek a peace which comes of hardihood. They not merely shut
   their eyes, but they lie against the Truth of God. "The fool has said
   in his heart, There is no God," and he gets peace out of that foolish
   and false declaration. Men deny the immortality of the soul. They deny
   the Divinity of Christ. They deny the Inspiration of the Bible and so
   they think that they shall sew pillows together that shall make it easy
   for their heads to rest! Let those do this who dare, but, as for some
   of you, you cannot do it, for you know too much and you have felt too
   much to ever be self-deceived in such a fashion as that! Can he ever be
   an infidel who has seen his mother die joyfully triumphant? Is it
   possible for me, for instance, to find a shelter from my sins by
   denying that there is any hereafter, when I have stood by the bedside
   of saints and seen their ecstasy, and have heard the strange things,
   scarcely lawful for a man to utter, which they have told concerning
   that which is within the veil? Some of us are spoiled for infidelity,
   for we have had familiar communion with the Eternal! We have spoken
   with Him, "as a man speaks with his friend" and, therefore, this escape
   from thought avails us not! Thank God that it does not avail us, for
   the abhorred of the Lord fall into this deep ditch and how seldom do
   they come up out of it! May God grant that we may never need to tell a
   lie and violate our conscience in order to give it peace! That is not
   the rest of faith which I commend to you!

   Some have tried to get peace from self-confidence. They think they are
   as good as others, if not rather better. As they see those who are mere
   professors of religion, they thank God that they are not professors of
   religion, for they are not hypocritical and, therefore, they do not
   pretend to be what they are not. Yet there is often a worm at the root
   of that proud boasting and, in your sober moments, you who talk in this
   fashion do not really think thus of yourselves. You are not insane and
   you know that you are not doing that which is pleasing to God, or
   living to His Glory. Self-righteousness is sometimes a delusion, but it
   generally begins by a man's attempting to delude himself. But there is
   no real peace to be obtained by any works that we can perform, or by
   the pretense that we have performed works which are meritorious in the
   sight of God. There is no promise of peace to come in this fashion.

   But, perhaps, you have patched up your self-righteousness with a few
   ornaments stolen from the Church of God. Were you, as an infant,
   "baptized" and made "a member of Christ, a child of God, and an
   inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven"? Have you been confirmed, and taken
   the "sacrament"--as it is wrongly called--and is there not much
   efficacy in that? Sirs, listen to me! There is nothingin it! There is
   nothing whatever in it unless you have first believed in the Lord Jesus
   Christ! Or, if there is anything in it, you have participated in
   ordinances to which you had no right, for these things are only for
   Believers--and if you have not believed in Jesus, you are intruders
   into His Church and you have stolen from His altar that which He
   reserves for His own people--and little advantage will this be to you.
   Beware of trusting in your church-going, or your chapel-going, or your
   Tabernacle-going! Beware of trusting in your prayers, or your Bible
   reading, in your hymns and holy thoughts and almsgivings. They are all
   lighter than vanity and, as chaff from the fan of the winnower, shall
   they be blown away! There is no peace in them though you multiply them
   as the sand upon the seashore. Our text speaks of "peace in believing,"
   and there is no peace worthy of the name that is to be found in any
   other way!

   III. But now, thirdly, this "peace in believing" is A WELL-FOUNDED
   PEACE. But what is it?

   It is, first, a peace which is the result of believing the Word of God,
   who cannot lie. God, the ever-blessed Father, says, "Listen to Me. I
   have given My Well-Beloved Son to be a Savior to you. Trust in Him and
   you shall be saved." I trust in Him and I am saved. How do I know that?
   Why, because God said so! And God cannot lie! Is there any better
   foundation for peace in this world than the Word of God? What God has
   spoken must be true. "Let God be true and every man a liar." And I,
   believing what He has said, have a right to all the peace that can come
   out of that sure Word which I have believed!

   Remember, too, that this Word of God comes to us by the Inspiration of
   the Holy Spirit. If you do not believe that Book to be Inspired, I have
   nothing to say to you just now. But most of us do believe that every
   part of it is "God-breathed." Well, then, knowing that Book to be the
   Infallible Word of God, if we get peace through believing what is in
   that Book, we have sure ground to stand upon! Either the Book is a lie,
   or else our faith is fully warranted, and our peace is perfectly
   justified. Oh, what a blessed thing it is to feel that you have
   Scripture at your back! Many saints that I have read of have asked,
   when dying, to have their fingers laid upon some precious promise of
   the Word, and they have thus witnessed to their conviction that the
   passage was the very Truth of God to their souls. One said, "Guide me
   to that glorious Eighth of Romans." Another had his finger laid upon
   this text, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." And
   another on this verse, "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." You know how you take one another's word
   and trust to it. And when you get a note of hand in black and white
   from a good tradesman, you do not mistrust it. Then, shall we ever
   mistrust the black and white of God--the record of His dear Son which
   He has given us in Holy Scripture? No! Nor will we mistrust the peace
   that comes into our heart through believing it!

   And then, my Brothers and Sisters, also mark that our peace is founded
   on God's testimony concerning His Son. He tells us, in this Book, that
   the Only-Begotten took upon Him human form and came down among
   men--that being here,

   He lived the life of a servant and, at the last, taking upon Him man's
   sin and as the Substitute for guilty men, He went up to the Cross and
   there bore His Father's wrath, dying in the place of the guilty, "the
   Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." I recollect how I
   grasped that Truth of God when I first understood it--it was that
   Doctrine of Substitution which brought peace to my troubled spirit. I
   saw that if Christ died for me, then I should not die! And that, if He
   paid my debt, it was paid and I was clear! And I knew that this was the
   case as soon as I believed in Him. So I did believe in Him and I was
   filled with "peace in believing." And that "peace in believing" meets
   every need of the heart. Are you troubled? "All things work together
   for good to them that love God." Are you afraid that you shall fall?
   Rest content about that, also, for, "He will keep the feet of His
   saints." Are you afraid that you shall ultimately perish? Has He not
   said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and
   I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither
   shall any man pluck them out of My hand"?

   Our faith is, indeed, well-founded, and can be abundantly justified!
   Faith in Christ is nothing but common sense of sanctified of God. It
   may be common sense to trust some banker who has long maintained his
   credit and not to be always worrying about whether he is solvent or
   not, but it is infinitely greater common sense to trust God--to trust
   His Son-- to trust His Spirit--to trust His Word! If you trust these,
   you shall enjoy a calmness of spirit which will not be the effect of a
   mistaken confidence, but the result of the most glorious facts--a peace
   which may be questioned and cross-questioned, examined and
   cross-examined, but the answer it shall give to all enquiries will be
   satisfactory. Faith's building may be searched, tried and tested from
   foundation to top stone, but no flaw shall be found in any part of it.
   It is a good, wise, true, just and proper thing to trust the Lord Jesus
   Christ--and so to have "peace in believing!"

   IV. I have done when I have noticed just one more point, namely, that I
   believe this "peace in believing" to be A MOST FRUITFUL PEACE.

   I wish you all knew it, for, first, it makes even this world a better
   and a happier place. It takes the sting out of all troubles to have
   "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." There is no man who is
   so ready to cope with the troubles of life as the one who knows that
   all is right for eternity. Some of you often get worried in your daily
   calling and when you come home from business, you cannot rest. When you
   go to bed, you cannot sleep, for there is within you a fear of death
   and of a dreaded something after that. But suppose that a man can say,
   "That matter is all settled"--

   'Tis done! The great transaction's done! I am my Lord's, and He is
   mine!-- "I have trusted myself with Christ, and I know that He is able
   to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day"? He goes
   to his business feeling that he has a burden off his shoulders--the
   great burden he had so long carried-- and he is ready for anybody and
   ready for anything! If you set a man to run up a hill and lay heavy
   weights on his back, he must make slow work of it. Take off those
   weights and now watch him! Why, he turns into a gazelle and he leaps
   from crag to crag when the burden is gone! Ah, dear Friends, if you
   were relieved of your burdens, your very office work would grow
   lighter! Your bargaining would be more wisely done! You would be able
   to deal better with your fellow men when you have come to your proper
   position before God and all is made right there.

   This peace with God is fruitful in the growth of all other Graces. Have
   you a garden? If so, have you some fruit trees in it? Do you dig them
   up every year? Do you take them out of the ground two or three times in
   a season, and carry them about the garden and then plant them in a
   fresh spot? If so, I would not give you a penny for all your fruit! But
   when you plant your tree in good soil and it is well-watered and
   fertilized, when the fruit-bearing season comes, there is your fruit.
   It is a blessed thing to get the very roots of your being entwined
   around Christ--now you can grow, now you can bring forth fruit! Now you
   will get patience. Now you will get hope. Now you will get love and
   soon you will get full assurance! You will have the work of
   sanctification going on, you will be more and more consecrated and
   devoted to Christ-- and you will become "strong in the Lord, and in the
   power of His might." God give you "peace in believing," that you may
   grow in every other Grace!

   And this, I know, will help you to serve others. A man who is enjoying
   the blessings of true religion, living init and living onit, wants
   other people to know about it and to share it with him. I think that
   nobody would give a recommendation to a new kind of food which he did
   not like, himself, and which did him no good. He would say, "Well, if
   this is intended to keep me from being ill, I would rather be ill than
   eat it! I certainly shall not recommend it to others." But he that has
   eaten it, loves the flavor of it and finds that nourishment comes from
   it, says to his friend, "You are getting emaciated, and thin, and
   debilitated as I was--you should try what I have tried." He is sure to
   commend it because it has done so much for him. And when we enjoy the
   Gospel, we are sure to recommend it to others. God's happy people are
   God's working people! Those who fear and tremble and never have any joy
   in the Lord are generally a barren generation. But they who delight
   themselves in the Lord are sure to speak of Him to others and to bring
   others to Christ!

   Lastly, I believe that "peace in believing" is one of the best
   instrumentalities for bringing others to Christ. If you are soon to be
   very happy in a time of trial--if you are known to be very patient in
   great pain--and especially if the Lord helps you to be triumphant in
   the solemn article of death, you will be a soul-winner! Those who come
   round your bed will never forget the joyous look on your face--it will
   be a life-long sermon to them. I do not advise you to sit up like
   Addison and make a show of it, and say, "Come see how a Christian can
   die!" No, that is a style of thing I do not admire. But when you can
   honestly, straightforwardly, without any parade, sweetly fall asleep in
   Jesus Christ, triumphantly entering into Glory and let those around you
   hear your shout of victory as you enter in to be "forever with the
   Lord"--if you can do that, the memory of it will abide--and those who
   were unconvinced, before, are most likely to be decided! While those
   who never hesitated will be more than ever confirmed in the faith!

   In conclusion, to gather up all in a word, you who have no peace may
   have it even now. Believe! That is, trust! Trust Jesus with your souls
   and you shall have "peace in believing." And you who have it, though it
   is somewhat broken, may have it to the fullest! Where you obtained your
   first peace, you can get more! Where peace has only trickled in, it can
   come pouring in, it can rush in like a Heavenly deluge and flood your
   entire nature, to the praise and glory of your gracious God! May He
   make it to be so, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS 8:14-39.

   Verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
   sons of God. Leading implies following and those who are enabled to
   follow the guidance of the Divine Spirit are most assuredly children of
   God, for the Lord always leads His own children. If, then, you are
   following the lead of God's Spirit, you have one of the evidences of
   sonship!

   15. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but
   you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
   The spirit of bondage is the spirit of servants, not of sons--but that
   servitude is ended for us who are made free in Christ Jesus. We are no
   longer afraid of being called the children of God. We are not afraid of
   our own Father--we have a filial fear of Him, but it is so mixed with
   love that there is no torment in it. Whether Jew or Gentile, we cry,
   "Abba, Father."

   16. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the
   children of God. Our spirit knows that we are God's children and then
   God's Spirit adds His testimony to the witness of our spirit that we
   are the children of God.

   17. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
   Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we map be also glorified
   together. This would not necessarily be true of any man's family, for
   he might have children who were not his heirs. But in God's family, all
   who are born into it are born "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
   Christ." We must take our part of Christ's portion--His portion here,
   and His portion hereafter--the rule for us who are in Him shall be,
   "share and share alike." He Himself has said, "Where I am, there shall
   also My servant be." And all that He has, He will divide with us. Are
   you willing, dear Brothers and Sisters, to take shares with Christ? If
   not, then I question whether you can be rightly reckoned among His
   saints.

   18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
   worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. '
   'Light afflictions" are contrasted with "an exceeding weight of glory."
   Temporary afflictions, but for a moment, are to be followed by
   everlasting crowns that fade not away. What a contrast!

   19. For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the
   manifestation of the sons of God. All creation is, as it were, watching
   and waiting on tiptoe for the day when God shall manifest His sons and
   daughter, who, at present, are hidden. In due time, they shall come
   forth, acknowledged of God, and then shall the whole creation rejoice!

   20-23. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but
   by reason of Him who has subjected the same in hope, because the
   creature itself shall also be delivered from the bondage of corruption
   into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the
   whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not
   only they, but ourselves, also, which have the first fruits of the
   Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the
   adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. We have already obtained
   salvation for our souls, but our body is still under bondage--subject
   to weariness--to pain, to infirmity--to death. But, by-and-by, with the
   new creation, our newly-molded bodies shall be fit to live in the new
   world and fit for our newborn souls to inhabit. This is the full
   redemption for which we are waiting!

   24-28. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for
   what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we
   see not, then do we with patience wait for it Likewise the Spirit also
   helps our infirmities: for we knownot what we shouldpray for as we
   ought: but the Spirit itselfmakes intercession for us with groans which
   cannot be uttered. And He that searches the hearts knows what is the
   mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints
   according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together
   for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to
   His purpose. "We know that all things work together for good to them
   that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
   That is a wonderfully positive statement, Paul! There are certain
   persons, nowadays, who say that we knownothing, yet the Apostles
   constantly say, "We know this" and, "We know that." These people tell
   us that there is a great distinction between believing and
   knowing--but, evidently it is a distinction of which the Inspired
   Apostles knew nothing at all! Read the Epistles of John and note how he
   continually says, "We know, we know, we know," and how frequently he
   adds, "We believe," as though believing and knowing were the same
   thing! Agnostics may declare that they know nothing, if they please,
   but, as for us who do know, because we believe what we are taught of
   God in this Book, we will speak! He who has something to say has a
   right to say it! We know and therefore we speak!

   Mark, Brothers and Sisters, how the Apostle speaks here. He does not
   say that all things shall work together for good. No, but that they do
   work together. They are nowworking for your present good. This is not
   merely something which shall eventually turn out right--right now it is
   all right! "We know that all things are working together for good to
   them that love God, to them who are the called according to His
   purpose." No sooner does the Apostle mention that word, "purpose," than
   he must begin a long discourse upon it. He was not afraid or ashamed to
   speak of the purposes of God! There are some preachers who say nothing
   about God's purposes, or God's decrees--they seem to be afraid of
   them--they say it is "Calvinistic doctrine." Why, it was here, in the
   Scriptures, long before Calvin was born! So what right have they to
   call it by hisname? Listen to what the Apostle has to say--

   29, 30. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
   conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
   many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called:
   and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them
   He also glorified. There is no separating these golden links of love
   and mercy! That foreknowledge, to which all future things are open and
   present, begins the deed of love. Predestination comes in and chooses a
   people for God who shall be eternally His. Upon this, in due time,
   follows effectual calling by which the chosen ones are brought out,
   from the impure mass of mankind, and set apart unto God. Then follows
   justification by faith, through the precious blood and righteousness of
   Jesus Christ! And where this is, glory will certainly come, for "whom
   He justified, them He also glorified."

   31, 32. What shall we say, then, to these things? If God is for us, who
   can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up
   for us all, how shall He not, with Him, also freely give us all things?
   Notice, it is not simply "freely give us all things," but, "with Him,
   also freely give us all things." You shall get all things with Christ,
   but you shall get nothing without Christ, for all the other gifts come
   in this one! God first gave us His Son and He gives us everything in
   Him.

   33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God who
   justifies. Ring out the challenge in Heaven itself! Trumpet it through
   all the caverns of Hell! Let the whole universe hear it! "Who shall lay
   anything to the charge of God's elect?" None can, for "it is God who
   justifies," and His justification blocks every charge that is brought
   against His people--

   "Who shall the Lord's elect condemn? 'Tis God that justifies their
   souls And mercy, like a mighty stream, O'er all their sins divinely
   rolls."

   34. Who is he that condemns?None will answer to that challenge, for

   34, 35. 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.
   Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Oh, this blessed
   question--this touching question! It seems to come at the end of all
   the others--a rear-guard which effectually prevents our treasures from
   being taken from us. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"

   35. Shall tribulation?That has been tried. Have not the saints been
   beaten like wheat upon the threshing-floor? Has not affliction been to
   them a stern test of the reality of their faith? But Christ has loved
   them none the less for all the suffering that He has permitted to fall
   upon them.

   35. Or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
   sword? When they have been in famine or poverty, has Christ ever
   forsaken His saints? Ah, no--He has loved them all the more! Have any
   of these things separated us from our Savior? No, but they have, to our
   own consciousness, knitted us even more closely to our Divine Lord.
   Cruel men have tried every form of persecuting the saints of God. They
   have been more inventive in the torments which they have applied to
   Christians than in almost anything else! Yet no torture, no rack, no
   imprisonment has ever divided them from Christ. They have clung to Him
   after the manner of John Bunyan, who, when they said that he might go
   free if he would promise not to preach the Gospel, said, "I will lie in
   prison till the moss grows on my eyelids rather than I will ever make
   such a promise as that! If you let me out of prison today, I will
   preach tomorrow, by the Grace of God."

   36. As it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long; we
   are accounted as sheep for the slaughter But there has been no triumph
   over the saints in this case.

   37-39. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him
   that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor
   angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
   to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able
   to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
   Lord--

   "Not all that men on earth can do, Nor powers on high, nor powers
   below, Shall cause His mercy to remove, Or wean our hearts from Christ
   our love." Glory be unto His holy name! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Best Friend

   (No. 2627)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 18, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGE0N,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   FEBRUARY 23, 1882.

   "Your own friend, and your father's friend, forsake not." Proverbs
   27:10.

   TRUE friends are very scarce. We have a great many acquaintances and,
   sometimes, we call them friends and so misuse the noble word,
   "friendship." Perhaps, in some later day of adversity, when these
   so-called friends have looked out for their own interests and left us
   to do the best we can for ourselves, that word, friendship, may come
   back to us with sad and sorrowful associations. The friend in need is a
   friend, indeed, and such friends, I say again, are scarce. When you
   have found such a man and proved the sincerity of his friendship. When
   he has been faithful to your father and to you, grapple him to yourself
   with hooks of steel and never let him go! It may be that because he is
   a faithful friend, he will sometimes vex you and anger you. See how
   Solomon puts it in this very chapter--"Open rebuke is better than
   secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend." It takes a great
   deal of friendship to be able to tell a man his faults. It is not
   friendship that flatters! It is small friendship that holds its tongue
   when it ought to speak. But it is true friendship that can speak at the
   right time and, if necessary, even speak so sharply as to cause a
   wound. If you are like many other foolish folk, you will be angry with
   the man who is so much your friend that he will tell you the truth. If
   you are unworthy of your friend, you will begin to grow weary of him
   when he is performing on your behalf the most heroic act of pure
   charity by warning you of your danger and reminding you of your
   imperfection! Solomon, in prospect of such a case, knowing that this is
   one of the greatest trials of friendship among such poor imperfect
   beings as we are, tells us not to forsake, for this reason--nor indeed,
   for any other reason--the man who has been to us and to our family a
   true friend. "Your own friend, and your father's friend, forsake not."

   I do not think that I would waste your time if I were to give you a
   lecture upon friendship--its duties, its dangers, its rights and its
   privileges--but it is not my intention to do so. There is one Friend to
   whom these words of Solomon are especially applicable. There is a
   Friend who is the chief and highest of all friends and when I speak of
   Him, I feel that I am not spiritualizing the text in the least. He is a
   true and real Friend and these words are truly and really applicable to
   Him. And if ever the text is emphatic, it is so when it is applied to
   Him, for there was never such another Friend to us and to our fathers!
   There is no Friend to whom we ought to be so intensely attached as to
   Him. "Your own Friend, and your father's Friend, forsake not."

   I want, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to speak upon this
   subject. First, here is a descriptive title which may be fitly applied
   to Christ by many of us. He is our own Friend, and also our father's
   Friend. Secondly, here is suggestive advice concerning this Friend.
   "Forsake Him not." And before I have done, I shall say a little upon a
   consequent resolution. I hope that we shall turn the text into a solemn
   resolve and say, "My own Friend, and my father's Friend, I will not
   forsake."

   I. First, then, here is A DESCRIPTIVE TITLE for our blessed Lord and
   Master.

   First, he is a Friend, the Friend of man. I know that Young calls him
   the "great Philanthropist." I do not care to see that title--it is not
   good enough for Him--though truly the great Lover of man is Christ.
   Better still is the title which was given to Him when He was upon
   earth, "the Friend of sinners."--

   "Friend of sinners is His name."

   Their Friend--thinking of them with love when no other eye pitied them,
   and no other heart seemed to care for them. Their Friend, entering in
   most tender sympathy into the case of the lost, for "the Son of Man
   came to seek and to save that which was lost." Their Friend--giving
   them good and sound advice and wholesome counsel, for whoever listens
   to the Words of Christ shall find in His teaching and in His guidance
   the highest wisdom. Their Friend, however, giving far more than
   sympathy and mere words--giving a lifetime of holy service for the sake
   of those whose cause He had espoused and going further even than
   this--doing for them the utmost that a Friend can do, for what is there
   more than that a man should lay down his life for his friend? Friend of
   man and, therefore, born of man. Friend of sinners and, therefore,
   living among them and ministering to them. Friend of sinners and,
   therefore, taking their sin upon Himself and bearing it "in His own
   body on the tree," so fulfilling Gabriel's prophecy that He would come
   "to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make
   reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
   righteousness."

   Christ has done for us all that needed to be done! He has done much
   more than we ever could have asked Him to do, or expected Him to do. He
   has done more for us than we can understand, even now that He has done
   it, and more than you and I are likely everto understand even when our
   intellect shall have been developed and enlarged to the utmost degree
   before the eternal Throne of God, for even there I do not think we
   shall ever fully know how much we owe to the friendship of our best
   Friend! However self-denying and tender other friends may be, our Lord
   must always stand at the head of the list and we will not put a second
   there as worthy of any comparison with Him!

   It is a very blessed thing, next, to have the Lord Jesus Christ as
   having been our father's Friend. There are some of us to whom this has
   been literally true for many generations. I suppose that there is some
   pride in being the 14th earl, or the 10th duke, or having a certain
   rank among men. But, sometimes, quietly to myself, I glory in my
   pedigree because I can trace the line of spiritual Grace back as far as
   I can go to men who loved the Lord and who, many of them, have preached
   His Word. Many of you, I know, in this Church, and in other Churches,
   have a glorious heraldry in the line of the Lord's nobles. It is true
   that some of you have had the great mercy of being taken, like trees
   out of the desert, and planted in the courts of our God, for which you
   may well be glad. But others of you are slips from vines that, in their
   turn, were slips from other vines loved and cared for by the great
   Husbandman! You cannot tell how long this blessed succession has
   continued--your fathers, and your fathers' fathers, as far back as you
   can trace them, were friends of Christ! Happy Eph-raim, whose father
   Joseph had God with him! Happy Joseph, whose father Jacob saw God at
   Bethel! Happy Jacob, whose father Isaac walked in the fields and
   meditated in communion with Jehovah! Happy Isaac, whose father Abraham
   had spoken with God and was called "the Friend of God!" God has a habit
   of loving families. David said, "The mercy of the Lord is from
   everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His
   righteousness unto children's children; to such as keep His covenant,
   and to those that remember His commandments to do them." Grace does not
   run in the blood, but often the stream of Divine Mercy has run side by
   side with it and, instead of the fathers, have been the children whom
   the Lord has made to be princes in the earth!

   Some of you, perhaps, have fathers and mothers still living, whose
   example you may fitly follow. I charge you, never forsake your father's
   God, or, what is still more tender, the God of your mother! Others of
   you have parents in Heaven. Well, they are still yours--that sacred
   relationship is not broken. You remember your mother's last grasp of
   your hand when she bade you follow her to Heaven. You recollect your
   father's appeals to you, in his long sickness, when he pleaded with you
   to take heed to your ways and not neglect the things of God, but seek
   Him in the days of your youth. Well, did you ever hear your father say
   anything against his God? Did your mother ever, in her confiding
   moments, whisper in your ear, "Mary, do not trust in God, for He has
   betrayed your mother's confidence"? No! I know they did not talk like
   that, for He was their best Friend and He who was such a Friend to the
   dear old man whom you can never forget. He who cheered the heart of
   that gracious matron whose sweet face rises before you now--oh, I
   beseech you, forsake Him not! "Your own Friend, and your father's
   Friend, forsake not."

   Still, the sweetest part of the text lies in these words, " Your own
   Friend." I do not think that I can preach on those words. I can take
   them in my mouth and they are like honey for sweetness, but they must
   be personallyenjoyed to be fully appreciated. There are some precious
   lines we sometimes sing--

   "The health is of my countenance, Yes, my own God is He"-- which
   exactly describe the blessedness of "your own Friend."

   Now, if it is true that Christ is your own Friend, then you have spoken
   with Him. You have held sweet conversations with Him, you have placed
   your confidence in Him, you have told Him your lost estate and
   sinfulness and you have reposed in Him as your own Savior. You have put
   your cause into His hands and you have left it there. If He is, indeed,
   your own Friend, then He has helped you. You were a stranger and He has
   taken you in. You were naked and He has clothed you. You were
   spiritually sick and in prison, and He came to you and healed you. Yes,
   and He wore your chains and bade you go free! And He took your
   sicknesses and bade you take His health--and so He made you whole. Yes,
   and He restored you even from the grave--and went into that grave,
   Himself, that by His death, you might live! You know that it is so and
   day by day you keep up communion with Him--you could not live without
   Him, for He is such a Friend to you, and you rest on Him with all your
   weight as you come up from the wilderness with Him, leaning on your
   Beloved, "your own Friend."

   Nor is the friendship all on one side, though your side is a very
   little one. You would make it greater if it were in your power, for you
   have confessed His name, you have united yourself with His people, you
   love to join with them in prayer and praise. You are not ashamed to be
   called by Christ's name as a Christian, or to speak well of that name,
   and you desire to consecrate to Him all that you have. Better than all
   this, while you do call Him, Friend, He also calls you, Friend, as He
   said to His disciples, "You are My friends, if you do whatever I
   command you." Dare I say the words, yet, dare I doubt the truth of the
   words--Jesus is my Friend? There is one we read of in the Bible who was
   David's captain of the host, and there was another who was David's
   counselor. But there was one man whom we always call, "David's friend,
   Jonathan." And I envy him such a title. Yet Jesus gives this name to
   all those who come and put their trust in Him and so find Him to be
   their Friend!

   Now, inasmuch as the Lord Jesus is "your own Friend, and your father's
   Friend," the injunction of the text comes to you with peculiar
   force--"Forsake Him not." Can you forsake Him? Look at His face, all
   red with bloody sweat for you. Nor His face, alone, for He is covered
   all over with that gory robe wherein He worked out your redemption. He
   that works for bread must sweat, but He that worked for your eternal
   life did sweat great drops of blood falling down to the ground! Can you
   forsake Him? He stands at Pilate's bar, He is mocked by Herod's men of
   war. He is scourged by Pilate, and all for you--and can you forsake
   Him? He goes up to the Cross of Calvary and the cruel iron is driven
   through His hands and feet and there He makes expiation for your guilt.
   He is your Friend, even to the ignominy of a felon's death-- and can
   you forsake Him? He lays His pierced hand on you and He says, "Will
   you, also, go away?" Or, as He worded it to the twelve, "You also will
   not go away, will you?" So it might be read, "Many of my supposed
   friends have gone and so have proved themselves to be not friends, but
   traitors. But you, also, will not go away, will you?" And He seems to
   make an appeal to them with those tearful, tender eyes of His--"as the
   eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly
   set"--"You also will not go away, will you?"

   And when you turn your eyes another way and think not merely of the
   shame your Friend endured for you, but recollect what is an equal proof
   of His love--that He is not ashamed of you now that He is in His Glory!
   Amidst the throng of angels and cherubim and seraphim that frequent His
   courts above He does not disdain to know that He is the Brother of
   these poor earthworms down below, for even there He wears the body
   which proves Him to be our next of kin--yes, and wears the scars which
   proved that for us He endured the death penalty, itself, and even now
   He is not ashamed to call us Brethren! As you think of all this, can
   you forsake Him? Because you are somewhat better off than you once
   were, will you leave the little gathering of poor folk with whom you
   used to worship so happily, and will you go to some more fashionable
   place where there is music, but little of the music of the name of
   Jesus--where there is gorgeous architecture, it may be, and
   masquerading, and mummery and I know not what, but little of the sweet
   savor of His Presence, and the dropping of that dew which He always
   brings with Him wherever He comes? Oh, it is a pity, it is a sorrowful
   pity, it is a meanness that would disgrace a mere worldling--when a man
   who once confessed Christ and followed Him--must turn his back upon his
   Lord because his own coat is made of better material than it used to
   be, and his balance at the bank is heavier! I had almost said--"Then
   let the Judas go, be his own place what it may--it were almost a
   dishonor to Christ to wish the traitor back!

   Oh, will you go away, either from the Crucified or from the Glorified?
   If you will forsake this Friend, "Behold, He comes!" Every hour brings
   Him nearer! The chariots of His Glory have glowing axles and you may
   almost hear them as they speed toward us! And then what will you do
   when you have forsaken your own Friend and your father's Friend, and
   you hear Him say, "I never knew you; I never knew you"? God grant that
   it may never be the lot of any of us here present to hear those awful
   words!

   II. Now I pass on to our second head, as the Holy Spirit may help me.
   It is, SUGGESTIVE ADVICE--"Your own Friend, and your father's Friend,
   forsake not."

   There is, to me, in the text, a suggestion which the text itself does
   not suggest. That is to say, it suggests something by not suggesting
   it. The text does not suggest to me that my own Friend and my father's
   Friend will ever forsake me. It seems to hint that I may forsake Him,
   but it does not suggest that He will ever forsake me--and He never
   will! If the Lord had ever meant to forsake me, He has had so many good
   reasons for doing it that He would have done it long ago! The Apostle
   says of those who are journeying to the better country that, "if they
   had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might
   have had opportunity to have returned." And, certainly, our blessed
   Lord and Master, if He had desired to leave us to perish, had many an
   opportunity to return to Heaven before He died. And, since then He has
   had many more occasions when He might have said, "I really must
   withdraw My friendship from you," if He had ever wished to do so. But
   His love is constant--"Having loved His own which were in the world, He
   loved them unto the end." His is a friendship which never changes! You
   shall never fall back on Him and find that He has withdrawn the arms
   with which He formerly upheld you. You shall find, in life and in
   death, that "there is a Friend that sticks closer than a brother." Let
   us be cheered by the assurance that He will never forsake us!

   Now let us go on to what the text doessuggest in so many words. It
   suggests to us the question, In what sense can we forsake Christ? Well,
   there is more than one sense in which a man may forsake Christ. Two
   passages rise to my mind at this moment. "Then all the disciples
   forsook Him and fled." That was one sort of forsaking--they were all
   afraid and ran away from their Lord in the hour of His betrayal into
   the hands of sinners. But it is quite another kind of forsaking when we
   read, "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no
   more with Him." The first forsaking was the result of a sudden fear,
   much to be deplored and very blameworthy, but still, only temporary in
   its effects. The other was the deliberate act of those who, in cold
   blood, refused to accept Jesus Christ's doctrine, or to follow Him any
   farther, and so turned back and walked no more with Him. This last
   forsaking is incurable. The former one was cured almost as soon as the
   sudden fear that caused it was removed, for we find John and even Peter
   following the Master to the judgment hall and the whole of the
   disciples soon gathered around Him after His Resurrection.

   I would say to you, dear Friends, "Your own Friend, and your father's
   Friend, forsake not" in any sense at all. Forsake Him not even in your
   moments of alarm. Pray God that then you may play the man and not
   forsake Him and flee. And then, in the other sense, let no quarrel ever
   arise between you and Christ's most precious Truth so as to lead you
   deliberately to leave Him, for this is the worst of all kinds of
   forsaking! If we never forsake Him in any sense at all, then it is
   quite certain that we shall never forsake Him in the worst sense. I
   remember a little merriment I had with a good Wesleyan brother, the
   clerk of the works, when the Tabernacle was being built. He wanted me
   to go up a ladder right into those lantern lights and I said, "No,
   thank you. I would rather not." "But," he replied, "I thought you had
   no fear of falling." "Yes," I answered, "that is quite true. I have no
   fear of finally falling away, but the belief that the Lord will
   preserve me does not exercise any evil influence over me, for it keeps
   me from running unnecessary risks by climbing up ladders! But you, good
   Brother, who are so afraid of falling, do not seem to show it
   practically in your conduct, for you go up and down the ladders as
   nimbly as possible."

   I have sometimes met with persons who think that if we believe that we
   shall never fall so as to perish, we are apt to become
   presumptuous--but we do not, dear Brothers and Sisters! There are other
   Truths of God that come in to balance this one, so that what they think
   might come of it is, by God's good Grace, prevented. And I am not quite
   sure that those who think that they may finally fall and perish are
   sufficiently impressed with that belief so as to always be careful. The
   fact is, that your carefulness of walk does not depend merely upon your
   view of this doctrine or that, but it depends upon your state of heart
   and a great many other things--so that you have no reason to judge what
   you might do if you believed such-and-such a Truth of God, because if
   you did believe it, perhaps you would, at the same time, be a better
   man--and the possibility that appears to linger around the doctrine
   would vanish so far as you are concerned. Let this be the language of
   all of us who love the Lord, as we look up confidently and reverently
   to Him--

   "We have no fear that You should lose One whom eternal love could
   choose,

   But we would ne'er this Grace abuse. Let us not fall. Let us not fall!"

   I know that if we are truly the Lord's, He will not allow us to forsake
   Him. But I must have a wholesome fear lest I should forsake Him, for
   who am I that I should be sure that I have not deceived myself? I may
   have done so and, after all, may forsake Him after the loudest
   professions, and even after the greatest apparent sincerity in vowing
   that I never will turn away from Him.

   So, I ask again--In what sense can we forsake our Lord? Well, there are
   many senses, but perhaps you will see better what I mean if I describe
   a general process of forsaking a friend. I hope that you have never had
   to undergo it. I do not know that I ever have, but, still, I can
   imagine that it is something like this. The old gentleman was your
   father's friend. He also had been your own friend and has done you many
   a good turn. But, at last, he has said something which has provoked you
   to anger, or he has done something which you have misunderstood or
   misinterpreted--and now you feel very cool towards him when you meet.
   You pass the time of day and, perhaps, say very much the same things
   which you used to say, but they are said in a very different fashion.
   Now, that is how we begin to forsake our God. We may keep up the
   appearance of friendship with Christ, but it is a very cool affair. We
   go to a place of worship, but there is no enjoyment, no enthusiasm, no
   earnestness.

   Then the next thing is that you do not call to see your friend as
   frequently as you used to do. It has not come to an open rupture
   between you, so you do look in at certain set times when you are
   expected, but there are none of those little flying visits and that
   popping in upon him unawares, just to get a look at his face as you
   used to do. And, on his part, he does not come to see you much, either.
   And that is how our forsaking of Christ generally continues. We do not
   go to talk with Him as we once did, and when we do go to His House, we
   find that He is not there. "Can two walk together, except they be
   agreed?" Then, by-and-by, perhaps there is a sharp word spoken, and
   your friend feels that you do not need him. You have said something
   that cuts him to the quick and grieves him. It was not anything so very
   bad if it had been spoken to a stranger--but to be said to him who was
   your father's friend, to him whom you always expected to come in and
   whom you loved to see--to say it to him was very hard and he naturally
   took offense at it.

   That is how it comes to pass between Christ and professors. There is
   something done which might not be of so much account in the case of
   non-professors or the openly ungodly, but it is very bad in one who
   professed to have Christ for his Friend. And do you know what happens,
   by-and-by, when your friend is being discarded? At last he does not
   call at all--and you do not go to see him. Perhaps the breach is still
   further widened and little presents are sent back or treated with
   contempt. There is that oil painting which your father would have,
   though he could scarcely afford it, because he loved his friend so
   much, and which he hung up in so conspicuous a place in his house.
   Well, the other day, the string broke and you did not buy a fresh piece
   of cord to hang it up again. In fact, you put the picture away in the
   cellar and you do not really care what becomes of it! The little tokens
   of past affection are all put away, for there is an open rupture, now,
   and when somebody spoke to you about him, lately, you said, "Oh, pray
   don't mention him to me! He is no friend of mine now! I used to be on
   intimate terms with him, once, but I have altered my opinion about him
   altogether."

   So do some professors act towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Those little
   tokens of love which they thought they had from Him, they send back.
   They do not remain in fellowship with His Church. They do all that they
   possibly can to disown Him. In the meanwhile, the blessed Lord of Love
   is obliged to disown them, too! And His Church disowns them. And,
   by-and-by, the rupture has become complete. May that never be the
   portion of any of you!

   "No," says one, "it never will be." My dear Friend, if you are so
   confident as that, you are the person about whom I am most afraid! I
   remember one who used to pray among us, but we had to put him out of
   the Church for evil living. And there was one of our members who said,
   that night, "If that man is not a child of God, I am not one, myself."
   I said, "My dear Brother, do not talk like that. I would not pit my
   soul against the soul of any man, for I do know a little of myself, but
   I do not know other men as well as I know myself." I am very much
   afraid that neither of the two men I have mentioned was a child of God.
   By their speech they seemed to be Christians, but their acts were not
   like those of God's people. It does not do for us to talk as that man
   did, but to pray to the Lord, "Hold me up and I shall be safe." That is
   the proper prayer for us--or else it may happen even to us as happened
   to them--and we may forsake our own Friend and our father's Friend.

   Now, what reasons can we possibly have for forsaking Christ? We ought
   to do nothing for which we cannot give good reasons. I have known
   persons very properly forsake their former friends because they have,
   themselves, become new creatures in Christ Jesus and they have, rightly
   and wisely, given up the acquaintances with whom they used to sin. They
   cannot go, now, to the house where everything is contrary to their
   feelings. But it is not so with Christ. Some so-called friends drag a
   man down, lower him, injure him, impose upon him and, at last, he is
   obliged to let them go. But we cannot say that of Christ. His
   friendship has drawn us up, helped us, sanctified us, elevated us--we
   owe everything to that friendship! We cannot have a reason, therefore,
   for forsaking this Friend. I have known some to outgrow an acquaintance
   or friend. They really have not been able to continue to have common
   views and sympathies, for, while their friend has remained in the mire,
   they have risen into quite different men by reason of education and
   other influences. But we can never outgrow Christ. That is not
   possible! And the more we grow in a right sense, the more we shall
   become like He. A man who has been the friend of our father and of
   ourselves is the very man to still have as a friend because he probably
   understands all about the family difficulties, the family troubles and
   he also understands us. Why, he nursed us when we were children and,
   therefore, he knows most about us. I remember that, when lying sorely
   sick, I had a letter from a kind old gentleman who said that he had,
   that day, celebrated his 80th birthday, and the choicest friend he had
   at his dinner table was the old family doctor. He said, "He has
   attended to me so long that he thoroughly knows my constitution. He is
   nearly as old as myself, but the first time I was ill I saw him and he
   has attended me, now, for 40 years. Once," he said, "when I had a
   severe attack of gout, I was tempted to try some very famous man who
   very nearly killed me and, until I got back to my old friend, I was
   never really well again."

   So he wrote to advise me to get some really good physician and let him
   know my constitution and to stick to him, and never go off to any of
   the patent medicines or the quacks of the day! Oh, but there is a great
   deal of truth in that in a spiritual sense! With the utmost reverence,
   we may say that the Lord Jesus Christ has been our family Physician.
   Did He not attend my father in all his sicknesses, and my grandfather,
   too? And He knows the ins and outs of my constitution-- He knows my
   ways, good and bad, and all my sorrows and, therefore I do not go to
   anyone else for relief. And I advise you, also, to keep to Jesus
   Christ, do not forsake Him! If you are ever tempted to go aside, even
   for a little while, I pray that you may have Grace enough to come back
   quickly and to commit yourself again to Him, and never go astray again.
   There is the blessing of having One who is wise, One who is tried, One
   whose sympathy has been tested, One who has become, as it were, one of
   your family, One who has taken your whole household to His heart and
   made it part and parcel of Himself. Such a Friend to your own soul, and
   to your father's soul, forsake not!

   Do not forsake Him, dear Friends, because, I almost tremble to say
   it--you will need Him some day. Even if you would never need Him in the
   future, you ought not to forsake Him. I do not quite like that verse of
   the hymn at the end of our hymn book--

   "Ashamed of Jesus! Yes, I may, When I've no guilt to wash away, No tear
   to wipe, no good to crave, No fears to quell, no soul to save."

   No, I may not When all my guilt is gone, I shall not be ashamed of
   Jesus. When I am in Heaven and need no more the pardon of sin, I
   certainly shall not be ashamed of Him who brought me there! No, but I
   shall glory in Him more than ever! Your friendship to Christ, and mine,
   ought not to depend upon what we are going to get out of Him. We must
   love Him now for what He is, for all that He has already done, and for
   His own blessed Person and personal beauties which every day should
   hold fast our love, and bind us in chains of affection to Him.

   But suppose you do think of forsaking Christ, where are you going to
   get another Friend to take His place? You must have a friend of some
   sort--who is going to sit in Christ's chair? Whose portrait is to be
   hung up in the old familiar place when the old Friend is discarded? To
   whom are you going to tell your griefs and from whom will you expect to
   receive help in time of need? Who will be with you in sickness? Who
   will be with you in the hour of death? Ah, there is no other who can
   ever fill the vacuum which the absence of Christ would make! Therefore,
   never forsake Him.

   III. Now I must close with THE CONSEQUENT RESOLVE about which I can say
   very little, as my time has gone.

   Let this be your resolve, by His Grace, instead of forsaking Him, you
   will cling to Him more closely than ever You will acknowledge Him when
   it brings you dishonor to do so. You will trust Him when He wounds you,
   for "faithful are the wounds of a friend." You will serve Him when it
   is costly to do it, when it involves self-denial, resolved that, by the
   help of His ever-blessed Spirit, without whom you can do nothing, you
   will never, in any sort of company, conceal the fact that you are a
   Christian! Never, under any possible circumstances, wish to be
   otherwise than a servant of such a Master, a friend of such a Lord!
   Come now, dear young friends who are getting cool towards Christ, and
   elder friends to whom religion is becoming monotonous--come to your
   Lord once more and ask Him to bind you with cords, even with cords to
   the horns of the altar! You have had time to count the cost of all
   Egypt's treasure--forego it and forswear it once and for all. But the
   riches of Christ you can never count--so come and take Him again to be
   your All-in-All!

   Those about to be baptized will feel, I trust--as we shall when we look
   on--and say, each man and woman for himself, or herself--

   "'Tis done! The great transaction's done! I am my Lord's, and He is
   mine."

   Nail your colors to the mast! Bear in your body the marks of the Lord
   Jesus. Yes, let everyone of us who has been baptized into Christ feel
   that our whole body bears the watermark, for we have been "buried with
   Him by baptism into death." It was not for the putting off of the
   filthiness of the flesh, but as a declaration that we were dead to the
   world and quickened into newness of life in Christ Jesus our Savior. So
   let it be with you, too, dear Friends, as you follow your Lord through
   the water! Cling to Him, cleave to Him! "Your own Friend, and your
   father's Friend, forsake not." May God add His blessing, for our Lord
   Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN15:9-27.

   Verse 9. As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Oh, drink
   this nectar down! It is as when Cleopatra dissolved the pearl into a
   single draught, for here is the choicest pearl of the Truths of God
   that was ever dissolved into a single verse to be a delicious draught
   for His people to drink! "As the Father has loved Me"--as surely as the
   Father has loved Me and, then, "as"--that is--in the same manner "as
   the Father has loved Me"--without beginning, without ending, without
   measure, without change, "so have I loved you."

   9, 10. Continue you in My love. If you keep My commandments, you shall
   abide in My love. Note this point of the Lord's discipline--not that
   Christ ever casts away His people, but that He does take from them the
   sweet sense of His love, the realization of it, if they are disobedient
   to Him and keep not His commandments.

   10, 11. Even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His
   love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in
   you. That He might joy in us--feel a sacred delight in thinking of us
   as He does when He sees us keeping His commandments and treasuring up
   His Words, and so living in His love and being mighty in prayer.

   11, And that your joy might be full. If Christ is not pleased with us,
   we cannot be glad. And if He has no joy in us, we cannot have joy in
   Him. These two things rise and fall together. When the father of the
   family looks with joy upon his boy, then the boy is happy. But when the
   father has no joy in his son, then be sure of this, the son has no joy
   in his father, but he is sad at heart. O God, may we never grieve You,
   for if we do, we shall be grieved! At least, I trust that we shall-- we
   would not have it otherwise. But, oh, that we might have the testimony
   that Enoch had before his translation, that we have pleased God! Then
   shall we have true pleasure in ourselves.

   12-14. This is My commandment, That you love one another, as I have
   loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his
   life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command
   you. Obedience, then, is rewarded with a holy friendship, for Christ
   becomes in the highest sense our Friend! But we are not His friends
   till we cease to delight in sin and turn away from it into the paths of
   holiness.

   15. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what
   his lord does: but I have called you friends; for all things that I
   have heard of My Father I have made known unto you. The servant works
   in a building and it is enough for him that he is laying part of a line
   of brick or stone. Perhaps he has never seen the design of the
   structure, nor had a wish to do so. But you and I have the great
   Architect constantly coming to us to tell us what the building is to be
   and to explain to us His plans--and so we work with greater pleasure
   and joy than a mere laborer might. The very heart of Christ is laid
   bare to His people. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear
   Him." Happy are His people--glad to be His servants--more glad, still,
   to be His friends!

   16. You have not chosen Me, but Ihave chosen you, and ordainedyou,
   thatyou shouldgo and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should
   remain: that whatever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may
   give it to you. There you see Divine Election leading on to
   fruit-bearing and perpetuated in perseverance--"that your fruit should
   remain." It brings to every one of its objects this conspicuous favor,
   prevailing power in prayer--"that whatever you shall ask of the Father
   in My name, He may give it to you."

   17. These things I command you, thatyou love one another O you
   professors who have no love to one another, you are breaking the King's
   commandment! You are living in direct violation of a plain command that
   is most dear to His heart. Oh, that we might constantly hear it and
   obey it! "These things I command you, that you love one another."

   18. If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated
   you. That is what you have reason to expect, and you may feel honored
   if they treat you as they have treated your Lord.

   19-22. If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but
   because you are not of the world, but Ihave chosen you out of the
   world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said
   unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have
   persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My
   saying, they will keep your's also. But all these things will they do
   unto you for My name's sake, because they know not Him that sent Me. If
   I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they
   have no cloak for their sin. There is an awful increase of sin produced
   by Christ appearing to a man. And if any of you have been very near to
   the Kingdom, and your conscience has been awakened, and your mind has
   been impressed by the Truth of God and yet you have gone back to your
   sin, you have multiplied that sin a thousand-fold! The times of your
   ignorance God may have winked at, but now you are sinning against the
   Light of God and knowledge--and unless you repent, your doom will be
   terrible!

   23-26. He that hates Me, hates My Father, also. If I had not done among
   them the works which no other man did, they had not had sin: but now
   have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father But this came to
   pass that the word might be fulfiled that is written in their law, They
   hated Me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come. And He has
   come! He is here! He has never been taken away! He still abides with
   and in the Church!

   26. Whom I'll send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth,
   which proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of Me. By this mark
   you may know whether that which has been taught you is of the Spirit of
   God. If it does not testify of Christ--if He is not the head and front
   of it all--there is nothing in it for you to accept. If any man comes
   to you with what he calls a revelation, if it is not all concerning
   Christ, by this shall you judge it--it is not of the Spirit of God if
   it does not testify of Christ.

   27. And you also shall bear witness, because you have been with Me from
   the beginning. May we all bear witness according as we have been with
   Christ, for there is no bearing witness to Christ unless we have first
   been with Him.
     __________________________________________________________________

"All Hail!"

   (No. 2628)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, JUNE 25, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH
   5, 1882.

   "And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them,
   saying, All hail! So they came and held Him by the feet and worshipped
   Him. Then said Jesus to them, Be not afraid. Go and tell My brethren to
   go into Galilee, and there will they see Me." Matthew 28:9,10.

   ON Sabbath mornings, lately, we have been meditating upon the sorrows
   of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been, in thought, traveling with Him
   from dark Gethsemane to still darker Golgotha. We have pictured Him
   under accusation before Caiaphas, Herod and Pilate. We have, in
   imagination, heard the cruel shouts of the Jews, "Away with Him!
   Crucify Him!" These solemn events have been full of pain to us--even
   the bliss that comes to us through the Cross of Christ has been toned
   down with intense sorrow as we have thought of the agonies our Savior
   endured there. But as soon as we get to the other side of the Cross and
   realize that Christ has risen from the dead, everything is calm, quiet
   and peaceful! There are none of those rough winds and stormy blasts
   that come sweeping around us as we stand outside Pilate's palace and
   Herod's judgment hall. All is spring-like--summer-like, if you
   will--yes, and autumn-like, for there are most luscious fruits to be
   gathered in the garden wherein was a new sepulcher out of which the
   living Christ arose in all the glory of His resurrection from the dead!

   There was just one painful memory during the interview which Christ had
   with His disciples, when he said to Peter the third time, "Simon, son
   of Jonas, do you love Me?" And "Peter was grieved because He said unto
   him the third time, Do you love Me?" But all the rest of the
   manifestations of our Lord to His disciples were singularly placid,
   joyful, restful.

   So, dear Friends, I want it to be with you, now, as you enter into the
   spirit of the scene described in our text. I pray that the Master may
   set you on the other side of the sepulcher and make you feel as if He
   breathed upon you as He breathed upon His disciples and said to you as
   He said to them, "Peace be unto you!" We need this experience, at least
   sometimes, for while the lessons to be learned at Calvary are
   inestimably precious and it is beyond all things necessary to sorrow
   over our sin as we see how we are reconciled to God by the death of His
   Son, yet we must ardently desire to gather all the fruit that grows
   even on the accursed tree--and part of that fruit will give us the
   sweet rest of reconciliation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

   This is the time for fellowship with your Lord, Beloved. You cannot
   tread the winepress with Him. You cannot pour out your blood to mingle
   with His, for the Atonement is complete and needs no suffering on your
   part--anything added to it would spoil it. But now, on the other side
   of the tomb, you can stand beside your risen Savior. He can come into
   our midst and say, as He has often done, "Peace be unto you!" As we
   journey to our homes after this service, we can walk and talk with Him
   as they did who went to Emmaus in company with Him. We can take Him
   with us into our daily labors, on the morrow, even as He went to the
   sea where His disciples were fishing and taught them how to catch a
   multitude of fish. Familiar acquaintance with Christ should spring out
   of the fact that He is no longer dead, that He is not, now, in the
   grave, but that He has risen in fullness of life and that, most
   wonderful Truth of all, that life is in all His people!

   I. Our meditation upon this text will, I trust, help us to enjoy
   fellowship with Christ. Read the beginning of it and learn from it this
   first lesson. THE LORD JESUS OFTEN MEETS WITH HIS PEOPLE IN THE WAY OF
   HOLY SERVICE. "As they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met
   them."

   My Brother said, just now in prayer, that we do not expect to actually
   meet Jesus in flesh and blood, but we know that there is a great
   blessedness in store for those who have not seen Him with their mortal
   eyes and yet have believed in Him. But we do expect to meet Him, after
   a spiritual fashion, so that faith can recognize Him. No, more, we know
   that He is here in His real, though invisible Presence. We may expect
   this blessed experience when we are in the way of holy service. I grant
   you that our Lord Jesus comes to us at other times as well--

   "Sometimes a light surprises

   The Christian while he sings--

   It is the Lord who rises

   With healing in His wings!"

   Yes, and sometimes the light of the Sun of Righteousness surprises the
   Christian when he cannot sing! "Before I was aware," says the sweet
   singer of the blessed Canticle--"Before I was aware, my soul made me
   like the chariots of Ammi-nadib," for the Presence of Christ may be
   suddenly manifested to His people--and they may be as though they were
   caught away altogether from earthly scenes--and were with Christ in the
   Heavenly places!

   We have known this to happen, sometimes, in the lonely night watches.
   And we have said with David, "When I awake, I am still with You," even
   in the darkness of the night. We have known it to happen in the very
   midst of the hurry and worry of business. All of a sudden everything
   has been calm and quiet. We could not make it out--it seemed like a
   Sabbath in the middle of the week--a very oasis in the wilderness! The
   Lord Jesus Christ has come to some of us when we have been amidst the
   busy throng in Cheapside. In fact, there is nothing but sin that can
   keep Him away from us since He is not dependent upon the ordinary rules
   that regulate the movement of earthly bodies. He was not so on earth
   after He had risen from the dead, for though I doubt not that He often
   came and went just as others did, yet, at other times, He came like an
   apparition, "the doors being shut," and He could be here and there at
   His own sweet will, passing from place to place, holding the eyes of
   those to whom He was nearest, or opening their eyes just when He
   pleased to do so!

   And that is how He acts toward us now. Do not some of you remember when
   Christ first appeared to you? Ah, it is years ago with some of us, but
   we mind the place, the spot of ground where Jesus first manifested
   Himself to us. The joy of marriage--the joy of harvest--these were as
   nothing compared with the joy that came to us from the vision of His
   face! Many days have passed since then and we have had fresh
   visitations from Him. He has come to us, and come again, and yet again.
   He has not been a stranger to us and now some of us can say that we are
   not strangers to Him, for He is our dear familiar Friend! Yet there are
   times, even with those who dwell with Him, when the light is clearer
   and the voice is nearer, and the sense of His Presence is more
   delightful than usual.

   These times, I say, come by Christ's own appointment whenever He
   pleases, yet I again remind you of the lesson we learn from our text,
   which is, that we may expect these visits from Christ when we are going
   about His business. These devoted women had been to the sepulcher and
   had there seen "the angel of the Lord," who had bid them go quickly and
   tell His disciples that He was risen from the dead and would meet them
   in Galilee. So they hastened with all their might to tell the cheering
   tidings to the sorrowing followers of Jesus! "And as they went to tell
   His disciples, behold, Jesus met them." It is better to be actively
   working for Christ than to sit still and read, and study, and hope to
   enjoy His company. There must be alternations between the contemplative
   and the active life of a Christian! Sometimes it is best to sit quietly
   with Mary and leave Martha and the dishes alone. But, at another time
   it is better to bestir yourself and to run here and there with all the
   diligence of a Martha, for then Jesus will be most likely to meet with
   you.

   I notice--and I think that my observation is correct--that my Brothers
   and Sisters who do most for Christ know most about Him and have most
   fellowship with Him. The Sunday school teacher, diligent in his class
   and weary, perhaps, now that the Sabbath is well-nigh spent, yet
   rejoicing that he has set forth Christ before his class, is the one to
   whom the Lord will come and manifest Himself! The man who has been
   preaching in the street, or going from door to door trying to speak for
   Christ by a tract or by his own voice--and all of you, indeed, who have
   done anything for your Lord and Master--are the most likely persons for
   Him to meet with at this time.

   I have known some who have been for years members of churches, but who
   have never done anything for the Savior. They are the kind of people
   who do not get on with my ministry very long--they say that they are
   not able to feed upon it. They are generally wanderers who go about
   from one place to another looking for new light--and they never get to
   be very happy or very useful. Nor do they often have much communion
   with Christ. No, our Lord is very choice in His company and He does not
   frequent the house of the sluggard! But wherever there is one who
   spends and is spent for Jesus, there we may expect that Jesus will be!
   If we heartily serve Him, the state of mind into which we shall be
   brought will be congenial to His own--fellowship will be likely between
   the laboring Savior and His laboring servant. Follow the example of Him
   who went about doing good and you will thus be in sympathy with
   Him--and you will find that He will come and walk with you because you
   two are agreed!

   That is certainly one reason why Christ comes to those who are busy
   about His errands--because He is in agreement with them and they are,
   therefore, traveling on the right road to meet with Him. "If any man
   will not work, neither shall he eat," is a rule that Christ observes.
   And those who will not work for Him get but scant morsels from Him. Few
   of the bits my Brother spoke of, that are dipped in the dish with
   Christ, come to those who never lift a hand to do Him any service. But
   if He brings us into loving obedience, into joyful alacrity and sacred
   earnestness in doing His will, then it is that He will, in all
   probability, meet with us by the way and manifest Himself to us. Sit
   down, then, you who have come to the end of another day of holy
   service, and pray, "Jesus, Master, come and meet us now." Oh, that you
   might feel as though He stood behind you and looked over your
   shoulder--as if the shadow of the Christ fell upon you and you felt,
   even now, His pierced hand touching you--and that prostrate at His feet
   your spirit might lie, holding Him by the feet and worshipping Him!

   I do not feel as if I need to preach upon this subject. I want only to
   set you longing for larger and deeper communion with Christ and
   aspiring after it--especially you to whom this Sabbath has been a day
   of service, from which service, perhaps, you have not as yet seen any
   good come. You have come from the field weary--not weary ofit, though
   weary in it--for you are still ready to serve your Lord. Now I want you
   to feel that Christ is here and that He comes to commune with you.

   II. So we advance a step to our second remark. WHEN JESUS MEETS US, HE
   ALWAYS HAS A GOOD WORD FOR US. "Jesus met them, saying, All hail!"

   That is, first, a word of salutation, as if He had said, "Welcome,
   Friends! Glad to see you, Friends! All hail, My Friends!" There is
   nothing cold and formal about that word--it seems full of the warmth of
   brotherly kindness and affectionate condescension. "All hail!" says our
   Lord to the women. "You are glad to see Me, and I am glad to see you.
   'All hail!'" How much more sweet that sounds than that bitter sarcasm
   of the soldiers, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And yet it seems almost like
   an echo of it, as though Christ caught up the cruel word, crushed the
   bitterness out of it and then gave it back full of delicious sweetness
   to the holy women before Him. "All hail!" He says. "All hail!"

   My dear Christian Brother or Sister, would you be glad to see the
   Savior if He could now be made visible to you? Yet you would not be so
   glad to see Him as He would be to see you! He is very dear to you, but
   He is not so dear to you as you are to Him! Out of two friends, the
   greater affection is always found in the one who has conferred the most
   favors upon the other. I will not dare to compare, for a moment, the
   love which exists between you and Christ, for what have you ever done
   for Him compared with what He has done for you? He loves you more than
   you can ever love Him. Well, then, He says, "All hail! I am glad, My
   Sister--I am glad, My Brother--I am glad, my Friend, that you have come
   up to this place where My people meet. All hail! I welcome you."

   Besides being a word of salutation, it is a word of benediction. Our
   Lord, by this expression, seems to say, "All health be to
   you--everything that can do you good! I wish for you every good thing."
   He speaks it to you, Believer. "May you have the haleness, the
   wholeness that makes holiness and, so may it be all well with you--all
   hale with you!"

   Then it is also a word of congratulation, for some render it,
   "Rejoice," and, indeed, that is the meaning of the term--"Let us joy
   and rejoice together." Jesus gives to you, Beloved, this watchword as
   He meets you--"Rejoice." The children in your class are not yet all
   converted. Nevertheless, rejoice in Christ. All in the congregation,
   about whom some of us are concerned, are not saved. Nevertheless, let
   us rejoice in Christ. You, yourself, cannot run as quickly on your
   Lord's errands as you wish you could. Nevertheless, rejoice in Christ
   Jesus, though you can have no confidence in the flesh. It is a blessed
   thing when it becomes a sacred duty to be glad. What man to whom our
   Lord Jesus Christ says, "Rejoice," can have an excuse for misery? So,
   "All hail!" is a word of congratulation.

   And, according to some versions, it may be read, "Peace be unto you!"
   That is a word of pacification--as though our Lord had said, "Ah, you
   women did not run away from Me as the men did. But, still, you were
   afraid and very timid. Sad though you were at the sepulcher, you went
   there trembling. You did not believe My Word, or you scarcely believed
   it--that I would rise from the dead--but I am not going to have any
   back reckonings with you. 'Peace be to you!'"

   Now, dear Friends, have you heard your Lord and Savior say to you, "It
   is all forgiven--every omission and every commission, every slip and
   every fault--all the lukewarmness and all the coldness is all gone"?
   That is the meaning of the greeting, "All hail!" from the lips of
   Christ. "There is nothing between Me and you, dear Heart, but perfect
   peace and unbroken love. I rejoice to see you and I would have you
   rejoice, and rest, and be quiet, for I have come near unto you, to
   bless and cheer you."

   That is the second lesson I learn from the text. First, that, when we
   are running on our Master's errands, we may hope that He will meet us.
   And, next, when He does meet us, we may expect that He will always have
   a good word for us.

   III. Thirdly, WHEN JESUS MEETS US, IT BEHOOVES US TO GET AS NEAR TO HIM
   AS WE CAN. "And they came and held Him by the feet."

   Note that they first stood still. They had been running quickly to
   carry the angel's message to the disciples, but at the sound of their
   Lord's voice they stopped, half out of breath, and they seemed to say
   by their looks, "It is, indeed, our blessed Master! It is the very same
   Lord whom we saw laid in the tomb, the Best-Beloved of our soul!" Then,
   next, they approached Him. They did not flee away backward at all, but
   they came right up to Him "and held Him by the feet." Now, dear
   Friends, if Jesus is near you, come still closer to Him! If you feel
   that He is passing by, come near to Him by an act of your will. Be all
   alive and wide-awake--do not be half asleep in your pew, but say, "If
   He is here, I will get to Him. If He is anywhere about, I will speak
   with Him and beg Him to speak to me." If ever our heart was active, it
   ought to be active in the Presence of Christ! And let us try to be all
   aglow with joy, for so were these women. They were delighted to behold
   their risen Lord, so they drew nearer to Him and, all intent with
   earnest, burning, all-conquering love, they came so close to Him that
   they could grasp Him, for they felt that they must adore Him.

   Now, Beloved, let it be so with you and with me. Do not let us lose a
   single word that our Lord is ready to speak to us. If this is the time
   of His appearing to us, let Him not come and find us asleep. If He is
   knocking at the door, if He is saying to us, "Open to Me, My Sister, My
   Love, My Dove, My Undefiled," let us not reply that we cannot leave the
   bed of sloth to let Him in--but now, more than ever, let us breathe a
   mighty prayer, "Come, O You Blessed One whose voice I know full well,
   and commune with me." If Jacob held the Angel whom he did not know--if,
   as our hymn puts it, he said--

   "Come, O You Traveler unknown, Whom still I hold, but cannot see! My
   company before is gone, And I am left alone with Thee"--

   let us much more say--

   "Come, O You Traveler well-known, Whom still I hold, but cannot see,

   I must have your company. My spirit craves it, sighs for it, pines for
   it! I must have You. I will hold You. Leave me not, but reveal Yourself
   to me now!"

   That is the third lesson we may learn from our text.

   IV. And the fourth I have almost touched upon. I could not help it. It
   is this, WHEN JESUS MEETS US, WE SHOULD RETAIN HIM AND WORSHIP HIM.
   "They came and held Him by the feet and worshipped Him."

   When Mary Magdalene first sought to hold her Lord, Jesus said to her,
   "Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father." But now He
   permits what He had formerly forbidden--"They came and held Him by the
   feet"--those blessed feet that the nails had held but three days
   before! He had risen from the grave and, therefore, a wondrous change
   had taken place in Him--but the wounds were there, still visible, and
   these women "held Him by the feet." And, Beloved, whenever you get your
   Lord Jesus near to you, do not let Him go for any little trifle--no,
   nor even for a great thing, but say, with the spouse in the Canticles,
   "I found Him whom my soul loves: I held Him, and would not let Him go."
   The saints, themselves, will sometimes drive Christ away from those who
   love Him. Therefore the spouse said, "I charge you, O you daughters of
   Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that you stir
   not, nor awake my love, till He pleases." Be jealous lest you lose Him,
   when you have realized the joy, the rich delight, of having Him in your
   soul! You feel, at such a time as that, as if you scarcely dared to
   breathe--and you are so particular about your conduct that you would
   not venture to put one foot before the other without consulting Him,
   lest even inadvertently you should cause Him grief! Bow thus at His
   feet. Be humble. Hold Him by the feet. Be bold, be affectionate. Grasp
   Him, for though He is your God, He is also your Brother, bone of your
   bone and flesh of your flesh!

   But take care that in it all, you worship Him--"They came and held Him
   by the feet, and worshipped Him." This is not the Socinians'
   christ--they cannot worship their savior, for he is but a mere man.
   This is ourChrist, "the Son of the Highest," "very God of very God,"
   "God over all, blessed forever." As we hold Him by the feet, we feel a
   holy awe stealing over us, for the place where we stand is holy ground
   when He is there! We hold Him, but still we reverently bow before Him
   and feel like John in Patmos when He wrote, "When I saw Him, I fell at
   His feet as dead." Well spoke one of old, to whom it was said, "You
   cannot see Christ and live." "Then," replied the saint, "let me see Him
   and die." And we would say the same, for, whatever happens to us, we
   wish for a sight of Him! I have read of one who cried, under the
   overpowering weight of Divine manifestations, "Stop, Lord! Stop! I am
   but an earthen vessel and if You fill me fuller, I will perish." Had I
   been in his place, I think I would not have spoken quite as he did, but
   I would have said, "Go on, Lord, with the blessed manifestation of
   Yourself! Let the earthen vessel be broken if necessary--it cannot
   possibly come to a better end than by being crushed and even
   annihilated by the majesty of Your glorious Presence!" At any rate, we
   will hold Him and worship Him--may the Lord help us to do so more and
   more!

   V. The last remark I have to make is a practical one. It also comes out
   of our text. FROM SUCH A MEETING WITH CHRIST, WE SHOULD GO ON A FURTHER
   ERRAND FOR HIM. "Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid. Go tell My
   brethren to go into Galilee, and there will they see Me."

   When we have such a meeting with Christ as these women had, let us go
   on some further errand for Him as soon as He permits us to do so. It is
   a very blessed thing to have fellowship with Christ, but it would be a
   very ill result of our communion with Him if it led any one of us to
   say, "Now I shall not go back to my service. I shall not go to my class
   again. I might be provoked by the scholars. I might be careless and so
   I might lose the fellowship I am now enjoying with Jesus. I shall not
   go and preach again. I shall stay at home and have communion with
   Christ all day." I knew one Brother who got into such a condition that
   he really thought that to see the face of his people on the Lord's Day
   robbed Him of fellowship with Christ! All week long he never saw
   anybody, for his fellowship with Christ, he said, was so intense that
   he could not bear to look upon mankind! And when the Sabbath came and
   he had to meet with his people, he would, if he could, have preached
   out of a box so that they might hear his voice, but he might never see
   them. Now, I do not think that such a spirit as that is at all right!
   Who is the man who can best bear witness for Christ, but the man who
   has been with Him in secret and sacred fellowship? And what is a better
   return for Christ's wondrous Grace to us than that we should consecrate
   ourselves to the holy task of showing forth His Glory among our fellow
   men?

   There is a striking legend illustrating the blessedness of performing
   our duty at whatever cost to our own inclination. A monk had seen a
   beautiful vision of our Savior and, in silent bliss, He was gazing upon
   it. The hour arrived at which it was his duty to feed the poor at the
   convent gate. He would gladly have lingered in his cell to enjoy the
   vision, but under a sense of duty he tore himself away from it to
   perform his humble service. When he returned, he found the blessed
   vision still waiting for him, and heard a voice saying, "Had you
   stayed, I would have gone. As you have gone, I have remained." So, dear
   Friend, ask yourself, "Since Jesus is very precious to me, what more
   can I do for Him? I was running to His disciples when He met me, so
   when He bids me go to them, I will run the faster that no time may be
   lost to the disciples before they, also, share the enjoyment with which
   my Master has indulged me! And when I get to them, I shall have more to
   tell them than I had before. I was going to tell them that I had seen
   the angel of the Lord, but I shall be able to tell them that I have
   seen the Lord, Himself, and I shall tell the message so much more
   brightly and powerfully now that I have had it confirmed from His own
   lips."

   Those holy women were full of fear and joy--strangely mingled emotions,
   before--but now, surely fear must have taken flight, for Jesus had said
   to them, "Be not afraid." And it must have been joy, and joy, alone,
   with which these blessed women would break in upon the eleven and say,
   "We have seen what is far better than a vision of angels, for we have
   seen the Master Himself! We held Him by the feet till we knew that it
   was really our Lord! We held Him till we had worshipped Him and heard
   Him say, 'Be not afraid.' And then He gave us a message from His own
   dear lips, and this is what He said to us, 'Tell My brethren to go into
   Galilee, and there shall they see Me.'"

   Happy preacher who, on his way to his pulpit, is interrupted by meeting
   his Master! Happy preacher who has lost the thread of his discourse,
   for few discourses are worth much that have too much thread in them,
   but who has found something infinitely better than thread--some links
   of sacred fire--some chains of Heavenly love that go from end to end of
   the discourse, so that he tells what he knows, and testifies what he
   has seen, for men must give heed to such a witness! His countenance is
   all aglow with the light that shines from the face of Jesus! It is
   bright with the joy that fills the preacher's own soul! And those who
   listen to him say, "Would God we knew that joy!" And those that do
   share it say, "Yes, we know it," and they respond to it till hearts
   leap up to speak with hearts--and they sing together a chorus of praise
   unto Him whom they unitedly love! I wish it were so at this moment. I
   would like, dear Friends, to be able to tell my message better because
   of having met my Master. And I would like you to go out to the work and
   service of another week strengthened and rendered mighty and wise for
   all you have to do, because Jesus has met you and has said to you, "All
   hail," and you have held Him by the feet and worshipped Him!

   There I leave the subject with you. Perhaps some of you are saying, "We
   wish we could hold Him by the feet." Yes, but in this blessed supper,
   which is spread upon the table, you have an outward emblem of how to
   hold Him better than by the feet, for, in the eating of the bread and
   the drinking of the wine in memory of Him, He sets forth to us how His
   whole Self can be spiritually received into the innermost chambers of
   our being--how He can come unto us and sup with us, and we with
   Him--how He can dwell in us and we can dwell in Him. Not only the peace
   of God, but His very Self can now come and abide in your very self, and
   there can be a union between you and Him that never shall be broken!
   God grant that you may enjoy it even now!

   But I know that some here present cannot understand what I have been
   talking about. It must have seemed like an idle tale to them. Ah, dear
   Friends! And if we were to go into a stable and were to talk to horses
   about the ordinary concerns of our home life, what would they know
   about it all? They understand about oats, beans, hay and straw--but
   what can they know of the themes that interest intelligent human
   beings? So, there are some men in this world, of whom Dr. Watts truly
   says--

   "Like brutes they live, like brutes they die."

   They have no spiritual nature, even as the horse has no immortal soul,
   and they cannot, therefore, comprehend spiritual things! And as I might
   pity the horse because it is a stranger to mental enjoyments, so I
   would pity the unregenerate man who is a stranger to spiritual
   enjoyments. For, as much as the mind of man is above the living
   something that is within the brute, so much is the spirit of the
   Believer above the ordinary mind of the unregenerate man. We have joys,
   the sweetness of which is such that honey is not to be compared! We
   have bliss, the like of which all Solomon's wealth could not have
   purchased! And we have been introduced into a world which is as much
   fairer than this material universe as the sunlight is better than the
   darkest midnight of a dungeon!

   Oh, that you did all know it! May God, of His Grace, give you His
   Spirit, create you anew and breathe faith in Jesus into your soul! Then
   will you know the bliss of meeting with Him and of serving Him! God
   bless the Word, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ACTS 3:11-26; ACTS 4:1-4; 2 PETER 3.

   You remember, dear Friends, how Peter denied his Lord in the time of
   His trial. Now notice what a change was worked in him after the Holy
   Spirit had fallen upon him on the day of Pentecost. We have often read
   the story of the man healed at the beautiful gate of the Temple. Now
   let us see what followed:

   Acts 3:11. And as the lame man, which was healed held Peter and John,
   all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called
   Solomon's, greatly wondering. I t is always easy to draw a crowd, but
   there was really something wonderful to be seen that day! The Apostle
   was careful to turn to the very best account the curiosity of the
   crowd. See how quickly he carried their thoughts away from the man
   before him to the greater Man, the Divine Man, the Son of God whom they
   had rejected.

   12-23. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, You men of
   Israel, why marvel you at this? Or why look you so earnestly on us, as
   though by our own power or holiness we had made this man walk? The God
   of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has
   glorified His Son Jesus; whom you delivered up, and denied Him in the
   presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But you
   denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted
   unto you; and killed the Prince of Life, who God has raised from the
   dead; whereof we are witnesses. And His name through faith in His name
   has made this man strong, whom you see and know: yes, the faith which
   is by Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you
   all And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance you did it, as
   didalso your rulers. But those things which God before hadshowed by the
   mouth of allHis Prophets, that Christ should suffer, He has so
   fulfilled. Repent you, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may
   be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the
   Presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was
   preached unto you: whom the Heaven must receive until the times of
   restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His
   holy Prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said to the
   fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
   brethren, like unto me; Him shall you hear in all things whatever He
   shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul which
   will not hear that Prophet, shallbe destroyed from among the people.
   Hear this, then, you who have heard Christ through His Word and through
   His servants, and have heard Him preach--yes, scores and hundreds of
   times! Let me read this text to you again and as I read it, may it sink
   into your hearts. "It shall come to pass, that every soul which will
   not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people."

   24-26. Yes, and all the Prophets from Samuel and those that follow
   after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
   You are the children of the Prophets, and of the Covenant which God
   made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in your seed shall all
   the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you, first, God, having
   raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every
   one of you from his iniquities. They were to have the first
   proclamation of the Gospel. From among them would be gathered many of
   the first converts. The preacher did not know immediately what result
   this sermon produced. It was not like the sermon preached at Pentecost,
   for he did know what happened after its delivery. This is quite as good
   a sermon in every way and we have every reason to believe that many
   were converted by it. The Spirit of God was with Peter, yet even the
   Spirit of God does not always work in the same way upon men. You see,
   the Apostles had no opportunity to have a talk with the people
   afterwards, and to find out what had been done, as they had on the day
   of Pentecost.

   Acts 4:1-4. And as they spoke unto the people, the priests, and the
   captain of the Temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved
   that they taught the people, andpreached through Jesus the resurrection
   from the dead. And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody
   until the next day, for it was now eventide. Howbeit many of them which
   heard the word believed and the number of the men was about five
   thousand So that, though they could not tell then and there how many
   were converted, and though they could not baptize them at once, for
   they were taken away, yet, though there was no meeting, later, there
   were probably just as many saved as at Pentecost! Just as grand a
   result came of it! You cannot judge the result of a sermon on the
   particular day that it is preached--it may seem as if that sermon had
   produced no effect and it may be so--but, still, this time it was not
   so. Whenever you go home sad that you have not had a later meeting, or
   you are interrupted and cannot tell what good was done, though youdo
   not know what has been accomplished, the record is in Heaven and God
   will reveal it, by-and-by! And, perhaps, even here you will discover
   that you made a mistake and that the service which seemed lost was one
   of the most blessed that you ever conducted. God grant that it may be
   so, for Christ's sake! Now let as read Peter's second Epistle, the
   third chapter.

   2 Peter 3:1-3. This second epistle, Beloved, I now write unto you; in
   both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: that you
   may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy
   Prophets, and of the commandment of us the Apostles of the Lord and
   Savior: knowing this first that there shall come in the last days
   scoffers, walking according to their own lusts. This prophecy is most
   certainly being fulfilled in these days.

   4. And saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the
   fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
   beginning of the creation. ' 'Inviolable laws still govern the material
   creation. Men are still swift to sin. Oppressors are not overthrown
   and, oftentimes, the good are left to languish in poverty and
   suffering. 'Where is the promise of His coming?'"

   5. For this they willingly are ignorant I gnorant that there has been
   one great interposition of God to avenge the insults to His holy Law
   and to overturn the rule of sin. "For this they willingly are
   ignorant."

   5, 6. That by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth
   standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then
   was, being overflowed with water, perished. God did destroy man, once,
   with water, and sweep away sin.

   7. But the Heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same Word are
   kept in store, reserved unto fire against the Day of Judgment and
   perdition of ungodly men. There will come a second interposition--we
   know not when, but assuredly it shall come! And if the visitation
   tarries, we must wait for it, for it shall come--it will not really
   tarry, however long it may seem to be delayed.

   8. But, Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is
   with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
   There are no years to Him! There are no days to the great Ancient of
   Days. A thousand years must seem to be a mere speck in comparison with
   His everlasting existence--as a dream when one awakes, it has swiftly
   passed away. But God still remains!

   9. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count
   slackness; but is long-suffering to us, not willing that any should
   perish, but that all should come to repentance. Therefore does He wait.
   If men ask why there is no interposition of wrath to overthrow the
   ungodly, the answer is because this is part of God's great reign of
   love. He waits because He is "not willing that any should perish, but
   that all should come to repentance." Yet there will be a limit even to
   His patience.

   10. But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which
   the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall
   melt with fervent heat, the earth, also, and the works that are therein
   shall be burned up. The next and great judgment will be by fire.

   11. 12. Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what
   manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and
   godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God,
   wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements
   shall melt with fervent heat?This should be the practical outcome of
   the anticipation of coming judgment. Let us look on "all these things"
   as passing away.

   13. Nevertheless we, according to Hispromise, look for new Heavens anda
   new earth, wherein dweels righteousness. The end of this world will be
   the beginning of a new and better one, of which "righteousness" will be
   the great characteristic!

   14. Therefore, Beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be
   diligent that you may be found by Him in peace, without spot and
   blameless. There is, again, the practical note.

   15. 16. Andaccount that the long-suffering ofourLordis salvation; even
   as our beloved brother Paul, also, according to the wisdom given unto
   him, has written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in
   them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood to
   them that are unlearned and unstable, wrest, as they do also the other
   Scriptures, unto their own destruction. The Scriptures are given for
   our learning and, rightly used, guide us to the Savior. But, alas, some
   "wrest" them "unto their own destruction." Let none of us ever be found
   committing such fatal folly as that.

   17, 18. You therefore, Beloved, seeing you know these things before,
   beware lest you, also, being led away with the error of the wicked,
   fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in Grace, and in the
   knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now
   and forever. Amen. I should like to point out to young Christians and
   to all Christian people how Peter finishes this Epistle, first with a
   warning and then with a counsel. He says, "Beware lest you be led
   away." And then he puts in a, "but"--"but grow in Grace." If you go
   into a plantation at a certain time of the year, you may see a great
   number of trees that have no leaves on them. How are you to know which
   are alive and which are not? Well, you would soon know if you could
   look at their roots. If a tree has been growing, if its roots have
   taken hold upon the soil, you may pull it, but you will not stir it.
   There it stands and, in like manner, growth in Grace brings
   steadfastness in Grace. You who have faith, pray God that you may have
   growingfaith. A living faith is a growing faith, and a growing faith is
   a living faith! Pray, therefore, that you may "grow in Grace."
     __________________________________________________________________

God's Work in Man

   (No. 2629)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 2, 1899.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, IN THE
   SUMMER OF 1857.

   "And it shall be in that day, says the LORRD, that you shall call Me,
   Ishi; and shall call Me no more, Baali. For I will take away the names
   of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by
   their name." Hosea 2:16.

   WITHOUT any preface or prelude, we shall draw from these words three on
   four lessons.

   I. The first lesson from the text is this, that GOD SPEAKS CONCERNING
   HIS PURPOSES OF GRACE IN MAN WITHOUT NOTICING EITHER MAN'S WILLINGNESS
   OR UNWILLINGNESS--AND WITHOUT ALLOWING HIS OWN PURPOSE TO BE CHANGED BY
   THE ONE OR THE OTHER.

   According to the free-will plan of salvation, it would be absolutely
   necessary for God to put it thus--"At that day, says the Lord, if you
   are willing, you shall call Me, Ishi, and shall no longer call Me,
   Baali. And if you will believe and repent, if you are willing, I will
   take away the names of Baalim out of your mouth. And if you are
   willing, they shall no more be remembered by their names." But note
   that God puts in no, "ifs," at all, but talks about men as if they had
   absolutely nothing to do in the matter--and as if He, Himself, did it
   all! One might object, "But suppose they are unwilling to forget the
   names of Baalim?" "Ah," says God, "but I have their will in My hands! I
   have the key of man's will--I can open it and no man can shut it. I can
   shut it and no man can open it." "But suppose they should be
   hard-hearted and will not repent?" "Yes," says the Lord, "but I have
   the hammer that can break the heart in pieces and make it fly into
   shivers!" "But suppose they should be stony-hearted and will not melt?"
   "No," says the Lord, "but I have a fire that will melt the most
   adamantine rock that was ever known. Yes, that can consume the rock out
   of the heart and utterly burn it away." Therefore, speaking concerning
   the Israelites, who were serving Baalim, who were drunk with sin, who
   were desperately set on worldling iniquity and who had gone far away
   from God, He puts in no, "if," but distinctly says even concerning
   them, "I will take away the names of Baalim out of their mouth, and
   they shall no more be remembered by their name"

   Have you ever noticed, throughout Scripture, how positively God speaks
   with regard to His acts of salvation in men? "He shallcall upon Me, and
   I willanswer him." "All that the Father gives Me shallcome to Me." "Him
   that came to me I willin no wise cast out." "He shallsee of the travail
   of His soul and shallbe satisfied." The free-willer might rise up and
   say, "But suppose they are not willing to be saved? Will God save them
   against their will?" To this we reply-- There is nothing said about
   their willat all--the only reference is to God's will! It is evident
   that God has such a power over men that He can work in their hearts
   just what He pleases, apart from their willingness or unwillingness, so
   that, when I come into this pulpit to preach, if God the Spirit should
   so please, though you all should gnash your teeth in anger, yet He
   could, under the sound of the Word, convert you all. Though you should
   set your hearts desperately against God's Word and enter His House with
   a curse upon you, yet He could, before you left the place, change you
   to another mind!

   And though you should have come here with all levity of spirit,
   hardened in heart, despising God and His Gospel, yet He has such
   strength that He could, by one word of His mouth, by the breath of His
   Spirit, transform you into His living children who should do the very
   reverse of what you are now doing! It is in vain, then, for an infidel
   to say that he could never be converted, for God could convert him. It
   is in vain for a man to say, "God will never bend my knees in prayer."
   God knows how to make your knees bend, be they ever so stiff. "I never
   will, like a coward, cry for mercy," says one. But God knows how to
   create penitent cries in your heart and how to make them struggle for
   utterance, too! He has you in His hand, He has the bit even in your
   mouth. And desperately as you may be set against Him, yet He can turn
   you wherever He pleases. He who binds Leviathan and cuts the dragon in
   two will not be stopped by a poor puny mortal like you! But if He has
   purposes of Grace towards you, He will work those purposes out. If He
   is determined to save you, He will, Himself, lure you into the
   wilderness and give you a new heart and a right spirit! And if He has
   so decreed it, struggle as you may against Him, the hour shall come
   when, with one blow from the hammer of His Word, your heart shall be
   broken in pieces! And with one sip of His blessed cordial of Grace,
   your soul shall rejoice in pardon bought with blood!

   This is a great Doctrine of the Gospel--the Doctrine of the power of
   Grace--the Doctrine that God saves whom He wills, that "it is not of
   him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy."
   "Ah," says one, "if I am willing to be saved, will not God save me?"
   Sir, He has saved you! If you are willing to be saved, God has made you
   willing, and therein He has given you the very germ of salvation, for
   your willingnessto be saved in God's way is the very essence of being
   saved! "But," says one, "if I am unwilling to be saved, will He save
   me?" No, Sir, not while you are unwilling, but, if He so pleases, He
   will make you willing and then He will manifest in you His power to
   save! God saves no man against his will--and yet it is against his
   will. Ralph Erskine puts it thus--he says, "I was saved with full
   consent against my will." He means to say, "against my oldwill, that
   always willed to do evil, but yet, with the full consent of all my
   powers, they being renewed, created anew in Christ Jesus and,
   therefore, at once willing to submit to everything that God laid down."

   Oh, how I rejoice to preach a Gospel that does not borrow strength from
   me, but gets its power from God! What a consolation that, go where we
   may to preach God's Word, if God wills it, that Word shall be rendered
   effectual among the very worst of men--among mockers, scoffers and
   despisers! Why is it that men go not to preach the Word among the
   Romanists of Ireland? Because they say they will not hear them. Oh, but
   they would! And we should at least free ourselves from their blood if
   we did but stand up and testify the Word of God! However unwilling they
   might be, God could yet, by His abundant Grace, change their hearts!
   "It is of no use," said one, "to go to the Bechuana in his kraal--he
   cannot be saved--he would never be willing to give up his old habits."
   But you do not depend upon hswill at all! You go to him with the Gospel
   and God gives him a new will and the great change is worked! All you
   have to do is to preach the Word! "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
   by the Word of God," for, with the Word of God, there goes forth His
   Holy Spirit which changes men, renews their characters and hearts and
   makes them what they never were before. Oh, I bless God's name that,
   though all the people in the world should lift their hands against the
   Most High and declare that they never would be saved, yet God could, in
   an instant, if so it pleased Him, make the whole of them bend their
   knees before Him, cry for the mercy they once rejected and seek the
   Savior whom they once despised! Here lies the power of the Gospel, in
   that it gains the mastery over man's evil will and without his consent
   changes his nature, and then fully gets his consent after his nature
   has been changed!

   That is the first Doctrine of God, I think, we may fairly draw from the
   text.

   II. Now for the second, which is, that GOD WILL MAKE THOROUGH WORK OF
   IT WHEN HE SANCTIFIES A

   MAN.

   Note that these Jews were idolaters, yet God says, "I will not only
   make them leave off their idolatries, but I will do more--I will take
   away the names of Baalim out of their memories--for they shall no more
   be remembered by their name." God's sanctifying work either is already,
   or it will yet be a complete one. I said that it either is or it will
   be complete--it is so in yon bright spirits before the Throne of God
   and, for the rest of us, if God has begun the good work, He will carry
   it on to ultimate perfection until the very name of sin shall be clean
   taken out of our mouth and the remembrance of it shall be purged from
   our conscience and memory!

   It is worthy of remark that this promise has had a literal fulfillment
   in the case of the Jews. They have many sins, but there is one sin that
   they have not--except spiritually--that is, they are not idolaters!
   Before the time of their captivity, they were constantly worshipping
   one false God or another. It was the hardest thing in the world to keep
   them from bowing down before blocks of wood and stone. But now, go
   where you may, you can scarcely find a Jew who is an idolater. Here and
   there, one or two of them have joined the Romish church and so have
   become idolaters by bowing down before images and saints' relics--cast
   clouts and rotten bones and such things. But, taking the Jews as a
   race, they are the last people in the world to become actual idolaters!
   That ancient message, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord,"
   seems to have been burnt into them and you cannot get it out of
   them--neither will they acknowledge any form of faith that seems to
   deny the unity of the Godhead, or implies that worship is to be given
   to any save the incomprehensible and mysterious Being whom they, as
   well as we, worship as Jehovah. The name of Baalim has been taken clean
   out of their mouths--they do not remember it, neither do they call it
   to mind!

   And it is also a very notable thing, which we have often seen, that
   men, when they are converted, usually become the most clear of the very
   sin with which they were once the most defiled. You will note that a
   man who has been, before his conversion, a great drunk, will, in some
   instances, not only become exceedingly sober afterwards, but he will
   even carry his views, if possible, to an extreme. He will be so
   desperately set against everything that once injured him, that he will
   even look with suspicion on others who indulge themselves in
   moderation. You will note it is so with the man who has been an
   habitual Sabbath-breaker. So surely as he is converted, he will become
   the most precise Sabbath-keeper you ever knew! The sin that hurt him
   will be the sin that he will kill, if possible. The burnt child dreads
   the fire and it is the same with the man who has been burnt by sin. He
   does not like to touch it again. He must keep clean away from it, turn
   from it, pass by it and utterly abhor it. So was it with the Jews--the
   worship of Baalim had been their favorite sin, so the name, Baalim, was
   to be taken out of their mouth and to be no more called to their
   remembrance.

   But, my Brothers and Sisters, what noble beings you and I will be when
   not only has our sin been purged, when not only have our daily
   corruptions been done away with, but when all our sinful nature has
   been utterly removed! Well said the Apostle, "It does not yet appear
   what we shall be." No, Brethren, we can scarcely guess what we shall
   be! But we can for a moment contemplate it. What a noble being man must
   be when he is thoroughly refined--when all his sin is gone--when there
   is not an evil passion left--when there is not a lust hidden in a snug
   corner, but when his soul has become thoroughly pure and his heart
   entirely renewed! Oh, what a noble creature! And just remember this,
   poor, weak, and worthless though we are, that faith which we have in us
   will ultimately purify us and we shall be holy, like yon bright spirits
   before the Throne of God!

   What a grand man would he be who had no sin in him! Suppose him to come
   into this world? He would lead a life exactly like that led by our
   Lord, Jesus Christ, and He was the grandest of all men! It is marvelous
   to consider the different attributes of His Character, as they are
   manifested in His life, but remember that we, too, shall be like He
   when we see Him as He is. We shall be as pure as Adam was in the
   Garden, with this addition--that our purity shall be not merely
   spotless, but it shall be so white that it shall be beyond the
   possibility of ever being spotted! Our nature shall be not merely pure,
   but so pure that it can never be impure! God will stamp it so indelibly
   with the stamp of purity that it will be pure throughout eternity! Oh,
   what a blessed thought--the name of Baalim out of my mouth, sin out of
   my heart, the lustful glance forever gone from my eyes, evil things
   from my imagination all gone! Oh, will we not praise our Lord in the
   bright moment when we wake up in His likeness, when our glorified
   spirit shall be white as driven snow in the glad companionship of the
   Immaculate, the Pure, the Perfect? Oh, what joyous shouts we shall
   raise then! What choral symphonies, what bursts of song, what
   hallelujahs of gratitude! Verily, words fail to express the emotions we
   shall then feel, when, pure and holy, clean and purged, we shall be
   presented, "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," before the
   Throne of God!

   "I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall
   no more be remembered by their name." I think the first day in Heaven
   will be a day full of surprises. We shall not know what to make of it!
   Never will there have been a day before, in our lives, when we had not
   some trouble, or some sin. The first day we are there, when we shall
   have no devil to tempt us, and no sin to pain us, and no trouble to
   grieve us--when we find ourselves all pure, I think we shall scarcely
   know what to do, we shall be so surprised! Mr. Medley's hymn has caught
   the right idea--

   "Then let me mount and soar away

   To the bright world of endless day

   And sing with rapture and surprise,

   His loving kindness in the skies!" We shall be almost like poor Caspar
   Hauser who was kept for many years--in fact, from his childhood--in a
   dark dungeon where a ray of light could scarcely enter. He was,
   afterwards, taken out by his keeper to see the light of the sun and to
   mingle among men, whom he had never seen before, and to hear their
   voices even though there was scarcely an intelligible sound he had been
   taught to utter. Oh, what a delightful thing it would have been for him
   if he had been uninjured by his confinement! But you and I, uninjured
   by our confinement in this cavern below, shall be at once snatched from
   the earth, set down in the streets of Paradise and find ourselves pure!
   The surprise of a beggar, who wakes up and finds himself a king would
   not be one-half so great as the surprise of a saint, when he shall wake
   up in Christ's likeness and find himself transformed into the pure
   image of God! Let us contemplate this with joy and gladness and, amid
   all our daily conflicts, let us count upon the victory! Let us
   anticipate the conquest by faith and let us already seize the palm
   branch and put the crown upon our heads with the ecstasy of hope and
   with the full assurance of faith, for if we fight, we shall reign! If
   we suffer, we shall triumph! If we endure, we shall obtain "the crown
   of life" that fades not away!

   That is the second lesson of our text, that Christ will make thorough
   work of it, wherever He has begun to save and to sanctify.

   III. And now I bring to you a third lesson. THERE ARE SOME THINGS,
   WHICH ARE NOT EVIL IN THEMSELVES, THAT A CHRISTIAN MUST HAVE NOTHING TO
   DO WITH BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH EVIL THINGS.

   I will explain what the Lord meant when He said, "You shall call Me,
   Ishi; and shall call Me no more, Baali." Was Baali a bad name? Not at
   all--God calls Himself Baali in two or three places in Scripture. You
   remember that blessed passage, "Your Maker is your Husband"? It is
   really, "Your Maker is your Baali." And there are several other
   instances where the word, Husband, is used in reference to God which
   might have been left untranslated--and they would have read like this,
   "Your Maker is your Baali." Why, then, is God not to be called, Baali?
   The Jews did, at one time, call Him so. They prayed to Him under that
   title--why might they not continue to do so? Because the heathen had
   made a wrong use of the word--they called their false God, Baali, and,
   therefore, God said, "Do not apply the title to Me, because they have
   used it for their false gods." I can suppose a Jew, like some young man
   in these times, saying, "Now, no man is going to step between me and my
   conscience. I believe the name Baali is a very good one. I have always
   used it and many good men have used it. I use it very sincerely in
   prayer and it is nothing to me that other people make a bad use of
   it--I cannot help that! I know that it expresses my thought--it means
   husband, lordly husband--and I cannot be quite so particular as the
   Prophet Hosea, so I shall keep on using it."

   That is how many argue in these days. Says one, "I am a Christian. I
   intend to serve God, but there are certain pleasures that stand on the
   boundary line between the allowable and the unallowable." "I intend,"
   says one young man, "to follow them, because I do not see that there is
   any harm in them. I confess that they are the cause of great injury to
   others, but they do meno hurt. I used to practice them when I was in
   the world, but they are no hurt to me now--you cannot bring anything in
   Scripture to prove they are wrong. There is such-and-such a place, I
   sometimes truly worship God there. I may be mistaken, but I cannot see
   why I should not do such-and-such a thing when I see nothing exactly
   wrong in it, though I admit that it has a connection with wrong and
   others are thereby injured." That is just it--you are not to use the
   title, Baali, not because it is a bad name, but because others have
   used it for an evil purpose! So, Christian, there are many things you
   are not to do, and many places you are not to frequent--not because
   they are absolutely wrong, but because they have a connection with
   wrong--and if you tolerate them, you will be sharing in the sin which
   is committed by them! And, moreover, whether you know it or not, your
   going there is but the little and little of which it is written, "You
   shall fall by little and by little." So that the best way is to stand
   out against the littles--to be rather too strict than too loose--and in
   so doing, God will give you a reward, for He will make it become a
   greater happiness to you to abstain from fleshly pleasures than it
   would have been to have partaken of them. "You shall call Me no more,
   Baali," because, though the name may be all right in itself, others
   have misused it.

   I can never look upon dice except with abhorrence. If you ask me why, I
   reply--Because the soldiers at the foot of the Cross threw dice for my
   Savior's garments, and I have never heard the rattling of dice but I
   have conjured up the dreadful scene of Christ upon His Cross--and
   gamblers at the foot of it with their dice spattered with His blood! I
   do not hesitate to say that, of all sins, there is none that more
   surely damns men and, worse than that, makes them the devil's helpers
   to damn others, than gambling! And yet many say, "Well, I only play for
   the fun of it--you know there is nothing in it." Of course there is
   nothing in it, but look at the connection of it. Lord So-and-So thinks
   it a very nice thing for him to go and see a horserace, he says that I
   cannot prove it to be wrong. Nice company he will meet there! They
   don't speak very well for the thing.

   Another says, "I can do this, that, and the other. It does not hurt
   me." I daresay you can, but look at the connection of the affair. You
   are to avoid a thing, not merely from the moral wrong of it, or the
   injury it is to you, but because it encourages others in their sins! A
   good pious Jew kneels down to pray and cries to God, "Baali, hear me!"
   There is a poor idolater by his side and he says, "That good,
   venerable-looking man just now prayed to Baali--and so may I." "Quite a
   mistake, my dear fellow," says the Jew. "I did not pray to Baali! I was
   praying to God Almighty, not to your Baal." "But you said, Baal, my
   dear Sir." "Ah, my Friend, but you do not understand me! I was praying
   to the God of Heaven and earth, and not to that poor, paltry idol which
   you call, Baal." Yet the poor heathen naturally thought the Jew was
   worshipping the false god.

   We are to take care not to do what appears wrong in the sight of
   others, so as to lead them astray. We are not to be judged by other
   men's consciences, but, at the same time, we are not to lead others to
   offend. As far as we can possibly do it, we must seek to cut off those
   things that are likely to do injury to others. If I were to hear of any
   of my members going to a theater, I think I would go after them, and
   they would never go, again, as church members. I might, perhaps, do as
   Rowland Hill did. He took a box-ticket for the theater and saw some of
   his members there. "There you are," he said, "I never would believe it
   from hearsay." And then he walked away and immediately turned them out
   of the church. It may be that I may have the misery of looking after
   some of you who make a profession of religion and do not carry it out.
   I am not now speaking to you worldly men who choose to frequent these
   places. But I say to you who profess to be Christ's followers, "Put
   away even the name of such things. Your business is not to talk of its
   being allowable, but to put it away because others make a bad use of
   it." You may say, "Baal," perhaps, without any very great sin, but by
   doing so you encourage others in sin.

   A man who makes a profession of religion ought to be something more
   than other people. He who talks about being saved by Grace and washed
   in the precious blood of Jesus. He who expects to live up yonder and
   wear the white robe, and sing the praise of the Eternal before the
   Throne of God must be different from others. The things which another
   might do with impunity, he must not dare do. A native of India might
   live in a jungle and not die, but we, who are not natives of the
   country, might very soon die of the jungle fever. So, the man who is
   not a Christian may, perhaps, go into many amusements and yet not
   become any the worse for them--but a Christian must not go there
   because he is not an inhabitant of that land! It is not his native air,
   it is not his proper place and he knows it is not! Therefore, his
   business is to go as far away from it as he can!

   I have read of a lady who wanted a coachman. She advertised for one.
   Three presented themselves. She called them in, one by one, and she
   said to the first, "My good man, you want a coachman's place, do you?"
   "Yes, ma'm." "Well, there is one question I want to ask you--How near
   to danger could you drive me?" "Well, ma'm, I think I could drive
   within a yard." "You won't do for me," said she. A second one was
   brought in and she said to him, after asking other questions, "How near
   to danger could you drive?" "Well ma'm, for the matter of that, I could
   drive you within a hair's breadth." "You won't do for me," she said,
   "you are not the sort of driver I want." The third was introduced. He
   was a careful soul and when the question was put to him, "How near
   could you drive to danger?" He said, "If you please, ma'm, I never
   tried that. I always drive as far off as ever I can." Said she, "You
   will do very well. You are just the coachman I want." I would recommend
   you all to imitate that coachman! Do not test how near you can drive to
   danger, but say, "My business is to drive as far off as I can." Do not
   to see how much you can endure of that which is not right, but how much