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        Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 46: 1900
   Creator(s): Spurgeon, Charles Haddon (1834-1892)
CCEL Subjects: All; Sermons;
   LC Call no: BV42
  LC Subjects:

               Practical theology

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

               Times and Seasons. The church year
     __________________________________________________________________

The Death of Christ for His People

   (No. 2656)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 7, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

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

   "He laid down His life for us." 1 John 3:16.

   Come, Believer, and contemplate this sublime Truth of God, thus
   proclaimed to you in simple monosyllables--"He laid down His life for
   us." There is not one long word in the sentence--it is all as simple as
   it can be--and it is simple because it is sublime. Sublimity in thought
   always needs simplicity in words to express itself. Little thoughts
   require great words to explain them. Little preachers need Latin words
   to convey their feeble ideas, but great thoughts and great expressers
   of those thoughts are content with little words.

   "He laid down His life for us." Here there is not much upon which any
   man can display his eloquence. Here is little room for metaphysical
   discussion or for deep thought--the text sets before us a simple yet
   sublime Doctrine of God. What, then, shall I do with it? If I would
   speak of it profitably to myself, since I need not employ my wit to
   dissect it, nor my oratory to proclaim it, let me exercise my adoration
   to worship it! Let me prostrate all my powers before the Throne of God
   and, like an angel when his work is done and he has nowhere else to fly
   at his Lord's command, let me fold the wings of my contemplation and
   stand before the Throne of this great Truth and meekly bow and worship
   Him who Was, and Is, and is to come--the great and glorious One who
   "laid down His life for us."

   It will be well for me, in commencing my discourse, to remind you that
   there is no understanding the death of Christ unless we understand the
   Person of Christ. If I were to tell you that God died for us, although
   I might be telling you the truth and you might possibly not
   misunderstand what I meant, yet I would be, at the same time, uttering
   an error. God cannot die! It is, of course, impossible, from His very
   Nature, that He could even for a moment cease to exist! God is
   incapable of suffering. It is true that we sometimes use words to
   express emotions on the part of God but, then, we speak after the
   manner of men. He is impassive. He cannot suffer. It is not possible
   for Him to endure anything, much less, then, is it possible for Him to
   suffer death. Yet we are told, in the verse from which our text is
   taken, "Hereby perceive we the love of God." You notice that the words,
   "of God," are inserted by the translators. They are in italics because
   they are not in the original. A better translation would be, "Hereby
   perceive we love." But when we read, "of God," it might lead the
   ignorant to fancy that God could die, whereas God could not.

   We must always understand and constantly remember that our Lord Jesus
   Christ was "very God of very God" and that, as God, He had all the
   attributes of the Most High and could not, therefore, be capable either
   of suffering or death. But then He was also Man, "Man of the substance
   of His mother." Man, just like ourselves, sin alone excepted. And the
   Lord Jesus died not as God--it was as Man that He gave up the ghost. As
   Man, He was nailed to the Cross. As God, He was in Heaven, even when
   His body was in the tomb. As God, He was swaying the scepter of all
   worlds even when the mock scepter of reed was in His hand. And the
   imperial robe of universal monarchy was on the eternal shoulders of His
   Godhead when the soldier's old purple cloak was wrapped about His
   Manhood. He did not cease to be God, He did not lose His Omnipotence
   and His eternal dominion when He became Man--nor did He, as God, die or
   suffer--it was as Man that He "laid down His life for us."

   Come now, my Soul, and worship this Man, this God! Come, Believer, and
   behold your Savior! Come to the innermost circle of all sanctity, the
   circle that contains the Cross of Christ, and sit down and, while you
   worship, learn three

   lessons from the fact that "He laid down His life for us." The first
   lesson should be--Did He lay down His life for us? Ah, then, my
   Brothers and Sisters, how great must have been our sins that they could
   not have been atoned for by any other price! Secondly, did He lay down
   His life for us? Ah, then, Beloved, how great must have been His love!
   He would not stop short anywhere until life, itself, had been resigned.
   Thirdly, did He lay down His life for us? Ah, then, my Soul, be of good
   cheer--how safe you are! If such an Atonement has been offered, if such
   a sure satisfaction has been given to Almighty God, how secure you are!
   Who is he that can destroy him who has been bought with the blood of
   such a Redeemer?

   I. Come, then, let me believingly meditate on the first sad fact. Did
   Christ lay down His life for me? Then, HOW GREAT MUST HAVE BEEN MY
   SINS!

   Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, I will speak a little of my own experience
   and, in so doing, I shall also be describing yours. I have seen my sins
   in many different ways. I saw them once by the blazing light of Sinai
   and, oh, my spirit shrank within me, for my sins seemed exceedingly
   black! When the sound of the trumpet waxed loud and long, and the
   lightning and fire flashed into my heart, I saw a very Hell of iniquity
   within my soul--and I was ready to curse the day that I was born, that
   I should have had such a heart so vile and so deceitful! I thought that
   then I had seen the exceeding blackness of my sin. Alas, I had not seen
   enough of sin to make me loathe it so as to leave it, for that
   conviction passed away! Sinai was but a volcano and it was hushed to
   silence--and I began to play with sin, again--and loved it as much as
   ever.

   I beheld another sight one day. I saw my sins by the light of Heaven. I
   looked up and I considered the heavens, the work of God's fingers. I
   perceived the purity of God's Character written on the sunbeams. I saw
   His holiness engraved upon the wide world as well as revealed in
   Scripture and, as I compared myself with Him, I thought I saw how black
   I was. O God, I never knew the heinousness of my own guilt until I saw
   the glory of Your Character! But now I see the brightness of Your
   holiness, my whole soul is cast down at the thought of my sinfulness
   and my great departure from the living God! I thought that, then, I had
   seen enough. Ah, I had seen enough to make me worship for a moment, but
   my gladness was as the early cloud and as the morning dew! Soon I went
   my way and forgot what manner of man I was. When I had lost the sense
   of the majesty of God, I also lost the consciousness of my own guilt!

   Then there came to me another view. I beheld God's loving kindness to
   me. I saw how He had dandled me upon the knee of Providence--how He had
   carried me all my life--how He had strewn my path with plenty and given
   me all things richly to enjoy. I remembered how He had been with me in
   the hour of trial, how He had preserved me in the day of hurricane and
   kept me safe at the moment of storm. I remembered all His goodness to
   me and, struck with surprise at His mercy, I looked upon my sin in the
   light of His Grace and I said, "O Sin, how base you are! What dire
   ingratitude do you manifest against a God so profoundly kind!" I
   thought, then, I had surely seen the worst of sin, when I had laid it
   side by side, first, with the Character of God and afterwards with His
   bounties. I cursed sin from my inmost heart and thought I had seen
   enough of it. But, ah, my Brothers and Sisters, I had not! That sense
   of gratitude passed away and I found myself still prone to sin--and
   still loving it.

   But, oh, there came a thrice-happy, yet thrice-mournful hour! One day,
   in my wanderings, I heard a cry, a groan. I thought 'twas not a cry
   such as came from mortal lips--it had in it such unutterable depths of
   wondrous woe. I turned aside, expecting to see some great sight and it
   was, indeed, a great sight that I saw. Lo, there, upon a tree, all
   bleeding, hung a Man! I marked the misery that made His flesh all
   quiver on His bones! I beheld the dark clouds come rolling down from
   Heaven, like the chariots of misery--I saw them clothe His brow with
   blackness! I saw even in the thick darkness, for my eyes were opened
   and I perceived that His heart was as full of the gloom and horror of
   grief as the sky was full of blackness. Then I seemed to look into His
   soul and I saw torrents of unutterable anguish--wells of torment of
   such an awful character that mortal lips dare not sip lest they should
   be burned with scalding heat. I said, "Who is this mighty Sufferer? Why
   does He suffer thus? Has He been the greatest of all sinners, the
   basest of all blasphemers?" But a voice came forth from the excellent
   Glory and it said, "This is My beloved Son, but He took the sinner's
   sin upon Himself and He must bear its penalty." O God! I thought I
   never saw sin till that hour, when I saw it tear Christ's glories from
   His head--when it seemed, for a moment, even to withdraw the loving
   kindness of God from Him--when I saw Him covered with His own blood and
   plunged into the uttermost depths of oceans of grief! Then I said, "Now
   shall I know what you are, O Sin, as never before I knew it!" Though
   those other sights might teach me something of the dire character of
   evil, yet never, till I saw the Savior on the Cross, did I understand
   how base a traitor man's guilt was to man's God!

   heir of Heaven, lift now your eyes and behold the scenes of suffering
   through which your Lord passed for your sake! Come in the moonlight and
   stand between those olives! See Him sweat great drops of blood. Go from
   that garden and follow Him to Pilate's bar. See your Master subjected
   to the grossest and filthiest insults! Gaze upon the face of spotless
   Beauty defiled with the spit of soldiers! See His head pierced with
   thorns! Mark His back, all torn, and scarred, and bruised and bleeding
   beneath the terrible lash! And O Christian, see Him die! Go and stand
   where His mother stood, and hear Him say to you, "Man, behold your
   Savior!" Come you tonight and stand where John stood. Hear Him cry, "I
   thirst," and find yourself unable either to relieve His griefs or to
   comprehend their bitterness. Then, when you have wept there, lift your
   hands and cry, "Revenge!" Bring out the traitors! Where are they? And
   when your sins are brought forth as the murderers of Christ, let no
   death be too painful for them! Though it should involve the cutting off
   of right arms, or the quenching of right eyes and putting out their
   light forever, do it! For if these murderers murdered Christ, then let
   them die! Die terribly they may, but die they must! Oh that God the
   Holy Spirit would teach you that first 1esson, my Brothers and
   Sisters--the boundless wickedness of sin--for Christ had to lay down
   His life before your sin could be wiped away!

   II. Now we will come to the second head and here we will lift up our
   hearts from the depths of sadness to the heights of affection. Did the
   Savior lay down His life for me? We will read it, now, "He laid down
   His life for me," and I pray the Lord to help each of you, by faith, to
   read it so, because when we say, "us," that is dealing in
   generalities--blessed generalities, it is true--but let us, at this
   time, deal in specifics and say, each one of us who can do so
   truthfully, "He laid down His life for me." Then, HOW GREATLY HE MUST
   HAVE LOVED ME!

   Ah, Lord Jesus! I never knew Your love till I understood the meaning of
   Your death! Beloved, we, shall try again, if we can, to tell the story
   of our own experience to let you see how God's love is to be learned.
   Come, saint, sit down and meditate on your creation. Note how
   marvelously you have been formed and all your bones fitted to one
   another--and see love there. Mark next, that predestination which
   placed you where you are, for the lines have fallen unto you in
   pleasant places and, notwithstanding all your troubles, you have,
   compared with many a poor soul, "a goodly heritage." Mark, then, the
   love of God displayed in the predestination that has made you what you
   are and placed you where you are. Then look back and see the loving
   kindness of your Lord as displayed to you in all your journey up till
   now. You are getting old and your hair is whitening above your brow,
   but He has carried you all the days of old--not one good thing has
   failed of all that the Lord your God has promised! Recall your life
   story. Go back, now, and look at the tapestry of your life which God
   has been working every day with the golden filament of His love--and
   see what pictures of Grace there are upon it! Can you not say that
   Jesus has loved you? Turn your eyes back and read the ancient rolls of
   the Everlasting Covenant and see your name among the first-born, the
   elect, the Church of the living God! Say, did He not love you when He
   wrote your name there? Go and remember how the eternal settlements were
   made and how God decreed and arranged all things so that your salvation
   should come to pass! Say, was there not love there?

   Pause at the remembrance of your convictions. Think of your conversion.
   Remember your preservation and how God's Grace has been working upon
   you in adoption, in justification and in every item of the New
   Covenant. And when you have summed up all these things, let me ask you
   this question--Do all these things produce in you such a sense of
   gratitude as the one thing that I shall mention now, the Cross of our
   Lord Jesus Christ? For, my Brothers and Sisters, if your mind is like
   mine, although you will think highly enough of all these things that
   God has given you, you will be obliged to confess that the thought of
   the death of Christ upon the Cross swallows them all up! This I know,
   my Brethren--I may look back, I may look forward--but whether I look
   back to the decrees of eternity, or look forward to the pearl-gated
   city and all the splendors that God has prepared for His own beloved
   children, I can never see my Father's love so beaming forth, in all its
   brilliance, as when I look at the Cross of Christ and see Him die
   there!

   1 can read the love of God in the rocky letters of the Eternal Covenant
   and in the blazing letters of Heaven hereafter, but, my Brothers and
   Sisters, in those crimson lines, those lines written in blood, there is
   something more striking than there is anywhere else, for they say, "He
   laid down His life for us." Ah, here it is you learn love! You know the
   old story of Damon and Pythias--how the two friends struggled together
   as to which should die for the other. There was love there. But, ah,
   there is no comparison between Damon and Pythias, and a poor sinner and
   his Savior! Christ laid down His life, His glorious life, for a poor
   worm! He stripped Himself of all His splendors, then of all His
   happiness, then of

   His own righteousness, then of His own robes till He was naked to His
   own shame! And then He laid down His life--that was all He had
   left--for our Savior had not kept anything back.

   Just think of that for a moment. He had a crown in Heaven, but He laid
   that aside, that you and I might wear one forever. He had a belt of
   brightness--brighter than the stars, about His loins, but He took it
   off and laid it by--that you and I might eternally wear a belt of
   righteousness. He had listened to the holy songs of the cherubim and
   seraphim, but He left them all that we might forever dwell where angels
   sing. And then He came to earth and He had many things, even in His
   poverty, which might have tended to His comfort, but He laid down first
   one glory, and then another, at love's demand. At last it came to
   this--He had nothing left but one poor garment, woven from the top,
   throughout, and that was clinging to His back with blood--and He laid
   down that, also. Then there was nothing left. He had not kept back one
   single thing. "There," He might have said, "take an inventory of all I
   have, to the last farthing. I have given it all up for My people's
   ransom." And there was nothing left now but His own life. O insatiable
   Love, could you not stay there? He had given up one hand to cancel sin
   and the other hand to reconcile us unto God. He had given up one foot
   that we might have our sinful feet forever transfixed, and nailed, and
   fastened--never to wander--and the other foot to be fastened to the
   Cross that we might have our feet at liberty to run the heavenly race!
   And there was nothing left but His poor heart--and He gave His heart
   up, too--they ripped it apart with the spear and forthwith there came
   out blood and water.

   Ah, my Lord! What have I ever given You compared to what You have given
   me? Some poor things, like some rusty farthings, I have given You, but
   how little compared with what You have given me! Now and then, my Lord,
   I have given You a poor song upon an ill-toned instrument. Sometimes,
   my Lord, I have done some little service for You, but, alas, my fingers
   were so dirty they spoiled what I intended to have presented to You
   white as snow! It is nothing I have done for You, my Lord. No, though I
   have been a missionary and surrendered home and friends. No, though I
   have been a martyr and given my body to be burned, I will say, in the
   last hour, "My Master, I have done nothingfor You, after all, in
   comparison with what You have done for me! And yet, what can I do more?
   How can I show my love to You, for Your love to me, so peerless, so
   matchless? What shall I do? I will do nothing but--

   "'Dissolved by Your goodness, I'll fall to the ground, And weep to the
   praise of the mercy I've found!" That is all I can do, and that, by
   Your Grace, I must and will do.

   III. Now, Beloved, we will change the theme and go one note higher. We
   have run a long way up the gamut and now we have reached the height of
   the octave. But we have something else to get out of the text, "He laid
   down His life for us." Did my Savior lay down His life for me? Then,
   HOW SAFE I AM!

   We will have no controversy, tonight, with those who do not see this
   Truth of God--may the Lord open their blind eyes and show it to them!
   That is all we will say. We, who know the Gospel, see, in the fact of
   the death of Christ, a reason that no strength of logic can ever
   shake--and no power of unbelief can remove why we should be saved.
   There may be men with minds so distorted that they can conceive it
   possible that Christ could die for a man who afterwards is lost. I say,
   there may be such. I am sorry to say that there are still to be found
   some such persons whose brains have been so addled, in their childhood,
   that they cannot see that what they hold is both a preposterous lie and
   a blasphemous libel! Christ dies for a man and then God punishes that
   man again? Christ suffers in a sinner's stead and then God condemns
   that sinner after all? Why, my Friends, I feel quite shocked in only
   mentioning such an awful error! And were it not so current as it is, I
   would certainly pass it over with the contempt that it deserves!

   The Doctrine of Holy Scripture is this, that God is just, that Christ
   died in the stead of His people and that, as God is just, He will never
   punish one solitary soul of Adam's race for whom the Savior did thus
   shed His blood! The Savior did, indeed, in a certain sense, die for
   all--all men receive many a mercy through His blood--but that He was
   the Substitute and Surety for all men is so inconsistent, both with
   reason and Scripture, that we are obliged to reject the doctrine with
   abhorrence! No, my Soul, how shall you be punished if your Lord endured
   your punishment for you? Did He die for you? O my Soul, if Jesus was
   not your Substitute and did not die in your very place, then He is no
   Savior to you! But if He was your Substitute. If He suffered as your
   Surety, in your place, then, my Soul, "Who is he that condemns?" Christ
   has died, yes, rather, has risen again and sits at the right hand of
   God, and makes intercession for us. There stands the
   master-argument--Christ "laid down His life for us." And "if, when we
   were enemies, we were reconciled to God by

   the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by
   His life." If the agonies of the Savior put our sins away, the
   everlasting life of the Savior, with the merits of His death added
   thereunto, must preserve His people, even unto the end!

   This much I know--you may hear men stammer when they say it--but what I
   preach is the old Lutheran, Calvinis-tic, Augustinian, Pauline,
   Christian Truth of God--there is not one sin in the Book of God against
   anyone that believes. Our sins were numbered on the Scapegoat's head
   and there is not one sin that ever a Believer did commit that has any
   power to damn him, for Christ has taken the damning power out of sin by
   allowing it--to speak by a bold metaphor-- to damn Himself, for sin did
   condemn Him and, inasmuch as sin condemned Him, sin cannot condemn us!
   O Believer, this is your security--that all your sin and guilt, all
   your transgressions and your iniquities have been atoned for and were
   atoned for before they were committed--so that you may come with
   boldness, though red with all crimes, and black with every lust, and
   lay your hand on that Scapegoat's head! And when you have put your hand
   there and seen that Scapegoat driven into the wilderness, you may clap
   your hands for joy, and say, "It is finished, sin is pardoned!"--

   "Here's pardon for transgressions past,

   It matters not how black their cast

   And oh, my Soul, with wonder view,

   For sins to come, here's pardon too!" This is all I need to know--did
   the Savior die for me? Then I will not continue in sin that Grace may
   abound, but nothing shall stop me of thus glorying, in all the Churches
   of the Lord Jesus, that my sins are entirely removed from me and, in
   God's sight, I may sing, as Hart did sing--

   "With Christ's spotless vesture on,

   Holy as the Holy One!"

   O marvelous death of Christ, how securely do You set the feet of God's
   people on the rocks of eternal love! And how securely do You keep them
   there! Come, dear Brothers and Sisters, let us suck a little honey out
   of this honeycomb! Was there ever anything so luscious and so sweet to
   the Believer's taste as this all-glorious Truth that we are complete in
   Him? That in and through His death and merits, we are accepted in the
   Beloved? Oh, was there ever anything more sublime than this fact that
   He has already raised us up together and made us sit together in
   heavenly places in Christ Jesus, far above all principalities and
   powers, just where He sits? Surely there is nothing more sublime than
   that, except it be that a master-thought stamps all these things with
   more than their own value--that master-thought that, though the
   mountains may depart and the hills be removed, the Covenant of His love
   shall never depart from us! "For," says Jehovah, "I will never forget
   you, O Zion." "I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands; your
   walls are continually before

   Me."

   O Christian, that is a firm foundation, cemented with blood, on which
   you may build for eternity! Ah, my Soul! You need no other hope but
   this--Jesus! Your mercy, my Savior, never dies! I will plead this Truth
   of God when cast down with anguish--Your mercy never dies! I will plead
   this when Satan hurls temptations at me and when conscience casts the
   remembrance of my sin in my teeth! I will plead this always and I will
   plead it now--

   "Jesus, Your blood and righteousness

   My beauty are, my glorious dress." Yes, and after I die, and even when
   I stand before Your eyes, You dread Supreme--

   "When from the dust of death I rise,

   To take my mansion in the skies,

   Even then shall this be all my plea,

   'Jesus has lived and died for me.'

   Bold shall I stand in that great day,

   For who anything to my charge shall lay?

   While through Christ's blood absolved I am

   From sin's tremendous curse and shame?" Ah, Brothers and Sisters, if
   this is your experience, you may come to the Table of Communion now
   right happily--it will not be coming to a funeral, but to a feast of
   gladness! "He laid down His life for us."

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:

   JOHN 9; 1 CORINTHIANS 10:15-33; 11:1.

   We will first read about one of our Lord's miracles and then, as many
   of us will be coming to the Communion Table, we will read about the
   Lord's Supper.

   John 9:1-3. And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from
   his birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin,
   this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered,
   Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents. That is, the sin of the
   man or of his parents was not the cause of his being blind.

   3. But that the works of God should be made manifest in him. What a
   very blessed way of looking at evil--as an opportunity for God to
   manifest the power of His works of Grace by getting rid of it! I wish
   that everyone here would look upon the evil within his own heart in
   this very hopeful light and say, "There is something in me for God to
   conquer. There is some spiritual disease in me for the great Physician
   to heal. There is space in my poor soul for the Lord, Himself, to work
   some miracle of mercy."

   4-7. I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day. The
   night comes when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am
   the light of the world. When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground
   and made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man
   with the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,
   (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went his way, therefore, and
   washed, and came seeing. You notice, Brothers and Sisters, that the
   disciples wanted to know how the man became blind, but Christ removed
   his blindness and gave him sight. I have known a great many puzzle
   themselves about the origin of evil. Christ did not come to explain
   that mystery--He came to put an end to evil. That is an infinitely more
   practical objective than that of speculating about how evil first
   entered the world, or how it entered any individual soul! He will tell
   you how to get rid of it. What a blessed way of healing Christ used! He
   could have spoken and the man's eyes would have opened at once. He who
   said, "Let there be light," and there was light, in the first creation,
   could have said the same thing to this blind man--and light would at
   once have entered his eyes. Instead of that, He chose to use means, and
   the means did not appear to be very likely to effect the cure. Jesus
   covered the man's eyes with clay and bade him go and wash it off. Is
   this the way to give him sight? Yes, Our Lord often uses means that
   seem to be very unlikely to accomplish His purpose. But He always uses
   the right means. Often, when He is going to open a man's eyes,
   spiritually, He first makes him feel more blind than he ever was in all
   his life. A sense of deeper darkness hangs over him just before the
   dawn of eternal day! Perhaps even this very hour some words of mine,
   human and imperfect as they are, may, nevertheless, have the Truth of
   God in them, just as the clay was made efficacious by the spittle from
   the Savior's blessed mouth. And if so, there will be healing work
   worked among blind hearts tonight. God grant that it may be so!

   8, 9. The neighbors, therefore, and they which before had seen him that
   he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This
   is he. Others said, He is like he. But he said, I am he. There is an
   end of all question about the matter! He says, "I am the very man." No
   one knew this better than he did and, therefore, he was the one to say
   it.

   10, 11. Therefore said they unto him, How were your eyes opened? He
   answered and said, A Man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed
   my eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash And I went
   and washed, and I received sight. A very plain story, very well told.
   It is the story of every soul that gets the eternal light. "Christ told
   me to believe in Him. I did believe in Him and I received the
   blessing." There are not many incidents in the narrative and there is
   nothing very romantic--it is a simple and plain declaration of what
   Christ had done for him. And, blessed be God, just as sight was given
   to the blind man, Christ still gives salvation to all who trust Him!--

   "There is life for a look at the Crucified One!

   There is life at this moment for thee.

   Then look, sinner--look unto Him and be saved--

   Unto Him who was nailed to the tree!

   It is not your tears of repentance or prayers,

   But the blood that atones for the soul.

   On Him, then, who shed it, believing at once,

   Your weight of iniquities roll.

   But take, with rejoicing, from Jesus at once

   The life everlasting He gives:

   And know, with assurance, you never can die, Since Jesus, your
   righteousness, lives."

   12-14. Then said they unto him, Where is He? He said, I know not They
   brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. And it was the
   Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Oh, that He
   would do the same thing, in a spiritual sense, this Sabbath day! On
   another occasion, when He had worked a miracle on the Sabbath and the
   Jews, therefore, sought to persecute Him and slay Him, He said to them,
   "My Father works hitherto, and I work." The Sabbath day was often
   Christ's chief working day--may He make it to be so again now!

   15-17. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his
   sight He said unto them, He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and do
   see. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This Man is not of God
   because He keeps not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a Man that
   is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. They
   said unto the blind man again, What do you say of Him, that He has
   opened your eyes? He said, He is a Prophet There was no mistake about
   that matter in the mind of the man whom he had healed--none but a
   Prophet, mighty in word and deed, could have worked such a miracle as
   that!

   18-21. But the Jews didnot believe concerning him, that he had been
   blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him
   that had received his sight And they asked them, saying, Is this your
   son, who you say was born blind? How, then, does he now see? His
   parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son and that
   he was born blind, but by what means he now sees, we know not; or who
   has opened his eyes, we know not He is of age, ask him: he shall speak
   for himself. And so he did. He was one of those people who can speak
   for themselves and it is greatly to be wished that many more of those
   who have been cured by Christ could do the same! He was a conscientious
   man, who, outside fear of offending or any desire to curry favor, spoke
   out honestly what he knew--nothing more.

   22-27. These words spoke his parents, because they feared the Jews: for
   the Jews had already agreed that if any man did confess that He was
   Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore said his
   parents, He is of age; ask him. Then again called they the man that was
   blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise; we know that this Man is
   a sinner He answered and said, Whether He is a sinner or not, Iknownot.
   One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, nowI see. Then said they
   to him again, What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes? He
   answered them, I have told you already, and you didnot hear: why would
   you hear it again? Will you also be His disciples?He was a sharp,
   ready-witted man who was not to be enticed into making any rash and
   unguarded statements. He knew what he did know and he kept to that. And
   whenever any of you are assailed by the enemies of Christ, you will do
   well to imitate this man and neither be abashed by their frowns and
   sneers, nor yet be too ready to cast your pearls before swine!

   28. Then they reviled him. That is the usual way with the men of the
   world--when they cannot beat a man in argument, they begin to call him
   bad names. "They reviled him."

   28-31. And said, You are His disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. We
   know that God spoke unto Moses: as for this Fellow, we know not from
   where He is. The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a
   marvelous thing, that you know not from where He is, and yet He has
   opened my eyes. Now we know that God hears not sinners. That is to say,
   He does not work miracles by them. He does not hear their prayers and
   give them the power to open blind men's eyes.

   31-33. But if any man is a worshipper of God, and does His will, him He
   hears. Since the world began it was not heard that any man opened the
   eyes of one that was born blind. If this Man were not of God, He could
   do nothing. Christ could not have given sight to the blind man if He
   had not, Himself, come from God. This was good reasoning and it would
   have been convincing if the objectors had been willing to be convinced
   by the truth.

   34. They answered and said unto him, You were altogether born in sins,
   and do you teach us? ' 'Holy and learned people like us Pharisees--do
   you set up to be our teacher?"

   34-38. And they casthim out Jesus heard that theyhadcast him out and
   when He had foundhim, He said unto him, Do you believe on the Son of
   God? He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on
   Him? And Jesus said unto him, You have both seen Him, and it is He that
   talks with you. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him.
   Then was his cure, indeed, complete! He had seen Christ spiritually as
   well as naturally, and fell at His feet and worshipped Him as the Son
   of God.

   39-41. And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that
   they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made
   blind. And some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words,
   and said unto Him,

   Are we blind, also? Jesus said unto them, if you were blind, you would
   have no sin: but now you say, We see; therefore your sin remains.

   1 Corinthians 10:15-19. I speak as to wise men; judge you what I say.
   The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the
   blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of
   the body of Christ?For we being many are one bread, and one body: for
   we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh:
   are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What
   say I then? That the idol is anything, or that which is offered in
   sacrifice to idols is anything? After they had offered the beasts as
   sacrifices to their idols, it was the custom to sell the carcasses in
   the shambles. Christian men, going into the market to buy meat, and
   asking no questions, bought and ate portions of these sacrifices, and
   they did no wrong whatever. But there were some in the Church who were
   very tender of conscience and who said, "If we eat meat which has been
   offered to idols, we thereby become partakers with the idolaters." Paul
   therefore writes:--

   20, 21. But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they
   sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that you should
   have feelowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and
   the cup of devils. I t cannot be--there must be a separation between
   these two things. We cannot have any delight in idol-worship and yet
   worship the Christ of God.

   21-28. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's Table, and of the table of
   devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
   All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all
   things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let no man seek his
   own, but every man another's wealth. Whatever is sold in the shambles,
   that eat, asking no question for conscience sake: for the earth is the
   Lord's, and the fullness thereof. If any of them that believe not
   bidyou to a feast, andyou are disposed to go; whatever is set before
   you, eat, askingno question for conscience sake. But if any man says
   unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake
   that showed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's,
   and the fullness thereof. So, you see, you may eat the meat if you
   like, for the idol is nothing at all. But still, if you are told that
   it is meat that has been offered to idols and that you, by eating of
   it, seem to join in the worship of idols, abstain from doing it--not
   for your own sake, but for the sake of the man who might be caused to
   stumble through you. This is a safe rule with regard to Christian
   behavior in many other things. There may be things lawful in drink as
   well as in meat which a man may take without sinning. But if he knows
   that his example leads others astray, then let him take heed that he
   does not set such an example! An example which is an excuse for
   drunkenness is not a good one. Therefore, let none of us set it before
   the eyes of men. If any man says to you, "This meat has been offered in
   sacrifice to idols, eat not for his sake that showed it, and for
   conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness
   thereof."

   29. Conscience, I say, not your own, but of the other: for why is my
   liberty judged of another man's conscience? That man may not be able to
   do it without injury to himself, but I may, and I have liberty to do
   so. But yet, as a Christian, I am to consider his need of power, and I
   am not to use my liberty lest I do harm to my brother.

   30, 31. For if I by Grace am a partaker, why am I evilly spoken of for
   that for which I give thanks? Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or
   whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And if anything you might
   do would not glorify God, do not do it!

   32, 33. Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles,
   nor to the church of God: even as I please all men in all things, not
   seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
   1 Corinthians 11:1. Be you followers of me, even as I, also, am of
   Christ.
     __________________________________________________________________

All the Promises

   (No. 2657)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 14, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST
   31, 1882.

   "For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the
   glory of God through us." 2 Corinthians 1:20.

   As the result of a very simple incident, a sublime Truth of God may be
   proclaimed. It was so in the instance referred to in this chapter.
   These Corinthians had misrepresented the Apostle Paul and spoken ill of
   him. He might have ignored their unkindness and said nothing about it,
   but, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he was led to act otherwise
   and, while defending his own character for consistency, he also
   vindicated the consistency and truthfulness of God. We might never have
   had this precious verse if Paul had not been so ill-treated by these
   men of Corinth. They did him great wrong and caused him much sorrow of
   heart, for a man who was so sincere and upright could not but be sorely
   vexed by their unjust suspicions and misrepresentations. Yet you see
   how the evil was overruled by God for good and through their unsavory
   gossip and slander this sweet sentence was pressed out of Paul--"For
   all the promises of God in Christ are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the
   glory of God by us.

   There are many things which, at first, we may regret, but for which we
   are afterwards exceedingly grateful. I have felt half inclined to thank
   the Pharisees and scribes for some of their cruel attacks upon our
   blessed Lord, Himself, for, in answering them, He has given us lessons
   which we now highly prize. Perhaps we might never have had those three
   wonderful parables of the lost sheep, the lost silver and the lost son,
   if those cavilers had not spoken evil of Him because all the publicans
   and sinners drew near to hear Him.

   The fact was that Paul had intended to visit the Christians at Corinth,
   again, but he felt compelled to alter his decision and so he did not go
   to them, because he would only have gone in order to chastise or rebuke
   them, they had behaved so badly. In their folly and in their coolness
   towards the Apostle, they misconstrued his actions and they said, "We
   cannot rely upon his word and we do not know what he will do. He
   promised that he would come to us, but he has changed his mind." The
   Apostle declares here that he did not use lightness, or fickleness,
   either in giving his conditional promise, or in retracting it. He was
   not accustomed to speak outside thinking what he was going to say. He
   was prompted by a worthy motive when he made the proposition to go to
   them--and an equally good motive swayed him when he resolved not to go.
   He tells them that his mind was not of the "yes and no" order, but when
   he said, "yes," he meant it. His yes was yes, and if he said, "no," he
   meant it--his no was no.

   This remark led the Apostle to further say that the Gospel which he
   preached was not of the "yes and no" kind. It was something certain,
   settled, positive, fixed--it was not a variable gospel, nor a deceptive
   gospel. It was not a chameleon gospel which changed its color according
   to the light which fell upon it, but it was a clear and distinct
   Gospel, given in all sincerity by the truthful and truth-loving Savior
   who never used words in a double sense, but who said what He meant and
   meant what He said! It was by this process of reasoning that the
   Apostle was led to the statement contained in our text concerning
   Christ--"All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to
   the glory of God by us." That is now to be the theme of our meditation.

   I. The first thing I notice in the text is the destiny OF THE PROMISES.
   Notice the Apostle's words--"For all the promises of God in Him are
   yes."

   These promises were all made according to the purpose of His own will
   We sometimes read, or hear, or speak of the promises written in God's
   Word, but do not give them as much credit as if they were the promises
   of a friend, or of our father, or our brother! If we valued them more,
   we should believe them better. We have many proverbs to remind us what
   poor and frail things the promises of men are, but those of which Paul
   writes are "the promises of God." Men often change their minds--even
   the Apostle did that and, therefore, he was wise to try to take the
   thoughts of those to whom he was writing off from the promises even of
   an Apostle, which were liable to change, and which might very properly
   not be carried out because of altered circumstances--and lead them away
   to the promises of God which are unfailing and unchangeable, and are
   always fulfilled to His Glory and to our profit. We know little what
   solemn things we are trifling with when we say that we cannot believe a
   certain promise. What? Has it come to this--that God's own children
   cannot believe Him? Is it so, that we, who say that "we l ove Him
   because He first loved us," yet add to that declaration, "but there are
   some of His promises which we cannot believe"? I am afraid that we talk
   far too flippantly about our unbelief and that we seek to shelter one
   another in it, instead of whipping ourselves out of it. To be
   unbelieving may be painful, but there is a more serious consideration
   than that, for it is sinful! It is heinous to the last degree when we
   feel--much more when we express--any incredulity with regard to "the
   promises of God." Just turn that thought over in your minds for a
   minute or two and see whether it does not crimson your face with shame
   to think that you should have had any suspicion about the fulfillment
   of promises made by "God, who cannot lie."

   Even in the case of a man, a promise is something which comes from him
   and yet, in a sense, still remains with him. He cannot speak of a
   promise and let it blow away with the wind. It is his promise after he
   has uttered it and those to whom it was given can bring it back to him
   and say, "That is your promise, will you not fulfill it?" If a man
   repudiates his own pledged word, he does, in fact, repudiate the fruit
   of himself, the outgoing of his own life! And every promise of God
   partakes of His Nature--there is something Divine in it, something
   which comes distinctly from God and which He will continue to
   acknowledge as His. Though it may have been spoken two, or three
   thousand years ago, or longer than that, yet it is still His promise
   and part and parcel of Himself. Well, then, if God will acknowledge it
   as His promise, shall I, to whom it is given in Infinite Mercy, doubt
   whether it is His promise or not? And shall I even venture to go
   further than that and, knowingit to be His promise, shall I begin to
   question how He can fulfill it, or whether He willfulfill it or not?
   God forbid! The dignity of the promise must not be insulted by our
   doubting it!

   Kindly observe the position of the promise which is a very singular
   one. It is a kind of link between the Divine thought and the Divine act
   It is not at all a necessary link, so far as God is concerned, but it
   is often a most necessary and consoling link to us. There is the
   eternal purpose that has always been in God's secret mind and His
   promise is the shadow which that purpose casts upon the revealed page.
   It is the Divine decree made manifest and it stands there-- bright and
   sparkling, between the decree, which our eyes cannot and dare not look
   upon--and the blessed fulfillment which is to be our joy and delight
   forever! I confess that I cannot think of God's eternal purposes
   outside the utmost awe and reverence for, to me, there is something
   very solemn and impressive about them. I know that some people speak as
   though they would trample them in the mire if they could, but whenever
   I hear a word against the promises, the Providences, the decrees and
   the purposes of God, I feel inclined to do as a Negro slave did, under
   certain circumstances, in the presence of his master.

   While waiting upon his master, who frequently took the name of God in
   vain and blasphemed it most terribly in his cursing, the black man
   bowed his head. His master asked him why he did so and he replied that
   it was because his soul was full of trembling at the very name of God
   and he wished to do Him reverence, even while He was being blasphemed
   and insulted. So, whenever I hear or read of anyone speaking or writing
   against the Divine decrees I at once feel anxious to bow my head and to
   prostrate myself in homage before that eternal mind which knows no new
   thought--for God knew all things from the beginning--and to adore that
   Infinite Wisdom which has planned everything from the flitting of a
   sparrow to the flight of the archangel! It is very wonderful to me to
   think of a promise in the Scriptures being virtually the manifestation
   of God's everlasting purposes. I might compare the purpose to God
   Himself--invisible--and the promise to the Incarnate God, who was born
   at Bethlehem and who came to earth to be seen of men. Think yet again
   of the promise of God and you will see how a sense of its dignity grows
   upon you while you are meditating upon it.

   Consider, next, that the Truth of God is irrevocably bound up with His
   promise. If a man says, "Such a thing shall be done," he ought to do it
   if it is in his power. We have no right to break promises that we have
   made. We feel that if we

   do, men will learn to distrust us and soon will care nothing at all for
   our promises. But, Beloved--and we speak with the utmost reverence
   concerning the Most High--His Character for truthfulness would be lost
   if His promises were not kept! And, while it would be an awful loss to
   us to miss what He has promised, it would be a far greater loss to Him
   to lose His truthfulness! We rejoice that, as a matter of fact, this is
   a thing which can neverhappen! All things except this are possible with
   God, but it is not possible for Him to be God and yet to fail in the
   fulfillment of His promises. The two ideas will not run together at
   all! If He is God, He must be true to His Truth, and He will be! So,
   when I read a promise in His Word, I read something which is as certain
   as a fact already accomplished, since, if it were not to come to pass,
   God's Glory would suffer an eclipse--and His veracity would be
   impugned. But that can never be!

   Nor is the Truth of God the only attribute which would suffer if He
   failed to fulfill His promise, for His immutability would also be put
   in jeopardy. If He makes a promise, and yet does not fulfill it in due
   time, then He must have changed. The motives which led to the making of
   the promise have now no influence over Him and He has become something
   different from what He was when He made the promise. But God must be
   immutable! It cannot be possible for Him to change for the better, for
   He is infinitely good! And, certainly, He cannot change for the worse,
   for, if He did, then He would be something less than He might be--and
   so He would not be God at all! Change is impossible to Him! He can
   never change His will, and His promise, as one of the most solemn
   declarations of His will, must be fulfilled when He has once made it.
   Surely, no one of us would wish or dare to deny either the truthfulness
   or the unchangeableness of God!

   Further, His power is bound up with His promise. Shall it ever be said
   that God failed to keep His promise because He could not keep it, or
   because He miscalculated His resources, or His arm waxed short, or the
   great deeps of His eternal Godhead became dried up? No! That cannot be,
   for what He has promised He will always be able to perform. So, then,
   if we slight the promises of God, we slight also His Truth, His
   Immutability and His power. And we also seriously compromise His mercy
   and His love. It was love that moved Him to give the promise. He might
   have bestowed the blessing outside promising to do so and that would
   have been a gracious proof of His love. But, because the promise has a
   sweet, consoling power in it, He has been pleased to give it to us as a
   further proof of His love. And if He does not grant the blessing at
   once when He promises it, the delay is all for loving reasons. But,
   having given the promise, He must keep it because of His love. His love
   would be changed if it did not constrain Him to fulfill what it caused
   Him to promise. But that can never be and we must not--we dare
   not--cast such a slight upon the promise of God as to imagine, for a
   moment, that it can remain unfulfilled! So much, then, concerning the
   dignity of the promises.

   II. Still keeping closely to the text, I want you to notice, next, the
   range of the PROMISES, for Paul here speaks of "the promises of God."

   There is a prospect for you--"All the promises." There are very many of
   them and they are found in both the Old and the New Testaments. There
   was one given at the gates of the Garden of Eden, very near the
   commencement of human history. There is another right at the end of the
   Revelation. "Surely I come quickly." The Bible is a Book of precious
   promises! All the way we have to travel, they seem to be like a series
   of stepping stones across the stream of time, and we may march from one
   promise to another and never wet our feet all the way from earth to
   Heaven if we do but know how to keep our eyes open and to find the
   right promise to step upon. "All the promises"--the Old Testament ones
   as well as those in the New Testament--are sure and steadfast! The
   conditional promises--if we believe, and if we repent--God will
   certainly fulfill. And the unconditional ones--the promises of the
   Everlasting Covenant in which He pledges Himself to give men repentance
   and to give them new hearts and right spirits--He will keep them, too!

   God will fulfill all temporal promises. Bread shall be given you and
   water shall be assured unto you if you are the Lord's children. He will
   keep His promises about temporal affairs as well as those which concern
   everlasting joys and blessings. "No good thing will He withhold from
   them that walk uprightly." You may speak of the promises in any way
   that you please--and then you may say that the Lord will keep them all!
   You may pick out the promise to the prisoner, the promise to the
   sinner, the promise to the backslider, the promise to the doubting one,
   the promise to the aged, the promise to the young, the promise to her
   that halts, the promise to the barren woman, the promise to the strong,
   the promise to those who have full assurance of faith, the promise to
   those who love the Lord, the promise to those who delight themselves in
   the Lord--and then you may confidently declare, concerning all these
   promises to all sorts and conditions of people--that the Lord will
   surely keep every one of them!

   "All the promises." Why, here is a grand granary full! Who can sort
   them all out? Promises of pardon to the seeking sinner! Promises of
   justification to the believing child! Promises of sanctification to him
   who is struggling against sin! Promises of the supply of all kinds of
   spiritual food to the flock of Christ! Promises of guidance! Promises
   of preservation! Promises of holy education! Promises of peace and joy!
   Promises of hope! Promises of the sustenance of our love! Promises for
   death! Promises for judgment! Promises for glory! Promises that reach
   to all eternity! "All the promises." What a range of vision this
   expression opens up! Go forth and lift up your eyes and gaze upon the
   stars. See whether you can number them all--do they not far exceed all
   your powers of mathematics? Yet, if you could count the stars, weigh
   them in scales and tabulate the measure of their light, you could not
   count the promises of God, or estimate their true value, or know how
   infinitely precious is the Divine Light which streams from them into a
   believing soul! If God does not fulfill a single promise to me for the
   next 50 years, I shall be perfectly satisfied to live on the promises,
   themselves, if my faith shall but be sustained by His Grace! I may
   fairly talk thus, for you would say, "I do not need a single penny to
   spend, as long as ever I live, if I can but always have plenty of
   notes. I shall never care if I do not see a sovereign, again, so long
   as I can always have the promise of the Bank of England to pay me on
   demand all that I need!

   So let it be with the promises of God! Men's promises are but breath,
   they would never feed us. But God's promises can satisfy us, for they
   are the substance of the things hoped for! And faith, the evidence of
   things not seen, rejoices to see that which is invisible, to lay hold
   of that which it cannot touch, and to feed upon that which, as yet, it
   cannot taste. Faith works wonders! It enables a man to project himself
   right into eternity! He sits down and sighs, and sorrows, and then he
   says to himself, "This will never do. I will trust in the Lord." And,
   in an instant, by faith, he walks the golden streets and sings the
   everlasting songs! He is not obliged to live in this narrow sphere of
   time and sense, for by faith he spreads his wings and like the lark, he
   ascends and sings. He soars far more rapidly than even the eagle and
   finds himself already enjoying the things which God has prepared for
   them that love Him! And so he is happy in the Lord.

   III. Now I must turn to my third point, which is in the very heart of
   the text--"For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen.
   "These words teach us THE STABILITY OF THE PROMISES.

   The promises of God are very firm for, first, they are settled on an
   everlasting basis, for they are promises in Christ. As I look at the
   text, I can see two words leaping up out of it. And as I look at it
   again, I see the same two words leaping up again-- "in Him."
   "Allpromises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen." There is a great
   thought which I cannot fully open up to you, now--you must lie awake
   tonight and think it over and pray over it-- "All the promises of God
   in Him." What a great Christ you have, to have "all the promises of
   God" within Himself! The range of the promises seems to be infinite and
   yet Christ is great enough to be the circumference that shuts them all
   in! I rejoice in this great Truth of God, that "all the promises of
   God" are in Christ Jesus our Lord!

   And in Christ they are said to be, "Yes."That is a Greek word, so this
   is a message to Gentiles. "And in Him Amen." That is a Hebrewword and
   is, therefore, for the Jews. You may have noticed how whenever the Holy
   Spirit wishes to impress any Truth upon us with more than usual
   solemnity, He uses two languages, as in the case of, "Abba, Father." In
   this way, all the saints of God, whether they are Jews or Gentiles, may
   have their portion of meat in due season.

   "All the promises of God in Him are "Yes." That is, they are certain.
   "And in Him Amen." That is, they are accomplished. We may say after
   every promise of God, "Yes, so it is. Amen, so let it be." There is but
   a slight variation in the meaning of the words, but it is enough to let
   us see that there is no tautology here, not even if the words are
   translated, "All the promises of God are Yes." That is, true. "And they
   are Amen." That is, they shall be accomplished in Christ Jesus.

   The stability of the promises in Christ is established beyond all
   hazard. First, because Christ is God's Witness. If anyone asks, "Did
   God make this promise?" Christ comes forward and says, "Yes, I heard
   Him say it." Christ is "the faithful and true Witness." He bears
   witness of God and for God to the sons of men. And He sets His seal to
   every Divine promise and certifies it with His, "Yes and Amen."

   Next, the promises are sure in Christ because He is God's
   Representative. He is always doing the Father's will, even as He has
   done it in the past. When He came to earth and died upon the Cross, He
   accomplished the work of redemption upon which God's heart was set and
   He is still doing the Father's will. Whatever Jesus has said, God has
   said, for He speaks the Words of God. The Father sent Him into the
   world as His Representative and He spoke not merely His own Words, but
   the Words of the Father who sent Him.

   Then, next, Jesus, is the Surety of the Covenant. The promise was first
   made to Adam. If Adam keeps the command of God and does not touch the
   forbidden fruit, he and those whom he represents shall have all manner
   of good things. But Adam transgressed the Law of the Lord so that
   Covenant was made void. The Second Covenant is on this wise. If Jesus
   Christ, the Second Adam, will do this and that, then all whom He
   represents shall have the blessings guaranteed in the Covenant. The
   Lord Jesus has done all that He agreed to do--He has kept the Law and
   so has honored it--and He has also died and borne the sentence of the
   Law. He has thus offered both an active and a passive obedience to the
   Law of God and now all the promises of God must be kept to Christ, for
   they are, "Yes and Amen" in Him. Take those great promises in the 53rd
   of Isaiah--"He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be
   satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many;
   for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a
   portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong;
   because He has poured out His soul unto death and He was numbered with
   the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession
   for the transgressors." These are promises, first to the Head, and then
   to us, the members of His mystical body--first to the Second Adam and
   then to all who, by a living faith, are included in His federal
   Headship. So the promises are, "Yes and Amen" in Him.

   And as long as Jesus Christ lives, they are also, "Yes and Amen" in
   this sense--that He is seeing to their being carried out. He is
   interceding before the Throne of God for us that the promises of God
   may meet our distresses. O Brothers and Sisters, all the promises must
   be true in Christ because God spared not His own Son, but freely
   delivered Him up for us all! And, having given Him, will He not, with
   Him, also freely give us all things? If God had meant to run back from
   any promise, He would surely have run back from the promise to give His
   only-begotten Son! But, having fulfilled that, what promise is there
   that He will ever break? Moreover, in the gift of Christ He has
   virtually and really given us all things, for if Christ is yours, all
   things are yours! All things are in Christ, so, having Him, you possess
   all! There is no desire of your spirit, or need of your nature that
   shall remain unsatisfied when once you have Christ as yours. You have
   Heaven, earth and all things that are or ever shall be, encompassed in
   that blessed One whose very name is, "the Amen, the faithful and true
   Witness." O Beloved, rejoice with all your heart that every promise of
   God is sure in Christ Jesus to all His true seed!

   IV. Now let us consider the last words of the text. "For all the
   promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God
   through us. "This impression teaches us THE RESULT OF THE PROMISES.

   So, then, dear Friends, the promises of God are His Glory. There is no
   pretended god that has ever been supposed to make promises like those
   of our God. Turn to the Koran and see what Mohammed has promised. Ah,
   me! What a beggarly array of promises does he set before his followers!
   Turn to Brahma and Buddha and read all the so-called sacred books
   written by their priests, and see what their gods are said to have
   promised. You can put the essence of it all into an eggshell and not
   even see it! But our God has promised more than Heaven and earth can
   hold! He has promised to give Himself to His people! He is the great
   Promiser--the mighty Promiser. I set the promises of God in comparison
   and contrast with all the promises that were ever made in connection
   with all false systems of religion under Heaven and unhesitatingly
   declare that there are none that can compare for an instant with the
   promises of the Most High!

   It was greatly to God's Glory to make those promises all sure, for they
   all depended at first upon the condition that Christ should obey the
   Father's will. And He has done it and oh, what a glory it is to God
   that, "He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
   should not perish, but have everlasting life!" The gift of the
   Redeemer, the life of the Redeemer, the death of the Redeemer, the
   intercession of the Redeemer, the making the promises sure--all this is
   greatly to the Glory of God.

   And now it is to the Glory of God to keep every promise that He has
   made. There is not one which, if it were broken, would redound to His
   praise or increase His honor. No, and there is not one but, when it is
   kept, reflects fresh honor upon Him and brings still further renown to
   His ever-blessed name!

   If I had time, I would enlarge upon all these points, but as it is
   already past our usual hour for closing the service, I must end my
   discourse with a brief reference to the last words in our text. "To the
   glory of God by us." While I was thinking earnestly over my text, I
   fancied that the two little words, "by us," seemed to spoil that grand
   word, "glory," and that greater word, "God." "To the glory of God
   "--"by us." What a contrast! It is even more marked than in that old
   story of the organ-blower who would persist in saying, " We did it,"
   when all that he did was just pump the air into the organ. Must we be
   mentioned at all? Is it not a pity to bring us in?

   But, as I turned the subject over in my mind, I thought, "Oh, no,
   no--it is quite right to bring us in here!" Now look. God wants to have
   the glory of being merciful. Yes, but He cannot have that glory unless
   there is a sinner somewhere to whom He can show mercy. A sinner is an
   essential part of the whole business! Suppose that the king who made
   the great supper had said to his servants, "Go out into the highways
   and hedges, and compel them to come in"--and that they had come back to
   him and said, "There is not a single creature under the hedges or in
   the highways! There is not even a solitary beggar anywhere about the
   streets or lanes of the city!" Then he could not have had the feast,
   whatever dainties he might have prepared, if he had not anybody to eat
   them. It would have been a mournful business to have the oxen and
   fatlings killed and heaped upon the tables, yet nobody to sit down to
   partake of them. Even the king, if he is to have honor, must be
   dependent for once on the beggars in the highways and hedges! Is not
   this amazing? God wants to show His power in pardoning my sin, but He
   cannot do it if I have no sin to be pardoned! And if I do not come to
   Him to be pardoned and do not ask for His mercy, then it lies like dead
   capital never spent! The Lord delights to help the weak--it is His joy
   to do it. But suppose that there is no weak person anywhere--what is to
   happen then?

   Ah, but I think I hear the weak souls crying out, "By us! By us! 'To
   the glory of God by us.' He delights to help the poor and needy and He
   cannot do so if there are not some poor and needy ones for Him to help.
   So, when we seek His aid, it is 'to the glory of God by us.'" And the
   Lord delights to make His strength perfect in our weakness. I think I
   hear Paul crying out and He is the man who wrote these words, "by
   us"--"God is glorified by my weakness." And I hear many of you who are
   trying to serve your Lord and Master, saying, "Ah, then, that is why
   such weak ones as we feel ourselves to be used, 'to the glory of God by
   us.'"

   Come along, then, all you who need God's mercy. You have laid hold of
   one of His promises and feel that you need and must have all that it
   includes. With utmost reverence would I say that God Himself cannot be
   glorified by His promises without you! If He intends to feed the
   hungry, then the hungry are essential to the accomplishment of His
   purpose! If He would clothe the naked, then there must be naked ones
   for Him to clothe! Is there not a mine of comfort here for you who have
   been almost outside hope? I trust that some of you poor lost ones will
   say in your hearts, if you do not utter it with your voices, "Are we
   really essential to God's Glory? Does God need our poverty, our
   sinfulness and our nothingness in order that He may, through them,
   display the greatness of His Grace? Then we will certainly come to Him
   just as we are." Do so, I pray you. Come! Come!! Come!!! May the Holy
   Spirit, by His Omnipotent Grace draw you now, for our Lord Jesus
   Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2 CORINTHIANS 1; 2:1.

   2 Corinthians 1:1. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,
   and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth,
   with all the saints which are in all Achaia. Paul is very jealous of
   his Apostleship. There were some in Corinth who denied it and,
   therefore, he takes care, at the very commencement of this Epistle--as
   he does in beginning most of his letters--to write concerning himself,
   "Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God." But with what
   humility of mind does he associate Timothy with himself! Frequently he
   puts Timothy, his own convert, one so young and so much beneath him in
   position and attainments, on a level with himself! And if we also can
   help our younger brethren, how willingly should we put ourselves side
   by side with them!

   2. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord
   Jesus Christ What a wonderful source of Grace and peace! "God our
   Father." How can He give other than Grace and peace to His own
   children? "And from the Lord Jesus Christ," our redeeming Savior, who
   has given Himself for us, and who has engraved our names on the palms
   of His hands--is there not an abundant supply of Grace and peace to be
   found in the very music of His name?

   3. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
   of mercies, and the God of all comfort Let me read those titles again.
   "The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father of mercies. The God of
   all comfort." Do not the second and third titles derive much of their
   significance from the first one? It is because God is "the Father of
   our Lord Jesus Christ" that He becomes "the Father of mercies and the
   God of all comfort."

   4. Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to
   comfort those who are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we
   ourselves are comforted of God. Experience teaches the first rank of
   God's servants--and their experi-

   ence of sorrow and consolation is often the means of enabling them to
   be the means of blessing to others. Almost everything that the minister
   of the Gospel enjoys or endures will be found to be sent to him for the
   elect's sake, that he may know how to teach them the lessons he has,
   himself, learned.

   5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation
   also abounds by Christ Are we not willing to endure the greater
   suffering that we may enjoy the greater consolation?

   6. And whether we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and
   salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings
   which we also suffer: or whether we are comforted, it is for your
   consolation and salvation. We receive both suffering and consolation
   for the sake of others and we are bound to give out, again, all that we
   receive. It is the essence of the true Christian life, first to be
   dependent upon God for everything, and then to give forth to all around
   us that which God has poured into our spirit. The heart would soon die
   if it pumped in the blood and never pumped it out again--but it is by
   that perpetual process of giving out what it has received that it
   continues in life! And the highest form of Christian life is the
   reception of all that comes to us out of the fullness of Christ and
   then the free giving out of what He has bestowed.

   7-10. And our hope ofyou is steadfast, knowing that as you are
   partakers of the sufferings, so shallyou be also of the consolation.
   For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came
   to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength,
   insomuch that we despaired even of life: but we had the sentence of
   death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God
   who raises the dead: who delivered us from so great a death, and does
   deliver: in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us. No doubt Paul
   did preach all the better and with the greater confidence in God
   because he preached, like Richard Baxter, "as a dying man to dying
   men." His life was frequently in danger and on this occasion it was so
   in a very remarkable degree. So, when he was again able to testify for
   his Master, he realized that he had no time to waste and, therefore, he
   wrote and spoke with the utmost earnestness. He felt himself in
   jeopardy every hour and, therefore, he fell back upon his God and
   trusted alone in Him. Anything that works to this end for us, also, is
   an undisguised blessing.

   11. You also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift
   bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by
   many on our behalf. Much prayer leads to much thanksgiving. It should
   be a great cause for joy when numbers of Christians unite in praying
   for any Christian minister, for they will also unite in praising God on
   his behalf when that which they asked for him is granted!

   12. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in
   simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshy wisdom, but by the
   Grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world and more
   abundantly to you-ward. There had been whispers among these Corinthians
   that Paul had concealed a double meaning in some of his writings, and
   also that he had made a promise which he never intended to keep. So now
   he calls upon them to bear witness that he never was a man to act
   according to policy, but he was a straightforward, honest,
   plain-dealing man, full of godly sincerity and unselfishness. He had
   abundantly proved all this to the Corinthians, for, lest they should
   have any occasion for speaking against him, he would not take at their
   hands the support to which he was entitled--but he labored at his trade
   of tent-making that they might not have anything to say concerning him
   except that he was disinterested in all his endeavors to serve them.
   Paul evidently felt their unkindness very much, but his conscience
   assured him that their accusations were unjust.

   13. 14. For we write none other things unto you than what you read or
   acknowledge; and I trust you shall acknowledge even to the end; as also
   you have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as
   you also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus. See how Paul restrains
   himself in writing to these people? He had good cause to be offended,
   for they had touched him in a point about which he was very jealous,
   namely, his integrity. But here he speaks with great moderation of
   spirit--and herein lay his strength. Every Christian, when he has to
   defend himself against false accusations, should use soft words and
   hard arguments.

   15, 16. Andin this confidence I was minded to come unto you before,
   thatyou might have a second benefit; and to pass by you into Macedonia,
   and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and ofyou to be brought on
   my way toward Judaea. He had planned to see them in his going and also
   in his returning, but he could not carry out the idea which was in his
   mind. The wisest of men often find their plans impracticable--and even
   an Inspired man is not always inspired!

   God guides him when guidance is absolutely necessary, but, at other
   times, He leaves him to arrange according to his own judgment--and to
   find out that his judgment is not Infallible. "I had a mind," he says,
   "to come and see you twice."

   17. When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? "Did I make
   up my mind hastily and then did I change it all of a sudden without
   good reason? Had I failed to think before I decided and, therefore, did
   I find it necessary to revoke my promise?"

   17, 18. Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the
   flesh, that with me there should be yes, yes, and no, no? But as God is
   true, our word toward you was not yes and no. He binds up his own
   ministry with himself, and he says, "You charge me with being fickle,
   but you know better! You are well aware that I am not one who says one
   thing, today, and another thing tomorrow. You know that I have been
   open and aboveboard in all my dealings with you, and that I have never
   stooped to policy and craftiness, but have spoken that which I
   believed, whatever might come of it."

   19. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us,
   even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not Yes, and No, but in Him
   was Yes. He declares that he preached the Truth of God
   straightforwardly and consistently, and that he did not say one thing,
   one day, and another thing a few days later.

   20. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, unto
   the glory of God by us. Christ is no quicksand, slipping and sliding
   away, and so ruining those who cling to Him. He is the Rock of Ages and
   He stands fast forever. His Gospel is one and the same at all times.
   You see that as Paul grows warm, he advances in his argument. If the
   Corinthians suspected his honesty in making a promise, the next thing
   they would do would be to suspect the Gospel-- and after that they
   would suspect Christ, Himself, who is the Truth!

   21-23. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed
   us, is God, who has also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit
   in our hearts. Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to
   spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth. "If I had come, I would have
   been obliged to rebuke you and reprove you. I would have had to be like
   an armed man going to battle, or an officer of the law carrying out the
   sentence pronounced upon a criminal, but I could not bear to do that,
   so I felt it would be better and wiser to stay away and, therefore, I
   did not visit you as I had proposed."

   24. Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers
   ofyour joy: for by faith you stand.

   Chapter 2. Verse 1. But I determined this with myself, that I would not
   come again to you in heaviness. And they ought to have had enough
   confidence in him to know that he had a very good and sufficient reason
   for not fulfilling his conditional promise.

   Let us, dear Friends, who, are one in Christ, trust each other, for, if
   suspicion is once bred among the people of God, it will mean farewell
   to all fellowship.
     __________________________________________________________________

Waking to See Christ's Glory

   (No. 2658)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 21, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 3, 1882.

   "And when they were awake, they saw His glory and the two men that
   stood with Him." Luke 9:32.

   It seems, at first sight, a strange thing that the Apostles should have
   been asleep at such a time, yet, if we think of the circumstances in
   which they were placed and of the extreme excitement under which they
   must have labored, it will not appear at all amazing that "Peter and
   they that were with Him were heavy with sleep." In the 28th verse it is
   written, concerning our Lord, "He took Peter and John and James, and
   went up into a mountain to pray. And as He prayed, the fashion of His
   countenance was altered and His raiment was white and glistening." We
   know that the Savior frequently retired to some quiet, secluded spot
   for fellowship with His Father and that, sometimes, He spent the whole
   night in prayer. It is very probable that on this occasion He had been
   engaged in earnest prayer for several hours before the Transfiguration
   came. And it is worthy of note that He was transfigured while He was
   praying. Every blessing comes to the great Head of the Church and to
   all the members of His mystical body through prayer! There is nothing
   promised to us without prayer, but, with prayer, everything is provided
   for us--and by prayer we shall ascend into Glory.

   I cannot tell how long the Lord had been in prayer but, judging from
   His usual manner and custom, I should suppose that He had spent some
   hours in supplication. Even the three most highly favored Apostles were
   not as spiritually minded as He was and they grew weary while He was
   still full of holy vigor and fervor. The most zealous among us might be
   tired of listening to the best man in the world if he were to keep on
   praying hour after hour, yet he himself might be enjoying a special
   baptism of the Spirit and be quite unconscious of fatigue and, in his
   wrestling with God, might be all the while going from strength to
   strength. We, who were merely onlookers, would probably grow drowsy and
   be unable to keep up the strain as he would keep it up--our spirit
   might be willing enough to sympathize with him--but the weakness of our
   flesh would make us, like the Apostles, "heavy with sleep." I wonder
   not, therefore, if the Savior's supplication was long-continued and
   that His disciples grew weary and fell into a state of slumber!

   Probably, however, their sleeping was the result of the extraordinary
   excitement through which they had passed, for, as in extreme pain, kind
   Nature comes to the rescue and causes a swooning or fainting fit by
   which the poor sufferer is relieved. sometimes she comes in when there
   is a stress of mental excitement, whether joyous or grievous, and gives
   rest, even by unwilling slumber, to those who otherwise might have been
   exhausted. You remember, dear Friends, that these very persons fell
   asleep in Gethsemane. When their Master rose up from His agony of
   prayer and came back to them, "He found them sleeping for sorrow." They
   were themselves so depressed in spirit by His sufferings, that although
   they had true sympathy with Him, as far as they could have it, they
   fell asleep and their Master, while gently chiding them, made excuse
   for them as He said, "What, could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch
   and pray that you enter not into temptation: the spirit, indeed, is
   willing, but the flesh is weak."

   These Apostles are not the only persons who have slept in the presence
   of the grandly supernatural. It happened so to Daniel--that Seer with
   the burning eyes who seemed as if he could look right into the glories
   of Heaven without blinking or being blinded by the wondrous vision! Yet
   we read in his 8th Chapter, at the 18th verse, when an angel appeared
   to him, "Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my
   face toward the ground: but he touched me and set me upright." And
   further, in the 10th Chapter, at the 8th verse, we read, "Therefore I
   was left alone and saw this great vision,

   and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in
   me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Yet heard I the voice
   of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a
   deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground." These
   supernatural things are too much for mortal men to endure! The narrow
   compass of our mind cannot contain the Infinite and if, when we behold
   the Glory of God to an unusual degree, we do not die--if our lives are
   spared after we have seen that great sight--at least the image of death
   must come upon us and we must fall into a deep sleep. I will not,
   therefore, blame Peter, James and John for sleeping on that memorable
   occasion, for I do not think that there was any sin in their slumbering
   under such circumstances. They were Apostles, but they were only men
   and, being men, they were feeble creatures. And when they came into
   those deep waters, they were altogether out of their depth, so they
   began to sink in the ocean of the Divine Glory and soon were lost in
   the unconsciousness of sleep. Marvel not, therefore, Brothers and
   Sisters, that you find these three Apostles slumbering even in the
   Presence of their Transfigured Lord!

   But, now--and this will be our first head--it was necessary that they
   should be awake to see the glories of Christ Secondly, if you and I are
   to see the glories of Christ, it is necessary that we, also, should be
   awake, and that is more than can be said of all of us. I may say to
   some, "Let us not sleep as others do," for there are many who are so
   soundly sleeping that they are quite oblivious of the glories of
   Christ. When I have spoken on those two points, I want to close my
   discourse by showing you that this doctrine of the necessity of our
   wakefulness explains many things.

   I. "When they were awake, they saw His glory and the two men that stood
   with Him." So, first, IT WAS NECESSARY FOR THEM TO BE AWAKE TO SEE
   CHRIST'S GLORY.

   It was necessary, first, that Christ's Transfiguration might be known
   to be a fact--not a dream, nor a piece of imagination which had no real
   existence. "When they were awake, they saw His glory." It was a literal
   matter of fact to them. As surely as Christ was born at Bethlehem. As
   certainly as He toiled in the carpenter's shop at Nazareth. As truly as
   His blessed feet trudged over the holy fields of Judaea. As truly as He
   healed the sick and preached the Gospel wherever He went and as really
   as He did actually die upon the Cross of Calvary, so it is a matter of
   plain fact that Jesus Christ did, on a certain mountain--what mountain
   we do not know--undergo a wonderful change, for the time being, in
   which His glory was marvelously and distinctly displayed so that His
   three disciples could see it!

   "And, behold, there talked with Him two men"--Elijah, who never died,
   and who was there with Him bodily. And Moses, who did die, and so may
   only have been there in spirit, unless that dispute between Michael the
   Archangel and the devil, about the body of Moses, may relate to the
   fetching away of that body that he might enjoy the same privilege as
   Enoch and Elijah did. Of that matter, I know nothing, but those two
   men, Moses and Elijah, were certainly there--not merely in appearance,
   but in reality. And our Lord Jesus Christ was really transfigured--"the
   fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and
   glistening." It is true that Peter did not know what he said, but he
   knew what he saw when he was wide awake. The Revised Version renders
   our text, "When they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two
   men that stood with Him." They had not imagined this scene while they
   were in a semiconscious state between sleeping and waking! It was no
   night vision or daydream. It was not something painted by fancy upon
   their eyeballs and which had no actual existence, but it was a real
   meeting between their Lord and Moses and Elijah. They did see Christ
   and His two companions from Heaven and they did hear the Father's
   voice, saying, "This is My beloved Son: hear Him."

   Peter did not know what he said, but he knew what he heard. He was wide
   awake enough to understand that message and, long afterwards, he
   recalled it when he wrote concerning his Lord, "For He received from
   God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him
   from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well
   pleased. And this voice which came from Heaven we heard, when we were
   with Him on the holy mount." So, you see, dear Friends, that they had
   to be awake in order that they might be able to confirm all this as an
   actual occurrence. And, to my mind, this is very pleasant. I like to
   remember that the Lord Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, let some beams of His
   glory shine out even while He was here below. And if, in His
   humiliation, His transfigured face appeared so bright, what must His
   glory be above where His face shines brighter than the sun, and His
   eyes are as flames of fire, and his feet like fine brass, as if they
   burned in a furnace? What is now the matchless beauty of that Visage
   which was marred more than that of any other man? When He did but for a
   moment withdraw the veil, His disciples were overwhelmed with the
   magnificence of the display! But what must it be to see His face
   forever in Heaven above?

   Next, it was necessary that the disciples should be awake, that they
   might see the real glory of Christ I trust they were spiritual enough
   to know that the splendor which they saw was not the essential glory of
   Christ's Godhead, for that no man can see. Neither was it that secret
   spiritua1 glory which Christ always had, for that is not a sight for
   human eyes to behold, but for loving hearts to think of with reverent
   affection. But it was a special glow which was, for the time, shed upon
   His Humanity and even upon the garments in which that Humanity was
   arrayed, so that "His raiment was white and glistening." The Apostles
   then saw Christ in some measure as He will be, by-and-by, and, being
   fully awake, they knew that it was not an illusion that they were
   looking upon, but that it was real glory which streamed from the
   Savior's face and from every part of His most blessed and adorable
   Person. We are glad to know that Christ has no fictitious honors and no
   empty pomp, but that there is about Him a real glory which our opened
   eyes may see and which we may perceive without being fanatical or
   frenzied! Such a glory as we can see in the time of our quiet, calm
   judgment and earnest, deliberate thought, when every faculty is in full
   exercise and our whole soul is in the enjoyment of the utmost degree of
   vigorous health. I care little for the visions that need night,
   curtains and dreams before they can be perceived! I prefer the glory
   which can be seen by a man when he is fully awake and all his faculties
   are awakened so that he is able to discern between truth and fiction,
   and to detect any imposition that may be attempted to be played upon
   him.

   Further, these disciples were fully awake that they might perceive
   somewhat of the greatness of Christ's glory. Do you not envy these
   three holy men who saw our Lord in the holy mount? So glorious was He
   that even the mountain, itself, was made "holy" wherein this
   transaction occurred, for so Peter called it. From that time it was as
   holy as Sinai, itself, where God came down in terrible pomp of power to
   proclaim His Law. Had not these Apostles been wide awake, they would
   not have perceived how truly marvelous is Christ's glory. What would
   not any of us give, just now, for a sight of Christ with our eyes wide
   awake? What must He be like who is the very center of Heaven's glory?
   All the grandeur of man is but external, but there is about Christ's
   very face a beauty of character which continually shines out--the
   luster of Deity which gleams through His Humanity so that to see Him as
   He is must be the fairest sight in the whole universe! To behold Him
   but for a momentmust be the most dazzling vision that ever fell to the
   lot of men! Did you ever hear dying men and women talk about Him when
   they have begun to see Him? What strange words sometimes drop from
   their lips just as they are departing this life--giving us just a hint
   as to how grand He must be whose glory the Apostles saw when they were
   with Him on the holy mount!

   One thing which they were fully awake to see was this, the singularity
   of the glory. If you read the text, you will notice that when they were
   awake, "they saw His glory"--and the glory of Moses and Elijah? Oh, no!
   Not at all. But did they not see Moses and Elijah? Yes, but mark how
   the text sinks, as it were, when it speaks of them--"They saw His glory
   and the two men that stood with Him." There is nothing about any glory
   being around or upon them--they are nothing but "the two men that stood
   with Him." He is fairer than the children of men, greater than Moses
   and greater than Elijah, mighty as both of them were! I think that we
   never truly see Christ until we behold Him all alone--as we never see
   the sun and the stars at the same time. If you once see the sun
   flooding the sky with its glow, you will find that the stars have
   disappeared. The Apostles saw the greatest of the Prophets and the
   great law-giver, after whom there was never the like till Christ
   Himself came--yet the Inspired record concerning the event is, "They
   saw His glory and the two men that stood with Him." May you never see
   any earthly representatives of the Church of God in any higher place
   than this! In the Church and in all its ministers, may you see His
   glory and the men that stand with Him. And when you look upon those
   whose feet are beautiful because they proclaim the Gospel of Christ,
   yet may you only see His glory and the men that stand with Him to speak
   in His name!

   The Apostles needed to be wide awake to discern this difference and so
   do we, for many, nowadays, seem to have no more respect for Christ than
   they have for His disciples. I know that there are some who think more
   of a dogma that was promulgated by Calvin, because it is Calvin's, than
   they do of that which Christ has preached because it is Christ's! And
   there are some who will refer everything they believe to "The Minutes
   of Conference," or the sayings of Mr. Wesley, but some of the sayings
   of Christ do not seem to have as much weight with them. As for us, I
   trust that we may always see the true and noble men who stand with
   Christ, but, first of all, may we see His glory because Christ has
   awakened us out of that sinful sleep in which we make no distinction
   between the Master and the servant! Happy are we if He has taught us
   that the greatest of His servants is not worthy to unloose the laces of
   His shoes!

   So much, then, upon the necessity for these three men being fully
   awake.

   II. Now, Brothers and Sisters, let me speak to you upon the second part
   of our subject which is that IT IS NECESSARY FOR US, ALSO, TO BE AWAKE
   IF WE ARE TO SEE CHRIST'S GLORY.

   We have not dreamt our religion. It has not come to us as a vision of
   the night, but when we were fully awake, we saw Christ's glory. We have
   seen His glory when we have been awake without weariness, awake without
   pain, awake without losses, awake without fears and trembling. In our
   coolest moments, when there was the least likelihood of our being
   deceived, we have seen His glory as our Savior, our Helper, our Keeper,
   our All-in-All. Set that fact down, then, and stand to it before the
   face of every man who dares to speak a word against Jesus of Nazareth,
   the Son of God, that just as truly as "when they were awake, they saw
   His glory," so have we seen it in our most wakeful and calm and quiet
   moments!

   But, dear Friends, let me impress upon your minds the truth that, in
   order to see the glory of Christ, it is necessary that we should be
   fully awake. Are we fully awake? Is there a man among us who has even
   one eye wide open? Is there not a corner of it still sealed? Are our
   mental and spiritual faculties really quickened to the utmost, or are
   we not still, to a large extent, as dreamers compared with what we
   ought to be in the Presence of Christ? Come now, Brother, are your
   highest powers thoroughly awakened? I believe that it was so with
   Peter, James and John, and that what little spiritual faculty they then
   possessed--for they were then but babes in Grace--was fully awakened to
   learn all that could be learned from their Lord and Master in that
   mysterious manifestation of His glory. Are we in such a condition as
   that? There are many things that tend to make the soul go off into
   sleep, so let us bestir ourselves, for, unless all our powers of mind
   and heart are fixed upon our Lord, we shall not fully behold His glory.
   And if ever there was a sight that demanded and deserved all a man's
   powers of vision, it is the sight of the glorious Savior who stooped to
   die for us and who now is at the Fathers right hand interceding for us!
   When you hear the Gospel, hear it with both your ears and with your
   whole heart and soul! When you are present in the assembly of the
   saints, be really there--do not come, as some men do, leaving their
   real selves at home or at their place of business. They sit here and we
   think that they are here, but they are not! Their thoughts are far away
   over the seas, or in their shops, even when the preacher is proclaiming
   the glorious Gospel of the blessed God! You know that it is so with
   many, but we cannot expect to have a clear sight of Christ until we are
   fully awake as these three Apostles were upon the mountain.

   But to what shall we be awake? Well, first, it is a good thing to be
   awake to our present condition and circumstances. Brothers, Sisters,
   you would be in Hell within an hour if God did not keep you from it by
   His Grace. You who think you know Him best need constant supplies of
   His Grace, else you would fall into the most sorrowful condition. You
   are dependent upon Him every instant and for everything--for
   consistency of life, for the smallest grain of faith, for hope, for
   love, for peace, for joy, for steadfastness, for courage, for
   everything! Now, dear Friend, are you fully awake to that fact? Do any
   of us really feel how weak we are? How sinful we are? What floods of
   depravity there are pent up within us ready to burst out at any moment?
   Do we realize what terrible volcanic fires are hidden within our
   thoughts, as if the fury of Gehenna had entered our nature? And who
   alone can save us and who does save us? Brothers and Sisters, when you
   are thoroughly awake to your dangers, to your needs, to your
   weaknesses, then you will see Christ's glory! He is never rightly
   valued until we see ourselves to be utterly valueless! Low thoughts of
   self make high thoughts of Christ. Lord, awake us to know what we are,
   for then shall we begin to see the glories of Your Son!

   We must also be thoroughly awake to the mercies that we are constantly
   receiving. Thousands of blessings come to us when we are sound asleep
   in our beds and, oftentimes, we know nothing of many favors that come
   to us in broad day-light--we are asleep, as it were, concerning them.
   Think, dear Christian people, of your election! Think of your
   redemption! Think of your effectual calling, of your cleansing by the
   precious blood! Think of your washing by the Spirit with water by the
   Word! Think how you have been held up, supplied, educated, comforted,
   strengthened! Think of what yet remains for you of peace and joy in
   this life and of the abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of
   your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Let your mind contemplate all the
   mercies that are sure to come to you--and bless the Lord for them even
   before they come, as faith reckons them to be already here. When you
   are awake to all these mercies, then you will see your Lord's glory.
   All these blessings will make you see what a glorious Savior--what an
   infinitely gracious Lord He is to you! Father of Mercies, wake us up to
   a sense of Your mercies, that we may see the glory of Jesus in them

   all!

   And, dear Friends, we ought also to be awake to all manner of holy
   exercises. For instance, when we are awake to prayer, then we see
   Christ's glory. Often what are our prayers? At morning and night a few
   hurried sentences, when we are either half-asleep or scarcely awake. I
   mean that, at night, we are ready to go to sleep over our devotions and
   we nod even while we pray. And in the morning, when we get up, we have
   hardly time, through the demands of business, to spend a proper time in
   fellowship with our Lord. I bless God for our Prayer Meetings, for
   there is much that is good in them. But do we, even there, pray as we
   should? Those who speak for us are often graciously helped, but are not
   those of us who sit silent and who should be praying to God, often
   thinking of a thousand things instead of our supplications? We cannot
   expect to meet with Christ while we are in prayer unless we are wide
   awake! Then think of our singing. Praise is a blessed way of getting
   near to Christ, but sometimes people sing mechanically, as if they were
   wound up, like the old-fashioned organs that ground out a tune with
   painful regularity--the poor pipes knowing nothing, of course, about
   the sense or the meaning of the music--for there was no living hand to
   touch the keys. Yet we sometimes sing like that--

   "Hosannahs languish on our tongues,

   And our devotion dies." But, oh, when we are thoroughly awake in our
   singing, then are we able to--

   "Behold the glories of the Lamb

   Amidst His Father's Throne"--

   and then we also--

   "Prepare new honors for His name, And songs before unknown."

   Many of us are coming presently to the Table of our Lord--what will
   happen if we come there half-awake? Well, we shall not see the glory of
   Christ in His ordinance! There will be bread and there will be wine,
   but, to us, there will be nothing more, no body of Christ, no blood of
   Christ, to be our spiritual meat and drink. The Master will not come
   and sit down with a company of nodding disciples, all fast asleep
   around the Table which is the special memorial of His great love to us.
   "When they were awake, they saw His glory." And it must be the same
   with us, also.

   Now I want to press this thought home a little more closely. Brothers
   and Sisters, if we are fully awake to holy service, then we shall see
   the glory of Christ. Those among you who live to win souls for Christ,
   whose soul is all on fire to try and carry the Gospel into some place
   where as yet it is not known, are certain to see the glory of Christ.
   While you serve Him, you shall see His face as they do who are with Him
   in Heaven! I have read a great many biographies of men and women who
   were full of doubts and fears, but when I have been reading about a man
   who was full of sacred zeal, one who was wholly consecrated to the
   service of his Savior, I have found very little about his doubts and
   fears. Those two seraphic men, Whitefield and Wesley, seemed to have no
   time for depression of spirits. They were always about their Master's
   business. They flashed through the earth like flames of fire! They
   seemed to be so girt about by God with His strength that they rode upon
   the whirlwind and, consequently, as a rule, they enjoyed the Presence
   of their Lord and were full of holy delight in Him.

   So I believe it will be with those of us who addict ourselves to our
   Master's service with all our might. If you are doing nothing for
   Christ, you cannot expect to have His Presence and blessing. But if you
   are serving Him with all your heart, not from the low motive that you
   may win something by it, but entirely out of love to Him, then will He
   come and manifest Himself to you as He does not unto the world! Some
   Christians walk so slowly that sin easily overtakes them, while Christ
   goes far before them, for He always walks a good honest pace and likes
   not the sluggard's crawl. And some professors seldom get beyond that
   pace, so they see but little of Him whom they call Master. If they were
   awake--awake to His service--then they would see His glory!

   But above all, dear Friends, we must be awake with regard to our Lord
   Himself. Oh, that our hearts were fully awake to His love! He says to
   each Believer, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." Does our
   wakeful heart reply, "Yes, Lord, that You have"? Are we awake to
   remember all that He did by way of love even to the death for us? Are
   we so awake as to have continually before us His Divine and Human
   Person--His blessed condescending life--His wondrous atoning death? Are
   we wide awake enough awake to know that He is with us now? Do you not
   think that we are often like the disciples who saw Jesus standing by
   the sea and knew not that it was Jesus? He comes to us in the way of
   sickness, in the way of bereavement, in the way of heart-searching! We
   do not know that it is Jesus, yet it is. Our eyes are blinded because
   of our sleeping! If we were awake, we would soon perceive His glory. O
   blessed Savior, by Your Cross

   and passion, by Your glorious Resurrection and Ascension, awaken all
   our spirits to perceive that You are not far from any one of Your
   people and that Your Word is still true, "Lo, I am with you always,
   even unto the end of the world." III. I must not keep you much longer,
   but I want to say that THIS DOCTRINE OF THE NECESSITY OF OUR

   WAKEFULNESS IN ORDER THAT WE MAY SEE THE GLORY OF CHRIST, THROWS A
   LIGHT ON SEVERAL THINGS.

   First, it shows us why some see so little of the glory of Christ '
   'Ah," says one, "I used to see it. I could not get through a sermon
   without being moved at the thought of my Savior suffering for me, and
   rising for me. But now I do not seem to get any good out of all the
   services I attend." Whose fault is that? It is not His, for He is
   unchanged. Is it mine? Perhaps so and yet, since others see him, surely
   the blame cannot be allmine. Is it not your fault, Friend? You are not
   as wide awake as you used to be! It is a curious thing when a man says,
   "I do not knew how it is that I cannot see as I used to." Why, he has
   not got his eyes open! Foolish man, let him awaken himself and when he
   is thoroughly awake, then his eyes will be as good as ever and he will
   see as much of his Lord's glory as he used to! Old age has not come
   upon you yet, my Brother, my Sister, though you sorrowfully sing--

   "Where is the blessedness I knew

   When first I saw the Lord?" Let me alter one line of the hymn and then
   you may sing--

   "Where is the wakefulness I knew,

   When first I saw the Lord?"

   When you first joined the Church, you were all alive! Every power of
   your being was full of zeal and earnestness. Do you recollect how you
   stood in the aisle and never seemed to get tired? You wished that the
   preacher would keep on for another half-hour. You remember how you
   could walk several miles to the service, then, and when the minister
   said, "I think you live too far away to worship with us," you replied,
   "Oh, no, Sir! The distance is nothing when I get such food for my soul
   as I find here. I am glad of the walk. It does me good." Now you write
   a little note to say that you live so far off that you cannot often
   come to the services. It also happens that you live far from every
   other place of worship, too, so you begin to stay away from the House
   of God--and then do you wonder that you feel no power and no delight in
   your Lord? Of course you do not, for you are sound asleep! When you
   awake again, you will see Christ's glory. Oh, for wakeful piety,
   earnest religion--and plenty of it--no mere sprinkling of Grace, but a
   thorough immersion into the very depths of it! May the Lord, in His
   mercy, cause you to be filled with all the fullness of God, by the
   power of His Spirit, till you shall be carried right away into a holy
   life that shall write over the natural life of your manhood, "I live,
   yet not I, but Christ lives in me."

   Next, does not this fact explain why, in trials, we often get our
   sweetest fellowship with Christ? If I might mark out the happiest
   periods of my life, I would not choose those in which outward mercies
   have been multiplied and success has followed success. But I think that
   I would especially note those times when abuse followed abuse, when I
   could hardly say a word without its being misrepresented and something
   horrible being made out of things which were as good as good could
   be--when lies flew about me as bullets whistle round the warrior's ears
   in the midst of the battle! Then it was that I kept close to Christ and
   lived on Him, alone, and I was among the happiest of the happy! When
   the dog barks, then the people of the household wake up and the
   burglars will not be likely to get in! And, sometimes, our troubles are
   the very best things that can happen to us because they wake us up and
   drive Satan away and make us fit us to see Christ's glory! We got into
   a careless, drowsy condition when we were rich and increased in
   goods--and then we went to sleep. So our Master came and pulled the bed
   from under us and made us feel the cold--then we woke up and found that
   Christ was close beside us, and our heart was glad. Thus, affliction or
   trial is often a blessed means of Grace because it wakes us up so that
   we see Christ's glory.

   This fact also explains why dying saints often declare that they have
   such blessed sights of Christ. Is it not because, as they die, they
   really begin to live? They shake off the dull encumbrance of this house
   of clay and they get into a clearer light, and so they truly live. They
   wake up when they die! All their lifetime their business engagements or
   other cares occupied their thoughts. But now they have done with
   business, with care and they begin to awake, for the morning comes--the
   blessed, everlasting morning that shall never know an eventide--and
   they awake and see the glory of their Lord, and we, who sit by their
   bedside, are often amazed! We cannot understand what they describe, for
   we are the sleeping ones, and they are the awakened ones, waking up to
   see Christ's glory!

   But suppose that I were to take my text for just a minute and project
   it a little way into the future? We shall soon fall asleep, Brothers
   and Sisters. Some of the older ones among us will certainly do so!
   Others of us very probablywill do so, and all of us, unless the Lord
   shall come first, shall soon fall into that last quiet slumber which we
   call death. But, what a awakening there will be, first of our soul,
   when we shall see our Lord as He is! What must the first five minutes
   in Heaven be if there are any minutes where time is swallowed up in
   eternity? What must be the joy when, for the first time, we enter that
   land where "they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord
   God gives them light"? When we shall see the saints in Heaven, I
   suppose that we shall not say much about them. They will be like Moses
   and Elijah, "the two men that stood with Him." But, oh, when we shall
   get our first glimpse of Jesus on His Throne, that will be a ravishing
   sight beyond all conception! And then, when the next awakening comes,
   when the trumpet sounds its mighty blast, and these poor limbs arise
   out of their beds of clay, when we are awake, we shall see His glory!
   Then shall we be satisfied, when we awake in His likeness! And then
   shall His prayer be answered, "Father, I will that they, also, whom You
   have given Me, be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory."

   Well, Beloved, be content to go to bed when there is such an awakening
   in store for you! Learn to die every day. Regard your bed as a tomb and
   every time you give yourself up to unconsciousness, and the image of
   death is upon you, be practicing the art of dying, so that when, for
   the last time, you must go upstairs and lie down once again, it may be
   very, very sweet to feel, "I shall awake in the morning, the
   everlasting morning, when all these shadows of this night of grief and
   toil shall eternally have fled away! When I am awake, I shall see His
   glory!"

   The Lord grant to you and to me, dear Friends, to know all the bliss of
   awakening to behold His glory! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW17:1-5.

   [Mr. SPURGEON does not appear to have commented on the chapter read
   before he preached the foregoing Sermon. It has, therefore, been
   decided to insert his exposition of the parallel passage in Matthew, as
   he wrote it for The Gospel of the Kingdom. This will enable his Sermon
   readers, who do not possess his last literary work, to judge as to the
   contents of the volume upon which he was at workjust eight years ago,
   within a few days of receiving the call Home. It is one of the most
   precious of the many memorials of the "promoted" Pastor.]

   Verses 1, 2. And after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his
   brother, and led them up on a high mountain, and was transfigured
   before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was
   white as the light. Were these "six days" a week's quiet interval in
   which our Lord prepared Himself for the amazing transaction upon the
   "high mountain"? Did the little company of three know from one Sabbath
   to another that such an amazing joy awaited them? The three were elect
   out of the elect, and favored to see what no one else in all the world
   might behold. Doubtless our Lord had reasons for His choice, as He has
   for every choice He makes, but He does not unveil them to us. The same
   three beheld the agony in the Garden. Perhaps the first sight was
   necessary to sustain their faith under the second. The name of the
   "high mountain" can never be known, for those who knew the location
   have left no information. Tabor, if you please. Hermen, if you prefer
   it. No one can decide. It was a lonely and lofty hill. While in prayer,
   the splendor of the Lord shone out. His face, lit up with its own inner
   glory, became a sun! And all His clothes, like clouds irradiated by
   that sun, became white as the light, itself. "He was transfigured
   before them." He alone was the center of what they saw. It was a
   marvelous unveiling of the hidden Nature of the Lord Jesus. Then was,
   in one way, fulfilled the word of John-- "The Word was made flesh and
   dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory." The Transfiguration occurred
   but once. Special views of the glory of Christ are not enjoyed every
   day. Our highest joy on earth is to see Jesus. There can be no greater
   bliss in Heaven! And we shall be better able to endure the exceeding
   bliss when we have laid aside the burden of this flesh.

   3. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with
   Him. Thus the Law and the Prophets, "Moses and Elijah," communed with
   our Lord, "talking with Him," and entering into familiar conversation
   with their Lord. Saints long departed still live! They live in their
   personality. They are known by their names and enjoy near access to
   Christ. It is a great joy to holy ones to be with Jesus. They find it
   Heaven to be where they can talk with Him. The

   heads of former dispensations conversed with the Lord as to His decease
   by which a new economy would be ushered in. After condescending so long
   to His ignorant followers, it must have been a great relief to the
   human soul of Jesus to talk with two masterminds like those of Moses
   and Elijah! What a sight for the Apostles, this glorious trio! They
   "appeared unto them," but they, "talked with Him." The objective of the
   two holy ones was not to converse with Apostles, but with their Master.
   Although saints are seen of men, their fellowship is with Jesus

   4. Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to
   be here. If You will, let us make here three tabernacles; one for You,
   and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. The sight spoke to the three
   beholders, and they felt bound to answer to it. Peter must speak--"Then
   answered Peter." That which is uppermost comes out--"Lord, it is good
   for us to be here." Everybody was of his opinion. Who would not have
   been? Because it was so good, he would gladly stay in this beatific
   state and get still more good from it. But he has not lost his
   reverence and, therefore, he would have the great ones suitably
   sheltered. He submits the proposal to Jesus. "If You will." He offers
   that, with his Brothers, he will plan and build shrines for the three
   holy ones. "Let us make here three tabernacles." He does not propose to
   build for himself, and James, and John, but he says, "One for You, and
   one for Moses, and one for Elijah." His talk sounds rather like that of
   a bewildered child! He wanders a little, yet his expression is a most
   natural one. Who would not wish to abide in such society as this?
   Moses, Elijah and Jesus! What company! But yet how unpractical is
   Peter. How selfish the one thought, "It is good for us"! What was to be
   done for the rest of the twelve and for the other disciples, and for
   the wide, wide world? A sip of such bliss might be good for the three,
   but to continue to drink thereof might not have been really good, even
   for them. Peter knew not what he said. The same might be said of many
   another excited utterance of enthusiastic saints.

   5. While he yet spoke, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and
   behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is My beloved Son, in
   Whom I am well pleased. Hear Him. "While he yet spoke." Such wild talk
   might well be interrupted! What a blessed interruption! We may often
   thank the Lord for stopping our babbling. "A bright cloud overshadowed
   them." It was bright and cast a shadow. They felt that they were
   entering it and feared as they did so. It was a singular experience,
   yet we have had it repeated in our own cases. Do we not know what it is
   to get shadow out of brightness and "a voice out of the cloud"? This is
   after the frequent manner of the Lord in dealing with His favored ones.
   The voice was clear and distinct. First came the Divine attestation of
   the Sonship of our Lord, "This is My beloved Son," and the Father's
   declaration of delight in Him, "in Whom I am well pleased." What
   happiness for us that Jehovah is well pleased in Christ and with all
   who are in Him! Then followed the consequent Divine requirement, "Hear
   Him." It is better to hear the Son of God than to see saints, or to
   build tabernacles. This will please the Father more than all else that
   love can suggest. The good pleasure of the Father in the Lord Jesus is
   a conspicuous part of His glory. The voice conveyed to the ear a
   greater glory than the luster of light could communicate through the
   eyes. The audible part of the Transfiguration was as wonderful as the
   visible!
     __________________________________________________________________

Fallen Asleep

   (No. 2659)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 28, 1900.

   (C. H. Spurgeon Memorial Sabbath).

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY 29, 1882.

   [Just 10 years before he fell asleep in Jesus.]

   "Some are fallen asleep." 1 Corinthians 15:6.

   Writing concerning the brethren who had seen the Lord Jesus Christ
   after His Resurrection and of whom "above five hundred" were present at
   one time, Paul said, at the date when he was writing this Epistle, "the
   greater part" remained alive, "but," he added, "some are fallen
   asleep."

   We might have thought that God, in great mercy, would have preserved
   the lives of those 500 brethren to an extreme old age, that, in every
   part of the globe, there might be extant, as long as possible, someone
   who would be able to say, "I beheld the Son of God when He was upon the
   earth. I heard Him preach. I saw Him die on the Cross and then I looked
   upon Him again after He had risen from the grave." Every one of these
   witnesses would have been worth his weight in gold to the Christian
   religion! Wherever such a man lived, he would have been, under the
   blessing of God, the means of convincing many people of the truth of
   our glorious faith! Yet, dear Friends, it does not appear that these
   invaluable brethren were spared the shafts of death. These witnesses of
   Christ's Resurrection died as other men did. They had no immunity from
   death and no extreme old age was granted to them, for the Apostle,
   writing not so very long after the event, said, "Some are fallen
   asleep."

   From this fact I gather that lives which appear to us to be extremely
   necessary, may not be so regarded by God! Your own observation will, I
   am sure, agree with mine, that the Lord sometimes takes from us those
   whom we can least spare. Those who seemed to be the pillars of the
   Church have been suddenly removed. The fathers among us--those who have
   been the bravest confessors of the faith--or the most useful servants
   of the Savior, have been called away. This should teach us--if we are
   wise enough to learn the lesson--to regard the most invaluable person
   in our own Israel as being only lent to us by the Lord, for a season,
   and liable to be summoned to higher service at any moment! Possibly,
   God takes some men away from us because we think them absolutely
   necessary. He will not let us trust in an arm of flesh--and if He is so
   condescending as to use human feebleness and we go and confide in the
   feebleness--and suppose that God's strength is tied up to it--in secret
   jealousy He removes the instruments that He has used, that men may
   learn not to glory in their fellow men, or to make idols out of their
   Christian brethren and fathers!

   It is probable that these witnesses of Christ's Resurrection enjoyed a
   large measure of reverence from the members of the Christian Church.
   Had they lived very long, they might have been regarded with a
   superstitious and almost idolatrous reverence. God intended that His
   Church should increasingly live by faith, not by sight, so, while she
   was in her infancy He gave her the prop of miracles and also the
   support of living witnesses. But when she had somewhat increased in
   strength, He no longer gave the power to work miracles, but left her to
   rest upon His Word, alone. And as she further progressed, He, in a few
   years, took away the earthly witnesses of Christ's life, death and
   Resurrection, that the Eternal

   Spirit, working through the Word, might stand, to all time, as the
   living and unfailing Witness of the fact that Jesus lived, died and
   "rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."

   The lesson for us all to learn is just this--let us not set too much
   store by any of God's servants and, especially--let us never reckon
   that we are essential to the carrying on of His work! The fly upon the
   chariot wheel was easily to be dispensed with and so are we. Like
   shadows we have come--like shadows we shall go. We may be missed--I
   hope we shall all live so that many will miss us when we are gone. But
   they will brush their tears away and both the world and the Church--and
   especially the Church--will continue to go on without us! While Jesus
   lives, whoever may die, we shall never have to say, "My father, my
   father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!" But still
   shall the Church of God flourish and increase, for the Spirit of God is
   with her.

   Paul wrote, "Some are fallen asleep." Of course all the witnesses who
   personally saw Christ have long ago fallen asleep, but, among
   ourselves, it is also true that, "some are fallen asleep." And the
   Truth of God is impressed upon us more and more forcibly every week. I
   never expect, now, to come to this place on two succeeding Sabbaths
   without hearing that some one or other of our friends has departed. Our
   death-rate, for many years, has been wonderfully small, for God seems
   to have favored us by sparing us to one another. We must not forget
   that in past days more of our number were young than is the case with
   us now and, as we all march onwards towards the inevitable river, the
   deaths will naturally be more numerous among us than they have been.
   They are beginning to be so, already, and I am continually hearing of
   one or another of our most useful Brothers or Sisters being "called
   Home." Almost every day this Truth of God is impressed upon me--"Some
   are fallen asleep." I suppose that all the year round, almost as
   regularly as the clock ticks, about two a week of our Church members,
   beside others out of the congregation, are taken up to dwell in the
   Master's Presence. So my subject concerns us just as much as it did
   those of whom and to whom the Apostle wrote.

   I. Now, coming to the text, I call your attention, first, to THE FIGURE
   USED HERE--"Some are fallen asleep." In the heathen part of the
   catacombs of Rome, the inscriptions over the place where their dead
   were buried are full of lamentation and despair. Indeed, the writers of
   those inscriptions do not appear to have been able to find words in
   which they could express their great distress--their agony of heart--at
   the loss of child, or husband, or friend. They pile the mournful words
   together to try to describe their grief. Sometimes, they declare that
   the light has gone from their sky now their dear ones are taken from
   them. "Alas! Alas!" says the record, "dear Caius has gone and with him
   all joy is quenched forever, for I shall see him no more." Heathenism
   is hopeless to afford any comfort to the bereaved!

   But when you come into that part of the catacombs which was devoted to
   Christian burial, everything is different. There you may constantly
   read these consoling words, "He sleeps in peace." There is nothing
   dreadful or despairing in the inscriptions there--they are submissive,
   they are cheerful, they are even thankful! Frequently they are
   victorious and the most common emblem is--not the quenched torch, as it
   is on the heathen side, where the light is supposed to have gone out
   forever--but the palm branch, to signify that the victory remains
   eternally with the departed one. It is the glow of the Christian
   religion to have let light into the sepulcher, to have taken the sting
   away from death and, in fact, to have made it no more death to die!

   The figure used here is that of falling asleep. It describes first, the
   act, and then the state. "Some are fallen asleep." That is the act of
   death. Having fallen asleep, they remain so--that is the state of
   death. For a Christian to die, is, according to Scripture, an act of
   the most natural kind, for it is but to fall asleep. What that act
   really is, in its literal meaning, I cannot fully explain to you,
   though I know by long personal experience--and all of you know, and
   will soon know, again, if you are permitted to fall asleep, tonight,
   and to wake in the morning! Yet you never knew exactly when you went to
   sleep. You have often wanted to go to sleep, but you could not and,
   probably nobody has ever gone to sleep while he has tried to do so. But
   it is when all idea of forcing slumber has gone from us that gradually
   we pass into a state of unconsciousness. Such, perhaps, is death--the
   sinking away and becoming unconscious of this world, and asleep to
   it--though happily conscious of another world and sweetly awake to it.
   That is the act of falling asleep.

   Then, after the act of falling asleep, which is death, comes the state
   of sleep in which rest is the main ingredient Are Believers, then,
   asleep? Yes, and no. Never make a figure run on four legs when it was
   only meant to go on two. Some people, when they get hold of a metaphor,
   want to make it have as many feet as a centipede--and they seek to draw
   all sorts of parallels which were never intended to be drawn. The fact
   is that the saints sleep, first, as to their bodies. There they are in
   the cemetery--which means the sleeping-place--till dawns the bright
   illustrious day when these bodies shall

   wake again. As for their souls, they are asleep as to this world--their
   memory and their love are things of the past--they are, alike,
   unknowing and unknown as far as this earth is concerned. As to that
   other world, we read that they shall be "forever with the Lord." Our
   Savior said to the penitent thief--"Today shall you be with Me in
   Paradise." And the prayer of Christ for His people was that we might be
   with Him where He is--not to be asleep--but to behold His glory, the
   glory which the Father had given Him.

   Hence, the word, "sleep," is not to be regarded as implying that the
   souls of the departed lie in a state of unconsciousness. It is nothing
   of the kind! It is unconsciousness as to the things of time and sense,
   but a blessed consciousness as to another and a fairer and brighter and
   better world than this! Even while I am in this mortal state, when I am
   asleep, though I may be unaware of anything that is happening in my
   bedroom, yet, full often, in my sleep, my mind is soaring on the wings
   of eagles, mounting up to Heaven, or diving into the depths, conscious
   of dreamland, and of the spirit land, though unconscious of the present
   world for the time being!

   The meaning of the term is evidently this--as sleep brings to us rest,
   the blessed ones, who have fallen asleep in Christ, are perfectly at
   rest. It is delightful for a man, who has worked very hard all day, to
   forget his toils and fall asleep. Well did Young write, in his Night
   Thoughts, concerning--

   "Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep." In his sleep, the
   prisoner in the dungeon forgets his manacles. The slave in the galley
   forgets his bondage. The poor man forgets his poverty and he who dreads
   the approach of danger drinks a draught of the waters of Lethe and
   remembers his fears no more. What a blessing sleep is to this poor,
   weary frame and to the throbbing brain! The saints in Heaven have a
   better rest than sleep can give, but sleep is the nearest word we can
   find to describe the state of the blessed. They have no poverty, no
   toil, no anguish of spirit, no remorse, no struggling with indwelling
   sin, no battling with foes without and fears within. "They rest from
   their labors and their works do follow them." Oh, what a sweet thing to
   fall asleep, if this is what it means--to enjoy perfect repose and to
   be beyond the reach of all influences which make life here to be so
   sorrowful! "Some are fallen asleep," that is, they have entered into
   their rest.

   By falling asleep, again, is meant a state of security. The man who is
   in the battle may be wounded and may die, but he who has gone up to his
   chamber to sleep is supposedly there to be at peace and out of the
   reach of danger, though that is not always the case. But, in those
   heavenly chambers where the Lord shall hide away His people, they shall
   be perfectly secure. They will never have to keep watch against "the
   arrow that flies by day," or, "the pestilence that walks in darkness."
   They are out of gunshot of the enemy! As Dr. Payson said, when he was
   dying, "The battle is fought," so is it with them--the battle is fought
   and the victory is won forever! Therefore have they ascended to the
   hilltops of Glory and to the chambers of eternal rest! And there they
   sleep while we still struggle hand to hand with the enemy, with many a
   deadly thrust and many an ugly wound. God be praised that there is a
   place of safety for all the soldiers of the Cross! "Some are fallen
   asleep," and so shall we, in due time, if we are fighting under the
   banner of Emmanuel, God with us!

   Now let us learn, from this figure of falling asleep, a little about
   death and, especially, about a Christian's death. I learn from it,
   first, that the act is not a painful one, nor even a disagreeable one.
   As I have said before, I cannot really tell what falling asleep is, for
   in the very act we, ourselves, pass out of the consciousness of it.
   But, as far as one has watched children falling asleep, there certainly
   is no appearance of any pain, for usually they drop off into slumber
   very happily--and that is how God's people shall do when they fall
   asleep in Jesus. Do not regard your departure out of the world as a
   thing to be surrounded with horror! Do not conjure up hobgoblins, evil
   spirits, darkness and terror! "The Valley of the Shadow of Death," of
   which David spoke, I do not think was ever meant to be applied to
   dying, for it is a valley that he walks through and he comes out the
   other side of it! And it is not the Valley of Death, but only of "the
   Shadow of Death." I have walked through that valley many a time--right
   through from one end of it to the other--and yet I have not died! The
   grim shadow of something worse than death has fallen over my spirit,
   but God has been with me, as He was with David, and His rod and His
   staff have comforted me. And many here can say the same! And I believe
   that often those who feel great gloom in going through "the Valley of
   the Shadow of Death," feel no gloom at all when they come to the Valley
   of Death itself! There has generally been brightness there for the most
   sorrowful spirits and those who, before going there, have groveled in
   the dust, have been enabled to mount as on eagles' wings when they have
   actually come to the place of their departure into the future state.

   The more you think this matter over, the more clearly will it appear to
   you that there cannot be any pain in death-- all pain must be connected
   with life--it is the living who suffer. In death, we forget all pain.
   That gentle touch, that Divine love-pat that shall end all pain and
   sorrow is the thing which men usually call death, but which the Apostle
   rightly calls sleep. There is nothing to be dreaded in it! It may be
   altogether unattended with pain. I believe that full often it is so. To
   fall asleep is a very natural act and so it is for us to die. A little
   child has been playing in the field gathering buttercups and daisies
   all day long, but, at last, tired right out, he drops asleep upon his
   mother's lap. What could he do better? So, though we may be unwilling
   to die, the time will come when we shall have finished our life-work or
   play, whichever you may please to call it--and we shall fall asleep
   upon the bosom of our God. What better thing could we do? There is a
   dear old friend of mine, now in Heaven and, when he came to this house,
   one Sunday, I said to him, "Our old friend, So-and-So, has gone Home."
   The one to whom I spoke was an old man himself, one of our most
   gracious elders, and he looked at me in a most significant way and his
   eyes twinkled as he said, "He could not do better, dear Pastor! He
   could not do better and you and I will do the same thing one of these
   days. We, also, shall go Home!" Our aged friend, as I told you, has
   gone Home since that time, and now I may say of him, "He could not have
   done better." Why, that is where good children always go at
   night--home! If they ran away, where would they go? When our night
   comes, beloved children of God, you and I also must go Home--do we feel
   at all afraid of such a prospect? If so, surely our love to our
   Heavenly Father, and to our Elder Brother, and to our Home above must
   be growing somewhat cold.

   And then, again, if we did not die, we would wish to do so. Certainly,
   when people cannot sleep, that is the very thing they crave for! There
   have, perhaps, been times when you have been ready to take something
   which would help to keep you awake when you have needed to do some
   special work, or to watch over some precious sick one. But when night
   follows night and there has been no sleep for you, you do not want
   anything to keep you awake, then, but you long for sleep. "Oh, that I
   could sleep!" you cry. We regard it, always, as a bad symptom when the
   sufferer says, "I cannot sleep." The disciples said, concerning
   Lazarus, "If he sleeps, he shall do well," and they spoke wisely,
   although they misunderstood the meaning of the word, sleep, in that
   connection. And, surely, we shall do well when we fall asleep in Jesus!
   It shall become to us the most blessed thing that God Himself can send
   us. Oh, if we could not die, it would be indeed horrible! Who wants to
   be chained to this poor life for a century or longer?

   There came to me one of whom I may tell the story, for he is now dead
   and he said that if I would do his bidding, I would live forever here,
   for he had discovered a great secret by which men need never die. I
   said to him, "Sir, you seem to me like a man of seventy, and I should
   say that you are getting on towards death, yourself." He replied, "Oh,
   no! I expect some little rash will come out all over me, in a few
   years, and then I shall be quite young again, and start living for
   another hundred years." He told me that the people would believe his
   teaching when he had been here six or seven hundred years. And I
   answered that I thought it was very likely that they would! He offered
   to share his great secret with me, dear good man that he was, but I
   replied, "I would not give a button to know it--why should I want to
   live in this wretched penal colony forever?" He talked to me for some
   little time and when he found that he could make no impression on me,
   to consummate his madness, he asked me to go outside my door with him.
   He lifted up the knocker and rapped two or three times, saying very
   solemnly, "Too late! Too late! You cannot enter now!" He said that he
   had shut me out of the blessing of living here forever and so I said to
   him, "I am very much obliged to you for doing me such a kindness!"

   He printed books and gave lectures on the subject, being fully
   persuaded in his own mind that he would never die. But he has died--I
   knew he would and I told him so. He said it was my lack of faith which
   made me talk like that, but he himself was confident that he would
   never die. Oh, what an awful thing it would be if that man's fad could
   be a fact! Superstition declares it to be the curse upon "the wandering
   Jew" that he should never die. God be thanked that such a curse has
   never fallen upon us! No, unless the Lord should come first, we shall
   fall asleep in Him--and what a blessed thing it must be to fall asleep
   on the bosom of Christ! The child may be afraid to be put to bed in the
   dark, but it never fears to fall asleep upon its mother's breast. And
   we might dread to be laid to rest, out there in the cold cemetery, all
   alone, but we do not fear to sleep in Jesus! Such a state as that is a
   thing to be desired, not to be dreaded!

   II. Now let us come to our second point, THE THOUGHTS AWAKENED BY THIS
   FIGURE--"Some are fallen asleep."

   First, thinking about the many who have fallen asleep, let me ask--How
   did you treat them? If your conscience pricks you concerning that
   matter, I want you to act towards the livingsaints in such a way as you
   would like to have

   done supposing you never see them again. When there has been an angry
   meeting or parting--when there have been hard words spoken, or when
   there have been unkind thoughts--when you could not enjoy true
   fellowship with some Christian friend, suppose that, the next morning,
   somebody came to your house and said, "Brother So-and-So is dead?" You
   would feel deeply pained to think that he had fallen asleep after you
   had so treated him. People have killed their minister by their
   unkindness--and there have been, alas, many who have done so! Those who
   have killed other persons--and there have been many of that sort, who
   have vexed and worried other people into their graves--may well think,
   with great sorrow, "Some are fallen asleep, but we did not treat them
   with the love and kindness we ought to have shown them." Think over
   that matter, dear Friends, and see to it that no such regrets shall be
   possible to you.

   "Some are fallen asleep." Then, who is to fill their place? Many have
   already gone from us this year and others keep on going. Sunday school
   teachers go--who will be "baptized for the dead"--by taking their
   places in the ranks and filling the gap? Hear this, you Church members
   who are doing nothing for Christ! "Some are fallen asleep." Let that
   little sentence be a clarion call to you to wake up and go and occupy
   the vacant positions, that the work of Christ may know no lack in any
   part of His vineyard! Wake up! Wake up! You who are asleep in another
   sense--now that so many are being taken away from us--dig up the talent
   that has been wrapped in a napkin and buried in the earth--and put it
   out to blessed usury by employing it in the Master's service!

   "Some have fallen asleep." Then you and I will also fall asleep before
   long. It cannot be a long while for some of you who are getting gray or
   white. It may be a very short time for some of us who have scarcely
   reached the middle of life. And even you young folk may soon fall
   asleep, too, for I have seen a child asleep in the morning as well as
   at night, and so have you. Oh, let us not live in this world as if we
   thought of staying here forever, but let us try to be like a pious
   Scotch minister who was very ill and, being asked by a friend whether
   he thought himself dying, answered, "Really, Friend, I care not whether
   I am or not for, if I die, I shall be with God. And if I live, He will
   be with me." There is not much to choose between those two blessed
   states! But let us remember, by the memory of everyone who has fallen
   asleep, that the time of our own departure is coming, by-and-by, and it
   may be very soon!

   But, as for those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, we need not fret or
   trouble ourselves about them. To cut their faces, in token of their
   mourning for the dead, was natural to the heathen--well might they
   torture themselves in their hopeless grief, for they believed the
   separation to be eternal! But as for us, when children go upstairs to
   bed, do their elder brothers and sisters, who sit up later, gather
   together and cry because the other children have fallen asleep? Ah, no!
   They feel that they have not lost them, and they expect to meet again
   in the morning--and so do we! Therefore, let us not weep and lament to
   excess concerning the dear ones who are fallen asleep in Christ, for
   all is well with them! They are at rest--shall we weep about that? They
   are enjoying their eternal triumph--shall we weep about that? They are
   as full of bliss as they can possibly be--shall we weep about that? If
   any of your sons and daughters were taken away from you to be made into
   kings and queens in a foreign land, you might shed a tear or two at
   parting, but you would say, "It is for their good, let them go." And do
   you grudge your well-beloved their crown of glory and all the bliss
   which God has bestowed upon them? If the departed could speak to us,
   they would say, "Bless God for us! Do not sit down and mourn because we
   have entered into His Glory, but rather rejoice because we are with Him
   where He is." Therefore let us comfort one another with these words.

   III. Lastly, Brothers and Sisters, let us think, for just a minute or
   two, of THE HOPES CONFIRMED BY THIS FIGURE--"Some are fallen asleep."

   First, then, they are still ours. If they were really dead, we might
   say that we had lost them, but as they have only fallen asleep, they
   are still ours! Wordsworth proclaimed a great Truth of God in that
   simple little poem of his, "We are seven." There were some of the
   family buried in the churchyard, but the girl still declared that they
   were seven--and so they were! Did you ever notice, concerning Job's
   children, that when God gave him twice as much substance as he had
   before, he gave him only the same number of children as he formerly
   had? The Lord gave him twice as much gold and twice as much of all
   sorts of property, but He only gave him the exact number of children
   that he had before. Why did He not give the Patriarch double the number
   of children as well as twice the number of cattle? Why, because God
   reckoned the first ones as being still his! They were dead to Job's
   eyes, but they were visible to Job's faith! God still numbered them as
   part of Job's family--and if you carefully count up how many children
   Job had, you will find that he had twice as

   many in the end as he had in the beginning! In the same way, consider
   your friends who are asleep in Christ as still yours--not lost, any one
   of them--and say of them, "Some are fallen asleep."

   "Our membership has been diminished," somebody says. Yes, it has been,
   according to the Church Book and the figures as we reckon them here,
   but it has not really been diminished. I have, by faith, seen our
   Brothers and Sisters flying, like doves to their windows, and ascending
   to Heaven from this place! Every week some of them are going to the
   land beyond the skies. My soul has often rejoiced as I have thought of
   the spiritual children whom God has given me. I might almost claim that
   great promise which was made to Abraham, "Look now toward Heaven, and
   count the stars, if you are able to number them: and He said unto him,
   So shall your seed be." For, if they have not reached the number of the
   stars yet, they are no more to be reckoned than are the stars! As I
   remember how many of them have already reached the better land, I do
   not think of them as lost, for they only fell asleep, here, to wake in
   the Presence of Jesus. Their sleeping bodies shall also wake again when
   the Resurrection trumpet sounds. No matter what has become of the
   particular particles of dust of which those bodies were composed, the
   essence of each individual shall be preserved by Omnipotent power, and
   out of it shall spring an undying body, remodeled and fashioned like
   unto Christ's glorious body! And the soul shall enter it and that soul
   shall be here, again, at the coming of Christ, for when He shall come
   in His Glory, they, also, who sleep in Jesus will He bring with Him!
   "Therefore," again I say unto you, "comfort one another with these
   words."

   This is our last thought--we shall again meet those who have fallen
   asleep. We said, "Adieu," to them, and so committed them to God's
   keeping. We said, "Good-bye," that is, "God be with you," and God has
   been with them. We said, "Farewell," and they have fared well. And we
   shall see how well they have fared to be with Christ, for we shall see
   them again! I believe that we shall know them, have communion with them
   and shall admire Christ's Grace in them, and that it shall be part of
   our Heaven to come not only "to Jesus the Mediator of the New
   Covenant," but also, "to the general assembly and church of the
   first-born, who are written in Heaven."

   Now I have finished my discourse, but, how far is there any comfort to
   some of you in all that I have said? Some of you work very hard--have
   you any hope of rest in Heaven? If not, I pity you from the very depths
   of my heart! Some of you fare very hard--have you any hope of better
   fare with Christ forever? If not, I do indeed pity you, more than I can
   say! To go from poverty and misery, here, to a place where there shall
   be no hope for you forever, will be dreadful, indeed! If there were no
   Hell, I could not endure the thought of being shut out of Heaven, for,
   to be with Christ, to be with the Father, to be with the Holy Spirit,
   to miss the company of gracious and just men forever, would be a Hell
   that might well make men gnash their teeth in torment! Oh, may God save
   us all through faith which is in Christ Jesus! May we be saved tonight
   and then it will not matter how soon anyone may say of us, also, "They
   have fallen asleep," for all will be well with us forever! God bless
   you, dear Friends, for Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: REVELATION 7:9-17; 1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-28;
   50-58.

   We will read two passages from the New Testament tonight. The first
   will show us where the glorified saints are and the second will tell us
   what is to become of their bodies.

   Revelation 7:9-13. After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude,
   which no man couldnumber, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and
   tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with
   white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice,
   saying, Salvation to our God which sits upon the throne, and unto the
   Lamb! And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the
   elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces
   and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and
   thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God forever
   and ever Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me. In
   reply, as it were, to John's question put by the very look of his
   countenance! Sometimes the Lord Jesus Christ gave an answer to men who
   had not spoken to Him--and the angelic elder here followed His example
   and also, in another respect, imitated his Lord by replying to the
   inquisitive glance of John by asking him a question.

   13-17. Who are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came
   they? And I said unto him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are
   they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes,
   and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before
   the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple:

   andHe that sits on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger
   no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them,
   nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall
   feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God
   shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. This is to be the future
   state of all those who are redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus and
   to whom the saving Grace of God has come! So that, concerning all who
   have thus fallen asleep, we sorrow not as those without hope, for we
   know that all is well with them forever!

   Now let us read a little of what the Apostle Paul was inspired to write
   with regard to the resurrection of the body.

   1 Corinthians 15:1, 2. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the
   Gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and
   wherein you stand; by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory
   what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. What, then,
   was this Gospel which Paul had preached, and which the Christians in
   Corinth had received--the Gospel which Paul declared would save them if
   they truly believed it? Was it a Gospel made up merely of doctrines?
   No! It was a Gospel formed of facts.

   3. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
   how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. That is
   the first fundamental fact in the Gospel system. Blessed is the man who
   believes it and rests his soul upon it!

   4. And that He was buried: and that He rose again the third day
   according to the Scriptures. That grand fact of the Resurrection of
   Christ from the dead is rightly put next to His substitutionary
   Sacrifice, for it is the very cornerstone of our holy faith! It is one
   of the essential doctrines which must be received by us, for we cannot
   truly believe the Gospel unless we accept the great Truth of Christ's
   Resurrection!

   5-8. And that He was seen ofCephas--that is, Peter--then ofthe twelve:
   after that, He was seen ofabove five hundred brethren at once; of whom
   the greater part remain unto this time, but some are fallen asleep.
   After that, He was seen of James, then of all the Apostles. And last of
   all He was seen of me, also, as of one born out of due time. I suppose,
   Brothers and Sisters, that we may have persons arise who will doubt
   whether there was ever such a man as Julius Caesar, or Napoleon
   Bonaparte. And when they do--when all reliable history is flung to the
   winds--then, but not till then, may they begin to question whether
   Jesus Christ rose from the dead, for this historical fact is attested
   by more witnesses than almost any other fact that stands on record in
   history, whether sacred or profane! The risen Christ was seen by many
   persons who knew Him intimately before He died--by those who saw Him
   put to death and who saw Him when He was dead. He was seen, on various
   occasions, privately, by one, by two, by 12 of those who had been His
   companions for years. At other times, He was seen in public by large
   numbers who could not all have been deceived. These men were so certain
   that this was, indeed, the same Christ who had lived, and died, that,
   although it was at first difficult to make them believe that He had
   risen from the dead, it was impossible to make them doubt it
   afterwards! And the major part of them died to bear witness to the
   fact! They were martyred because they confessed that Jesus had indeed
   risen from the dead. There is no fact in history, from the days of Adam
   until now, that is better attested than this great central Truth of God
   of the Resurrection of Christ! So we accept it and receive it gladly.
   Paul finishes up his list of witnesses by putting himself down as one
   of them, although his conversion was, to himself, such a marvelous
   display of Divine Grace that he was like "one born out of due time."

   9-14. For I am the least ofthe Apostles, that am not meet to be called
   an Apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the Grace of
   GodI am what I am: and His Grace which was bestowed upon me was not in
   vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I; but the
   Grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, so
   we preach, and so you believed. Now if Christ is preached that He rose
   from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of
   the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ
   not risen: and if Christ is not risen, then is our preaching vain and
   then your faith is also vain. It is all emptiness! Our preaching
   evaporates--there is nothing left in it--unless Christ did really rise
   from the dead! And your faith has nothing in it, either--you are
   believing in that which is only vanity and nothingness--unless His
   Resurrection was a fact.

   15-17. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have
   testified of God that He raised up Christ: whom, He raised not up, if
   it is so that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not
   Christ raised: and if Christ is not raised, your faith is vain; you are
   yet in your sins. So that you cannot be a Christian if you deny the
   Resurrection of Christ! You must give up Christianity altogether and
   confess that your faith in it was a delusion unless you believe that
   Jesus Christ rose from the dead and that, therefore, there is a
   resurrection from the dead for the sons of men! Let it always

   be most clearly understood that what Christ is, that His people are!
   There is an unbroken union between the Head and the members, so that,
   if He lives, they live. And if He lives not, then they live not. And if
   they live not, then He lives not. Jesus and those for whom He died are
   so intimately joined together that they are really and truly one--and
   nothing can ever separate them!

   18, 19. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
   If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are, of all men, most
   miserable. That is to say, if our hope for the future is all a lie, we
   have been dreadfully deceived and, moreover, if we could lose a hope so
   brilliant as that has been to us, there would fall upon us a sense of
   loss so great that no one in the world could be so wretched as we
   should be! Besides, the Apostles were always in jeopardy of their
   lives--if they were suffering poverty, persecution and the fear of
   death by martyrdom, all for a lie----they were, indeed, of all men the
   most deluded, and the most miserable! But the Corinthians would not
   admit that and neither will we.

   20. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits.
   He must always come first, that in all things He may have the
   preeminence.

   20-28. Of them that slept. For since by man came death, by Man came
   also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in
   Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ
   the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then
   comes the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even
   the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and
   power. For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet
   The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He has put all
   things under His feet But when He says all things are put under Him, it
   is manifest that He is excepted, which did put all things under Him.
   And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also
   Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may
   be all in all. The mediatorial Person of Christ, as God-Man, shall bow
   before the eternal majesty of the Godhead, "that God may be all in
   all." Now we will finish our reading with just a few verses at the
   close of the chapter.

   50, 51. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
   the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
   Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all
   be changed. We shall not all die, some will be alive when Christ comes
   to this earth, again, "but we shall all be changed," if not by the
   process of death and resurrection, yet by some other means.

   52. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump for the
   trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we
   shall be changed. Somehow or other, such a change as this must take
   place before we can enter Heaven, for "flesh and blood cannot inherit
   the kingdom of God."

   53-58. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal
   must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on
   incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall
   be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in
   victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?
   The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. But
   thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
   Christ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable,
   always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that
   your labor is not in vain in the Lord. That should be the practical
   outcome of receiving the great Truths of which we have been reading.
   God grant that it may be! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Suffering Outside the Camp

   (No. 2660)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JANUARY 3,
   1858.

   "Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own
   blood, suffered outside the gate." Hebrews 13:12.

   IN one sense, sanctification is wholly the work of the Lord Jesus
   Christ, but there is another meaning which is more usually affixed to
   the term, in which sanctification is rightly described as the work of
   God the Holy Spirit. Many disputes have arisen concerning this Doctrine
   of God, because all men do not distinguish between the two meanings of
   the same word. There is one kind of sanctification which signifies
   setting apart and, in that sense, God's people were sanctified from all
   eternity. They were sanctified in election, before they had a being,
   for they were even then set apart from the impure mass, to be vessels
   of honor meet for the Master's use. Further, as redemption has in it
   much of peculiarity and specialty, God's people were sanctified, or set
   apart, by the blood of Christ, when, on Mount Calvary He offered up
   Himself, an offering without spot or blemish, for the sins of His
   people. So it is true that Jesus is not only made unto us wisdom and
   righteousness, but also sanctification.

   You will remember that in one of my recent sermons, [Sermon #2634,
   Volume 45--"Jesus Only"--A Communion Meditation the text of which was,
   "Jesus only," I made the remark that it was "Jesus only" for
   sanctification. And I have not had any reason to retract that
   expression, for there is a sense in which sanctification, as far as it
   means setting apart, is an eternal work and is a work wholly completed
   for us by the election of the Father and the blood of Jesus Christ.
   Still, sanctification sometimes, and most generally, signifies another
   thing--it means the work of the Spirit within us. There is a work which
   God the Holy Spirit carries on, from the first moment of our spiritual
   birth, to the last moment when we are taken to Heaven--a work by which
   corruptions are overcome, lusts restrained, faith increased, love
   inflamed, hope brightened and the spirit made fit to dwell with the
   glorified above. That is the work of God's Holy Spirit, yet we must
   remember that even though it is the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus
   Christ, even in this, still sanctifies His people! For with what does
   the Holy Spirit sanctify them?

   Beloved, He sanctifies them with the precious blood of Jesus! We know
   that when our Savior died, His Sacrifice had a double objective--one
   objective was pardon, the other was cleansing--and both the blood and
   the water flowed from the same source to show us that justification and
   sanctification both spring from the same Divine Fountain and, though
   sanctification is the work of the Spirit in us, yet, to accomplish this
   purposes, the Holy Spirit uses the sacrificial blood of Jesus and the
   sacred water of His Atonement applied to our heart, sprinkling us from
   dead works and purging us from an evil conscience, that we may serve
   God without let or hindrance. So, then, Christian, in your
   sanctification, look to Jesus! Remember that the Spirit sanctifies you,
   but that He sanctifies you through Jesus. He does not sanctify you
   through the works of the Law, but through the Atonement of Christ! And
   will you therefore remember that the nearer you live to the Cross of
   Jesus, the more of sanctification, growth and increase in all spiritual
   blessings will His Spirit give to you? So, then, we see that whatever
   sanctification may mean, the text is still true--"Therefore Jesus also,
   that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside
   the gate."

   Let us pause here a minute and let each of us, as we begin a new year,
   ask this question--How far has Christ's purpose of sanctifying me been
   answered in my own case? I know that in one sense I am completely
   sanctified, but, in another sense, I still feel my imperfections and
   infirmities. How far have I progressed in sanctification during the
   past year? How

   much has my faith increased during the year? How many of my corruptions
   have I overcome? How much nearer am I living to Christ, now, than on
   the first Sabbath of last year? How much do I know of the Savior? How
   much closer do I approach in my likeness to Him? Have I more power in
   prayer? Am I more careful in my life? Is my spirit more loving than it
   used to be? Am I more decisive for that which is right? At the same
   time, am I more meek in standing up for it? Am I, in all respects, more
   like my Master than I was a year ago? Or, on the other hand, have I
   been going backward? Stand still, I cannot--I must either go forward in
   Grace or go backward! Which have I been doing during the past year? And
   I charge you, O my Heart, whatever answer you have to give to these
   questions, to remember that if you are ever so much sanctified, you
   have not yet attained perfection! I beseech you, forget that which is
   behind, and press forward toward that which is before, looking still
   unto Jesus, who is both the Author and the Finisher of faith! The Lord
   give you so plente-ously of His Grace that you may be sanctified
   wholly, by soul and spirit! And I pray God to preserve you all unto His
   coming and glory.

   I. But now the principal subject upon which I wish to speak is the fact
   that JESUS CHRIST SUFFERED OUTSIDE THE GATE.

   You know that when the High Priest offered the sin-offering, because it
   typified sin, it was so obnoxious to God that it might not be burned
   upon the great altar, but it was always burned outside the camp, to
   show God's detestation of sin and His determination not only to put it
   away from Himself, but also to put it away from His Church. Now, when
   our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to be our Sin-Offering, it
   behooved Him, also, to be put outside the camp--and it is very
   interesting to note how remarkably Providence provided for the
   fulfillment of the type. Had our Lord been killed in a tumult, He would
   most likely have been slain in the city. Unless He had been put to
   death judicially, He would not have been taken to the usual Mount of
   Doom. And it is remarkable that the Romans should have chosen a hill on
   the outside of the city to be the common place for crucifixion and for
   punishment by death. We might have imagined that they would have
   selected some mount in the center of the city and that they would have
   placed their gibbet in as conspicuous a spot as our Newgate, so that it
   might strike the multitude with greater awe. But, in the Providence of
   God, it was arranged otherwise. Christ must not be slain in a tumult!
   He might not die in the city and when He was delivered into the hands
   of the Romans, they had not a place of execution within the city, but
   one outside the camp, that by dying outside the gate, He might be
   proved to be the Sin-Offering for His people.

   Concerning this great Truth of God, I have one or two remarks to offer
   to you very briefly. First, I want to ask you a question. Do you know
   who the people were who lived outside the gate? If you could have gone
   to the great camp of Israel, you would have seen the tents all placed
   in order, the standard of Dan there, of Judah there, of Ephraim there--
   surrounding the Ark of the Covenant. And you would have seen a few
   wretched huts far away in the rear, outside the camp. And if you had
   asked, "Who lives, there? Who are the poor people that are put away
   from kith and kin, and who cannot go up to the sanctuary of the Lord to
   present their offerings unto Him, or to join in the songs of praise
   unto His holy name?" The answer to your enquiry would have been, "The
   people out there are lepers and others who are unclean." And if, in
   later days, you had walked through some of the shady glens around the
   city of Jerusalem, you might have heard in the distance, the cry,
   "Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!"--a bitter wail that sounded like the
   sighing of despair, as if it came from some poor ghost that had been
   commanded to forever walk this earth with restless steps. Had you come
   nearer to the unhappy being who had uttered so mournful a sound, you
   would have seen him cover his upper lip and again, cry, "Unclean!
   Unclean! Unclean!--to warn you not to come too near him, lest even the
   wind should blow infection towards you from his leprous skin. If, for a
   minute, he had moved his hand from his mouth, you would have seen,
   instead of those scarlet, ruddy lips of health which God had originally
   put there, a terrible, white mark not to be distinguished from his
   teeth. His lips were unclean, for there the leprosy had discovered
   itself and, in a minute, he would have again covered up that lip that
   had the white mark of disease upon it--and again he would have cried,
   "Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!"

   Of whom was that leper a type? He was a picture of you and me, my
   Brothers and Sisters, in our natural state! And if the Holy Spirit has
   quickened us and made us to know our ruined condition, we shall feel
   that the leper's cry well becomes our unholy lips! Perhaps I have,
   within the walls of this house of prayer, a hearer who is today
   separate from all mankind. With worldlings, he dares not associate any
   longer. The harlots and others, with whom he spent his living
   riotously, are not now his companions. He cannot bear their pleasures,
   for they are dashed with bitterness. With the children of God, he dares
   not go--he feels that they would put him outside the camp, for he has
   no hope, no Christ, no faith!

   He cannot say that Christ has died for him. He has no trust in
   Jesus--not so much as one pale ray of hope has stolen into his poor
   darkened heart and, tonight, the inward wail of his now-awakened spirit
   is--

   "Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!

   Unclean, and full of sin,

   From first to last, O Lord, I've been!

   Deceitful is my heart."

   Leper, leper, be of good cheer! Christ died outside the camp that you
   might be sanctified through His blood! I see the leper now stealing
   through the desert places, not daring to sip of the clear stream that
   lies in his track, lest he should communicate contagion to the next
   person who drinks from it, but seeking out some filthy puddle, that
   there he may satisfy his thirst, where no others are likely to drink. I
   see him covering up his lips. If his father met him, he must run away
   from him. If the wife of his bosom saw him, she must shun his presence,
   for a loathsome disease is in his skin and in his garments--and in the
   very breath that comes from his lips there is death! Well, suddenly, as
   he steals along, he sees a Cross, and on it lifted up One who is dying.
   He stands there astonished! He thinks that surely he may come near to a
   dying man, leper though he is--to the living, he must not approach--but
   to the dying he cannot bring a new death. So he draws near to the Cross
   and the lips of the dying Man are opened, and He says, "Verily I say
   unto you, Today shall you be with Me in Paradise." Oh, what joy and
   rapture rush through his poor leprous spirit! How his heart, that had
   long been heavy and baked like a black coal within him, begins, again,
   to burn with bright light! He smiles, for he feels that that marvelous
   Man upon the Cross has forgiven him all his sins and before he has
   begun to feel it, his leprosy is cleansed! And soon he goes his way,
   for his flesh has come unto him like the flesh of a little child and he
   is clean! O leprous Sinner, hear this and believe it for yourself!
   Tonight look unto Him who died outside the camp that poor unclean
   sinners might find a Savior there!

   That is my first lesson from the text. If the Lord the Spirit shall
   graciously apply it to your souls, it will be a very precious one to
   many a sin-distracted heart!

   But, Believer, did you never feel as if you, too, were unclean and
   outside the camp? Brothers and Sisters, let me tell you just a little
   of my own heart's feelings and let me see whether you have ever felt
   the same. You have often known yourselves to be children of God. I have
   felt myself, with much joy, to be certainly assured of my interest in
   Christ but, suddenly, sin has surprised me, some unhappy propensity has
   developed itself and I have felt as if I could not meet my God. When I
   was on my knees in prayer, I seemed as if I could not pray. I felt like
   the unclean one that must be put outside the camp--like Miriam, who,
   though the leprosy was but for a little time, would still be unclean
   for seven days. And when I have come to the House of God, I have felt
   as if the lowliest Christians there were so much superior to myself
   that I would but have been glad to have been a footstool at their feet!
   I would have crept into any part of the fold if I might have known
   myself to be the lowliest lamb in the flock of Jesus. I have seen the
   deacon and I have seen the Church member and I have thought, "Brethren,
   you are happy, but my heart is sad, for I am not worthy to be called
   God's son. Father, I have sinned. I have done grievously and have
   transgressed against You."

   For a little while faith has seemed sluggish and hope has been dull.
   And the sense of sin has rested on us and we have seemed to be quite
   put away from our Lord's Presence. We have read the Bible, but we could
   get no comfort there. The heavens seemed like brass above our heads. No
   shower of Grace fell upon our thirsty souls--both God and man seemed to
   put us outside the camp! I believe that many times, in a Christian's
   experience, he will have to feel what I have been describing. I do not
   mean merely little Christians, but I mean the greatest Christians,
   those who have lived nearest to their God, those who have been eminent
   in the Lord's service--God's Aarons and Miriams who sometimes have to
   be put outside the camp!

   Who, then, is there among us who will not sometimes be unclean? Surely,
   not any of the great ones of Israel could always live outside
   contracting some ceremonial defilement, for you know that under the
   Jewish law, the sitting upon the bed of a leper made a man unclean--and
   many things that happened to men rendered them unclean for seven days.
   And who can wonder if, through the infirmities of our bodies, through
   the companionships into which we are called, through the evil thoughts
   of our mind, we are often unclean as the Jews were? And who wonders
   that, sometimes, the Lord should put us, as it were, out of the camp
   for a little season till we have been purged with hyssop and have been
   made clean--till we have again been thoroughly purified by the washing
   of water through the Word?

   But, Brothers and Sisters, what a mercy it is that when we are outside
   the gate, Christ is outside the gate, too! O poor Backslider, does your
   conscience shut you out of the Church today? Remember, Christ shut
   Himself out, too. He was "despised and rejected of men." Do you feel,
   tonight, as if you cannot come to His Table--as if your Master would
   spurn you from it? Remember, if you are His, you are welcome, for His
   Table is where His Cross is--and His Cross is outside the gate. Come,
   sinner! Come, backsliding saint! Come and welcome! God may seem to have
   put you away, but it is only seeming, for we know He has written that
   He hates to put away. Come, and though you are outside the gate, behold
   your Lord, who, "that He might sanctify the people with His own blood,
   suffered outside the gate."

   II. I have only one more thought to bring before your notice. The
   Apostle says, in the next verse to our text, "Let us go forth,
   therefore, outside the camp, bearing His reproach." So, AS CHRIST
   SUFFERED OUTSIDE THE CAMP, LET US NOT BE ASHAMED TO SUFFER THERE, TOO.

   I do not think much of the religion of that man who is not put outside
   the, camp. If you can dwell with the wicked. If you can live as they
   live and be, "hail-fellow well met," with the ungodly. If their
   practices are your practices. If their pleasures are your pleasures,
   then their god is your god and you are one of them! There is no being a
   Christian except being shut out of the world's camp! I can scarcely
   conceive it possible for any man to be a true saint, a holy man, one
   who is set apart unto God and sanctified in Christ Jesus, unless he is
   reproached while on earth for being too strict, too Puritan, or
   perhaps, sometimes, too melancholy. There must be a grave distinction
   between a Christian and a man of the world--and where there is no such
   distinction, or only a slight one--there is most solemn cause for
   suspicion that all is not right! When I see a man dress like
   worldlings. When I hear him talk like worldlings. When I know that all
   his outward carriage is just like a worldly man's. When I can detect no
   difference. When I see no mark of the Lord Jesus upon him. When I can
   hear no "shibboleth" in his speech, whereby he is to be detected from a
   sibboleth-speaking world. When I discover no distinction between him
   and others, then this I know, "God is not mocked." That man is in the
   flesh and he shall, "of the flesh reap corruption."

   No, I will go further still! In this age I can scarcely imagine it
   possible for a man to serve his Master faithfully unless he is
   sometimes shut out of the camp, even of the Church itself! I do not
   mean excommunicated--I mean something far different from that. I mean
   that the man who serves his God aright will often feel himself left in
   the minority, even in the Church. It is never his business to so act
   and to so think that others are obliged to differ from him. It is folly
   to be singular except where to be singular is to be right! But so lax
   has the professing Church become, so low in its doctrine, so light in
   its experience and, sometimes, so unholy in its life, that to be
   Christians, now, we must be elect out of the elect--elect out of the
   Church as well as elect out of the world! What pride, on the one hand.
   What sloth, on the other. What anger, what distrust, what covetousness,
   what worldly-mindedness we constantly see! The most of us are too much
   mingled with the world, too much joined unto Egypt! And the man who is
   firm in the faith and loves his Master well is a rarity! The man of a
   loving spirit, the man of a large heart and yet of a determined zeal,
   and of a steadfast mind--such a man will have to go outside the
   camp--and he will have to suffer, now, even as all have had to suffer
   who have dared to go into the front of the sacramental host of God's
   elect, in advance of the more tardy followers of the Lamb! If any
   minister of Christ dares to be too bold, too plain, too honest for the
   common run of professors, he must expect to be maligned! Let him reckon
   on that and let him willingly go forth outside the camp, for that is
   where his Master went before him!

   If I turn to the pages of history to find out the best men who ever
   lived, do you know where I find them? I never find them among those who
   were called, "respectable," in their time. There, in the pages of
   history, I see great names-- Erasmus and others, mighty and learned
   men--but, on a dirty-thumbed page, I see the name of Luther associated
   with such epithets as, "dog, adulterer, beast," and everything else
   that Rome's malice could suggest! And I say, "Ah, this is the man whom
   God chose, for he went outside the camp!" That list of great divines,
   of schoolmen and of theologians you may wipe out without much
   regret--but this man outside the camp--he is somebody, depend upon it!
   He is the man whom God has blessed!

   Turn to another list of archbishops, bishops, deans, rural deans,
   rectors and curates. There they are, all as respectable as possible,
   and great volumes of their sermons may be found on bookshelves,
   nowadays, with the dust of years upon them! I read their names. There
   is one, there is another, there is another--but there is nothing
   special about any of them! At last, I find a picture by Hogarth--a
   caricature of a man preaching with devils coming out of his mouth, and
   underneath it written, "Fire and brimstone!" I look at the portrait and
   I say, "Look, that is Mr. Whitefield!" Ah, there is the

   man of the age, depend on it! That man, all black, charged with crimes
   that Sodom never knew--that is the man! Not the curate in the other
   picture who is preaching to a congregation all asleep--but this man,
   here, that is abused, that is laughed at, that is mocked--this is the
   man who is somebody!

   So you may go on as long as you like and you shall always find that
   those "intruders into the ministry," as some call them, those that the
   parliament of parsons dislikes, those that the great mass reject and
   laugh and scoff at--those are the very men whom God blesses! So, if you
   go outside the camp, you will be in very good company. The great and
   holy men of years gone by have all been put outside the camp. If an
   ungodly throng have thrust out our fathers and have said, "Get you
   gone, we want you not," it is true--their children build their
   sepulchers and then they thrust us out. What if it is so? We are
   content to share the lot of so goodly a parentage! We think it a high
   honor to be thrust out of these gates whose only glory is that good men
   once passed through them, and whose great disgrace is that good men
   pass through them the wrong way--not into them, but out of them! So,
   Beloved, be you content to be cast outside the camp.

   But mark, going outside the camp in itself is nothing--it is suffering
   outside the camp that is the great thing. Making myself different from
   everybody else is nothing--it is suffering for the Truth of God's sake
   that is the truly noble thing! It is being crucified with Christ that
   is honorable! It is not my being a Sectarian or a Separatist. It is not
   your going outside the camp that is any good--it is your suffering
   outside the camp that proves you to be a Believer. O Christians, if you
   have to do the same, rejoice!

   And now, as you come to this Communion Table, I shall bid you only
   remember that word, suffered. "Jesus suffered outside the gate" and I
   shall ask you, as you sit there, to meditate upon that word. Turn it
   over again and again, and think how His body and His soul all suffered
   for you. Then, when you have meditated upon that great Truth of God,
   you will be in a fit frame of mind to commune with Him who has
   sanctified you by His own blood, by suffering outside the gate.

   May the God of mercies give to sinners Grace, that, like lepers outside
   the camp, they may look to Jesus, crucified for them, and so obtain
   eternal life! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JEREMIAH5:1-6; 10-31; REVELATION 22:1-7.

   Jeremiah 5:1. Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and
   see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof if you can find
   a man, if there is any that executes judgment, that seeks the truth;
   and I will pardon it I t was a very wonderful offer, on the part of
   God, to forgive the inhabitants of the whole city of Jerusalem for the
   sake of oneman! And it was all the more remarkable because He gave them
   time to make a thorough search to see whether such a person could be
   found--"if there is any that executes judgment, that seeks the truth."
   Into what a horrible state of guilt must the Jewish capital have fallen
   when there was not one man, even among the magistrates or the priests,
   who cared for that which was just and true! May God prevent London and
   England from becoming like Jerusalem and Judah! May truth and
   righteousness flourish in our land!

   2. And though they say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely. Even
   those who assumed an appearance of being religious and who said,
   "Jehovah lives"--even they were false swearers. To what a terribly sad
   state had the age come when its very religion was a lie and its
   professedly holy things were thoroughly rotten!

   3. OLORD, are not Your eyes upon the truth?If there is any truthful man
   anywhere, God sees him. His eyes are upon him, He regards him with
   attentive delight and He will take care of him with the utmost
   vigilance. But what was the real character of these people? Listen.

   3. You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed
   them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their
   faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Nothing could
   make them act rightly! Whatever God did with them, they still persisted
   in their iniquity.

   4, 5. Therefore I said, Surely these arepoor; they are foolish: for
   they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God. I
   will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have
   known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God. But Jeremiah
   found no improvement among them--they were even worse than the poor and
   ignorant, for he goes on to say--

   5, 6. But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds.
   Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the
   evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities:
   everyone that goes out from there shall be torn in pieces: because
   their transgressions are many, and their backsliding are increased. Now
   let us continue our reading at verse 10, where we shall see that both
   the house of Israel and the house of Judah had turned aside from the
   Lord their God.

   10-12. Go up upon her walls and destroy; but make not a full end: take
   away her battlements; for they are not the LORD'S. For the house of
   Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against Me,
   says the LORD. They have lied about the LORD--They have made it out as
   though God, Himself, were a liar! They have contradicted Him whose Word
   is Truth itself. They have despised His threats, they have refused His
   invitations, they have disbelieved His promises! "They have lied about
   the Lord"--

   12-14. And said, It is not He; neither shall evil come upon us; neither
   shall we see sword nor famine: and the Prophets shall become wind, and
   the Word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them. Therefore
   thus says the LORD God of hosts, Because you speak this word, behold, I
   will make My Words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it
   shall devour them. It is a dreadful state of things when God turns from
   pleading with men to threatening them! When He ceases to invite them to
   return to Him and denounces them as transgressors against His Laws! At
   such times He makes the words that come out of the mouths of His
   Prophets to be like fire and men are utterly consumed by them as the
   stubble in the field is destroyed by the devouring flames!

   15-18. Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house ofIsrael,
   says the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation
   whose language you know not, neither understand what they say. Their
   quiver is as an open sep-ulcher, they are all mighty men. And they
   shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your
   daughters should eat: they shall eat up your flocks and your herds:
   they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees: they shall impoverish
   your fenced cities, wherein you trusted, with the sword. Nevertheless
   in those days, says the LORD, I will not make a full end of you. See
   how, in the midst of His wrath, God remembers mercy? He utters a
   terrible sentence concerning transgressors and then He pauses and says,
   "Nevertheless"--listen to the gentle note of pity in that word--
   "Nevertheless, in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full end
   of you." Still does He spare the guilty and in His long-suffering He
   gives them further opportunities for repentance!

   19. And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Why does the LORD
   our God do all these things unto us? Then shall you answer them, Like
   as you have forsaken Me, and serve strange gods in your land, so shall
   you serve strangers in a land that is not yours. A man may often see
   his sin in its punishment. Because they had served strange gods,
   therefore the Lord sent them to serve strangers in a strange land!
   Remember, O transgressor, that your sin will come home to you in some
   form or other! If we sow the wind, we shall reap the whirlwind.
   "Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap." Therefore let us beware
   of scattering seeds of sin, for they will produce a terrible harvest of
   woe!

   20, 21. Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah,
   saying, Hear now this, O foolish people and without understanding;
   which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not. And, alas,
   there are far too many of such people still around! They hear God's
   Word, yet it never reaches their hearts. They see what God's hand is
   doing all around them, yet they do not and they will not really see it
   as they should.

   22. Do you not fear Me? says the LORD. Willyou not tremble at My
   Presence, which, have placed the sand for the boundary of the sea by a
   perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof
   toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can
   they not pass over it?There is a little belt of sand which checks the
   surging sea and says to it, "To here shall you come, but no further!
   And to here shall your proud waves be stayed." Now, if sand, which is
   so weak a thing, can, nevertheless, control the mighty ocean within
   bounds, how readily ought you and I to be governed by God and held in
   check even by the slightest intimations of His will?

   23. But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are
   revolted and gone. God restrains the sea, but nothing seems to be able
   to restrain the sinfulness of man! Man breaks every barrier that should
   keep him back--he is like a desolating torrent when he gives way to
   iniquity!

   24. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God,
   that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season: He
   reserves unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Though God gives
   timely and suitable seasons for the growth and ingathering of the
   corn--rain when it is needed to aid the springing up of the blade and
   fine weather

   for garnering the harvest--yet many men see not the hand of God at all
   and they are, therefore, not moved by gratitude to bless His name and
   fear Him to whom they are indebted for all that they receive. Oh, what
   an ungrateful and blind creature is man!

   25. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have
   withheld good things from you. Does any unconverted man here know what
   good things he has missed up to the present moment? Suppose you, my
   Friend, were to be saved tonight? Can you even imagine what joy you
   have lost through all the years of your past impenitence? Nothing can
   ever give back to you the years that have gone, or impart to you in the
   future, the joy you might have had, but which you have missed! And,
   mark you, if there were no Hell to be endured, it is enough of Hell to
   have missed Heaven! It will be grief enough to your heart, at the last,
   to find that "your sins have withheld good things from you."

   26. For among My people are found wicked men. ' 'Among My people," says
   the Lord--in the very Church, itself, making as loud a profession as
   the most genuine Christian! "Among My people are found wicked men."
   Here, in this place, tonight, mingling with the godly in this
   congregation, are found wicked men! The Lord have mercy upon them and
   turn them from their evil ways!

   26, They lay wait, as he that sets snares; they set a trap, they catch
   men. Beware of these man-catchers who entrap souls and ruin them
   forever, ensnaring them by leading them into evil habits and
   transgressions!

   27, 28. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit:
   therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. They are waxen fat,
   they shine: yes, they exceed the deeds of the wicked. The manifestly
   wicked--

   28, 29. They judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they
   prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not
   visit for these things? Angels in Heaven, God says to you, "Shall I not
   visit for these things?" And they answer, "Yes, Lord." Even to the
   devils in Hell, He may put the same question. They are already smarting
   under His wrath and He may say to them, "Shall I not visit for these
   things?" And they also answer, "Yes." He puts the question to all
   intelligent beings who know what is right and true, "Shall I not visit
   for these things?" And they, with one consent, reply, "Yes, Lord, it
   must be so!"

   29-31. Says the LORD: shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as
   this? A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the
   Prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means;
   and My people love to have it so. I t is a most horrible thing that
   God's own people should ever be willing that error should be preached
   and that oppression and wrong-doing of any kind should be practiced!
   You know that if God's own people did not tolerate false doctrine, it
   would soon cease to be heard in many places. But it is when those who
   profess to know God's Word endorse that which is contrary to the Truth
   of God that error is kept in power in the land--"The Prophets prophesy
   falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love
   to have it so."

   31. But what will you do in the end? That is a question which I would
   propose in God's name to all here. Is your religion of such a character
   that when you come to die, it will bear you up? Or have you taken up
   with some form of falsehood which will not stand the test of your dying
   hour? Are you living in neglect of God? Is your life such that He must
   be angry with you, for He is angry with the wicked every day! Then take
   home to yourself the question with which this chapter closes, "What
   will you do in the end?" I am going to speak to you presently about
   those who go forth with Christ, outside the camp, bearing His reproach,
   so let us read a few verses about the glory which awaits them,
   by-and-by. [Remember that the exposition was delivered before the
   sermon was preached.--EOD]

   Revelation 22:1. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear
   as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
   Infinite sovereignty bestows Grace. The River of Grace flows from the
   Throne of God. It is the King who saves His people, yet the Atonement
   is always connected with the sovereignty. "He showed me a pure river of
   water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God
   and of the Lamb."

   2. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river,
   was there the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, and yielded her
   fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of
   the nations. God will enrich His Church by giving her a great variety
   of good things--"twelve fruits." There shall also be a constant and
   perpetual supply of them, for this tree "yielded her fruit every
   month." And if there is anything of ill remaining anywhere in the world
   in those halcyon days, God shall supply a cure for it--"The leaves of
   the tree were for the healing of nations."

   3. And there shall be no more curse. The curse shall be taken from the
   soil on which it fell when God said to Adam, "Cursed is the ground for
   your sake." There shall be no curse upon man's body--there shall be
   nothing but blessing. Blessing shall swallow up the cursing and God
   shall be manifest everywhere.

   3. But the throne of Godand of the Lamb shall be in it; andHis servants
   shallserve Him. This is what we try to do, now, but we shall more fully
   accomplish the blessed task in those brighter days which every
   revolution of the wheel of time is hastening on.

   4. And they shall see His face. Oh, that is glorious service--to serve
   the Lord and to see His face at the same time! Communion and service
   are always best when they are blended. There can be no fellowship
   better than that which serves, and no service sweeter than that of
   those who continue to see the face of their Master while they are
   serving Him.

   4. And His name shall be on their foreheads. There will be no mistaking
   them--they shall bear on their foreheads the glorious name of God, just
   as the High Priest of old had the words, "Holiness unto the Lord" upon
   his brow.

   5. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither
   light of the sun. Even the sun is only worthy to be ranked with a
   candle in comparison with the Light of God, Himself! John puts the two
   things in one sentence. "They need no candle, neither light of the
   sun"--

   5-7. For the Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign forever
   and ever. And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and
   the LORD God of the holy Prophets sent His angel to show unto His
   servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold I come quickly!
   Blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this Book

   Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly! Amen
     __________________________________________________________________

A Marvelous Change

   (No. 2661)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. HSPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 7, 1882.

   "Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of
   God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
   adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor
   thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners
   shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you
   were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the
   name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians
   6:9-11.

   THE Gospel is as holy as the Law. The Gospel is full of mercy to
   sinners, but it shows no mercy to sin. The Gospel speaks most tenderly
   to the ungodly, but it speaks most sternly to ungodliness. There is a
   great difference made, in the New Testament, between the sinner and the
   sin. And while the sinner is, in Infinite mercy, spared, encouraged to
   hope, and wooed by almighty love, sin is denounced as a dreadful thing,
   an abominable thing which God hates and must punish.

   Ah, dear Friends, it is not from Sinai, alone, that we have need to
   shrink if we are lovers of sin, for, if we are resolved to keep on
   sinning, Calvary also condemns us and, at last, even from the lips of
   Jesus Christ, Himself, willful sinners, continuing in their sin, shall
   hear the awful sentence, "Depart from Me, you that work iniquity." Let
   no man say, when we proclaim God's message of mercy to the very chief
   of sinners, that, therefore, we think lightly of sin! No, it is because
   of the shedding of the precious blood of Him whom we call Master and
   Lord, without whose agonizing death not a single sin could ever have
   been put away, that we are able to freely preach the mercy of God to
   those who truly repent of their transgressions. But, at the same time,
   we never hesitate to declare in the plainest possible terms, that God
   will not spare the guilty ones who refuse to repent, for only through
   the blood of His dear Son will He have mercy upon the ungodly sons and
   daughters of men, who turn unto Him, with full purpose of heart,
   trusting in the great atoning Sacrifice of Jesus!

   The highest standard of holiness is set forth under the Gospel. It does
   not come to cut down the requirements of the Law and to say, "You
   cannot keep the perfect Law of the Lord, but do the best you can and
   that will suffice." There is nothing like that in the New Testament! It
   does not come to men and say, in a tone of pity, "You are poor ignorant
   creatures who have unwittingly fallen into sin and, therefore, there is
   no guilt in your transgression of the Law of God." Nothing of the kind,
   for even when our Savior, on the Cross, said, concerning His mockers
   and murderers, "they know not what they do," He prayed, "Father,
   forgive them," thereby plainly declaring that they were sinners who
   needed to be forgiven, even though their transgression was a sin of
   ignorance!

   That is the short preface to the discourse I am now to deliver, which
   will be divided into three parts, the first of which will show us that
   we have, here, a solemn sentence--a sentence shutting the guilty and
   unrepentant out of the Kingdom of God. Then, secondly, here is a
   reminder to some of us--"and such were some of you." And, then,
   thirdly, here is a change spoken of--"but you are washed, but you are
   sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by
   the Spirit of our God."

   I. Now, Beloved, first of all, here is A SOLEMN SENTENCE. "Know you not
   that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God?" Oh, While I
   speak of it, pray God, in Infinite mercy, to carry home the words I say
   to any who are guilty of either or all the sins in this black and
   shameful list!

   "Be not deceived: neither fornicators shall inherit the Kingdom of
   God." That is the first set of sinners mentioned in this terrible
   catalogue--"fornicators"--men and women who have been guilty of
   unchastity with those who are unmarried. Not necessarily in the bonds
   of wedlock should we all be, but always in the bonds of purity. And
   those who sin against that which is pure, in their relations with one
   another, shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. Nothing could be more
   explicit than this Inspired declaration of the Apostle. If any persons
   live in lust and uncleanness, God will not permit them to defile His
   true Church on earth, or to profane His Temple above. It is quite
   possible that I may be speaking to some people upon whose ears this
   message grates very harshly--for all sorts of hearers come to this
   place--and they will be the first to say, "The preacher should not
   mention such a subject." My answer to that remark is, Then you should
   not commit such iniquity and give me cause to speak of it! As long as
   there are sinners of this character in the world, there must be
   servants of the Lord Jesus Christ faithful enough to pluck the velvet
   from their mouths and to speak with the utmost plainness about them and
   to them! Let there be no mistake concerning this matter--you cannot be
   Christians if you thus defile yourselves. You cannot be children of God
   and live in filthy sin. It must not--it cannot be--and God here, by the
   pen of the Apostle Paul, excommunicates all who pretend to be members
   of His Church and yet are guilty of the sin of fornication.

   Strange to say, in the very next place stands idolatry, that is, the
   worshipping of any god other than the true and living Jehovah, the God
   of the whole earth. All through the Old Testament the Lord calls this
   sin of idolatry by the name of fornication, because it is the turning
   away of that love which ought to be fixed upon the one and only God,
   and giving it to those that are not gods, and so defiling the heart and
   sinning against God. "Oh," says one, there are no idolaters here!" I
   greatly fear that there are, for idolatry is not merely the worship of
   images made of stone, or wood, or gods of gold, or crucifixes, or
   pictures of the Virgin Mary--though all that is idolatry--but it is
   also the worship of that dear child you have at home, of whom you make
   an idol. Or it is the worship of the Queen's image on gold and silver
   pieces by those who live only to amass worldly wealth. Or it may be
   even the worship of yourself! The Apostle tells us of a very low form
   of idolatry when he writes concerning those "whose God is their belly,
   and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." There are
   far too many of such idolaters as these still about, all around us, and
   our text declares that they "shall not inherit the Kingdom of God."

   As to adulterers, whom the Apostle next mentions, I need not say much,
   but, alas, there are still many such sinners and they are found not
   only among the poor, but perhaps even more among those who can afford
   to pay for divorces, dispensations and indulgences to vice. Oh,
   horrible and terrible in this country, as well as in other lands, is
   the prevalence of this filthy sin! If there are any persons here who
   have made a profession of religion and yet who have fallen into this
   guilt and crime of adultery, let me read this solemn sentence of my
   text to you without mincing matters in the least, or toning down the
   severity of the Inspired language--you "shall not inherit the Kingdom
   of God." Unless you hate and abhor this shameful sin--and flee from it,
   as from a poisonous serpent--you can never come into that Kingdom where
   Christ is--neither in the Kingdom of His Grace, nor in the Kingdom of
   His Glory can you ever have any inheritance, for, as Dr. Watts sings--

   "PPure are the joys above the sky, And all the region peace! No wanton
   lip nor envious eye Can see or taste the bliss. Those holy gates
   forever bar Pollution, sin and shame-- None shall obtain admittance
   there But followers of the Lamb."

   I dare not explain to you what is meant by the next expression used by
   the Apostle--"nor effeminate"--but, alas, alas, there are still to be
   found all too many who are altogether given up to sinful practices, and
   who go from one form of vice to another, secretly ruining themselves
   both in body and in soul for time and for eternity! These are also
   among those who "shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." So are those
   whom the Apostle next describes--"nor abusers of

   themselves with mankind." Would God that this accursed vice had been
   swept off the face of the earth, as God did sweep it away when He
   rained brimstone and fire from Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah and
   destroyed the guilty inhabitants of the cities of the plain!

   Next to these great sinners, whom the Apostle mentions, come "thieves."
   There are still far too many of them in the world--not merely those who
   are brought before the magistrates for having broken into a house, or
   having robbed a person in the street. But those who steal little
   things--peculators, servants in the house who take what is not their
   own! And men who do dishonest things in trade, calling an article in
   their shop by a name that is not its proper description-- and so
   cheating their customers and getting their living by their lies. These
   are also among those who "shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." You do
   not like to hear me talk about such matters? Then do not continue to
   sin in this fashion. I shall cease to rebuke the sin when it has been
   abandoned, but, as long as such evils abound, it is my duty, as the
   servant of the living God, to declare plainly that the continuance in
   dishonest actions is not consistent with being in the Kingdom of God's
   Grace and it will effectually close the gate of the Kingdom of His
   Glory. Dr. Watts was right when he wrote--

   "Not the malicious or profane,

   The wanton or the proud,

   Nor thieves, nor slanderers shall obtain

   The Kingdom of our God."

   Then, next, the Apostle says, "nor covetous." It is a strange thing
   that hardly anybody ever admits that he is covetous. Such a person
   calls himself, "Mr. Prudent Thrifty." Mr. Covetous tries to make us
   believe that he is only thrifty and prudent, both excellent qualities
   which are not to be condemned! But he is really greedy and grasping,
   which are quite different. He denies help to the poor and help to the
   work of God--all he cares for is himself, that he may be rich. It is
   very significant that the covetous are put in the same list with
   fornicators and adulterers. Oh, dear, how quickly Mr. Covetous would
   move out of the seat if he thought that there were any such people as
   those about! But, my dear Sir, you need not be so particular, or think
   so much of yourself, for, in the sight of God, you are in the same
   condition as they are and you, also, are among those who "shall not
   inherit the Kingdom of God" unless you repent of your sin!

   "Nor drunkards," says the Apostle. We know that in the Church at
   Corinth there were some who were so degraded that they were actually
   drunk at the Lord's Table. We hope there are no professing Christians,
   nowadays, of so low a type as that, though we know that there are still
   some who have named the name of Christ who are rightly called by that
   terrible name, "drunkards." And we also know that outside the nominal
   Church, there are multitudes to whom that title belongs. Drunkenness is
   one of the most debasing of sins--it lowers the whole tone of the
   person who is held in bondage by it. We sometimes talk of a man being
   "as drunk as a beast," but whoever heard of a beast being drunk? Why,
   it is more beastly than anything a beast ever does! I do not believe
   that the devil himself is ever guilty of anything like that. I never
   heard even him charged with being drunk! It is a sin which has no sort
   of excuse--those who fall into it generally fal1 into other deadly
   vices. It is the devil's backdoor to Hell and everything that is
   hellish, for he that once gives away his brains to drink is ready to be
   caught by Satan for anything.

   Oh, but while the drunkard cannot have eternal life abiding in him
   while he is such, is it not a joy to think of the many drunkards who
   have been washed and saved? This night, there are sitting here, those
   who have done with their cups, who have left behind them their strong
   drink and who have renounced the haunts of their debauchery. They are
   washed and cleansed--and when they think of the contrast between where
   they used to spend their evenings, and where they now are, they give
   echo to the question--"Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?"

   After the drunkards, the Apostle says, "nor revilers"--those who gossip
   and slander, pulling other people's characters to pieces. Or those who
   revile the saints and the things of God, profane swearers, who
   constantly add oaths to anything they have to say, those who cannot let
   the godly man's character alone. All such as these "shall not inherit
   the Kingdom of God." And, alas, there are thousands and tens of
   thousands of them even in this so-called Christian country!

   And then, to close the black list, the Apostle writes, "nor
   extortioners"--the men who demand usurious interest, those who prey
   upon the poor while they pretend that they are going to be their
   helpers. They have a certain sum of money to lend and they are willing
   to lend it out of pure benevolence. But, when any fall into their
   clutches, they pick their bones and suck their blood before they have
   done with them. Woe unto the men who grind the poor and rob another of
   anything that is justly his due! Of all these people, the Apostle truly
   says that they "shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." No, not merely
   does the Apostle say it, but the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of His
   servant Paul! He whose

   word is faithful and true--He who knows what the Truth of God is,
   declares that all such persons as these whom the Apostle has been
   describing are not partakers of Divine Grace--they are not subjects of
   King Jesus and into His glorious Kingdom they can never come except
   they repent of their sins and turn unto the Lord with godly sorrow and
   genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!

   So much for that part of our subject. May God make these solemn and
   faithful words to be like arrows from the bow of a mighty man!

   II. But secondly, in our text we also have A REMINDER TO SOME OF
   US--"and such were some of you."

   The Apostle does not say, "and such were all of you," and I thank God
   that I have not to say that to you, my Hearers. Oh, what a mercy it is
   for any of us to have been kept from those terrible sins! Yet, with the
   Apostle, I can say, "and such were some of you." Those vices and evils
   were so common in Corinth that it was a great glory to God that He had
   taken some of these people who had formerly committed them, and had
   made Christians of them! "Such were some of you."

   Now, will you, dear Friends, look at the first part of our text and, as
   you run your eyes down the black list, put your finger upon the points
   where you were guilty--and then say to yourself, "Yes, it is true, such
   was I, before the Lord saved me by His Grace. That, or that, or that
   was my grievous offense against Him." "Such were some of you." Then let
   me ask you, my Brothers and Sisters, to consider why it is that God is
   pleased to save some of the worst of sinners so that, in the Church of
   Christ, it can always be said, "such were some of you"?

   First, it illustrates the great power of the Gospel If nobody were
   saved except the better sort of people, who have never openly offended,
   then the quibbler would say to us, "That is a very poor religion of
   yours! It is suitable for the moral, the sober and the chaste, but what
   good is it to a poor fallen world where there are so many real sinners
   of the blackest dye?" But the Lord seems to have said, "I will stretch
   out My hand and I will save some of the very chief of sinners, in order
   that, throughout all time, it may be known that My Gospel can effect
   the salvation of all sorts of sinners, even the most degraded. However
   depraved and fallen they may be, they cannot have gone beyond the reach
   of the Gospel of My Son." Is not that a glorious fact? Oh, when I think
   of some of you big sinners whom the Lord has saved under my ministry, I
   stand on this platform and, with the utmost confidence, cry to the
   guiltiest sinners who may be present-- "Come along with me, whoever you
   may be! I have a Gospel that is just suited to you." I can say, "Come,
   you who are moral and refined, who have never gone into any gross sin,
   here is a Gospel just suitable for you!" But I am also glad to be able
   to add, "Come along, you who have raked the very kennels of Hell with
   your iniquities--here is that which can wash you and make you white as
   the newly-fallen snow!"

   That, I believe, is one reason why the Lord saves these great
   sinners--to glorify His Gospel.

   Next, He does it to magnify His mercy, for when, in great tenderness,
   He comes to look upon sin as a disease, then, the worse the disease,
   the more is His pity! I remember reading of one who was giving some
   relief to a dumb man and his companion said to him, "Why, he never
   asked anything of you!" "No," he answered, "but his dumb lips asked of
   me more eloquently than any man could have done by speaking." Look at
   the blind man. He cannot affect you with his eyes, for he has none, but
   it is the absence of his eyes that makes you stop and say to him, "Poor
   blind man, I am so sorry for you, here's a trifle to help you." The
   crafty beggars in the streets will often show their sham sores and
   imitation wounds in order to provoke your pity. But our great God, when
   He sees us really full of sin--leprous, foul, corrupted--then He says,
   "Poor Soul, I will have pity upon you." It is in this way that He looks
   upon these greatly-diseased ones and blesses some of them on purpose
   that the majesty of His mercy and the Omnipotence of His Grace may be
   plainly seen by the sons ofmen!

   I am sure that He does it, also, to confound self-righteousness. I have
   heard this kind of remark again and again, "If God saves anybody, it
   ought to be those of us who always go to a place of worship and listen
   so attentively to the preacher." Ah, yes, you proud sinner! I know what
   you think, but I must remind you that there is no sin worse than pride,
   the one you are evidently full of! "Oh, but," someone says, "I have
   always been seeking and striving to be as good as I could, and yet I am
   not saved. But over there is a poor fallen girl, just rescued from the
   streets, who has believed in Christ and is now rejoicing in Him." I can
   easily explain why you are not saved--it is because you say that you
   see and, therefore, you prove that you are blind! You think you are
   righteous and that thought is, itself, the very essence of
   unrighteousness! I pray you notice how the Lord rebukes you and to
   learn, from His rebuke, where your sin lies. He does, as

   it were, smite your pride on the cheekbone, and He says, "Because you
   say that you do not need a Savior, you shall not have a Savior. I came
   not to call the righteous, but sinners unto repentance." Come down off
   your lofty pinnacle, Mr. Pharisee--you who thank God that you are not
   as other men are! Stand side by side with the poor publican whom you
   have despised, and cry, as he does, "God be merciful to me a sinner!"
   And then see if God will not deal in mercy with you, also!

   I am sure, too, that God saves some of these very black sinners on
   purpose to encourage the preachers of His Gospel I will tell you a
   secret. We ministers are often a very faint-hearted set of men. And if
   we do not have a great many converts, we go crying to our Master, "Who
   has believed our report?" And, while we are doing it, in comes one who
   has been a drunkard, or an unchaste person, or a thief, and we hear
   what God has done for him by our poor feeble ministry--and we shake his
   hand. Then he cries, and we cry--and we do not know which is the bigger
   sinner of the two--he for his open iniquity, or we for our unbelief! I
   know that when I meet with such converts, I say, "Bless God for them!
   When I get into the pulpit again, I will give the people some more of
   that same Gospel, for I see that what it has done for them, it can do
   for others!" Oh, yes, they may empty the prisons if they like, and let
   all the criminals in them come to hear the Gospel! We have a Christ to
   preach who is more than a match for the very worst of them! And even if
   there should come one whose heart had been turned into thrice-hardened
   steel, this Gospel would be able to melt it and, behind it, there is
   the Christ who can take the hard heart away and give in its place the
   heart of flesh, full of tenderness and full of love to Himself and to
   saints and sinners, too! Oh, yes, God often encourages His servants by
   fetching out from among the ungodly some of these great black sinners,
   washing them whiter than snow in the precious blood of Jesus and
   bringing them into His Kingdom on earth, in anticipation of the time
   when they shall be received into His Kingdom above!

   Further, by this means, He also encourages other great sinners to come
   to Him. I have known a man who said, "I fear that I cannot be saved,
   for I have been such a terribly great sinner." But, one day he has met
   one of his old companions who used to swear, drink and lie. And finding
   him to be saved, he said to himself, "Oh, then, I also might be saved!"
   I once knew a poor fellow who was very much distressed in spirit
   because he thought there was no pardon that could ever come to him. But
   he went into a chapel one morning when a little Prayer Meeting was
   being held before the service, and there was a certain old sea captain
   praying with such a tremendous voice that the man thought, "I must
   surely have seen and heard that man somewhere else."

   When the prayer was ended and he saw the man's face, he said to
   himself, "Why, that is Captain So-and-So! Six months ago my very blood
   ran cold as I listened to his blasphemy! I never heard a man swear as
   he did and I never before heard a man pray as he now does!" And then he
   added, "God can save me, now that He has saved him, for I am sure that,
   great sinner as I have been, I never went his length in blaspheming my
   Maker."

   There was good ground for that man's conclusion and many other people
   have argued in a similar fashion. It has frequently been the case that
   the big sinner has become a kind of decoy. He is caught first in the
   blessed Gospel net and then he allures others to come in with him! Very
   often those who had not the courage to go to Jesus, before, say, when
   they see how He welcomes some out-and-out profligate, "Well, as He has
   received him, why should He not also receive

   me?"

   You know how Bunyan relates that when he was converted and began to
   preach, people said, "What? Is that tinker saved?" And they gathered
   together to hear what he had to say--and then he preached to them,
   Jesus the Savior, and there were more tinkers that got tinkered that
   day! No, not tinkered, but made new creaturesin Christ Jesus! Christ
   finds it easier work to make us anew than to mend us--and that is what
   we really need to have done to us. If any of you are thinking of being
   mended tonight by signing the pledge, [This sermon was delivered at the
   service in the Tabernacle which was followed by a public meeting in
   connection with the Gospel Temperance Mission held there in September,
   1882] well, I am glad to see old kettles repaired, but, for all that, I
   would rather that you were made new kettles altogether!

   That is to say, I pray God to take you in hand and make you new
   creatures in Christ Jesus, for that is what we are aiming at in all
   these Gospel Temperance services--and we shall not be satisfied unless
   that great work is accomplished!

   I want to tell you one more thing about the salvation of these great
   sinners. I believe that the Lord saves them in order that He may win
   from them great love, intense zeal and much earnestness. If a man, with
   a cut finger, calls on a doctor, the surgeon says, "Oh, yes, I see! Put
   this piece of plaster on and it will be all right in a day or two." And
   so it is. He

   had not much the matter with him, so there was not much to be said when
   his finger was healed. But here is a man who can hardly breath. He is
   on the very borders of the grave. He will be dead in a week unless
   something extraordinary happens to him. He has been to scores of
   doctors and they all say, "It is no use to give you any medicine, for
   nothing will ever cure you--you will soon die," But he hears of a
   physician who has been the means of healing other sick folk in just
   such a plight as his. He calls him in and the doctor says to him, "If
   you take this remedy, you will recover." And so he does. In a month's
   time, that man is walking about, breathing the fresh air, and he is
   soon going to work again. Will he talk about the wonderful physician
   who cured him? Won't he talk about him? Why, there is no stopping him
   when once he begins on that topic! To every friend whom he meets, he
   says, "Do you see what a difference there is in me? You remember how my
   bones were almost sticking through my skin? It was as much as ever I
   could do to keep on breathing, but just look at me now, I have every
   hope of living on, perhaps for 20 or 30 more years!" Possibly a man who
   is suffering from neuralgia comes to see him, and he says, "I am not
   sure whether my doctor treats such a slight ailment as that--I almost
   wish you were in a consumption like mine was, for he would cure you as
   he healed me."

   Is it not so with regard to the diseases of the body and gratitude to
   the man who cures them? Well, in like manner, when the Lord saves a
   great big sinner, oh, how that sinner will love Him and how he will
   talk about Him to other sinners! There is a common saying among game
   preservers, that an old poacher makes the best game warden. He is the
   man to catch all other poachers when they come, for he knows, from his
   own experience, all their ways. "Set a thief to catch a thief," is a
   similar proverbial expression which teaches the same lesson. A woman
   who has been brought up out of great sin, into the paths of virtue and
   honor, is the one who will rejoice in rescuing others from a life of
   sin and shame. If you find a man who has been permitted to know the
   depths of sin, he is the one who will delight to go and seek after
   those who are sinking in the terrible flood.

   In the Providence of God I was never allowed to plunge into gross open
   sin, yet the Lord made me to feel myself to be the worst sinner who
   ever lived. I had such a vivid realization of my own guilt that I
   thought there never was another individual who had broken God's Law as
   I had--and when He pardoned me, I felt that there was no one who owed
   more to Him than I did. People say that I preached Calvinistic doctrine
   from the very first. I know I preached Free Grace and that I must and
   will proclaim until I die, for I should have been damned in Hell, years
   ago, if it had not been for the freest, richest and mightiest Grace
   that ever came from the heart of God! And, oh, I do love to tell you
   big black sinners that He can forgive your grossest sin and cleanse you
   from your worst wickedness--that He waits to do this for all who will
   come and put their trust in His dear Son! And that very trust He gives
   them by the effectual working of His Spirit. Salvation is all of Grace
   from first to last and, as it is all of Grace, the greater the sinner
   who is saved by it, the more glory to the Grace that saves him!

   III. My time has gone, but I must say just a little about the third
   point, that is, THE MARVELOUS CHANGE.

   Oh, that I knew how to preach upon this theme! I never feel my own
   weakness so much as when I stand here to plead with unconverted men to
   yield to the Savior! If any man thinks that he can preach, let him come
   and try it, if by preaching he means affecting the hearts of men and
   bringing them to God. This must be the work of the Holy Spirit and,
   whatever we may do, nothing comes of it until He works the great
   miracle! We go back home and say, "Who has believed our report?" until
   the arm of the Lord is revealed and then men are saved.

   Now, turning to this last part of our text--"and such were some of you:
   but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in
   the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." I will
   endeavor briefly to set all these things before you as best I can. The
   Lord knows how much better I would do it if it were in my power to do
   it. But, after all, it is not my language which is the important
   matter--it is the power of the Truth of God I utter on which I rest.
   Nor yet even upon that, but on the wonder-working Spirit of God who can
   effectually apply that Truth of God to the heart, and make it anew by
   His Omnipotent Grace--

   "Come, Holy Spirit, (for, moved by You,

   The Prophets wrote and spoke)

   Unlock the Truth, Yourself the Key

   Unseal the sacred Book!

   God, through Himself, we then shall know,

   If You within us shine

   And sound, with all Your saints below,

   The depths of love Divine."

   "And such were some of you." Where are you--dear members of this
   church, or of other churches of whom this is true--"and such were some
   of you"? "But you are washed." The High Churchman says that this means
   Baptism. Does it? I have seen some people washed by Baptism--I do not
   mean sprinkled, for I never could see how anyone could be washed in
   that way. But when we have immersed them, know this --that an
   unregenerate person, even after immersion is unre-generate still! And
   that a man who is not a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ before he is
   baptized, has need to be baptized again, for it is not really
   Scriptural Baptism to him--and it cannot be a means of blessing to him.
   It may be a piece of hypocrisy on his part and of no value to those who
   practice it. No, no! That is notthe washing of which Paul writes! And
   Baptism, repeated ten thousand times, can do you no good whatever
   unless, first of all, you are washed in another fountain of which we
   often sing. Let us sing about it, now, all of us who know the verse--

   "There is a fountain filled with blood,

   Drawn from Immanuel's veins

   And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

   Lose all their guilty stains."

   [This verse was accordingly sung by the congregation, and then MR.
   SPURGEON resumed and concluded his sermon.] That is the washing of
   which the Apostle says, "but you are washed," and after that washing
   comes the sanctifying, that is, the changing of the heart and the
   making of the whole nature holy! And that is the work of the Spirit of
   God, by the application of the Word of Christ.

   And then follows the justification. Pardon washes away our sin.
   Justification makes us righteous in the sight of God and sanctification
   gives us true holiness. Justification gives us imputed holiness, so
   that we stand before God, first in the righteousness which Christ has
   worked out for us--and next in the righteousness which the Spirit of
   God has worked in us. Oh, what a marvelous change is worked as the
   result of that one act of blessed washing!

   Now, to close, let me say that if you would be saved, this is the one
   thing for you to do--believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not trust in
   anything else whatever, but rely alone upon Him. Trust in Christ to
   make you hate sin. Trust in Christ to enable you to overcome every bad
   habit. Trust in Christ to help you to do everything that is right.
   Trust in Christ to cause you to stand fast even till you get to Heaven.
   "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life"--not, "he shall be
   saved tomorrow, or ten years hence"--he is saved now, on the spot! If
   you have only trusted in Christ since last that clock ticked, you are
   forgiven, you are a child of God, you are accepted in the Beloved, you
   are saved! It is an instantaneous, an immediate, but a perfect
   work--this washing away of sin--and this giving to us the righteousness
   of Jesus Christ. The Lord grant it to each one of you, for Jesus
   Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 CORINTHIANS 6:1-14.

   Verse 1. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law
   before the unjust, and not before the saints?\n those days, the courts
   of law were utterly unjust. It was all a matter of who could bribe the
   most, for he would gain the suit. I think that we cannot say that it is
   quite like this at the present time in our law courts, neither can this
   verse be strictly a rule for the guidance of men in these days, except
   that, in the spirit of Paul's words, all lawsuits among Christians
   should be avoided if possible.

   2, 3. Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the
   world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest
   matters? Knowyou not that we shall judge angels?Sitting with Christ, at
   the last great day ofjudgment, we shall give our, "Amen," to the
   condemnation of the fallen spirits.

   3, 4. How much more things that pertain to this life? If then you have
   judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are
   least esteemed in the church. For they will be better judges than the
   best of worldly men! Do you set such people to judge your difficult
   matters? And if you do not, then why do you go to those who are even
   worse qualified to give a right decision?

   5-11. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man
   among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his
   brethren? But brother goes to law with brother, and that before the
   unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because
   you go to law one with another Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do
   you not

   rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? No, you do wrong, and
   defraud, and that your brethren. Know you not that the unrighteous
   shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither
   fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers
   of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
   nor revilers, nor extortionists shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And
   such were some of you. They were Corinthians and some of them had
   fallen into the same sad and shameful condition as the rest of the
   inhabitants of Corinth. Many of them had been fetched, by almighty
   Grace, out of the very depths of the grossest sin, so that Paul, after
   giving a list of the blackest sinners, could add, "and such were some
   of you."

   11, 12. But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are
   justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
   All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient There
   are some things that I may do. That is, I have the liberty to do them
   if I please. But I must also consider whether they are expedient, or
   whether they will damage others and do mischief to them. And, if so, it
   will be better for me not to do them because they are not expedient,
   even though they are lawful.

   12, 13. All things are lawful for me, but I willnot be brought under
   the power of any. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God
   shall destroy both it and them. So, on the one hand, do not make too
   much of abstaining from this or that, for these things, after all, are
   but small matters to glory in. But, on the other hand, let no man ever
   call himself a Christian while he is a slave to any evil habit. What
   does Paul say? "God shall destroy both it and them." In the previous
   verse, he says, "I will not be brought under the power of any." The
   immortal spirit under the power of materialism? No, that must never be!

   13, 14. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the
   Lord for the body. And God has both raised up the Lord, and will also
   raise up us by His own power. Our bodies belong to Him! Therefore, let
   us think highly of them and never do anything to injure them and,
   especially, let us take care never to let them become instruments of
   iniquity to the grieving of the blessed Spirit of God.
     __________________________________________________________________

Some Marks of God's People

   (No. 2662)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 10, 1882.

   "Your God has commanded your strength: Strengthen, O God, what You have
   done for us." Psalm 68:28.

   DEAR Friends, at this time there is a special stir among the people. I
   know, from what I have seen and heard, that many are beginning to seek
   the Lord and others, who are not yet actually turning unto the Lord,
   are at least resolved to break off certain grosser sins and seek after
   something better. Well, there is something to be thankful for even in
   the waves of hunger pains which the prodigal feels before he says, "I
   will arise and go to my Father." I value even the pains he has to
   endure when he would gladly fill his belly with the husks that the
   swine eat. Before we can pronounce anyone's experience to be proof of
   the working of God's Grace, we are glad if we see any signs of what
   usually comes when Grace enters the heart. So I am thankful when an
   ungodly man says, "It is time I changed my course," for I trust that
   this is the first chipping upon the marble block--and that the great
   Sculptor, who fashions us in His own glorious image, will carry on the
   work and complete it to His own praise!

   Just now, when I see these signs of a stir among the people, I think it
   is my business to repeat the exhortation I have often given, "Make sure
   work of the change you are contemplating--make sure work for eternity!
   Do not put up with anything that will fail you at the last. If you are
   looking for something better than you already possess, mind that you
   get the best that is to be had." No, more, I would bid you give heed to
   our Lord's own words, "I counsel you to buy of Me gold tried in the
   fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed,
   and that the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your
   eyes with eye salve, that you may see." Mind that you buy all these
   things of Christ, for the terms on which you may have them are "without
   money and without price"--and you cannot get them anywhere else! I hope
   I am now addressing some who are saying, "We shall be glad and grateful
   if you will help us to judge as to our true condition and aid us to see
   whether we are Christians or not." That is what I am going to try to do
   tonight.

   The verse before my text describes God's ancient people when they were
   assembled in the order of their tribes. "There is little Benjamin with
   their ruler, the princes of Judah and their council, the princes of
   Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali." They belonged to various tribes
   of the children of Israel, but they were all numbered among the Lord's
   people. And it is said of the whole of them, as if they were but one,
   "Your God has commanded your strength." These words apply to all the
   armies of Israel, so you and I, dear Friends, had better consider and
   see whether we belong to His armies or not.

   I. From our text, I learn that the first mark of the people of God is
   that THE LORD IS THEIR GOD.

   Notice, the first two words--"Your God." This proves that they have a
   God. We cannot be God's people unless we know His name and know that He
   is the living and true God--and that all the rest of the so-called gods
   are but fictions or idols of the heathen! There is one God who made
   Heaven and earth, the sea and all that is therein. There is one God who
   has made us and from whom the breath in our nostrils has come. There is
   one God who has ruled in all past history and who is still the God of
   Providence, the Preserver and Director of His chosen people--the one
   God who, in the fullness of time, sent His only-begotten Son, who was
   equal with Himself, but who lived and died that the guilty sons of men
   might have their sins pardoned and their wandering feet directed back
   to the great Father's house. The God of the Old

   Testament and the God of the New--the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
   Jacob--the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! "This
   God is our God forever and ever: He will be our Guide even unto death."

   First, God's people believe in this God. If any do not believe in Him,
   they may call themselves what they please, but they are not the people
   of the living God! They may be the people of philosophy. They may be
   the people of the many dreams which men dream, nowadays, instead of
   believing in God, but they are not His people. I hope, Beloved, that we
   have no question about this matter and that we can say, without the
   slightest hesitation, "Yes, Jehovah, He is the God; Jehovah, He is the
   God."

   He becomes our God, then, first, by our belief in Him, and next, by our
   reliance upon Him. This God is not merely an influence! Certainly, He
   is not a fiction. He is a real Person with whom we may speak and who
   will hear us and answer us according to His wisdom and goodness. The
   Apostle truly wrote, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners
   spoke in time past unto the fathers by the Prophets has, in these last
   days, spoken unto us by His Son." And He is still speaking to us,
   through Him, words of Grace, love and kindness. And He becomes our God,
   I repeat, when, believing in Him, we come and rely upon Him--implicitly
   trusting Him that, seeing we are sinful, He may cleanse us. That,
   seeing we are ignorant, He may teach us. That, seeing we are feeble, we
   may lay hold upon His strength and may thereby be preserved unto
   everlasting life!

   Let me ask all of you whom I am addressing--Are you trusting the living
   God? You know what it is, as a child, to trust your parents. As a
   friend, to trust a friend. Are you dealing just in that way with God?
   Then, are you relying upon Him, depending upon Him--especially relying
   upon Him as He is revealed in Jesus Christ, His Son, the sin-atoning
   Savior? If you are, you are His people! If you are not--whatever you
   may do, or be, or say, or think--you are not numbered among the people
   of God! Faith is the distinguishing mark of His elect. Where it is
   present, there is Grace and Truth. Where it is absent, the soul is dead
   in trespasses and sins.

   How does God yet further become my God? By my love to Him. As the
   result of having trusted Him, I find myself peaceful, happy, restful. I
   receive at His hands, pardon, and I know it is mine. I get love from
   Him and I feel it--and I love Him in return. This is another of the
   marks of the Lord's people. The true child of God loves God! There are
   many men who are, to a certain extent, religious because they feel
   bound to be so by a law which they cannot resist. Ah, but we are not
   under law--we are under Grace--and we obey the commands of God because
   we love to do so! No man, who takes pleasure in sin, is a child of God,
   for the new nature hates sin! And though, alas, through the influence
   of the old naturewhich still remains within us, we are imperfect and
   often transgress the Law of the Lord, yet it is not our delight and we
   grieve that it should ever be the case with us. If a child of God falls
   into sin, he is like a sheep in the mud--up again, directly! But he who
   is still ungodly is like the sow that falls in the mud and wallows in
   it, for he is in his element--and he delights in it.

   There is a very important thing to be observed in connection with this
   point. That is that our love to God is one of the chief qualifications
   for serving Him acceptably. He who serves God out of love to Him, is
   the one who really and truly serves Him. The Lord of Love, the great
   King eternal, immortal, invisible, needs no slaves to grace His Throne!
   He wants those to do His bidding who serve Him with delight and
   pleasure. There is such a thing as self-denial ceasing to be
   self-denial when a man takes such pleasure in denying himself, for
   Christ's sake, that the self-denial is a greater source of joy to him
   than the indulgence would have been--and that is just what true service
   for God is! Have I come here, tonight, because I am paid to do it? Or
   do I preach the Gospel with regret and loathing? Ah, no! The Gospel is
   as much my elements as the sea is the element of the fish. What else
   could I preach? Silent be this tongue forever, sooner than I should
   have anything to teach concerning the way of salvation except Jesus
   Christ and Him crucified, and His mighty mercy received by faith! Do
   not, many of you, Beloved, feel just the same as I do? We know that we
   are children of God and that He is our God because we love Him--and
   that love has put a new mainspring within us which moves our hands and
   all the wheels of our nature as they ought to be moved.

   How, next, does He become our God still more clearly? By our
   acknowledgement of Him when we come forward and say, "Let others do
   what they will, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
   And when we say, "God has set forth His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the
   Savior of sinners, we accept Him as our Savior and with our mouth we
   confess that we have done so. Let men hear it, let angels hear it, let
   devils hear it--it matters not to us how many hear our confession that
   we are set apart for God and for His Christ!" Our Christian profession
   is not a profession of perfection. No, no! It is

   not a profession that we are, in and of ourselves, any better than
   other people. But it does mean that we have believed in Jesus Christ
   unto the renewal of our nature and the salvation of our souls. He who
   has had that great work of Grace done in him and for him ought to
   say--and say at once--"This God is my God forever and ever; He shall be
   my Guide even unto death." Let us be branded with the name of God! Let,
   us, Beloved, who have believed in Jesus, be God's people and God's,
   alone! And on all suitable occasions let us confess the blessed fact
   that we are not our own, for we are "bought with a price"--that price
   being more than we can ever calculate, even the precious blood of
   Jesus, God's dear Son!

   Genuine people of God, then, have the Lord to be their God according to
   the first two words of our text, "Your God." And, oh, Beloved, I have
   scarcely time to tell you in what a sweet way we get personal
   possession of God. After having trusted Him, relied upon Him, loved Him
   and confessed that we belong to Him, we get to be as conscious of His
   Presence as we are of the air we breathe! We are freely able to
   converse with Him and feel within our spirit that He is listening to
   what we say to Him--and that He is speaking back to us. "Oh," says
   someone, "I do not believe that is possible!" Friend, you may do as you
   like about believing what I say, but, at any rate, if you have never
   enjoyed this experience, that does not prove that there is no such
   thing! We are as honest as you are and we have as much right to be
   believed as you have. If we were before a jury, we would be as good
   witnesses as you would be! We are not liars and we do solemnly declare
   that God's Presence is so consciously realized by us that we are
   certain that in Him "we live, move, and have our being." And we believe
   that spiritual communications--communications from the Holy Spirit--are
   frequent with us, checking us when we might fall into sin, stimulating
   us when we would be laggard, enlightening us when we are in difficulty
   and, sometimes, bearing us upward, as on eagles' wings, till we seem to
   get into the very vestibule of Heaven, and could scarcely be happier
   than we are, or else, I think, we must die! Oh, yes, there is a God! We
   who believe in Jesus have this God as ours and we will rejoice in Him!

   That, then, is the first mark of the Lord's people--the Lord is their
   God.

   II. A second mark of the Lord's people is given in our text. Read the
   whole of the first sentence and you will see that he who feels that God
   has called upon him, to serve him with all his strength, is one of the
   Lord's servants--"Your God has commanded your strength." That is to
   say, ALL THE STRENGTH OF A CHRISTIAN--physically, mentally, morally,
   spiritually--IS AT GOD'S DISPOSAL.

   A true Christian acknowledges that all he has, and the best of all that
   he has, should always be consecrated and dedicated to his Lord. First,
   we are heartily to obey God's commands. There is no part of our
   strength that we may reserve for ourselves--it all belongs to our Lord.
   We are to be like a soldier who, when he goes to war, thinks of nothing
   but how he shall discharge his duties so as to please his commanding
   officer.

   Now, my dear Hearer, is that the case with you? Has God commanded your
   strengths. "Well, Sir, I go to church. I go to chapel. I profess to be
   a Christian." Yes, yes, yes, but there may he nothing in all that--has
   God the absolute and sole command of you? Is He your
   Commander-in-Chief? Has he come and taken possession of that strong
   will of yours and made it subject to His will? And if He has made you
   to be a man strong in faith, fervent in love, brave in holy daring and
   great in patience, do you desire to have all those forces used for His
   Glory, and His Glory alone? If not, you are not one of God's people!
   But, if you do hold all your powers at His disposal, that is one of the
   marks of His people--and the more clear it is, the better! Beloved, God
   is to be served by us with all our heart and with all our mind--and
   with all our soul and all our strength.

   After this fashion, also, we should fervently pray to Him. Oh, what
   poor prayers some people pray, when they bow their heads for a moment
   as they come into the House of God! Often, there is no prayer at all in
   it and it is the same when they kneel down by their bedside, nearly
   asleep, or when they get up in the morning rather late and the bell is
   ringing for breakfast and they hurry down--yet they call that prayer!
   Listen to the text, my Friends--"Your God has commanded your strength."
   Take the pick of the day for prayer if you can! If you are half asleep
   at other things, be wide awake then! It is the best time for trading
   that you ever have--see that you make good use of it. This is the most
   noble exercise, except one, in which you can be engaged--get all the
   good that you can out of it! When you go up to the mountain, like
   Elijah on the top of Carmel, bring all the powers of your heart, mind
   and soul to bear upon this privileged occupation, and cry mightily unto
   God! Half-hearted prayers ask for a denial and usually get it. Pray as
   if you meant to be heard! Pray as he, who is starving, asks for bread,
   or for a drink of water if he is dying of thirst! Plead as he does who
   pleads for his life, for this is the way to prevail with God! Effectual
   fervent prayers bombard the gates of pearl and the Kingdom of Heaven is

   carried by the violence of that importunity which will not take a
   denial! "Your God has commanded your strength." Oh, for more of this
   kind of prayer!

   And the same strength ought to go out when we praise God. Never ought
   our heart to be more energetic than when we say, "Blessed be His holy
   name!" And when we are singing in company with others, then we should
   also praise the Lord with joyous heartiness. I love to hear the bright,
   gladsome songs of people who really sing with their souls as well as
   with their voices. I have been in some congregations where, during the
   hymns, I have thought I needed a microphone to enable me to hear what
   they were singing, for they sang so very softly. Pull out the stops of
   your organ and let the music fly abroad, for, "your God has commanded
   your strength."

   In a similar fashion, we should earnestly labor for the Lord. In the
   great warfare which we have now to wage against the world, the flesh
   and the devil, let us give to God the whole of our strength! Some
   people are said to work so hard for Christ that they wear themselves
   out. What a blessed consummation that must be! To wear ourselves away
   in our Master's service--to let the zeal of God's House eat us up--is
   the very best thing that can happen to us! I am sorry to say that I do
   not meet with many people who are too zealous. Some areso because they
   have not much brain, and what little they have easily catches fire.
   Very well, my Brother, if that is your case, burn away! There are some,
   however, who have more brains, but they seem to keep them very damp, so
   they never get thoroughly alight. But he who serves God aright should
   burn if he does not blaze, though it is better to be a burning and a
   shining light, as John the Baptist was. There should be a red,
   ruby-like heat in the very center of our soul. If there are no sparks
   and flames, yet should our heart be on fire for God. God never meant us
   to do His work half-heartedly--He wishes each of His people to feel and
   say, "My God has commanded my strength, and He shall have it."

   And, lastly under this head, let us give God our strength by living
   wholly to Him in our ordinary life. I t is a great mistake to make a
   division between what is "sacred" and what is "secular" in a
   Christian's life. You are not only to serve God when you worship Him in
   this Tabernacle or in any other House of Prayer, you are to equally
   serve Him tomorrow morning when you take the shutters down from your
   shop windows! Pray to God, as you do so, "O Lord, take my shutters down
   and enlighten my darkness! I know that this day I cannot prosper
   without Your blessing. I mean to work hard at my business, but it is
   vain to rise early and to sit up late, unless You bless my effort.
   Lord, be with Your servant all the day long!" Here comes the first
   customer. Now pray the Lord that you may not say anything to him but
   what is right, and ask God to give you an opportunity of saying a good
   word to him about the Lord Jesus Christ! Here come half a dozen
   customers all at once! Now, you young men, pray the Lord to enable you
   to attend to your business as you ought to do it so as really to serve
   those who employ you--"not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as
   the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart" even
   while you are serving your earthly employer!

   All day long there are opportunities for glorifying God if man really
   wishes to do it. If the Spirit of God is with you all day, you will
   feel and say to yourself, "I will give to God all my strength. These
   things down here--this measuring out, either by yards or by
   bushels--this buying and this selling--must be done by somebody and I
   must, by some means, earn my bread by the sweat of my brow, or the
   sweat of my brain. And as this is what God has given me to do, I will
   do it thoroughly, with a single eye to His Glory, so that no one shall
   ever be able to truthfully say that Christianity makes me, in any
   respect, a worse man than I was before I knew the Lord." "Your God has
   commanded your strength," so live unto God in everything! Let your
   meals be sacraments! Let your garments be vestments! Let your common
   utterances be a part of a great life-Psalm! And let your whole being be
   as a burnt-offering ascending unto the Most High, acceptable to God
   through Jesus Christ! Oh, for the power of the Spirit of God to help
   you to do this!

   III. The next part of the verse will show you, dear Friends, that God's
   people are known by this sign--THEY ASCRIBE TO HIM ALL THAT IS GOOD IN
   THEM AND IN THEIR FELLOW MEN. Let me read you the latter part of

   the text, "Strengthen, O God, what You have worked in us."

   This applies, first, to the steps which lead to conversion--"That which
   You have worked for us." There is no prayer, here, about what we have
   worked for ourselves, for that is all mischief and evil which needs to
   be forgiven and undone. The sooner all that nature spins is unraveled,
   the better. What God works is worth having worked for us and in us!
   There are some people who have very crude and false ideas about what
   the work of God is in the soul. I heard one say that the sinner is to
   take the first step towards salvation and then good will do the rest.
   But I have often said and now say it, again, that the first step is the
   one point of difficulty! You know the French story about Saint Denis,
   whose head was cut

   off, and then it was said that he picked it up and carried it in his
   hands for a thousand miles? That was what the priests of the Church of
   Rome declared, but one of Voltaire's followers very wittily remarked
   that, as for the thousand miles, there was no difficulty in that--it
   was only the first step that had any difficulty in it--if the saint
   could manage that part, the rest would be easy enough! And it is just
   so in the matter of salvation! If the dead man can pick his own head
   up--if the dead sinner can make himself alive--why, then he can do very
   well without God the rest of the way to Heaven! But that can never be,
   for Jesus Christ is Alpha as well as Omega--the first as well as the
   last in the sinner's salvation. And we may constantly say to Him--

   "No sinner can be beforehand with Thee! Grace is most sovereign, most
   rich and most free."

   No, further. Not only does God begin it, but it is He who carries it
   on. If ever the work of Grace were to stop at a certain point and the
   rest of it were to be the work of nature, that linsey-woolsey garment
   would be unfit for a child of God to wear! Yes, and what is more, the
   work which God has begun, He must finish, too. If He has left anything
   to our unaided strength, we shall fall in that particular point--and
   all of it will become faulty and useless. The true people of God are
   resting, for the whole of their salvation, upon the Triune
   Jehovah--upon the Father's love, upon the Son's redemption and upon the
   Spirit's effectual work upon the heart and conscience. It must be all
   of God and all of Grace, from the first even to the last--and they are
   the true people of God who feel and know this.

   Let me speak to some of you who have been taking the pledge lately.
   That is a very right thing to do. I wish that all did it, but that will
   not save you. The salvation of the soul is God's work and you must come
   to Him for it. "But, supposing I abstain for the future, will not all
   be right?" Certainly not! What about the times when you have been
   drunk? "Oh, well, of course, the pledge will not wipe out that sin."
   No, it will not. If you are a thief, would you tell the magistrates
   that they must not punish you because you are not going to steal again?
   "No," they would say, "we must punish you for what you have doner There
   are all your past sins and only the Lord Jesus Christ can blot them
   out.

   Perhaps a man says, "But, if I abstain from sin in the future, will not
   that do?" No, it will not. You owe your grocer a long bill, do you not?
   Call upon him and tell him that you cannot pay a halfpenny of the debt,
   but that you are not going to get into any more debt. "Oh," says he,
   "but that will not do for me! There is a County Court somewhere and I
   shall get a summons for you to appear there." So, if you go to God and
   say, "I am not going to sin in this way any more," He will not believe
   you, but if He did, He would say, "What about the past?" "God requires
   what is past." There is the stain of your past sin upon you--how can
   that be removed? Not by your tears. If you could shed an Atlantic full
   of tears, yet might the red spot of your sin turn every wave to carmine
   and the fatal spot would still be upon you. Nothing but the blood of
   Jesus can wash you clean and none are God's people but those who know
   that--and who come to Him for salvation, cleansing and everything
   else--and who commit themselves, body, soul and spirit, unto Him.

   IV. Now, lastly, the fourth mark of God's people is that THEY PRAY TO
   HIM FOR THEIR STABILITY. "Strengthen, O God, what You have done for
   us."

   What is a man's strength? Some think that their strength lies in their
   resolution. "Now," says one, "I have said it, and I will keep to it.
   You know, I am not a man who is easily turned from his purpose. I have
   made up my mind and I will do it." Yes, I have known several who have
   made up their mind, but it did not come to much when they had made it
   up. And I have known a great many persons promise and, having done that
   half a dozen times before and broken their promise every time, it did
   not come to much when that was done! "Oh," says one, "do not think that
   I shall act like that! I pledge myself to act differently." Yes, yes,
   and when a man has not a halfpenny in his pocket and he pledges himself
   that he will be a millionaire, I think to myself, "All right, but he
   had better not begin spending any of it yet."

   A soldier puts on his armor to go out to fight--he has his helmet on
   his head and leg armor of brass on his legs, a breastplate and all the
   rest of the armor. "Am I not a brave fellow?" he asks. When you come
   back, you may be, but not just yet. Remember Ahab's message to
   Benhadad, "Let not him that girds on his armor, boast himself as he
   that takes it off." I believe in you, my dear Friend. You have made a
   promise and I believe that you will keep your promise. That is to say,
   I believe as much in you as I do in the majority of people. "How much
   is that?" you ask. Well, not too much, for I have seen too many men
   place much reliance upon them. I have not yet been 50 years among them,
   but there are several of them whom I would only trust as far as I could
   throw them--and there are some whom I would not trust as far as that.
   But there are others whom I thought I might trust out of my sight, and
   I have done so--and I have been bitten by them! I

   believe myself bound to give as much credence and confidence to your
   resolution as your resolution is worth, so please let me see how much
   it is worth by observing how you go on.

   "Oh," says one, "but there is an addition to my resolution! There is my
   past experience. I am an experienced person. I am not like your young
   kids who are apt to be easily led astray again. A burnt child dreads
   the fire. My experience has made me very careful, steady and reliable."
   Yes, I know. You are the man whom I would not trust with a bad
   farthing, because the very people who have demanded my trust on the
   ground that they could not be led astray, I have generally found were
   the men who had already gone far astray! I knew an old friend who used
   to attend here who was a very curious sort of man, but he had a great
   deal of common sense. A deacon of a church met him in Smithfield, one
   morning, and asked him for a loan of 50 pounds. He was going to say,
   "Yes," for he knew and trusted him, but the deacon said to him,
   "Robert, you know you can safely lend that amount to me. I shall be
   sure to let you have it on the day that I promise. At my time of life,
   I am quite past temptation." My old friend stopped and said, "I was
   going to let you have that 50 pounds but, as you have arrived at that
   point, I shall not lend you a halfpenny, for I am quite certain I
   should never see it again." At that very moment the man knew that he
   was utterly bankrupt, and he failed, shortly after, for a very large
   sum, too, yet he said, "You may safely lend it to me, for I am quite
   past temptation."

   "Well," asks one, "then you would not have us believe in one another?"
   No, unless you want to believe a lie. David said, "Verily every man at
   his best is altogether vanity." "You are not very complementary." No.
   If you want compliments, do not come here, for I do not deal in them
   and I do not intend to. God's Word is what I have to preach and that
   contains something better than compliments. Brothers and Sisters, your
   best resolutions and your best experience are as strong as a broken
   reed! They only need to be touched in a certain way and they will break
   again! You have already failed again and again--it is no use for you to
   start again as you started, then, for you will fail again! The same
   causes under the same circumstances will produce the same results!

   Now stop, my Friend, while I get a grip of your hand and say, "Come,
   let us pray together." And this shall be our prayer, "Lord, if You have
   worked any good in us, however little it is, we dare not trust to it,
   or trust ourselves with it. But, Lord, do strengthen it. If it is only
   just a consciousness of sin, Lord, strengthen it till it grows into
   repentance. If it is only a little trembling desire to be right, Lord,
   strengthen it into a firm and brave resolve. If it is but a little hope
   in Christ, Lord, strengthen it until I can say, 'I know whom I have
   believed.' If I have a little germ of faith, Lord, strengthen it till
   the mustard seed grows into a tree. O Lord, I have promised to do this
   and that, but I know that I am as weak as water. I am apt to slip when
   I feel that I am standing most safely. Lord, help me! Lord, help me!
   Lend me Your strength!"

   Some of you have lately taken the pledge, "I promise, by the help of
   God, to abstain." That is the thing for you, that, "help of God," is
   what you need! I entreat any of you who are starting on a fresh life,
   do not start outside the help of God. Do not attempt to go on outside
   the help of God. And you, dear Friends, who are far advanced in the
   Christian life, never be so besotted as to think that you have gone so
   far by God's aid and now you can traverse the rest of the road without
   Him! You cannot do anything in that way. Have you never noticed that we
   make our worst blunders over the plainest things? The children of
   Israel were commanded to slay all the Canaanites, but a company of
   Gibeonites disguised themselves in a very clever fashion, and the
   people said, "Their shoes are old and scarred. And their clothes--well,
   they must have come a long way, for they are dreadfully worn. These men
   look like travelers who have come from a very far-distant country."
   They did not question the Gibeonites, for they said, "These are
   strangers, that is quite evident, so let us make a covenant with them
   and let their lives be spared." Yet, all the while, these men were
   their next-door neighbors, living very close to them! On the plainest
   point, the Israelites were taken in--and it is often the same with us.

   Brothers and Sisters never trust in yourselves, even though your
   strength seems to be more than adequate for the occasion! Trust in God
   as much when you have a huge "Woolwich infant" to fire against your
   enemy as when you have nothing but a sling and a stone. When you are
   full of knowledge, full of wisdom and full of Grace, yet still be
   nothing and let the Lord your God be your All-in-All! Oh, what a
   blessing it would be if everyone of us would get to Heaven! I do not
   see why we should not, the Lord being our Leader! One thing I know--if
   we do get there, by-and-by, there is not one of us who will throw up
   his cap and shout, "Hurrah! Glory be to myself! I did this!" No, no,
   no! But we will all go together and such crowns as Grace shall give us
   we will cast at Jesus' feet. And the song, "Non nobis, Domine" shall go
   up

   from all of us, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Your name
   give glory, for Your mercy, and for Your Truth's sake."

   Let us begin to learn that song, now, and let us sing it in life, in
   death and forever, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM68

   This was a Psalm sung at the removing of the Ark when it was taken up
   to its resting place on Mount Zion. All the tribes were gathered
   together and, in full pomp, they marched along, bearing the sacred
   chest. As they marched forward, the trumpets sounded and this Psalm
   rose up to God.

   Verse 1. Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered: let them also
   that hate Him flee before Him. That is the way to move--God first and
   His people following closely after Him. That is the true order of
   revival--the Lord in the front, then all His children, quick of step,
   to follow where He leads. The Psalmist seems to take it for granted
   that there would be no fighting if God should arise, for all His
   enemies would be put to flight by His Presence.

   2, 3. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melts before
   the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the
   righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yes, let them
   exceedingly rejoice. The courtiers of God ought to be clad in the silks
   ofjoy and to be bright with the jewelry of rejoicing!

   4, 5. Sing unto God, singpraises to His name: extol Him that rides upon
   the heavens by His name JAH, and rejoice before Him. A father of the
   fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in His holy habitation.
   In the wilderness the Israelites were like a company of fatherless
   people. But God was their Protector and in all their trials and dangers
   He was their Defender.

   6. God sets the solitary in families. He brings out those which are
   bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. They had
   been in a sad condition in Egypt, scattered and driven here and there.
   God promised to bring them all together, in great families, and to
   richly bless them.

   7, 8. O God, when You went forth before Your people, when You did march
   through the wilderness; Selah: the earth shook, the heavens also
   dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the
   presence of God, the God of Israel If the translators had given us the
   original words, we would have valued this Psalm much more, for it
   contains nearly every name of God. This verse would run, "Even Sinai
   itself was moved at the presence of Elohim, the Elo-him of Israel."

   9, 10. You, O God, did send a plentiful rain, whereby You did confirm
   Your inheritance, when it was weary. Your congregation has dwelt
   therein: You, O God, have prepared of Your goodness for the poor It
   rained manna and it rained quail. There are no difficulties about the
   commissariat of an army when God is the Commander-in-Chief! All those
   who put their trust in Him shall be provided for!

   11. The Lord--Or, Adonai--

   11. Gave the word: great was the company of those that published it
   When God speaks, He always has publishers of His message! Our Lord
   found a woman at the well and sent her back to the men of the city as
   His messenger. And He will find many others before His work is all
   done!

   12. 13. Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home
   divided the spoil Though you have lain among the pots. Grimy among the
   brick kilns, covered with clay and black with smoke--despised,
   rejected, earthbound. "Though you have lain among the pots."

   13. Yet shall you be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and
   her feathers with yellow gold. There are good times ahead for God's
   people! Rich and rare blessings are laid up in store for them that fear
   Him. Therefore, let us rejoice in Him even now.

   14. When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in
   Salmon. Driven from the bare, bleak mountainside in gusts like
   feathers, the snow flies before the wind! And so, when God scatters the
   mighty, they cannot resist Him--"It was white as snow in Salmon."

   15. The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; an high hill as the hill
   of Bashan. This hill of Zion is not high at all--it is a mere knoll
   compared with the lofty peaks--yet it was highly favored. So, to carnal
   eyes, Christ's Kingdom on earth was little in comparison with the
   kingdoms of this world, yet, in the sight of God, it is greater than
   all of them!

   16. Why leap you, you high hills? This is the hill which God desires to
   dwell in. Yes, the LORD will dwell in it forever. There are grander
   places than Zion, but if God chooses to dwell there, His Presence gives
   her a glory and a greatness that no other spot can have. The forces at
   the disposal of Zion's King are boundless--note how the Psalmist
   enumerates some of them.

   17. 18. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of
   angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. You
   have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive: You have
   received gifts for men, yes, for the rebellious, also, that the LORD
   God might dweel among them. As the Ark went up the hill of Zion, so has
   Christ ascended to eternal Glory! He is the true Ark of the Covenant
   and He is also the true Mercy Seat. Therefore, let our hearts rejoice
   in our ascended Savior who has "led captivity captive." "You have
   received gifts for men, yes, for the rebellious, also." "In due time,
   Christ died for the ungodly." "He made intercession for the
   transgressors." Let rebellious sinners catch at this great Truth of God
   and, touched by the love and Grace of God, let them cease to rebel any
   longer.

   19, 20. Blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits, even the
   God of our salvation. Selah. He that is our God is the God of
   salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. All
   glory be to His thrice-blessed name for all that this verse includes!

   21, 22. But God shall wound the head of His enemies, and the hairy
   scalp of such an one as goes on still in his trespasses. The Lord said,
   I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring My people again from the
   depths of the sea. Wherever His people may have gone, God will bring
   them all together again--"from Bashan"--or "from the depths of the
   sea."

   23-35. That your foot may be dipped in the blood of your enemies, and
   the tongue of your dogs in the same. They have seen Your goings, O God;
   even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. The singers went
   before, the players on instruments followed after, among them were the
   damsels playing with timbrels. Bless God in the congregations, even the
   Lord, from the fountain of Israel There is little Benjamin with their
   ruler, the princes of Judah, and their council, the princes of Zebulun,
   and the princes of Naphtali. Your God has commanded your strength:
   strengthen, O God, what You have worked for us. Because of Your temple
   at Jerusalem shall kings bring presents unto You. Rebuke the company of
   spearmen, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people,
   till everyone submits himself with pieces of silver: scatter the people
   that delight in war. Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall
   soon stretch out her hands unto God. Sing unto God, you kingdoms of the
   earth! O sing praises unto the Lord; Selah: to Him that rides upon the
   heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, He does send out His voice,
   and that a mighty voice. Ascribe strength unto God: His exceelency is
   over Israel, and His strength is in the clouds. O God, You are terrible
   out of Your holy places: the God of Israel is He that gives strength
   and power unto His people. Blessed be God. The Psalm ends with an
   ascription of praise unto God. So let our reading end--and our
   worship--and our lives! "Blessed be God."
     __________________________________________________________________

A Leap Year Sermon

   (No. 2663)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   FEBRUARY 29, 1880.

   "One born out of due time." 1 Corinthians 15:8.

   PAUL thus describes himself. It was necessary that Paul, as an Apostle,
   should have seen the Lord. He was not converted at the time of Christ's
   Ascension, yet he was made an Apostle, for the Lord Jesus appeared to
   him in the way, as he was going to Damascus, to persecute the saints of
   God. When he looked upon himself as thus put in, as it were, at the end
   of the Apostles, he spoke of himself in the most depreciating terms,
   calling himself, "one born out of due time."

   Those who are acquainted with the Greek tongue know what a despicable
   term Paul here applied to himself--as though he was scarcely a man at
   all. At any rate, as the very last of the family, "born out of due
   time," and not only the last, but also the very least, for he says, "I
   am the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle,
   because I persecuted the church of God." Scholars will know why I
   cannot exactly explain the word which Paul uses, but rather keep to the
   rendering of our translation, which, although it may not have the force
   and full meaning of the Greek expression, is, perhaps, none the less
   useful for public reading. "One born out of due time."

   Paul thought very humbly of himself. He reckoned himself less than
   nothing and put himself down at the very lowest estimate--and mentioned
   that he was brought to Christ and made an Apostle when the time for
   such a work was apparently over. Out of date altogether, beyond the
   period when it might have been thought that another Apostle would be
   called of God, there was Paul--found as "one born out of due time."

   My subject tonight is, first, the singular time of Paul's spiritual
   birth. There are many of God's true children who, like the Apostle,
   were "born out of due time." When I have expatiated upon that fact, I
   shall speak of the sure evidences of his spiritual birth and show you
   that, although "born out of due time," he was born--and there were sure
   evidences of his spiritual birth--which evidences, I trust, may be seen
   in many of us, also!

   I. First, then, let us think of THE SINGULAR TIME OF PAUL'S SPIRITUAL
   BIRTH.

   There are still some who, like the Apostle, are born to God "out of due
   time." They are truly born again, regenerated, converted, at a most
   unlikely season. There have been multitudes brought to Christ under
   earnest sermons, when the appeals of faithful men have thrilled the
   congregation and the Truth of God has been effectually carried home to
   the hearts of many of the hearers. But there have also been times when
   God's ministers have waxed faint, when the sermon has appeared to be
   destitute of all force, when nobody has seemed to have felt the power
   of the sermon and, apparently, the Truth of God has fallen quite flat!
   Yet, on many such occasions there have been some sinners converted to
   God when we would hardly have thought it to be possible!

   Mr. Tennant, a famous American minister of Whitefield's time--one of
   the most earnest and seraphic men who ever proclaimed the Gospel of
   Jesus Christ--had a hearer who remained unmoved under many a score of
   his most faithful sermons. Others were saved, but not this man. He
   seemed unmoved and immovable, but it came to pass, on a certain Sab-

   bath, that a very unusual thing happened. Mr. Tennant had prepared his
   sermon with great care. It was what we are known to call a laborious
   discourse into which he had put all the thought and all the pains
   possible. But he had not been preaching long before his memory
   completely failed him! His mind refused to work and, after floundering
   about for a while, he was obliged to sit down in great confusion and
   say that he could not preach to the people that day. The man I have
   mentioned, who had never before been impressed under Mr. Tennant's
   ministry, was that daycalled by Sovereign Grace as "one born out of due
   time," for he was led to see that there was a spiritual and
   supernatural force which had usually helped the pastor to preach--and
   that when this Divine influence was withdrawn--he was as weak as other
   men and could not speak with power as he had been accustomed to do!
   This Truth of God, somehow or other--for human minds are strangely
   constituted and things which have no effect upon certain people, very
   greatly affect others who are present at the same time--this Truth, I
   say, induced the man to think! And thinking, he was led to believe in
   God, and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of his
   soul. He was, without doubt, one "born out of due time."

   I would like to break down, as Mr. Tennant did, if some of you would be
   born to God by that means! I would rather be dumb and win a soul for
   Jesus, than speak with the tongues of men and of angels and yet men's
   hearts should not be impressed by the Truth of God I proclaimed! How
   often I have found that when I have gone home and sighed, and cried,
   and groaned over a sermon in which I felt no liberty, but thought it
   was an utter failure, it has afterwards been proved that, here one, and
   there another, have come forward blessing and praising God for that
   very testimony which seemed to me so faulty and feeble, but which the
   Spirit of the Lord has savingly impressed upon them! So, still, there
   are some who in this way are "born out of due time," through the Holy
   Spirit's use, even, of the preacher's weakness and apparent failure!

   Another illustration may be taken from the opposite side of the same
   Truth. Some are converted when they seem, themselves, to be in a state
   of mind in which they are the most unlikely to be impressible. I
   remember being in Dr. John Campbell's house, one day, when he told me
   that a minister was preaching at Whitefield's old Tabernacle in
   Moorfields, one evening, when there were present, under very strange
   circumstances, two young men who had fallen into dissipated habits and
   who had made an appointment with each other for the commission of some
   gross sin that very night. Had they committed what they had planned, it
   may be that they would have plunged themselves into a career of vice
   from which they might never have been extricated. They were passing by
   the Moorfields Tabernacle, which some of you remember, and as they
   needed to know the time at which they were to meet for this unholy
   purpose, one of them said to the other, "Go in and check the
   time--there is sure to be a clock in there." But the clock was not
   fixed as it is here, at the back of the preacher, but the other way--so
   the young man had to go some little distance further in than he
   intended, in order to see the clock. If I remember rightly, the
   preacher that night was Matthew Wilks, and he was just uttering some
   quaint remark, something that arrested the young man's attention and
   held him fast in the aisle. His companion waited outside for a time,
   but it was cold, so he thought he had better go in and look at the
   clock, himself, and fetch his friend out. He went in--the arrows of the
   Lord pierced the heart of both of them! The second of those young men
   was John Williams, the famous missionary and, at last, the martyr of
   Erromanga! Thus they, also, were "born out of due time."

   You would not have thought it possible that those men would become, as
   they did, preachers of the Gospel, when they were, at that very time,
   desperately set on the commission of a great sin against God and their
   hearts were wholly given up to the pleasures and follies of this world!
   But so it happened and our Lord still knows how to stop men as He
   stopped Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. He is the man who says
   that he was "born out of due time" and he is a wonderful instance of
   this method of Divine interposition. He has in his possession the
   letters from the High Priest which will enable him to bind the saints
   and carry them off to Jerusalem. He is riding towards Damascus and is
   within sight of the city when, in the very midst of his high-handed
   course of persecution, the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, intervenes and
   smites him down to the ground! Presently, Paul rises to pray and, in
   his three days' blindness and fasting, to seek the Lord and then to
   find Him, to the salvation of his soul and the joy of his spirit--and
   thus to become an Apostle of that very Savior whom, in his ignorance,
   he had been persecuting! After such a triumph of Divine Grace, let us
   never despair of anysinner, however far he may have gone into sin!

   You know how Paul, writing to Timothy, said of himself, "For this cause
   I obtained mercy, that in me, first, Jesus Christ might show forth all
   long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on
   Him to life everlasting." The God who blessed the broken sermon of Mr.
   Tennant can bless our imperfect work in the pulpit, the Sunday

   school, or anywhere else! And the God who saved such men as John
   Williams and his companion, when they least thought of such a thing
   happening, can also save some who have strayed in here, tonight, little
   dreaming what designs of love God has toward them in bringing them at
   this time under the sound of His Word!

   I consider, next, that a convert may be described as one "born out of
   due time" when he is brought to Christ after some great revival or
   notable religious movement has come to an end. There are some of you
   who attended the recent special services conducted here by Messrs.
   Fullerton and Smith. What power there was in those hallowed gatherings!
   Some of your neighbors wept under conviction of sin, but you did not.
   Some of them came to Christ and are now rejoicing in Him, but you did
   not come to Him. You were not even impressed during the meetings,
   though, possibly, you wished to be. Or it may be that you began with a
   desire after better things, but you ended in indifference. And now the
   special services are all over and the good men who came among us to
   preach and sing the Gospel are gone--and you have been saying to
   yourselves, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not
   saved." Ah, but our Lord has a blessed way of picking up the stragglers
   behind the army! When the main body has marched on with sound of
   trumpet, praising God, there are a few left behind--and the Lord Jesus
   sometimes comes and picks them up! I do earnestly pray that some of you
   may be thus picked up by Him just now, so that you may be able to say,
   "We were not born for God when many others were, but, like Saul of
   Tarsus, we were 'born out of due time.' But, blessed be God, we were
   born again by the effectual working of His Spirit! We were brought to
   Christ, to the praise of the glory of His Grace, and now we, also, have
   become children of God by faith in Jesus Christ." Pray that it may be
   so dear Friends! O you Christian people, bow your hearts before God and
   ask that it may be so! Perhaps the very fact that those services are
   over and that a gracious opportunity has gone may be impressed upon the
   minds of some who were present during the meetings, but who were not
   converted--and they may now seek the Savior and find Him to their
   everlasting salvation and happiness!

   The Lord can bless strange methods to the awakening of the ungodly.
   When Puritanism seemed to be trodden under foot, in the reign of James
   I, and the king issued the Book of Sports, and gave commandment that
   every clergyman was to read from the pulpit, on Sunday, that it was the
   royal will and pleasure that the young people should play at football,
   cricket and other games and pastimes on the Lord's-Day afternoon, godly
   ministers who really loved the Lord did not know what to do. One of
   them thought, perhaps, it would be well to do as the king ordered and
   to say something beside, so, when the Sunday came for reading the Book
   of Sports to the people, he said, "I am commanded by the king and the
   authorities to read to you the following document, but it grieves my
   heart and conscience to have to read it. I know it is wicked, wrong,
   shameful and abominable to desecrate the Sabbath as you are invited to
   do, and I wonder what will become of my country when even from the
   church, itself, Sabbath-breaking is recommended."

   So, the good man spoke, to the relief of his own conscience and in hope
   of awakening the consciences of others. It happened that there was in
   the congregation, that day, a young man who had always been a
   ringleader in the Sabbath sports--he was no sooner out of church, in
   the morning, than he was on the village green, fast and furious in all
   the amusements of the time. But, when he heard that Book of Sports
   read, he said to himself, "well, I acted in that way on my own account
   and it was wrong enough for me to do so, but now I say with the
   minister, "What is to become of all the country if everybody is to be
   as bad as I have been? What will happen to the nation if this kind of
   thing is to go on?" The thought struck him so forcibly that he became,
   first, a serious character, and then a true seeker after God--and
   afterwards a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus Christ! So it came to
   pass that when the devil thought he was going to have everything his
   own way, that very day, this young man was born to God--truly, "born
   out of due time."

   I remember reading a very striking saying of Mr. Bunyan's. He said he
   had good reason to believe that in the generation after him, there
   would be many more saints than in the one of which he formed a part. He
   said his belief was based upon the fact that wherever he went, he found
   that there were so many great sinners that he hoped they would be
   converted and become eminent servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
   there was a blessed truth at the back of that hope of his, for, very
   often, where sin has abounded, Grace does much more abound! And when
   the Word of God seems to grow scarce and the candle of the Gospel burns
   but dimly, we may pray and expect that even then some may be "born out
   of due time" to the praise of the glory of that Grace which saves as it
   wills--and often selects the very chief of sinners to be the subjects
   of it's almighty power!

   There have been some dear friends who may be said to have been "born
   out of due time," for they have been converted to God after it seemed
   impossible that they ever should be. I remember well reading of one who
   imbibed skeptical

   notions and became exceedingly furious against the preaching of the
   Word. One day, in Edinburgh, he heard it said that a certain eminent
   minister of the Gospel intended, if he met him, to speak with him about
   his soul. Whereupon the man uttered some very strong expressions and,
   among other wicked things, he said, "I shall never be converted unless
   I lose my senses!" All who were acquainted with him and who knew how
   desperately he was set against the Gospel, thought that his was,
   indeed, a hopeless case. But, in the Infinite mercy of God, it turned
   out to be quite the opposite! He began to suffer from great incoherence
   of thought. His mind gradually wandered--when he was trying to speak,
   he often spoke utter nonsense. He became unfit for business and had to
   be put into the custody of someone who watched him as his keeper.
   Reason was not actually gone, but it was reeling upon its throne, and
   while he was in that sad state, the case of Nebuchadnezzar came to his
   mind and he wondered whether God had given him up, altogether, on
   account of what he had said--that he would never be converted while he
   was in his senses. He turned his mind, all shipwrecked and battered as
   it was, towards God, and out of the depths of his half-bewildered
   spirit, he cried unto the Lord as Nebuchadnezzar did--and his mind
   returned to him and he became a humble, gentle, holy believer in the
   Lord Jesus Christ!

   Do you not think, dear Friends, that he also was "one born out of due
   time"? The time of salvation seemed utterly past so far as he was
   concerned. He had made a covenant with death and a league with Hell. He
   had cast off those ordinary beliefs which many men hold even though
   they do not obey them--yet, notwithstanding all that, the surprising
   Grace of God dealt with him after its own Sovereign manner and laid him
   low, that it might bring him up again! I do not pray that such a thing
   may happen to anybody here, but I do pray that God may bring you to
   Christ somehow and if, in order to attain that end, you have to be
   driven to the very gates of Hell--so long as you do not actually pass
   through them--I will rejoice if, afterwards, you are led to flee to
   Christ for refuge!

   Another instance of "one born out of due time" occurs in the case of
   one converted after the spiritual father is dead. We sometimes see
   posthumous children, that is, those who are born after the father is
   deceased, and there is generally much sorrow mingled with the thought
   of such births, for the poor widow's heart is doubly troubled by the
   extra care needed for the little stranger who arrives after the
   bread-winner of the family is taken away. But if a man is the means of
   bringing another to Christ after he, himself, is dead, there need be no
   sorrow about that matter! There have been many, many instances in which
   earnest Christian people have sought the conversion of their relatives
   or friends. They have prayed for them, and wept over them, and pleaded
   with them--but all their efforts have been unsuccessful. Yet, after
   their death, the memory of their holy zeal has touched the conscience
   of the one who would not yield, before, and brought him to Christ. I
   wish, dear Friends, that your godly mother, who is in Heaven and who
   died leaving her son unsaved, might seem to come to you just now. I ask
   for no apparition, but that she may be consciously present to your mind
   and that her dying words may ring in your ears, for perhaps the
   remembrance of what she said may be blessed to you even now.

   When I am taken away, I can but wish that any true and faithful word
   that I have spoken may still continue to speak to you from my grave.
   When good Mr. Payson died, he begged that his people might come and see
   him, if they wished, before he was interred and those who did so, read
   these words on his bosom, "Remember the word which I have spoken unto
   you being yet present with you." It was thus his desire, you see, that
   he should have posthumous spiritual chil-dren--that they should be born
   to God even though they should seem to be "born out of due time." Ah,
   you wives, who have been praying for your husbands these many years,
   never give them up, because they may be brought to Christ when you,
   yourselves, will be in Heaven! Mothers and fathers, never cease
   pleading for your children, for they, too, may be brought to Jesus when
   you are among the angels.

   Up in one of the northern counties of England there was a woman, a
   believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose prayer went up continually for
   her husband, but he never entered the House of God--and despised her
   for doing so. She was accustomed to go to her usual place of worship
   alone, so far as any human companions were concerned, yet she was not
   quite alone, for there was a dog that always went with her. This dog
   curled himself up under the seat and lay quite still during the
   service, and then walked home with his mistress. The first Sunday after
   she was dead, the poor dog went off to the Meeting House as usual, and
   curled himself up in his old place. He did the same the next Sunday,
   and the husband, noticing the dog start out so regularly, was struck by
   its action and wondered where the dog went, now that his mistress was
   gone. So he thought he would go and see. The dog went before him to his
   mistress's old seat and curled himself up. The man went in after the
   dog and sat down in his wife's place--and God helped the minister, that
   day, to show him that

   his good works and self-righteousness in which he had always trusted,
   would not be sufficient for his salvation. And the minister preached to
   him the full salvation of Christ Jesus--and the man believed and lived.
   Was not he, also, "born out of due time," for his wife's prayers for
   him were a all over, and she was gone? Yet he was brought to Christ.

   The subject is one upon which I might enlarge indefinitely, but I would
   rather have you to supply further instances of similar blessing by
   urging you to persevere in prayer, you who are seeking the salvation of
   others.

   Some have been "born out of due time" because they have been converted
   to God in extreme old age. I would like to encourage any very aged
   person who is here and still unsaved--and to drive away altogether the
   notion that it is too late to seek the Lord! It is never too late as
   long as life lasts and there is the power to repent of sin and to turn
   to the Lord--

   "While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return."

   I will not quote cases, but I have a vivid recollection of a good many
   persons who have been saved at the age of 70 or eighty. We have had
   persons, past both of those periods, baptized upon profession of their
   newly-found faith. The world's proverb says, "It is never too late to
   mend," but Christ would tell you, if He were here in bodily Presence,
   that it is never too late for Him to mend you, or rather, for Him to
   make you anew, for that is the work He undertakes to do. It is never
   too late for Him to stretch out His pierced hands and help the man who
   is tottering on his staff, to become a babe in Christ! Yet, surely when
   very old men are born again, they seem to be "born out of due time."

   Many of you have not yet come to old age, yet if God should save you,
   tonight, you would be as those who are "born out of due time," because
   you are on the very brink of the grave. Consumption has laid its cruel
   hand upon you and pulled down all your strength. In all probability you
   will not be long in this world. You have come out, tonight, but you are
   half-afraid that you have done wrong in coming in the state you are in,
   with that terrible cough that you have--and you have not found the
   Savior. O my dear young Friend, wherever you may be, it is a sad, sad
   thing to be carrying about with you, your death-warrant, as you
   certainly are doing, and yet to have no warrant to believe that when
   you die, it will be well with you! Oh, I pray you, do not let Satan
   tempt you with the idea that now, when sickness is upon you, there is
   no hope for you!

   Come to Jesus, however consumptive you look! Come to Jesus, young man,
   with that chest that scarcely allows you to breathe! Come unto Him, for
   He will not cast you away! I remember one, whom I met at Mentone, who
   had gone there in the hope of lengthening his life, but that was quite
   out of the question, for he was too far gone when he came. He had two
   sisters who were sent for to come to him, for it was certain that he
   could not live long. He himself was under deep concern of soul,
   earnestly seeking the Lord, but he could not find Him. Day after day,
   week after week, he had been getting worse and worse and showing all
   the signs of his approaching departure, but he could not find peace
   with God. At last, his sisters came from England. They arrived just in
   time. They found him very anxious about his soul. That night they spoke
   with him of Jesus and in the morning, early, when they woke, they went
   to him and he was sitting up in bed, all pale and ghostlike. He said,
   "Sisters, Christ has forgiven me!" And he fell back on his pillow and
   he was gone Home. There was an end of his suffering and weakness here
   below, but the consolation of that last word to them, and of the joy
   that beamed from his poor eyes was enough to make them gladly commit
   his body to the tomb. "Sisters, Christ has forgiven me!" Ah, he was,
   indeed, "born out of due time"--born between the very jaws of death!
   But death's jaws could not close upon him till he had received
   forgiveness from his Savior. I beseech any of you who are in a similar
   condition to his, do not put off seeking the Lord, but hasten to find
   Him even now!

   Once more, there are some who are "born out of due time" because they
   are born all of a sudden. They suddenly come to Christ. They suddenly
   find peace. They are suddenly saved. I wish that might happen to some
   here tonight. There is no need of any set period for this all-important
   matter! Time is no element in the matter. God can work conviction and
   conversion in a single instant. You know that, sometimes, you see a
   flash of lightning and then you wait several seconds before you hear
   the thunder. But when a storm is right overhead, the flash and the slap
   are simultaneous, and down comes the pouring rain at the same time!
   And, in like manner, the Lord knows how to send a flash of conviction
   and, at the same instant, to make His deep voice of mercy to be heard
   in the soul--and to send the floods of Grace upon the spirit then and
   there! Why should He not do so tonight for any of you who need these
   blessings?

   Now I will tell you the special reason why I chose this text. It is
   because this is the 29th of February and it is a Sunday. There is a
   large number of you who never saw a 29th of February on Sunday, before,
   and there is a still larger number

   who will never see the 29th of February on a Sunday, again. I suppose
   it will be 28 years before that will occur again. So, this is a Sunday
   thrown in, as it were. It is an odd kind of day, an extra day in the
   calendar. If you ask our friends of the Greek Church, the Russians,
   they will tell you that there is not such a day at all, for they keep
   to the old system of reckoning time. This plan of putting in an odd day
   every four years, to make our days square with the sun, is a very good
   and proper one. Still, it is a kind of a day thrown in, and it seemed
   to me that, if the Lord would convert some souls on this odd day in
   this leap year, it would make the 29th of February, that came on a
   Sunday, to be specially memorable! You will not forget it if it is the
   day of your conversion! You will say to your children, it may be, 28
   years hence, if you are alive, "Ah, I recollect when the 29th of
   February last came on a Sunday--that was the day when I sought and
   found the Lord! Mr. Spurgeon said that I was like the Apostle Paul,
   'one born out of due time,' and so I was. Yet I was born in due time, I
   know, according to the Covenant of Grace."

   Oh that the Lord, in His Infinite mercy, having given us this special
   day, would now give us a special blessing and bring many to Himself
   this leap year! Oh, that all of you who are still unsaved, would make a
   leap right out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His dear
   Son, His Holy Spirit enabling you so to do by a simple act of faith in
   Jesus Christ! And you Christian people, pray for a special and unusual
   blessing, a 29th of February blessing. Ask God to give it to us, in His
   infinite mercy, that many and many a soul may be "born out of due time"
   this very night!

   Who shall it be? And where shall the work of repentance begin? Does not
   somebody over there say, "Lord, let it be me"? There is said to be a
   special opportunity of making proposals in leap year, but I can tell
   you, if you make a proposal to come to Christ, that He has long ago set
   His heart on you! You would never have thought of proposing to Him if
   He had not first of all ordained to bring you to Himself! If you come
   to Him, He will receive you and oh, in His great mercy, may the Holy
   Spirit incline you to come to Him this 29th of February that falls upon
   a Sunday!

   II. Now I have only two or three minutes left for the second part of my
   subject--THE SURE EVIDENCES OF PAUL'S SPIRITUAL BIRTH.

   Though Paul was, in a spiritual sense, "born out of due time," he was
   truly born again. And those persons who have been converted at singular
   times and, under strange circumstances, have been really converted. How
   do we know that Paul was born again and that he was called to be an
   Apostle of Jesus Christ?

   I answer, first, because he had seen the Lord. After mentioning those
   who saw the risen Christ, he says, "Last of all He was seen of me,
   also, as of one born out of due time." The first evidence that he was
   an Apostle was that he had actually beheld the Lord. Now, in a
   spiritual sense, one of the marks of a true Believer is that he has
   seen the Lord. My dear Friend, if you have looked to Christ for
   forgiveness, even though you have only looked to Him, tonight, and this
   is an odd night--the 29th of February, yet, if you have, by faith, seen
   Jesus on the Cross, and truly trusted Him, you are as much saved as the
   man is who believed in Christ 50 years ago! Looking to Jesus is the
   evidence that we are born again-- and happy is everyone who can
   truthfully say, concerning Christ, "He was seen of me, also."--

   "Isaw One hanging on a tree, In agonies and blood."

   I looked to Him. He looked on me and we were one forever. I trusted Him
   and, therefore, I am saved. If you can say that from your heart and the
   Holy Spirit bears witness that what you say is true, you need not raise
   any question about your new birth! If you are trusting in Jesus, it is
   well with your soul in time and to eternity!

   The next evidence of his spiritual birth, which Paul gave, was that he
   confessed his sin. Read the verse following our text. "For I am the
   least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle,
   because I persecuted the church of God." See how he confessed his sin
   and forsook it? "He that covers his sins shall not prosper, but who
   confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy." Are you, dear Friend,
   willing, now, to confess your sin? Do you turn from it with loathing?
   Do you desire, henceforth, to be delivered entirely from it? Well,
   then, your repentance is another sure evidence that you are born again!
   If you have seen Jesus taking your sin upon Himself and suffering its
   dread penalty. If you have confessed your sin and, by faith, laid it
   upon Him as your Sacrifice and Substitute, you are born again, though
   you may have been, in a certain sense, "born out of due time."

   Next, we are sure that Paul was really born again because he was
   thoroughly converted. Never was there a greater change in any man than
   there was in him! He never went back to his former life and he had no
   hankering to return to it. With him, old things had passed away and all
   things had become new--he was, indeed, a new creature in Christ Jesus!

   I am sure he was converted, also, because he praised the Grace of God.
   Read the 10th verse. "By the Grace of God I am what I am." Even when he
   truthfully says, "I labored more abundantly than they all," he humbly
   adds, "yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me." It its a
   sure sign of conversion when a man knows that he is saved by Grace,
   alone, and does not attribute it to his own merit, or his own works,
   but praises and adores the Sovereign Mercy and Grace of God. Have you
   that evidence, dear Friend? Then you are born aright, even though "born
   out of due time."

   And, lastly, Paul proved that he was a true citizen of the New
   Jerusalem because he became, of all men, most zealous for Christ,
   zealous for the Gospel, zealous for the winning of souls. He seemed to
   try to do all he could to undo the mischief he had worked in the days
   of his unregeneracy and to work with both his hands and all his heart
   to establish and extend the Kingdom which once he tried to overthrow. O
   God, by Your great mercy, cause another Paul to be born in this House
   of Prayer tonight! You can do it. Will You not bring to Yourself, by
   the power of the Eternal Spirit, some wild, threatening, blustering,
   blaspheming hater of Christ? Lay him at the dear feet of the Crucified
   and cause him to look up and live!

   Pray for this, dear Christian people. Pray for it tonight when you
   reach your homes as well as now! And then we shall have special reason
   to remember this 29th of February. Possibly, someone who will, in days
   to come, stand on this very spot preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
   will say to you, "Do you remember the 29th of February, 1880? Do you
   remember the text, 'One born out of due time'?" I trust that some of
   you will be here to hear him say, "I remember it better than any of you
   do, for that was the night when I was born to God, glory be to His holy
   name!" Now pray for it with all your hearts, for our Lord Jesus
   Christ's sake. Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN3:1-18.

   If you were sent for to visit a dying man and you wished to select a
   chapter which would set the Truth of God before him very briefly and
   very clearly, you could not make a better choice than this 3rd Chapter
   of the Gospel according to John. So, as we are all dying men and women,
   let us read it with that same desire--and may the Holy Spirit apply it
   to our hearts as we read it.

   Verses 1, 2. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler
   of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night That was better than not
   coming at all. "Better late than never." Better come to Christ in the
   dark than not come to Him at all.

   2. And said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from
   God: for no man can do these miracles that You do, except God be with
   him. This was good reasoning on the part of Nicodemus. If he did not at
   first go as far as he afterwards did, it argued well for him that he
   went as far as he could. O you who are troubled with unbelief, believe
   as much as you can, and then cry, "Lord, I believe, help You my
   unbelief and, especially, help me to get rid of it." Confess to Christ
   what you do believe, and He will add more to your belief.

   3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
   Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. He cannot
   understand what it is. He cannot know anything about it. He cannot see
   it.

   4. 5. Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old?
   Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus
   answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water
   and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. If the
   "water" mentioned here relates to Baptism--which I greatly
   question--then, certainly, it shows the way of entrance for a Believer,
   publicly, into the Kingdom of God. But if it relates to the purifying
   power of the Spirit of God--as I believe it does--then it teaches us
   that no man enters into the Kingdom of God and becomes a partaker of
   its privileges--which is something more than merely seeing it--except
   the Spirit of God shall be to him as water purifying him from sin. This
   is the reason why a man cannot enter into the spiritualKingdom until he
   is born again--born from above.

   6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And "flesh and blood
   cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." 6. And that which is born of the
   Spirit is spirit And only the new creature, which is thus born, can, by
   any possibility, understand or enter into the possession of the
   spiritual things which belong to the Kingdom of God.

   7, 8. Marvel not that I said unto you, You must be born again. The wind
   blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell
   from where it comes, and where it goes: so is everyone that is born of
   the Spirit The Holy Spirit is mysterious, like the wind, and so is the
   creature that is "born of the Spirit." The spiritual man often cannot
   understand himself, he is so mysterious a being--how then shall he be
   able to fully comprehend how that wondrous new life is created within
   him? All we know is that he is a new creation, as much the work of
   eternal power as our first creation.

   9, 10. Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be?
   Jesus answered and said unto him, Are you a master of Israel, and know
   not these things? ' 'These things" that lie at the very root of
   everything? "Are you a Rabbi and do you not know this?" Alas, good
   Master, there are still many Rabbis who do not understand this! Many
   who have taken the highest degree the University can give them, yet do
   not know in their own souls what it is to be born again!

   11. Verily, verily, I say unto you, We speak what We know, and testify
   what We have seen; and you receive not Our witness. Spiritual men
   declare that there are spiritual things. They know them and have seen
   them, and they have a right to be believed, for they are not liars.
   They are honest men and speak what they know, yet, often, their witness
   is not received. They need not be surprised at this, for it was the
   same with their Master!

   12. If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall
   you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? If these elementary
   Truths of God about the new birth stagger you, what is the use of My
   going on to anything higher? You would not understand it, or receive
   it.

   13. And no man has ascended up to Heaven, but He that came down from
   Heaven, even the Son of Man which is in Heaven. He alone knows the
   secrets of God who has been with God, who has come from God, and who is
   still with God.

   14-18. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
   must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whoever believes in Him should
   not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He
   gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
   perish, but have everlasting life. For Godsent 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 believedin the name ofthe
   only-begotten Son of God. God give us, even now, deliverance from
   condemnation through faith in His dear Son--and prevent our being
   condemned through our unbelief--for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Things Unknown

   (No. 2664)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 4, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, EARLY IN
   THE YEAR 1858.

   "Call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty
   things which you know not." Jeremiah 33:3.

   GOD'S people will never thrive on anything less substantial than bread
   from Heaven. Israel in Egypt might live on garlic and onions, but
   Israel in the wilderness must be fed with the manna that came down from
   Heaven, and with the water that gushed out of the Rock when it was
   smitten by the rod of God. The child of God, while he is yet in his
   sins, may, like other men, revel in them, and the pleasures and follies
   of this world may be his delight. But when he is once brought out of
   Egypt by the high hand of God's purpose, and the almighty hand of God's
   strength, he will never live on anything less than God's promise and
   God's Truth! It is vain for men to try to remove his doubts and
   strengthen his self-confidence. It is vain for men to endeavor to feed
   himself with man-made doctrine or with rationalistic ideas--he must
   have something that is Divine, that has the stamp of Revelation upon
   it. In fact, unless we can come forth every Sabbath with a, "Thus says
   the Lord," we are not capable ministers of the New Covenant and it is
   not in our power to comfort the Lord's children.

   In this chapter we find the Prophet Jeremiah in prison. He was shut up
   in the court of the prison and, in order to comfort him, the Word of
   the Lord came to him saying, "Thus says the Lord." Something less than
   that may suffice in the time of our prosperity, to make our hopes
   buoyant, for, alas, there is enough of the natural man in the Christian
   to make him rejoice even in carnal things when he is far from being
   thoroughly sanctified. But when we are in trouble. When affliction and
   adversity, sickness and suffering are trying us, there is no man-made
   raft upon which our soul can float through floods of tribulation and
   waves of deep distress--we must have the Divine life buoy of a, "Thus
   says the Lord." That is what the Christian needs in every time and in
   every place, but this is what he most especially needs when he does
   business in deep waters and is sorely exercised by affliction, "Thus
   says the Lord." My text is a, "Thus says the Lord." "Thus says the
   Lord, call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and
   mighty things, which you know not."

   Here is, first, a large promise. Here is, secondly, an implied
   imperfection. And here is, thirdly, a particular application of the
   promise, making up for that imperfection.

   I. Here is, first A LARGE PROMISE. "Call unto Me, and I will answer
   you."

   Now, if any friend should write us a letter containing such words as
   those, "Call unto me, and I will answer you," we would naturally
   understand by them that whatever we might ask of our friend, he would
   most assuredly give us. And if he were a person in whose ability and
   kindness we had confidence, we would not be very slow in availing
   ourselves of his permission to seek his aid. If we were in debt, we
   would apply to him for financial help so that we might be able to meet
   our liabilities. If we were tried by sickness, we would apply to him
   that he might give us medicines to relieve our pains. If our friends
   had been ungrateful to us, we would most likely call upon him for
   sympathy. And if our spirits were distressed from some unknown
   cause--if we believed him to have immense wisdom--we would ask him for
   some cordial to raise us from our distress.

   But how different is the case when we read these Words as coming from
   the lips of God! Then, my Brothers and Sisters, how strange it is that,
   instead of making use of them, we just read them as a matter of
   course--we seldom think of making use of them! "Yes," we say, "it is a
   very comforting doctrine, that God answers prayer. It is truly
   consolatory to

   hear our minister inform us that whatever we ask in prayer, believing,
   we shall receive." But there the matter ends. And, except with a few
   choice spirits, it remainsa matter of doctrine and not a matter of
   practice to us! "O fools, and slow of heart to believe," our Master
   might well say to us! And if He should come into our heart, He would
   administer a thousand rebukes to us for our slackness in proving the
   Truth of His promise. For God means what He says and, inasmuch as He
   has said, "Call unto Me, and I will answer you," He intends that His
   Words should stand good. And He wishes us to believe them to be true
   and, therefore, to prove our faith by acting upon them. Alas, the Truth
   of God is too plain to be disputed, that the most of us, while, in a
   sense, we receive this doctrine because it is in the Bible, do not so
   receive it as to put it into practice! In introducing to your notice
   the great general Truth of God, "Call unto Me, and I will answer you,"
   I shall probably have to answer a host of objections and questions.

   "Well," says one person, "would you wish us to believe, Sir, that
   whatever we ask in prayer we shall receive?" I must reply to you with
   discretion. In the first place, who are you who now ask that question?
   Are you a child God, or are you a worldling? Have you been born again,
   or are you still what you were by nature, without any renewal from the
   Holy Spirit? For, upon your answer to those questions, mine must
   depend. If you are still without the Spirit of God, and are unrenewed,
   I would remind you of that passage which says, concerning the wicked,
   "Even his prayer shall be an abomination "--and if your prayer is an
   abomination, of course you cannot expect God to accept an abomination
   and answer it! You must, therefore, know that you, yourself, are a
   partaker of the Grace of God, or else this promise does not belong to
   you.

   You grant me that, and then you ask me this question, "Sir, I hope I am
   a child of God. Am I, therefore, to understand that whatever I shall
   ask for in prayer, I shall receive of God?" To you, also, I must answer
   with discretion, lest, in endeavoring to state a truth, I should utter
   a falsehood. I must first ask you in what state of heart you are as a
   child of God. Have you been lately communing with Christ? Have you been
   constant in the study of His Word? What are your wishes? What are your
   needs? What are your desires? For, upon your answers to these
   questions, my reply to your enquiry must depend. It may be that you are
   a Christian, but, nevertheless, though an Israelite, you, like Israel
   in the wilderness, are asking for meat that you may satisfy your own
   lust, even as they did. And when they craved for flesh and the Lord
   sent them quails, while the meat was yet in their mouths, the curse of
   the Lord came upon them!

   We are sure to have our prayers answered if it is right that they
   should be answered. Sometimes even the Lord's people ask for things
   which it would not be for God's Glory to give, nor for their profit to
   receive. If you should tell your child you would give him anything he
   asked for, you would not, for a moment, suppose that you included in
   the promise any absurd request he might make! Suppose he should ask you
   for a dose of arsenic? Suppose he should request you to kill him? Would
   you fulfill your promise? Certainly not! You would Say, "My child, I
   love you too well to listen to the ravings of your madness. I desire
   your good too much to grant your absurd request and I cannot listen to
   you." God says the same--"'Call upon Me, and I will answer you,' but I
   will not always answer you as you wish to be answered. If you ask for a
   thing which is not fit for you to receive, I will give you something
   better--I will not give you that very thing. I will hear your prayers,
   but I will not give you exactly what you ask for--I will grant you
   something infinitely superior to the thing itself."

   It would be a sad thing if God always heard our prayers and gave us
   just what we asked of Him. If He always gave us the exact thing we
   asked for, we should ruin ourselves! You may have heard the story of a
   woman who had a child who was very ill. When her pastor called to see
   her, she asked him to pray for the child's life, and in the prayer he
   very properly said, "O Lord, spare this child's life, if it is Your
   will." The mother interrupted him and said, "No, I cannot have it
   so--this child must live. I want you to pray to God that the child may
   live whether God wills it or not." The minister said, "Woman, you will
   have cause to tremble on account of this petition. If you ask such a
   thing as this of God, there will be a curse upon it." Nevertheless, the
   prayer was prayed and, 20 years afterwards, that woman, with an aching
   heart, saw her son riding in a cart to Tyburn where he was to be
   hanged! Better would it have been for him and also for her that he had
   perished at the breast and be carried to an untimely grave, than that
   he should send her gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. God, therefore,
   makes this very kind reservation that if we ask for absurd things,
   things which would not be for our profit, He will not grant them.

   But the question is put to me again, "Sir, if I ask for a thing which
   is obviously a good thing, which is most assuredly for my profit, may I
   be certain, after I have asked in prayer for that thing, that I shall
   have it?" Once more, I must ask

   another question. Have you yet learned the heavenly art of believing
   God? Because you may be a Christian, you may believe in Christ enough
   for your soul's salvation, but you may be so small a Christian that you
   have never yet attained the mountain height of belief in all your Lord
   has uttered. And, mark you, the promise of an answer to our prayers is
   only given to our faith. The Lord Jesus Christ put it thus to His
   disciples--"What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that
   you receive them, and you shall have them." Now, if you go on your
   knees in prayer and ask God for anything and do not believe that He
   will give it to you, it may come in God's extraordinary bounty, but it
   will not come in answer to your prayer! Your prayers shall be answered
   in proportion to your faith. So, if you believe and ask for a thing
   that is for your good and God's Glory, you will have it as surely as
   the promise is a promise and God is God! I have talked with many
   Christians and some of my aged friends have talked with far more than I
   have, but both they and myself can bear witness that we have never yet
   met with any Christian that could charge God with breaking His promise.
   We have met with many who have been far from having the faith they
   ought to have, but we have never discovered one so faithless to God as
   to charge Him with not answering the prayer that was stamped with
   believing. Whenever there is faith, there will be the answer to the
   prayer of faith--you will never hear a Christian deny that Truth of
   God.

   It was my privilege, some two years ago, when at Bristol, to visit the
   Orphanage of Mr. Muller, and I never saw a more striking or startling
   exhibition of the power of faith than I did there. Mr. Muller supports
   300 orphan children on no resources but his own faith and prayer. When
   he needs anything, he calls them together, offers supplication to God,
   and asks that necessities may be supplied. And, although there are 300
   to be fed, to be clothed and to be housed--and though they have often
   been brought so low that there has not been a farthing in their
   coffers, nor a handful of meal in their barrel--when mealtime has come,
   there has always been abundance of bread in the house in answer to
   prayer.

   I shall never forget my interview with that holy man of God. Some
   gentleman said to me, "I wish you would ask Mr. Muller a question or
   two, if you see him, as to the foundation of a new Orphan House which
   he proposes to build to hold 700 more children. Now, I feel that three
   hundred is quite enough for one man to care for," the old gentleman
   said. "I think it is very absurd for him to have 700 more. He will
   never be able to support a thousand. As to the preset Institution, I
   believe that generous persons hear about it and send him subscriptions
   for it maintenance. But as to his supporting 700 more orphans, that is
   impossible!"

   I replied, "I think there is something in what you say. I will ask him
   when I see him." But when I saw him, I could not and dared not ask him
   any such questions! And when I saw what a great work he had done by his
   faith, and began to remark upon it, he said, "Oh, it is only a little
   thing that I have done--faith could do far more than that. If it were
   God's will that I should feed the universe on prayer and faith, I could
   do it. If I had more faith, it could be accomplished." I was just going
   to say that, possibly, a thousand orphans would be more than he could
   support, when he said, "When I got three hundred children, I began to
   pray God to send me money to build an Orphan House to hold seven
   hundred more, and I already have £17,000 sent in for it, although I
   have never solicited a contribution from anybody but the Lord. I
   believe God has made me to be here, to be to the world a proof that He
   hears and answers prayer." I thought so, too, when I saw that huge
   building and the many dear children rising up to praise their God, and
   singing so sweetly in honor of the Good Shepherd who had gathered them
   like lambs to His bosom, and had gently folded them there.

   Brothers and Sisters, we do not speak without solid facts to confirm
   our assertion when we affirm that whatever a saint asks in prayer, if
   he asks in faith, and it is for his own profit and for God's Glory, he
   will be sure to have it. I daresay you have read Huntington's, "Bank of
   Faith." He certainly gives us too many of those instances for most
   people to believe, but I fancy there are plenty of persons alive who
   have had as many answers to their prayers as ever William Hunt-ington
   had, and who, if they were to write the minutiae of their lives, could
   bear most solemn testimony to the truth that never could they remember
   God being unfaithful to His promises, or their prayers unanswered.
   This, however, must always depend upon the person, himself, for if we
   ask waveringly, or without faith, we must not expect to be answered. We
   must not forge that what God implies, when He does not grant
   unbelieving requests, is just this, "Inasmuch as you have no faith, I
   have nothing to give you."

   We must do as the people did at Christmas time in the olden days. It
   used to be the custom for the poor inhabitants in a village to go round
   with basins to the rich people in the parish and beg bread and other
   victuals of them. And the rule was that every gentleman was to fill the
   bowl that was brought to his door. Of course, the wisest among the poor
   folk brought a very large bowl for the Christmas gathering, but those
   who had little faith in the generosity of their wealthy

   neighbors took a small bowl, and that was filled. But those who took a
   big bowl had theirs filled too! So, dear Friends, you must always try,
   in your prayers, to bring a big bowl to God! Bring great faith and rest
   assured that, according to your faith, it shall be done unto you. If
   you have little faith, you shall have a little answer. If you have
   tolerable faith, you shall have a tolerable answer. But if you have a
   mighty faith, you shall have such a mighty answer that you shall wonder
   at it, yet you shall feel that it is according to the promise of our
   text, "Call unto Me, and I will answer you."

   II. Now we come to the second part of our subject and we notice AN
   IMPLIED IMPERFECTION. "Call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show
   you great and mighty things, which you know not." It is implied that
   God's people do not know everything.

   Did you ever meet a man who knew everything? I have happened to meet
   half-a-dozen such. I once met with a minister who knew all
   things--according to his own account, I mean--not according to mine. He
   told me when I saw him that in the parish where he lived, there were
   not more than a dozen people who knew the Lord Jesus Christ in truth. I
   was interested in that man, for I knew a little about him, so I said to
   him, "Well, who are they?" So he began, "Well, there is myself, and my
   wife, and my two deacons," and so on. "Oh," I answered, "the only
   person I should dispute out of that number would be yourself, because I
   think you know too much by a great deal--you seem to have climbed up
   and to have looked into the secret roll of God's Decrees. No child of
   God would do that. Children do not look into their father's secrets--it
   is only thieves who do that. I doubt your claim to be a child of God."

   Each of us, at times, meets with an interesting individual who knows
   far too much, in whose company one always feels uncomfortable. We never
   introduce any subject--we leave him to do that because he is the Pope
   of our circle. He hates Popery, of course! Two Popes cannot agree, so,
   naturally, he has a very strong objection to the Pope of Rome. He
   himself knows all things. You utter a sentiment--he tells you,
   directly, that it is not sound--he knows, of course. You talk about a
   matter of experience, but he says, "That is not the experience of the
   living child of God." He is umpire, of course. He knows all about it.
   He is the judge who ends all strife. He settles everything. Bring him
   in, his vote is the casting vote, which it were almost profane to
   controvert! He is King, Lords and Commons, all rolled into one. He
   makes the laws and he fulfils them. He is, in his own sphere, the
   Autocrat of all Christians!

   Now, God's children belong to a very different order of beings from
   this very respectable and very venerable individual! They do notknow
   everything and they do not pretend to be full of all knowledge. One of
   the best of them, whose name was Paul, said, "Not as though I have
   already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if
   that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ
   Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one
   thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching
   forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark or
   the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

   An old man once met a young one who had been to College about six
   months and he sad to him, "Do you know much?" "Yes," the young man
   answered, "I am getting on very fast." The old man said, "You will not
   say that in a year's time, or else I shall have no hope for you." In a
   year's time, he asked him whether he knew much more than he did six
   months before. He replied, "Sometimes I think I know a great deal more,
   but, at other times, I think I know a great deal less. I have
   discovered my own ignorance more than ever this last year." Then the
   old man said, "By the time you have been in college four years, you
   will confess yourself to be a very great fool." And when he met him,
   during the fourth year, he said, "What do you know now" The student
   replied, "I think, perhaps, I know more than when I entered College,
   but, in my own opinion, I know much less. When I first came, I thought
   myself competent to give a decisive opinion upon every subject. Now, I
   am obliged to weigh everything before I am able to state anything
   positively. My own ignorance has been discovered."

   Now, depend upon it, dear Friends, it will be the same with each of
   you! We may think, when we first join the Church, "We know almost
   everything." Some people suppose that all the Truths of God are found
   in the Baptist denomination. Others imagine it is all in the
   Episcopalian, Independent, or Wesleyan denomination, or in whatever
   sect they belong. But when we have been members of the Baptist
   denomination for a considerable time, we discover that there are
   several faults among us. And we think, perhaps, that if we were
   fashioned according to the Presbyterian model, we might be improved.
   By-and-by, we find a friend who attends an Episcopal Church, where he
   hears the Gospel very plainly preached by a very earnest clergyman and
   we say we think there is something good in the Episcopalians! And the
   longer we live, the more we find that there is something good in all
   and that, after all, we do not know as much as we

   thought we did, and that our Church, though it seemed to be the very
   model of perfection, is found to be full of infirmities as well as any
   other Church, and it is not exactly theChurch after all.

   I repeat, then, the assertion that is implied in the text, that we
   have, all of us, a certain amount of ignorance and imperfection, for if
   we knew all things, we would have no necessity for this promise, that
   God would show us great and mighty things which we do not know. But, as
   we are still imperfect and growing in our knowledge, this promise is
   exceedingly precious to us. I can scarcely think that I have any person
   here of that particular clique who fancy they know everything. If I
   have, I would say a word to him. There is a certain body of excellent
   men who call themselves "God's dear people!" That is just what they
   are--they are dear to anybody--nobody would think of buying them. If
   they were to be given away, they would be scarcely worth having! They
   are God's dear people. They hear their minister preach a sermon made up
   of the extract of gall and bitterness, and that just pleases them. His
   people rejoice in that kind of talk and say that he is a faithful
   minister. If he were to leave off being bitter, he would not be
   faithful--faithfulness, according to their meaning, consists in finding
   fault with all the world besides. They tell you to go to "Little
   Bethel," "Rehoboth," or "Bethesda," because there is no truth anywhere
   else. It is only there that the Truth of God is to be had, and all
   other congregations are schismatics, whom it is their duty to denounce
   and persecute with the utmost rigor of the Gospel-- and you are aware
   that the utmost rigor of the Gospel is worse than the utmost rigor of
   the law!

   The rigor of the Gospel is more intolerable than even the rule of
   Draco, himself, for those persons exclude, denounce, and condemn every
   man who is not to the very turn of a hair's breadth in conformity with
   theirviews. To every such person we say, "Dear Brother, you are very
   wise! All hail to you! We will put you in the chair as the marvelous
   Doctor of Divinity! You are the man! Wisdom will die with you and,
   while we humbly bow at your feet, we are obliged to say that you do not
   yet know everything--there are a few things that need to be revealed,
   even to you! And while we keep ourselves at a respectful distance from
   anything like your superior knowledge, we are compelled to think that
   you have not yet attained unto perfection--and we cannot admit that you
   are the only man in all the world who understands and knows the
   Gospel."

   Well, though our Brother will not join with us in saying, "We do not
   know all things," I think that all who are here present will bow their
   heads and each one will say, "Lord, teach me what I do not know; for
   the little that I know is nothing to be compared with the volumes of
   Your wisdom which I have not read and do not yet understand."

   III. Now we come to the third head of our subject, which is the best of
   all. We have, here, THE PARTICULAR APPLICATION OF THE PROMISE. "Call
   unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things,
   which you know not."

   First, we understand this promise to relate to Gospel doctrines. I
   confess that when I first preached in a country village as its pastor,
   I read all Dr. Gill's, "Body of Divinity," and Calvin's, "Institutes."
   And when I had done that, I thought, "Now I have got hold of the Truth
   of God, I am certain I have, and I can meet all opponents. And if they
   are not conformed to the views of that most learned man, Dr. Gill, and
   that excellent confessor, John Calvin, I will soon cut them up root and
   branch." Well, I began to preach what I had learned from these great
   and good men, and I have never been ashamed of having done so, for, as
   a successor of Dr. Gill, I am not ashamed to endorse his views, even
   now, and to subscribe to the doctrinal statements that John Calvin
   uttered.

   However, I soon began to find out that there was a good deal to be
   said, after all, concerning some matters that Dr. Gill and John Calvin
   did not mention! And I found that I was obliged, somewhat, to stretch
   my charity and to take to my heart some Brothers and Sisters who did
   not quite see all things which those enlightened men saw! And,
   moreover, I found out that I did not know everything and that I had a
   good deal, still, to learn, and I find the same thing every day. I hope
   at all times to hold firmly all the Truths of God I have received. I
   intend to grasp tightly with one hand the Truths I have already learned
   and to keep the other hand wide open to take in the things I do not yet
   know.

   Perhaps I have some young man here who has a notion that some minister
   has got all the Truth, or that he, himself, has embraced all the Truth.
   Now, young man, there are a great many things that you do not know!
   There are some doctrines you do not understand. If you will wait a
   little while and study your Bible more, you will go down on your knees,
   and say, "Lord, I never knew my own ignorance as much as I do now. Will
   You teach me Your Truth?" Do we desire to understand the faith of God?
   Let us not be discouraged. In answer to our prayer, God will show us
   "great and mighty things" which we do not now know. You are a
   Christian, yet you do not comprehend the Doctrine of Election. Or, per-

   haps, the Doctrine of Effectual Calling puzzles you. You are a
   Churchman, perhaps, yet you do not know anything about these things.
   You are like a man I met once in a railway carriage. He said he was a
   High Churchman and I said I was a High Churchman, too. "How can that
   be?" he enquired, "you are a Dissenter." "But," I replied, "I believe
   many of the doctrines of your Church." He said, "I think not." "Well,"
   I said "I believe in the Doctrine of Election, Predestination and so
   on." "Oh," he said, "I do not." "But," I said, "they are in your
   Articles." He said, "I believe the Catechism, but I have not read the
   Articles." "Then," I rejoined, "I am the better Churchman of the
   two--you are the Dissenter, and I am the High Churchman! You ought to
   be turned out of the Church if you do not believe the Articles. They
   ought to take me, and give me a first-rate living and make me one of
   their bishops, for I have read the Articles, and studied them."

   A great many people do not know what they believe. No person has a
   right to say he is a Churchman till he has read the Prayer Book. You
   have no right to say you are Wesleyan till you have read Wesley's
   sermons. And you have no right to say you are a Calvinist till you have
   read what Calvin believed. And you have no right to say you are a
   Christian till you have read your Bible, for the Bible is the standard
   of Christian faith and practice! And when you come to read your Bible,
   you will find this one thing out, that your own little views were not
   quite so wide as the Bible, after all--and you will have to say, "Lord,
   show me great and mighty things, which I know not now." I am persuaded
   that neither the Church of England, nor the Wesleyans, nor the
   Independents, nor the Baptists have all the Truth. I would not belong
   to any one of these denominations for all the land that is beneath the
   sky, if I had to endorse all that is held by them! I believe that the
   Church ought to be governed by an Episcopalian Presbyterian Baptist
   Independency. I believe we are all right in a great many of our
   doctrines, but that we all have something yet to learn. The Doctrine of
   "Man's Responsibility" is not to be denied, nor the Doctrine of "God's
   Sovereignty" to be disputed. I hope that, some day, we shall all bring
   our views to the test of the Sacred Scriptures. Then shall we have one
   Church, "one Lord, one faith, one Baptism." Then shall we know great
   and mighty things which we know not now. I would persuade you, my
   Baptist friends, that your system is not perfect, and you members of
   the Episcopalian Church, that your polity is not altogether without
   imperfection. And I would entreat you, my Friend, though you are a
   member of an excellent body of Believers, however excellent that Church
   may be, not to think it is infallible! Go down on your knees and ask
   God to teach you what you do not know, and to make you better than your
   creed. Or else, in nine cases out of ten, you will not be worth much.

   But, next, "great, and mighty things, which you know not," God will
   show you in Providence. A poor man is in trouble. He has not funds to
   buy daily bread. Let him call upon God and ask for it--and though he
   has never seen the Lord thrust out His hand from Heaven, or feed him by
   the ravens, or quench his thirst with water out of the Rock--let him go
   down on his knees and he will find that there are more wonders in
   Providence than you and I have yet seen! In answer to prayer, we shall
   see how God's Providence, though it is far beyond our ideas, is
   according to our prayers. There are many Christians who have been in
   great trouble and have experienced a most marvelous deliverance in
   Providence. If we have great trouble, let us bring them to our great
   God. Let us cry unto Him and, in Providence, we shall see "great and
   mighty things" which we know not as yet.

   In the next place, very briefly passing over these points, "great and
   mighty things, which you know not," God will show you in matters of
   Christian experience. Let us search God's Word and give ourselves to
   prayer and then, in matters of experience, we shall see "great and
   mighty things" which we yet know not. A Christian is immeasurably
   beyond the worldling and there is a possibility of a Christian becoming
   as much beyond himself as he now is beyond a sinner dead in sins. There
   is no telling how great he may become even on earth. I do not think we
   can ever, on earth, become perfect, but we know not how near to
   perfection we may come. We may not, while on earth, dwell in Heaven,
   but, who can tell how much of Heaven may dwell in us while we are here?
   Did you ever sit down and read the Life of Herbert, or Whitefield, or
   Haliburton? After we have read such books, we say within ourselves,
   "What poor worms we are!"

   We feel like Robert Hall, who, when a certain minister came to see him,
   said, "I am so glad to see you! Mr. So-and-So has been here. He is so
   far above me that I felt myself to be nothing in his presence, but now
   I begin to feel myself a man again." Have you never felt, when in the
   company of some great and mighty man, as if you were nothing at all?
   When I first read HenryMartyn'sLife, I could not refrain from weeping
   for some hours afterwards, to think how much below such a life as his I
   was living! Yet you know not but that you may climb where these men
   did! The steps of the mountain of piety may be steep to look upon, but
   they are accessible to the feet of diligence. Go on and you shall yet
   stand where Moses stood, and behold Canaan from the top of Nebo!
   Remember that you are as yet upon the lowlands. Be

   not ashamed to acknowledge that you are desirous to climb upwards. Bend
   your knees and God will show you in experience "great and mighty
   things" that you yet know not.

   If any man is content with his own experience, it is entirely through
   ignorance. I will defy anyone to take Rutherford's Letters and sit down
   and, after reading them, to not say, "Rutherford seems to have been
   like an angel of God! I am only a man, I never can stand where
   Rutherford stood." Frequently, when I return home from Chapel on the
   Sabbath evening, I get down George Herbert's Book of Songs. And when I
   see how much he loved the Lord, it seems to me as if he had struck upon
   his harp the very notes that he shall heard in Paradise--and sung them
   all again. Let us not be discouraged--we may yet become Herberts, and
   Rutherfords, and Whitfields! No, there is no reason why we should not
   become as great as the Old or New Testament saints! There is no reason
   why we should not be as great as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! For why
   should not every child of God, in these days, become a mighty a man of
   faith as was Abraham of old? Let us plead the promise of the
   text--"Call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and
   mighty things, which you know not."

   And, to conclude, the same Truth of God holds good with regard to the
   universal Church of God. I do not know whether you may have noticed
   that the devil, in his wisdom, has just tried to pervert all our
   services. My heart has been made glad by the opening of Exeter Hall for
   the preaching of the Gospel! Never did my heart so leap for joy as when
   I heard that our Brothers of the Church of England had to begun to
   preach in Exeter Hall, though I felt sad when those doors were shut
   against them. Now our joys are blasted and our happiness is clouded. It
   appears that because some have lately endeavored to turn to good
   account the earnestness of the people to hear the Word in their own
   churches and chapels, next Sunday we shall see the lamentable spectacle
   in this great metropolis of a place, not open simply for the preaching
   of the Word, but actually for a Sabbath Concert.

   [MR. SPURGEON was referring to the arrangements which had been made for
   a sacred concert and a Gospel address combined at the Alhambra Palace.
   Happily, the minister who took the service abandoned it after one
   attempt, being convinced that more harm than good would result from it.
   But, unhappily, since then, not only have sacred concerts been
   regularly established, either with or without Gospel addresses, but
   many places are open on the Lord's-Day for secular concerts, at which
   there is not even the pretence of any religious service. Our comfort
   still is, as it was MR. SPURGEON'S over 40 years ago, that "the Lord
   reigns," and He will get the victory over all His adversaries.]

   We shall read of multitudes assembled in a building, the property of
   one connected with a theatre. We shall hear of people being gathered
   together and there will be a person found who will profess to preach
   the Gospel to them, and the "Messiah" will be performed as the great
   inducement for attracting them. Perhaps there is no person who feels
   more sorrow than I do that this fearful cloud has fallen upon us. The
   devil may one day open the Crystal Palace, the Museum and every other
   place on Sunday--but the Lord reigns--and if this nation shall be given
   up to Sabbath-breaking, let us not despair! God sits as the Ruler in
   Heaven and, as surely as He is God, He will get the victory! The devil
   will outwit himself, as he has always done--Satan will fall into his
   own pit. I hope, however, that the Christians of Great Britain will be
   very earnest in calling upon God. Pray continually to the Most High,
   that He will prosper the preaching of the Gospel to the multitude, but
   that He will never allow our entering into unconsecrated places to be
   twisted and turned to unhallowed uses! And pray that God will bring
   forth greater good out of the great evil, and so glorify Himself, and
   thus show us great and mighty things that we know not.

   I can only now beseech the Lord to pour His blessing upon each of you.
   May you be earnest in prayer and constant in supplication. And if you
   have yet never known Christ, may He soon be made known to you by the
   Holy Spirit and may your prayers be lifted up to Heaven that He may
   show you His salvation--which is one of the "great and mighty things"
   which you know not now!
     __________________________________________________________________

A Day to Be Remembered

   (No. 2665)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, MARCH 11, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

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

   "And Jesus said unto him, This day has salvation come to this house."
   Luke 19:9.

   OBSERVE, dear Friends, that our Lord spoke this sentence to Zacchaeus.
   Some of us may have fancied that He said it to the objecting people,
   but He did not. They may have heard it and their objection may have
   been answered by it, but the main purpose of our blessed Lord, in
   uttering those words, was not to answer objectors, but to comfort one
   who might feel dispirited by their murmuring remark. Therefore, "Jesus
   said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house."

   It is always better to comfort Believers than to answer quibblers. The
   quibblers scarcely deserve a reply, for they are pretty sure to find
   fault again--it is according to their nature to do so. But as for the
   poor distressed people of God, who gladly receive the Truth of God, and
   yet have to endure unkind observations, let these be cheered, for has
   not the Lord, Himself, said, "Comfort you, comfort you My people"? Now,
   what could give Zacchaeus greater consolation than for the Lord Jesus
   Christ to bear witness to the fact of his salvation? "Jesus said unto
   him, This day is salvation come to this house."

   I fancy that I can hear some of you say, "We should count it the
   happiest day in our lives if the Lord Jesus would come and tell us that
   salvation had come to us." But, Beloved, you cannot have Him come, in
   the flesh, to say that to you, for He has gone away, to carry on His
   service elsewhere. Among other things, He has gone to prepare a place
   for you who believe in Him. But His Spirit is equally Divine and He is
   always with us--and you may have the Spirit of God bearing witness with
   your spirit that you are the children of God. No, I trust that you not
   only believe that you may have this Witness, but that you actually have
   hadit--you have had that secret, silent, inward evidence which no man
   understands but the one who receives it--and you know, in your own
   soul, that you have passed from death unto life because the Holy Sprit
   has sealed that Truth of God upon your heart! Therefore, dear Friend,
   be joyful. Yes, be exceedingly glad! If anything can make a man leap
   for joy, it ought to be the assurance of his eternal safety. If
   salvation has come to your heart, you ought to be as happy as an angel!
   I think that there are some reasons why you should be even happier, for
   an angel cannot know, by personal experience, the bliss of having his
   sins forgiven. You who have realized this wondrous blessing ought to
   cause the wilderness and the solitary places to resound with the melody
   of your thanksgiving! And with the music of your grateful delight you
   should make even the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose. Oh,
   what bliss it is to be assured by the Holy Spirit, Himself, that you
   have passed from death unto life, and that salvation has indeed come to
   you! May many of you enjoy that bliss from this very hour!

   Now let us come directly to the text. "This day," says Christ, "is
   salvation come to this house." You will not forget the outline of the
   sermon, for it is very simple, and one that can be easily remembered.
   First, This day--what?Secondly, This day--why?Thirdly, This day--why
   not?

   I. First, THIS DAY--WHAT? What about this day?

   Christ says, "This day is salvation come to this house." He seemed to
   cut that day out of all the rest of time and to say concerning it,
   "This day--this particular day--on this very day--is salvation come to
   you." Then, let this day be a holy

   day and let it be a holiday! Let it be remembered for many a year, yes,
   let it be remembered throughout all time and throughout eternity, too.
   "This day."

   You know that there are some people who observe certain days which God
   has not ordained to be kept in any special manner. The Galatians did so
   and, therefore, Paul wrote to them, "I am afraid for you, lest I have
   bestowed upon you labor in vain." We do not judge those who act in a
   similar way, today, but still, like Paul, we are afraid for them--that
   is to say, we fear they are mistaken in what they do. But there aresome
   days which God commanded to be observed.

   The first was the day when the work of creation was finished,
   concerning which we read, "On the seventh day God ended His work which
   He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which
   He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it:
   because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created
   and made." The completion of the creation, when, "God saw everything
   that He had made and, behold, it was very good," deserves to be
   remembered! And does not the new creation also deserve to be
   remembered? When the Lord creates in a man a new heart and a right
   spirit, shall we not say, one to another, "This day--this joyful
   day--this Divine day--this new creation day--is a day to be observed
   very specially"?

   It is clear, from the practice of the Apostles, that the Lord intends
   us to observe the first day of the week, because that was the day of
   Christ's Resurrection from the dead, the day of the completion of our
   redemption--and well may we commemorate the complete redemption even
   more than the complete creation! Shall not each saved man especially
   celebrate the day when he was redeemed from sin? Shall he not count it
   worthy to be observed, with holy rites of preaching, praise and prayer,
   and to be had in grateful remembrance as long as he lives? Each
   Believer can say of the Lord's Day, "This day the Lord redeemed my soul
   out of the land of the enemy and set me free forever." God has
   appointed but one day to be kept sacred above all others--that is the
   Lord's Day. Your Christmas days, and your Good Fridays and all such
   seasons are only observed by man's ordinance--but the Sabbath is
   ordained of God--and that is to be observed as the emblem of rest. Now,
   surely, when a man comes into rest and "we which have believed do enter
   into rest," then that day should be especially observed by him. It
   should become a Sabbath unto the Lord throughout the man's whole life--
   that happy day in which salvation came to him. Let, then, "this day"
   stand as a special day in your calendar! Mark it with a red line, if
   you like. Or mark it with a golden seal and let it be had in
   remembrance forevermore.

   Our Lord said to Zacchaeus, "This day is salvation come to this house."
   From these Words I learn, first, that salvation is a speedy blessing.
   It can come to a house in a day. No, more, it can take possession of a
   man's heartin a day. No, to go further, this great work can be
   accomplished in a single moment! I suppose that the new birth is
   actually a thing which requires no appreciable period of time--a flash
   and it is done! If a man is dead and he is restored to life, there may
   be, in certain respects, a gradual operation upon that man and some
   time may elapse before he is able to walk. But there must be a certain
   instant in which there is life in the man, whereas, a moment before,
   there was no life in him. The actual quickening must be a thing that is
   instantaneous, so that the working of salvation in a man may not only
   be performed this day, or this hour, or this quarter of an hour, but
   this minute, or even this second! Between light and darkness there is
   usually a period of twilight and so there is in the soul, but, even in
   twilight there is a measure of light, and there must be a moment when
   the first real beam of light begins to smite the ebonite darkness.

   So there must be a moment when Grace first enters the soul and the man
   who before was graceless, becomes gracious! I think this is a good
   point to be remembered. You poor deluded souls who hope to save
   yourselves by your own works will have to keep on throughout your whole
   lives at that useless occupation! And even when you lie dying, you may
   be sure that you are not saved if you have been trusting to your own
   works. But he that believes in Christ Jesus is saved then and there and
   he can joyfully sing--

   "'Tis done! The great transaction's done! I am my Lord's, and He is
   mine." This is a blessed fact, that salvation can come to a soul this
   very hour. No, as I have already reminded you, long before the hand of
   that clock shall have reached the end of this hour, salvation may have
   entered into many hearts that are in this place, as truly as it entered
   into the house of Zacchaeus!

   Next, I learn from our text that salvation is a discernible blessing.
   "This day is salvation come to this house." Christ could see it, so
   that it was something which could be seen. Yes, and salvation was also
   seen by Zacchaeus, himself, and the fruits of it were soon seen by
   those who were in the house with him. Do not suppose that a man can be
   saved and yet know

   nothing about the great change that has been worked in him. It is not
   every man who can say for certain that he is saved, for faith is a
   thing of growth and assurance may not come at once. But when a man is
   really and completely saved, he has but to use the proper means and he
   may become absolutely certain of it. God the Holy Spirit is willing and
   waiting to give the full assurance of faith and of understanding to
   those who seek it at His hands.

   Next, salvation is a perfect blessing. ' 'This day is salvation come to
   this house." Well, but only as late as yesterday that man had not even
   seen Jesus! Half an hour ago, he was climbing a tree, like a boy might
   have done, with no wish but just to get a sight of Jesus! And, now, is
   that man saved "Yes," says Christ, "this day is salvation come to this
   house." "But, surely, you don't talk as positively as that concerning a
   man who came here tonight unsaved and who has just trusted in Jesus?
   You must mean that he has reached a hopeful stage in his experience and
   that, after several years, he may, perhaps, come to be really assured
   that he is a saved man." I mean nothing of the sort! I mean just what
   the text implies, which is that the moment the Lord Jesus Christ
   crossed the threshold of the house of Zacchaeus, his sins were forgiven
   him, his heart was renewed, his spirit was changed and he was a saved
   man. "But," someone asks, "is anybody ever saved before he dies?" Yes,
   certainly! Were those persons dead of whom Paul wrote, "For the
   preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness, but unto us
   who are saved, it is the power of God." They were living men and women,
   yet the Apostle said that they were saved--and so they were! And, at
   the present moment, there are hundreds of thousands of believers in
   Jesus upon the face of this earth who are as truly saved, now, as they
   will be when they stand before the burning Throne of God "without spot,
   or wrinkle or any such thing." In God's judgment, by virtue of the
   Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, on whom they are resting by faith,
   they have been delivered from condemnation, they have escaped from the
   dominion of sin and, in a word, they are saved! So, you see dear
   Friends, that salvation is a perfect blessing.

   Notice, next, that it is a much-containing blessing. A man who believes
   in Christ is saved directly, but he does not fully know how much that
   word, "saved," means yet. It is like a big box that comes into the
   house and you begin to open it and to take out, first, one thing and
   then another. "There," you say, "that is all." "Oh, no!" somebody says,
   who looks more carefully, "here is another packet." "Well, then, that
   is surely all. There is nothing but straw at the bottom of the box."
   You put your hand in and you cry, "Why, there is something more, and
   something more--what a boxful it is!" And what a boxful salvation is!
   You have no idea what there is in it--not only the pardon of sin, but
   justifying righteousness. Not only that, but regeneration, a new heart
   and a right spirit! Not only that, but sanctification, adoption,
   acceptance, power in prayer, preservation, perseverance, victory--yes,
   we are to be more than conquerors through Him that has loved us--and
   all that is in the box!

   Yes, and more, too, for we are to have a safe and happy departure out
   of this world and an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of
   God our Father! All that is in the box and all that had come into the
   house of Zacchaeus when the Lord Jesus Christ came there. And you,
   also, have all that if you have Christ, for it is all in Christ. You
   know how He said, "All things are delivered unto Me of My Father," and
   Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "All things are yours: whether Paul, or
   Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present,
   or things to come; all are yours; and you are Christ's and Christ is
   God's." You will never get to the bottom of that box which bears the
   name, "salvation." However great your needs may be, you may keep on
   taking out of it all that you require and still there shall be more
   left! Or, to change the figure, salvation is a springing well from
   which the more you draw, the more there is remaining, for drawn wells
   are always the sweetest and usually the fullest. So, bring your buckets
   to this great well of Gospel Grace that is springing up at your very
   feet! Thus you see that salvation is an all-containing blessing.

   And, next, it is a spreading blessing, for salvation had come to the
   house of Zacchaeus--not to him only, but I hope it means to his wife,
   his children, and his servants. I never like to have the servants left
   out, though I am afraid that they often are. You servants who live in
   Christian families, mind that you do not get left out, for remember
   that Noah, although he was a good man, did not get a servant into the
   ark with him and his family. Also remember Lot. He was a good man of a
   very poor sort and he only got his two children out of Sodom, and no
   servant went with them. It is a sad thing when you live and labor in
   the midst of Christian people and yet you remain unsaved. I hope and
   believe that in the case of Zacchaeus, all in his house were saved when
   salvation came there.

   But, once more, the salvation which had come to the house of Zacchaeus,
   was an abiding blessing, for I never read that it went away. If
   salvation comes to a man's house, it comes to stay there, as Christ
   said to Zacchaeus, "I must abide at your house." I can never believe in
   a man being saved for a time and then falling from Grace--and having to
   begin all

   over again. If he does not hold on his way to the end, it is clear that
   he was never really saved at all. As I have often told you, I can
   understand a man being regenerated, that is, being born again--but then
   some people tell us that it is possible for him, afterwards, to fall
   away from Grace. But what is to become of him the next time? Why, I
   suppose that he must be re-regenerated, born again and again! But I
   never read in Scripture anything of the kind. A man may be born again
   once, but he cannot be born again, and again, and again, and again, and
   again, and again! That cannot be! When the work of regeneration is once
   done, it is done forever! The work of man comes to an end, but the work
   of God fails not. That which is born of God is as immortal as God
   Himself! The new life that comes into the converted man from God cannot
   die. How often do we ring in the ears of our friends those glorious
   words of our Lord, "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. My Father,
   which gave them to Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck
   them out of My Father's hand." Happy is the man to whose house
   salvation comes, for it comes to stay, world without end! That must
   suffice for the first head, This day--what?

   II. Now, secondly, we are to think of another aspect of the subject,
   that is, THIS DAY--WHY? Why had salvation come to the house of
   Zacchaeus that day?

   I answer, because that day Zacchaeus was called by effectual Grace and
   whenever effectual Grace comes to anyone, it brings salvation.
   "Therefore, brethren," as Peter says, "give diligence to make your
   calling and election sure," for these are the "things that accompany
   salvation." If you are sure that you are called of God, you may be
   quite certain that you are saved, for "this day"--the day in which a
   man is effectually called by Grace--this day does salvation come to his
   house. Look, dear Friends, God chose His people in His everlasting
   purpose, but salvation did not come to their houses that day. They knew
   nothing of it at that time, for they were not then born! Christ
   redeemed His people when He died on the Cross, but salvation did not
   come to their houses that day, for the most of them were not then in
   existence. But, in the fullness of time, the Gospel was preached to
   them and they heard it. Yet, in all cases, salvation did not come to
   their houses that day, for though they heard it, they refused it. But
   the moment that effectual Grace says to anyone, "Today I must abide at
   your house," that Grace at once gains admission and salvation comes,
   then and there, to that man's house. You remember how the Apostle Paul
   wrote to the Romans, "Whom He called, them He also justified: and whom
   He justified, them He also glorified"? These great blessings are joined
   together, like the links of a chain, and you cannot pull them apart!
   There is the calling that fits into the justification and the chain is
   so made that the two links never can be separated. And then
   justification fits into glorification in such a way that you cannot
   possibly part them. It is no use for anyone to try to separate them.
   The devil may pull and hammer as much as ever he likes, but all his
   efforts will be in vain. I have sometimes likened that passage in
   Romans to a vast suspension bridge between earth and Heaven--"For whom
   He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
   of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.
   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." If you get your foot firmly resting on that great plank of
   effectual calling, you may be quite sure that you will be able to cross
   all the rest of the bridge and will most certainly reach the other
   side--and be "forever with the Lord."

   But how do we know that Zacchaeus was really called? I answer in such a
   way that you may know whether you, also, are called or not. The call of
   Zacchaeus was an effectual call, first, because it was a personal call
   He was up in the sycamore tree and He heard Christ call, "Zacchaeus!"
   "Why," he said to himself, "That is my name. He is calling me."
   "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down." "Then He can see that I am up
   here! His description exactly fits my case." Now, when you come and
   hear me preach the Gospel, I try to put the Truth of God before you in
   a clear and very pointed manner. Some people say that it is wrong to be
   personal in preaching, but I always try to be as personal as I can. Yet
   I know that many of my hearers pass on to their neighbors and friends
   what I say to them. "Oh, that just fits Mrs. So-and-So," says somebody.
   No, my dear Sir--it is meant for you, but you will not take it home to
   yourself. But when the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, calls, then the man
   says, "Dear me! I do not believe that the preacher can see me right
   here, yet he is speaking straight at me. I am sure that he is. How
   amazing! He just mentioned something that cannot have occurred to
   anybody but me. He has exactly described my case."

   Those are the times when God is about to bless the soul--when the man
   feels himself picked out from the rest of the congregation and the
   Gospel sharpshooter is just covering him with His rifle of Grace! I
   pray that the blessed bullet of

   the Gospel may find its mark in the very center of your heart and bring
   you down at the feet of Jesus as a weeping penitent! "Zacchaeus!" The
   Lord knew that was the name of the man up the sycamore and He also
   knows your name and your character. And when He means to call you by
   His effectual Grace, He will hold your photograph up and make you say,
   "Yes, that is my portrait! There is nobody else exactly like that."

   Next, it was a royal call. Jesus said to Zacchaeus, "Today I must abide
   at your house." One of our proverbs says, "Must is for the king." And
   when the King speaks, He mustbe obeyed! We who are His ministers try to
   be very pressing and urgent, but when the Master Himself utters the
   call, where the word of that King is, there is power! I hope He is
   saying to someone here, "Today I must abide in your heart." Now you
   have come to the point when you, also, will have to say, "I must."
   There must be no turning back, now, dear Friend! You must not say to
   Christ, "Go your way for this time." No, but you must say, "This time
   is the time when I, also, will say, 'must,' as Christ says it to me."
   That is an effectual call when it comes as a royal mandate, a warrant
   from the King! "I must."

   Then, next, it was a call which produced immediate obedience. The Lord
   said to Zacchaeus, "Make haste and come down." And we read, "He made
   haste and came down." I think I see him coming down that tree a great
   deal faster than he had gone up! He had not moved at such a rate as
   that for a long while, but he scurried down, for he was told to make
   haste by One whose command compelled him to obey. When the Lord Jesus
   Christ calls any of you effectually, you will not put off your decision
   till the next morning. You will not say, "I will wait till I can get
   home and pray." You will not even say, "I will wait till the end of the
   service and then talk with a Christian," but your prayer will be,
   "Lord, help me to look to Jesus, now. I yield myself up to You this
   very instant. I am in a hurry about it. Lord, I am making haste to get
   to You! Make haste to come and save me. I would not delay a single
   second longer. I want to be Yours alone, and Yours at once." That is a
   mark of effectual calling, when immediate obedience is given to the
   call.

   Another mark in the case of Zacchaeus was, that it was joyful
   obedience. "He made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully."
   Oh, the joy of the heart that receives Christ when Christ Himself does
   really come to the soul! The moment I believed in Christ, I wanted to
   shout, "Hallelujah," and if I had done so, I think that I might have
   been forgiven. The moment one believes in Christ and knows that his sin
   is all gone, what extravagance would be extravagant under such
   circumstances? Is not the man justified in being joyful when at length
   his iniquity is blotted out and his transgression is covered? It is a
   mark of effectual calling when we receive Christ joyfully. In the case
   of Zacchaeus, observe that his obedience was complete, for Christ said,
   "Today I must abide at your house" and, "he made haste and came down,
   and received Him joyfully" at his house, for the people murmured
   because Christ had gone to be his guest. Now, dear Friends, will you
   also receive Christ? That is the point. Are you willing to let Him come
   to you and be your salvation? Are you eager that He should come? Do you
   beg Him to Come? Depend upon it, He will come to you when you are ready
   to receive Him--but mind you--do not trust for salvation to anything
   else or anyone else but Christ! Be satisfied with nothing but the
   ever-living Savior to be your Savior from first to last.

   There was yet one more mark of the effectual calling of Zacchaeus, and
   that was that He received Christ in a spiritual sense, for he did not
   only take Him into his house, but he took Him into his heart. I know
   that he did so because he began at once to purge his heart by driving
   out covetousness. That was a splendid way of getting rid of it when he
   said, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor." Then he
   began to drive put his former grasping habit, for he said, "And if I
   have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore to him
   fourfold." That was clear evidence that he meant to receive Christ in
   all His holy, gracious teaching, not merely as a man and a stranger,
   but, spiritually, as his Master, his Ruler, his Teacher, his Guide--in
   a word, as his Savior!

   III. Now, lastly, THIS DAY--WHY NOT?

   And now, change the day altogether, for I mean this very day when I am
   speaking to you, this first of October in the present year of Grace,
   1882. "This day." This day--why not? Why should we not, "this day,"
   give ourselves to Christ? I have tried to think of a reason why a man
   should not give himself up to the Lord Jesus Christ this day and I
   cannot find one. Then, why should he give himself to Christ this day,
   on this particular day? I think I know several reasons why he should do
   so.

   First, it is late enough. Surely you do not need to wait any longer!
   How old did you say you are, Friend? Seventy-six? Eighty-six? What? As
   old as that and not yet saved? You do not need one like me, so much
   younger, to urge you to a speedy decision. Or did you say that you are
   not more than my own age--not yet fifty? Well, I find it is quite late
   enough

   for me. There are certain influences and sensations creeping over me
   which make me realize that I am somewhat different from what I used to
   be--and I expect it is the same with you. I think it is getting rather
   late in life for you to be still undecided. Perhaps some younger person
   says, "But I am only twenty-one." Well, that is late enough to be
   without Christ! It is a thousand pities that the devil should have had
   21 years of your life. I was converted to the Lord Jesus Christ when I
   was fifteen, but I wish it could have been 15 years before. Oh, that I
   had known and loved Him as soon as I knew anything and had lisped His
   name with the first words I ever uttered! I think every Christian will
   say the same. Whatever our age is, the time past may well suffice to
   have worked the will of the flesh. Do not you think so, my Friend? Have
   not you had quite enough of sin? What profit have you ever received
   from it? It is surely quite late enough for you to receive Christ as
   your Savior!

   And, further, it is late enough in the year I t seems to me, when the
   leaves are falling all around you, as if they all said to you, "We all
   do fade as a leaf," is it not fully time to seek the Lord? I know of no
   season that seems more suited for pensive thought than just now when
   the year seems to be weeping itself into its tomb--and burying itself
   amid falling leaves. Now is the time to yield yourself to the Lord!
   There cannot be a better period than just now--before yet the year is
   fully gone.

   The mercy is, dear Friend, that though it is quite late enough, it is
   not too late for anybody here. There is yet time for you to seek the
   Lord! It is a pity to have put the Lord off until you have got into the
   sere and yellow leaf, but yet there is time to turn to Him! What? Have
   you reached the eleventh hour of life? It is late, it is very late, but
   still, it is not yet too late! It is not yet too late even if you are
   to die this week--and there are some out of this great company who
   will, I suppose, pass into the unseen world this week. Dear Friend, I
   know not who you are, but you who stand nearest to your eternal
   destiny, it is not yet too late even for you! I pray you, clutch at
   once at the great mercy now offered to you! God help you so to do!

   Every week I have to hear of some out of our number who have passed
   away. There have been some this last week, and some whom I certainly
   thought we might have had with us for a long time. They were,
   apparently, in good health, yet now they are to be buried at the
   beginning of the week, for they have gone from us quite suddenly. And
   why may not some of you be the next to be taken? Do not postpone your
   decision any longer--I would that we could say tonight, "This day,
   October 1st, some soul did receive salvation! Let the recording angel
   mark it down." The harvest is not quite over, though I thought it was.
   We down south have almost forgotten it, but there is a farming friend
   up with us today, who said to me, "We have not finished our harvest,
   for we have not got the beans in yet." So, you see, the harvest is not
   quite over, but I do not want you to have to say, The harvest is past,
   the summer is ended, and we are not saved." I would like to get some of
   you to come in with the beans, just with the last crop. Oh, that you
   might be brought to Christ just at this end of the harvest! The Master
   is willing that you should come to Him even now, so do not delay.
   "Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." "Behold,
   now is the accepted time: behold, now is the day of salvation!"

   Remember, also, that today is Gospel time. Still is Christ preached to
   you! The door of mercy is still set open before you! "Come," is still
   the cry uttered by the Spirit, and the bride, the Lamb's wife echoes
   it, "Come!" Still the Water of Life is freely flowing for all who are
   willing to receive it!

   Recollect, too, that this is praying time. You are still on praying
   ground. A prayer will yet find God. A traveler tells us that when he
   was in the East, he saw the procession of a Sultan passing through a
   certain city. The monarch was there--all bedizened with gems and every
   kind of barbaric ornament and surrounded by his guards. There was a
   poor wretch who wanted to get a petition to the Sultan, but he did not
   know how to manage it. He had no money with which to bribe the
   officials and he could not force his way through the armed men. So, in
   his desperation, he got near enough to throw the petition down at the
   monarch's feet, but one of the soldiers stuck a spear through it and he
   held it aloft--and that was the end of it, for the Sultan took no
   notice of the incident--he was much too great a man to attend to the
   petition of his poor subject. It is never so with God! Cast your
   petition--now you may--at His dear feet! He will answer it and send you
   on your way rejoicing!

   You are not only on praying ground, for tonight seems to me to be a
   very auspicious season, for it is Communion time. God's people are
   presently coming together around His Table to remember Christ. Will you
   not also remember Him? We are about to receive Christ spiritually
   through the emblems of bread and wine which will set Him forth to us.
   Why should not you also receive Christ, in a spiritual fashion, by
   faith, as your Savior? Oh, that you would press

   through the throng and bow at the feet of Jesus Christ, our Lord! If
   you do so, He will accept you, and again it shall be said, "This day is
   salvation come to this house." God grant it, for Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE18:35-43; 19:1-10.

   Luke 18:35-39. And it came to pass, that as He was come near unto
   Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging: and hearing
   the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant And they told him that
   Jesus of Nazareth passed by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, Son of David,
   have mercy on me! And they who went before rebuked him, that he should
   hold his peace. "Hush," they cried, "how can you disturb the blessed
   Master's discourse? Be quiet."

   39, 40. But he cried so much the more, Son of David, have mercy on me!
   And Jesus stood still Prayer held Him fast. Here is a stationary
   Savior, held in His place by the cries of a blind man. Oh, the power of
   prayer! It stays the onward march of the Son of God. "Jesus stood
   still."

   40, 41. And commandedhim to be brought to Him: and when he was come
   near, He askedhim saying, What do you want Me to do for you? And he
   said, Lord, that I may receive my sight It is a great thing to know
   what you really need. There are some persons who are so blind that they
   do not know that they are blind--and because they say, "We see,"
   therefore is their blindness the more intense! I fear that there is
   many a person who professes to pray, yet who, if Christ should come
   into the room and say, "What do you want Me to do for you?" would not
   know how to answer the question. This man did. He said, very briefly,
   and very clearly, but in a very full way, "Lord, that I may receive my
   sight."

   42. And Jesus said unto him, Receive your sight Often, the blessing
   from Christ's lips is the echo of the prayer which fell from ours. The
   blind man said, "Lord, that I may receive my sight." Echo answered,
   "Receive your sight."

   42, 43. Your faith has saved you. And immediately he received his sight
   See how the prayer, the Word of Christ and the immediate effect of it,
   all tally? "That I might receive my sight." "Receive your sight." "He
   received his sight."

   43. And followed Him. Christ likes not blind followers--"and followed
   Him."

   43. Glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise
   unto God. They seemed to be greatly impressed, but we shall see that
   some of them soon spoke in another fashion.

   Luke 19:1 And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. There was to be
   a miracle at each end of Jericho. Long before, it had been cursed--now
   it was to have a double blessing!

   2. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was the chiefamong
   the publicans. That is, tax-gatherers.

   2. And he was rich. As they often were, for they farmed the taxes and
   then squeezed every farthing they could out of the people.

   3. Andhe sought to see Jesus, who He was, and couldnot for the crowd,
   because he was little of stature. That was a fortunate thing for him.
   We need not all wish to be so tall as some people are. Perhaps
   Zacchaeus would not have gone up the sycamore tree if he had been a
   tall man. But the whole story turns upon something which many regard as
   a disadvantage--"he was little of stature."

   4-7. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him:
   for He was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to theplace, He looked
   up andsaw him, andsaid unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down;
   for today Imust abide atyour house. Andhe made haste and came down, and
   received Him joyfully. And when they saw it, they allmur-mured. There
   is a great contrast between this verse and the last one in the previous
   Chapter--"All the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God." Here
   it is, "When they saw it, they murmured." Yet, very likely many of them
   were the same people! Certainly they were the same sort of people that
   we hear of every now and then! "When they saw it, they all murmured."
   There are far too many of that kind still about. We do not quite know
   who they are, nor where they are-- they have a sort of nondescript,
   mysterious existence that finds expression in the words, "They say
   so-and-so and so-and-so." They have been saying something about the
   minister, something about the Sunday school, something about the Bible
   class, something about your work and mine. You see, there always were
   such people about, and they always would talk, and their talk often
   took the form of complaining. "When they saw it, they all murmured,"

   7. Saying, He has gone to be guest with a man who is a sinner. If He
   had not done so, He could not have gone anywhere, for all men are
   sinners! "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." But
   this man was a sinner above

   others, for he had sold himself to the hated Roman power and was
   authorized to collect the conqueror's taxes from his own people. So, of
   course, in the estimation of the Jews, he was the worst kind of sinner
   that could be found anywhere. 8. And Zacchaeus stood. And he did not
   talk at all like a sinner!

   8. And said unto the Lord; Beheld, Lord, the half of my goods I give to
   the poor Some of those saints, as they reckoned themselves, had not
   done anything like as much as that! "The half of my goods I give to the
   poor."

   8. And if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I
   restore him fourfold. Which restitution was an act ofjustice--and when
   charity and justice go hand in hand, what more can we expect of men?

   9, 10. And Jesus said unto him, Today is salvation come to this house,
   because he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man is come to seek
   and to save that which was lost And that day He had both sought and
   saved one of the lost ones, for He had found Zacchaeus up in a sycamore
   tree, and He had brought salvation to the tax-gatherer's house. May He
   do the same for many who are here!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Sorrowful Man's Question

   (No. 2666)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 18, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 8, 1882.

   "Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has
   hedged in?" Job 3:23.

   I AM very thankful that so many of you are glad and happy. There is
   none too much joy in the world and the more that any of us can create,
   the better. It should be a part of our happiness and a main part of it,
   to try to make other people glad. "Comfort you, comfort you My people,"
   is a commission which many of us ought to feel is entrusted to us. If
   your own cup ofjoy is full, let it run over to others who have a more
   trying experience. If you, yourself, are privileged to have flashing
   eyes and elastic steps, and a bounding heart, be mindful to speak words
   of good cheer to such as are in bonds! Feel as if you were bound with
   them and try to revive their drooping spirits. That is what I am going
   to aim at, tonight, so you will excuse me if I bid, "good-bye," for a
   while to you joyous ones! I want to seek after those who have no such
   delight as you now possess--those who are, on the contrary, suffering
   from extreme depression of spirit. Sometimes, we must single out the
   wounded ones of the flock. That is what I am about to do, yet I feel
   sure that while some few will be distinctly sought after, there will be
   something that may be of use to the many who are in a less sorrowful
   condition. The 99 shall get their full portion although the shepherd
   goes especially after the lost one.

   The question of our text was put by Job when he first opened his mouth
   in the extreme bitterness of his anguish. "Why is light given to a man
   whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in?" His case was so sad
   and so trying that life itself became irksome to him. I suppose that
   by, "light," here, he means the power to see the Light of God, the life
   which lives in the light. "Why," he asked in his agony, "is that
   continued to a man when God has filled him with sorrow upon sorrow?"
   The verses preceding our text are to the same effect--"Therefore is
   light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul
   which long for death, but it comes not; and dig for it more than for
   hidden treasures; which rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can
   find the grave."

   The Patriarch was weary of living and, perhaps, we shall not wonder so
   much at his pitiful lamentation if we remember the extreme distress
   into which he had been brought. He had lost all his property. Stroke by
   stroke all his wealth had been taken away from him. He might have borne
   that if it had been his only loss, but close upon the heels of it had
   come sore bereavement. His happy children, for whom he daily cared and
   whom he had tenderly loved, were all destroyed in a moment--while they
   were feasting in the house of one of their brothers. The calamity
   seemed all the greater because it came in the very midst of their joys.
   Then, as if that was not trial enough, Job was, himself, smitten from
   head to foot with boils. If you have ever seen a person in that
   condition, I am sure that you must pity him. There is a dear friend of
   ours, now with God, whom I visited when he was in much the same state
   as that. Perhaps he had not to endure quite all that Job suffered, but
   something exceedingly like it had befallen him. The irritation, the
   pain and the depression of spirit that come with that particular form
   of disease all tend to make us treat very gently the petulant
   expressions of Job.

   We may not excuse them, but only he among us that is without fault may
   take up the first stone to cast at him. I will warrant that if we had
   suffered as he did, been brought to poverty, left childless, and then
   been tortured as he was, from head to foot--and even his wife rendering
   him no comfort, but, on the contrary, adding to his grief and woe--we
   might have said even worse things than Job did! For remember, dear
   Friends, that he said nothing against God in the time of his deepest
   sorrow. He cursed most vehemently the day of his birth and wished that
   he had never existed, or that he might

   speedily pass away to sleep with the generations that are dead. He used
   unwise and foolish expressions--but any of us might have used far worse
   words if we had been in his case, so we will not condemn him, but we
   will see what lessons we can learn from his experience.

   I think that Job's experience teaches us the very small value of
   temporal things. To have spiritual blessings and to enjoy them, is one
   thing, but to have earthly things, and to enjoy them, is quite another.
   You may have an abundance of them and yet they may be utterly tasteless
   to you, or they may even be bitter as gall to you--and you may curse
   the day that gave them to you. I am sure that it is so, because Job
   speaks thus concerning life, which is the chief of all earthly things.
   It is true, although Satan said it, "All that a man has will he give
   for his life," yet we may be brought into such a condition that we may
   wish that we had never been born! Life itself may become so wearisome
   to us that we may even wish to escape from it, that we may be at rest,
   as we hope.

   Job had once enjoyed every comfort that heart could desire and he still
   had this blessing of life left to him. But even that had become curdled
   and soured--the last thing to which a man usually clings had become
   distasteful and disgusting to him--so that he set no store by it, but
   longed to get rid of it. O Beloved, seek eternal treasures, for there
   is no moth that can eat them, no rust can mar them, no fermentation or
   corruption can injure them. But, as for the things of time and sense,
   if you dopossess them, use them as though you had them not and never
   make them your gods, for they are but as a shadow that passes away in a
   moment. They come, and they are gone. And if you make idols of them,
   the Lord may permit you to retain them, but take away from you all
   power to enjoy them. You may have abundance and yet not be able to
   relish even the bread you eat, or the drink that refreshes you! You may
   have a loss of health, or a loss of all power to be happy, though
   everything that men think to be the cause of happiness may be laid
   abundantly at your feet.

   With this as a preface, I now come to my text and ask you to notice,
   first, the case which raises the question. Secondly, the question
   itself. And, thirdly, answers which may be given to the question--"Why
   is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged
   in?"

   I. First, notice THE CASE WHICH RAISES THE QUESTION. "Why is light
   given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in?"

   That is to say, "Why does God permit men to live when their souls are
   under deep depression and gloom? Why does He not let them die at once?
   When their days are spent in weariness and their nights yield them
   neither rest nor refreshment--when they look upward and see nothing to
   give them hope, or onward, and behold nothing but that which is even
   more dreadful than the present--why is it that God continues life to
   those who are in such sad circumstances?" Well, dear Friends, if life
   were not continued to any but those who are bright of eye, fleet of
   foot and joyous of heart, how few would live! And if the first time
   that darkness fell upon a man's pathway, he were to be permitted to
   die, well, then, the whole population of the globe would soon be swept
   away! If our murmuring and petulance demanded that we should die rather
   than suffer, then we should soon pass away and be gone. And that is the
   case which is supposed in Job's question--If a man finds himself
   entirely in the dark, if God's Presence is completely hidden from him
   and he can find no joy in anything whatever, and his spirit is tossed
   to and fro with worries and perplexities, the question is--"Why does he
   continue to live"

   Yet, further, the man here described is in such trouble that he can see
   no reason for the trouble. His "way is hidden." Job could not perceive,
   in his case, any cause for the distress into which he had been plunged.
   As far as he knew, he had walked uprightly. He had not sinned so as to
   be now suffering the result of his sin. He had not committed a crime,
   otherwise he would have understood the punishment when it came upon
   him. He looked back upon all that he had done and he could not, at
   first glance, see in himself any cause for his affliction. Nor, indeed,
   dear Brothers and Sisters, was there any cause why all these things
   should have happened to Job by way ofpunishment, for the Inspired
   record concerning him is that he was "perfect and upright, and one that
   feared God and eschewed evil."

   Even the devil, himself, who kept a sharp lookout with his malicious
   eyes, could not find any fault whatever with which he could charge Job.
   He deserved the character which God had given to him, though Satan did
   insinuate that he had acted from interested motives. He asked, "Does
   Job fear God for nothing?" That question has always seemed to me to be
   a very crafty one, yet very foolish, for if it could have been proved
   that Job had feared or served God for nothing, then the devil would
   have said at once that God was a bad Master and that there was no
   reward for those who served Him. But now that he finds God putting a
   hedge of roses round about Job, and sheltering him on every side, he
   declares

   that Job was only pious because he found it profitable! He could find
   no other fault with him--and even that accusation was not true.

   Job, on his part, remembered how he had fed the widows and succored the
   fatherless--how he had acted justly towards his fellow creatures in the
   midst of an unjust generation and how, amidst a mass of idolaters, he
   had worshipped God and God alone. He had never kissed his hand in
   adoration to the moon, as she walked along her shining way in all her
   queenly brightness, nor had he ever bowed himself down to the host of
   heaven, as nearly all around him had done. He stood alone, or almost
   alone, in that age, as a true and faithful servant of Jehovah--yet his
   sorrows and trials were multiplied. And so, his way was hidden, he was
   hedged in by God, and he could not make it out. You know, dear Friends,
   that it is often a great aggravation of our troubles when we do not
   know why they come. A man, when he is ill, usually wants to know what
   is the nature of his disease and how he came to be attacked by it. When
   we see a person suffering, we generally ask "Where did you catch that
   cold?" or, "What was it that brought on that congestion?" We always
   like to know the cause of the complaint--and Job, too, wanted to
   ascertain the reason for his trouble, but he could not find out--and
   this rendered it all the more mysteriously grievous to him. And
   therefore he enquired, "Why do I continue to live, when I have come
   into such darkness as this?"

   It was equally trying to Job that he did not now what to do. There
   seemed to be nothing that he could do. He was stripped of all his
   earthly possessions. Those ashes where he sat formed his uncomfortable
   couch. And the only property that remained to him was a potsherd, with
   which, in his desperation, he began to scrape himself because of his
   boils. What could he do in such a case as that? There was no physician
   there to cure him of his sad complaint.

   True, there were his three friends, but all that they could do, or, at
   least, the best thing they did, was to sit still and say nothing. When
   they opened their mouths, it was only to pour vinegar into his wounds
   and to increase his agony tenfold! What could poor Job do under such
   circumstances? His very helplessness tended to increase his
   wretchedness.

   Am I addressing anyone who is in that kind of perplexity? I think I
   hear someone moaning, "I don't know which way to turn. I have done
   everything I can think of and I cannot tell what is to come next. I sit
   in darkness and can see no light. Why I am brought to this pass, I
   cannot tell. Or what is the reason for it, I cannot make out. If I
   could light upon some great and grievous fault which had brought me
   where I am, I could understand it. But as it is, I am in thick Egyptian
   night about it all and I know not what to do. Why does a man continue
   to live when his way is thus hidden, or hedged up." If that is the way
   you talk, you are in very much the same sort of plight that the
   Patriarch was in when he uttered the mournful question which forms our
   text.

   What was still worse to Job was that he could not see any way out of
   his trouble. He said that God had hedged him in, not with a hedge of
   roses, but with a barrier of briars. Whatever he tried to do, he found
   himself obstructed in doing it. And there are now men in this world
   whose sorrows are the more grievous because everything they do to
   alleviate their distress seems only to increase it. Their efforts are
   all fruitless. They are like men who have become entangled in a
   bog--the more they struggle to get out, the deeper they descend. They
   strive to their very utmost, but it is all in vain. They rise up early,
   they sit up late, and they eat the bread of carefulness mingled with
   their tears, but there is a blight on all that they do. Nothing
   prospers with them. They are at their wits end. Then they begin to cry,
   "Oh, that we had never been born, rather than that we should have been
   born to such trouble as this! 'Why is light given to a man whose way is
   hidden, and whom God has hedged in?'"

   I have thus stated the case which gave rise to Job's question and I
   should not wonder if I have, at the same time, stated the case of some
   who are here. Do not think it has been a waste of time for any of you
   to hear this sorrowful description of a very sad condition of heart and
   mind. If I should only have been describing one such individual, let us
   all feel sympathy for him or for her--and let us unite in breathing the
   silent petition, "Lord, bring Your servant out of prison."

   II. Now, secondly, we are to consider THE QUESTION ITSELF. "Why is
   light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in?"
   In other words, Why is the light of life given to him who is in the
   darkness ofmisery?

   Well, first, let me say that it is a very unsafe question for anyone to
   ask. Brothers and Sisters, we are sure to get into mischief as soon as
   we begin catechizing God and asking, "why?" Such questioning comes not
   well from our lips. He is the Potter and we are the clay in His hands.
   "Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me
   thus? Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make
   one vessel unto honor and another unto dis-

   honor?" God's eternal purposes are a great deep and when we try to
   fathom them, we utterly fail. Divine Sovereignty is an ocean without a
   bottom and without a shore--and all we can do is to set our sail and
   steer by the chart which He has given us and all the while believe
   that, as we sang just now--

   "Even the hour that darkest seems,

   Will His changeless goodness prove;

   From the mist His brightness streams,

   God is Wisdom, God is Love." Voyaging in that fashion, we shall be
   safe, indeed!

   But to try to cross such a sea without rudder, or chart, or
   compass--this is a venture--some piece of sailing which we had better
   not undertake! I tremble whenever I have to think of the wondrous ways
   of God. I mean when I have to think of them after the manner of the
   reasoner and not after the style of the Believer! Well did Milton
   describe the fallen spirits sitting in little groups, discussing
   predestination and the counsels of the Eternal. You know how Paul
   answers the man who calls in question the dealings of God either in
   Providence or in Grace--"No but, O man, who are you that replies
   against God?" Job received his answer when the Lord spoke to him out of
   the whirlwind and said, "Who is this that darkens counsel by words
   without knowledge?" What God said to him was not so much a vindication
   of the ways of Providence, but a revelation of His matchless power as
   the Creator and the Ruler of the universe. And, though men may not like
   to hear it, yet there is, in the thunder of God's power, an answer
   which, though it may not always answer the skeptic, but ultimately
   overpower and silence him! As for God's child, he sits down in the
   shadow of that black cloud which is the canopy of Deity, and he is well
   content to be still in the Presence of the Lord of the whole earth!
   Imitate him, my Brothers and Sisters, and do not keep asking God the
   why and the wherefore of what He does. It is an unsafe thing to ask
   such questions!

   Next, it reflects upon God. In this question of Job, there is really a
   reflection upon the wisdom of the Almighty. He has given the Light of
   Life to a man whose way is hidden and whom He has hedged in, yet Job
   asks, "Why did He do it?" I think that far too often we indulge our
   questionings of Divine Providence. Is God to stand and answer to you
   and me for what He does? Is He bound to tell us the reason why He does
   it? Job's friend, Elihu, said, "God is greater than man. Why do you
   strive against Him? For He gives not account of any of His matters." If
   there is His equal anywhere, let him meet Him in the field and they
   shall speak together. But to us worms of the dust, answers shall not be
   given if we haughtily put questions to Him of, "what?" and "why?" To
   accept the Lord's will with absolute submission is after the manner of
   the Son of God, Himself, for He prayed, in the hour of His greatest
   agony, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me:
   nevertheless not as I will, but as You will." But to quibble and to
   question is after the manner of the prince of darkness who is always
   seeking to dispute the Sovereignty of God. Therefore, Beloved, let no
   question of ours reflect upon the Lord's love, or the dispensations of
   His Providence.

   Further, we may rest quite certain that there must be an answer to this
   question, a good answer, and an answer in harmony with the Character of
   God. If there are men and women to be found still sitting in the
   darkness of grief and sorrow and we ask why they are allowed to
   continue to live, there is a reply to that enquiry, and a reply
   consistent with boundless Grace and infinite compassion, but, mark you,
   that reply may never be given, or, if it is given, we may be incapable
   of understanding it! There is much that God does that cannot be
   understood, even by those great men of modern times who would gladly
   sit on the Throne of the Eternal and judge Him--

   "Snatch from His hand the balance and the rod, Rejudge His judgments,
   be the god of God." I say that there are some answers which God might
   give if He pleased, but which even they could not comprehend with all
   their wit and wisdom! And you and I must often come to a point where we
   have to stop and say, "We cannot understand this." And we shall be
   still wiser if we add, "Nor do we wish to do so."

   Brothers and Sisters, I, for one, have had enough of searching into
   reasons! I am perfectly satisfied to accept facts. I am ready to bow my
   reason before the Lord and to accept whatever He says. If I do not, how
   little shall I ever know! What is there that I really understand? I
   confess that I see profound mysteries about the most common phenomena
   around me. I cannot fully comprehend anything when I get right to the
   bottom of it. There is, on every hand, a deep which I cannot fathom.
   How, then, shall I understand the ways of God and measure Him with my
   finite mind, comparing so many inches with the Infinite, weighing so
   many ounces against the Omnipotent and reckoning so many seconds in

   contrast with the Eternal? No, Brothers and Sisters, for such
   calculations you have nothing to measure with! You have nothing to draw
   with, and the well is deep, yes, bottomless! So, the less of such
   questions as Job's, any of us ask, the better, for, even if we had the
   answer to them, we might not be able to understand it.

   Let me remind you, also, that however important this question may seem
   to be, it is not the most profitable question. I have heard of a
   farmer, whose boy said to him, "Father, the cows are in the corn;
   however did they get there? Boy," he replied, "never mind how they got
   there--our work is to get them out as soon as we can." That is our main
   business, also--to get the cows out of the corn! How they got there is
   a matter that can be thought of, by-and-by, when we have nothing else
   to do. The origin of evil is a point that puzzles a great many people,
   but I hope you will not worry your brain over that question. If you do,
   you will be very foolish. But if you are wise, you will not trouble
   yourself so much about the origin of evil, as about how to conquer it,
   in yourself, and in others! Get the cows out of the corn, and then find
   out how they got in, if you can, and, by so doing, prevent their
   getting in again.

   There will be space enough and time enough, and better Light to discuss
   these questions when we get up yonder before the Throne of the Eternal.
   If their solution is of any real consequence to us, we shall get them
   solved, but, meanwhile, we are colorblind, or, if we are not, it is so
   dark and so misty here--and we have so many other more pressing matters
   to attend to--that we had better leave these whys and wherefores, and
   rely on the Infallible wisdom and the Infinite love of God. If He has
   done anything, it is quite certain that it is right and just! Yes, if
   it has come from His dear hands, it is also gracious and kind. There is
   more sublimity in being like a little child in the Presence of the
   Eternal than there is in trying to imitate the Deity, for that is but a
   mockery--a thing to be despised! No, more, it is the greatest insult we
   can offer to God and it is a pity and a shame that any of us should so
   live and act. Put aside everything of the kind, I implore you, and in
   very truth submit yourselves unto God.

   III. But now, in the last place, speaking to the sorrowful person, I
   want to mention SOME ANSWERS WHICH MAY BE GIVEN TO HIS QUESTIONS. "Why
   do I continue to live," he asks, "in such sorrow as this? Why does not
   God take from me the light of life when He does not permit me to enjoy
   the light of comfort?"

   Supposing that you are a child of God, I will give you one answer which
   ought to satisfy you, though, perhaps, it will not if your spirit is
   rebellious. God wills it If you are one of His true children, that is
   all the answer that you will require--and you will say, with those
   early Christians, "The will of the Lord be done." And with your Lord,
   Himself, "Not My will, but Yours be done." It was enough for Christ
   that His suffering was in accordance with the Father's will, so He
   bowed before Him in unquestioning submission. And shall not you, the
   disciple, be content to fare as your Master did? Will you not be
   perfectly satisfied with that which satisfied your Lord? It is the will
   of the Lord--then what need is there of any further question if you are
   His child?

   But supposing that you are an unconverted person, and you say, "I
   cannot bear to live in such sorrow as this, why is my life prolonged?"
   The answer is, "Because of God's mercy to you." Where would you go to
   be better off than you are here? You who have no hope in Christ and yet
   who say, "I wish I were dead," you know not what you are wishing! You
   wish you were dead? But what would be your portion after death? What?
   Do you really wish to hear that dread sentence which must be passed
   upon you if you die unregenerate--"Depart from Me, you cursed, into
   everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels"? Do you really
   desire to feel the full weight of Divine Justice! Ah, I hope that you
   are not so foolish! You have spoken in petulance and do not mean what
   you have said. It may be hard for you to live, but it would be harder
   far for you to die--and then to live forever in a death that never
   dies! God grant that you may never know that awful doom!

   Moreover, the answer to your question is that the Lord spares you
   because He would gladly save you. You are kept alive that you may hear
   again that voice of mercy which says, "Repent and be converted."
   "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." God comes
   to you in this time of suffering, that He may stop you in your sin and
   make you think! Even to the most careless and giddy among you, during
   the poignancy of your grief, He says, "Now, My prodigal child, you have
   wasted your substance in riotous living, your belly is hungry and you
   have nothing with which to fill it. Arise and go unto your Father, for
   He will receive you." Come then, sorrowful one, it may be that your
   sorrows will end when your sins end. Certainly, when you come to Christ
   to be forgiven, you shall find Divine consolation, even if all your
   griefs do not at once disappear. Anyhow, it would be better to be
   whipped all the way to Heaven than to be car-

   ried down to Hell "on flowery beds of ease." Pray this prayer, "O Lord,
   let me enter into life with one eye and one hand, halt or maimed,
   rather than, having two eyes and two hands, to be cast into Hell!"

   This is one answer to your question--The Lord lets you live, even
   though it is in pain and grief, because He has purposes of love and
   mercy towards you. Therefore, be not anxious to die, but be thankful
   that you are still permitted to tarry upon Gospel ground! No, do not be
   content to tarry there, but fly at once to the God of Grace! Look this
   very instant to Jesus, for--

   "There is life for a look at the Crucified One; There is life at this
   moment for thee! Then look, Sinner--look unto Him and be saved! Unto
   Him who was nailed to the tree."

   One believing glance of the eyes to Him who is the sinner's Substitute
   and all transgression is forgiven! Therefore, yield yourself unto Him.
   Trust to His finished work and eternal life is yours! And when you have
   that unspeakable blessing, why need you sorrow more?

   As for the child of God, to whom I now again speak, if you ask, in a
   timid, childlike way, "Why do I continue to live in such sorrow as I
   have to endure?" I would, as your Brother, try to answer you. First, it
   may be that all this trouble has come upon you to let you know what is
   in you. None of us know what there is in us until we are put to the
   test. We are wonderfully sweet-tempered until somebody touches one of
   our sore places--and then, ah, me--there is not much sweetness of
   temper left after that! We are remarkably patient until we get a sharp
   neuralgic pain, perhaps--and then where is all our boasted patience? We
   are very generous until we, ourselves, are somewhat pinched--and then
   we become as tight-fisted as others whom we have condemned. We do not
   know what is really in us while all goes smoothly and well. But
   sickness, sorrow, bereavement, poverty and hunger will soon let us see
   what we are! They make a mental or moral photograph of us and when we
   look at the picture we say, "Oh, no! That cannot be our likeness." But
   we look again and again, and then we say, "Alas, it is even so. But we
   did not know we were like that. Now we see our faults and our follies.
   O Lord, You have searched us, and tried us, and shown us the wicked
   ways that are in us. Now purge us from them and make us clean and pure
   in Your sight!" That is one reason, and a very good reason, for sharp
   affliction--to let us see ourselves as we really are.

   The next is that, often, our trials bring us very near to our God. Your
   children run down the meadow to play and they get a good way off from
   home in the sunny day, as they ramble along, gathering their buttercups
   and daisies. But by-and-by, the sun sets, and night comes on--and now
   they cry to be at home. Just so. And you, in all your pretty ways of
   pleasure in your happy home, though you are a child of God, sometimes
   forget Him. Sorrowfully must you remember that sad fact. But now the
   night comes on and there is danger all around you. So you begin to cry
   for your Father and you would gladly be back in fellowship with
   Him--and that is a blessed trouble which brings us near to our God.
   Christ's sheep ought to be thankful for the ugly black dog that keeps
   them from going astray, or fetches them back when they have wandered
   from the Shepherd! Perhaps Christ will call that black dog off when he
   has answered the Master's purpose and brought you near His side.

   Dear child of God, anything that promotes your sanctification, or
   increases your spirituality, is a good thing for you. I have had my
   share of physical pain and, perhaps, more of it than most who are
   here--and I bless God for it. If it comes again, I ask Him for Grace to
   bless Him for it then--and now that it has gone for a while, I freely
   bless Him for it, for I cannot tell you all the good that it has worked
   in me! Oh, how often a proud spirit has been cut back by affliction and
   trial, like a vine that is made to bleed, that the clusters that
   followed the pruning might be all the better and richer! The mown grass
   is very sweet and fine and so, often, are Believers who have been
   deeply tried. This tribulation, as Paul says, "works patience; and
   patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope makes not ashamed;
   because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit
   which is given unto us." Therefore, bow humbly before the Lord, my
   tried and afflicted Friend, and see at least some of the reasons why He
   thus puts you in he dark chamber of tribulation.

   Perhaps, dear Brother, you are being very greatly tried, more than most
   people, to fit you to be an example to others. The Lord means to make a
   veteran of you, so you must be the first in the breach, or you must
   lead the forlorn hope. He puts you on the hardest service because He
   wants others of His children to be able to learn from you. I do not
   know that we should ever have heard anything of Job if it had not been
   for his troubles--he was a most respectable Eastern farmer with a
   considerable estate--very much like a great many country gentlemen we
   have in England who may be

   heard of at the Quarter Sessions, or the corn and cattle market. But
   nothing more will be known of them unless you go to the parish church
   and see some memorial of them stuck up there. Job would have been much
   the same sort of man as that--an Oriental magnate who would have lived,
   died and been forgotten--but now his fame will last as long as the
   world endures! "You have heard of the patience of Job." You have all
   heard of it, and Job is one of the undying names. So it may be with
   you, Beloved. You are, perhaps, to sail through seas of trouble to
   reach your crown. God means to use you in His service and make you a
   blessing to others, and a teacher of others, by passing you, again and
   again, through the fire. One of the ancient warriors said, "I cannot
   use in battle a sword that has not been often times hardened. But give
   me a Damascus blade that has been so prepared, and I will cut through a
   coat of mail, or split a man from head to foot at a single stroke. It
   gets its temper and keenness of edge from having slept with the flames
   again and again." So must it be with Believers! Full often they are
   unfit for God to use till they have been sorely tried.

   Perhaps, dear Friend, the Lord is putting you through all this
   trouble--(only I hardly like to say it aloud, I must whisper it in your
   ears somehow) because He loves you more than anybody else. Dear Samuel
   Rutherford, when he wrote to a lady who had lost, I think, seven
   children, congratulated her and said, "I am sure that the Well-Beloved
   has a strong affection for Your Ladyship, for He will have all your
   heart. He has taken away all these children that there may not be a
   nook or a corner for anybody else but for Him." So the Lord loves you
   much and He is testing you to see whether you can bear His
   will--whether you love Him so much that you will take up your cross and
   deny yourself, just as, sometimes, architects will ask for their work
   to be put to the severest possible tests. "Yes," they say, "see what it
   will really bear."

   No doubt Stephenson felt great joy when the heaviest train went safely
   across his tubular bridge. And other engineers have said, "Yes, put on
   as much pressure as you like; it will stand it." Fathers often take
   delight in the athletic feats of their sons, and princes revel in the
   brave deeds of their warriors. And so does the Lord delight to see what
   His people can do and He often puts upon them more and more, to prove
   whether they love Him so much that they can bear it all for His sake.
   Did not the Lord do this to let Satan see that Job did love his God,
   and would still say, "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and
   shall we not receive evil?...The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken
   away; blessed be the name of the Lord." We cannot tell what blessing
   might come from such a state of heart as that!

   It is very possible, dear Friend, also, that God is putting you through
   all this trouble that He may enable you to bear great prosperity. Job
   was to have twice as much as he had ever had before, and that was a
   very great deal, for he said that he washed his steps with butter, and
   the rock poured him out rivers of oil. But how much richer he was when
   everything was doubled! Job was hardly fit to manage such a large
   estate as that until he had been made to see the vanity of it all, and
   to get nearer to his God. So, dear Friends, you are going to be
   pressed, and squeezed, and tried in order that you may be fitted to
   come right out into the front rank and to be magnified and made much of
   by the Lord your God! I have noticed this kind of thing happen more
   than once. I have seen a man suddenly taken from the very dregs of the
   people and put up to preach--and he has been popular all at once.
   Nobody has abused him, nobody has said a word against him. But, before
   long, he has passed completely out of sight. He could not bear the
   weight that was put upon him, and gave way.

   You have seen others who have been called of God to preach the Word,
   and they have been abused year after year. They could not say anything
   that was not perverted. They were called mountebanks, impostors, and I
   know not what. And then, when happier days came, and almost all men
   spoke well of them, they could bear it, for they had learned to despise
   alike the flatteries and the abuse of men! Now, something like that
   must happen to all God's servants who are to be greatly honored. If
   they are to bear prosperity, they must first go through the fire.
   Perhaps that is what the Lord is doing with you, my dear Friend. If so,
   be content with your lot.

   And, once again, do you not think that the Lord means thus to make you
   more like His dear Son than other people are? Some other Christians
   have not as much trouble to endure as you have. No, why is it? You know
   how an artist can, if he likes, dash off a picture. There! A little
   red, a little blue and so on, and it is done. And away it goes! Yes,
   but when he wants to paint something that will be observed and admired,
   then he takes more pains. Look how he works at every part of it. Note
   what care and what trouble he takes with it. It is the same with the
   lapidary or the sculptor when he has choice work in hand. And you are,
   I hope, the kind of material that will pay for cutting and carving--and
   the Lord is using His chisel upon you more than He does upon most folk.
   He wants to make you just like His dear Son--so now He is

   chipping out a crown of thorns and you must wear it round your head. He
   is fashioning the image of His Son out of the block of your renewed
   nature and you must patiently bear the blows from His hammer and chisel
   till the work is done.

   Finally, if I cannot tell you why all this trouble falls to your lot, I
   know it is right, for the Lord has done it, and blessed be His name!
   Aaron held his peace when his two sons died. He got as far as that in
   submission to the will of the Lord. But it will be better still if,
   instead of simply holding your peace, you can bless and praise and
   magnify the Lord even in your sharpest trouble! Oh, may you be Divinely
   helped to do so! Let every troubled soul march out of this place
   feeling, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." Rise, dear
   Friend, out of all despondency and despair! Shake yourself from the
   dust and put on your beautiful garments of praise and joy, remembering
   that--

   "Thepath of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrow
   is unknown." You can see the tracks of the martyrs along the road you
   are journeying! Better still, you can see the footprints of the Son of
   God, your Lord and Savior! Therefore, you may rest assured that you are
   on the right road, so press bravely forward on it and, in due time, you
   will come to that place of which Job said, "There the wicked cease from
   troubling; and there the weary are at rest." And you shall be forever
   without fault before the Throne of God!

   May He grant this happy portion to you all, for His dear Son's sake!
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Pressed Man Yielding to Christ

   (No. 2667)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 25, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER
   12, 1882.

   "Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He
   said unto him, Do you believe on the Son of God? He answered and said,
   Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? And Jesus said unto him,
   You have both seen Him, and it is He that talks with you. And he said,
   Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Hun." John 9:35-38.

   LAST Sabbath morning [Sermon #1683, Volume 28--The Great Cross-Bearer
   and His Followers] I spoke to you concerning one who was forced into
   the King's service. That was Simon, the Cyre-nian, who was compelled to
   bear Christ's Cross. He was not a volunteer, but a pressed man, yet, I
   think that after he had been forced to bear the Cross, he willingly
   carried it and I hope that he, afterwards, became a faithful follower
   of the Lord Jesus Christ.

   Now, strange to say, here is another pressed man, for I do not think
   that this man, whose eyes had been opened by Christ, had thought of
   becoming a Believer in the Son of God until the Lord Jesus found him.
   Before he had reached that point--indeed, before he knew that the
   Prophet who had opened his eyes was the Son of God--the Pharisees had
   cast him out of the synagogue so that he was compelled to bear the
   cross for Christ although he did not, then, fully know Christ and
   certainly had not believed upon the Son of God. Yet, in his case, also,
   it appears that he cheerfully took up the cross which had been, at the
   first, forcibly laid upon him.

   It may happen that there are some persons here who are in a similar
   position--some who have been ridiculed for being Christians even before
   they are Christians! Some who have been mocked merely because they go
   to a place of worship, though as yet they have not yielded themselves
   to Christ. Well, if that is the case with any, seeing that the cross is
   laid upon their shoulders, I trust that they will not throw it off, but
   that they will bravely bear it for Christ and freely suffer what, up
   till now, has seemed to them to be a piece of injustice, for they have
   been treated as if they were believers in Christ, when really they are
   not yet on the Lord's side.

   This man, then, bearing Christ's Cross in a certain way, was cast out
   of the synagogue. And then Christ found him and blessed him. Observe,
   dear Friend, where Christ began with him, for it will show us where and
   how the blessing usually enters. The door by which the richest of
   Heaven's favors must come to us is indicated by our Lord going to that
   door and opening it. He said to the man, "Do you believe on the Son of
   God." So that faith in the Son of God is the gate of benediction. Faith
   is that window of agate and gate of carbuncle by which the Divine Light
   of Jesus' love comes streaming into the soul. This is the way by which
   God's mercy enters the heart of man and, therefore, the Lord Jesus
   Christ, Himself, begins there. And in all our dealings with the
   unconverted, it will be wise for us, also, to begin there. That is the
   place where the decisive battle will have to be fought, for, upon the
   believing or the not believing on the Son of God, the eternal destiny
   of each individual will turn! "He that believes on the Son has
   everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life;
   but the wrath of God abides on him."

   That wrath abides even now upon him if the life of God is not in him.
   Let us hammer away at that all-important point of faith in Christ. This
   is the Thermopylae [narrow pass] of Christian experience. If this pass
   can be stormed and carried, we can capture the citadel of men's hearts.
   But if unbelief continues to guard that narrow passage to eternal life
   and to hold it against the Gospel and its invitations, exhortations,
   promises and threats, then nothing whatever can be

   done! So, in this enquiry of our Lord, we have most instructive
   teaching. His objective, no doubt, was to bless this man by working in
   him saving faith and, therefore, He said to him, "Do you believe on the
   Son of God?"

   I think our text will help us, first, to speak of true faith--how it is
   known. Secondly, true faith--how it progresses. And thirdly, true
   faith--how we can promote it

   I. First, I want to speak concerning TRUE FAITH--the faith that
   saves--HOW IT IS KNOWN.

   First, it is absolutely essential that it should be faith in the Son of
   God. Our blessed Lord knew that this man believed in Him as a
   Prophet--so might He not have been content with that? No, because to
   believe in Christ merely as a Prophet is not saving faith. It may be a
   step towards salvation and it may lead up to it, but the faith that is
   absolutely necessary is that belief in Him as the Son of God. And he
   who does not believe in the Deity of Christ has not a Savior who can
   save him! The work of saving a soul is a Divine operation and no one
   but a Divine Being can accomplish it. It is He who sits upon the Throne
   of God who says, "Behold, I make all things new!" There cannot be
   anyone except the Creator who can create--and the Creator must, in
   every case, be God. To save a soul, there must be a work performed
   which is analogous to the Resurrection. But, in order to raise the
   dead, there must be the Presence and Power of God. It is one of those
   operations which it is not conceivable can be performed by an angel or
   by any created being. The Highest alone can accomplish it--has He not
   said of Himself, "I kill and I make alive"? The power of life and death
   must rest with God alone. Hence, then, the work of salvation needs a
   Power nothing less than Divine. He who believes in Christ as a mere man
   has not believed in a Person who can give him salvation--and Christ
   cannot accomplish the stupendous task if He is only man, for the Savior
   must be God!

   There is no true and logical standpoint, in reference to the Deity of
   Christ, except one of two things. Either our Lord was the Son of God,
   equal with the Father, or else He was an impostor, for He most
   distinctly claimed that He was the Son of God. In the chapter preceding
   our text, at the 54th verse, we read that Jesus said to the Jews, "If I
   honor Myself, My honor is nothing: it is My Father who honors Me; of
   whom you say, that He is your God." Then they took up stones to cast at
   Him because He said that He was the Son of God! And, in this case of
   the blind man whom He had healed, He took pains to find him that He
   might communicate to him in private the fact that He was, Himself, the
   Son of God. He never withdrew His claim to the Deity! If He had only
   said to the Jews, "No, I am not the Son of God. You are mistaken in
   supposing that I said I was. The expressions I used are not intended to
   convey that idea," then they would not have crucified Him. This was the
   chief point of their quarrel with Him and I must again say that either
   He was God, or He willfully misled the people by using words which made
   them think that He was God.

   His words have led millions of Christians, from those days until now,
   to worship Him as God. And they were perfectly justified, by His
   utterances, in doing so. And if He meant anything less than that, then
   He was a deceiver. But He did mean that He was God and it is our joy
   and glory to rest in Him as being, alike, the Son of Mary and the Son
   of Jehovah, Himself--"Light of Light, very God of very God"--co-equal
   and co-eternal with the Father. And here we feel that we can rest for
   our soul's salvation! We can lean with our whole weight on One who is,
   indeed, "mighty to save. Seeing that all power is His and that He is
   equal with God, He can and He will save all those who put their trust
   in Him!" Do not any of you, I beseech you, be content with any faith
   less than that! If you have any sort of faith which does not recognize
   Christ as God, do with it as the man did with the bank note, when he
   found that it was bad--he laid it down and ran away from it, for fear
   anybody should suspect him of being its owner. Put away every kind of
   confidence that is short of faith in the Son of God and abhor it, for
   it is a damnable delusion! And may the Lord bring you fully into this
   blessed state of salvation through believing on the Son of God!

   A second point about saving faith is that it rests upon a knowledge of
   Him. This man said to Jesus, "Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on
   Him?" He was not one whose notion of faith was that he need not
   knowwhat he believed. The Church of Rome seems to inculcate some kind
   of implicit faith (or credulity) which can exist apart from
   knowledge--but how can I believe that which I do not know? Paul puts it
   thus, "Faith comes by hearing." You must first hear and know what it is
   you are to believe before you can believe it Otherwise your faith is
   vain, like that of the man of whom I have sometimes spoken, who said,
   "I believe what the church believes." "But what does the church
   believe?" It believes what I believe." "Then what do you and the church
   believe?" "Why, we both believe the same thing."

   That is not the kind of believing that can save the soul! It is through
   the knowledge of Christ that we are saved. To knowChrist is sometimes
   said to be analogous to believing in Christ. You must know what it is
   that you have to believe!

   A faith that does not know is no faith at all. Read through the
   Epistles of John and mark with your pencil every time the word, "know,
   "is used. The Apostle makes that word, "know,"come in again and again,
   for a man must know that which he is to believe and hence this man says
   to Christ, "Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?"

   For my part, I could never be content without unquestioning certainty
   as to my soul's salvation. Do you think that is more than a man ought
   to wish for? Are any of you at ease while you are afraid that you have
   a mortal disease working within you? Oh, no! You want to know, from a
   qualified physician, the truth about your case. And if it were
   whispered in your ear, at this moment, that your house was being broken
   into or was on fire, would you sit still and not trouble yourself as to
   whether the report were true or not? Would you not want to go at once
   and see for yourself? If you knew that you bought an estate, some time
   ago, but you have since heard that the title to it is a very uncertain
   one, in fact, in all probability, you will lose all you have paid for
   it, would you not say, "I ought to have taken care to be certain about
   the title. And I would not have bought the estate if I had not felt
   that the deeds relating to it were all right." Well, then, if you
   desire certainty about your bodily health, about the safety of your
   house and about the validity of your title-deeds, can you afford to go
   without certainty as to your soul's affairs? No, you cannot. Therefore,
   rest not till you have it. If you have various questions about your
   spiritual condition, boldly face those questions and answer them. Never
   let any questions about your eternal welfare be such that you dare not
   face them and do not wish to search out the answers to them. Pry to the
   very bottom of them and, better still, ask the Lord to search you, and
   know your heart, to try you, and know your thoughts, and to lead you in
   the way everlasting. And be not content till you can truthfully say, "I
   know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep
   that which I have committed unto Him."

   This man, of whom I am speaking, knew that Christ had opened his eyes
   and, therefore, He must be at least a Prophet. He also knew, further,
   that whatever that Prophet told him must be true, for the Man who had
   opened his eyes must have been sent by God--and God does not work
   miracles by liars. He said to himself, "This Man is undoubtedly a
   faithful person, or God would not employ Him in such a wonderful work
   as that of opening the eyes of a man who was born blind." And then he
   stood perfectly prepared to receive whatever might be spoken by this
   Prophet of whom he knew something, though he did not know enough to
   understand what was meant by the Savior when He asked, "Do you believe
   on the Son of God"? He, therefore, sat as an enquirer at the Savior's
   feet, waiting for something to be told him which should enable him to
   believe!

   You, dear Friend, may not be in exactly the same condition that this
   man was, but, still, your case may be, in many respects, a parallel
   one. You say, perhaps, "I wish, above all things in the world, that I
   could believe in Christ." Do you intend to sit down and try to make
   yourselfbelieve in Him? That would be a very unwise thing because faith
   is not worked in the soul in that fashion! Suppose it was rumored, at
   the present moment, that there had been another massacre in Alexandria,
   and that our troops had been driven out of the city? How would you
   decide whether the report was to be believed or not? Would you sit down
   in your pew and say, "I will try to make myself believe it"? Well, you
   might come, by a process of reasoning, to some sort of conclusion as to
   whether it was or was not a likely thing, but the mere sensible plan
   would be to enquire what foundation there was for the report. And if,
   on going to the War Office, you were informed by someone in authority,
   "Yes, there has been a very great disaster," well, then, knowing the
   facts of the case, you could believe. The enquiry at headquarters would
   be the way to ascertain the truth of the report, and just so is it in
   connection with believing in Christ. If I am to believe in Him, I ask,
   with this man, "Who is He?" and until I know who He is, it is idle for
   me to talk about forcing myself to believe in Him!

   Now listen, He in whom you are asked to believe for salvation is,
   first, of all, Himself God! Then, in Infinite mercy, He came and took
   upon Himself our nature and dwelt among men. He voluntarily came--being
   God--but He was also sent of God, appointed and authorized to be God's
   Ambassador to man. He was, in addition to being sent of God, anointed
   of God, for the Spirit of God rested upon Him without measure,
   qualifying Him for His work. The life He led here on earth was
   unique--there was never another like it--and the imagination of man
   cannot write the history of another man that shall be at all comparable
   to the life of Christ! It stands apart in a lone, simple majesty,
   utterly inimitable, absolutely perfect. Then He died and by that death
   He forever put away the sin of His people. He took upon Himself the sin
   which He had never committed. He was numbered with the transgressors
   and He suffered as if men's transgressions had been His own. He died,
   "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God."

   And God has accepted those sufferings as a propitiation for all who
   believe in Him. And now, this is the witness of God concerning Him,
   that He has raised Him from the dead, and taken Him up to His Throne
   and made Him to sit there, at His Father's right hand, where, at this
   moment, He is making intercession for all who come to God by Him. And
   now, our prayers are accepted through Him--and the infinite blessings
   which are His, He distributes among us! And He is shortly coming again
   with sound of trumpet, and attended by myriads of saints and angels. As
   He ascended from Olivet, in like manner He will also descend to earth
   again. King of Kings and Lord of Lords shall He be in that day--"And
   before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them,
   one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats." He
   is God! He still lives! It is the living, reigning Christ whom we
   preach to you! He lives in Glory and He also lives here by the Presence
   of His Holy Spirit who is with us and who is to abide with us evermore.
   And it is upon Him as God Incarnate, as Savior--crucified, risen, and
   gone into Glory--that you are asked to place your soul's confidence!

   If you would learn this Truth of God more fully, read the four Gospels
   and the Epistles, and ask the Spirit, who inspired the writers of them,
   to explain and apply them to you. That is the way to obtain faith! Many
   a man has been reading in the Bible the story of the Cross, and so he
   has believed in Jesus. Many another has heard about the Savior, and so
   has been led to believe in Him. It is the simplest thing in the world
   to believe upon trustworthy evidence and when we get the evidence of
   Christ's life and death manifesting the glory of His Person, the
   graciousness of His Character and the efficacy of His atoning blood,
   then are we led to believe in Him! True faith is based upon knowledge
   of Christ, as it was in this man's case. Take care, dear Friends, that
   you always remember that simple but important Truth of God.

   And, further, true faith always expresses itself to the Lord. This man,
   when he had believed in Jesus, said, "Lord, I believe." True faith
   ought also to express itself to men, as Paul puts it, in writing to the
   Romans, "For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with
   the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Or, as the Master Himself
   puts it, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Therefore,
   the confession before men ought not to be neglected in any case, yet I
   fear, and hope, that there are some pilgrims who steal into Heaven,
   scarcely known by men to be Christians--at least, not acknowledged as
   such by open profession. I do not recommend dodging behind the hedges
   and getting to Heaven along back roads--that is a bad plan--but still,
   I trust some have managed it, though with much trouble and loss to
   themselves. But, in every case, everyone who has believed has made the
   confession of that faith to the Master Himself. He has said to Jesus,
   as this man did, "Lord, I believe," even though he has added, with
   another man, "Help You my unbelief." He has said to Jesus, with Thomas,
   "My Lord and my God." There has been a personal acknowledgment, as we
   sometimes sing it--

   "My faith looks up to You, You Lamb of Calvary, Savior Divine."

   It is a very vital point about true faith, that it thus recognizes its
   obligation to speak to Him and to acknowledge itself to Him. How
   sweetly does faith, sometimes, come up from the wilderness, leaning
   upon her Beloved and acknowledging to Him that she is His and He is
   hers! She cannot help making this confession--she would be untrue to
   herself and to her Lord if she did not do so.

   In one respect, we are better off than this man was, for we have many
   Divine promises to help us to believe in Christ. Have you ever noticed,
   dear Friends, how much we live upon the promises of our fellow men? In
   buying a small article at a shop, you pay your twopence for it across
   the counter, but, the larger the business transaction gets to be, the
   less there is of metallic currency in connection with it--then you
   often pay each other in promises. The most common form of a promise is
   a bank note--and it is worth while to observe how much a bank note is
   made after the model of God's promises. How does the wording of this
   bank note run? It is headed, "Bank of England." And it begins, "I
   promise." You take this note readily enough instead of five golden
   sovereigns, because you read on it, "I promise to pay the bearer," and
   God's promise is payable to "the bearer." Whoever has the promise in
   his possession, whoever has faith enough to lay hold of God's promise,
   may read it in this way--"I promise to pay the bearer."

   I remember when I first snatched at one of God's precious promises. I
   could hardly hope that I had any right to it, for I felt myself so
   utterly unworthy, but I snatched it up and ran with it to the Bank of
   Faith! And as soon as I presented it, I received its full value. God
   always honors His own promises. Here is one: "Him that comes to Me I
   will in no wise

   cast out." Go to Him with that gracious message and it shall be
   fulfilled to you, whoever you are! The note says, "I promise to pay the
   bearer." If a janitor takes that note to the Bank of England, he will
   get the money for it--I mean a janitor in characteras well as by trade,
   for the declaration on it is, "I promise to pay the bearer."

   What does it now say on the bank note "I promise to pay the bearer on
   demand." That is how all God's promises run--"on demand." It is worthy
   of note that in the olden times, when the Lord had made many promises
   to His people, He added, "I will yet for this be enquired of by the
   house of Israel, to do it for them," as though the fulfillment of the
   promise was delayed until it was asked for! No doubt many of God's
   great and precious promises are not realized by you and me because they
   are not presented to the Lord as we should take a note to the bank to
   get it cashed. We do not enquire of God as much as we ought. You hear
   of enquirers going to see the minister--that may be a good thing, but
   the best sort of enquirers are those I heard before I came up here to
   preach tonight--when some good earnest souls met downs in the lecture
   hall to enquire of God for a blessing, and to ask Him to help His
   servant to speak the Word with power.

   Now, coming back to this bank note, I daresay you would not mind having
   a pile of paper of this kind reaching from the floor to the
   ceiling--then you would say to yourself, "Now I am a rich man." But you
   have not a single farthing there, you have only a promise "to pay the
   bearer on demand the sum of five pounds." "Ah," you say, "but that
   promise is good all the world over." Whose promise is it? Well, it is
   signed by the chief cashier, but he only signs it, "for the Governor
   and Company of the Bank of England." Thatis where the value of the
   promise lies! And it is our comfort to know that we have a noble name
   written below all God's promises, for the Lord Jesus Christ has signed
   them all in God's behalf--for the great Governor of Heaven and earth,
   who has no need of any "company" to be joined with Him, for His sole
   resources are fully equal to the fulfillment of every promise that He
   has ever issued!

   Now, if we treat men's promises with respect, and pass them from hand
   to hand as if they were genuine gold, and we constantly do so, shall we
   not treat God's promises with something more than respect and trust
   them with implicit confidence? Will any man have the impudence to say,
   "I have faith in a note signed by the chief cashier of the Bank of
   England, but cannot trust a promise that is certified by the Lord Jesus
   Christ Himself?" Shall I consider that bank note to be as good as the
   money it represents and yet, when I hold in my hand, God's Word,
   signed, sealed and ratified by the sprinkling of the very blood of His
   dear Son, shall I dare to say, "I find it hard to believe in that
   Word"? If I talk so, I shall grieve the people of God and, what is far
   worse, shall grieve the Lord Himself!

   II. Now I turn to the second part of our subject, which is, TRUE FAITH,
   HOW IT PROGRESSES.

   Very often it has a very small beginning. Saving faith does not always
   come all of a sudden. Some men are saved, as Saul of Tarsus was--they
   are struck down in the midst of their sins and converted in remarkable
   and unusual manner. But with many others there is, first, a faint
   twilight. Then, by-and-by, a little more and, at last, the sun has
   fully risen upon them. Perhaps you cannot tell when it did actually
   rise, but you know that it has risen, for there is the light and the
   brightness of its shining!

   In the case of the man of whom I am speaking, faith began with a
   preparedness to believe. His eyes had been opened and he was, thereby,
   made ready to believe anything that Jesus might tell him. And there is
   many a man who, looking back upon God's goodness to himself and God's
   goodness to his father and mother, and God's goodness to gracious
   people in general--and thinking of the holy and lovely Character of
   Christ--has, in that way, been prepared to believe when the Truth of
   God was clearly set before him!

   This man went a step further on the right road, for he desired to
   believe. He said, "Who is He, Lord," not, "that I might know about Him,
   and talk about Him"--but, "that I might believe on Him?" He had a
   desire to possess true faith! And there are many like he, who desire to
   believe, but who have not exercised faith in Christ. This is very
   amazing, but it is true. Of all things in the world, to believe in
   Christ is one of the most simple, yet that is the reason why many find
   it so difficult. If it were difficult, it would seem easy to them, but,
   being easy, it appears difficult. Some of you, dear Friends, when I try
   to describe how we come to trust in Christ, will twist and turn what I
   say, even if I make it "as plain as a pikestaff." You think, "Oh, he
   must mean something very different from what he says!" You really
   cannot get this idea into your heads--that you have only to depend on
   Christ, to trust Him and then you are saved, for "he that believes on
   the Son has everlasting life."

   Whenever we use a metaphor, or figure, or illustration to try to
   explain the simplicity of faith, straightway somebody finds a
   difficulty even in that. When I have been trying to catch a sinner, I
   find that he has as many hiding places as there are days in the year. I
   have stopped up one after another, and I have said to him, "No,
   salvation only comes through believing." "Yes, Sir, I know, but"--and
   down he runs into another hole! When I have dug him out of that, and
   fancied I will surely catch him, he says, "Oh, yes, we are to trust the
   Savior, but"--and again he is off. Somehow, men seem very ingenious in
   trying to find out reasons why they should not be saved! And all their
   foolish ingenuity seems to be employed in attempting to escape from
   this blessed Divine simplicity--"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
   you shall be saved." May God the Holy Spirit lead them to believe in
   Him! He must lead them, for no man can see Christ until his eyes are
   Divinely opened. We may put the Truth as plainly as we can, and preach
   it so that we think we cannot be misunderstood, but men
   willmisunderstand us, even those who desire to believe in Christ, until
   the Holy Spirit works effectually in them!

   This man went still further on the right road, for he not only desired
   to believe, but he made enquiry in order that he might believe. I put
   it to you very simply, just now, with regard to making enquiries
   concerning a certain piece of news. Well, this man did the same. He
   said to the Master, "Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?" If
   sinners would only make enquiries about the Savior, they would soon
   trust in Him. You will find, as a rule, that the people who rail at the
   New Testament, have never read it. If they would but read it, their
   foolishness might soon come to an end and be followed by a blessed
   faith in Christ. But, instead of doing so, they read what some
   objection-manufacturer has said about the Bible, instead of going to
   the Book, itself, and seeing what it really teaches. If I were very
   thirsty, I do not think that I would abstain from going to a well
   because somebody told me that it contained bad water--but I would go
   and see, and taste for myself. And when a soul gets very thirsty, if it
   is wise, it goes to the Word for itself. I advise you to do that, dear
   Friends. "O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man who
   trusts in Him."

   When this man had made his enquiry and received Christ's answer, he
   soon became decided. He said, "Lord, I believe." I like that simple,
   clear acknowledgement of faith. So often, when we are conversing with
   an enquirer, he says, "Yes, Sir. I hope I believe." Oh, dear, is that
   all you can say? "Well, I trust I believe"--and so faith is surrounded
   by fog--"I hope I believe. I trust I believe." Man, don't you know
   whether you believe or not? You may know it! One thing I know, you have
   no business to go to sleep till you know, once and for all, for, if you
   are not a Believer, you are an unbeliever! There is no middle state
   between the two. And if you are an unbeliever, you are "condemned
   already," because you have not believed in the name of the
   only-begotten Son of God! This matter of believing ought never to be
   left in doubt at all, but it should be definitely settled, so that you
   can say with this man, "Lord, I believe."

   Then, further, he acted as a Believer, for, "he worshipped Him." This
   proves how his faith had grown. I should like to ask you, who are the
   people of God, when you are happiest. I think you will agree with what
   I am going to say, but if you do not, it will still be just as true to
   me. My happiest moments are when I am worshipping God, really adoring
   the Lord Jesus Christ, and having fellowship with the ever-blessed
   Spirit. In that worship, I forget the cares of the Church and
   everything else. And, to me, it is the nearest approach to what it will
   be in Heaven, where, day without night, they offer perpetual adoration
   unto Him that sits upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb. Therefore, what
   a memorable moment it was for this man when he worshipped Christ!

   Now, if Christ was not God, that man was an idolater, a man-worshipper.
   And you and I, instead of being regarded as very excellent people, by
   those who call themselves, "Unitarian Brethren," should be condemned as
   idolaters! If Christ was not God, we are not Christians! We are
   deceived dupes, we are idolaters as bad as the heathen whom we now
   pity. It is making a man into a god if Christ is not God. But, blessed
   be His holy name, He is God, and we feel that it is the supreme delight
   of our being to worship Him! We cannot veil our face with our wings,
   for we have none, but we do veil them with His own robe of
   righteousness whenever we approach Him. We cannot cover our feet with
   our wings, as the angels do, but we do take His blood and His
   righteousness both as a covering for our feet, and as wings with which
   we fly up to Him. And though as yet we have no crowns to cast at His
   dear feet, yet, if we have any honor, any good repute, any Grace,
   anything that is comely, anything that is honest, we lay it all at His
   feet and cry, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Your name
   give glory, for Your mercy and for Your truth's sake."

   III. Now I come to the third point, which is this, TRUE FAITH--HOW TO
   PROMOTE IT.

   Beloved Brothers and Sisters, there are many of you who are constantly
   looking out for souls and trying to bring them to Christ. You have,
   here, an example of what you may do in endeavoring to lead them to
   exercise faith in Jesus.

   First, if you have any choice as to those to whom you go, seek out the
   oppressed. You are to go, as far as you can, "into all the world, and
   preach the Gospel to every creature." But if you may specially look for
   some more than others, seek out the sick, the sad, the weary, the poor,
   the broken-down ones and especially such as have been put out of the
   synagogue. When our missionaries have gone among the Brahmins in India,
   they have had a few converts, but the most blessing has been given
   among the poor people who have no high caste of which they are proud.
   When the Gospel was taken to them, they gladly received it! The Gospel
   worker will be wise if, instead of shunning those whom even nominally
   religious people put away, he looks after them, first. They are likely
   soil for the good Seed of the Kingdom to grow in and bring forth fruit.
   Our Lord Jesus Christ, at Sychar, did not go to some goodly matron who
   was an ornament to her sex. You know where He found the woman who
   became His disciple and missionary, and you know what kind of woman she
   was and, to this day, He delights to go about, as Whitefield used to
   say, "sweeping up the devil's castaways." Those whom nobody else wants
   and nobody else will have--our blessed Lord and Master delights to
   receive. Therefore, look after those out-of-the-way sinners! I like
   that expression, those out-of-the-way Sinners, because our Lord Jesus
   Christ is the High Priest "who can have compassion on the ignorant, and
   on them that are out of the way." Out-of-the-way sinners are the sort
   He came to save, therefore, look out for them, you who would follow the
   example of the great Soul-Winner.

   Then, next, when you come to close quarters with them, ask them
   questions, as Christ did. He said to this man, "Do you believe on the
   Son of God." Put the enquiry pointedly and personally. Here am I, up in
   the pulpit, firing the Gospel gun, and the shot flies where God directs
   it. But you, downstairs, who love the Lord, can, as it were, hold a
   pistol close to the sinner's head! Take them separately, one by one,
   and make them "stand and deliver." Put the question as our Lord did,
   "Do you believe?" "See, Friend," you can say, "the minister has been
   preaching about faith. 'Do you believe?'" This is what nine people out
   of ten need--somebody to come and make a personal application of the
   Truth of God to them. They are like soldiers out upon the battlefield.
   They lie there, wounded, bleeding, dying. Close by, there is all that
   is needed to bind up their wounds and plenty of it! Then, why do they
   lie there in agony? They need personal attention and it is your
   business, as an army surgeon, to go and put on the splint and bind up
   the wounds. Oh, that we had multitudes who would do this, and that all
   God's people were constantly looking out for opportunities of making a
   personal application of the Truth to those who hear it! "Do you
   believe?" said the Lord Jesus to this man, and by that question He held
   him fast. That is the way to win souls--begin with a personal question!

   Then, be ready to answer enquiries. This is what our Lord Himself did
   when He revealed Himself to this man. Tell them all you know and if you
   cannot tell them all they need to know, try to bring them to somebody
   more advanced in spiritual things than you, yourself, are, so that,
   with prayer, patience and wise instruction, hemay lead them to Christ.

   Next, pray to the Lord Jesus Christ to reveal Himself to them, for that
   is the way faith comes. We cannot speak of Christ as He should be
   spoken of, but when He reveals Himself, then the sinners see Him. All
   the portraits of a beauty never touch the heart like one glance from
   her eyes--and all the portraits of Christ that were ever painted by His
   most admiring disciples, never make such an impression on the heart of
   man as when once He says, as He said to this man, "You have both seen
   Him, and it is He that talks with you." None but Christ Himself can
   preach Christ to the fullest. He must reveal Himself, or the Spirit
   must reveal Him, or else men do not see Him.

   Finally, glorify Christ by your own personal testimony. Remember that
   wondrous intercessory prayer of our Lord, in which He said, "Neither
   pray I for these, alone, but for them, also, which shall believe on Me
   through their word." It was so kind, yet just like He, not to say,
   "through My Word," though it is His Word that we are to proclaim. But
   we get it into our hearts and so appropriate it that when we utter it,
   we speak out of our own heart, and soul, and then it becomes our word,
   too, and so sinners believe on Christ through our word. Go on speaking
   your word, that is, Christ's Word spoken by you, for this is how to win
   souls for Him!

   Now, in closing, I want to begin again, and give you another little
   sermon altogether, only I shall not be able to preach it to you, but
   just to give you the heads of it and leave it with you.

   The first head is, when you are believing, mind that you believe in
   Jesus Himself''Do you believe in the Son of God?" or is it somebody
   else in whom you are believing? Is it merely what others say about
   Christ that you believe? Is it

   your own opinion of Christ? Or is it really the Son of God upon whom
   you are believing? When you are believing, believe in Jesus Himself.

   Next, when you are enquiring, enquire of Jesus Himself This is a
   beautiful thing, to my mind. Here is a man asking Christ about
   Christ--asking Jesus, "Who is He?" and, all the while, speaking to the
   very Person about whom he was enquiring! He did not know it was Jesus,
   yet he had gone to the very Fountainhead! Now, perhaps some of you have
   made enquiries of Christian people and you have read the Bible, and
   prayed, and yet you cannot find Jesus. Then go direct to Him, by faith,
   and say, "Lord, show me Yourself." That is the way to learn of Him.
   Have I a book of which I cannot make heads or tail as I read it? If I
   knew where the author lived, I would call on him and say, "Dear Sir,
   will you kindly tell me what you mean by this expression? I cannot
   understand it." That is the way to find anything out--go to the
   fountainhead. So, always go to Christ and, when you are enquiring,
   enquire of Christ Himself.

   Next, when you are seeking Christ, ask Christ to reveal Himself to you,
   for there is nobody who can reveal Christ as Christ can reveal Himself
   by His blessed Spirit.

   And, next, when you are confessing your faith, confess it to Christ
   Himself Say, as this man did, "Lord, I believe." Say to your minister,
   or to your mother, or to your friends, "I believe," but take care,
   above all the rest, that you say, "Lord, I believe."

   And, lastly, when you are worshipping, worship Christ Himself ' 'He
   worshipped HIM" and no one else. Take care that your reverence and
   adoration are not given, in any degree, to the church, or to any person
   in it, or to any priest, or minister, or anything created or made.
   Worship God, and God in Christ Jesus. And the Lord bless you, Beloved,
   for His name's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Communion With Christ--a Baptizing Sermon

   (No. 2668)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 1, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A THURSDAY EVENING, EARLY IN
   THE YEAR 1858.

   "Cain two walk together, unless they are agreed?" Amos 3:3.

   THE expression, "walking together," is often used in Scripture as a
   figure for communion. "Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God
   took him." Communion, if it is thorough and entire, implies activity.
   It is not merely contemplation, it is action and, therefore, inasmuch
   as walking is an active exercise, and walking with a man is communion
   with him, active communion with him, we see how walking comes to be the
   picture of true communion with Christ. An old Puritan said, "It does
   not say that Enoch returned to God and then left Him, but he 'walked
   with God.'" All his journey through, he had God for his Companion and
   lived in perpetual fellowship with his Maker.

   There is also another idea contained in the term, "walking together."
   It is not only activity, but continuance. So, true communion with
   Christ is not a mere spasm--not just an excitement of ecstasy--but if
   it is the work of the Holy Spirit and if it is enjoyed by the healthful
   soul, it will be a continual thing.

   It also implies progress,for, in walking together, we do not lift up
   our feet and put them down in the same place, but we proceed nearer to
   our journey's end. And he that has true communion with Christ is making
   progress. It is true that Christ can go no further towards excellence,
   for He has already attained perfection, but the nearer weget to that
   perfection, the more fellowship we have with Jesus--and unless we
   progress, unless we seek to be more childlike in faith, more instructed
   in knowledge and more diligent in service--unless we seek to have more
   zeal and fervency, we shall find that, in so standing still, we lose
   the Presence of the Master, for it is only by following on with the
   Lord that we continue to walk with Him. It will, therefore, very
   readily strike you how walking with a person is an excellent figure for
   communion with him and how the term, "walking with God," is the best
   expression for fellowship with God. Hence, our text implies by its very
   form that two cannot walk together unless they are agreed. And it
   teaches us, therefore, that unless we are agreed with Christ, we cannot
   attain to the sweet state of communion with Him.

   We, shall, first, notice the agreement here mentioned. We shall,
   secondly, try to notice the necessity for this agreement And then,
   thirdly, we shall ask all Christians to seek after this agreement with
   Christ that they may have full communion with Him.

   I am not addressing myself so much to the world outside as to the
   Church within. When we are preaching the Gospel of salvation, we preach
   that to the world. But communion is like the Holy of Holies! Salvation,
   itself, seems to be but as the court of the priests, but communion is
   the Innermost Place, that which is within the veil, and into that none
   but the Christian can be allowed to enter.

   I. First, then, Christian, we shall endeavor to show you WHAT IS THE
   AGREEMENT which must exist between your Lord and yourself before you
   can walk with Him. We will do this in a very simple way. We shall keep
   to the figure and we shall see that there are certain things necessary
   to enable one person to walk with another.

   First, then, it is quite certain that if we would walk with Christ, we
   must walk in the same path Two men cannot walk together if one turns
   his head in one direction and the other turns his head the opposite
   way. If one should turn to the right and the other to the left, they
   cannot walk together, although they may arrive at the same end by
   different roads, but they cannot walk togetherunless they walk along
   the same road. It is true that they can have a little conversa-

   tion even if they are some yards apart, but if one walks on one side of
   the road, and the other on the other, we would think that their
   communion was rather distant and their love rather cold. But, the
   nearer they walk on precisely the same road, the more are they enabled
   to hold fellowship with one another.

   Now, child of God, albeit you cannot be saved by your good works, and
   your salvation does not depend upon your works, remember that your
   communion does! It is impossible for you to have fellowship with Christ
   unless you are obedient to His commands. Let a Christian err and he
   will be pierced with many sorrows. Let the child of God forsake the way
   of God, let him, as, alas, we oftentimes do, go down by the stile to
   By-Path Meadow, and he will not have his Master go down By-Path Meadow
   with him! If we will be self-willed and choose our own path, we must go
   our own path alone. If, for some seeming pleasure, or some fancied
   gain, instead of following the fiery cloudy pillar, we follow the
   will-o'-the-wisp of our own desires, we shall have to go alone, and in
   the dark, too! Christ will go with us anywhere where duty calls us. If
   duty should call us into the burning fiery furnace, the Son of Man will
   be there. If it should lead us into the lions' den, He will be there to
   shut the lions' mouths. He would not have gone there with Daniel if
   Daniel had sought, by neglect of duty, to avoid the threatened
   destruction. Although the Lord would go with Shadrach, Meshach and
   Abednego even into the heat of the burning fiery furnace, yet, if they
   had bowed down to the image, He would not have gone with them. "If you
   walk contrary to Me," says the Lord, "I will walk contrary to you."

   Here I must guard what I have said lest I should be misunderstood. I do
   not mean that Christ forsakes His people so as to destroythem--but He
   forsakes them so as to take away their communion with Himself. For
   again I repeat that, although salvation does not depend upon good
   works, communion hasthis dependence--and cannot be enjoyed between
   Christ and the soul that is full of sin. A man may have much sin about
   him and yet be a saved man. And much of frailty and imperfection
   cleaves to us all. But if we are livingin sin. If we are, in anyway
   whatever, breaking the commands of God--to the extent of our sin there
   will be just that extent of separation between our souls and Christ.
   Sin may not kill us, but it will make us sick. It will take Christ's
   right hand from under our heads. Take care, therefore, Christian, that
   you walk in the steps of your Master. Strive to be obedient to His Law.
   Live righteously, soberly and godly in the midst of a crooked and
   perverse generation. Be you like Caleb, who followed the Lord fully.
   Endeavor in every way to learn His will and then to do it. In all your
   Lord's appointed ways, pursue your journey. Remember all His
   ordinances, and perform His every precept. Resign yourself to His every
   dispensation. Be you not as the horse or mule which have no
   understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle lest
   they come near to you--but be you guided by the Lord's own eye. Run in
   the way of His commandments and you shall find them a delightful road!
   This is the first point-- those who walk together must go the same way.

   Further, in going the same way, they must go with the same motive. Two
   persons may be going the same way, but suppose they are going for very
   opposite reasons? There is a lawyer walking side by side with the man
   whom he is going to fleece. Let the poor man know that he is to be
   robbed at the end of his journey and there will not be any communion
   between the two travelers! Suppose two men are going together and one
   is about to bring an action against the other-- there will not be any
   communion between them. Suppose they are going to fight with each
   other--there will not be any communion between them. Suppose the two
   are going to the same election, intending to vote for opposite
   candidates-- they will not be likely to hold very sweet conversation
   with one another, albeit they may go in the same way. So, it is
   necessary that we should not only go in the same road, but with the
   same motive.

   Perhaps you ask, "Is it possible that we can go with Christ in the same
   road, but yet not with the same motive?" Certainly, it is. You see a
   man who appears to be quite as holy as a Christian. He seems to be as
   obedient to the Lord as the man who really follows the Master. As for
   ceremonies, he is the very first to observe them. As for the duties of
   morality, he attends to them most scrupulously. But ask him why he does
   all this and he says it is because he desires to save his soul by it.
   Immediately, he and Christ are at arms' length! Christ calls such an
   one an antichrist and they are sworn enemies. You are trying to save
   yourself, are you? Then you are to be a savior, while Christ is a
   Savior? Then you and He are at enmity! But if you are traveling on this
   road to be saved by Grace, desiring to show forth your thanks with your
   lips and in your life, then you do not wish to rob Christ's kingly or
   priestly office of any of its dignity. You do not desire to set
   yourself up as another king in Zion. But if you are walking in this
   road with a motive contrary to Christ, you cannot hold any communion
   with Him.

   There is very blessed communion with Christ to be enjoyed in the Lord's
   Supper, but if anyone comes to the Lord's Table merely with the thought
   that it may do him good and save his soul, there is no communion with
   Christ for him because that is not Christ's objective. And it is the
   same with Baptism. That ordinance is a blessed means of communion with
   Christ in His death and burial, but if anyone desires to be baptized,
   supposing that the observance of the ordinance will save his soul, then
   there is no communion! If anyone attaches more to the act than Christ
   has commanded and, therefore, makes it our duty to fulfill it--the
   moment a man supposes any efficacy in the water and in the body being
   buried therein--then the communion ceases, for unless we come to
   anything with Christ's motive, or with a motive which is congenial to
   Christ's heart, we are not capable of walking with Him. Two cannot walk
   together unless they are agreed, not only in the way they walk, but
   also in the objective with which they walk in that way.

   Once again, two persons may walk the same road, they may walk with the
   same purpose and yet they may not be able to speak to each other unless
   they travel the same pace. If one person shall travel home very
   swiftly, tonight, and another, who lives in the same house, goes
   creeping home very slowly, perhaps they will go down the same streets,
   yet they will say nothing to one another because one will be at home
   long before the other. So we must agree in the pace at which we travel.
   Why is it that many Christians hold no fellowship with Jesus? It is
   because they travel to Heaven so slowly that the Lord Jesus leaves them
   behind! They are so lukewarm, so cold, so indifferent--they have so
   little zeal, so little love-- they have so little true desire to
   glorify God that the swift heart of Jesus cannot be restrained to tarry
   with them.

   "Oh," says one, "I travel as fast as I can, but I am only a poor feeble
   creature! I often creep when I see others run and, when I do run, I
   often see others flying." Beloved, Christ does not measure your walking
   by the speedat which you go. If your desire is slack, the Lord Jesus
   will leave you and travel on before you--and you will probably find the
   whip of affliction behind you goading your soul to travel more swiftly!
   John Bunyan has a good picture. He says, "if you send a servant for
   medicines and he goes as fast as he can, perhaps he rides on a sorry
   jade of a horse and he cannot make it go fast. But the master does not
   measure the pace by the rate at which the horse goes, but by the rate
   at which the servant wishesthe horse to go, and he says, 'That man
   would go fast if he could. If you put him on a horse that had some
   mettle in him, he would be back and bring the medicines.'"

   So is it with our poor flesh and blood. It is an ill pace at which we
   can ever go with such a sorry thing to ride on-- but the Lord Jesus
   measures our pace, not by the actual distance traversed, but by our
   desires! When he sees us kicking and spurring, as it were, in prayer,
   pulling at the rein, and toiling to make our poor flesh and blood rise
   to something like devotion and zeal, He accepts the will for the deed
   and He keeps company even with us who are such poor disciples. But let
   our desires be cold, let us become lazy, let us do little or nothing
   for Christ--what wonder if the Lord Jesus says, "This man observes not
   My Words and keeps not My sayings. I will not sup with him and he shall
   not sup with Me. I will give him enough comfort to keep him alive. I
   will give him enough spiritual food to keep his soul from actually
   starving, but I will put him on a poor diet until he turns to Me with
   full purpose of heart. And then I will take him to My bosom and show
   him My love."

   There is one more thing. You can suppose two persons traveling on the
   same road with the same intentions and at the same pace, yet they do
   not walk together so as to hold any fellowship with each other because
   they do not like each other Where there is no love (and that, perhaps,
   is the fullest meaning of the text), there can be no communion. Unless
   two are agreed in heart, they cannot walk together. You know some of
   our very excellent Hyper-Calvinistic friends. Now, suppose one of them
   meets an Arminian--you cannot suppose for an instant that there could
   be any conversation between them unless it were some jangling and abuse
   of each other. Suppose some good strict Baptist Brother speaks to us,
   who have more enlarged principles. He smites us with his heavy weapons
   and cuts us down for the great sin of loving all who love the Lord
   Jesus Christ and welcoming to the Lord's Table all whom we believe the
   Lord has received. But, so far as communion is concerned, our Brother
   would be obliged to go on the other side of the road. There must be, he
   thinks, a little distinction and a little difference kept up, for the
   honor of his own views. And we know that there are some Brethren who
   have a peculiar obnoxiousness of temper--they seem to be covered with
   bristles and sharp quills to prick and annoy any and every person who
   happens to come in their way. You cannot commune with them. It is
   impossible for you to walk in the same road with them, for you would
   feel it better to hold your peace all the way because they would be
   sure to misunderstand what you said. There must be an agreement in
   heart, an agreement in opinion, or otherwise two cannot walk together.

   Believer, have you agreement of heart with the Lord Jesus? Do you love
   Christ and do you think a great deal of Him? Do you ever seek to
   magnify Him and speak well of His name? Do you think Him the chief
   among ten thousand and altogether lovely? And do you feel that He also
   has a good opinion of you? Has He said to you, "You are all fair, My
   love; there is no spot in you"? Has He spoken soft words to your heart
   which have caused you to think that His heart of compassion has yearned
   over you? Ah, then, communion is easy with you and your Lord, for your
   two souls are bound up in the same bundle of life and, therefore, it is
   possible for you and Christ to walk together! Are you and He of the
   same opinion? Are Christ's Words your doctrine? Have You been taught to
   give up all divinity except that which came from Jesus? Can you say of
   Him, "He is my only Rabbi, my only Teacher in the Law and the Gospel.
   At His feet, with Mary, I could sit and receive His Words and believe
   all that He has uttered to be the very Truth of God"? If so, Believer,
   communion between you and Christ is easy, for, when two agree in
   thought, intention, way and affection, then they can walk together.

   1 have taken so much time for this first point that the other two must
   be very briefly hinted at.

   II. The second point was to be THE NECESSITY FOR THIS AGREEMENT.

   First, Christ will not walk with us unless we are agreed with Him
   because if He did so, it would be a slur upon His own honor. No, more
   than that, it would be a denial of His own Nature! Should Christ come
   into concord with Belial? Should He make Himself free and communicative
   with those who indulge the lusts of the flesh and who disobey His
   commands? It would look ill if the King's Son should walk arm in arm
   with traitors! We should not think it a good sign if we saw the highest
   in the land herding with the lowest. Christ keeps good company and if
   we do not have our hearts purified by the Holy Spirit, He will not come
   to us at all. He will not abide even with His own children so long as
   they harbor sin. Invite the devil into the front parlor of your heart,
   and Christ will not come. No, it would be a derogation of His own
   dignity, an insult to His own Character to do so. Give your heart up to
   the indulgence of some ambitious desire and you cannot insult the
   Savior by inviting Him to come to you. In our own houses we do not
   invite two persons who are at enmity, and is it likely that Christ will
   come where sin is reigning, or pampered, or indulged? No, Brothers and
   Sisters, He knows there is sin in the best human heart, but, as long as
   it is kept down and as long as He sees that our desires are to overturn
   it, He will come there. But when He sees sin petted and fed in the
   place which ought to be His own palace. When He sees self-righteousness
   and self-security harbored there, He says, "I will not return until
   they have repented of their sin."

   There is another reason why you cannot commune with Christ unless you
   are in agreement with Him and that is because you, yourselves, are
   incapable of it Unless your soul is in agreement with Christ. Unless,
   in motive, aim and will, you are, as far as possible, like your Master,
   you cannot rise to the dignity of fellowship with Him! Fellowship with
   Christ is a high privilege--no man can attain to it as long as he
   indulges evil purposes, or low desires. The heart must be assimilated
   to the likeness of Christ. It must be cleansed and renewed by the Holy
   Spirit, or else it loses its wings and is unable to mount to the high
   places of the earth where Christ shows His people His love.

   There is another reason why Christ will not commune with us unless we
   are agreed with Him, namely, for our own good. Christ cannot and will
   not hold sweet fellowship with His people unless they are in harmony
   with Him. If Christians swerve from Christ's path and backslide from
   His ways--and Christ were still to indulge them with love feasts-- they
   would not realize their sin and would still continue in it. Let a
   father indulge the erring child with all the usual display of his
   affection. Let him put away the rod. Let him never use a harsh word at
   all, but treat the sinning one with the same love as another who is
   dutiful and obedient--how is it to be expected that the child would
   ever forsake its faults? If Christ should give the same love, the same
   enjoyments in sin and after sin, as He does in duty and after duty, His
   people would scarcely recognize their sins and they would continue in
   them. But just as the Lord is pleased to make pain the telltale of
   disease, so that a headache becomes an indication of something wrong
   within the system, so does He make the absence of His own fellowship
   the tell-tale by which we may know that there is something within our
   soul that is hostile to Him--something that must be driven away before
   the sacred Dove will come, with wings of comfort, to dwell in our
   hearts. "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?" No. That is
   impossible.

   III. Now, thirdly, I want to urge all Christians to SEEK AFTER THIS
   AGREEMENT WITH CHRIST. Beloved Brothers and Sisters, in order that you
   may agree with Christ, I have first to remind you that the perpetual

   indwelling of the Holy Spirit must be with you. Unless the same Spirit
   that dwells in Christ shall dwell in you, your

   agreement can never rise to such a height as to admit of any depth or
   nearness of union. Take care continually to seek the unction from on
   high, the indwelling of the Holy One of Israel! In the measure in which
   your heart has been endued by the Divine influence and baptized by the
   holy fire of the Spirit--in that proportion will your soul be in
   agreement with Christ and your union be true, close and lasting. Take
   care of that.

   And then, next, under that Divine influence, look well to all your
   motives. Seek not to have any aim to get honor to yourself, or honor to
   your fellow men. Take care that in all you do, you do it with a single
   eye to your Master's honor, for, unless your eye is single, your whole
   body shall be full of darkness. If you will win the sunlight of your
   Master's face, you must seek His Glory and His Glory alone.

   Then, if you would have union with Christ, take care, in the next
   place, that you do all in dependence upon Him, for if, in the affairs
   of your soul, you set up in business for yourself, Christ will be at
   enmity with you. Seek not only to turn your eyes to Him for direction,
   but also for support. And look to Him in your prayers, in your
   preaching, in your hearing and in everything, for so shall Christ and
   your soul be agreed and you shall have fellowship with Him.

   And, lastly, be continually panting after more holiness. Never be
   content with what you are. Seek to grow. Seek to be more and more like
   Christ! And then, when that desire for holiness is strongest, you will
   have the same desire that Christ has, for His desire is that you should
   be holy, even as He is holy. And His command is, "Be you, therefore,
   perfect, even as your Father who is in Heaven is perfect." And when
   your desires are Christ's desires, then shall it be possible for you to
   walk with Christ, but not till then!

   I long to have a Church in complete agreement with the Lord Jesus
   Christ, for that would be a Church against which the gates of Hell
   could never prevail! If a church is merely founded by a man, the man
   will die and the church will perish. If a doctrine is only taught by a
   man and you receive it on his authority, his authority will pass away
   as all earthly things must. But, if it is of God, woe unto them that
   fight against it, for they can never prevail against Him! Woe unto him
   that dashes himself against this stone, for he shall be broken in
   pieces! And if it is rolled upon him, it shall grind him to powder! Let
   us be sure that a church is a Church of God in her doctrines, in her
   ordinances, in her prayer and praise--and we may know that she shall be
   like the stone we read of in Daniel, "cut out of the mountain without
   hands." None shall be able to break her, but she shall break all
   opposers in pieces and she shall fill the earth!

   Now there are some friends who are about to walk with Christ into this
   pool of Baptism. Can two walk here unless they are agreed? You may walk
   into this pool, but you cannot bring Christ with you unless you are
   agreed with Him. If you come without agreement with Christ, you will
   make a slip of it in your life, or else go back and walk no more with
   Him and be offended with Him. Remember, Brothers and Sisters, unless
   your two hearts are agreed, unless Christ and your heart are made one,
   you will fall out with one another before long! Christ will not long be
   at peace with you, nor will you be at peace with Christ. Your
   profession will be short-lived, after all, unless it is a true and real
   one--the expression of the inner heart. I pray that your profession
   tonight may be a sincere one, that you may testify to the world a true,
   saving and entire agreement with your Lord and Master. And if any of
   you are not agreed with Christ, I beseech you, though you have come so
   far, come no farther! Go not into this pool till you are thoroughly
   agreed with Christ! I charge you, in the name of the living God, as you
   shall have to stand before His bar at last, play not the hypocrite! Be
   sincere, for, if you give yourselves not wholly to Christ, you are
   doing like those who come unworthily to the Lord's Ta-ble--who eat and
   drink condemnation to their own souls--for he that is plunged into the
   Baptismal pool as a hypocrite, is immersed unto his own damnation!

   But, O, you humble followers of Jesus, you have testified to us your
   fellowship in the faith! Be not afraid, now, to confess it before
   men--and may God acknowledge all your names, at last, among the
   followers of the Lamb, for His dear Son's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:

   JOHN 9.

   [Regular readers of the Sermons will probably notice that this
   Exposition was given by MR. SPURGEON before he delivered the discourse
   published last week [Sermon #2667, Volume 46].

   John 9:1-2. And as Jesuspassed by, He saw a man who was blind from his
   birth, AndHis disciples askedHim, saying, Master, who did sin, this
   man, or his parents, that he was born blind? The procedure of these
   disciples is very much like that of many people in these days--they are
   much more ready to ask questions about sufferers than they are to
   sympathize with them. If the hearts of the disciples had been in a
   right condition when they saw this blind man, they would have said,
   "Lord, cannot this poor man's eyes be opened?" But, instead of talking
   like that, they were full of idle curiosity which prompted them to
   raise metaphysical difficulties and to ask foolish questions. So they
   wanted to know how it was that the man came to be born blind. Was it in
   consequence of some sin on the part of his parents, or through some sin
   of his own in a previous state of existence, (for some of them seem to
   have had even that foolish notion), or was it because of some sin of
   his which God foresaw that he would commit and, therefore, laid this
   affliction upon him from the hour of his birth?

   3. Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned, nor hisparents: but
   that the works of Godshould be made manifest in him. That is to say,
   this blindness was not the result of special sin in any individual, but
   God intended that His works of mercy and of Grace should be manifested
   through his affliction. It is a cruel thing when every form of malady
   or disease is traced to some fault in the person who has to suffer from
   it. This is evil! I had almost said infernal, for Satan himself could
   hardly devise a more false and wicked thing than to say that because a
   man is a special sufferer, therefore he must have been a special
   sinner! It is not so, for, often, some of God's truest children--some
   of those who live nearest to Him--are those who keep the night watches
   through pain, or they are bedridden from year to year, or are deprived
   of some of their limbs, or in some other way are full of suffering.
   This is in order that in their case, also, the works of God should be
   manifest in them as they were in this poor blind man.

   4. I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day. ' 'I have
   no time to go into these questions with you merely to satisfy your
   curiosity. 'While it is day,' I must go on with the work which I was
   sent into the world to do."

   4-7. The night comes, when no man can work As long as I am in the
   world, I am the light of the world. When He had thus spoken, He spat on
   the ground and made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of
   the blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of
   Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went his way, therefore,
   and washed, and came seeing. There was no long discourse to be
   delivered while this poor man was waiting to see what would happen to
   him. Our Lord spoke just a few words to His disciples and then went at
   once to the miracle He intended to perform. "When He had thus spoken,
   He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the
   eyes of the blind man with the clay." Our Savior sometimes works
   without means. At other times by means and, occasionally He uses means
   which, at first sight, appear not to be the best to produce the
   designed result. To put clay on a blind man's eyes does not seem a very
   likely operation for giving him sight. And, oh, dear Friends, when God
   uses us as His instruments and makes us to be like this clay upon the
   poor blind man's eyes, I am sure that there is much about us that might
   make us feel as if we would rather hinder than help! And when we do the
   best we can, what is there in us that is of any value?

   I think I once saw the pen with which Milton was said to have written
   part of Paradise Lost Poor pen! It could not remember the great poet,
   could it? Yet, he had used it to noble purpose. As I looked at it, I
   did not think of ascribing a single stanza of that matchless poem to
   the pen with which Milton wrote. So, Beloved, we are the pens that the
   Lord uses when He means to write His messages of Grace upon the hearts
   of saints and sinners. But we are such poor pens, such feeble
   instruments to be held in His hand that we wonder He can ever make use
   of us! This blind man did exactly as he was told to do. What a blessing
   it was for him that he received the clay on his eyes and simply went
   and washed it off again as the Savior told him! That was all he had to
   do--and then he came back seeing clearly! Oh, if sinners were only
   attentive to Gospel directions--and then were obedient to them without
   adding to them or taking from them--how many more blind eyes would be
   very speedily opened and how greatly would Christ be glorified!

   8, 9. The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him that
   he was blind, said, is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This
   is he: others said, He is like him. But he said, I am he. With that
   downright simplicity and shrewdness which marked his whole character,
   the man said, "I am he." He did not go beating about the bush at all,
   but he straightway acknowledged that he was the man of whom they were
   speaking.

   10, 11. Therefore said they unto him, How were your eyes opened? He
   answered and said, A Man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed my
   eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash; and I went
   and washed, and I

   received sight. I admire the brevity of his statement, the boldness of
   it and the simple naivete of it. The way in which he told the story did
   not embellish it in the least degree. In fact, it could not have been
   embellished without spoiling it. And when you, dear Friends, are giving
   an account of your own conversion, describing the way in which
   salvation became yours, tell it as simply and plainly as you can. It
   will never be so well adorned as when it appears in its own naked
   simplicity and beauty. I commend this man's example to all of you who
   have to give your testimony before you are admitted as members of the
   Church. When speaking of your conversion, put the narrative in as plain
   and simple a form as this man adopted.

   12-14. Then said they unto him, Where is He? He said, I know not They
   brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. And it was the
   Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Therefore,
   this act of Christ would be something horrible in the eyes of the
   Pharisees. They would make out that Christ, when He made the clay, had
   turned brick maker on the Sabbath, thus violating the traditions of the
   fathers, just as, on another occasion, they said that He allowed His
   disciples to go threshing on the Sabbath, when they gathered ears of
   corn in the field, rubbed them between their hands, and ate the grain
   because they were hungry. The Rabbis regarded that as an act of
   threshing, and a very serious violation of the Law of God! And now that
   Jesus had Himself made clay, and opened a man's eyes with it, they held
   up their hands in holy horror--no, in impioushorror--that Christ should
   do such a thing on the Sabbath!

   15. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his
   sight He said unto them, He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and do
   see. He makes his story shorter as he goes on telling it. These people
   were unworthy of the words he spoke to them and, therefore, he gave
   them as few as possible.

   16, 17. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God,
   because He keeps not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a Man that
   is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. They
   said unto the blind man again, What say you of Him, that He has opened
   your eyes? He said, He is a Prophet That was as much as he then knew.
   By thoughtful consideration he had come as far as to know that Jesus
   must be a Prophet.

   18-21. But the Jews didnot believe concerning him, that he had been
   blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him
   that had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, Is this your
   son, who you say was born blind? How, then, does he now see? His
   parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that
   he was born blind: but by what means he now sees, we know not; or who
   has opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak
   for himself. They also were shrewd. They did not wish to get themselves
   into trouble and, therefore, they said as little as they could. They
   referred the Pharisees to their son who was quite able to answer them.

   22-24. These words spoke his parents because they feared the Jews: for
   the Jews had agreed, already, that if any man did confess that He was
   Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore said his
   parents, He is of age; ask him. Then again called they the man that was
   blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this Man is
   a sinner. They thought that they could smooth the man over, so that he
   would say no more. "We know"--we who know everything, we who are the
   rulers and teachers of the people--"we know that this Man is a sinner."
   That might have closed the mouths of many men but, on that occasion,
   they had before them a person who could not easily be made to believe
   all they chose to say--a sharp, shrewd man who had keener eyes in his
   head, even when he was blind, than they had while they could see!

   25. He answered and said, Whether He is a sinner or not, I know not:
   one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. "About that
   point, I am perfectly certain, whatever question there may be
   concerning anything else."

   26-28. Then said they to him again, What did He do to you? How opened
   He your eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and you did
   not hear: why would you hear it again? Will you also be His disciples?
   Then they reviled him. As they could not answer him, they reviled him.
   It is the old plan which is still followed by certain lawyers, "No
   case. Therefore abuse the plaintiff." "They reviled him."

   28, 29. And said, You are His disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. We
   know that God spoke unto Moses: As for this--They did not say,
   "fellow," because they meant something worse than that, something which
   they could not express. "As for this"--

   29, 30. We know not from where He comes. The man answered and said unto
   them, Why here is a marvelous thing, that you know not from where He
   comes, and yet He has opened my eyes! They were the gentlemen who said,
   "We know," and they wanted, a little while before, to silence him by
   parading their superior knowledge! So now he turns

   upon them, and says, "Herein is a marvelous thing, that you know not
   from where He comes, and yet He has opened my eyes!"

   31. Now we know that God hears not sinners. He meant men who are living
   in known sin, impostors and deceivers. Of course, God would not hear
   sinners of that stamp.

   31-33. But if any man is a worshipper of God, and does His will, him He
   hears. Since the world began it was not heard that any anyone opened
   the eyes of one that was born blind. If this Man were not of God, He
   could do nothing. This was bravely spoken. The man did not, at that
   time, know the Godhead of the Savior, but he felt that He must have
   come from God, that He was one of God's servants, or messengers, or
   Prophets. Therefore he avowed what he knew. Dear Friends, always act up
   to the light you have enjoyed. If you have starlight, thank God for it,
   and acknowledge it before men, for then He will give you moonlight. And
   if you have moonlight, walk by it, thank God for it, and acknowledge it
   and He will give you sunlight. And when you have sunlight, walk in it,
   and, one of these days, you will come to that Light which is as the
   light of seven days, the Light of God Himself!

   34. They answered and said unto him, You were altogether born in sins,
   and do you teach us? Their dignity was touched! Their superlative
   wisdom lifted them so much above this poor man that they said, with the
   utmost disdain, "Do you teach us?"

   34, 35. And they cast him out Jesus heard that they had cast him out
   Oh, if there are any of you who are suffering persecution for Christ's
   sake, who have been cast out of any company because of what He has done
   for you, I do not think you need any sweeter comfort than this one
   line--"Jesus heard that they had cast him out."

   35-37. And when He had found him, He said to him, Do you believe on the
   Son of God? He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe
   on Him? And Jesus said unto him, You have both seen Him, and it is He
   that talks with you. I scarcely remember a time that, up to this time,
   the Lord Jesus had given such a manifestation of Himself to anyone
   except to the Samaritan woman at the well! When she mentioned the
   Messiah, He said to her, "I that speak unto you am He." And here He
   reveals Himself to this man as the Son of God, which was somewhat more
   than that woman probably meant by the term, "Messiah."

   38. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him. Which proves
   that the man was not a Unitarian. "He worshipped Him" who had opened
   his eyes. And we, also, will worship Him forever and ever, blessed be
   His holy name!

   39-41. And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that
   they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made
   blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with Him heard these words,
   and said unto Him, Are we blind, also? Jesus said unto them, If you
   were blind, you should have no sin: but now you say, We see; therefore
   your sin remains. It would have been better for them if they had known
   their blindness and applied to Him who could give them sight and
   forgive their sin!
     __________________________________________________________________

Comfort From Christ's Omniscience

   (No. 2669)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 8, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 15, 1882.

   "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." John 21:17.

   PETER was somewhat pressed. He felt that he was pushed into a corner
   and compelled to look into his own heart and divulge its innermost
   secret. To be asked once, in the presence of his Brothers, whether he
   loved his Lord more than they did, had a tendency to humiliate him, for
   he had boastfully declared that, though all men should be offended
   because of Christ, he would not. But to be asked, next, whether he
   really loved Christ at all, sank him to the ground with holy shame. And
   when his Master asked him, the third time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you
   love Me?" Peter was grieved--not angry--that could not be his condition
   under such circumstances, nor was he rebellious, but, at last, his
   heart was effectually touched by his Master's skillful hands and he was
   grieved, just as true love is always grieved when it is questioned, but
   most of all grieved when it is questioned again, and again, and again.
   Now, the enormity of his guilt in denying his Lord has come home to
   him--and the grief which he had caused his gracious Master is now
   reflected in his own deep and contrite sorrow. "Peter was grieved
   because He said unto him the third time, Do you love Me?"

   Our Savior's thus pressing him closely was no doubt necessary as a
   salutary discipline to Peter. It was not unkind-ness, but the highest
   form of honest tenderness which led our Lord to act in this way. I
   suppose that if such a thing had occurred in any of our churches as for
   some leading member to deny that he knew Christ, and to go the length
   of denying it with oaths and curses, and to commit that great sin three
   times in the presence of many witnesses, so that the fact could not
   possibly be doubted, it would have been absolutely necessary, according
   to the teaching of the New Testament, to exercise discipline upon such
   a man--and I think that he would have been excluded from church
   fellowship. The Apostle Paul, writing concerning one who had been
   guilty of gross sin, says that with such a man we can have no
   fellowship-- no, not so much as to eat with him. And he would have said
   the same about Peter.

   Peter had denied Christ with oaths and curses. It was a most heinous
   sin and surely the purity of the Church would be put in jeopardy--the
   very existence of the Church as a testimony for Christ would be
   hazarded by the retaining of such a man in its communion. According to
   such a rule as that, I suppose we must always judge. But the Lord Jesus
   Christ possessed attributes which we have not. He was Omniscient and,
   therefore, He could read Peter's heart. It was not necessary for Him to
   do what it might be lawful and even necessary for us to do. He knew
   that Peter's heart was right, notwithstanding all the evil of which he
   had been guilty. So, instead of refusing to have fellowship with him,
   the Savior first eats with him--Christ literally bids him come to
   breakfast. And then He exercises what I may call a sort of church
   discipline upon him, though I mean that expression in no hard or unkind
   sense.

   Paul wrote to Timothy, "Then that sin rebuke before all, that others
   also may fear," and our Lord acted in that manner on this occasion. The
   six other Brothers, who might fitly be regarded as representing the
   entire Church, were present, and the Savior began gently, but firmly,
   to probe Peter's heart and to probe it again, and yet again, until He
   perceived that He had touched him in the most tender possible
   place--and had drawn from him this last and most solemn declaration of
   the sincerity of his love--"Lord, You know all things; You know that I
   love You." Thrice had he denied his Lord. It was right, therefore, that
   he should thrice confess his love. And so his Master constrained him to
   do by His thrice-repeated question, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love
   Me?"

   Let us, dear Friends, as we think over this sad incident of Peter's
   sin, and of our Lord's gracious way of restoring him to his former
   office by a gentle act of discipline, put ourselves through a little
   heart-searching. It may be that, thanks to the restraining Grace of
   God, we have not sinned as Peter did, but we have sinned in some other
   way. We have, all of us, sinned quite enough to make us ask, "Lord, do
   we love You?" Instead of waiting for Him to put the question to us, we
   will ask it of ourselves--Do we really and truly love the Lord? Let us
   also believe that our Lord, as He stands at this moment among us and
   walks from pew to pew, bows His head over each one of us, and asks, "Do
   you love Me?"

   As He does so, let us not evade the question, or play tricks with it.
   Let not, any one of us, say, "I hope I do," or, "I am afraid I do not."
   We either do or we do not--and the only answer that will be
   satisfactory will be, "Yes," or, "No." If we say, "No," it will be so
   far satisfactory that we are speaking the truth and, possibly, we may
   be helped to start back from so terrible a truth as that--that we do
   not love the Lord Jesus Christ--and that will be good for us,
   especially if it shall lead us to yield to Him. A man should always
   know the consequences of what he is doing, that he may do it with his
   eyes open and, then, perhaps, he will see the folly and the sin of it
   and take to a better course. But if, dear Friend, you can answer,
   "Yes," to Christ's question, then say it. Slowly, thoughtfully, as in
   the Presence of the Eternal God, say, "Lord, I ask You to bear witness
   on my account, for Your word is faithful and true. 'You know all
   things; You know that I love You.'" If you can say that, it will be a
   happy thing for yourself, and it will be a blessed thing for those who
   are round you, for, now, being assured of your own love to Christ, you
   will endeavor to win others to share that love, that many of you
   together may be able to say to Christ--

   "Yes, we love You, and adore; Oh, for Grace to love You more!"

   Now, coming to the text, I am going to try to do two things--first, to
   examine Peter's reply. And then, secondly, to invite you to examine
   yourselves to see whether you can each give the same reply.

   I. First, let us EXAMINE PETER'S REPLY. "Lord, You know all things; You
   know that I love You."

   I begin with the observation that it is quite clear, from his reply,
   that Peter was no Unitarian. He had no doubts about the Divinity of
   Christ, for he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things." Now, there is
   no being conceivable as knowing all things except God! And if it is
   true that Jesus Christ knows all things, then He possesses that
   Omniscience which is one of the essential attributes of Deity. I find
   that, nowadays, there is a sad increase of that pestilent heresy which
   is practically a return to the old Arianism which sought to rob Christ
   of His true Glory and reduce Him to the level of a mere man. We, at any
   rate, are not tainted with that fatal error--God grant that we never
   may be! No, He who as Man, is our Brother, is also God, our Lord and
   Savior, Jesus Christ, whom we worship and adore! And we think and speak
   of Him as possessing every attribute that is essential to the Deity
   and, therefore, as possessing this one--that He knows all things. He
   searches the hearts and tries the reins of the children of men, for He
   is, assuredly, "very God of very God," or, as Paul says, in his Epistle
   to the Romans, He "is over all, God blessed forever."

   My next remark upon our text is that Peter's mention of Omniscience in
   connection with Christ, and in connection with our declaration of love
   to Him, may be regarded as a fact very full of awe, because the Christ
   with whom we have to deal knows everything of which we are thinking. He
   reads all that is in the very core and center of our soul! We are in
   the Presence of One whose Infinite knowledge takes in, at one glance,
   the whole of our lives--past, present and future.

   My dear Friends, if we remember that fact, it becomes a very solemn
   thing for us to make an appeal to Him to bear witness that we do really
   love Him. Peter said to Christ, "Lord, You know all things," which in
   his case meant, "Lord You know that when the damsel said to me, 'You,
   also, were with Jesus of Galilee,' I denied it and said, 'I know not
   what you say.' And when another maiden said, 'This fellow was also with
   Jesus of Nazareth,' I denied with an oath, and said, 'I do not know the
   Man.' And then, as if to settle the matter once and for all, and make
   my accusers believe that I could not be one of Your followers, I took
   to profane swearing and, with oaths and curses, like any son of Belial
   or lewd fellow of the streets, I did blaspheme and swear."

   Yes, the Master had read the inner thoughts of Peter, as well as heard
   his words. Jesus knew all about how mean and cowardly he was to be
   afraid of a couple of silly maids and of those who stood with the
   throng in the High Priest's palace. Yet Peter says, "Lord, You know all
   things; You know that I love You." As we think of poor Peter and his
   answer to Christ's question, let us remember that Jesus also knows
   everything that we have done since we were converted as well as
   before--all those times in which our thoughts have been impure and
   unclean, or our desires have wandered beyond the

   bounds of that which is right and proper--or our temper has been hasty
   and hot, or our spirit has been angry and proud. He sees the whole of
   our life in a single instant! God's mind does not need a certain space
   of time to think of one wrong thing which we have done and then,
   afterwards, to think of another--it is all present before His eye at
   the same moment! As when a man rises in a balloon, above London, and
   sees it all at once spread before him, so God, from His Throne on high,
   sees our whole life at one glance. Just think of His pure and holy eyes
   seeing every portion of all your lives--your life at the table, your
   life in the parlor, your life in the kitchen, your life at your work,
   your life in the bedchamber, your life everywhere--and, as you think of
   all that being under His immediate gaze, I think it must become a very
   solemn thing for you to say to Him, "Lord, You know all this and yet I
   dare call You to witness that I do love You notwithstanding all that
   You have seen." Brothers and Sisters, it is not by any means a trifling
   matter if our Lord only knows the sin of last week. Will you just think
   for a minute what it has been? Perhaps some of you may have grievously
   wronged the Savior during the week. If so, and remembering that He
   knows it all, can you yet creep up to Him and say, "Lord, though I am
   fully conscious that You know all that has happened, yet, for all that,
   I do say, You also know that I love You." That is a fact full of awe.

   It is, in the next place, a fact which suggests to us that we should be
   very sincere, for, if the Lord knows all things, then anything like an
   attempt to profess a love which we do not possess is utterly foolish,
   for God will search it through and through and discover its falseness.
   Then, in addition to being very foolish, it must be very wicked and
   insulting to the Lord. To tell another human being, whom you do not
   love, that you love him, would be a most cruel thing to do, and also a
   most impudent and impertinent thing. But to voluntarily express to God
   an affection which you do not feel is a very near approach to
   blasphemy! If it is not blasphemy in words, it certainly is in thought
   and intent. God knows, Friend, whether, when you joined the Church, you
   were really a follower of Christ. That night, when you were baptized,
   He saw all that was done and He knew exactly whether it was to you only
   an outward form, or whether you were really, in a spiritual sense, dead
   and buried with Christ. And when this service is over, it will be vain
   and futile for you to come to the Communion Table and eat the bread,
   and drink of the cup, unless in your very soul you are trusting Christ
   and believing in Him unto salvation. If you are determined to deceive
   someone, deceive your equal--play tricks with your fellow
   creatures--but never think to deceive the Most High who sees through
   you as if you were made of crystal and, at this moment, is watching
   each beat of your heart and reading not only what is on your tongue,
   but what is in your mind and will come forth from your lips, by-and-by!
   Oh, let us never, in our testimony, talk beyond our own line, or boast
   of virtues which we never possessed! And in our prayers, let us never
   pray as if we had an experience which we have never felt, but let us
   say to Jesus, "Lord, You know all things." Let us be intensely sincere
   before Him and it shall be a blessed thing if, being so, we then dare
   to say, "yet You know that I love You."

   Further, dear Friends, this is a fact which not only fills us with awe
   and suggests to us sincerity, but it is a fact which inspires us with
   hope. At times, the Grace that is really in us is scarcely visible to
   ourselves. I have often rejoiced that God's Omniscience has enabled Him
   to spy out Grace in me which I could not see--and I feel sure that
   there must be some of you who sometimes are led to question whether
   there is any Grace in you or not. You ask, "Where is that grain of
   mustard seed?" Fie on you! Fie on you! You ought to have watered it
   till it grew into a tree! But remember that even when you cannot see
   the Grace that is in you, God can! When you are brought into such a
   state of diffidence and despondency that you are half afraid there is
   not any real love to Christ in your soul at all, yet, if it is there,
   He can see it, for He put it there, and He values it very highly and
   has a quick eye to spy it out.

   "Lord, You know all things; therefore, I do bless You that You know
   every place where I have been and You know my secret love passages with
   You." That is a blessed thought. I have no doubt that when Peter said
   to Christ, "You know all things," he not only remembered his sin, but
   he recollected his going out and weeping bitterly. And he also
   remembered that look that Jesus gave him--such a look as you and I
   could not give to anyone. I do not know what Peter said to the Lord
   while he was weeping bitterly, but there must have been many a sigh,
   many a groan and many a tear in that time of anguish. Peter no doubt
   got away into a corner, all alone, and he was ready to cover himself
   with sackcloth and ashes, as he there groaned, wrestled and cried. He
   did not know what to do with himself and while he was thus praying,
   perhaps his Lord let in the light of the Gospel and made him recollect
   some such promise as this, "He that covers his sins shall not prosper:
   but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy." And Peter had
   some comfortable gleams of hope even amid the darkness and, after a
   while, he even dared to speak to his Lord, and tell Him how he loved
   Him.

   And now Peter says, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love
   You, for between You and me there has been some love passages which
   nobody knows but Yourself and myself. My eyes, all full of tears, have
   met Your eyes all full of love. And my heart all breaking has touched
   Your heart which was pierced upon the tree. Your wounded hands have
   been laid to my sores and Your weeping eyes have looked my tears away.
   You know, Lord. You know all things; You know that I love You." So,
   dear Friends, you see that there is something exceedingly sweet about
   that Omniscience which has read the secret motions of our spirit
   towards the Lord. Even when they have been so feeble that we could
   scarcely see them, ourselves, God has seen them!

   And do you not think, dear Friends, that there is something very
   blessed in Peter's plan of bringing in Christ's Omniscience to answer
   his Lord's question about his love, inasmuch as it meets our inability
   to speak?Some of us can speak fast enough, but others have the holy
   gift of silence which is a great blessing. They cannot say much, but
   they can look up to their Savior and say, "Lord, You know all things;
   You know that we love You." I have heard of a young Christian woman who
   was asked to tell before the church the story of her experience, but
   she could not utter a word, till, just as she was going out of the
   room, she turned around and said, "I cannot speak for Jesus Christ, but
   I could die for Him." Then the one who was in charge of the meeting,
   said to her, "Come back, dear Sister, you have said quite enough for us
   to know that you love the Lord."

   No doubt there are many who find it easier to live for Christ than to
   speak for Him--they have not that gift of speech. Let me remind you who
   must always be the silent members of the Church, that you may be
   blessed in your silence by reflecting upon this fact--God knows all
   about what you cannot explain to your fellow Christians. His
   Omniscience sets aside the necessity of your being able to express your
   love fluently and you, also, can say, "Lord, You know all things; You
   know that we love You."

   And is not this fact a sweet encouragement to any of you who are
   persecuted for Christ's sake? Our enemies do not burn us now, or
   stretch us on racks, but they still have many methods of showing their
   malice. They know how to torture us and some of them are very ingenious
   in the art of tormenting. I have known some say--ungodly parents will
   say it to their daughters--sometimes, wicked men will say it to their
   gracious wives--"You know very well that all your idea about being
   religious is that you want to be different. You go to your place of
   worship because you like to be different from everybody else--that is
   the only reason you have." Possibly, you do not know what to say to
   them, but you can always say thisto your Savior, "Lord, You know all
   things; You know that I love You."

   Then, again, if there is some little fault to be found with you in the
   family, down they come upon you, crying, "Ah! that is your
   Christianity, is it? You are one of those who have professed to be
   religious and joined the Church!" Mark you, Friends, they will do a
   hundred times worse things, themselves, and think nothing of it, but if
   they can catch you tripping in the slightest degree, they magnify your
   little slip into a grievous fall! Now, it would be quite fair for them
   to do so if you set up to be perfect, but as you never did that, it is
   an unfair thing to charge you with insincerity because of imperfection.
   Do not let them have the opportunity of saying even that, if you can
   help it. Yet, sometimes, when you have given them no occasion for
   finding fault with you, they will make one--invent an accusation for
   which there is no foundation. Well, if they do so, never mind. Let them
   say what they will, but lift up your eyes to Heaven, and say, "Lord,
   You know all things; You know that I love You."

   A man of God--as upright a Christian man as I know--came to me, not
   long ago, in great trouble because somebody had said that he had been
   drunk. He was dreadfully cut up about it, for he had been a teetotaler
   for many years, and nothing of the kind had occurred. "Well," I said,
   "you are only tarred with the same brush as others of us." And then I
   added, "As for me, I have had all manner of false and cruel things said
   about me! I remember that an influential daily paper said of me, at the
   time of the Surrey Gardens accident, 'We would place in the hand of
   every right-thinking man, a whip to scourge from society such a ranting
   charlatan.' Yet I am still here, notwithstanding all that was said.
   Moreover, when most abused, I used to go to bed at the same hour as I
   would have done if they had not slandered me--and I believe that I ate
   my dinner with as hearty an appetite as if everybody had been praising
   me."

   One gets by degrees into such a condition that it does not matter what
   people say. And, after all, does it ever really matter what they say?
   Let them throw mud at you till you are covered with it from head to
   foot--the kind of mud they fling has a tendency to come off when it is
   dry and to make the garment that it once sullied look even brighter
   than it was before! Do not fret yourselves about these slanderers and
   persecutors, but just get alone and say to the Lord, "You know

   all things." They do not and it is a good thing for us that they do
   not! If they did, then they might find plenty of fault with us--and
   find some real faults in us--but they do not know everything, and they
   generally hit on the very thing of which we are quite innocent, but,
   "Lord, You know all things; You know that we love You."

   This seems to me to be a blessed text for you to take home and to carry
   with you wherever you go in the midst of a ribald world, for it will
   often remind you of a precious Truth of God-- " 'You know all things;
   You know that I love You." Of course He does! If you do really love
   Him, it is His own love in you returning to where it came! And He knows
   that it is there. If you do love Him, it was He who made you love Him!
   This plant of paradise never grows of its own accord in the dunghill of
   our nature--neither does it grow anywhere unless it is planted by the
   hand of God. He who gave you that love watches over it to bring it to
   perfection. Being a plant of His own right-hand planting, He will water
   it every moment and, lest any hurt it, He will keep it night and day.
   Having loved the Lord here on earth, you shall love Him, by-and-by, in
   Heaven, where, with all the blood-washed company, you shall find it the
   very Heaven of your Heaven to live forever adoring Him whose eternal
   love, Sovereign Grace and almighty power have at last made you perfect
   and brought you Home to love Him even as He loves you, according to
   your capacity.

   II. There I must leave the text, so far as it especially concerns
   Peter, and come now to speak briefly upon the second part of the
   subject, which is, TO INVITE YOU TO EXAMINE YOURSELVES TO SEE WHETHER
   YOU CAN EACH GIVE THE SAME REPLY--"Lord, You know all things; You know
   that I love You."

   First, some say the same as Peter did, though they ought not to do so.
   They say that they love Christ. "Yes, oh, yes, we love Him!" Let us
   talk to one of these glib speakers for a few moments. When did you
   begin to love the Lord? "Oh, I--I--I always loved Him." When were you
   converted and renewed in heart? "Oh, I do not know that I ever was."
   Stop, then, Friend, before you say again that you love the Lord. Do you
   truly trust the Savior? Are you resting the whole weight of your soul
   upon Him? If you say, "No," then you do not love Him, for the only love
   which Christ will accept is born of faith. Love is the flower which
   grows out of the root of faith.

   Perhaps you think that you are very good and that you will probably get
   to Heaven by your goodness. If that is your notion, then I am sure you
   do not really love Christ. You admire your beautiful self--you have
   been so good and so excellent that you do not want to be saved by the
   sinners' Savior! You want a special, particular Savior for you--a
   saint-Savior, not a sinner's Savior. Then I know you do not love the
   Christ of the Bible--the Christ of Calvary. You may love a sort of
   antichrist of your own inventing, but you do not love the Christ of
   God. Let me ask you another question. You say that you love Christ,
   well, then, for what do you thank Christ? "Well, I believe that there
   are some imperfections in me, and that Christ makes up for them." Do
   you? Then, in your esteem, He is only a makeweight, just to compensate
   for your deficiencies. His seamless robe of righteousness is to be torn
   to patch up your old rags! How many of you want to make Christ a kind
   of extra horse to drag the load up the hill? That is all you think of
   Him--but do you imagine that Christ and your poor team are to be joined
   together like that? Is it to be partly self-salvation and partly
   salvation by Christ? If that is your idea, you insult the Savior--it
   may be unwittingly, but I am sure you cannot really love Him.

   I have heard of a very excellent man--one of the holiest and best of
   men--who, when he lay dying, said, "Lord, when I estimate my works, I
   have to remember that Your estimate is so very different from mine that
   I think it best to leave this business altogether--and only trust my
   Savior." I have heard of another who said, when he was dying, that he
   began to sort out his works and some he thought were good, and some
   were bad. But after he had sorted them a little, he felt that the good
   ones were so very like the bad ones, when he came to really look
   closely into them, that he pitched the whole lot overboard and just
   trusted himself to Christ. That was a very wise and sensible thing to
   do! And I am sure that no man among you loves Christ unless he is
   trusting to Him only, and to Him wholly.

   What is your view of Christ, dear Friend! Is He your Master as well as
   your Savior? This is a question which I want to put very pointedly, for
   I heard a person ask, the other day, "Is Baptism essential to
   salvation?" Listen! This man means to do only that which is essential
   for his own salvation--that is all. To get into Heaven is all that he
   cares about, so he asks, concerning one thing or another, "Is it
   essential to salvation?" A soldier in her Majesty's army says, when an
   order is given to him, "Is this essential? Shall I be shot if I do not
   obey it?" Drum him out of the regiment, for what is the good of him? I
   look upon Christ as my Lord and Master and if He bids me do something,
   though there may be in it nothing whatever to my profit, I am bound to
   do it because He ismy Master and Lord! "Is it essential to salvation?"
   is a sneak's question! I dare not use a milder term. I am often ashamed
   to answer those who make such an enquiry. The mes-

   sage to you is, "Whatever He says to you, do it." Did you come into the
   world merely that you might get saved? Is that all? Oh, poor, mean
   wretch! The Lord save you from being so selfish! How can you even get
   to Heaven when your sole ambition is, somehow or other, to save your
   own skin? To get inside the pearly gates and enjoy yourself--that is
   your notion of Heaven! But that is the very thing from which you have
   to be saved! I hope you will come to have quite another idea. I live
   not to save myself, but to glorify Him who has saved me. I work not
   because I hope to escape from Hell by what I do, or to get to Heaven by
   what I do, but because Christ has saved me and now, out of gratitude to
   Him, if there is anything He wishes me to do, I do it without a
   question, saying to Him--

   "Have You a lamb in all Your flock

   I would disdain to feed?

   Have You a foe, before whose face

   I fear Your cause to plead?"

   Get rid of selfishness, or else you cannot truthfully say that you love
   Christ! You are only loving yourself and baptizing selfishness with the
   name of Christianity.

   But, next, I think that there are some persons who ought to say what
   Peter did and yet they are afraid to do so. Some of the most beautiful,
   tender, loving, genuine, true-hearted people in the world are,
   nevertheless, so timid and so jealous of themselves--and they have such
   brokenness of spirit--that they dare not say that they love Christ,
   though I am sure that, if any people in the world do love Him, it is
   these poor people! There are many who are so hard and harsh towards
   these dear tender, broken-hearted ones, that I like to cheer them all I
   can. I wish that they would grow stronger. I wish that they would
   become bolder. I wish they were braver, but, then, I know that among
   these who dare not say publicly that they love Christ, are many who
   love Him vastly more than some who can talk very glibly about it.

   I have told you before of the two friends who were shut up in prison
   and one said to the other, "Oh, I do dread tomorrow morning! I am
   afraid that when I come to feel the fire, I shall recant. I know that I
   never was good at bearing pain and I have heard that the pain of being
   burnt to death is very dreadful." So the other turned round upon him
   and said, "I am ashamed of you talking like that! You know very well it
   is for Christ's cause that we are going to die. I am sure that I shall
   not have any such fear--I could bear a thousand deaths for Christ! I
   feel such courage in my spirit that I do not dread the pain and I am
   ashamed that you do." They both came to be chained to the stake and the
   boastful man recanted and saved his skin. But the poor timid man stood
   bravely in the midst of the fire and burned to death--and kept saying,
   "Lord, help me! Lord, help me!"

   I believe that it often happens that those who are so trembling in
   themselves, are, nevertheless, sound to the core, while many of your
   high-flying gentlemen who get perfect in about three minutes and then
   begin to preach to those of us who have been, perhaps, 30 years in
   Christ, and tell us that we ought to be as perfect as they are--which
   we were before they were born--will be blown away like thistledown by
   the first wind that comes! And that the solid, weighty lumps of
   gold--these humble broken-hearted saints--will endure even to the end.
   Still, dear Brother, where are you? Mr. Despondency, I mean. I want you
   to say, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Where
   are you, Mrs. Much-Afraid? I think I have read about you in The
   Pilgrim's Progress. Mrs. Much-Afraid, Mr. Despondency, Mr. Feeble-Mind
   and Mr. Ready-to-Halt, who had the crutches, and went limping all his
   life, yet, once upon a time, when Mr. Great-Heart cut off Giant
   Despair's head and brought it to the pilgrims, they said that they
   would all dance, and Ready-to-Halt danced on his crutches and said that
   he hoped, by-and-by, to be where he should not be encumbered with them.

   Come along, all you poor tried souls, let this be a time of rejoicing
   with you! Say in your spirit, if not in words, "Yes, Lord, we cannot
   hold back any longer! We must say it--'You know all things; You know
   that we love You.'" And when you have once said it, keep on saying it,
   my dear Brothers and Sisters, and the Lord keep you up to that blessed
   mark till, when the trumpet sounds in the morning and you wake up in
   the endless day, you shall say, "Yes, Lord, I did love You and I love
   You now, and I will love You forever." God grant that we may allsay
   that, for Christ's sake! Amen.

   Before we go, let us sing this one verse--

   "I will love You in life, I will love You in death, And praise You as
   long as You lend me breath. And say, when the death-dew lies cold on my
   brow, If ever I loved You, my Jesus, 'tis now."

   Comfort from Christ's Omniscience

   HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"--711, 788, 639, 804.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH 26:1-14.

   Verse 1. In that day. Or, rather, as we may read it now, "In this
   day"--

   1-3. Shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong
   city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open you the
   gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.
   You willkeep him inperfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You: because
   he trusts in You. Here is the song which we are to sing in this Gospel
   day. The theme of it is God and the city which He has built, and which
   He has given to us to be our heritage forever. "We have a strong city."
   Yes, Beloved, a very strong one, for although the devil has exercised
   all his ingenuity for these thousands of years, he has not been able to
   destroy it. He has thrown in the bombshell of persecution. He has tried
   to undermine it with his subtlety and cunning of false doctrine, but he
   has not yet been able to do anything effectually against the strong
   city. "We have a strong city" and she is just as strong, now, after all
   the desperate attacks that have been made upon her walls, as ever she
   was. Against her, the gates of Hell cannot prevail!

   The Church of Christ is never in danger. "We have a strong city;
   salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks." After noticing the
   security of the city, the Prophet bids us "open the gates, that the
   righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in." It is the Gospel
   minister's business to seek to open the gates. It is the Christian's
   business, in some sense, to open the gates. Yes, we should all of us be
   endeavoring, if possible, to "open the gates, that the righteous
   nation"--that is, the righteous people--"may enter" into the Church.
   But, after all, the Lord Jesus Christ is the great Opener of the gates!
   He opens the gates to let His people in. And, mark you, they do not all
   come in at one gate. The command is, "Open you the gates." Some come in
   by means of one Doctrine, and some by means of another. We are not all
   converted by the same agency. Some come in at the Sunday school gate.
   Others come in at the gate which is kept by pious parents. Many come in
   at the gate of the preached Word. But all the gates should be
   open--"Open you the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the
   truth may enter in."

   The Prophet next describes the peaceableness of this city. The gates
   are open, but no enemy ever enters in, for he says to the Lord, "You
   will keep Him in peace--peace," as the original has it, in double
   peace. "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
   You." There is nothing like staying the mind on God. If you stay the
   mind on anything else, you cannot have perfect peace, for that
   something else may fail you. If you trust in horses and in chariots,
   horses may tire, and the wheels of the chariots may break. But he who
   trusts in the Lord shall dwell "in perfect peace." Let the earth be all
   in arms abroad, the Believer dwells "in perfect peace, because He
   trusts in You."

   4, 5. Trust you in the Lord forever: for in the LORD JEHOVAHis
   everlasting strength: for He brings down them that dwell on high. Some
   of you dwell so much "on high" that you do not believe the Doctrine of
   Original Depravity. You are very good by nature, according to your own
   ideas. Well, remember this declaration of the Prophet--"He brings down
   them that dwell on high." Others of you boast of your free will
   capacity and you think you have power to do anything outside the
   assistance of the Holy Spirit. Ah, but, "He brings down them that dwell
   on high." Others of you do not know what a doubt or a fear is, but you
   wrap yourselves up complacently in your self-sufficiency and say, "We
   are secure!" Ah, but, "He brings down them that dwell on high."

   5. The lofty city, He lays it low. No one can lay God's city low, but
   God can lay the lofty city low.

   5-7. He lays it low, even to the ground; He brings it even to the dust
   The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps
   of the needy. The way of the just is uprightness: You, most upright, do
   weigh the path of the just God "weighs the path of the just" in scales.
   We read elsewhere that God weighs the spirits and weighs our actions.
   Here we are told that He "weighs the path of the just." Those words,
   which were used by the Prophet when he went to Heze-kiah and said,
   "What have they seen in your house?" would serve for a very striking
   text. But it is still more important to consider what Godhas seen in
   ourhouse and in our hearts, for God weighs our actions. He weighs our
   private thoughts and our public deeds. He "weighs the path of the
   just." But, according to the Prophet, "the way of the just is
   uprightness," even after it is weighed! Notwithstanding all the sin
   that is mixed with it, in the main it is "uprightness" ascending
   towards God.

   8, 9. Yes, in thee way of Your judgments, O LORD, have we waited for
   You; the desire of our soulis to Your name, and to the remembrance of
   You. With my soul have I desired You in the night; yes, with my spirit
   within me will I seek You early: for when Your judgments are in the
   earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Alas, it
   is often the case that when God's "judgments are in the earth, the
   inhabitants of the world learn righteousness" for a little while--and
   then forget it. All too often they are like the child who merely learns
   his lesson by rote and repeats it under the fear of the rod--and then
   forgets all about it on the morrow. They "learn righteousness," but,
   soon, the effect of the warning is all gone and then God sends fresh
   judgments upon the earth to teach the inhabitants further lessons.

   10-12. Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn
   righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and
   willnot behold the majesty ofthe LORD. LORD, when Your handis lifted
   up, they willnot see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy
   at the people; yes, the fire of your enemies shall devour them. LORD,
   You will ordain peace for us: for You also have worked all our works in
   us. Troubled saint, what a precious passage this is for you! Poor,
   tempest-tossed soul, what a glorious utterance! "Lord, You will ordain
   peace for us." There shall come an ordinance from God that His people
   shall have peace! "You will ordain peace for us: for You also have
   worked all our works in us"--so they must be good works, but those
   works which God did not work in us are bad ones.

   13, 14. O LORD our God, other lords beside You have had dominion over
   us: but by You only will we make mention of Your name. They are dead,
   they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise. Many of us
   can look back to the time when we made idols of business and of worldly
   things. But now these lords are dead and they shall not live
   again--they are buried out of our sight--and they shall not rise from
   their graves.

   14. Therefore have You visited and destroyed them, and made all their
   memory to perish. And a blessed thing it is when the memory of our sins
   perish and we have no desire to be enslaved by them again!
     __________________________________________________________________

Pride Catechized

   (No. 2670)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 15, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Should it be according to your mind? He will recompense it whether you
   refuse, or whether you choose; and not I: therefore speak what you
   know." Job 34:33.

   DEAR FRIENDS, it is never wise to dispute with God. Let a man strive
   with his fellow, but not with his Maker. If we must discuss any point,
   let it be with imperfect beings like ourselves, but not with the
   Infallible and Infinitely wise God, for, in most of our discussions,
   these questions will come back to us, "Should it be according to your
   mind? Are you master? Is everyone to be subordinate to you?"

   I am going to speak, this evening, to those who have a quarrel with God
   concerning the way of salvation. They are very unwise not to take
   salvation just as God brings it to them, but they do not. They have
   some difficulty or other, so they raise a dispute and they have been,
   perhaps for years, quibbling at the Savior whose Infinite goodness has
   provided a way of salvation exactly adapted to their needs. I am going
   to use Elihu's words and apply them to their case.

   I. To begin at the beginning, here is, first, A QUESTION--"Should it be
   according to your mind?" You say that you are willing to find mercy,
   and that you are very teachable; but you object to the plan of
   salvation as it is revealed in the Scriptures.

   First, then, what is it to which you object? Do you object to the very
   basis of the plan, namely, that God will forgive sin through the
   atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His Son? I know that some do object
   to this--they cannot bear to hear about Atonement by blood, or
   justification by imputed righteousness. Others, who will not say that
   they object to Atonement, spirit away the very meaning of it! They
   cannot endure that glorious Doctrine of Substitution which is such a
   joy to us. Christ standing in the sinner's place and the sinner then
   standing in the place of Christ--Christ taking the sinner's sin and the
   sinner wearing Christ's righteousness--all this they absolutely reject!
   "No doubt Christ did something for sinners," they say, but they cannot
   define what He did and, as for the sin of any man being actually put
   away by Christ being punished in the place of the ungodly sinner, they
   will not believe it!

   Yet, that is God's plan of salvation, and some of us know, in our
   inmost hearts, that we never had peace until we accepted that plan of
   salvation, and that now, if it should be taken away from us, we would
   lose all the joy of existence and go back to the despair which, at one
   time, was so heavy upon us that we could sympathize with Job when be
   said, "My soul chooses strangling and death rather than my life." We
   could better afford that the sun should be quenched, that the moon
   should be darkened, that all springs should be dried, that the very air
   itself should disappear--we could better afford to die and rot in our
   graves than that we should lose our Savior and His atoning blood and
   justifying righteousness! Whatever you, Mr. Objector, may say about it,
   we say to you, "Should it be according to yourmind?" Would you have
   Christ to die and yet not really secure salvation by His death? Could
   you invent a better plan, or even one half as good--

   "So just to God, so safe for man"--

   so consolatory to a wounded conscience, so constraining to gratitude
   when that conscience has been pacified? Would you, could you, propose
   anything one thousandth as good as God's plan of salvation? Even if you
   could, "should it be according to your mind?" Who are you, a guilty
   sinner, to despise the Savior's blood? If you had your just deserts,
   you

   would years ago have been in the lowest pit of Hell! Will you set aside
   the Cross of Christ and seek to put something else in the place of the
   crucified Redeemer?

   But, possibly, you do not object to the Doctrine of Substitution, but
   your objection is to the way of salvation by faith "I don't like that
   Doctrine of Justification by Faith," says one, "for I am sure that when
   it is preached, people will begin to think that there is no virtue in
   good works and that they may live as they like." I have often heard
   such a remark as yours, my Friend, but experience is dead against you!
   Whenever justification by faith has been uppermost in the preaching,
   the morals of the people have been purest and their spirituality has
   been brightest! But whenever the preachers have extolled the works and
   ceremonies of the Law, or the Arminianism which brings in something of
   trust in works, or human power, it is most certain that there has been
   a declension in point of morals, while religion itself has seemed
   almost ready to expire! You may go to those who preach up salvation by
   works to hear them talk, but you had better not go to see how they
   live--whereas those who preach justification by faith can boldly point
   to the multitudes who have accepted this Truth of God and whose godly
   lives prove the sanctifying power of the Doctrine!

   But if you object to this Doctrine, how would you like to have it
   altered? "Oh, well, I would like to have some good feelingsput in with
   faith." And how, then, would any man be saved? Can he command his own
   feelings? Those feelings come naturally enough after faith, but, if
   they are demanded without faith, how will they ever be presented to
   God? Besides, feelings would claim some credit if they were thus joined
   with faith. A man would be able to boast that he had felt his way to
   Heaven and he would have the same self-congratulatory spirit which we
   see in those who trust in works and ceremonies--and thus Christ would
   be robbed of His Glory as the sinner's Savior. Man would put his dirty
   hands upon the crown and place it upon his own head--but that must
   never be the case! You shall be saved if you trust the Savior, but if
   you do not like that way of salvation, you can never be saved! Why
   should the plan of salvation be changed for you? Is God to be tied down
   to act only as youplease? Is He to alter His Gospel to suit the fancies
   of rebellious men? That must not be! There is no mistake about this
   matter--"He that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath
   of God abides on him." And our Lord, Himself, said, "He that believes
   not shall be damned." That is the only message for him if he continues
   in his unbelief--and it shall not be altered to suit the mind of any
   man that lives!

   "Oh, but," some say, "we object to the requirements of the Gospel,
   especially to that verse where Christ says, 'You must be born again.'
   Where is the need of that We were christened when we were children! We
   were confirmed as we grew older! We have taken the sacrament! We do not
   agree with that hard saying, 'You must be born again.'" They will not
   walk with Christ if He insists upon that condition. Moreover, He
   requires the giving up of all known sin, the hating of all sin--and the
   objector says, "But may I not retain my one darling sin? May I not keep
   my pet evil? I will give up all else, but that one I must have." And
   when men are told that wherever Christ comes, He makes a radical
   change--He casts out Satan and all his imps, drives them out by force
   and takes complete possession of the soul--they bar the door of their
   heart against the Savior, for they do not want such strong measures as
   His in their case.

   Well, Sirs, as you say that Christ's requirements are not according to
   your mind, what would you like them to be? Do you wish to be allowed to
   continue taking what you call your little drop, which is powerful
   enough to make you reel across the street? Then there is somebody over
   yonder who would like to keep his adulteries. And another who would
   like to keep his petty thefts. And another who would like to keep on
   with his swearing and another who would like to retain his covetousness
   so that he could still grind the poor to powder and make money by
   crushing them! What sin is there, in the whole world, that would be put
   to death if men were left to pick and choose the Agag which each one
   wished to save? No! Christ came to save His people from their sins--not
   in them--and it is essential to salvation that sin should be repented
   of and, being repented of, should be renounced and that, by the help of
   God, we should lead a new life, under a new Master, serving from a new
   motive because the Grace of God has renewed our spirit!

   "Should it be according to your mind?" No, certainly not, for, putting
   all reasons into one, it is not the slightest use for you to make any
   objection to the Gospel, for you will be lost if you do not accept it
   just as it is revealed in the Scriptures! Christ will never alter the
   Gospel one jot or tittle--not the cross of a "t" or the dot of an
   "i"--to please the biggest man that lives! "Oh, but, really, I am a man
   of education! Am I to be saved in the same way as the man who does not
   know A from B?" Precisely! There is no other way of salvation for you.
   There is not one gate for Doctors of Divinity and another for the poor
   and ignorant. "But I am a person of good character, a matronly woman.
   Am I to be saved just in the same way as a Magdalene?" Precisely the
   same! There is no other Savior for you than the one in whom Mary
   Magdalene

   delighted and trusted. "But, Sir, you do not surely mean to say that
   all these street Arabs are to go to Heaven in the same way as a man who
   has kept shop and been respectable all his life?" Yes, I do! All must
   go in exactly the same road. Queens and chimney sweeps must enter
   Heaven by the same gate, or not enter at all. There is but one name
   given among men whereby we must be saved! There is no other Savior but
   Christ Jesus the Lord! He suits every class of persons--big sinners and
   little ones, if there are anylittle sinners anywhere--all must come to
   Christ and at His feet confess their sin, for God's plan cannot be
   altered for anyone. My dear Sir, we are not going to have any
   enlargement, or rather, any mystification, of the plan of salvation to
   suit your profound mind! There will be no golden handles put to the
   doors of Heaven to suit you, my lord, with all your wealth and pride!
   No, no, no! Come to Christ, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and
   He will give you rest! But there is no other way of obtaining rest of
   heart and conscience.

   I have thus tried to mention a few of the objections which men make to
   God's plan of salvation. Now let me ask two or three questions. First,
   should not God have His way Is it not intolerable that you and I should
   raise objections at all when the mercy of God, if it ever comes to us,
   is a pure gift of charity? God may well say to us, "Shall I not do as I
   will with My own?" There is no man living who has any absolute right to
   receive anything from God except destruction. That terrible doom we
   have all merited, but nothing beyond that. If we were shut up in prison
   and fed only dry bread, so long as we were out of Hell we would still
   be under obligation to God. If the Lord should choose to show mercy to
   only one man in the world, He has a perfect right to do so. If He
   chooses to give it to a few, or if He chooses to give it to all, He has
   the right to do so. He is absolutely Sovereign and these are the words
   that He would have everyone of us hear and heed-- "I will have mercy on
   whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have
   compassion."

   The crown rights of the King of Kings must never be assailed! For us
   beggars to turn choosers and to dictate to God what He shall give to
   us--for us condemned criminals to begin to make bargains with God as to
   how He shall preserve our lives, if He chooses to do so--oh, this will
   never do! You know, dear Friends, that when we give even a trifling
   charity, we like to do it in our own way. I remember that one
   Christmastime a certain gentleman had given away a quantity of meat to
   many poor people. He had been so generous that he had given away all he
   had. The next morning a woman came to him, bringing back the piece of
   meat which she had received, which was meant for boiling--she said she
   wanted to have a piece for roasting. There was none left for changing,
   so she had to take what had been given to her or go without any at all.
   You are quite sure that the next year, that woman's name was put down
   among the first to have a Christmas gift, are you not? On the contrary,
   the gentleman said, "She will not be troubled next year, either with a
   boiling piece or a roasting piece from me. I will take good care of
   that." I think it was quite natural that he should say so, for our
   common proverb regards it as ingratitude when we "look a gift horse in
   the mouth." When anything comes to us entirely as a gift, it is not for
   us to quibble at it, but to accept it!

   And this is specially true of God's great gift of salvation. O Lord, if
   You will but save me, save me Your way! If I may be delivered from this
   accursed sin of mine and made pure and holy, do it, Lord, after Your
   own gracious fashion! It is not for me to suggest any plan to You, but
   to leave myself entirely in Your hands and to let it be according to
   Your mind.

   Further, is not God's way the best. The mind of God is so Infinitely
   great, good and wise, that it cannot be supposed that even if He left
   the plan of salvation to our option, we could choose anything half as
   good as what He decrees and appoints! Should He, for a single moment,
   hold His Sovereignty in abeyance and allow us to be kings and princes
   on our own account, what follies we would perpetrate! We would choose a
   way of salvation that would not honor God, nor destroy evil, nor even
   be good for our own selves! Some people would like a Heaven into which
   they could enter without being born again, but what kind of Heaven
   would that be? Some would like to have joy and peace without believing
   in Christ. Some would like to have eternal happiness, but still indulge
   their lusts. This would be an evil of the most awful kind! It is better
   that sin should bring to man infinite sorrow than that it should be
   linked with eternal enjoyment! The mischief of it is that it does get
   linked with enjoyment for a while by foolish men who forget what must
   come afterwards--but God has never joined these two things together--it
   is only wicked men who have pretended to celebrate this unholy
   marriage! God proclaims a perpetual separation between sin and
   happiness and it is well that it should be so.

   Now, to conclude this first part of our subject, suppose the plan of
   salvation should be according to any human mind, whose mind is to
   decide what it shall be Yours? No, mine! And another says, "No, mine!"
   Our proverb rightly says, "Many men, many minds," and if we were to
   have salvation arranged according to the mind of each one of us, there

   would be a pretty quarrel before we left this place. You say, Friend,
   that it is to be according to your mind. But why not according to your
   neighbor's mind? If man's mind were to decide it, what should we have?
   Why, you would all contradict each other and there would be no plan of
   salvation at all if God did not settle it once and for all!

   Then, besides, should it be according to your mind today? "Yes," you
   say, "I have made up my mind." But you will take your mind to pieces
   tomorrow--what little there is of it--and then you will put it together
   again the next day, and say, "I have made up my mind. I am a man of
   mind, you know." Ah, yes, we know you, Sir. There is a certain tribe of
   people about, nowadays, who call themselves "men of culture" and they
   sneer at everybody who does not go in for that kind of boasting. If
   they were really men of mind, they would never talk like that, for the
   man who has the most culture generally has enough to be a little modest
   and not to brag about what he is. Well, then, if salvation is to be
   according to man's mind, whose mind is to decide it, and on what day,
   and at what hour of the day is the verdict of that man's mind to be
   taken? It is vacillating, changing like the moon, never twice in the
   same mood on the same day--so salvation cannot be according to our
   mind--for it would be chaos! It would be destruction if that were the
   case.

   II. Now, secondly, here is A WARNING. "He will recompense it, whether
   you refuse, or whether you choose."

   By this I understand that, whatever our will may be, God will carry out
   His own purpose. As surely as God is God, He will never be defeated in
   anything. He who is Omniscient and, therefore, sees the end from the
   beginning, is also Omnipotent and, therefore, can work His own will
   exactly as He chooses--He will never be baffled by the will of men. I
   believe in the free agency of man as much as anyone who lives, but I
   equally believe in the eternal purpose of God. If you ask, "How do you
   reconcile those beliefs?" I answer, "They have never yet been at
   variance, so there is no need to attempt to reconcile them. They are
   like two parallel lines which will run side by side forever--man
   responsible because he does what he wills, and God infinitely glorious,
   achieving His own purposes, not only in the world of dead, inert
   matter, but also through those who are free agents--without changing
   them in the least degree, leaving them just as free as they ever were,
   He yet, in every jot and tittle, performs the eternal purpose of His
   will."

   I would also remind you that though you quibble at God's way of
   salvation, God will punish sin just the same. There is many a man who
   has said, "I will never believe that God will send men to Hell"--but he
   has gone there--and then he has changed his mind in a very remarkable
   and terrible fashion when it is too late! There are many who say, "It
   should be this, or it should not be that," but they do not ask, "What
   says the Scripture?" Yet that is the all-important point, for, whatever
   you may say as to what it should be or should not be, makes no
   difference to God! He will take less notice of you and your opinion
   than you do of a gnat or a fly that buzzes about you on a summer's
   evening. He is so infinitely great and good that any opposition you and
   I may think that we can raise against Him shall be less than nothing
   and vanity! Shall twigs contend with fire, or wax with the flame? Shall
   nothing oppose itself to Omnipotence? Shall the creature of a day, that
   is and is not, attempt to wrestle with the Eternal? No, this cannot be!
   Therefore, God will have His way and He willpunish sin!

   And, further, my Friends, though you may object to God's way of
   salvation, others will be saved by it. Christ did not die in vain. He
   will rejoice in everyone whom He purchased with His blood. He will not
   lose one of the jewels that are to deck His crown forever. You may
   strive against His Kingdom, but that Kingdom will come when He pleases.
   The King eternal, immortal, invisible, shall surely reign forever and
   ever! And if your voice is not heard in the great Hallelujah chorus of
   Heaven, yet not one of its notes will be missing! Christ shall be
   glorified to the highest possible degree, whoever may oppose Him. It is
   well that those who object to God's plan of salvation should know these
   facts. That is how Christ treated objectors when He was upon the earth.
   When they murmured at what He told them, He did not tone down the
   unpalatable Truth. He did not say to them, "You are robbing me of My
   honor and glory, and I shall never prosper." He said, "No man can come
   to Me unless the Father, which has sent Me, draw him." On another
   occasion, He said, "You believe not because you are not of My sheep, as
   I said unto you." He did not humble Himself to them, but again
   proclaimed His own Truth in all its majesty and sublimity, that they
   might bow before Him and His message.

   Just once more upon this point, let me say that God will certainly
   magnify His own name, whoever may oppose Him--"Whether you refuse, or
   whether you choose," shall make no difference to Him! His Grace comes
   like the dew, which tarries not for man, neither waits for the sons of
   men. Oftentimes, He is found of them that seek Him not and, to those
   who were not His people, He says, "You are My people," thus magnifying
   His own amazing Grace. Whoever may stand out against Him, He shall lack
   none of His honor and glory, world without end.

   III. This brings us to the third part of our subject, on which I desire
   to say exactly what Elihu said, "and not I." We cannot be absolutely
   sure what these three words mean, but, if they mean what I think they
   do, they teach us a lesson which I have called A PROTEST.

   Whenever you find anyone opposing God, say to yourself, "and not I."
   When there is any wrong thing being done, and it comes under your
   notice, say, "and not I." Take care that you go not with a multitude to
   do evil! Do not take upon your tongue just what others may be saying,
   but bear your individual protest against the evil. Even if you stand
   alone, say, "and not I."

   What Elihu meant, I think, was this. Whoever opposes God should know
   that he is not dealing with a man like himself If you hear a preacher
   make a statement, and you feel, "That is not the Word of the Lord,"
   pray God to forgive him for his sin in saying it. But if he speaks with
   the sound of his Master's feet behind him and what he says is the Word
   of God, then do not trifle with it. If it is clearly a revealed Truth
   of God, it may grate against your feelings and set your teeth on edge,
   but what of that? You had better get your teeth and your feelings put
   right, for the Truth of God cannot be altered in order to please you!
   Someone says, "I cannot believe that statement, because it seems too
   shocking." That is just why I do believe it, for it does me good by
   shocking me. And if it is in God's Word, I am bound to accept it. "Oh,"
   you say, "but something within me revolts against it." It is only
   natural it should do so, for "the heart is deceitful above all things,
   and desperately wicked"--and it naturally cries out against the thing
   that is most surely true. The supreme majesty of God's Word is that
   before which we have to bow, and not the insignificant usurpers of our
   inward feelings, fancies and whims. "Let God be true and every man a
   liar."

   Elihu also means, I think, "I will not be responsible for the man who
   refuses God's Word. I will not stand in his place, or take the blame
   which is due him. He shall be recompensed, and not I, for I have spoken
   the Truth. I will not bear the responsibility of it. If men choose to
   refuse it, they must take the consequences--to the Lord alone they must
   stand or

   fall."

   And, once more, Elihu means, "If you refuse God's Word, it is not I. I
   will not share in your rebellion against Him." Ah, my dear Hearers,
   there are some of you who think yourselves very intelligent, wise and
   thoughtful. And you imagine that you know a great deal more than I do
   and, therefore, you refuse to receive God's Word. Well, if you do so, I
   will not! I am determined about this matter and I say, with Joshua, "As
   for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah." And, mark you, by,
   "Jehovah," I mean the old Testament God! I have never seen Him
   superseded in His own Word, though some men profess that it is so.
   According to them, the God of the Hebrews was not the God of our Lord
   Jesus Christ, though Jesus never said so, but quite the reverse! The
   God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob is He whom we worship this
   day--and His Character, as it is written out in full in the Old and New
   Testament--is that which we admire and delight

   in!

   Others may have new gods, newly come up, which our fathers knew not,
   but not I. He who made the heavens and the earth. He who led forth His
   people out of Egypt and divided the sea, even the Red Sea. He whose
   mercy endures forever. The God who shines forth all along as the God of
   a covenanted people to whom He did reveal Himself, "this God is our God
   forever and ever: He will be our Guide even unto death." Learned men
   may dispute as much as they like about Him, but we bow humbly at His
   feet. We question nothing that He does! We believe it to be right even
   when we do not understand it and it is our hope that others will do the
   same. But if they will not, it will not affect our own decision.

   IV. Our last head is, A CHALLENGE AND AN INVITATION.

   If there are any who refuse the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ for any
   reason known only to themselves, we venture to ask them to say what it
   is--"Therefore speak what you know." It was not in Elihu's mind to tell
   Job to be silent and never open his mouth again. Speech is the glory of
   man, and freedom of speech, as far as concerns his fellow creatures, is
   the right of every man! It is far better that when there is a
   difficulty or an objection, it should be fairly stated, than that it
   should lie smothered up within the soul to breed untold mischief.
   Therefore, if you have an objection to God's Word, write it out and
   look at it. Or, if you care not to do that, state it, if not to your
   friend--if you prefer privacy--state it to yourself! Only bring it out
   and let it be known! But, at the same time, when you are speaking,
   "speak what you know."

   Now, what do you really know of God? Little enough do the most of us
   know, but, still, I think we know enough to know that He is not the god
   of modern times whom some preach. One single night of frost will
   destroy millions upon millions of creatures that were happy and enjoyed
   life--and this is done by that God of whom we are often assured that

   He cannot possibly punish sin, or put men to pain. But He does it. Hear
   the cry of the poor seamen, when the storm tosses the great boat and
   drives it on the rocks. See how, everywhere, the Lord is a great God
   and terrible. Even though He condescends to be a Father to those of us
   who trust in Jesus Christ, His Son, and is gentle as a nurse to us, yet
   is He the God of thunder and of fire, the great and almighty God, the
   King who will not be questioned by His subjects and who will not alter
   His arrangements to please their fancies!

   It is well for us to speak of God as we have found Him. He has dealt
   kindly and graciously with us--"He has not dealt with us after our
   sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities"--else had we been
   cast away forever. We long that others may be able to speak of God in
   the same way--not saying what they would have Him to be, but what He
   has revealed Himself to be in nature, in Providence and especially in
   Grace. Let us all come humbly to His feet! He bids us look to His dear
   Son and so find peace and salvation. If we will not do so, there is
   nothing for us but to be driven from His Presence and from the glory of
   His power, world without end.

   Will we dare to defy Him? Have we the impiety to do so? O God, humble
   us! Beneath the terror of Your majesty, the glory of Your righteousness
   and the supreme splendor of Your love, bow us down to accept Your Grace
   and to become Yours forever and ever! God grant that it may be so, for
   our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Sincere Summary--and a Searching Scrutiny

   (No. 2671)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 22, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 29, 1882.

   "I have kept Your precepts and Your testimonies: for all my ways are
   before You." Psalm 119:168.

   "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant; for I do not
   forget Your commandments."

   Psalm 119:176.

   IF anyone says that these two texts contradict one another, I say that
   they do not. They form a paradox and they are both true, and true of
   the same man, at the same time. I will read them to you again. "I have
   kept Your precepts and Your testimonies: for all my ways are before
   You." "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant; for I
   do not forget Your commandments."

   I purpose to take our first text as a sincere summary of a godly man's
   life and our second text as a searching scrutiny, or as the result of a
   searching scrutiny, which looks below the surface, and then comes to a
   conclusion, not contradictory to the former one, yet supplementary to
   it.

   I. First, then, dear Friends, our first text is A SINCERE SUMMARY OF A
   GODLY MAN'S LIFE. Looking back, he can say of it in general, "I have
   kept Your precepts and Your testimonies: for all my ways are before
   You."

   First, let me say that it is necessary that we should have so lived
   that this shall be the summary of our life, for if we have not so
   lived, what evidence have we that we have been born again--that we have
   passed from death unto life--that we have been delivered from the
   bondage of sin and brought into the way of holiness? If our life is not
   different from what it used to be, how can we try to deceive ourselves
   with the idea that we are converted? If our lives are no better than
   the lives of unregenerate men, what reason can we have for believing
   that we are regenerate? After all, at the last we shall be judged
   according to our works. "By their fruits you shall know them," is a
   test that still stands good and will stand good even to the end. "Be
   not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that shall he
   also reap." And, in looking back, if our life has been ungodly--if it
   has been wanton and unchaste--if it has not been characterized by
   sobriety, honesty, prayerfulness, consecration, what can we say of it?
   We shall have to judge ourselves to be still "out of the way" and to
   have need that we should turn to God with full purpose of heart and
   seek what, evidently, we have not at present found. If the Grace which
   we are supposed to have received has not made us to differ both from
   our former self and from men of the world, then it is not the true
   Grace of God.

   Next, whenever a man can truly say, with the Psalmist, "I have kept
   Your precepts and Your testimonies," it is a fruit of Grace. I t is not
   a product of the legal spirit. It is not a result of free will
   un-helped by God's Grace and love. Wherever there is even a spark of
   holiness, it must have come from that great central fire which is in
   the heart of God. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
   above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no
   variableness, neither shadow of turning." There is not on earth a rare
   flower of loveliness and purity which is not an exotic--it is blooming
   in a clime to which it is a stranger. God has planted it with His own
   right hand.

   So, then, he who can thus sum up his life has nothing of which to
   glory, for he has received from God everything of good there is in it
   and, therefore, he gives all the glory of it to the Giver and takes
   none of it to himself. It is faith that works by love, purifying the
   soul, and producing the devout and godly character--and faith never
   claims any honor for

   itself, for it is, itself, the gift of God. Christ says much in praise
   of faith because faith says so much in praise of Christ! And faith is
   used, in the Covenant of Grace, as a means of blessing, because it
   excludes boasting and gives all the glory to God, who works all that is
   good within us. So, you see, dear Friends, that there is nothing of
   legality in what I am saying now when I testify that a godly Christian,
   when he sums up his life, can say, "I have kept Your precepts and Your
   testimonies."

   Next, this summary of life is excellent for its breadth. Notice how it
   is worded. It comprehends the precepts and the testimonies of the Lord.
   That is, the practical and the doctrinal parts of true religion. There
   are some persons who appear to be very scrupulous concerning the
   precepts and they are very anxious to keep them. So far, they do well.
   But as to the Doctrines of Grace, they say, "We do not know much about
   them," and they appear to think that it is not at all necessary that
   they should know about them. A very large part of God's Word, which
   teaches most precious Truth, they slur. They think that it does not
   matter to them. Should they not believe according to the denomination
   in which they were born or brought up? They say that there is no
   particular necessity for them to be so diligent in searching and
   knowing the Word. The Psalmist thought not so, but he said to the Lord,
   "I have kept Your precepts and Your testimonies." I feel that I am as
   much bound to believeright as to actright and it is just as truly a sin
   to believe error, when I can learn the truth, as it is to commit
   iniquity. We are responsible to God for the use we make of our
   understanding, as well as for the exercise of our affections. There is
   nothing in the Word of God to justify men in believing what they like,
   and anyone who neglects to search out the Truth of God commits a sin of
   omission. He who holds an error which he might see to be an error if he
   looked in the mirror of God's Word, is guilty of rebellion against the
   teaching of God. If we would live a life such as we can look back upon
   with pleasure, we ought to try to keep the testimonies as well as the
   precepts of the Lord.

   I have met with some people who used to be more numerous than they are
   now, who were very strenuous about the Doctrines of Grace. If anybody
   differed from their view of the Doctrines, they at once said that he
   was unsound. I should hardly like to repeat the hard things they used
   to say about such a person, but, certainly, to be sound in the Truth of
   God was the grand thing with them. And I do not condemn them for that,
   but I do blame them because, sometimes, practical preaching seemed
   irksome to them and the enforcement of the precepts of the Word made
   them wrathful--they could not endure it. You could tickle their palates
   and delight them with a good strong sermon on the Doctrines of Grace,
   but when you came to insist upon holy walking, they would turn upon
   their heels and say that the preacher was "legal."

   Now, inasmuch as I before said that to neglect God's testimonies is an
   evil, so I add that to neglect the precepts is an equal evil. Be you, O
   man of God, as earnest to do the right as to believe the right and, on
   the other hand, as earnest to believe the right as to do the right!
   Your whole nature should be subject to God. He is to be your Teacher as
   well as your Law-Giver. Will you not sit at the feet of Jesus, like
   Mary did, to learn of Him, as well as rise up, like Martha did, to
   serve Him? If you will not, then you give to Him a lame and limping
   obedience. "The legs of the lame are not equal," and your obedience is
   lame, since the legs of it are not equal. There is a long doctrine and
   a short obedience, or a long precept and a short doctrine. Be it not so
   with you, O man of God, if you would look back upon a well-ordered
   life! Happy shall that man be who can say, "Ever since that glad day
   when I was brought as a penitent to my Master's feet, I have studiously
   endeavored to do what He has bid me do and I have just as earnestly
   shunned and turned away from everything which I have known to be sin. I
   praise the Lord that He has helped me to keep my garments unspotted
   from the world."

   But if he would be a complete Christian, he must be able to add, I have
   also strived to believe all that is taught in the Word of God. I have
   not given myself up blindly to be led by priest or minister. I felt
   that God had given me a conscience for which I was responsible, not to
   my fellow men, but to Him, so I have gone to the Law and to the
   Testimony, testing everything by that Infallible standard. I have not
   sat down in idleness, taking things for granted because they were
   preached with brilliant oratory, but, like the Bereans, I have searched
   the Scriptures daily to see whether these things are so or not." Ah,
   Beloved, it will make a soft pillow for your head if, in the retrospect
   of life, you can say, "I have made the Law of God, in its teachings and
   in its commands, to be the rule of my whole life." God grant that you
   may have that satisfaction at the last!

   Further, dear Friends, this summary is excellent for its length, as
   well as for its breadth, for here the man of God says, "I have kept
   Your precepts and Your testimonies." I do not know how long the
   Psalmist had kept them, but it seems to me natural that he should make
   this summary towards the end of his life. I pray that it may be so with
   us when

   we come to die. I have known the gray-headed old man--how well I knew
   him, and how greatly I loved him, for I mean my venerable
   grandfather--who, when he was dying, could say, "That which I preached
   when I first entered the pulpit I have preached to the last. And for 58
   years, to the best of my knowledge I have preached nothing but Jesus
   Christ and Him crucified. I have nothing to retract of the testimony
   which I have given, for what the Spirit of God taught me, that have I
   taught to others." And he could equally have said at the last, "I have,
   as a father, trained my children in God's fear and they are all
   following in my footsteps. I have, as a pastor, watched over my flock
   with sedulous care. I have set them an example which they can safely
   follow. And there is no man who can truthfully lay a charge against me,
   for in all uprightness and integrity have I walked before God."

   Mark you, this dear old man was a Calvinist--an out-and-out preacher of
   Free Grace who would not, for a moment, take the slightest credit to
   himself for anything that he was, or had done! Yet he could not have
   said less than this unless he had pretended to possess a modesty which
   was not true and mimicked a humility which was based on falsehood. In
   like manner, may we be kept, by the Grace of God, clear of all trusting
   in our works, but, at the same time, may we abound in good works to the
   Glory of God and, both in thought and in life, may we be clear in the
   sight of God! Oh, how I have envied that first Quaker, George Fox, who,
   with all the eccentricities of his life, could honestly say on his
   deathbed, "I am clear, I am clear, I am clear of the blood of all men."
   This is the highest ambition that a minister's heart may indulge--that
   he should be able to say that at the last--as other men of God have
   been able to do.

   So, you see, this is a blessed summary as to length as well as breadth.

   Above all things, it is excellent from its cause. Notice how the
   Psalmist says to the Lord, "I have kept Your precepts and Your
   testimonies." That is what the true man of God still says, "I followed
   the precept because it was God's precept. I did not care whether a
   Church or a Council of any sort had set its stamp upon it. It was God's
   precept and that was enough for me. And I believed the Doctrine because
   it was His testimony. It might not be the testimony of any Reformer, or
   Confessor, but it was enough for me that it was God's testimony." That
   should be the reason for our conviction and also our action.

   The Psalmist kept God's precepts and testimonies because all his ways
   were before God. He felt that God was watching him. He lived under the
   consciousness of God's Presence with him both by night and by day and,
   therefore, he dared not believe anything contrary to God's Truth, or
   act contrary to God's command. "You God see me" either held him in
   check or else impelled him onward. This is the way for us, also, to
   live, dear Friends! I pray that you may live thus.

   I think the Psalmist also meant, when he said that all his ways were
   before God, that they were under God's smile of approval. God not only
   observed, but He communed with and commended His servant. Another
   Psalmist, or perhaps the writer of these words which form our text,
   said, "I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living." And
   Enoch might have said, "I have walked with God from day to day.
   Communion with Him has been my continual delight and all my ways have
   been before Him." The Book of Psalms begins thus--"Blessed is the man
   that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of
   sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in
   the Law of the Lord; and in His Law does he meditate day and night."
   His ways are always before God and he has respect unto the Law of the
   Lord evermore.

   Such a life as that, dear Friends, is excellent from its use. It is
   sure to be a life of happiness, even though it should bring on
   persecution. It is certain, also, to be a useful life. It is an example
   which your children and your children's children may safely follow. It
   is an argument for the Gospel which the most skeptical cannot refute
   and it is a most blessed way of propagating that Gospel, for men are
   more often convinced by our actions than by our words. Seek after it,
   dear Friends, and let your lives be such that you may close them with
   the words of my first text, "I have kept Your precepts and Your
   testimonies: for all my ways are before You."

   II. Now let us pause a moment and observe that the Psalmist, after he
   had spoken thus, and spoken quite sincerely and truly, yet felt that he
   must close his long life's summary in another fashion. He then uttered
   our second text, which I called a SEARCHING SCRUTINY. "I have gone
   astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant; for I do not forget Your
   commandments."

   His life was perfect, after the manner of Scriptural perfection, but
   when it was carefully examined and scrutinized, it was found to be
   manifestly imperfect! Suppose you take a needle, one of the very best
   that has ever been made--any seamstress would be glad to use it. She
   would never think of sending a packet of such needles back and saying
   that they were

   not good. They are bright, untarnished, sharp, smooth--all that they
   should be--quite perfect needles. But just put one of them under a
   microscope--I have done so--and then see what it is like! Why, now, it
   is a bar of steel--rough and ugly-looking, tending towards a point at
   one end, but certainly very blunt. That is just the difference between
   the microscopic examination and the ordinary observation of our poor
   eyes. So, the life of a Believer may be like that of Job, "perfect and
   upright," but when it comes under the scrutiny of an eye that is
   illuminated by the Spirit of God and touched with the heavenly
   eye-salve, quite another verdict is given! And, tremblingly, with many
   tears, the confession is poured into the ear of God, "I have gone
   astray like a lost sheep"--followed by the petition--"Seek Your
   servant" and the renewed declaration, "for I do not forget Your
   commandments."

   Here is, first, a confession of imperfection and of helplessness. I t
   really means a continual imperfection and helplessness, for the Hebrew
   verb relates not only to the past, but to the present. It might just as
   well be read, "I am still going astray like a lost sheep." Indeed, it
   mustbe so read, for the Psalmist goes on to say, "Seek Your servant."
   He would not have offered such a prayer if his confession had only
   related to something that was at an end. There is, here, not only
   imperfection and the tendency to a continuous imperfection, but there
   is also an acknowledgment of helplessness! The Psalmist does not say,
   "I have gone astray like a lost sheep, but I can return when I please."
   No, he prays to the Lord, "Seek Your servant," as if the only help for
   him lay in the search which the great Shepherd would make and the
   consequent restoration which would come by His gracious and powerful
   hand!

   Let us just think for a little while and then I feel sure that we shall
   soon say that we must confess to God as the Psalmist did. I mean that
   each one of those here present who have led godly lives will still have
   to say to the Lord, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep." Think first
   of God's precepts. Have we ever gone astray in heart from any one of
   them? Suppose you never have departed from them in life--which is a
   very charitable supposition--have you ever in heartfelt the precepts to
   be hard? Had you been really perfect, it would have been easy, it would
   have been natural for you to keep them. Have you not sometimes had to
   whip yourself up to a duty? The need of being whipped up to it proves
   that evil is still remaining within you. Then, have you ever forgotten
   a precept? Lives there a man who has carried out all the precepts of
   God without forgetting any one of them? I would like to see the Brother
   who has done so--but such a Brother I never expect to see.

   I think that, with the most of us, it is thus. There is a certain duty
   and we try to do it with all our hearts, but, meanwhile, we forget
   another duty which is just as binding upon us as the first was. We look
   right on and so we overlook the duties that lie on the right hand and
   on the left. The very intensity which makes us earnest about one thing
   often prevents our attending to another thing which is equally
   important--and thus we present to God one duty stained with the blood
   of another! I have known a father, in aiming at being firm with his
   children, err by being too severe. But far oftener have I known others,
   intent upon being kind to their children, who have grown like Eli and
   have winked at their sin. That is but one instance among thousands of
   the evil I am deploring. A man may say, "I shall rebuke So-and-So for
   his fault," but he does it too sharply and therein he errs. Or, afraid
   of being too severe, he says nothing and therein he errs. Did you ever,
   in all your life, do any one thing so well that it could not possibly
   have been done better? The difference between the good there was in
   what you did and the good there might have been in it is just so much
   of deficiency--and sin is any lack of conformity to perfection. Whether
   you fall short of the mark or go over the line matters little. In
   either case, you have missed the perfection God demands. If you do not
   reach His standard, you have not yet attained to perfect holiness and
   there is still something of sin to confess.

   The precepts of the Lord are so broad that they touch the secret
   imagination of the heart. Is there a man living who never has an
   unclean desire? "I fought against it," says one. I know you did, but
   the very desire was sinful. Or, if it has not come to a desire, was
   there never an impure imagination that crossed your mind? "Yes, it just
   flitted across my mind," you say. Well, in proportion as you yielded to
   it, in that proportion it was a guilty thing. Yes--I must say it--if
   even a dream has had anything of sin in it, and you have been
   complacent over it, it detects the sin that is within you, for were you
   really perfect, even the very passing thought, though it were but as a
   bird of the air that flew above your head, would still, by casting a
   shadow over your spirit, cause you vexation and sorrow. Keep that
   microscope close at hand and it need not have very strong lenses--only
   look fairly into your own life, first, by the light of the Law of God,
   and, secondly, by the light of your obligations to Christ who has
   redeemed you with His precious blood--and then I feel sure

   that you will have to say, "I fall short even of my own ideal and I am
   persuaded that my ideal falls very far short of what God's ideal of
   perfection is."

   Has it not often struck you, dear Friends, as a very amazing thing that
   good men--some of the best of men who have ever lived--have
   nevertheless been guilty of things which, at the present moment, we
   regard as heinous crimes? Mr. Whitefield had a strong objection to
   slavery, but still it did not seem to him to be wrong to have a number
   of slaves at the orphan house at Savannah--and to speak of them as his
   goods and chattels. That was a matter about which the conscience of the
   good man was not then enlightened. We do ill if we condemn men too
   strongly for things about which no enlightenment has come to them, but
   are they not, themselves, guilty in the sight of God? Of course they
   are! There are men, nowadays, carrying on trades that are doing
   mischief and only mischief to the populace, but they are not aware of
   the evil, their conscience is not enlightened about it.

   To take another line of thought, suppose a man is worth many hundreds
   of thousands of pounds and all the while there are millions of people
   abroad perishing for lack of the Gospel and, often, the great
   deficiency of the Missionary Societies is not in the men, but in the
   means to send out the preachers of the Gospel? Is that man right,
   before the living God, who says, "I am not my own, for I am bought with
   a price, and all that I am and have belongs to Christ," and yet who
   nevertheless remains immensely rich--rich beyond anything that he or
   his children after him can ever need? Yet, possibly, his conscience is
   not enlightened about that matter and it is no very great crime in his
   judgment--neither may you and I condemn him, for our own conscience is
   probably quite as much in the dark upon something else. But whenever
   anybody, who is very rich, gets up and says, "I am a perfect man," I
   feel inclined to say what Christ said to the young man who thought that
   he was perfect, "Sell all that you have." Somebody asks, perhaps, "Does
   Christ propose that test to every one of us?" No, certainly not, but to
   any of us who say that we are perfect, that test may be applied. If you
   are such a perfect man, see if you can do as our Lord said--sell all
   that you have, and give the proceeds to the poor. I have known a man
   sing--

   "Yet if I might make some reserve, And duty did not call, I love my God
   with zeal so great That I should give Him all"--

   but, all the while, he has been trying to feel whether it was a
   three-penny piece or a four-penny piece that he was going to give to
   the collection!

   As I begin to think of these various things which I have
   mentioned--just casting, as it were, a little ray of light upon them,
   not the great Light of the eternal purity of God--I cannot understand
   how there can be any man, even though he has kept God's precepts and
   testimonies as far as he could, who, nevertheless, is not bound to say,
   "I have gone astray like a lost sheep."

   But, further, suppose it to be possible that we have not gone astray
   from the precepts of the Lord, how about His testimonies? Is any man
   here prepared to say, "I feel that I have, in every respect, believed
   the Truths of God as they are revealed in God's Word, and that I have
   never erred from them"? Do you believe all the Truths of God and all
   the Truths in their right proportions and relations? And do you give
   due emphasis to each Truth at the right moment? Have you ever believed
   that which afterwards you found to be incorrect and false? Possibly you
   have not willfully done this, but have you done it at all? Think of
   Augustine, that mighty master and teacher in the Church of God, sitting
   down in his old age and writing his, "Confessions." Alas, even he found
   that he had plenty of things to confess and to amend! And it must be so
   with us, too. The very man who can say, "In the main, I have preached
   the same things all through my ministry," yet, nevertheless, adds, "I
   preached them as far as I knew them, but I did not know them at the
   first as I learned them afterwards. I did not know this Truth in
   relation to that Truth and I sometimes misrepresented God in my very
   zeal to give a correct statement--and I slew one Truth of God in my
   defense of another." Ah, Friends, we are all so fallible! No, more than
   that, we do all so sadly failin one way or another, that we must meekly
   bow our head and each one, say, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep."

   I am afraid that I might have put this matter much more strongly than I
   have ventured to lay it before you and still have been within the mark.
   But there I leave it, as I need to speak upon one more point.

   In that prayer of the Psalmist, "Seek Your servant," I discern
   conscious faith in the Divine power. He seems to say, "Lord, I am as
   silly as a sheep, but if I were only a sheep, I could not pray. I am a
   servant, too--'Your servant.' It is my

   joy, it is my glory to be Your servant. Now, Lord, because I am Your
   servant, seek me. Do not lose me, Lord! You have bought me with Your
   blood. I am seeking You, Lord, so come and seek me. I want to be
   perfectly holy--come and help me. Forgive every sin of omission or of
   commission. Draw me away from every mistake. Draw me nearer and yet
   nearer to Yourself. 'Seek Your servant.'" Perhaps you are ill, or even
   dying--well, living or dying, this prayer may still suit you--"Seek me,
   Lord, 'seek Your servant.'"

   Then, lastly, comes in that sweet reflection, "For I do not forget Your
   commandments." "I have a love for them, I have a longing for them and I
   am sure that this never grew in my heart by nature. It is the gift of
   Your Grace and, because You have put it there, Lord, and You have begun
   to work in me, finish Your work, I pray You. Lord, You have made me
   long to be rid of every false way, therefore, deliver me from it. You
   have made me wish to be transparent and sincere. You have made me
   hungry and thirsty to be like Yourself! Then will you not satisfy the
   craving You have, Yourself, imparted?--

   "'The dearest idol Ihave known, Whatever that idol be, Help me to tear
   it from Your Throne, And worship only Thee.'

   "If I hold an error, yet You know that I wish not to hold it. Show me
   that it is an error and I will have done with it at once. And if I am
   acting in good faith in a wrong way, Lord, do You but let me see that
   it is wrong and, cost what it may, I will do the right and cease from
   the evil."

   This is a blessed way in which to close our life, but there is a still
   more blessed way and that is, after all is said and done, and after
   God's Grace has been praised for everything that is lovely and of good
   repute that it has worked in us, then to cast bad works and good works
   all away and just look to the Cross, and to the Cross alone, and see
   our life in Jesus' death, our healing in His wounds, our glory in His
   shame, our Heaven in His anguish! Look, saint! Look now! Sinner, you
   may do the same. Where the saint's salvation is, there is yours, too.
   And if the graybeard, hoary with years of honor and of virtue,
   gathering up his feet in the bed, knows no better or brighter hope than
   that of being justified through the righteousness of Christ and washed
   in His blood, it is a joy to know that the same hope is free to you
   guilty ones who have not kept the precepts or the testimonies of God!

   Turn to Christ on Calvary! Cast your eyes on Him who, like the bronze
   serpent, is lifted up that every sin-bitten one may look unto Him and
   live! Oh, by His Grace, look to Him now and you shall live, for never a
   soul looked to Him and died while looking there!

   God bless you, dear Friends, for Christ's sake! Amen.

   HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK "--185, 232, 119 (SONG II), 538.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS 7; 8:1-4.

   Romans 7:1-3. Know you not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know
   the Law), how that the Law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
   For the woman which has an husband is bound by the law to her husband
   so long as he lives; but if the husband is dead, she is loosed from the
   law ofher husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she is married
   to another man, she shall be called an adulteress, but if her husband
   is dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress,
   though she is married to another man. He merely states this as an
   illustration.

   4. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the Law by the
   body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to Him who
   is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
   While we were under the Law of God, we could not come into the bonds of
   the New Covenant--the Covenant of Grace. But, through the death of
   Christ, we are dead to the Law and, therefore, we are set free from the
   principle and Covenant of Law, and we have come under the Covenant of
   Grace.

   5. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by
   the Law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Sin
   is the transgression of the Law of God. Therefore, out of the Law, by
   reason of our corrup-

   tion, springs sin. And, in our past lives, we did, indeed, find sin to
   be very fruitful. It grew very fast in our members and it brought forth
   much "fruit unto death."

   6. But now we are delivered from the Law, that being dead wherein we
   were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the
   oldness of the letter No longer is the message to us, "This do and you
   shall live." No more are we slaves under bondage, but we have come into
   a new state--we are free, rejoicing in the glorious liberty of the
   children of God--and what we now do is done out of a spirit of love,
   not of fear. We are not seeking after holiness in order to be saved by
   it, neither do we seek to escape from sin because we are under any fear
   of being cast into Hell. We have another spirit altogether within us.

   7. What shall we say, then? Is the Law of God sin? God forbid/No, so
   far from being sin, the Law is the great detective of sin, discovering
   it and letting us know what sin really is.

   7, 8. No, Ihad not known sin, but by the Law: for Ihad not known lust,
   except the Law had said, You shall not covet But sin, taking occasion
   by the commandment, worked in me all manner of concupiscence. Or,
   "covetousness." The very fact that God said to us, "Do it not," worked
   upon our nature so that we wanted to do it! And that which God
   commanded, which was a matter of indifference to us while we were in
   ignorance of His will, became, by reason of the depravity of our
   hearts, a thing to be resisted just because He had enjoined it upon us.
   Ah, me, what wicked hearts are ours that fetch evil even out of good!

   8, 9. For without the Law, sin was dead. For I was alive without the
   Law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. ' 'I
   did not know how sinful I was until God's commandment came to me. Sin
   seemed to be dead within me and I thought myself a righteous man. But
   when the Law of God came home to my heart and conscience, and I
   understood that even a sinful thought would ruin me, that a hasty word
   had the essence of murder in it and that the utmost uncleanness might
   lurk under the cover of what seemed a mere custom of my fellow
   men--when I found out all this, sin did, indeed, live, but I died so
   far as righteousness was concerned."

   10-13. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be
   unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me
   and by it slew me. Therefore the Law is holy, and the commandment holy,
   and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God
   forbid.'' 'If I sinned the more when God's commandment was revealed to
   me. And if, by the light of the Law, sin was made more apparent to me,
   and became so exceedingly sinful that it drove me to despair and so to
   commit still worse sin, the fault was not in the Law, but in sin, and
   in me, the sinner."

   13. 14. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that
   which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly
   sinful. For we know that the Law of God is spiritual. The Law of the
   Lord is a far higher thing than it seems to be in the esteem of many
   people. Talk not of it as a mere "Decalogue." It has far-reaching hands
   and it affects the secret thoughts and purposes of men. Even their
   stray imaginations come under its supremacy. "The law is spiritual."

   14. But I am carnal, sold under sin. "I am carnal." There is the source
   of all the mischief--a disobedient and rebellious subject, not an
   irksome Law! The Law is good enough, it is absolutely perfect, "but,"
   says the Apostle, "I am carnal"--fleshly--"sold under sin."

   15. For that which I do, I allow not. The man himself does that which
   is evil, but his conscience revolts against it.

   15. For what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do. This
   is a strange contradiction--a man who has Grace enough to will to do
   good and yet does it not! There are two men in the one man--the new
   nature struggling against the old nature. This must be a renewed man
   who talks in this fashion, or else he could not say that he hated sin!
   Yet there must be a part of him still imperfect, or else he would not
   do that which he hates.

   16. If, then, I do that which I would not, I consent unto the Law that
   it is good. "If I do that against which my will and my conscience
   rebel, so far, the better part of me acknowledges the goodness of the
   Law, though the baser part of me rebels against it."

   17. Now, then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.
   The renewed man still stands out against sin. His heart is not wishful
   to sin, but that old nature within him will sin even to the end.

   18. 19. For Iknow that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwells no good
   thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is
   good I find not For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which
   I would not, that I do. Oh,

   how often have men who have been struggling after holiness had to use
   these words of the Apostle! The more holy they are, the more they
   realize that there is still a something better beyond them, after which
   they struggle, but to which they cannot yet attain! So they cry still,
   "The good that we would, we do not: but the evil which we would not,
   that we do."

   20. Now if I do what I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin
   that dwells in me. The true man--the newborn man--is struggling after
   that which is right. The real, "I," the immortal, "ego," is still
   pressing forward like a ship beating up against wind and tide, and
   striving to reach the harbor where it shall find perfect rest. Oh, what
   struggles, what contentions, what corrections there are within the men
   and women in whom the Grace of God is mightily working! Those who have
   but little Grace can take things easily and swim with the current. But
   where Grace is mighty, sin will fight for the mastery, though it must
   ultimately yield, for there can never be any true peace until it is
   subdued.

   21. I find then a Law that when I would do good, evil is present with
   me. Speaking for myself, I can say that, often, when I am most earnest
   in prayer, stray thoughts will come into my mind to draw me off from
   the holy work of supplication. And when I am most intently aiming at
   humility, then the shadow of pride falls upon me. Do not gracious men
   generally find it so? If their experience is like that of the Apostle
   Paul, or like that of many another child of God whose biography one
   delights to read, it is so and it will always be so.

   22-24. For I delight in the Law of God after the inwardman: but Isee
   another law in my members, warring against the law ofmy mind, and
   bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O
   wretchedman that Iam! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
   death?These are birth-pangs, the throes and anguish of a regenerated
   spirit! The Christian man is fighting his way to sure and certain
   victory so the more of this wretchedness that he feels, the better--if
   it is only caused by a consciousness that sin is still lurking within
   him--and that he longs to be rid of it.

   25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I
   myself serve the Law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

   Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
   Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit Some
   people talk about "getting out of the 7th Chapter, into the Eighth."
   But who made this into an Eighth Chapter? Certainly, the Holy Spirit
   did not! There are no chapters in the Epistle as He inspired Paul to
   write it--the whole of it runs straight on without a break--"There is,
   therefore, now no condemnation"--while struggling, fighting, warring,
   contending--

   2. For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free
   from the law of sin and death. ' 'Has made me free"--that is, the real,
   "I," of which he wrote a little while before--the true man, himself.
   "'The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from
   the law of sin and death.' I have broken its bonds, I am a free man.
   Contending against its usurpation, I have escaped from under its yoke
   and I shall yet tread sin under my feet, and God shall shortly bruise
   even Satan himself under my feet."

   3. For what the Law couldnot do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
   God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
   condemned sin in the flesh. That He has done most effectually!

   4. That the righteousness ofthe Law might be fulfilledin us, who walk
   not after the flesh, but after the Spirit Oh, what a blessed thing it
   is to walk freely, "not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," even
   though, all the while, there is, within the soul this strife that the
   Apostle has been describing!
     __________________________________________________________________

Neither Forsaken Nor Forgotten

   (No. 2672)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 29, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   NOVEMBER 5, 1882.

   "Behold, I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands." Isaiah 49:16.

   You have probably noticed, dear Friends, while reading the chapter from
   which our text is taken, that it seems to divide itself into two parts.
   The first portion concerns that glorious Servant of God, "who, being in
   the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God," even our
   Divine Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is, in this part of the
   chapter, somewhat of a complaint--Christ was, as it were, uttering one
   of His Gethsemane groans when He said, "I have labored in vain, I have
   spent My strength for nothing, and in vain: yet surely My judgment is
   with Jehovah, and My work with My God." As far as our Lord's personal
   ministry among the Jewish people was concerned, it did seem as if He
   had labored in vain, for almost all of them rejected Him and they even
   imprecated an awful curse upon themselves and their descendants when
   they said, "His blood be on us, and on our children." He is here
   represented as crying out before Jehovah concerning this apparent
   failure of His earthly mission. And an answer is at once given to Him
   which must have been eminently satisfactory to our Savior's spirit, for
   He adds, "Though Israel is not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the
   eyes of Jehovah and My God shall be My strength. And He said, It is a
   light thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of
   Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give You for
   a light to the Gentiles, that You may be My salvation unto the ends of
   the earth." Oh, what joy must have filled the heart of our Divine
   Master, even in the depths of His agony, as He saw that, through His
   death, all nations should ultimately behold the Light of God's
   salvation! What though Israel for a while rejected Him? Yet multitudes
   of the Gentiles would receive Him and then, by-and-by, in the fullness
   of time, the Jews would also receive Him, and acknowledge as King the
   Nazarene whom once they crucified on Calvary!

   The second part of the chapter, singularly enough, relates to the
   Israelite Church and, to a large extent, to the whole Church of God,
   and it also contains a complaint. In the expressive language of verse
   13, God bids the heavens and the earth rejoice--"Sing, O heavens, and
   be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for
   Jehovah has comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His
   afflicted." Yet, even while that jubilant note is pealing over sea and
   land, there is heard the wailing of poor forsaken Zion--Judaea's
   Church, the ancient Church of the living God! She sighs, "'Jehovah has
   forsaken me and my Lord has forgotten me.' He is blessing the Gentiles,
   but I am left unblessed. He is gathering multitudes unto Himself, to
   glorify His Son; but His poor Israel, His ancient choice, His first
   love, He seems to have left out of all reckoning,' Jehovah has forsaken
   me, and my Lord has forgotten me.'" Then comes the Lord's answer, "Can
   a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion
   on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget
   you. Behold, I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands." Israel
   shall yet acknowledge her King, her salvation waits for the appointed
   time. There is a high destiny in store for the Israel of God and many
   shall yet see the day when He who died as King of the Jews shall live
   again to wear that title and to be acknowledged as the Head of all the
   house of Abraham!

   My objective, in speaking upon the familiar and precious words of our
   text, is just this--Sometimes you and I get into the same sad condition
   as Zion was then and we fancy that God has forgotten us, so I want to
   show you that if we are

   believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord gives to us an answer
   similar to that which He gave to sorrowful Zion, "I have engraved you
   upon the palms of My hands." Upon that short sentence I shall try now
   to speak to you.

   I. First, let us think, for a while, upon THE FEAR EXPRESSED--the fear
   in the hearts of God's people which led to the utterance of our text.
   In verse 14, this fear is thus expressed, "Jehovah has forsaken me, and
   my Lord has forgotten me."

   This fear has been felt by very many. Fear is a most contagious and
   infectious thing. When it has taken hold on one person, it has been
   often known to spread to many others till a terrible panic has resulted
   from a very slight cause. Here is the whole Jewish church expressing
   the fear that God has forgotten her! I feel sure that I am not now
   addressing such a church as that--I hope that the most of those now
   present know that God has not forgotten them and that they are walking
   in the light of His Countenance so that they do not imagine that
   Jehovah has forsaken them. But, still, this fear has darkened, shall I
   say, every sky, and passed before the window of every spirit? Well, I
   will not go quite that far, yet I know that there must be but very few
   of us who have not, at one time or another, naughtily whispered to our
   own heart, if we have not said it aloud, "Jehovah has forsaken me, and
   my Lord has forgotten me." We have gone up to the House of God with our
   brethren and we have seen them very happy. The Word of God has been
   precious to them and they have seemed to enjoy it to the fullest, but
   we could not feed upon it, or get a glimpse of the Well-Beloved. And we
   have gone out of the place sighing, "Jehovah has forsaken me and my
   Lord has forgotten me." Have you ever had that thought? If you never
   have, I hope you never will, but I fear that the most of us have, at
   some time or other, been subject to that distressing complaint.

   And it has sometimes been very plaintively expressed. I t is so in the
   text. I think I hear the mountains echoing the joyous voice of God and
   the very skies reverberating with the song of the redeemed! And then,
   in between the breaks of the glad chorus, I catch this little mournful
   note, "Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me." Perhaps
   it is all the more plaintive because the tone seems to indicate that
   Zion felt that she deserved to have it so. She thought herself so
   insignificant, so sinful, so provoking, that it was no wonder that the
   great Jehovah should forget her in her littleness--and that the pure
   and holy God should turn His face away from such iniquity as hers.
   Brothers and Sisters, I feel sure that you and I must have been in that
   state in which we could weep and groan and sigh because of the joy in
   the air of which we could not partake, the songs in which we could not
   unite unless we became utter hypocrites. We heard the sweet strains of
   the holy merriment in the Father's House, but we felt that we could not
   join in it! And we sat by ourselves mourning, with our harps hanging on
   the willows, while everyone around us only increased our grief in
   proportion to his own delight. I am trying to speak to such troubled
   souls--God comfort them! There are many such, and their grief is great.

   And some, too, are very obstinate while they are in that condition, for
   our text contains a very unreasonable com-plainer. Read the latter part
   of the 13th verse. "Jehovah has comforted His people, and will have
   mercy upon His afflicted." Yet, in the teeth of that double
   declaration, Zion said, "Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has
   forgotten me." Ah, dear Friends, our complaints of God are generally
   groundless! We get into a state of mind in which we say, "God has
   forsaken us," when He is really dealing with us more than He was known
   to do. A child who is feeling the strokes of the rod is very foolish to
   say, "My father has forgotten me." No, those very blows, under which he
   is smarting, are reminders that his father does notforget him--and your
   trials and your troubles, your depressions and your sorrows are tokens
   that you are not forgotten of God. The chastening which is guaranteed
   to every legitimate son is coming to you! If you had not been
   chastened, there would have been far more cause for saying, "My Lord
   has forgotten me." Besides, dear Friend, you have had some comforts
   though you have had many sorrows. You can say, "Comforts mingle with my
   sighs." Do not forget that. It is not all gall and wormwood--there is
   so much honey as greatly to mitigate the bitterness. Think of that and
   do not obstinately stand to a word which, perhaps, you spoke in haste.
   If you have said, "My Lord has forgotten me," take back the word, for
   it cannot be true. You have slandered Him who can never forget one of
   His own people! And if you have said, "Jehovah has forsaken me," again
   I ask you to take back the evil and false word, and eat it. Never let
   it be heard again, for it is impossible that Jehovah should change, or
   that the Immutable love of His Infinite heart should ever die out! Be
   not obstinate about this matter, I implore you! Yet I have known some
   of God's people stick to this grave lie to their own grievous wounding
   and hurt.

   I suppose that Zion came to this conclusion because she was in
   banishment. She was away from the land that flowed with milk and
   honey--she was suffering in exile. Is this the conclusion to be drawn
   from all suffering? Does the vine say, "The vinedresser has forsaken me
   because he prunes me so sharply"? Does the invalid say, "The physician
   has forgotten me because he gives me such bitter medicine"? Shall the
   patient beneath the knife, say, "The surgeon has forsaken me because he
   cuts even to the bone"? You see at once that there is no reasonableness
   about such talk, so dismiss it at once! "Judge not the Lord" by outward
   Providences, any more than "by feeble sense," but trust Him even when
   you can see no trace of His goodness to you. "Let God be true, and"
   every circumstance, as well as "every man, a liar," for God must keep
   His promise to His people. He is Immutable! He cannot possibly change.
   He must be true to every word that has gone forth out of His mouth. The
   fear that God may forsake and forget His own, if obstinately indulged,
   will certainly deserve to be set down among the wanton and unreasonable
   transgressions of His people against their gracious God.

   Yet I think that there is some measure of Grace mingled with this fear
   Let me read you this passage straight on-- "Jehovah has comforted His
   people and will have mercy upon His afflicted. But Zion said, Jehovah
   has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me." She did not say that
   till God had visited her. "The Lord has comforted His people." He has
   brought them out of a yet lower depth that they were in and they have
   been lifted up so high as now to want His Presence, and to sigh for it!
   Beloved Brothers and Sisters, you who are so deep down in the dungeon,
   I feel glad that you want to get out of it. There is, in your soul, a
   longing after God, is there not? There is a panting and a crying after
   peace with God, is there not? You are not satisfied as long as you even
   think that God has forsaken you, are you? Ah, then, this is the work of
   His Holy Spirit in your soul, making you long after the living God, so
   that there is some sign of Grace even in that discontented moan of
   yours, for it proves that you cannot bear that God should forsake you!
   Now, if you belonged to the world, it would be nothing to you if the
   Lord had forsaken you. If there were no Grace in you, you would not
   care whether God forgot you or not! Indeed, you might almost wish that
   He wouldforget you and not visit you in His wrath. There is, therefore,
   some trace of His hand in your spirit, even now that you say, "Jehovah
   has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me."

   Besides, although the text is a word of complaint, it has also in it a
   word of faith--"myLord." Did you notice that? Zion calls Jehovah hers
   though she dreams that He has forsaken her! I love to see you keep the
   grip of your faith even when it seems to be illogical--even if you
   fancy that the Lord has forgotten and forsaken you! Though you fear
   that it is so, yet you still say, "my Lord," held on to this assurance
   with a death-grip! If you cannot hold on with both hands, hold on with
   one and if, sometimes, you can hold with neither hand, hold on with
   your teeth! Let Job's resolve be yours-- "Though He slay me, yet will I
   trust in Him. Though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my
   flesh shall I see God" "And every scattered grain of this, my dust,
   shall still confide in God." Oh, for the faith that laughs at
   impossibilities, that leaps with joy between the very jaws of death,
   itself, and sings in the very center of the fire! Such a faith as that,
   whatever weakness there may be about it, brings glory to God! So I
   treasure up that little word, "my." There are only two letters in it,
   but they are fraught with untold hope to the man who can use them as
   Zion does here, "my Lord."

   So much for the fear which the text is intended to meet.

   II. Now I come, as God shall help me, to speak concerning THE COMFORT
   BESTOWED. "I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands."

   This assurance is the Lord's answer to Zion's lament, "Jehovah has
   forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me." So take it from God's own
   mouth and never doubt it! God's remembrance of His people as a whole
   and of each individual in particular, has been secured by Him beyond
   all question. "That we might have a strong consolation, who have fled
   for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us," He has said to
   each of us, "'I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands.' I have
   done it and I have done that which will render it utterly impossible
   that I should ever forget one of My people. I the Lord have committed
   Myself to something which will henceforth render it absolutely certain
   that I never can forget My own, for, 'I have engraved you upon the
   palms of My hands.'"

   These words seem to say to us that God has already secured, beyond any
   possible doubt, His tender memory towards all His own. He has done this
   in such a way that forgetfulness can never occur at any moment
   whatever. The memorial is not set up in Heaven, for then you might
   conceive that God could descend and leave that memorial. It is not set
   up in any great public place in the universe, nor is it engraved in a
   signet ring upon God's finger, for that might be taken off. It is not
   written upon the Almighty's clothes--to speak after the manner of
   men--for He might disrobe Himself for conflict.

   But He has put the token of His love where it cannot be laid aside--on
   the palms of His hands. A man cannot leave his hands at home. If he has
   put something, by way of memorial, upon the walls of his house or the
   gates of his home, he may go away and forget it. Or if, as I have said,
   he shall write the memorial upon some precious diamond, or topaz, or
   other jewels which he wears, yet he might lay them aside. But God says,
   "I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands," so that the memorial
   is constantly with Him! Yes, it is in God, Himself, that the memorial
   of His people is fixed.

   I suppose the allusion is to an Oriental custom, possibly not very
   common, but still common enough to have survived to this day. Mr. John
   Anderson, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Helensburgh, who was
   a very dear friend of mine, told me that on one or two occasions, he
   had seen, in the East, men who had the portraits of their friends, and
   others who had the initials of their friends, on the palms of their
   hands. I said to him, "But I suppose that, in time, they would wash off
   or wear out." "No," he said, "they were tattooed too deeply in to be
   removed, so that, whenever they opened their hand, there were the
   familiar initials, or some resemblance to the features of the beloved
   one, to keep him always in remembrance." And the Lord here adopts that
   ancient custom and says, "I cannot forget you. It is impossible for Me
   to do so, for I have engraved you where the memorial can never be apart
   from Myself. 'I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands.'"

   Now, what is it, dear Friends, that makes it so certain that God cannot
   forget His people? Well, first, God remembers His eternal love to His
   people, and His remembrance of them is constant because of that love.
   He says to each believing soul, "I have loved you with an everlasting
   love." The people of God were loved by Him long before the world was
   created--He has loved them too long to ever forget them. "I have loved
   too long," said one man, "to be turned aside by the blandishment of
   another." We cannot imagine anything that could separate us from that
   dear heart to which our heart is knit even with a human love. While
   both of us shall live, the two are, indeed, one. And God has loved us
   more than husbands love their wives, or fathers love their children, or
   brothers love their brothers. His love is like a great ocean of which
   all human love is but a drop of spray! And He has loved us so long, so
   well, so deeply, so unreservedly, that He cannot forget us. Even when
   any of His people wanders from Him and grieves His heart, He says,
   "Yes, but I have loved you with an everlasting love, and I will not
   cast you off. Though all that you now are might tend to wean Me from
   you, yet Mine is not the love of yesterday, it is not a passion like
   that which flames within some men for a brief space and then quickly
   goes out in darkness." It is God's eternal love that makes Him keep us
   in memory! He has engraved us, from all eternity, upon the palms of His
   hands and, therefore, He cannot forget us.

   Next, God's suffering love secures His memory of us. Well did we sing,
   just now--

   "The palms of My hands while I look on I see The wounds I received when
   suffering for thee!" Oh, how deeply the cruel engravers cut our names
   in Christ's dear hands! Those nails that fastened Him to the Cross were
   the engraving tools and He leaned hard while the iron pierced through
   flesh, and nerve and vein. Yet the engraving of which our text speaks
   is more than that, for the Lord Himself says, "I have engraved you upon
   the palms of My hands." The sufferings of Christ for us were such that
   never, by any possibility, can He forget us. Since He has died for us,
   He will never cast us away. By His death, on Calvary's Cross, Christ
   ensured that all those for whom He died shall live with Him in His
   Kingdom as surely as He, Himself, lives. He paid not in vain such a
   tremendous price--neither shall He lose any part of that which He has
   thus purchased for Himself! What a blessed memorial, then, is not only
   God's eternal love, but Christ's suffering love!

   Yet again, by the expression, "I have engraved you upon the palms of My
   hands," God seems to say, "I have done so much for you that I can never
   forget you." God has actively worked for His people in many ways, but I
   will only now mention what His Spirit has worked in you. What a theme
   that is! And, from the fact that the Spirit of God has worked so much
   in us, we derive the satisfaction that He will never forget us. A man
   does not forget the work of His own hands, especially if it is
   something very choice. I remember that, in the siege of Paris, a great
   artist hid away a grand picture which was then but partly finished. Did
   he forget to go to Paris when it had its liberty, and to seek out his
   painting? Assuredly not! He remembered the work of his own hands and
   back he went to draw it out and put the finishing touches to it. So God
   has done too much for us for Him ever to lose us. Has He not created us
   anew in Christ Jesus, and given His Spirit to dwell within us? Then,
   surely, He will never turn away from work so costly, so Divine--but He
   will complete it to His own praise and Glory!

   But, once more, when a memorial is engraved on a man's hand, then it is
   connected with the man's life. While he lives, that memorial is a part
   of his life. So is it with God. He has linked His people with His life.
   Our Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "Because I live, you shall live
   also." The union between your Incarnate God and yourself is a thing
   which is so complete that your life is intertwined with His life!
   Christ and you have become one fabric. To tear you away would be to
   destroy Him. "Your life is hidden with Christ in God" and until Christ
   Himself shall die, His people shall not die. Oh, think of this wondrous
   mystery! The ever-blessed Son of God is bound up in the bundle of life
   with all His people!

   This I take to be the meaning of the Lord's words, "I have engraved you
   upon the palms of My hands." I cannot go deeper into this blessed
   subject, but I pray God to take you deeper, for there is a great depth
   here.

   III. Now, Beloved, I turn to the third head of my discourse, upon which
   I will be very brief. We have had a fear expressed and a comfort
   bestowed. Now, here is AN INSPECTION INVITED. "Behold," says Jehovah,
   "Behold, I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands."

   Come, then. "Behold." Look for yourselves. There is God the Father. Did
   you say that He had forsaken you? But how can that be? Behold, and see.
   He is your Father if you are trusting in His Son, Jesus Christ. Do you
   forget, do you forsake your own children? Tell me! You had a boy who
   well-near broke your heart. He went away and you were sadly glad when
   he went, for he had so grieved you that you thought it better that he
   should be out of sight. But have you forgotten him? Suppose he came
   back tonight? 'Tis years, now, since he left you without your blessing.
   Mother, you have never heard from him. Father, no tidings of your boy
   ever come to you. But if, when you went home tonight, there should be a
   big fellow sitting by the fireside--not your boy any longer, and yet
   your own long lost son--after the first surprise and after you had seen
   that it was your son, tell me, Mother, would you turn him out of doors
   for all his ingratitude to you? Father, what would you do, first of
   all? I know what I would do if it were my case--I would fondly kiss
   that cheek, and bless God that I had lived to see my son again,
   whatever he might have been, and however much he might have grieved me!
   If you, then, being evil, neither forget nor forsake your children,
   will your Father who is in Heaven forget you? Behold, and see if it is
   possible! God the everlasting Father does so intensely love, so
   Infinitely love His own children that it must never be dreamt for a
   moment that it is possible for Him to forget any one of them!

   Come, now, and look again. Behold, by faith, the second Person of the
   Blessed Trinity in Unity, Jesus, the Lamb of God. Look at Him on the
   Cross. Oh, what griefs He bore there for His people! Take down the
   blessed body--(you can scarcely bear to handle it), and help to wrap it
   in its linen cloths, and lay it in the tomb. Why did He suffer thus?
   Why did He die? For His own loved ones! Then, can He ever forget them?
   Is it possible? After all that agony, can Jesus forget? Oh, no! Our
   children may forget us, but the mother remembers how she suffered for
   the child and she loves it for the very pangs she endured in its birth.
   She knows the struggles of her widowhood to find bread for the
   child--how she starved herself to satisfy its hunger. Oh, what agony
   and self-denial some parents have suffered for their children! But
   these make them all the dearer and render it all the more impossible
   that they should ever forget them. Well, then, remembering all this,
   look into the face of your Savior, who died for you, and will you dare
   to say that He can possibly forget you? It cannot be! He has engraved
   you upon the palms of His hands and He will never forget or forsake
   you!

   Then think, also, of that dear and blessed Spirit of God who has come
   into your heart and striven with you when you resisted Him and, at
   last, won the day. And, since then, has helped your infirmities,
   checked your hastiness, awakened you from your sloth and been
   everything to you that He could be--and do you think that, after all
   this, He will ever forget or forsake you? Oh, if He had meant to cast
   you away, He has had many opportunities when He might have done so!
   Surely, He would never have come to dwell in such a hovel as your
   fallen nature is if He had not intended to transform it and make it
   into a pure alabaster palace wherein the living God might dwell!
   "Behold," says the Lord. That is, look into this great Truth of
   God--look deeply into it--and then say to yourself, "My fears of being
   forgotten or forsaken are all gone, for I am engraved upon the palms of
   His hands."

   IV. So I close by referring very briefly to the last point, which is
   this, A RETURN SUGGESTED. I want, Brothers and Sisters, to speak in a
   very homely and familiar way to each one of you and, at the same time,
   to

   be speaking to myself as well as to you.

   Does Christ remember us as I have tried to prove that He does? Then,
   let us remember Him. To that end He ordained that blessed Supper to
   which many of us are presently coming--the eating of the bread and the
   drinking of the cup in memory of Him. "This do you in remembrance of
   Me." Now try to forget everything but your Lord and Savior. Pass an

   act of oblivion on all your cares, troubles and sorrows--and only look
   at Him as though, like a mysterious stranger, He stood at the pew door
   and leaned over you, and you seemed to feel His shadow falling upon
   you. Now think of Him, for He is very near you, and you are very near
   to Him.

   And, Brothers and Sisters, let us not only remember Him at His Table,
   but let us remember Him constantly. Let us, as it were, carry His name
   upon the palms of ourhands. Let us ask God to help us always to think
   of Jesus--never to forget Him, but to have the memory of Him
   intertwined with our very breathing, with the pulsing of our
   blood--till our whole nature, like a bell, shall ring out but one note,
   and that shall be love to Jesus! And our heart shall be like
   Ana-creon's harp, of which he said that he wished to sing of the deeds
   of Cadmus, but his heart and his harp resounded only love. Oh, for the
   love of Christ to be the one all-engrossing, all-absorbing theme of our
   entire being, till we truly say to Christ, "I have engraved You upon
   the palms of my hands."

   And, Brothers and Sisters, let us remember Christ practically. We ought
   so to wear Christ on our hands that whatever we touch should be thereby
   Christianized. I have heard of the "christening" of babies--that is an
   idle superstition and a perversion of Christ's ordinance of Believers'
   Baptism--but I believe in the Christening of everything a Christian
   touches! Make it all Christ-like by doing everything in the name of the
   Lord Jesus, as the Apostle Paul says, "Whether therefore you eat, or
   drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Thus engrave
   His name upon the palms of your hands.

   And, so Brothers and Sisters, let the name of Christ and your memory of
   it become vital to you. Not with a broad phylactery, not with the
   borders of your garments enlarged, not with outward signs and tokens of
   which some think a good deal too much in these days--for true religion
   consists not in a dress of this cut or that, nor does it lie in
   boasting, like Pharisees, what we are, sounding our own praise at the
   corners of the streets that all may know it and observe! True religion
   lies in this--that we cannot live without Christ, that our ordinary
   life becomes uplifted by the Christ who dwells within us till every
   meal is a sacrament, every garment is a vestment, every place is an
   altar, and the whole world a temple in which we are kings and priests
   because God has made us so! Unto this may we each of us come, and come
   now!

   If any of you have not yet believed in Jesus, oh, how I wish you would!
   As I am going away for a while, I shall not be able to speak personally
   to you for some time to come, but I hope that those whom my voice has
   failed to influence, may be reached by some other servant of the Lord
   Jesus Christ who shall occupy this pulpit to speak to you in my
   absence. Oh, that you all knew my Lord! There is none like Him! His
   bonds are freedom! His service is rest! To die for Him is life! To live
   for Him is Heaven! God bring you to Him and fasten you to Him forever!
   Amen, and Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN14:1-21.

   We have often read this chapter, both in our private meditations and at
   our public worship, but we cannot read it too often. It is sweet as
   honey and the honeycomb. It contains the very quintessence of
   consolation. Every word in the chapter is rich and full of meaning.
   Perhaps they understand it best who cannot read it quickly, but are
   obliged to spell over every word of it and so are like those who feast
   upon marrow and fatness.

   Verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe
   also in Me. That is the cure for heart-trouble, and all other trouble,
   too--believing in God, and believing in His Son, Jesus Christ. Faith is
   the double cure of trouble, for it delivers us altogether from the
   trouble and, at the same time, it helps us to find sweetness in it as
   long as we have to endure it. Notice that our Savior says, "Let not
   your heartbe troubled." If your heart can be preserved from trouble,
   you will not be greatly tried by it. Trouble is in your house, perhaps,
   but, if so, let it not get into your heart. The waves beat all round
   your vessel, but let not the vessel itself leak and take in the water.
   "Let not your heart be troubled."

   2. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would
   have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. This was very largely
   the cause of their trouble--they were full of sorrow because their Lord
   and Master was going away from them. Yet He was going for their good.
   It was with a set purpose that He was leaving them, and the same reason
   still keeps Him away from us. We are not to mourn for Him as we might
   for one slain in battle who would never come back to us. He has gone
   for a little while to another country, to the great Father's House,
   upon a most gracious and nec-

   essary errand--"I go to prepare a place for you." The Spirit of God is
   down here to prepare us for the place--the Son of God is up yonder to
   prepare the place for us!

   3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
   receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. Do not
   tell us about a "purgatory" for Christ's people, a limbo in which they
   are to be awhile to be prepared to share His Glory. No, He will come at
   the right time and take them to be where He is, and they shall have the
   very place that Jesus has! "I will come again, and receive you unto
   Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." Do you need a better
   rest than that after all your work and warfare here below? Does not
   this prospect cheer you while you are journeying down the hill of life?
   It is better on ahead.

   4. And where 1 go you know, and the way you know. "You know that I am
   going to the Father, and you know that I am, Myself, the Way to the
   Father; I am going from where I came."

   5. 6. Thomas said unto Him, Lord, we knownot where You go; and how can
   we know the way? Jesus said unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the
   Life. "I am all that you need on your Way to Heaven--the Truth that
   will make Heaven for you--and the Life which you will enjoy with Me
   forever in Heaven. I give you all that while you are yet here

   below."

   6. No man comes unto the Father, but by Me. There is no getting to God
   except through Christ. Those who say that we can go to Heaven without a
   Mediator know not what they say, or say what they know to be a lie!
   There can be no acceptable approach to the Father except by Jesus
   Christ the Son!

   7. If you had known Me, you should have known My Father also. For
   Christ is also "the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father." All the
   Character of God is seen in the Christ of God, and he who truly comes
   to Christ has really come to the Father.

   7. And from henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him. I hope that
   this may be said of many of us, that we do truly know God and, since we
   have seen Christ by faith, we have seen the Father also.

   8. Philip said unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us.
   What a comfort these questions and blunders of Thomas and Philip ought
   to be to us, for it is clear that we are not the only dolts in Christ's
   school! And if He could bear with them, He can bear with us also. Like
   they, how little do we retain of that which He teaches us! We are
   taught much, but we learn little, for we are such poor scholars. Our
   memory holds but little and our understanding still less of what we
   have been taught, and we are all too apt to want something that we can
   see, just as Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices
   us."

   9-11. Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long a time with you, and yet
   have you not known Me, Philip? He that has seen Me has seen the Father;
   and why do you say, then, Show us the Father? Don't you believe that I
   am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto
   you, I speak not of Myself but the Father that dwells in Me, He does
   the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or
   else believe Me for the very works' sake. Note how the Master continued
   to urge His disciples to believe. Again and again He returned to that
   vital point--"Do you believe?".. .believe Me.. .believe Me." This He
   did because there is no relief from heart-trouble but by believing the
   everlasting Truth of God and especially by believing Him who is "the
   Truth." The Believer, alone, has true peace of heart. The unbeliever is
   tossed to and fro on the billows of the great ocean of doubt--how can
   he rest? There is nothing for him to rest upon. Happily, Christ is
   still saying, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest," and they are
   truly wise who accept His gracious invitation!

   12. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on Me, the works
   that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do;
   because I go unto My Father When Christ had gone back to the Father, He
   opened all Heaven's treasures for His people. He bestowed the Spirit of
   all Grace, and so His servants were helped to do even greater works
   than He, Himself, did while He was upon the earth. We cannot add
   anything to His Atonement--that work must forever stand as complete and
   unique--but there are other forms of service in which He engaged in His
   earthly ministry, in which His servants have gone far beyond Him. The
   Lord Jesus Christ never preached a sermon after which 3,000 were
   converted and baptized in one day. To a large extent He kept His
   personal ministry within the bounds of Palestine, but, after His
   Resurrection, when the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, then, in the
   power of the Spirit, greater works than His were worked the wide world
   over!

   13, 14. And whatever you shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the
   Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in My
   name, I will do it. Is that promise true to every man? Certainly not!
   It was made by Christ to His own disciples and not absolutely to all of
   them, but only to them as they believe in Him, as they are filled with
   His Spirit, and as they keep His commandments. There are some of God's
   children who have little power with Him in prayer--some who walk so
   disorderly that since they do not listen to God's Words, He will not
   listen to theirs. Yet He will give them necessities as you give even to
   your naughty and disobedient children. But He will not give them the
   luxury of prevailing prayer and that full fellowship with Him which
   comes through abiding in Him. Such luxuries He saves for His obedient
   children who are filled with His Spirit. Even under the old
   dispensation, David wrote, "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." And
   in a very special sense, under the new dispensation, that spirituality
   of mind which enables us to delight in God is a necessary antecedent to
   our obtaining the desires of our heart in the high and spiritual sphere
   of prayer.

   15-17. If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the
   Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with
   you forever; even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive,
   because it sees Him not, neither knows Him. The world is carnal. It is
   unspiritual. Therefore, it is unable to see or to know the Spirit of
   God. A man outside a spiritual nature cannot recognize the Holy
   Spirit--he must be born again before he can do so. You who are only
   soul and body need to receive that third and loftier principle--the
   spirit which is worked in us by the Spirit of God! Until you have it,
   this verse applies to you--"The Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot
   receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him."

   17. But you know Him. Christ's own disciples know Him.

   17-19. For He dwells with you, andshall be in you. I will not leave you
   comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world sees
   Me no more; but you see Me: because I live, you shall live also. Oh,
   what a rich promise! How, then, can Christ's people ever perish? Until
   Christ Himself perishes, no child of His can ever be lost!

   20. At that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me,
   and I in you. Three wondrous mysteries of union--Christ in the Father,
   the Church in Christ, and Christ in His Church.

   21. He that has My commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves
   Me: and he that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love
   him, and will manifest Myself to him. May we be such lovers of Christ
   that He may love us and manifest Himself to us, for His name's sake!
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Christ Crucified

   (No. 2673)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 6, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, EARLY IN
   THE YEAR 1858.

   "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ
   and Him crucified." 1 Corinthians 2:2.

   CORINTH was situated in the midst of a people who admired eloquence and
   wisdom. This Epistle was written in the age of orators and
   philosophers. The Apostle Paul was a man of profound learning--he had
   been educated at the feet of Gamaliel in all the wisdom of the East. We
   are quite sure he was a man of a very capacious mind, for, although his
   writings were inspired by the Holy Spirit, yet the Holy Spirit chose as
   His instrument a man evidently possessing the capacity for strong and
   vigorous thought and argument and, as for his oratorical powers, I
   believe that if he had chosen to cultivate them, they would have been
   of the very first order, for we have in some of his Epistles eloquence
   more sublime than ever fell from the lips of Cicero or Demosthenes.

   The temptation would exist, in the mind of any ordinary man entering
   into such a city as Corinth, to say within himself, "I will endeavor to
   excel in all the graces of oratory. I have a blessed Gospel to preach
   that is worthy of the highest talents that ever can be consecrated to
   it. I am," Paul might have said to himself, "largely gifted in the
   matter of eloquence. I must now endeavor to carefully polish my periods
   and so to fashion my address as to excel all the orators who now
   attract the Corinthians to listen to them. This I may do very laudably,
   for I will still keep in view my intention of preaching Jesus
   Christ--and I will preach Jesus Christ with such a flow of noble
   language that I shall be able to win my audience to consider the
   subject."

   But the Apostle resolved to do no such thing. "No," he said, "before I
   enter the gates of Corinth, this is my firm determination--if any good
   is to be done there, if any are led to believe in Christ the Messiah,
   their belief shall be the result of hearing the Gospel--not of my
   eloquence! It shall never be said, 'Oh, no wonder that Christianity
   spreads, see what an able advocate it has.' Rather, it shall be said,
   'How mighty must be the Grace of God which has convinced these persons
   by such simple preaching, and brought them to know the Lord Jesus
   Christ by such humble instrumentality as that of the Apostle Paul!'" He
   resolved to put a curb upon his fiery tongue. He determined that he
   would be slow in speech in the midst of them and, instead of magnifying
   himself, he would magnify his office and magnify the Grace of God by
   denying himself the full use of those powers which, had they been
   dedicated to God--as indeed they were, but had they been fully
   employed, as some would have used them--might have achieved for him the
   reputation of being the most eloquent preacher upon the face of the
   earth!

   Again, he might have said, "These philosophers are very wise men. If I
   would be a match for them, I must be very wise, too. These Corinthians
   are a very noble race of people--they have, for a long time, been under
   the tutorage of these talented men. I must speak as they speak, in
   enigmas and with many sophisms. I must always be propounding some dark
   problem. I need not live in the tub of Diogenes, but if I take his
   lantern, I may do something with it. I must try and borrow some of his
   wisdom. I have a profound philosophy to preach to these clever people
   and if I liked to preach that philosophy, I should dash in pieces all
   their theories concerning mental and moral science. I have found out a
   wondrous secret and I might stand in the midst of the market and cry,
   'Eureka, Eureka, I have found it!' But I do not care to build my Gospel
   upon the foundation of human wisdom. No, if any are brought to believe
   in Christ, it shall be from the simple

   unadorned Gospel, plainly preached in unpolished language. The faith of
   my hearers, if they are converted to God, shall not stand in the wisdom
   of men, but in the power of God."

   Can you not see, dear Friends, that the Apostle had very good reasons
   for coming to this determination? When a man says that he is determined
   to do a certain thing, it looks as if he knew that it was a difficult
   thing to do. So, I think it must have been a hard thing for the Apostle
   to determine to keep to this one subject--"Jesus Christ and Him
   crucified." I am sure that nine-tenths of the ministers of this age
   could not have done it. Fancy Paul going through the streets of Corinth
   and hearing a philosopher explain the current theory of creation. He is
   telling the people something about the world springing out of certain
   things that previously existed and the Apostle Paul thinks, "I could
   easily correct that man's mistakes. I could tell him that the Lord
   created all things in six days and rested on the seventh, and show him
   in the Book of Genesis the Inspired account of the creation. But, no,"
   he says to himself, "I have a more important message than that to
   deliver." Still, he must have felt as if he would have liked to set him
   right, for, you know, when you hear a man uttering a gross lie, you
   feel as if you would like to go in and do battle with him. But instead
   of that, the Apostle just thinks, "It is not my business to set the
   people right about their theory of the creation of the world. All that
   I have to do is to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified."

   Besides, in Corinth, there was now and then sure to be a political
   struggle, and I have no doubt that the Apostle Paul felt for his
   people, the Jews, and he would have liked to see all his Jewish kindred
   have the privilege of citizenship. Sometimes the Corinthians would hold
   a public meeting in which they would support the opinion that the Jews
   ought not to have citizenship in Corinth--might not the Apostle have
   made a speech at such a gathering? If he had been asked to do so, he
   would have said, "I know nothing about such matters! All I know is
   Jesus Christ and Him crucified." They had political lectures, no doubt,
   in Corinth, and one man delivered a lecture upon this subject, and
   another upon that. In fact, all kinds of wonderful themes taken from
   the ancient poets were descanted upon by different men. Did not the
   Apostle Paul take one of the lectures? Did he not say, "I may throw a
   little Gospel into it and so do some good ?" No, he said, "I come here
   as Christ's minister and I will never be anything else but Christ's
   minister. I will never address the Corinthians in any other character
   than that of Christ's ambassador. For one thing, only, have I
   determined to know, and that is Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Would
   to God that all the ministers of this age had determined to do the
   same!

   Do you not sometimes find a minister who takes a prominent part in an
   election, who thinks it his business to stand forth on the political
   platform of the nation? And did it ever strike you that he was out of
   his place, that it was his business to know nothing among men except
   Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Do we not see, at every corner of our
   streets, a lecture advertised to be delivered on this and that and the
   other subject, by this minister and that, who leave their pulpits in
   order that they may be enabled to deliver lectures upon all kinds of
   subjects? "No," Paul would have said, "if I cannot spread the Gospel of
   Christ legitimately, by preaching it openly, I will not do it by taking
   an absurd title for my sermon! The Gospel shall stand or fall on its
   own merits, and with no enticing words of man's wisdom will I preach
   it. Let anyone say to me, 'Come and give able advocacy for this or that
   reform,' and my answer would be, 'I do not know anything about that
   subject, for I have determined not to know anything among you except
   Jesus Christ and Him crucified.'"

   As Albert Barnes very well says, "This should be the resolution of
   every minister of the Gospel. This is his business-- not to be a
   politician; not to engage in the strifes and controversies of men; not
   to be merely a good farmer, or scholar; not to mingle with his people
   in festive circles and enjoyments; not to be a man of taste and
   philosophy or distinguished mainly for refinement of manners; not to be
   a profound philosopher or metaphysician, but to make Christ crucified
   the grand Object of his attention and to seek always and everywhere to
   make Him known. He is not to be ashamed anywhere of the humbling
   doctrine that Christ was crucified. In this, he is to glory! Though the
   world may ridicule, though philosophers may sneer, though the rich and
   the gay may deride it, yet this is to be the grand object of interest
   to him and at no time, and in no society, is to be ashamed of it!

   "It matters not what are the amusements of society around him--what
   fields of science, or gain, or ambition, are open before him--the
   minister of Christ is to know only Christ and Him crucified. If he
   cultivates science, it is to be that he may the more successfully
   explain and vindicate the Gospel. If he becomes in any manner familiar
   with the works of art and of taste, it is that he may more successfully
   show to those who cultivate them the superior beauty and excellence of
   the Cross. If he studies the plans and the employments of men, it is
   that he may more successfully meet them in those plans and more
   successfully speak to them of the great plan of redemption! The
   preaching of the Cross is the only kind of

   preaching that will be attended with success! That which has in it much
   respecting the Divine mission, the dignity, the works, the Doctrines,
   the Person and the Atonement of Christ will be successful.

   "So it was in the time of the Apostles! So it was in the Reformation!
   So it was in the Moravian missions! So it has been in all revivals of
   religion! There is a power about that kind of preaching which
   philosophy and human reason have not. 'Christ is God's great ordinance'
   for the salvation of the world and we meet the crimes and alleviate the
   woes of the world just in proportion as we hold the Cross up as
   appointed to overcome the one and to pour the balm of consolation into
   the other."

   Would that all ministers would keep this mind, that they would do
   nothing outside the office of the ministry, that to once be a minister
   is to be a minister forever and never to be a politician, never to be a
   lecturer! That to once be a preacher is to be a preacher of Christ's
   holy Gospel until Christ takes us to Himself to begin to sing the new
   song before the Throne of God!

   Now, Brothers and Sisters, I have discharged my duty in saying these
   things. If they apply to any ministers whom you admire, I cannot help
   it. There is the text and what do we learn from it but this, that the
   Apostle Paul determined to do everything as a minister of Christ! And,
   my dear Brothers and Sisters, it is your duty to do this as hearers. As
   Christians, it is your duty and privilege to know nothing but Jesus
   Christ and Him crucified!

   I. And first, with regard to THE DOCTRINES WHICH YOU BELIEVE, I beseech
   you, do not know anything except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

   You are told by one person that such-and-such a system of theology is
   based upon the most sound principles of reason. You are told by another
   that the old doctrines which you have believed are not consistent with
   these advanced times. You will now and then be met by smart young
   gentlemen who will tell you that to be what is called a Calvinist is to
   be a long way behind this progressive age, "for you know," they say,
   "that intellectual preachers are rising up and that it would be well if
   you would become a little more intellectual in the matter of preaching
   and hearing." When such a remark as that is made to any one of you, I
   beseech you to give this answer, "I know nothing but Jesus Christ and
   Him crucified. If you can tell me more about Christ than I know, I will
   thank you. If you can instruct me as to how I may become more like
   Christ, how I may live nearer in fellowship with Him, how my faith in
   Him may become stronger and my belief in His holy Gospel may become
   more firm, then I will thank you. But if you have nothing to tell me
   except some intellectual lore which you have with great pains
   accumulated, I will tell you that although it may be a very good thing
   for you to preach, and for others who are intellectual to hear, I do
   not belong to your class, nor do I wish to belong to it--I belong to
   that sect spoken against everywhere, who after the way that men call
   heresy worship the Lord God of their fathers--believing all things that
   are written in the Law and in the Prophets. I belong to a race of
   people who believe that it is not the pride of intellect, nor the pomp
   of knowledge that can ever teach men spiritual things. I belong to
   those who think that out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God has
   ordained strength, and I do not believe that out of your mouth God has
   ordained any strength at all! I belong to the men who like to sit, with
   Mary, at the feet of Jesus, and to receive just what Christ said, as
   Christ said it, and because Christ said it. I want no truth but what He
   says is the Truth of God, and no other ground for believing it but that
   He says it, and no better proof that it is true than that I feel and
   know it to be true as applied to my own heart."

   Now, dear Friend, if you can do that, I will trust you anywhere--even
   among the wisest heretics of the age! You may go where false doctrines
   are rife, but you will never catch the plague of heresy while you have
   this golden preservative of the Truth of God and can say, "I know
   nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified." As for myself, I can truly
   say that Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the sum of all knowledge to
   me. He is the highest intellectualism! He is the grandest philosophy to
   which my mind can attain! He is the pinnacle that rises loftier than my
   highest aspirations and deeper than this great Truth of God I wish
   never to fathom! Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the sum total of all
   I want to know and of all the Doctrines which I profess and preach!

   II. Next, it must be just the same in YOUR EXPERIENCE. Brothers and
   Sisters, I beseech you, in your experience know nothing except Jesus
   Christ and Him crucified.

   You may go out tomorrow not merely into the outside world, but into the
   church, the nominal church, and you will meet with a class of persons
   who take you by the ear and who invite you into their houses. And the
   moment you are there, they begin to talk to you about the Doctrines of
   the Gospel. They say nothing about Christ Jesus, but they begin at once

   to talk of the eternal decrees of God, of election and of the high
   mysteries of the Covenant of Grace. While they are talking to you, you
   say in your hearts, "What they are saying is true, but there is one
   lamentable defect in it all--their teaching is the truth apart from
   Christ." Conscience whispers, "The election that I believe is election
   in Christ. These men do not talk anything about that, but only of
   election. The redemption that I believe always has a very special
   reference to the Cross of Christ. These men do not mention Christ--they
   talk of redemption as a commercial transaction and say nothing about
   Jesus. With regard to final perseverance, I believe all that these men
   say, but I have been taught that the saints only persevere in
   consequence of their relation to Christ--these men say nothing about
   that." This minister, they say, is not sound, and that other minister
   is not sound, and let me tell you that if you get among this class of
   persons, you will learn to rue the day that you ever looked them in the
   face!

   If you must come into contact with them, I beseech you to say to them,
   "I love all truths that you hold, but my love of them can never
   overpower and supersede my love to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
   I tell you plainly, while I could not sit to hear erroneous doctrine, I
   could just as soon do that as sit to hear the truthful doctrine apart
   from the Lord Jesus Christ! I could not go to a place where I saw a man
   dressed in gorgeous robes, who pretended to be Christ, and was not.
   And, on the other hand, I could not go to a place where I saw Christ's
   real robes, but the Master, Himself, was absent--what I need is not His
   robe--I need the Master, Himself. And if you preach to me dry doctrine
   without Jesus Christ, I tell you it will not suit my experience, for my
   experience is just this--that while I know my election, I can never
   know it unless I know my union with the Lamb. I tell you plainly that I
   know I am redeemed, but I cannot bear think of redemption without
   thinking of the Savior who redeemed me. It is my boast that I shall
   endure to the end, but I know--each hour makes me know--that my
   endurance depends upon my standing in Christ. I must have that Truth
   preached in connection with the Cross of Christ."

   Oh, have nothing to do with these people, unless it is to set them
   right, for you will find that they are full of the gall of bitterness
   and the poison of asps is under their tongue! Instead of giving you
   things whereon your soul can feed, they will make you full of all
   manner of bitterness, malice and evil speaking against those who truly
   love the Lord Jesus, but who differ from them in some slight matter.

   You may meet with another class of persons who will take you by the
   other ear, and say to you, "We, too, love Christ's doctrines, but we
   believe that our friends on the other side of the road are wrong. They
   do not preach enough experience." And you say, "Well, I think I have
   got among the people who will suit me, now," and you hear the minister
   insisting that the most precious experience in the world is to know
   your own corruption, to feel the evil of the human heart, to have that
   filthy dunghill turned over and over in all its reeking noisomeness and
   exposed before the sun! And after hearing the sermon, which is full of
   pretended humility, you rise from your seats more proud than you ever
   were in your lives, determined now that you will begin to glory in that
   very thing which you once counted as dross! The things which you were
   ashamed, once, to speak of, you now think should be your boast! That
   deep experience which was your disgrace shall now become the crown of
   your rejoicing! You speak to the dear Brothers and Sisters who imbibe
   this view and they tell you to seek first, not the Kingdom of God and
   His righteousness, but the hidden things of the prison, the discovery
   of the unrighteousness and unholiness of the soul.

   my dear Friends, if you wish to have your lives made miserable! If you
   want to be led back to the bondage of Egypt. If you want to have
   Pharaoh's rope put round your necks once again, take their motto for
   your motto. But if you wish to live as I believe Christ would have you
   live, I would entreat you to say, "No, it does me good, sometimes, to
   hear of the evil heart, but I have made a determination to know nothing
   but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and you do not tell me anything
   about Him." These men preach one Sunday upon the leper, but do they
   preach, the next Sunday, upon the leper healed! These men tell all
   about the filthy state of the human heart, but they say little or
   nothing about that river that is to cleanse and purify it! They say
   much about the disease, but not so much about the Physician! And if you
   attend their ministry very long, you will be obliged to say, "I shall
   get into such a doleful condition that I shall be tempted to imitate
   Judas and go out and hang myself! So, good morning to you, for I have
   determined to know nothing in my experience but Jesus Christ and Him
   crucified."

   1 must be very earnest in trying to warn you about this matter, for
   there is a growing tendency, among a certain order of professing
   Christians, to set up something in experience beside Jesus Christ and
   Him crucified. Tell me that your experience is all concerned with the
   Lord Jesus Christ, and I will rejoice in it. The more of Christ there
   is in it, the more

   precious it is. Tell me that your experience is full of the knowledge
   of your own corruptions, and I answer, "If there is not in it a mixture
   of the knowledge of Christ, and unless the knowledge of Christ
   predominates to a large degree, your experience is wood, hay and
   stubble and must be consumed--and you must suffer loss."

   By the way, let me tell you a little story about Bunyan's Pilgrim's
   Progress. I am a great lover of John Bunyan, but I do not believe him
   Infallible. The other day I met with a story about him which I think a
   very good one. There was a young man in Edinburgh who wished to be a
   missionary. He was a wise young man. So he thought, "If I am to be a
   missionary, there is no need for me to transport myself far away from
   home. I may as well be a missionary in Edinburgh." There's a hint to
   some of you ladies who give away tracts in your district, but never
   give your servant Mary one. Well, this young man started and he was
   determined to speak to the first person he met. He met one of those old
   fishwives-- those of us who have seen them can never forget them--they
   are extraordinary women, indeed! So, stepping up to her, he said, "Here
   you are, coming along with your burden on your back. Let me ask you if
   you have got another burden, a spiritual burden." "What?" she asked.
   "Do you mean that burden in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress? Because
   if you do, young man, I got rid of that many years ago, probably before
   you were born.

   "But I went a better way to work than the pilgrim did. The evangelist
   that John Bunyan talks about was one of your parsons that do not preach
   the Gospel, for he said, 'Keep that light in your eye and run to the
   wicket-gate.' Why, man alive! That was not the place for him to run to!
   He should have said, 'Do you see that Cross? Run there at once!' But,
   instead of that, he sent the poor pilgrim to the wicket-gate first--and
   much good he got by going there! He got tumbling into the slough and
   was like to have been killed by it."

   "But did not you," the young man asked, "go through any Slough of
   Despond?" "Yes, I did. But I found it a great deal easier going through
   with my burden off than with it on my back." The old woman was quite
   right! John Bunyan put the getting rid of the burden too far off from
   the commencement of the pilgrimage. If he meant to show what usually
   happens, he was right, but if he meant to show what ought to have
   happened, he was wrong. We must not say to the sinner, "Now, Sinner, if
   you will be saved, go to the baptismal pool, go to the wicket-gate, go
   to the church--do this or that." No, the Cross should be right in front
   of the wicket-gate and we should say to the sinner, "Throw yourself
   down there and you are safe. But you are not safe till you can cast off
   your burden and lie at the foot of the Cross and find peace in Jesus."

   III. Let me conclude by saying, Brothers and Sisters, determine, from
   this hour, that IN YOUR FAITH you will know nothing but Jesus and Him
   crucified.

   I am perfectly certain that I have not a grain of my own merit to trust
   in and not so much as an atom of creature strength to rely upon, but I
   often find myself, during the seven days of the week, relying upon
   merit of my own that does not exist, and depending upon strength of my
   own which I, at the same time, confess has no existence at all. You and
   I often call the "Pope," the antichrist, but do we not, ourselves,
   often play the antichrist, too? The "Pope" sets himself as the head of
   the Church, but do not we go further by setting ourselves up,
   sometimes, to be our own saviors? We do not say so, except in a sort of
   still small voice, like the mutterings of the old wizards. It is not a
   loud, out-spoken lie, because we would know, then, how to answer it.
   "But now," whispers the devil, "how well you did that!" And then we
   begin to rely upon our works, and Satan says, "You prayed so well
   yesterday, you will never be cold in your prayers again. And you will
   be so strong in your faith that you will never doubt your God again."

   It is the old golden calf that is set up once more, for, although it
   was ground to powder, it seems to have the art of coming together
   again! After we have been told, ten times over, that we cannot have any
   merit of our own, we begin to act as if we had! And the man who tells
   you, in his doctrine, that all his fresh springs are in Christ, yet
   thinks and acts just as if he had fresh springs of his own--he mourns
   as if all his dependence were upon himself and groans as if his
   salvation depended upon his own merits! We often get to talking, in our
   own souls, as if we did not believe the Gospel at all, but were hoping
   to be saved by our own works and our own creature performances. Oh, for
   a stronger determination to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him
   crucified! I would to God that I could make that resolution, myself,
   and that you would all make it with me!

   I heard once of a countryman who was preaching, one day, and he
   preached very nicely the first half of his sermon, but towards the end
   he entirely broke down and his brother said to him, "Tom, I can tell
   you why you did not preach well at the end of your sermon. It was
   because you got on so nicely at first that devil whispered, 'Well done,
   Tom, you are

   getting on very well.' And as soon as the devil said that, you thought,
   'Tom is a very fine fellow,' and then the Lord left you." Happy would
   it have been for Tom if he could have determined to know nothing but
   Jesus Christ and Him cruci-fied--and not to have known Tom at all!

   That is what I desire to know myself, for if I know nothing but the
   power which comes from on high. I can never be less powerful at one
   time than at another and I can glory in my infirmity because it makes
   room for Christ's power to rest upon me--

   "I glory in infirmity,

   That Christ's own power may rest on me: When I am weak, then am I
   strong, Grace is my shield, and Christ my song."

   It would be a good resolution for you, Brothers, and for myself, to
   determine to know nothing about ourselves and nothing about our own
   doings. Now friend John, begin to think nothing about yourself and to
   know nothing but Jesus Christ. Let John go where he likes and be you
   relying not upon John's strength, but upon Christ's. And you, Peter,
   know nothing about Peter at all, and do not boast, "Though all men
   should deny You, yet will I never deny You," but know that Peter's Lord
   Jesus is living inside Peter--and then you may go on comfortably
   enough.

   Determine, Christian, that, by the Grace of God, it shall be your
   endeavor to keep your eye single, to keep your faith fixed only on the
   Lord Jesus, without any addition of your own works, or your own
   strength--and determining that-- you may go on your way rejoicing,
   singing of the Cross of Christ as your boast, your glory and your all!
   We are now coming to the Table of our Master, and I hope that this will
   be our determination there--to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him
   crucified. And may the Lord give us His blessing! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Psalm 22.

   This Psalm is headed, "To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar"--or,
   as the margin renders it, "the hind of the morning"--"A Psalm of
   David." It begins in the very depths of the Master's sorrow, when this
   great and bitter cry escaped His lips--

   Verse 1. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?Every word is
   emphatic. "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" "All others may
   forsake Me, and I need not be greatly troubled at their absence, but
   'why have You forsaken Me?'" "Why have You forsaken Me?' I understand
   why You smite Me, for I am the Shepherd predestined to be smitten for
   the flock, but 'why have You forsaken Me?'" "Why have you forsaken
   Me?--Your only-begotten, Your well-beloved Son--'why have You forsaken
   Me?'"

   1. Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My
   roaring?1 'Why have I no inflowing of Your love--no enjoyment of Your
   Presence--no whispers from Your heart? I am left alone--left
   utterly--left on the Cross--left in My direst need." God's adapted
   children do not usually talk like this. Such a lament as this has not
   often come even from the martyrs for the faith, for, as a rule, they
   have had God with them in their hour of deepest agony. But here was One
   who was far greater than they, who had to yet endure suffering from
   which they were exempted--the only perfect One was forsaken by God! You
   know that if was because He stood in our place that the Savior had this
   preeminence in suffering and sorrow.

   2. O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You hear not; and in the night
   season, and am not silent Think of what a weight that unanswered prayer
   was upon the soul of the Well-Beloved. Have you ever felt such a burden
   as that? Then, you are not alone in that experience, for He who is
   infinitely better than you had to think over His day prayers and His
   night prayers which, for a while, were not answered.

   3. But You are holy, O You that inhabits thepraises ofIsrael. Follow
   the example of your Lord, poor troubled soul. Find no fault with your
   God, even though He should forsake you. Call Him holy even though He
   should leave you. And when He seems not to hear your prayers, yet do
   not forget His praises.

   4-6. Our fathers trusted in You: they trusted, and You did deliver
   them. They cried unto You, and were delivered: they trusted in You, and
   were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men,
   and despised of the people. Think of our Divine Lord thus taking the
   very lowest place and becoming, as it were, something less than man--

   just that little crimson worm which has simply a life made up of blood.
   Christ likens Himself to it as He says, "I am a worm, and no man."

   7, 8. All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip,
   they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that He would
   deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him. Oh, these
   were cruel and cutting words! Like a sharp razor, they cut to the very
   heart of our Divine Master as He heard His enemies exulting even over
   His faith, as though it had come to nothing, for now Jehovah, Himself,
   had forsaken Him and left Him to die alone upon the tree!

   9, 10. But You are He that took Me out of the womb: You did make Me
   hope when I was upon My mother's breasts. I was cast upon You from the
   womb: You are My God from My mother's belly. Sometimes, we also may
   derive great comfort from this Truth of God to which our Savior here
   refers. When we could not help ourselves in the least degree, the Lord
   preserved us, so will He not again help us when we are at our worst?
   You who have reached your second childhood may reflect with gratitude
   and hope upon the way in which God took care of you in your first
   childhood. Then, you certainly were entirely dependent upon Him, yet
   you fared well and so you shall if each sense shall fail you--if the
   power of moving shall be taken away, and the power of sight, and the
   power of hearing--yet the Lord, who blessed you when you were just
   born, will still preserve you right to the end. You remember how the
   Lord puts this Truth in Isaiah 46:4-- "Even to your old age I am He;
   and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear;
   even I will carry, and will deliver you." Our Savior, having comforted
   Himself thus, falls to praying again.

   11, 12. Be not far from Me; for trouble is near; for there is none to
   help. Many bulls have compassed Me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset
   Me round. These were the Pharisees, the chief priests and the strong
   Roman soldiers that compassed our Savior when He was upon the Cross.

   13, 14. They gaped upon Me with their mouths, as a ravening and a
   roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of
   joint: My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of My bowels.
   Can you not see your Savior hanging on the accursed tree--every
   particle of Him, as it were, loosened from its fellow by the fever
   raging in His whole being and the anguish and deep depression of His
   spirit?

   15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and My tongue cleaves to
   My jaws. Such was the intensity of His anguish that the fever within
   Him turned His mouth into an oven and His tongue was so dried up that
   it could scarcely stir.

   15. And You have brought Me into the dust of death. As if His whole
   body were prepared to go back into its primary elements. He feels in
   Himself the sentence pronounced upon the first Adam, "Dust you are, and
   unto dust shall you return,"

   16. For dogs have compassed Me: the assembly of the wicked have
   enclosed Me. These were the common people, the rabble, the multitude
   that thronged around, barking at Him like a pack of hungry hounds.

   16. They pierced My hands and My feet This little sentence shows that
   this Psalm must relate to the Lord Jesus. Truly did David see Him in
   vision! It happened not to David to have his hands and feet pierced,
   but this was the portion of David's Master and Lord. He could, indeed,
   say, "They pierced My hands and My feet."

   17. I may count all My bones: they look and stare upon Me. He is
   emaciated through His fasting and all the agony He has endured. And His
   bones seem to break through His skin by reason of the cruel scourging
   to which He had been subjected.

   18. 19. They part My garments among them, and cast lots upon My
   vesture. But be not You far from Me, O LORD: O My Strength. That is,
   El--the name He gave to God in the first verse--"O My Strong One."

   19-21. Hasten You to help Me. Deliver My soul from the sword; My
   precious life from the power of the dog. Save Me from the lion's mouth
   and from the horns of the wild oxen. You have heard Me. Did You notice
   that flash of light gleaming through the darkness, "You have heard Me"?
   Perhaps it was at that moment that the sun again shone forth; at any
   rate, it is clear that the lost light had returned to our suffering
   Lord, for the rest of this Divine soliloquy is full of comfort and
   confidence.

   22. I will declare Your name unto My brethren. His first thought, even
   in His agony on the Cross, was about them. And He seemed to say, "When
   I have risen from the dead, I will tell them all about this time of
   trial. And through the ages to come, I will tell My people how You did
   help Me--the greatest of all Sufferers--and that You will help them,

   also. I was left for a time, and yet I was not finally left. I cried,
   'Lama Sabachthani,' and yet I triumphed, even then, and so shall they.
   They shall do as I have done--confide and conquer."

   22. In thee midst of thee congregation will I praise You. And you know
   that He did so. He stood in the midst of His people and told them what
   God had done! And, spiritually, He stands in our midst at this moment
   and He leads our songs of praise unto Jehovah.

   23, 24. You that fear the LORD, praise Him; all you the seed of Jacob,
   glorify Him; and fear Him, all you the seed of Israel For He has not
   despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither has He
   hidden His face from Him; but when He cried unto Him, He heard. What a
   change of note! If men could hear us speak when we are in the depths of
   sorrow, they might conclude that God had forsaken us. But when we get
   out, again, how quickly we eat our words and how soon we begin to tell
   the goodness of the Lord! Then we lift up the joyous strain, "O give
   thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: for His mercy endures forever."

   25. My praise shall be of You in the great congregation: I will pay My
   vows before them that fear Him. Christ still praises God in the great
   congregation. On my way to this evening's service, I called to see one
   of our dear brethren who is very ill, and I was much refreshed with a
   sweet thing that he said--"When we all get to Heaven, we shall feel
   quite at home there, for you know, Sir, we have worshipped in a great
   congregation for these many years." And so we shall. There is something
   most exhilarating and refreshing in going with a multitude to keep holy
   day--the more, the merrier! But what shall be the joy in Heaven, where
   the number of the redeemed cannot be counted, and all shall be
   continually praising God? This was one of the joys that was set before
   Christ, for which "He endured the Cross, despising the shame."

   26. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. Even in the time of His great
   agony, our Lord was thinking of you hidden ones, you little ones who
   think yourselves worth nothing. Christ says that He was finding bread
   for you, for He gives us His flesh to eat, that flesh which is meat,
   indeed.

   26. They shall praise the LORD that seek Him: your heart shall live
   forever. Because He died, all who trust in Him shall live forever. Oh,
   how sweetly does He die, with the thought of their eternal bliss upon
   His mind!

   27. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord:
   and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before You. He sees
   the result of His death. He beholds the fruit of His soul-travail and
   His heart is glad within Him!

   28-31. For the kingdom is the Lord's: and He is the Governor among the
   nations. All they that are fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all
   they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him: and none can keep
   alive his own soul A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the
   Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare His
   righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He has done this.
   The Psalm really ends with almost the last cry of our Lord upon the
   Cross--"It is finished." So the whole Psalm is a window through which
   we can see into the inmost heart of Christ when it was being torn upon
   the Cross.
     __________________________________________________________________

Learning in Private What to Teach in Public

   (No. 2674)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 13, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   DECEMBER 24, 1882.

   "What I tell you in darkness, speak in light: and what you hear in the
   ear, preach on the housetops." Matthew 10:27.

   I HOPE that many who are now present desire, beyond everything else, to
   be useful to their fellow creatures. We do not want to go to Heaven
   alone--we are most anxious to lead others to the Savior! I remember a
   very remarkable telegram which was sent from England by a lady who had
   sailed from New York with all her children. She landed in England after
   being shipwrecked and she sent her husband this brief but suggestive
   telegram, "Saved--alone." Ah, that last sad word seemed as if it took
   almost all the sweetness out of the first one. "Saved alone." May that
   never be what we shall have to say as we enter Heaven, but may we have
   the privilege of saying, "Here am I, Father, and the children whom You
   have given me." May it be my joy to be able to say, "Here am I and all
   my congregation, saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation."

   So we begin with the assurance that all of you who know the Lord want
   to be useful, but, if that is to be the case, preparation is necessary.
   You say that you are going out to battle, young man, do you? Well, do
   not be in such a hurry! You have no rifle or sword--you will be in the
   way of the other soldiers rather than an addition to them. Unless you
   are, first of all, properly trained, you will certainly make a failure
   of your soldiering. The man who jumps into the army is not a warrior
   all at once--there must be drills, there must be a certain course of
   training before he can be of any service to the Queen. So is it with
   Christ's disciples. He did not send them out to preach at once--He
   called them from their former occupations--but He kept them with
   Himself for a time till they had learned at least some of the lessons
   they were to impart to others, for how could they teach what they did
   not know? Can a thing which is not in a man come out of him? And if it
   has never been put into him, how can it be gotten out of him? So our
   Savior, in the words of our text, encouraged His disciples to proclaim,
   even from the housetops, the Gospel which He had revealed to them, but
   He also gave them to understand that, first of all, they had need of
   preparation before they would be qualified to deliver their message.
   "What I tell you in darkness, that speak you in light: and what you
   hear in the ear, that preach you on the housetops."

   I. I want, first, to speak to you who desire to work for Jesus,
   concerning His own definition of AN INVALUABLE PRIVILEGE FOR ALL
   CHRISTIANS--"What I tell you in darkness." "What you hear in the ear."

   From our Lord's words, I learn that it is the great privilege of
   Christians to realize, first, that Christ is still alive and still with
   His people, still conversing with His chosen ones, still, by His Divine
   Spirit, speaking out of His very heart into the hearts of His true
   disciples. Christ was born an Infant, but He is no Infant now. Christ
   died, but He is not dead now. He is risen! He has gone up into His
   Glory! He sits upon the Throne of God, but, at the same time, by a very
   real spiritual Presence, He is with all His people, as He said to His
   disciples, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."
   And there is nothing that can so fit a man for holy service as to have
   Christ's eyes looking into his eyes and reading him through and
   through--and to have Christ's pierced hand laid on his heart till the
   very imprint of its wound is reproduced, filling that heart with a
   loving grief for others!

   "Oh," says one, "I think that I could speak for Christ if that should
   ever be true to me!" Ah, my Friend, you will neverspeak aright until it
   istrue to you! Not with those mortal eyes will you see Him, but your
   heartshall behold Him without any help from those dull eyes. Not with
   your ears shall you hear His voice, but your heart shall attend to His

   message without the use of those poor impediments of ears. You shall
   know that He is with you--you shall be sure of it--for His life shall
   touch your life, His Spirit shall flood your spirit and then, but not
   till then, shall you be fit to speak in His name! That is the first
   part of this invaluable privilege--we are permitted to realize our
   Lord's Presence with us personally.

   Next, we are enabled to feel Christ's Word as spoken to us--"I tell
   you." The message of the Gospel is applied directly and distinctly to
   our own soul by Christ! We do not look for any new Revelation, but we
   do expect the old Revelation to be made known to our hearts and
   consciences in all its wondrous power. We expect that the Words which
   Jesus spoke should ring in our souls with such music as they evoked
   when He first uttered them and that we should, by the working of His
   Spirit, feel the force of those Words just as they did who heard Him
   with their outward ears! And we shall never fully preach the Gospel
   till then. A man may go to Seminary, he may learn all about the letter
   of Scripture, but he is no minister of God if he has not sat at Jesus'
   feet and learned of Him. And when he haslearned of Him and the Truth of
   God has come home to his heart as his own personal possession given to
   him by Christ, then shall he speak with more than mortal power, but not
   till then! Step back into the rear rank, Sir, if Christ has never
   spoken to you thus--and wait there until He has done so. If the Master
   has given you no message, do not run--what is the use of running if you
   have nothing to tell? Do you think that you are to make up your own
   message as you run? Ah, then, you are not Christ's servant, for His
   servant waits until he has heard the message from his Master--and then
   it is both his duty and his privilege to proclaim it just as he has
   heard it! "What I tell you in darkness, that speak you in light: and
   what you hear in the ear"--"I myself whispering it into your ear, that
   you may receive it directly from Me--this it is which you are to go and
   proclaim upon the housetops."

   The text seems to imply that these communications are made to us again
   and again. There are some of us who are called to spend our whole lives
   in our Master's service. And unless we are often alone with Him,
   listening to the message He has for us to deliver, our streams will not
   continue to run. I thank God that during the last few weeks, while I
   have been in the South of France, I have had a blessed period of
   privately hearing the Word afresh from the Master. It has been a
   constant joy and delight to me to meditate again and again upon the
   Truths which I have preached, to feed upon them in my own soul and, in
   quiet communion with God, to be gathering spiritual stores of
   nourishment for you, of which, first of all, I had proved the power and
   preciousness to my own heart. I would earnestly urge all Christian
   workers to be sure to get some time alone for the prayerful study of
   the Word. The more of such time that you can get, the better will it be
   both for yourself and for others. You know that it is impossible for a
   sower of seed to be always scattering, and never gathering--the seed
   basket must be filled again and again, or the sowing must come to an
   end. You cannot keep on distributing bread and fish to the multitude,
   as the disciples did, unless every now and then you go back to the
   Master and say, "My Lord, I need more bread and more fish, for my
   supply is running short. Give me more, that I may give out more."

   Make such occasions as often as you can. I am glad to see so many of
   you, my young Friends, busy for the Master, but I pray you not to
   forget that it was Mary, who sat at the Master's feet, of whom He said
   that she had chosen that good part which should not be taken away from
   her! It is well to be like Martha, busy on your Lord's behalf, but you
   cannot do without Mary's quiet meditation. You must have the
   contemplation as well as the activity, or else you will do mischief and
   not really honor the Master. Suppose you see a carpenter with a little
   hammer in his hand go round the workshop and gently tap a hundred nails
   on the head? You would rightly say that he has not done any good at
   all! But here is another workman with a good heavy hammer--and when he
   hits a nail, he drives it home--and he does not leave it till he has
   driven it home and clinched it, too. There is a way of seemingto be
   doing a great deal and yet really doing nothing. And there is also a
   way of apparently doing but little, but then it is good solid work,
   thoroughly well done. Nobody can do this solid, permanent work, in a
   spiritual sense, without often getting alone with the Lord Jesus
   Christ.

   Avail yourselves also, dear Friends, of those special opportunities
   which God makes for you to receive His messages. Sometimes He takes one
   of His servants and puts him away for a while. "Be you silent," He
   says, "and I will talk to you." Perhaps the Lord takes away the
   strength, the bodily vigor of His servant. There is the Christian woman
   who longs to be going up and down her district, laid upon a sick bed.
   Or there is the earnest, faithful Sunday school teacher no longer able
   to instruct his class. Yet it is in God's wisdom that the nets are
   sometimes drawn out of the water, that there may be an opportunity to
   mend them--otherwise they would not always take the fish that are ready
   to be caught! It is true

   economy to let the cannon rest till it gets cool, or else there may be
   mischief done to the men who are firing it, instead of to the enemy!
   And all of us need rest, every now and then, if we are to be fitted for
   future service. Above all, we need often to go to Christ, to get from
   His hand a fresh stock of that Gospel provision which we are afterwards
   to dispense to the people in His name. I pray you who are seeking to
   serve the Savior, to take good note of the advice I have been trying to
   give you.

   II. Now, secondly, this going to Christ, to hear the Word directly from
   Him, is itself A MOST BLESSED PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR ALL CHRISTIAN
   WORKERS. Let me show you how it is so.

   First, if you get your message of mercy directly and distinctly from
   the living Christ, you will have the Truth of God in its
   personality--living, acting, feeling, for He is "the way, the truth and
   the life." The message will come to you with power because He uttered
   it and you will, therefore, preach Him as well as it. We do not want a
   misty, cloudy Christ--a sort of impalpable phantom, to comfort us--we
   want a real Christ, God and Man, really among us and really able to
   save unto the uttermost all them that come unto God by Him. So, my dear
   Brother, if you go to Him for your message, you will be sure not to
   forget Him! He will be real to you and your teaching will make Him real
   to other people. Some ministers preach very finely about Christ, but
   that which saves sinners is preaching Christ Himself. He is our
   salvation and we shall never put that salvation in tangible, graspable,
   real form unless we go to Him and get distinctly from Himself the
   message we are to deliver on His behalf.

   By doing this, we shall also have the Truth of God in all its purity.
   You know that when the light of the Gospel shines through me, it takes
   a little tinge of color from me, just as when it shone through Luther,
   there was a Lutheran shade about the Truth. And when it shone through
   John Calvin, there was a Calvinistic tinge. Shining through any man,
   God's light will be tinged to a certain extent, just as it is when
   shining through the very best glass that was ever made. You had better
   get into the sunlight for yourself, so that you may have it in all its
   purity. I am of the mind of that man who said that the milk was so bad
   where he lived that he would move into the country and keep a cow for
   himself. It is just so with the Gospel--there is nothing like going to
   the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, as to the wellhead of doctrine, and
   saying to Him, "Master, what do You teach? What can I learn from You?"
   Our unfailing rule is--What did Jesus say about this or that? How did
   His Spirit speak by the Apostles? It is that living with Christ, from
   day to day, which will give us the Truth of God in all its purity!

   And it will also give us the Truth of God in its due proportions. We
   are, all of us, lopsided in one way or another. I suppose that there is
   not a pair of eyes in this world that is absolutely a pair. There is
   scarcely anything about us that is exactly as it ought to be--we are,
   all of us, somewhat wrong and, therefore, there is no man who teaches
   all the Truth of God in its exact proportions. One man sees the
   responsibility of man and he preaches it. Another sees the Sovereignty
   of God and he preaches that. Cannot we find a Brother who preaches both
   those Truths? Yes, no doubt we can, but, then, that Brother will
   probably fail to see some other Truth of God. If we knew all Truths in
   their right proportions, we would be God rather than man, for we would
   practically possess Omniscience! But to avoid giving undue prominence
   to any one Truth of God and casting another Truth into the shade, the
   best remedy is to get your teaching directly from Christ, Himself. You
   think you see a certain doctrine in the Bible. Well, then, take it to
   Him who gave you the Bible and say, "Blessed Lord Jesus, by Your
   Spirit, teach this doctrine to me. Let me know, by Your teaching, what
   this passage of Scripture means, for I am prepared to receive whatever
   You impart to me."

   If you do this, dear Friends, you will get the Truth of God in its
   personality, in its purity and in its due proportions.

   And, let me add, that you will then get the Truth of God in its power
   When the Truth of God has broken your heart and, afterwards, bound it
   up. When Christ has so spoken it to you that you have felt the power of
   it, then you will speak it as men should speak who are ambassadors for
   God! George Fox was called a Quaker because, when he preached, he often
   trembled and quaked. Was that folly on his part? No, for he had so felt
   the power of what he spoke that his very body was full of emotion while
   he delivered the Truths of God to others. And well may you and I also
   tremble at the Word of the Lord. But, on the other hand, whenever that
   Word comes home with sweetness to the heart, you must often have
   noticed with what sweetness the man proclaims it to others. There is
   nobody who can preach the Gospel like the man who has experienced its
   power! You know that the tale of a tale, the report of a report, is a
   very poor thing--but when a man gets up and says, concerning some
   notable event, "I was there, I saw it all"--then you listen to him. So,
   if you can say of Christ, "He is, indeed, precious, for He is precious
   to me. He can save, for He has saved me. He can com-

   fort, cheer and gladden, for He has done all that to me"--then you
   speak with power to others because Christ has spoken with power to you!

   And there is something more than that. A man who receives the Gospel
   distinctly from Christ will speak the Truth in Christ's spirit Did you
   ever hear a man preach the Gospel in a passion? You wonder at my
   question, yet such a thing has happened. But if you are present on such
   an occasion, you feel sure that the man did not get his message--or, at
   any rate, he did not get his manner--from his Master! The other day I
   saw a man offer a bit of bread to a poor, lean, half-starved dog. The
   animal did not seem to care for bread, so he turned away and, then,
   directly, the man was so angry with the creature because he would not
   have the bread that he threw a stone at it. There is a certain kind of
   preaching that is just like that--the minister seems to say, "You dogs
   of sinners, there is the Gospel for you--will you have it? If you do
   not, I will throw a stone at you!" Well now, neither dogs nor men
   admire that sort of treatment and, certainly, the Lord Jesus Christ
   never intended us to deliver His message in that kind of fashion!

   There are some, I believe, who preach the Doctrines of Grace very much
   as a dog of mine acts with his rug. When I go home tonight, he will
   bring it out and drag it up to my feet just because he wants me to try
   and take it away from him, that he may growl over it. So have I seen
   some people preach the Doctrine of Election and other Truths of God
   like it, as if they wanted some Arminian to try to run away with them,
   or have a fight over them! Now that is not the way which Christ teaches
   us to preach! He never bids us proclaim the Gospel in such a way that
   we seem to want to make an Irish fight over it. No, no, no--go direct
   to Christ for the Truth of God and you will preach it strongly,
   honestly, openly, positively--and you will always preach it with love.

   That is the plan I recommend to you--the system of getting the Gospel
   fresh from the mouth of Jesus--and then delivering it, as far as we
   can, in Jesus Christ's tones and in Jesus Christ's spirit. I can assure
   you, my dear Friends, that we shall never know how Jesus preached till
   we hear Him speak in our hearts and then endeavor to imitate the tone
   of that speech which our inward ears have heard. Oh, to preach Christ
   in a Christly way--to tell of mercy in the spirit of mercy and to
   preach Divine Grace in a truly gracious way!

   Here is the time to say that if you go to Christ for all the Truth of
   God you preach and if you proclaim it in His way, then you will preach
   it with what is called "unction." Do you know what unction is? I do,
   but I cannot tell you. I can tell when a man has notany unction, and I
   can tell when he has, but I do not know exactly how to define and
   describe it, except by saying that it is a special anointing from the
   Spirit of God. There is an old Romish tale of a monk who had been the
   means of converting great numbers of persons, but, on a certain
   occasion, he was detained in his journey and could not reach the
   congregation in time to conduct the service. The devil thought it was a
   fine opportunity for him to speak to the people, so, putting on the
   robe of the monk, he went into the pulpit and preached. According to
   the story, he preached about Hell--a subject with which he was well
   acquainted--and the hearers listened very attentively. Before he
   finished his discourse, the holy man appeared and made the devil
   disclose himself in his proper form. "Get out of here," said he to
   Satan, "but however dared you preach the Truth of God as you were doing
   when I came in?" "Oh," replied Satan, "I did not mind preaching the
   Truth, for there was no unction in it, so I knew that it could not do
   any hurt to my cause." It is a curious legend, but there was a great
   truth at the bottom of it--where there is no unction, it does not
   matter what we preach, or how we preach it!

   One of my friends behind me sometimes says to me, after the service, "I
   believe that God has been blessing the people, for there has been
   plenty of dew about." That is what we need--that holy dew which the
   Spirit of God so graciously bestows! You may preach to one
   congregation, but it is all in vain, for there is no dew about. But, at
   another time, it is sweet preaching and blessed hearing because there
   is plenty of dew about. And the way to get that dew is by coming
   straight out of the Master's Presence, with the Master's message
   ringing in your own ears, to proclaim it as nearly as possible as He
   has told it to you!

   Once more, this preparation for declaring the Truth is very valuable
   because it enables a man to have the Truth of God in its certainty.
   Concerning the Truth of God, questions are continually being raised
   nowadays. Many people ask, with Pilate, "What is truth?" Even preachers
   ask that question. Why do they not hold their tongues until they know?
   Suppose a servant comes to the door to bring you the answer to a
   question which you have sent to her mistress. She begins to talk on all
   sorts of subjects and you say to her, "Do you not know what the reply
   is from your mistress to my enquiry?" She says, "Well, to tell you the
   truth, I have not been to her to know what her reply is, but I am
   making up an

   answer myself." Of course you say to her, "I do not want to hear your
   answer. Go to your mistress at once and whatever message she has to
   send to me, kindly report it to me, for that is all I want to know." So
   we say to the minister, "Tell us what your Master has told you--we
   don't want to hear anything else." If he says, "I think--, uh, I beg
   your pardon, I am very anxious not to appear dogmatic, but with great
   diffidence I submit to you," you reply, "My dear Sir, we want you to be
   dogmatic! If you have been to your Master and He has given you a
   message for us, tell it to us! And if you have not been to Him and He
   has not told you anything to say on His behalf, then clear out of that
   pulpit, for you have no right to be there! Go and earn an honest living
   at breaking stones, or something of that sort."

   An ambassador who is not commissioned by his sovereign had better be
   sent home by the first ship that is going that way. He who comes
   professedly as a messenger from God and yet declares that, for the life
   of him, he does not know what God would have him preach, proclaims his
   own condemnation! And we say to him, "We cannot let our souls run the
   risk of being lost, so, if you have no message from Christ for us, we
   will not waste our time by listening to you." Be sure, dear Friends, to
   have as your minister a man who lives with God and walks with God--a
   man who leans his head on the bosom of Jesus and then comes forward and
   speaks what his Master has whispered into his ear. Men are startled
   when they hear him--they say, "Who is this fellow? Where did he learn
   such things?" But, with awful earnestness, so that his hearers
   sometimes think him half-demented, he tells what he feels that he must
   tell because he has received it from his Lord and Master! He says,
   "That is the Truth of God, whether you take it or leave it. I will
   preach to you nothing but what God has told me. I cannot and I dare not
   turn aside from what I believe to be His teaching."

   Look at Martin Luther whom God raised up to speak so bravely for Him.
   People said, "This man is so positive, so dogmatic"--but he could not
   be otherwise--his whole heart and soul were possessed by certain great
   Truths of God and he felt that he must proclaim them, whether men put
   him in prison, or dragged him away to the stake! And such a man,
   speaking after that fashion, shook the Vatican and the most powerful
   empires of the earth! And he was the means of bringing the Light of God
   to multitudes who otherwise would have remained in darkness! In like
   manner as the Reformer did, get you to your Lord, my Brother--receive
   your message from Him and what He speaks privately into your ear. Tell
   that wherever you have the opportunity, but mind that you do not tell
   anything else.

   III. Now I must finish with THE CONSEQUENT PROCLAMATION. "What I tell
   you in darkness, that speak you in light: and what you hear in the ear,
   that preach you upon the housetops."

   First, it has been told me in the ear and whispered into my very soul
   that there is pardon for the greatest guilt through faith in Jesus
   Christ--that His precious blood, shed on Calvary's Cross, is able to
   cleanse from all sin of every kind--and that as many as believe in Him
   are saved. "Their sins, which were many, are all forgiven." I heard
   this said, once, and I thought it was true. No, I heard it many times
   from those who would not have said what was false. But, on a
   never-to-be-forgotten day, I, myself, looked to Him who did hang upon
   the Cross. It had been dark days with my spirit until then and my
   burden had been exceedingly heavy. I was like a man who would have
   preferred to die rather than to live and I might even have laid violent
   hands upon myself, in the hope of ending my misery, but that the dread
   of something worse after death did haunt me.

   I found neither rest nor respite until I heard one say, "Look unto
   Christ and you shall be saved. Look, young man, look, for He says,
   'Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth.'" And then
   and there I did look unto Him and my sins were, at that moment,
   forgiven me! I know as surely as I know that I am standing here, and
   speaking to you, that they were forgiven! I might be made to doubt some
   things about which I feel tolerably certain, but I must absolutely lose
   my reason before I can ever doubt the fact that I then passed out of
   despair into something higher than hope--and rose from the very gates
   of Hell into a joy that is with me even now! Shall I not tell others
   what the Grace of God has done for me? Shall I not lay hold of every
   poor sinner's hand and say, "Look you to Christ and you, also, shall be
   saved, even as I was"? Shall I not, from the very housetops, shout
   again and again--

   "There is life for a look at the Crucified One! There is life at this
   moment for you!"

   Further, there is another thing that has been whispered in my ear. It
   is that by faith in Christ, the ruling power of sin is immediately
   broken and that every sin, of every kind, may be overcome by faith in
   the blood of Jesus Christ. I heard one man laughing at another because
   he said that he had a clean heart. Ah, me, but that may have been true,
   for every man who believes in Christ has a clean heart. Are you
   nominally a Christian and yet your Christianity does not make you

   holy? I implore you to throw such worthless Christianity to the dogs,
   for it is worse than useless to you! If your religion does not make you
   holy, it will damn you as surely as you are now alive! It is simply a
   painted pageantry to go to Hell in--it is not the true religion of the
   Lord Jesus Christ. He that believes in Christ shall be delivered from
   sin! He shall trample it under his feet! He may have a lifelong battle
   with it--no, I am surehe will have that, else Christ would never have
   taught His disciples to pray, "Lead us not into temptation." When there
   is no more sin in us, we need not fear temptation--there is no risk of
   fire to the man who has no tinder in his heart. The Lord can keep His
   people and He will preserve them. "He will keep the feet of His
   saints." Brother, have you fallen into drunkenness? Faith in Christ can
   turn that cup bottom upwards for you! Are you a swearer? My Master can
   rinse your mouth out so that you shall never speak in that shameful
   fashion again, or even be tempted to do so, for I have known swearers
   cured in a moment and the temptation to blaspheme has never come back
   to them! Have you been a thief, or a liar? Have you been a fornicator,
   or an adulterer? Are you unjust, unholy and unclean? There is provision
   for washing sinners such as you are! There is a Fountain opened for sin
   and for uncleanness--and Christ can deliver you from the power as well
   as from the penalty of sin! Only trust Him about it. Come and rest your
   soul upon Him. Oh, if there is a harlot here, or a man who has fallen
   into all sorts of gross sin, Christ can and will deliver you if you
   will only come and repose your heart's trust in Him!

   I cannot tell you all that I have had whispered into my ear, but I must
   mention one other thing that I know. It is that faith in Christ can
   save a man from every sort of fear in life and in death. Faith in
   Christ can make even trouble to be welcome and affliction to be
   regarded as a gain! Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can make poverty to
   be sweet and sickness to be borne with patience. The ills of life are
   turned into blessings when once a man believes in Jesus and fully
   trusts in Him. I am not now saying what I, alone, know, but what a
   great many others here also know. There are hundreds--I might
   truthfully say thousands--here who can say the same as I can about
   these matters. Let me prove my assertion. You who have found that faith
   in Christ sweetens life to you, speak out and say, "Yes." Has Christ
   sweetened life to you who have believed in Him? If so, say, "Yes."
   [Many voices: "Yes."] Of course you can say it and you are not ashamed
   to say it over and over again! Is He the joy of your heart? [Voices:
   "Yes."] Has He made your very soul to leap within you when you have
   kept close to Him? [Voices: "Yes."] I knew that you would answer "Yes"
   to that question, for it is even so with you! There is a joy which
   sometimes comes upon the Christian--which I cannot attempt to
   describe--but it bears us right away above all physical pain and
   everything that might depress the spirit. The heart is made strong in
   the Lord and in the power of His might. Oh, He is a precious Christ! Is
   there one person here who has trusted in Christ who is willing to give
   Him up? [Voices: "No."] There is not one, I am sure. You hardly need to
   answer the question, for there never was one individual who really knew
   Christ, who could give Him up! They who leave Him have only fancied
   that they knew Him--they never really trusted Him.

   Possibly, dear Friend, you are in trouble because you say that you feel
   afraid to die tonight. Well, but perhaps you are not going to die
   tonight and, therefore, dying Grace has not yet been given to you! But
   when the time comes for you to die, then very likely you will not feel
   the slightest fear. My brother said to me, the other day, when he had
   been seeing one of our members pass away, "Brother, we can say to one
   another what the two Wesleys said, 'Our people die well.'" So they do.
   They often die shouting for very joy and, at any rate, they go Home
   peacefully, quietly welcoming the everlasting future and the Glory that
   Christ has laid up for them. Oh, yes, we know that "to die is gain."
   Some of us have been laid very low and we have thought that we were
   about to die--and we have had the greatest joy, then--greater than we
   ever knew, before, in all our lives! And, therefore, we proclaim it to
   others and we mean to tell it as long as we live!

   Salvation by Grace, through faith in Jesus, is no dream, no fiction!
   Let skeptics say what they will. Our experience-- and we are as honest
   as they are and no more fanatical than they are--our experience agrees
   with what our Lord has revealed to us in His Word and, therefore, when
   we preach the Gospel, or relate what Grace has done for us, we use
   Christ's very Words and say, "We speak what we do know and testify what
   we have seen." God grant that many of you may be able to bear similar
   testimony, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 10:1-27.

   Verses 1-4. And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He
   gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal
   all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Now the names of the
   twelve Apostles are these. The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and
   Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
   Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the
   son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the
   Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. The lesson to be
   learned from these names is, first, that these men are mentioned in
   couples and I think that, as a rule, God's servants work best in pairs.
   In other senses than the matrimonial one, it is not good that man
   should be alone. Moses needs Aaron; Peter needs Andrew; James needs
   John. It is well to be of such a temperament and disposition that you
   can work harmoniously with another of your Lord's servants. If you
   cannot, pray God to change you! Notice that expression, in the 3rd
   verse, "and Bartholomew." I think there is not a single instance in the
   New Testament where Bartholomew is mentioned without the word, "and,"
   before or after his name--"and Bartholomew," or, "Bartholomew and"
   someone else. Perhaps he was not a man who ever began any work by
   himself, but he was a grand man to join in and help it on when somebody
   else had started it. So, dear Friend, if you are not qualified to be a
   leader in the Church of Christ, be willing to be Number Two--but do
   serve the Master, in some capacity or other, with all your might! Be a
   Brother who carries an, "and," with him wherever he goes. Be like a
   horse that has his harness on and is ready to be hooked into the team.
   That is the lesson of the two words, "and Bartholomew." The last lesson
   from the names is at the end of the 4th verse--"and Judas Iscariot, who
   also betrayed Him." He preached of Christ. He worked miracles in the
   name of Christ. He was ordained as one of the Apostles of Christ, yet
   he was, "the son of perdition." Oh, let none of us be content merely
   with our official position, or trust in the good which we hope we have
   done, or in any gifts with which the Master has entrusted us! Judas
   Iscariot had all these marks of distinction, yet he betrayed his Lord.
   God grant that no one among us may turn out to be a Judas Iscariot!

   5, 6. These twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them, saying, Go not
   into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter
   you not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel The
   Gospel is now to be preached to every creature in all the world, but,
   in those days, it was to be proclaimed first to the Jews, then to the
   Samaritans and afterwards to the Gentiles as a whole. The largeness of
   our commission to "preach the Gospel to every creature" need not
   prevent our following Providential directions to make it known in one
   place rather than in another. It is well for the servants of Christ to
   always ask their Master where they are to go. You know how it is
   recorded, in the Acts of the Apostles, that Paul and Silas "essayed to
   go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not." Ask the Lord,
   therefore, where you shall work, as well as what your work shall be,
   for your Master knows how you can best serve Him.

   7. And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
   That blessed Kingdom, which is now set up among men, of which Christ is
   the King, and I hope many of us are the subjects. That Kingdom was then
   "at hand."

   8. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils:
   freely you have received, freely give. "Exercise your healing arts most
   freely. They cost you nothing--let them not cost anything to those who
   receive the benefit of them."

   9. 10. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor
   scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet
   staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat They were to "quarter on
   the enemy," as we say. Wherever they went, they would be furnished with
   food, raiment and shelter if they faithfully executed the commission
   with which their Master had entrusted them.

   11-13. And into whatever city or town you shall enter, enquire who in
   it is worthy; and there abide till you go thence. And when you come
   into an house, salute it And if the house is worthy, let your peace
   come upon it: but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.
   How about your houses, dear Friends? Are they "worthy" houses in this
   New Testament sense? If an Apostle came there, could he bring "peace"
   to it? Or would he have to take the peace away with him to some other
   house that was more worthy to receive it?

   14, 15. And whoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when
   you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
   Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
   and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city. Despised and
   rejected privileges make the fiercest fuel for the fires of Hell. They
   who might have heard the Gospel, but would not hear it, shall find the
   hand of God more heavy upon them than it will be even upon the accursed
   Sodomites! Woe, then, unto such as live in London, yet who will not
   hear the Word of the Lord, or, when they do hear it, will not accept
   it!

   16, 17. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be
   you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of
   men. ' 'Do not trust yourselves with them."

   17-19. For they will deliver you up to the councils, and they
   willscourge you in their synagogues; andyou shall be brought before
   governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony against them and the
   Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you
   shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall
   speak. "Let it not fret you that you are not orators, that you are not
   men of culture--speak what God the Holy Spirit shall teach you to
   say--and leave the result with Him."

   20. For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which
   speaks in you. Oh that is grand--when a man has so communed with God
   that the very Spirit of the Father has entered into him--then shall
   there be a wondrous power about his speech! Men may not understand from
   where it came, but they will be obliged to feel the force of it.

   21. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the
   father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents,
   and cause them to be put to death. Read the martyrologies and see
   whether it was not exactly as our Lord foretold that it would be! In
   martyr times men often burst all the bonds of natural affection and
   betrayed even their own fathers or children to death! Yet the saints
   quaffed not--they were content to let every earthly tie be snapped so
   that the tie of their heavenly and eternal relationship might be
   confirmed. So may it be with us, also!

   22-27. Andyou shall be hated of all men for My name's sake: but he that
   endures to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this
   city, flee you into another, for verily I say unto you, You shall not
   have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. The
   disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is
   enough for the disciple that he is as his master, and the servant as
   his lord. If they have called the master of the house, Beelzebub, how
   much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not,
   therefore, for there is nothing co vered that shall not be revealed;
   andhidden, that shallnot be known. What I tellyou in darkness, that
   speakyou in light: and whatyou hear in the ear, that preach you on the
   housetops. God help us to do so, for Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Jehovah's Challenge

   (No. 2675)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 20, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   DECEMBER 31, 1882.

   "Is there anything too hard for Me?" Jeremiah 32:27.

   A Truth of God may be sincerely believed by us and yet it may do us
   good to have it put in the form of a question. As I read the chapter, I
   called your attention to Jeremiah's confident declaration to God,
   "There is nothing too hard for You." Yet in our text, which is only a
   few verses further on in the chapter, the Lord says to this same
   Prophet, "Is there anything too hard for Me?" I think the explanation
   of this mystery is that we do not always thoroughly believe even all
   that we do truly believe. We may believe it so as to have no doubt
   about it, but not so believe it as to be prepared to put it into
   practice. Jeremiah might say to the Lord, "There is nothing too hard
   for You," and he might be confident of the truth of his words, yet
   there might be, in the background, so much mistrust, possibly
   imperceptible to himself, that it might be necessary for God to put the
   matter to him in the form of a question and to say, even to believing
   Jeremiah, "Is there anything too hard for Me?" Ah, we little know what
   unbelievers we really are! The most of us are scarcely aware of what an
   awful amount of skepticism still lies lurking within our breasts, only
   waiting for the opportunity to show itself.

   Besides, dear Friends, you must always remember that it is one thing to
   believe a general doctrine, but it is quite another thing to make a
   particular and personal application of it. Jeremiah believes that God
   can drive away the Chaldeans and leave the land free for the use of its
   owners--but can he believe that the little plot of ground at Anathoth,
   for which he has just paid 17 shekels of silver, will ever be worth the
   money it has cost him? I expect the devil began to inject doubts into
   his mind concerning that transaction by saying to him, "Can you trust
   God about that purchase of land?" So the Lord does not, at once, accept
   Jeremiah's declaration when the Prophet says, "There is nothing too
   hard for You," but He puts to him a direct question relating to that
   very point, "Is there anything too hard for Me?" Some of you think you
   could believe concerning the conversion of a nation, but do you never
   have doubts concerning the conversion of a perverse child? You believe
   in the peacefulness that is to reign during the millennium, but have
   you never had a doubt about the peace of your own domestic circle? You
   could trust God, you say, in a storm at sea, but can you trust Him
   about that bad debt on your books? You could depend upon Him, you say,
   in death and throughout eternity, but can you depend upon Him about
   that trifling matter which is just now bothering you and giving you so
   much vexation? Is there anything, great or small, that is too hard for
   God? That is the question I am going to try to answer. I throw down the
   challenge, in the name of the glorious God who said to Jeremiah, "Is
   there anything too hard for Me?" Now is your opportunity to bring up
   your hard things, your difficult things, your apparently impossible
   things and to see how they are affected by this challenge of the Most
   High--"Is there anything too hard for Me?"

   In calling attention to this challenge of Jehovah, I ask you to
   remember, first, that the hardest conceivable things have already been
   done by God. Next, I will mention some of the hard things which remain
   to be done. And, lastly, since nothing is too hard for the Lord, I will
   try to answer the short and simple question, "What then?"

   I. First, then, I want you to remember that THE HARDEST CONCEIVABLE
   THINGS HAVE ALREADY BEEN DONE BY GOD.

   Let us begin at the beginning, with God's work of creation, as Jeremiah
   does in this very chapter, and we shall then say, with him, that
   Jehovah "made the Heaven and the earth." There was a time when there
   was nothing that had been

   created and God dwelt alone. There was no raw material out of which to
   construct the universe, yet, when it pleased Him to do so, everything
   was formed and fashioned by God out of nothing. What, then, can He not
   do after having done that? I ask you to also think what God did
   afterwards. At first, when He made the world, He left it for ages in an
   unfinished state, for "in the beginning God created the Heaven and the
   earth. And the earth was without form and void." But, long afterwards,
   when He came to put it in order, and make it fit for man's abode--and
   then to create man to have dominion over all the earth--who was with
   Him to help Him? "With whom took He counsel and who instructed Him?"
   With His own hands He piled up the mountains and dug the foundations of
   the great deep. His unaided power achieved it all! Everything was in
   darkness even after He had made it, but He spoke, and said, "Light,
   be," "and there was light." Everything was in confusion and chaos. The
   earth and the waters were mingled together, but again He spoke, and
   divided the land from the sea, and the clouds rose up to paint the sky,
   the rivers sought their bed and old Ocean was girt about with his belt
   of sand!

   God did it all, but, even then, the world was dead. No life was
   anywhere to be seen. But again God spoke and, straightway, the earth
   was green with grass, herbs and trees! The waters teemed with fish, all
   kinds of birds began to fly in the open firmament of Heaven and
   multitudes of beasts ranged the plain. Then, last of all, God said,
   "Let Us make man in Our image, after our likeness: and let them have
   dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
   over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing
   that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the
   image of God created He him; male and female created He them." Now,
   whenever we doubt the power of God to do anything, let us read again
   the first chapter of the Book of Genesis and then say, with Jeremiah,
   "Ah, Lord God, behold, You have made the Heaven and the earth by Your
   great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for
   You!" There is nothing which the Lord did not make and He made it all
   unaided. He did it all alone, by His own unguided wisdom and skill.
   Therefore, one of the hardest things that ever could be done, was done
   by God when He accomplished His great work of Creation!

   Now let us think of His work under a different aspect, that is, His
   work of destruction. And let any who doubt the power of God tremble as
   they hear or read how He has displayed it. Again and again has the Lord
   shown how easily He can rid Himself of His adversaries and shake them
   off, as Paul shook off the viper into the fire. Go far back in the
   history of the world and note how all mankind had become corrupt--they
   who ought to have been holy and separate from sinners, had mixed
   themselves with the ungodly--and on a certain day, when God's patience
   had at last reached its limit, He spoke and down came torrents of rain,
   descending with tremendous power and, at the same time, the sluices of
   the great deep were unlocked and up leaped the fountains that, till
   then, had been sealed! And, very soon, over the whole earth, there was
   one great sheet of water, for God had determined that He would destroy
   all flesh from off the face of the earth, save a "few, that is, eight
   souls," whom He had housed within the ark. Terrible as the work of
   destruction must have been, it was done as God determined and, after
   that, let none ever think that God cannot overcome His enemies! Let no
   one ever imagine that a warfare can be successfully waged against Him!
   When He bares His arm for battle, His foes shall all flee before Him
   like chaff before the wind, or they shall fall before Him like the
   wheat falls before the reaper. He can create and He can destroy! In
   looking back upon what He has already done, we can see that He has
   accomplished inconceivably great and difficult things both in making
   and in unmaking. "Ah," you say, "perhaps these are sublime things on an
   enormous scale." Yes, but God is great on anyscale, and almighty
   wherever you perceive the signs and tokens of His working!

   Think, next, of His work for the defense and deliverance of His chosen
   people. Read the Book of Exodus--you cannot too often read the wondrous
   story of how, when the children of Israel were few in Egypt, God
   nevertheless preserved them. And how, when they multiplied and the
   cruel Pharaoh arose and tried, first, to curb and then to crush them,
   God remembered His people and determined to bring them out of the land
   of bondage. Moses and Aaron said to Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord God of
   Israel, Let My people go." How that proud monarch bridled up when he
   heard those words! "Who is the Lord," he said, "that I should obey His
   voice to let Israel go?" He soon knew who Jehovah was, for plague
   followed plague till everything that Egypt had was destroyed and, last
   of all, God "smote all the first-born in Egypt; the chief of their
   strength in the tabernacles of Ham." Then the oppressors opened wide
   their gates and Egypt was glad when Israel departed. With a high hand
   and an outstretched arm, the Lord brought forth His people! And when
   they came to the Red Sea and the Egyptians pursued them--and the tyrant
   thought that he would surely destroy them, for the wilder-

   ness had shut them in--then the Lord divided the sea and led His people
   through the depths in safety! "But the sea overwhelmed their enemies,"
   and on the farther shore, Miriam and the women joined in the jubilant
   refrain to the triumphant song of Moses and the Israelite host, "Sing
   you to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his
   rider has He thrown into the sea."

   Brothers and Sisters, after this mighty act of Jehovah, you need never
   imagine that He cannot deliver His people! You need not suppose that a
   little Church, or a little island, or a little nation shall be
   domineered over by the proud ones of the earth! If God shall but repeat
   that ancient command, "Touch not My anointed, and do My Prophets no
   harm," it will be a case of, "Hands off," for the oppressors, however
   mighty they may be--and they will have to learn that they must not
   touch the elect of the Most High to do them harm!

   If you need another instance of God's wonderful working, I remind you
   that harder things than we need to have done for us by God have been
   done by Him in the work of His Providence. Think how He led His people
   through the wilderness and fed them for 40 years, though all that time
   they never stirred a plow in the furrow, or gathered fruit from fig
   trees or from olive trees. A pathless desert was the highway of the
   millions who were His people! Heaven dropped with daily manna for them
   and the smitten Rock yielded a perennial stream to quench their thirst.
   When they craved flesh to eat, the Lord sent them innumerable feathered
   fowl. Their garments waxed not old upon them, neither did their feet
   swell for 40 years in that great and terrible wilderness. When you
   think of all this, my poor Brother, you may well say, "If God could do
   that great work, surely He can provide for mylittle family." Of course
   He can! The God who could, for 40 years, feed three millions of people
   who marched or stopped with nothing but bare sand beneath them, can
   much more feed you, O you of little faith!

   All these are great things that God has done, but I am going to take
   you into much greater depths than we have traversed yet, for all this
   is as nothing compared with what God has done in His great work of
   Redemption. Creation is shorn of its glory. The terrors of God at the
   deluge may almost be forgotten. The deliverance of Israel at the Red
   Sea may take quite a secondary place and the leading of the people
   through the wilderness may be put quite in the background when I begin
   to tell the story of our redemption! This is the hardest thing, the
   most amazing thing God has ever done! His Son came down to live among
   men! He took on Him a human form and was born of the Virgin Mary,
   sheltered in a stable, cradled in a manger! This is such a miracle that
   all the other miracles I ever heard of seem commonplace affairs
   compared with this wonder of wonders--that God should take upon Himself
   the nature of man and then-- still more marvelous-- take upon Himself
   the sin of His people and bear the awful load of their transgression,
   all the burden of their punishment and endure it even to the last pang,
   drinking up the cup of Infinite Justice to its dregs! Never was God so
   Godlike as when Jesus died upon the Cross! Never was Omnipotence so
   potent as when He died that men might live, crushing the old dragon as
   He bled, leading captivity captive while He was, Himself, bound to the
   accursed tree, casting death into an eternal grave when He, Himself,
   was laid in the sepulcher! I cannot adequately tell you the story of
   all these marvels! The very angels in Heaven have been set a-wondering
   ever since that day--and they have been continually telling to one
   another, over and over again, the story of the God that loved and died
   and, by His love, death and living again, defeated Satan, conquered
   death and led captivity captive for all His people! I feel more
   inclined to burst out with, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" than to say even
   a single syllable more concerning this greatest of all God's works!

   Certainly, in what I have said, I have fully proved that the hardest
   conceivable things have already been done by God and, therefore, He may
   well ring out the challenge of our text, "Is there anything too hard
   for Me?"

   II. Now, secondly, I am going to mention SOME OF THE THINGS WHICH
   REMAIN TO BE DONE.

   The hardest things have been done by God--what remains to be done? Look
   within you, look around you. Find all the difficult things that you
   need to have done for you and then see how easy it is for the Lord to
   meet your every need! Some of the hard things relate to temporal
   matters. ' 'It would be a great thing for God to deliver me out of all
   my troubles," says one, "for I am sorely afflicted and tried." But,
   really, my dear Friend, after all that God has done, will you, canyou,
   dareyou think to yourself that He cannot deliver you? Are you His
   child? Do you love Him? Do you trust Him? Then, surely, you will not
   say that He will leave you--that He will forsake you--or that He cannot
   help you! I am certain that you would be ashamed to lead anybody to
   think that God could not deliver you, yet you have, perhaps, allowed
   the thought to creep into your own mind. Then drive it out at once! Do
   not let it remain there a moment longer. God can help you and in very
   simple ways, too.

   I have known Him deliver His people in very extraordinary and
   unexpected ways. There was a poor man, not long ago, who had no bread
   for his family and they were almost starving. One of his children said
   to him, "Father, God sent bread to Elijah by ravens." "Ah, yes," he
   replied, "but God does not use birds in that way now." He was a cobbler
   and a short time after he spoke those words, there flew into his
   workshop a bird, which he saw was a rare one, so he caught it and put
   it in a cage. A little later, a servant came in and said to him, "Have
   you seen such-and-such a bird?" "Yes," he answered, "it flew into my
   shop, so I caught it and put it into a cage." "It belongs to my
   mistress," said the maid. "Well, then, take it," he replied, and away
   she went. Perhaps you think that there was not anything very remarkable
   in that incident, but when the girl took the bird to her mistress, the
   lady sent her back to thank the cobbler for his care of her pet--and to
   give him half a sovereign! So, if the bird did not actually bring the
   bread and meat in its mouth, it was made the medium of feeding the
   hungry family although the father had doubted whether such a thing
   could happen! God has blessed ways of delivering His people if they
   will but trust Him. I do not doubt, if this were the time for such
   testimony to be given, that every Christian here could tell some story
   of the way in which God has delivered in time past. "Oh, yes," says
   one, "I could, I know." What, you? Yet you are the very one who doubts
   God's power to deliver you! Cover your face for shame and cry, "Lord,
   have mercy upon me! Forgive my unbelief and help Your poor child to
   trust Your fatherly care and to know that You will provide for me."

   But, next, some of the hard things relate to spiritual matters. I fancy
   that I hear someone say, "I have a trouble which causes me more anxiety
   than the things you have just mentioned. I know that God can provide
   for me in temporal matters, but I have a very hard fight of it,
   spiritually. I am tempted, first in one way, and then in another, till
   I sometimes fear that I shall not be able to hold out. Satan appears to
   know just where I am weakest. He shoots at the joints of my harness and
   all his fiery darts seem to sorely wound me. I shall one day fall by
   the hand of the enemy." David said something very much like that, yet
   he did not perish by the hand of his enemy, King Saul. He died in his
   bed, rejoicing in his God! And very likely it will be the same with
   you. At any rate, if you are trusting in Christ, you shall not be
   overcome, for greater is He that is for you than all that can be
   against you! Do you believe that you, a child of God, cannot be so
   helped by Him that you shall be able to overcome any kind of sin?
   Surely you cannot believe anything so dishonoring to your Heavenly
   Father?

   If you do, I do not. I cannot tell how God's mind comes into contact
   with man's mind, but I know that it does--that His Spirit comes into
   most intimate connection with our spirit and so influences our spirit
   that the sin, which once seemed to fascinate and charm us, loses all
   its attractions and delights. And the doubts and fears, which for a
   while depress us, have, by-and-by, no depressing power whatever! You
   remember how Eliphaz said to Job, "At destruction and famine you shall
   laugh," and God often helps His servants to laugh at those very things
   which before seemed great burdens to them. There is nothing in your
   spiritual case that is too hard for the Lord--so bring it before Him in
   faith and prayer this very hour!

   I fancy that I can hear someone else saying, "But I am not God's child!
   Oh, how I wish that I could be! Alas, I am a great sinner." What has
   been your sin, my Friend? I do not want you to tell me--I only ask you
   what it was that you may tell it to yourself, and then answer the
   Lord's question, "Is there anything too hard for Me?" If Christ had not
   died, it would have been useless to ask you that question, but since
   Jesus died, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God."
   And since it is written, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us
   from all sin," can there be anything conceivable that is too hard for
   the Lord? There is no sin which you have committed which the blood of
   Christ cannot wash out if you believe in Him! Though you were even red
   with murder, black with blasphemy and covered from head to foot with
   the filthiness of lust, yet, on your believing in Jesus, you will be
   made, then and there, as white as snow! Free pardon for every kind of
   sin is proclaimed to every soul that will believe in Jesus Christ. "All
   manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men," if they will
   only trust in Christ. So, in this sense, there is nothing too hard for
   the Lord. There is no sinner too guilty for the Lord to forgive when he
   trusts the Savior's Sacrifice on Calvary.

   "Yes," says another friend, "I can understand that I can have
   forgiveness, but this is a greater difficulty to me--I have been so
   long a transgressor of God's Law that I do not think I ever could
   conquer my sin." No, I know that you could not and I want you to be
   fully persuaded that you could not! And then, when you are perfectly
   convinced upon that point, let me ask you this question, "Is even this
   thing--this power of overcoming sin--too hard for the Lord?Your
   successful resistance is out of the question--you cannot accomplish
   anything in this great conflict, for you are nobody

   and nothing--but is the struggle too hard for the Lord?" It often
   happens that a man says, "Well, I know that I have been a great
   drunkard. Drinking has been my besetting sin, but I can leave it off
   when I like, and become a sober man at once." So he does and he signs
   the pledge and wears his blue ribbon. But, by-and-by, the color of that
   ribbon ought to be ruby rather than blue, for the man has given way to
   strong drink again! The reason of his fall is that he cured himself and
   so the disease came back. But the drunkard who says, "I am afraid to
   trust myself, for this intemperance has got such a hold on me that I
   never can get out of its clutches by my own power. O God, deliver me! I
   trust You to save me! I look to Jesus Christ to save me!" He is the man
   who shallfe helped and he shall be more than a conqueror through the
   might of God! Let me assure you, my dear Friend, that there is no form
   of sin from which you cannot be delivered by the Grace of God. After
   many years of vice--prolonged, continued, inveterate, horrible
   vice--men have not only been reformed and reclaimed, but they have been
   renewed, sanctified and made pure and holy!

   I wonder how you would have felt, if you had been visiting in certain
   of the South Sea Islands, and you had been sitting at the Lord's Table
   with some good old deacon, and then, after you had been eating and
   drinking with him at the Communion and had heard him pray and preach,
   somebody had whispered in your ear, "That man used to be a cannibal. He
   has murdered many." "Oh," you would say, "and has the Grace of God
   changed such a lion as that into a lamb?" It would have struck you as a
   very remarkable illustration of the power of Divine Grace, yet there
   are, even in this Tabernacle tonight, cases that are quite as striking
   as that! If you could know all about them, you would agree with me that
   it is so. God's Grace can do marvelous things! It can change lions into
   lambs, ravens into doves and sinners into saints! In fact, the proof of
   Christianity is the moral change which it is continually working in the
   minds and lives of men and women. Above all other miracles stands this
   one--the miracle by which the dishonest are made just, the impure are
   made clean and the disobedient are brought to the obedience of faith.

   Truly, there is no case that is too hard for the Lord. I suppose a good
   many of you never heard that "Satan" came into this place, one Sabbath,
   and was converted. [The remarkable story of this man's conversion is
   related at greater length in C H Spurgeon's Autobiography, Volume IV,
   with other similar narratives. Visit Pilgrim Publications for
   availability and pricing at
   http://www.pilgrimpublications.com/spurgeon.htm# biographies.] "No,"
   you say, "surely that has never happened." Yes, it has! I can vouch for
   the truth of the story. There was a sailor who lived at Wivenhoe, in
   Essex, a man who was such a vile blasphemer and who lived altogether
   such a disgraceful life, that the people called him, "Old Satan." When
   the ship in which "Satan" sailed, came to London, a godly seaman, who
   was on the same vessel, persuaded the man to come to hear me. He was
   the more willing to do so because I once lived at Colchester, which is
   not far from Wivenhoe. As he heard the Word, the Lord touched "Old
   Satan's" heart and there was never before such a stir in Wivenhoe as
   when he went home, a converted man, to tell other sinners the power of
   the Grace of God! If there is anybody here who might be called a very
   devil, let him come and trust Christ, and he shall be saved
   straightway. Come along with you, poor slave of Satan! Leave your old
   master this very minute! Do not give him even a moment's notice, but
   speed away to the great Father's house and He will receive you, for He
   is expecting you! No, more--it is He who is drawingyou, by His gracious
   Spirit! And it is His Son who has said, "All that the Father gives Me
   shall come to Me; and him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."
   God grant that many who have been hard sinners, may come to Christ and
   find in Him eternal life!

   Once more, Jehovah's challenge, "Is there anything too hard for Me?"
   contains a lesson for you who are trying to serve the Lord. I want you
   also to catch the meaning and the message of my text--there is nothing
   too hard for God, so He can save the children in your Sunday school
   class! He can bless the people of the district where you visit. He can
   help you to talk to that dying person whom you went to see yesterday.
   There is nothing too hard for the Lord, so He can bless you, city
   missionary, to that dark slum which gives you so much anxiety. He can
   bless you, dear Friend, at that street corner where you scarcely get
   through a dozen sentences before you are interrupted! This question of
   Jehovah, "Is there anything too hard for Me?" seems to be like a
   rallying cry from God to urge all His followers to press on, like
   heroes, without a doubt about the victory! "Courage, my comrades," said
   Mohammed to his troops, one day, when the battle was going against
   them--"I can hear the angels coming to our rescue." There were no
   angels flying to help him, but they are always coming to aid uswhen we
   need them, for, "are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to
   minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" If we are truly
   trusting in the living God, He will surely send the heavenly
   principalities and powers to help us, so that, in our weakness, His
   strength shall be glorified and sinners shall be saved!

   I can believe in the conversion of the Jews when I hear Jehovah's
   challenge, "Is there anything too hard for Me?" I can believe in the
   spread of His Gospel over the whole world when I hear Him ask, "Is
   there anything too hard for Me?" I can believe in my Master setting up
   a Kingdom that shall have no bounds and no end, when I hear His royal
   enquiry, "Is there anything too hard for Me?" Very often, when we get
   among men and women, we seem to be surrounded by a lot of children
   playing with toys, for they bother, hinder, hamper and only increase
   our own helplessness. But when we get clear of them and just look to
   God, alone, then we seem to have elbowroom for our work. A thoroughly
   consecrated man can do something, by God's Grace, when he has got rid
   of the intolerable nuisance of having too many human helpers who are
   often only hindrances--and who has not any other helper but his God.
   Oh, it is a blessed thing to be flung back upon the bare arm of
   Omnipotence--to be gloriously compelled to rest on God and on God
   alone! May many of us know, by happy, personal experience, how blessed
   it is!

   III. I have done, dear Friends, when I have, in the last place, very
   briefly answered a short and simple question. Since nothing is too hard
   for the Lord, WHAT THEN?

   I want that we, as a people, should be true to the very core to our
   blessed God and, to that end, as there is nothing that is too hard for
   Him, let us trust Him, all of us, whatever our trials or our
   difficulties may be. Let us have no sham faith, no pretended
   confidence, but real trust in a real God!

   Then, next, I want that we should act as if we trusted God. Do not let
   us waver, "for he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the
   wind and tossed."

   And, then, believing in God, let us always do what is right Let us
   believe that to do the right is always right--that policy--that
   "hedging" a little, and doing what we call a "slight wrong," can never
   be justified in the sight of God.

   Finally, let us live a life of love, a life of forgiveness and
   kindness, trusting that God will cause love to overcome human hate and
   kindness to conquer all misrepresentation. Live in all respects so as
   to glorify God.

   Beloved in the Lord, who are one with us in Christ Jesus, do be
   out-and-out Believers and let your faith be as evident as the color on
   a healthy cheek, that all men may see that the very life-blood of your
   spiritual being is your faith in God and in His Christ! What made brave
   Oliver Cromwell, in the days gone by, so terrible an enemy to all who
   loved not liberty and right? It was his faith! And he had gathered
   about him a band of men who also believed and so, when the Ironsides
   marched to the fight, you might as well have hoped to stop the stars in
   their courses as to keep those men back from victory! And today, what
   England needs is men of faith whose watchword is, "The Lord of Hosts!"
   and whose confidence it is that "with God all things are possible," and
   also that "all things are possible to him that believes." May all of us
   be such Believers, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JEREMIAH32:1-27.

   Verses 1-5. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth
   year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of
   Nebuchadnezzar For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem:
   and Jeremiah the Prophet was shut up in the court of theprison, which
   was in the king of Judah's house. For Zedekiah, king of Judah, had shut
   him up, saying. Therefore do you prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord,
   Behold, I will give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon,
   and he shall take it; and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out
   of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the
   hands of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth,
   and his eyes shall behold his eyes; and he shall lead Zedekiah to
   Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, says the Lord: though
   you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not prosper So you see that
   Jeremiah was shut up in prison at the time here mentioned. Zedekiah,
   the king of Judah, had treated him very harshly because of his faithful
   utterance of the Word of the Lord. He was a true servant of Jehovah,
   yet he suffered much at the king's hands. One very remarkable event,
   which happened at that time, is here recorded.

   6-8. And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
   Behold, Hanameel, the son of Shallum, your uncle, shall come unto you,
   saying, Buy you my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of
   redemption is yours to buy it. So Hanameel, my uncle's son, came to me
   in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said
   unto me, Buy my field, I pray you, that is in Anathoth, which is in the
   country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is

   yours and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew
   that this was the word of the LORD. The Lord had told him beforehand
   that it would be so and, therefore, in due time, his cousin came to him
   with the offer of this plot of land in the country of Benjamin.

   9, 10. Andlbought the field ofHanameel, my uncle's son, that was in
   Anathoth, and weighedhim the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
   And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and
   weighed him the money in the balances. This was, in every respect, a
   very extraordinary transaction! Remember that the Chaldeans were
   already besieging Jerusalem and they were all over the land, carrying
   fire and sword into every part of it. Jerusalem was shut up, so that
   none of the inhabitants could get out of the city--yet here is
   Jeremiah, himself a prisoner, buying land which was virtually worth
   nothing whatever! But he believed so firmly that the Chaldeans would
   yet permit the Jews to live unmolested in that land that he paid down
   the purchase money for the field and saw to the legal execution of the
   deed of transfer, just as you or I might have done if we were
   purchasing a plot of land in our own country. This is a notable
   instance of the triumph of faith over unfavorable surroundings and,
   also, of the Prophet's obedienceto the Word of the Lord.

   11, 12. So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was
   sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open: and I
   gave the evidence of the purchase to Baruch, the son of Neriah, the son
   of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel, my uncle's son, and in the
   presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase,
   before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison. Jeremiah did
   all this openly. What they may have thought to be an absurd action, he
   did not do in private, but in the presence of them all! True faith in
   God does not go in for hole-and-corner transactions. Faith can do its
   business in the light of the sun! Faith believes God under all
   circumstances and believes that the truest common sense is to obey His
   Word. Therefore she is not ashamed of what she does--neither shall she
   ever have cause to be ashamed or confounded, world without end! There
   is a living God and if we do what He bids us, good must come of it. No
   harm shall happen to the man who confidently rests in the Most High.

   13-17. And 1 charged Baruch before them, saying, Thus says the LORD
   ofHosts, the God ofIsrael; Take these evidences, this evidence of the
   purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and
   put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. For
   thus says the LORD ofHosts, the God ofIsrael; Houses and fields and
   vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. Now when I had
   delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch, the son of Neriah,
   I prayed unto the LORD, saying, Ah Lord GOD!Faith cannot live without
   prayer. When she has performed her most heroic deeds, she turns to God
   and humbly asks for renewed strength, for oh, my Brothers and Sisters,
   the best of men are but men at the best--and those who have the most
   faith never have any to spare. Jeremiah says, "I prayed unto the Lord,
   saying, Ah Lord God!" It looked, at first sight, as if the Prophet was
   going to utter some mournful complaint, or to express some doubt or
   misgiving concerning the purchase of the land, but it was not so.
   Having allowed that exclamation to escape from him, his faith came to
   the rescue and he continued--

   17. Behold, You have made the Heaven and the earth by Your great power
   and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for You. Is not
   that a grand sentence? "There is nothing too hard for You." He that
   could make the Heaven and the earth can do anything! Read, in the Book
   of Genesis, the story of the creation, and see how, "He spoke, and it
   was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." And then judge as to what
   can ever be a difficulty for the Almighty. Surely you must say to Him,
   as Jeremiah did, "There is nothing too hard for You."

   18. You show loving kindness unto thousands, and recompense the
   iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them;
   the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD ofHosts, is His name. See how these
   godly men, in their times of trouble, delighted in the great names and
   glorious attributes of God. There are, nowadays, many namby-pamby,
   fashionable religionists, wrapped in luxury, who have only a little
   God--they never seem to know "the Great, the Mighty God"--but Jeremiah,
   with the smell of the prison still clinging to him, talks grandly! "The
   Great, the Mighty God, the Lord of Hosts, is His name."

   19-21. Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for Your eyes are open
   upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give everyone according to his
   ways, and according to the fruit of his doings: who has set signs and
   wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and
   among other men; and have made You a name, as at this day; and have
   brought forth Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs,
   and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm,
   and with great terror. Those ancient Jews, in the time of their
   trouble, always looked gratefully back to the wonders worked by Jehovah
   in Egypt. That great deed of God, when He smote the might of Pharaoh,

   was always present to the Hebrew mind and the people, in every season
   of tribulation, refreshed themselves with the remembrance of it. Well,
   then, dear Friends, as they sang the song of Moses, shall not we sing
   the song of the Lamb? Will not we go back in thought to the glorious
   triumphs of our Redeemer and recount again and again, for the
   encouragement of our faith, what Christ did for us upon the Cross, even
   as the Jews thought often, for the strengthening of their confidence,
   of their wondrous deliverance from Egypt by the high hand and the
   stretched out arm of Jehovah?

   22-24. And have given them this land, which You didswear to their
   fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they came
   in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not Your voice, neither walked in
   Your Law; they have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do:
   therefore You have caused all this evil to come upon them: behold the
   mounts. The margin renders it, "the engines of shot," which we see, by
   the next chapter, were powerful enough to throw down the houses in
   Jerusalem.

   24, 25. They are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given
   into the hands of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the
   sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence; and what You have
   spoken is come to pass and, behold, You see it. And You have said unto
   me, O LORD GOD, Buy you the field for money, and take witnesses; for
   the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans. I suppose that,
   although Jeremiah, with unquestioning faith, had done as God had
   commanded him, yet afterwards, when he was alone in his prison cell, he
   began to think the whole matter over. And though he may not have had
   any actual doubts, yet he probably had some anxieties as to the issue
   of the whole affair. He could not quite understand it, so he wisely put
   it before the Lord. Some of you who have truly trusted God, may yet be
   just now perplexed with anxiety of one kind or another. Well, then,
   tell it to the Lord--go at once into His Presence and spread the case
   before Him, as Jeremiah did.

   26, 27. Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I
   am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard
   forMe?That question we will try to answer presently. [Remember, the
   exposition was before the sermon.]
     __________________________________________________________________

Comfort From the Future

   (No. 2676)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 27, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY 30, 1881.

   "You shall forget your misery, and remember it as waters that pass
   away." Job 11:16.

   JOB'S misery was extreme and it seemed as if he could never forget it.
   He never did forget the fact of it, but he did forget the pain of it.
   That he had been utterly miserable would always remain recorded upon
   the tablets of his memory, but the wretchedness itself would not
   remain. It would be so entirely removed that it should be as a thing
   that has been altogether forgotten. Nothing better can happen to our
   misery than that it should be forgotten in the sense referred to in our
   text, for then, evidently, it will be clean gone from us. It will be as
   it is when even the scent of the liquor has gone out of the cask, when
   even the flavor of the bitter drug lingers no longer in the medicine
   glass, but has altogether disappeared. So is it with the sorrow that
   has so effectually gone out of the mind that it is just as though it
   had never been there.

   If anyone here is in misery of any kind--whether it is misery of
   physical pain, or misery of need, or misery of soul on account of sin,
   or the loss of the light of God's Countenance--I can only pray for you,
   dear Friend, that you may speedily forget your misery and only remember
   it as waters that pass away. The thing goes to be done--it is quite
   possible, and you may expect it. If you look carefully at the
   connection of our text and give earnest attention to the matter, I do
   not doubt that you will experience this blessed forgetfulness. When we
   are in pain of body and depression of spirit, we imagine that we never
   shall forget such misery as we are enduring. The sharp plowshare has
   gone down so deeply that we think it has made a mark in the soul that
   can never be erased. We seem to lie all broken in pieces, with our
   thoughts like a case of knives cutting into our spirit, and we say to
   ourselves, "We never shall forget this terrible experience." And yet,
   by-and-by, God turns the palm of His hand towards us and we see that it
   is full of mercy. We are restored to health, or lifted up from
   depression of spirit and we wonder that we ever made so much of our
   former suffering or depression. We remember it no more, except as a
   thing that has passed and gone, to be remembered with gratitude that we
   have been delivered from it, but not to be remembered so as to leave
   any scar upon our spirit, or to cause us any painful reflection
   whatever. "You shall forget your misery, and remember it as waters that
   pass away."

   I. I am not going to limit the application of the text to Job and his
   friends, for it also has a message for many of us at the present time.
   And I shall take it, first, WITH REFERENCE TO THE COMMON TROUBLES OF
   LIFE WHICH AFFECT BELIEVING MEN AND WOMEN.

   These troubles of life, more or less, happen to us all. They come to
   one in one shape and, perhaps, he thinks that he is the only man who
   has any real misery. Yet they also come to others, though possibly in
   another form. There is certainly a cross for every shoulder to bear.
   Simon must not bear the cross alone and all the rest go free. There is
   no road to Heaven without its stones, or without its Hill Difficulty.
   And I think that there are few pilgrims from the City of Destruction
   who get to the Celestial City without passing through the Valley of
   Death and having to fight with giants and even with Apollyon, himself.
   Cowper truly wrote--

   "Thepath of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrow
   is unknown."

   There is much joy in true religion. Wisdom's "ways are ways of
   pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to
   them that lay hold upon her and happy is everyone that retains her."
   But, still, notwithstanding the joy, in addition to it there is sorrow.
   There is misery lurking close by the Believer's pathway and it is
   always ready to pounce upon him somewhere between here and Heaven. The
   Lord of the pilgrims was "a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."
   And His disciples must expect to fare even as their Master fared while
   here below--it is enough for the servant if he is as his Lord.

   You, dear Friends, who are just now enduring misery, should seek to be
   comforted under it. Perhaps you will ask me, "Where can we get any
   comfort?" Well, if you cannot draw any from your present experience,
   seek to gather some from the past. You have been miserable before, but
   you have been delivered and helped. There has come to you a most
   substantial benefit from everything which you have been called to
   endure. You must be conscious that when you think of your troubles, you
   can say, with Hezekiah, "O Lord, by these things men live, and in all
   these things is the life of my spirit: so will You recover me, and make
   me to live." Or you can say, with the Psalmist, "Before I was afflicted
   I went astray: but now have I kept Your word." I believe that, very
   often, God sends His very choicest love tokens to us in black-edged
   envelopes--and many a time has it happened that the great rumbling
   wagons of tribulation have been those which have brought the heaviest
   weight of treasure to the doors of the saints! Do we ever learn much
   without the rod? I fear we do not. Most of us are quickest learners, I
   think, when we smart the most. Well, then, if affliction has been
   profitable in the past, let us rest assured that it will be so in the
   future.

   Let us gather consolation, also, from the future. If, as the Apostle
   truly says, "No chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but
   grievous," recollect how he goes on to say, "Nevertheless afterward it
   yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are
   exercised thereby." I have been trying to ring the changes on those two
   words, during the last few weeks, while I have been laid aside by
   illness--"nevertheless afterward"--"nevertheless afterward"--
   "nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness
   unto them which are exercised thereby." The Apostle James tells us that
   "the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long
   patience for it, until he receives the early and latter rain." He does
   not complain because his corn is buried under the clods and covered
   with the snow. But he lives upon hope and rejoices in the future
   harvest, pleading the promise, "He that goes forth and weeps, bearing
   precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his
   sheaves with him." In your own case, dear Friend, if you are a Believer
   in the Lord Jesus Christ, what will happen in the future? For it is
   with that I would comfort you at this time. Why, this is what will
   happen--"You shall forget your misery, and remember it as waters that
   pass away." How will that be?

   Well, first, by the lapse of time. Time is a wonderful healer. Hearts
   that seem as if they must break when first the trial comes, at last
   grow quite used to it. Look through the veil of a few minutes. Gaze
   through the longer vista of a few years and that which seemed dark as
   tempest wears quite another aspect! Oh, if you whose hearts seem now
   almost ready to burst, could but project yourselves only six months
   ahead--if you could leap forward a year and then look back-- probably
   even in that time you would almost have forgotten your misery!

   Yes, but there is something better than the lapse of years and that is
   when, during a considerable time, you are left without trial. That is a
   sharp pain you are now enduring, but what if you should have years of
   health afterwards? Then you will forget your misery. That is a sad loss
   which you have been called to suffer--it seems to you to be a crushing
   dis-aster--but what if it should be succeeded by years of prosperity?
   Remember how Job forgot his misery when, in a short time, he had double
   as much of all that he possessed as he had before? He had back twice
   the amount of all his former wealth. He had, again, a smiling family
   around him, so he might well forget his misery. Year after year and,
   perhaps, even to his death--it was so as far as we know--Job was again
   a man who had a hedge made round about him and all that he had! And in
   the happiness of his later life he might well forget his former misery.
   Well, now, it is very likely to be so with you after you get through
   this present struggle. Therefore, keep your heart up, believe in God,
   have confidence in Him and all shall be well. There is wonderfully
   smooth sailing on ahead for some of you when you are once over this
   little stretch of broken water. If you can safely pass over this stony
   portion of the road, it will be good traveling for you all the way to
   Heaven! Remember that the horses' heads are towards home--you are
   journeying to your Father's House, so be of good courage, for you shall
   forget your misery and only remember it as waters that pass away!

   And besides the lapse of time, and an interval of rest and calm, it may
   be--it probably is the fact with God's people--that He has in store for
   you some great mercies. When the Lord turns your captivity, you will be
   like they that dream--and you know what happens to men who dream. They
   wake up. Their dream is all gone, they have completely forgotten it. So
   will it be with your sorrow! Through God's goodness, you will seem
   suddenly to wake up out of a dreary dream and then you will begin to
   laugh and soon your mouth will be filled with laughter. You will almost
   despise your former depression of spirit! And when you see the abundant
   mercy of God toward you, all your misery shall seem like a dream that
   has gone, a vision of the night--unreal--that has melted into
   nothingness! Some of you have no idea what is reserved for you--you
   would not be weeping, but laughing, if you knew what God has in store
   for you--I mean, even here below. It is good for us not to be able to
   read the roll closed by the hand of God, but we may be sure that there
   are such blessed things in it concerning our future that each Believer
   may well say, "I will not be bowed down by the trials of the present,
   but my spirit shall rejoice in God who does for me what eye has not
   seen, nor ear heard and what my heart has never conceived."

   Be of good courage, Brothers and Sisters, in these dark, dull times,
   for, perhaps, this text is God's message to your soul, "You shall
   forget your misery, and remember it as waters that pass away." It has
   been so with many, many, many Believers in the past. What do you think
   of Joseph sold for a slave, Joseph falsely accused, Joseph shut up in
   prison? But when Joseph found out that all that trial was the way to
   make him ruler over all the land of Egypt and that he might be the
   means of saving other nations from famine, and blessing his father's
   house, I do not wonder that he called his elder son "Manasseh." What
   does that name mean? "Forgetfulness"--"for God said He has made me
   forget all my toil, and all my father's house." Why, sitting on the
   throne, feeding the nation and blessing his father and his brothers, he
   must have thought that the being cast into the pit, being sold to the
   Ishmaelites and being put into prison was not worth recollecting,
   except for gratitude to God that it ever happened as a means to the
   grand end of helping him into that position of usefulness!

   And Joseph is not the only one who has had such an experience as that.
   Read the Scriptures through and you will find that those whom God has
   called and anointed to eminent service have been put, like the blades
   of Damascus, into the fire and drawn through the fire again and again,
   that in the day of battle they might strike on the northern iron and
   steel and yet not turn their edge! These servants of the Lord have been
   prepared for an immortal destiny by desperate griefs and--

   "The deeper their sorrows, the louder they'll sing."

   As a woman remembers no more her travail, for joy that a man is born
   into the world, so has it happened to the Believer in the time of his
   sorrow--he has forgotten it, cast it all away because of the greater
   joy which God has brought out of it. Jabez is the child of sorrow, but
   he is, therefore, more honorable than his brethren. The more stormy the
   sea, the sweeter the haven. The rougher the road on earth, the better
   the rest above. So, poor tried child of God, believe that this text is
   intended to be a Divine message of comfort to your heart, "You shall
   forget your misery, and remember it as waters that pass away."

   Thus much on the first head.

   II. I should be greatly rejoiced if, in the second place, I might speak
   A CHEERING WORD TO POOR SOULS UNDER DISTRESS ON ACCOUNT OF SIN. I mean
   you who long to be saved, yet cannot understand how it is to come to
   pass, or who, understanding the plan of salvation, are somehow unable
   to appropriate it to yourselves. You feel as if you have your eyes
   bandaged and your feet fast fixed in the stocks, so that you cannot go
   to Christ, cannot even look to Christ and, therefore, your souls are
   full of sorrow. I want you, dear Friends, to especially notice what
   Zophar recommends to a man who has sin upon him. Read the 13th, 14th,
   15th and 16th verses of this chapter--"If you prepare your heart, and
   stretch out your hands toward Him; if iniquity is in your hands, put it
   far away, and let not wickedness dwell in your tabernacles. For then
   shall you lift up your face without spot; yes, you shall be steadfast,
   and shall not fear: because you shall forget your misery, and remember
   it as waters that pass away." I recommend these words to you, also. But
   I have something even better to recommend to you. Does any man here
   say, "I cannot get peace with God. I am full of misery on account of
   sin?" I know all about you, Friend. I have gone that road, long ago. I
   have been splashed up to my very eyes in the mire of the Slough of
   Despond and I sometimes get a little of its mud in my eyes even now.

   Well, now, I exhort you, first of all, to look to Christ and lean on
   Christ Trust in His atoning Sacrifice, for there, alone, can a troubled
   soul find rest. If you say that, somehow, you cannot get peace, then I
   shall have to ask you to see whether, perhaps, sin may not be lying at
   the door. To use Zophar's expression, have you prepared your heart?
   Have you gone to Christ with your whole heart and soul? Have you sought
   Him with all your might? I hope you realize that repentance and faith
   are very bad things to play with, for such play will damn a man's soul.
   These are things to be earnestly used in a most solemn undertaking.
   "The kingdom of Heaven suffers violence" in this matter. We can neither
   repent nor believe with half our heart--it is our whole soul that is
   required if salvation is to be ours. Now, have you sought the Lord with
   all your heart? If you have, you will surely find Him. I am certain
   that you will. And then, afterwards, "you shall forget your misery, and
   remember it as waters that pass away." There was never a man yet who,
   with all his heart, sought the Lord Jesus Christ, but sooner or later
   found Him. And if you have been long in seeking, I lay it to the fact
   that you have not sought with a prepared heart, a thoroughly earnest
   heart, or else you would have found Him.

   But, perhaps, taking Zophar's next expression, you have not stretched
   out your hands toward the Lord, giving yourself up to Him like a man
   who holds up his hands to show that he surrenders. You must come and
   say, "My opposition is over. I now have no quarrel with God. I yield
   unconditionally to Him." The word may refer to one who stretches out
   his hands to grasp whatever may come from God within his reach. He
   stretches out his empty hands, asking to have them filled. He stretches
   out his entreating hands, pleading that God will bless him. Well now,
   if you have done that, you shall get a blessing.

   Further, you may and you shall forget your misery, provided you fulfill
   one more condition mentioned by Zophar, and that is that you are not
   harboring any sin. "If iniquity is in your hands, put it far away, and
   let not wickedness dwell in your tabernacles." There is an
   old-fashioned Grace that I am never ashamed to preach, though some, who
   call themselves evangelists, have folded it up and put it away in the
   back cupboard. They never mention this old-fashioned Grace which is
   called repentance. Now, I learn from the Scriptures that repentance is
   just as necessary to salvation as faith is-- and the faith that has not
   repentance going with it will have to be repented of one of these days.
   A dry-eyed faith is a faith that will save no man. Peter's message was,
   "Repent you, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
   out." And our Lord's own declaration was, "Except you repent, you shall
   all likewise perish." He began His public ministry by crying, "Repent
   and believe the Gospel," which means just this--that if any man is
   living in sin, it is no use his praying, or pretending to believe until
   he gives up that sin. If there is any passion that you are indulging,
   any lust that is your master--if you are carrying on a wicked
   business--if you are living in willful transgression of God's Law,
   Christ can save you from your sins, but even Christ cannot save you in
   your sins. If you will have your sin, you must be lost--so stands God's
   decree. Christ must, by His Grace, separate you from your sin or else
   you will be separated from Him forever. I want this to be a very
   heart-searching word and, therefore, I say to any miserable man or
   miserable woman here-- "You shall forget your misery if you give up
   your sin and trust in the sin-atoning Savior. Come, Friend, you shall
   not say that I am flattering you, for I tell you plainly that you must
   flee for your life from the dearest sin that now lays hold upon you."

   "Oh" you say, "but how am I to do it?" Christ will help you. Trust Him
   to help you. But if you say, "I will trust Him to save me," and yet
   continue to live in sin, He will not save you. That is not the
   salvation that we preach! We proclaim salvation from sin, for that is
   the salvation which Jesus came to bring us. You must, as Zophar said to
   Job, put your iniquity far away--and you must not let wickedness dwell
   in your tabernacles--that is to say, in your tents, in your houses. I
   know some men who will never get peace of conscience and rest of heart
   while they let their wives live as they do, and while they allow their
   children to live as they do. Some of you will not find mercy for
   yourselves while you neglect your children's highest welfare as you do.
   I know some men--I hope they are good men, but certainly they are not
   good fathers--they are so peaceful and gentle that they never like to
   utter a word of reproof. Their boys and girls may go where they like--I
   might almost say that they may go to the devil if they like--yet their
   father has not a word to say to them. Do you call that proper conduct
   for a professedly Christian? There are some parents who allow their
   children to do such things that God is grieved with them for their
   children's sakes--and they will never get peace of mind till they set
   their house in order. What? Is God coming to live where there is no
   family prayer, where there is no care for His name or His day, where
   there is no rebuke of open sin? It has filled me with unspeakable
   sorrow when I have heard of Christian parents whose boys swear and
   whose girls are allowed to go where, if they are not ruined, body and
   soul, it is little short

   of a miracle! Oh, do see that you let not wickedness dwell in your
   tabernacles, you who are the people of God, and you who wish to be His,
   if you would have Zophar's words to Job fulfilled in your experience,
   "Then shall you lift up your face without spot; yes, you shall be
   steadfast, and shall not fear: because you shall forget your misery,
   and remember it as waters that pass away."

   III. Now let me tell you HOW SWEETLY GOD CAN MAKE A SINNER FORGET HIS
   MISERY. The moment a sinner believes in Jesus Christ with true heart
   and repentant spirit, God makes him forget his misery,

   first, by giving him a full pardon. All his sin is forgiven and,
   therefore, he feels ready to dance for joy and he soon forgets his
   misery. By faith, he gets a sight of the great, pardoning Lord and of
   His atoning blood. He sees the Son of God suffering and dying for him
   on the Cross and he is overjoyed at the Revelation of such a wondrous
   redemption. He claps his hands and he forgets his misery.

   Next, he rejoices in all the blessings that God gives with His Grace.
   He reads that those whom Christ has pardoned "are justified from all
   things," from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. He
   learns that they are clothed with the robe of Christ's perfect
   righteousness and he forgets his own nakedness while he rejoices that
   he is so wondrously clothed. He feeds on the Bread of Heaven and
   forgets his former hunger. He drinks of the Water of Life and forgets
   his previous pangs of thirst. He enjoys the liberty of the sons of God
   and he forgets the chains he used to wear as Satan's slave. He has
   peace with God and he forgets the trouble that was such a burden on his
   heart! He is so full of joy that there is no room for sorrow and if,
   perchance, the tear of repentance still lingers in his eyes, it is not
   sullen but sweet sorrow, and the tear glistens in the sunlight of God's
   Countenance like a diamond, or like some choice pearl that slumbers in
   its shell. Oh, Beloved, if you will but come to Christ and leave your
   sin, whatever your misery is, you shall forget it! Or, if you do
   remember it at all, it shall only be to remember it as the snow that
   has melted and vanished, or as the rain that has soaked into the earth,
   "as waters that pass away."

   Now, dear Friends, all that I have been saying to the sinner is quite
   as applicable to every backsliding child of God! It may be that some of
   you who are here are Christians--that is, you have trusted in Christ to
   save you--but you have got into a very sad state of heart. You have not
   half the spiritual life that you once had and, therefore, you do not
   glorify God as you once did. It is most grievous to think how many
   professing Christians live at a poor dying rate--they seem to be barely
   alive, or hardly that. Well, dear Brother or Sister, if you have become
   miserable, I am rather glad that you have! That is part of the way
   towards a better state of things. When a man cannot be happy in a
   backsliding state, he will soon seek to get out of it! The hurt is a
   part of the cure. Solomon says, "The blueness of a wound cleanses away
   evil," and the chastisement which follows sin is often for the healing
   of the sinner.

   IV. I will bring my discourse to a close with this last reflection.
   THIS TEXT WILL COME TRUE TO THE SICKENING, DECLINING, SOON-DEPARTING
   BELIEVER.

   Ah, dear Friend, when you first found out that the complaint from which
   you are suffering really was consumption, what a chill seemed to come
   over everything! When the physician said to you, very tenderly but very
   faithfully, "I fear I cannot do much for you. I can perhaps give you a
   little relief, but I dare not deceive you, for you have an incurable
   dis-ease"--then, although you are a child of God, you endured a great
   deal of misery and spent many long, sleepless nights looking forward
   to, you scarcely knew what. Are you still in that state, my dear
   Sister? As you get worse and worse, do your spirits continue to sink?
   My dear Brother, as you gradually fade away, does the light seem to
   fade, too? Well, then, listen!

   If you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and if you are resting
   alone upon Him, remember that in a very short time, "you shall forget
   your misery, and remember it as waters that pass away." In a very,
   very, very short time, your suffering and sadness will all be over! I
   suppose the expression, "waters that pass away," signifies those rivers
   which are common in the East and which we meet with so abundantly in
   the South of France. They are rivers with very broad channels, but I
   have often looked in vain for a single drop of water in them. "Then,"
   perhaps you ask, "what is the use of such rivers?" Well, at certain
   times, the mountain torrents come rushing down, bearing great rocks,
   stones and trees before them--and then, after they have surged along
   the riverbed for several days, they altogether disappear in the sea!
   Such will all the sorrows of life and the sorrows even of death soon be
   to you, dear Friend, and to me also. They will all have passed away and
   all will be over with us here. The passage to the grave may be sharp,
   but it must be short--

   "The road may be rough, but it cannot be long,

   So I'll smooth it with hope, and cheer it with song."

   And then, you know, dear Friends, those waters that have passed away
   will never come back again. Water that is spilt upon the ground can
   never be gathered up again--and it is one of the charms of the heavenly
   world that our sorrows will never reach us there. No more poverty, no
   more cold, no more heat, no more sin, no more depression of spirits, no
   more pain, no more forsaking of friends, no more sorrow of any kind,
   for, "the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with
   songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and
   gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." That is a very
   beautiful expression--"Sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Here, they
   keep clinging to us, one on one arm and the other on the other! Sorrow
   and sighing will come with us wherever we go and we sometimes say to
   them, "Now, you might go somewhere else, for we do not want you," yet
   they still hold fast to us. But when we get up to the golden gate, no
   sooner shall the eternal light flash on our eyes than we shall look in
   vain for our old companions, for they will be gone! "Sorrow and sighing
   shall flee away" and lest there should be any trace of their mournful
   companionship left, we are expressly told that "God shall wipe away all
   tears from our eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
   nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things
   are passed away."

   Thank God, we shall recollect our sorrows in Heaven only to praise God
   for the Grace that sustained us under them! We shall not remember them
   as a person does who has cut his finger and who still bears the scar in
   his flesh. We shall not recollect them as one does who has been wounded
   and who carries the bullet somewhere about him. In Heaven, you shall
   not have a trace of earth's sorrow! You shall not have, in your
   glorified body, or in your perfectly sanctified soul and spirit, any
   trace of any spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing that shall show that
   you ever had a pain on earth, or even that you ever committed a sin!
   Some diseases, you know, leave marks on our hands or faces, so that we
   say to our friends, "Do you see that lump? It was a time of terrible
   pain that brought that up, and I fear it will not go away." Ah, but in
   Heaven there will be no trace of anything like pain or sorrow of any
   sort. All sorrow and suffering shall be gone and we shall forget our
   misery, or only remember it as waters that have passed away, never to
   come back again.

   This is the sum and substance of all that I have been trying to say to
   you--"Be of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart, all you
   that hope in the Lord." Christians do not live on the comforts of this
   world--their inheritance is on the other side of Jordan. If you are
   like Esau and can be content with red pottage, well, you may have it,
   but you will lose the birthright if you do not prize it. But if you are
   God's true Jacob, you will gladly give up the pottage to get the
   promise of the future inheritance. Oh, what a blessed thing is the
   faith that enables the soul to postpone the present in order to obtain
   that blessed future! For what is the present, after all, but a fleeting
   show, an empty dream? But the future is eternal and incorruptible,
   reserved in Heaven at the right hand of God, where there are pleasures
   forever-more!

   Now that, by God's mercy, I again find myself in your midst after a
   season of sore suffering, I desire to forget my miseries--and some of
   them have been very sharp ones. I am so glad to be here, again, to see
   you all, and I pray that it may be a long time before I am deprived of
   the great privilege of speaking to you in the name of the Lord. I bless
   God tonight and praise His name in the great congregation. And I ask
   for every Brother and Sister that, when your time of misery comes, you
   may be brought through it all and come out of the big end of the horn,
   rejoicing in the cornucopia of God's bounty and blessedness, and
   praising His name, as I do at this time with all my heart! Oh, may
   every one of you find this text to be true to you, "You shall forget
   your misery, and remember it as waters that pass away"! The blessing of
   the Lord be with you all forevermore! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOB 11.

   The words we are about to read were spoken by one of Job's three
   friends--or what if I call them his three tormentors? These men did not
   speak wisely and their argument was not altogether sound. But, for all
   that, in the instance before us, Zophar the Naamathite spoke that which
   was truthful. Although he made a great mistake in turning it against
   Job, yet what he said was, in the main, correct, and we may learn from
   it as we read it. Remember, dear Friends, that whenever you read the
   words of these three men, you must take them with a good many grains of
   salt. They are not to be

   accepted as if they were God's Word, because they are not. Those three
   men were mistaken in many points, yet very much of what they said was
   weighty and valuable--and is still worthy of our careful consideration.

   Verses 1-3. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, Should not
   the multitude of words be answered? And should a man full of talk be
   justified? Should your lies make men hold their peace? And when you
   mock, shall no man make you ashamed?This was a very bitter and cruel
   speech. Zophar was not using the language of friendship, or even of
   common courtesy. First, he charged Job with being a great talker, "a
   man full of talk." No doubt Job did speak well and eloquently, but to
   retort upon him that he was a man abundant in words was a very cruel
   thing, especially when he was in such a condition of distress and
   suffering. Yet, dear Friends, it is an evil thing to be men of tongue
   and not of hand. It is a dreadful thing to be men--or, for that matter,
   women--who are "full of talk" and, therefore, have no room for anything
   else. There are some people who seem to think that simply by their
   volubility they can carry all before them! In such a case we may say
   with Zophar, "Should not the multitude of words be answered? And should
   a man full of talk be justified?" But he went beyond these questions
   and charged Job with downright lying because he had pleaded his own
   inno-cence--"Should your lies make men hold their peace?" Zophar also
   insinuated that Job fumed and frothed, as it were, and spoke folly,
   which he certainly did not do, for he spoke in solemn, sober earnest if
   ever a man did.

   4. For you have said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in Your eyes.
   Job did not say that. At least he did not say it in so many words. He
   did endeavor to prove his own innocence of the false charges that were
   brought against him, but he never said that he was clean in God's eyes.

   5. 6. But oh that God would speak, and open His lips against you; and
   that He would show you the secrets ofwis-dom, that they are double to
   that which is!Oh, that God would enable you, dear Friends, to see your
   sin and make you perceive that there is a double meaning in His Law--a
   deep, underlying, spiritualmeaning, as well as that which is apparent
   on the surface, so that a man may be guilty of transgression even when
   he thinks it is not! Oh, that God would unveil the secrets of His
   wisdom so as to make you see that He is wiser than all His works, that
   His hidden wisdom is double that which you have been able to perceive
   in Nature, or in Providence, and infinitely greater than He has ever
   made it appear before men's eyes!

   6. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity
   deserves. That was a hard thing for Zophar to say to Job but, still, it
   was true--and it is true in the case of all of us! "He has not dealt
   with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities."
   Even when a man sits down among the ashes, robbed of all his property
   and bereaved of all his children--and when he has to scrape himself
   with a potsherd because of his many boils--even then it may be truly
   said to him, "God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves."

   7. Can you, by searching, find out God? Can you find out the Almighty
   unto perfection! What amazing questions these are! How they ought to
   convict those who glibly talk of God as if they could measure Him with
   a ruler and understood exactly what He ought to do and ought to be. We
   are constantly meeting with statements that such-and-such a thing,
   which is revealed in Scripture, cannot be true because it is
   inconsistent with the modern idea of the benevolence of God! Our only
   answer to the quibbler is, "Can you, by searching, find out God? Can
   you find out the Almighty unto perfection?"

   8. 9. It is as high as Heaven; what can you do? Deeper than Hell; what
   can you know! The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader
   than the sea. God is incomprehensible by any finite mind--and He is
   Omnipotent, too.

   10. IfHe cuts off, andshuts up, or gathers together, then who can
   hinderHim?\f He sees fit to destroy men, or for a while to make them
   prisoners. Or if He pleases to gather them together and multiply them
   like the hosts of Heaven, who can hinder Him?

   11. For He knows vain men. He sees wickedness, also. Will He not then
   consider it? Wickedness hidden under the veil of night, God sees as
   clearly as in the blaze of noon. Wickedness which never comes out of
   the heart, but tarries there, and does not lead into overt action, God
   sees. "Will He not then consider it?" Of course He will!

   12. For vain man--That is just what man is by nature! The best of men
   are vanity--emptiness. "For vain man"-- 12. Would be wise. He pretends
   to wisdom. He wishes to be thought wise. He likes to wear a wise man's
   title. "Vain

   man would be wise."

   12. Though man is born like a wild ass's colt As untamed, as ignorant,
   as willful as a wild ass's colt are we by nature. Zophar seems to think
   that he has sufficiently rebuked Job for pretending to be wise and for
   complaining that God was dealing unjustly with him. So now he begins to
   admonish him to repent.

   13-18. If you prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands toward
   Him; if iniquity is in your hands, put it far away, and let not
   wickedness dwell in your tabernacles. For then shall you lift up your
   face without spot; yes, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear:
   because you shall forget your misery, and remember it as waters that
   pass away: and your age shall be clearer than the noonday; you shall
   shine forth, you shall be as the morning. And you shall be secure,
   because there is hope; yes, you shall dig about you, and you shall take
   your rest in safety. I t is a great mercy when God enables men to
   pursue their daily callings and to take their nightly rest in safety.
   And it is a still greater mercy when they feel secure, whether they
   live or die, because they have a good hope concerning the hereafter. It
   is an unspeakable blessing when sin is washed away and a man can lift
   up his face to God without spot, and walk in the light of Jehovah's
   Countenance all the day long!

   19, 20. Also you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; yes,
   many shall make suit unto you. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail.
   Carefully notice this very solemn prophecy--the eyes that have looked
   upon sin with pleasure--the eyes that have flashed with lascivious
   desire--the eyes that have dared to look towards God with defiance or
   derision-- "the eyes of the wicked shall fail."

   20. And they shall not escape. To what place could they escape from
   God, when He is everywhere? During the days when the Roman empire
   extended all over the world, people said that the whole earth was one
   great prison for Caesar's enemies. And the universe itself is a vast
   prison for those who are condemned of God! Where shall they go to avoid
   arrest? Where shall they flee to get beyond God's reach? They cannot
   escape anywhere! There is neither hole nor corner, even in the bowels
   of the mountains, or in the flinty hearts of the rocks, where a sinner
   can hide himself from the hand of God! "They shall not escape."

   20. And their hope. The last thing that ever dies, "their hope"--

   20. Shall be as the giving up of the ghost Like death itself, their
   hope shall be. Then, if "their hope shall be as the giving up of the
   ghost," what hope is there for them? Let us not have our portion with
   them, else we shall be as hopeless as they are!
     __________________________________________________________________

Spiritual Religion

   (No. 2677)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 3, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A THURSDAY EVENING, EARLY IN
   THE YEAR 1858.

   "It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing." John 6:63.

   To a casual reader, it looks as if the meaning of this passage lay upon
   the very surface, but he who has studied the chapter carefully has
   discovered that it is a sentence replete with many difficulties as to
   the exact interpretation of it. I shall not, however, waste your time
   by entering into any critical discussion of it, but shall only try to
   give you simply what I believe to be the mind of the Spirit, as uttered
   by the lips of Jesus in this passage. And after I have done that, I
   shall then revert to what I shall call the meaning which any person
   would give to it who is not a diligent and careful student of
   Scripture. That meaning being true, although not the special Truth of
   God taught in this passage, I shall briefly enlarge upon it.

   "It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing." I suppose
   there is not a man in the world who could form any intelligent idea of
   what a spirit is. It is very easy for persons to define a spirit by
   saying what it is not, but I question whether there is, or ever could
   be, any man who could form any idea of what it is. We sometimes talk
   about seeinga spirit--ignorant persons in ages gone by--and some living
   now in benighted villages talk about seeing spirits by night. They must
   know that such talk is a contradiction. Matter can be seen, but a
   spirit, if it clothed itself in any light substance, could not even
   then be seen--it would only be the substance that would be visible! The
   spirit itself is a thing which can neither be tasted, handled, seen,
   nor discerned in any way whatever by our senses, for if it could thus
   be perceived, there would then be proof positive that it was not a
   spirit at all, but that it belonged to the material realm. We divide
   all things into matter and spirit. And whatever can be recognized by
   the senses in any way, is matter, depend on it. A spirit is itself a
   thing too subtle to be either seen or in any other way perceived by the
   senses, so I repeat what I said just now, that I suppose there is no
   man living, and that there never will be any man in this mortal state
   who will be able to accurately define a spirit so as to say what it is,
   though he may be able to say what it is not.

   Now, there is a region where there are spirits dwelling without any
   bodies being connected with them. It is certain that, in the world to
   come, in that state which now intervenes between the death of the
   saints and the day of the resurrection, they are dwelling before the
   Throne of God in a disembodied state--pure spirits, without any
   corporeal form whatever. It is quite certain that the saints before the
   Throne have no semblance of bodily shape whatever. They are pure
   spirits--beings whose substance we cannot imagine--purely immaterial,
   as they are also immaculate. But, on earth, you can find no such thing
   as a pure spirit. We are all spirits in bodies and, somehow, from the
   fact that wherever we find souls and spirits, they are always found in
   bodies, we are very apt to confuse bodies and spirits together. But let
   us always understand that bodies and spirits are distinct things and
   though it has pleased God, in this world, never to make a spirit
   without making a house for it to dwell in, called the body, yet the
   body is not the spirit. "It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh
   profits nothing."

   You will easily perceive the truth of this passage if you will
   recollect that, in man's body, no one can tell where the life is
   situated. In vain the surgeon lays the body on the table and dissects
   it--he will find life neither in the brain nor in the heart. He may cut
   the body in pieces as he pleases, but he will not find anything that he
   can lay hold upon, tangible and real, and say, "That is life." He can
   see all the effects and evidences of life. He can watch the various
   parts of the body

   moving. He can behold all the appearances of life which are caused by a
   supernatural something, but he cannot see life. That is altogether
   beyond his skill and, after all his searching, he must lay down his
   scalpel and say at once, "There now, the task is all over. There is a
   spirit that quickens this body, but in my search after life, this flesh
   profits me nothing. I might as well search for a soul within a stone,
   or within one of the pillars that support this house, as search for a
   soul within mere flesh and blood if I look for something which I can
   see, which I can lay hold of, or which, by either taste, sight,
   smelling, or any other sense, I can distinguish and can designate as
   being a spirit."

   So, Brothers and Sisters, this illustration just brings me to the Truth
   of God that is taught in our text. We are here assembled, at this
   moment, spirits, souls. Here we are, also, bodies, but these bodies are
   not ourselves--they are the houses in which we live. I question whether
   there is any man who can define what he, himself, is. The most that any
   man can say is, "I am. I know I have an existence, but what kind of
   thing my spirit is, I do not know, I cannot tell. I have no knowledge
   of what it is. I feel it. I know it moves my body. I feel its outward
   manifestations. I am certain of my existence. But what I am, I know
   not. God alone can say." "I AM THAT I AM," is comprehensible only to
   God Himself. Man is a being incomprehensible to himself and though the
   Lord may allow him to say, "By the Grace of God I am what I am," he
   cannot tell what he really is--he cannot fully comprehend his own
   existence!

   Understand, then, that, as in our being there is a mystery in our
   flesh, so religion, the true religion of the blessed God, in order to
   be made like unto us and to be a something suitable to us, must be a
   religion of spirit But, because we also have a body, it must have a
   body in which to clothe itself. I want, if I can, to make this plain to
   you. And if you do not understand it now, I hope you will before I have
   done. We are spirits in bodies. Well, then, in order to meet our cases,
   the great work of God in us must be a spiritual thing! But in order
   that I may be able to talk about it to you and that you may be able to
   hear it with your ears, that spiritual thing must be encased in a body.
   Or else, if it were a purely spiritual thing, I could not explain it to
   you any more than I could explain to you about a spirit, if there were
   no body in which a spirit could be found, and no body in which I could
   be able to live to talk about it.

   I want to show you this Truth very clearly, because there are some
   persons who are so busy about that which concerns merely the body of
   religion that they altogether forget that religion has also a spirit. I
   believe that what our Lord Jesus meant in this passage was, "The mere
   embodiment of religion profits nothing; it is the spirit that
   quickens." Just as, to use my figure over again, in order to perform an
   act the mere flesh and blood and arms and legs profit nothing, it is
   the spirit that quickens all the bones and makes the nerves act as they
   ought to do and the sinews work as they should. And so religion has its
   outward form, it has its ceremonies, it has its external and visible
   developments--its body--but the mere outward body of religion is of no
   use whatever unless the inward and invisible spirit quickens it.

   I. To begin, then, I WILL FIRST SHOW YOU THIS TRUTH AS OUR SAVIOR, I
   THINK, MEANT IT WHEN HE FIRST OF ALL STATED IT.

   There were some people, in our Savior's day, who admired Christ merely
   as a Man. And they thought there was some marvelous efficacy in His
   flesh and blood. To them He said, using almost the very words of our
   text, "Even My flesh will profit you nothing; it is the spirit that
   quickens." I must state this Truth of God very cautiously, yet very
   plainly. When our Savior was upon this earth, there were some, I
   repeat, who admired His Person. You remember how our Savior rebuked the
   woman who said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the
   breasts which nursed You"? He would not have people simply admire His
   flesh and think so much of His mere Humanity, so He said to her, "More
   than that, blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it."

   There were some other people who wanted to take the Lord Jesus and make
   Him a king, but, in effect, He said to them, "My flesh, even if you
   exalt it to a throne, will profit you nothing. I did not come here that
   you might bow down and venerate My mere flesh--that you might think the
   mere admiration of My mortal frame is vital religion. It is the spirit,
   the Gospel that I came to preach, that will benefit you. It is not
   these outward appearances. It is My thoughts, Words and acts which are
   to bless you." Hear what the Savior says in the next sentence, "It is
   not your admiration of My flesh that is of any use to you, for My flesh
   profits nothing; it is the spirit that quickens; and if you want to
   know what is the spirit of My Incarnation, I tell you that the Words
   that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life. It is not your
   venerating My flesh and blood, it is your reception of My doctrines
   that will be the heart and soul of the religion that I desire you to
   possess."

   Our Savior was, however, led to make these remarks from the fact that
   the ignorant Jews, when Jesus talked about eating His flesh and
   drinking His blood, really thought that He meant that they were to turn
   cannibals and eat Him up. You may well smile at so ridiculous an idea,
   yet you know that the idea is still prevalent in the Church of Rome.
   The Romish priest solemnly assures us that the people who eat the bread
   and drink the wine, or the stuff he calls bread and wine, do actually
   act the part of cannibals and eat the body of Christ and drink His
   blood. You say to him, "You mean, my dear Sir, that they do it in a
   figure, spiritually." "No," he says, "I do not. I mean to say that
   after I have pronounced certain words over that bread, it becomes
   Christ's flesh. And after I have said a certain prayer over that wine,
   it becomes His actual blood." "Well," we reply to him, "it is very
   singular, and you certainly cannot expect us to believe you while God
   allows our heads to be occupied by brains! But even if we do believe
   you, my dear Sir, we refer you to this passage which says, 'It is the
   Spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing.' You tell the people
   that they do actually and really receive the body and blood of Christ.
   Suppose they do--it is no earthly use to them! And even if they could
   carnally bite the flesh with their teeth and drink the blood down their
   throats, it would be of no more use to them than the eating of the
   flesh and blood of any other man. It could be of no service whatever to
   them, for Christ Himself denounces the error of transubstantiation and
   declares that even His flesh profits nothing! It is only the spirit,
   the spiritual receiving of that flesh and blood, that can be of any use
   whatever."

   While I am referring to this point, allow me to say just a few more
   words upon it, for Popery prevails in this day, and the doctrine that
   the bread and wine are turned into the body and blood of Christ is the
   bulwark of Popery. Dr. Carson, of Coleraine, son of Dr. Carson the
   eminent Baptist, has challenged Dr. Cahill in a remarkable way. He has
   challenged Dr. Cahill to prove that he can turn the bread and wine used
   in the sacrament into Christ's body and blood. He offers to give Dr.
   Cahill a hundred pounds if he will let him make a wafer for him and, if
   Dr. Cahill will then put it on his own tongue and swallow it in Mr.
   Carson's presence, "if the Doctor is not dead in an hour," says Dr.
   Carson, "I'll give him a hundred pounds." "No," says someone, "that is
   not fair." "Oh, but if he can turn it into the body and blood of
   Christ, it cannot hurt him, whatever it may contain." "But would you
   make it of poison, then?" "Yes, the deadliest I could find." "Would you
   give him poison?" "I would not give it to him--he would swallow it
   himself--he would do it of his own voluntary choice." Of course Dr.
   Cahill will not submit to that test! He knows that he cannot turn the
   wafer and the wine into the body and blood of Christ--if he could, Dr.
   Carson says it would not hurt him, for the body and blood of Christ
   would poison no one.

   But some wise Romanist says, "That is not a fair test. Dr. Cahill does
   not pretend to turn poison into the body and blood of Christ--it is
   only pure bread and wine that can thus be manipulated." "Very well,"
   says Dr. Carson, "I'll try him another way. I will let him choose a
   youth from seven or eight Catholic boys. He shall take a quart of wine
   and turn this wine, in his own peculiar way, into the blood of Christ.
   The boy shall drink the quart of wine and if he is not drunk in six
   hours, I will pay the hundred pounds." "Now," says Dr. Carson, "if that
   liquid is really the blood of Christ, it will not make him drunk! He
   might drink a barrel of it and it would not make him intoxicated." But
   Dr. Cahill dares not accept such a trial as that, for it would very
   soon be found that the so-called "consecrated" wine would make the boy
   intoxicated as quickly as any other wine would! Therefore it cannot be
   turned, even by the great Doctor, himself, into the blood of Christ.
   [We assume Dr. Cahill is a priest.]

   The fact is, the lie is so foolish, the delusion is so absurd, that any
   child of a reasonable age would as soon think of believing the cock and
   bull story which we used to read in our childish days, about what the
   bull said, and what the cock said, to be actual truth, as to imagine it
   to be a literal fact that any priest, or any man in the world, could
   ever turn bread and wine into flesh and blood! But even if they could,
   hear again the words of our text--"It is the spirit that quickens; the
   flesh profits nothing." So, then, after all, the Roman Catholic
   "sacrament," if it is actually a cannibal's feast upon the body and
   blood of Christ, is of no earthly use! But that Divinely-appointed
   ordinance wherein we do spiritually receive the flesh and blood of
   Jesus and, in a spiritual way hold communion with Him, is that alone
   which quickens!

   This brings me to the Truth of God that I want you, dear Friends,
   especially to understand. As Christ Jesus in His flesh was the
   embodiment of His own doctrine, and yet not His flesh, but the spirit
   of His doctrine quickens souls, so the outward forms and ceremonies
   which Christ has made to be the body to contain the spirit of His
   Truth, are of no earthly use at all unless the Spirit of God is in
   them!

   Take, for instance, the ordinance of Believers' Baptism--there are the
   pool and the water. That pool and that water are, so to speak, the
   flesh and blood of dedication. The right observance of that holy
   ordinance signifies that we do solemnly devote ourselves to the Lord
   Jesus. Suppose, however, our hearts are in a wrong condition, or that
   we are not converted persons--suppose there is no influence of the
   Spirit resting upon us during the act of Baptism? Then the act of
   Baptism is like the flesh apart from the spirit--it is a dead thing, it
   profits nothing because it is without the soul. We come, the next
   Sabbath, to the Lord's Table--there is the bread broken by God's
   servant. There is the wine reverently handed round by the deacons of
   the Church and it is sipped by the communicants. But, mark you, however
   devoutly the whole service is performed, unless the Spirit of the
   living God breathes through the Divine ordinance, "the flesh"--that is,
   the mere embodiment of communion--will profit you nothing! You might
   sit at a thousand communion tables and you might be baptized in a
   myriad pools--but all this would not avail one jot or tittle for your
   salvation unless you had the Spirit of God to quicken you!

   No, to go further, it is not these two outward ordinances only that
   need the Spirit in them--it is so in everything else. You have
   sometimes read, dear Friends, of some eminent Christians who grew to
   have much fellowship with Christ by prayer. Perhaps you imbibed the
   idea that if you were to go home and spend as many hours in your closet
   as they did, you would get as much profit by it--but not thinking about
   the Holy Spirit, you simply devote yourself to private prayer as you
   might to any manual exercise--with a hope of profiting by the exercise.
   I tell you, you might be on your knees till your knees were worn bare
   and you might be in your closet till the steam of your devotion ran
   down the walls, but unless the Spirit of the Lord was in that closet
   with you, the mere fleshly exercise of praying would no more avail and
   profit you than if you had been chanting songs to the moon, or standing
   in the street to sell your goods!

   Another hears that a certain person has been very much blessed by
   reading a text of Scripture. "Oh," he says, "has that text been blessed
   to such an one? Then I'll go and read the same passage." You think that
   if you do the same as he does, you will be equally blessed and you are
   marvelously surprised that when you read the passage, it does you no
   good. It made his spirit leap for joy. It filled his soul with the wine
   of the Kingdom of God, but to you it is like a dry well, or an empty
   bottle. Why is this? The mere letter, in which the promise is revealed,
   profits you nothing--it is the spirit of the promise, it is the life of
   the Holy Spirit running through the veins of the promise that alone can
   profit you! You hear that another man meditates on God's Law day and
   night and becomes like a tree planted by the rivers of water. You say,
   "I will take care that, every morning, I will read a chapter out of the
   Scriptures and that, every night, I will read twochap-ters." There are
   certain people who think that if they read a good passage out of the
   Bible, they have done a great deal. In that kind of spirit, they might
   just as well read a portion out of Hudibras, for they just read it
   straight through, without thinking or understanding it.

   Many of our ministers think that in the public service they must read a
   certain quantity of Scriptures and they take, perhaps, three long
   chapters out of Ezekiel--and not a soul in the congregation knows the
   meaning of what they are reading! If they were to read a Dutch sermon
   in an English chapel, it would do the hearers just about as much good,
   for no one understands what they read. Instead of reading, as Ezra did,
   and expounding the meaning to the people, they must go on over hedge
   and ditch--one continual steeple-chase! Instead of stopping to crack
   the shells and give the kernels of Truth to the people, they read right
   on, without attempting to give any explanation of the passage. To such
   persons, we would simply say, "Your Bible reading is but the flesh, it
   is of no use to you, 'it is the spirit that quickens.' The mere flesh,
   the outward fashion and form of Bible reading will not profit anybody.
   One sentence of the Bible prayed over and bedewed with the Spirit, and
   made alive, though it is only a short sentence of six words, will
   profit you more than a hundred chapters without the Spirit, because
   they are 'flesh'--dead! But the one verse with the Spirit is the thing
   that quickens."

   I do not know whether I have as yet brought out the full meaning of the
   text, but I want to let everyone understand that it is not the mere
   outward embodiment of our religion that saves the soul and that profits
   us--it is the inner spirit of the thing that does us good. Mark, I
   would not find fault with any of these forms, any more than I would
   find fault with our bodies because they are not spirits. Our bodies are
   good things for our spirits to live in and the forms of religion are
   good things for the spirit of religion to live in--but the form without
   the spirit, though it is the most decorous, and apparently the most
   devout that can be presented to God, can be of no use for our soul's
   eternal profit and ultimate salvation. "It is the spirit that quickens;
   the flesh profits nothing."

   Now, my dear Friend, Mr. So-and-So, if you will just take out your
   pencil and cast up your accounts for all the years of your life, the
   sum of them all will come to very little if what I say is true. "I
   think," you say, "I am a tolerably good sort of man. I have a few
   faults, but just look at what I have done! I have been to Chapel twice
   every Sunday almost since I was a boy--I don't know that I missed once,
   except when I was ill--that has been very good of me, and no mistake. I
   always read the Bible every morning. I always have family prayer--that
   is very good of me. Another item to be reckoned to my account--I say my
   prayers when I go to bed at night, and when I get up in the morning. I
   very frequently go to Prayer Meetings. I don't think anyone can
   reasonably find fault with me. Really, I think I do everything to make
   me a truly religious man."

   Ah, and did you put at the end of it, "Lord, I thank You that I am not
   as other men are--unjust, extortioners," and so on, or even like that
   poor fellow, a Sabbath-breaker, whom you saw going the opposite way as
   you were coming to your usual place of worship? It is a pity you didn't
   finish it up in that fashion--but if you did not in words, you finished
   it up so in your heart! I pray God to show you that all these beautiful
   things of yours are good for nothing! There are your Chapel-goings--all
   flesh! There are your Bible readings--all flesh! There are your family
   prayers--all flesh! There are your good works and excellences--all
   flesh! You have never received the Spirit of the living God--you dare
   not say that you have. Well, then, all these things will profit you
   nothing whatever.

   "It is the spirit that quickens," you know, my dear Sir--and let me
   speak very pointedly--you know that you never enter into the spirit of
   the things of which you have been speaking. Though you go to your
   church or chapel regularly, yet you know that you might very often just
   as well be at home, for when the worshippers sing, you do not sing with
   all your heart--and when the minister preaches, it is seldom there is
   much that touches you, unless it is what you call "a good intellectual
   discourse," which happens to please you--and you believe it just
   because it agrees with your views. You know that, into the inward soul,
   marrow and heart of devotion, you have never yet learned to penetrate.
   Your devotion is like a certain ox which was slain as a sacrifice in
   the time of siege in Rome, and was said to forecast evil because, when
   the sorcerer slew it, he declared that he could not find a heart
   anywhere. He looked through all the entrails, but no heart could he
   discover and, therefore, the Romans declared that their city must be
   destroyed. It was an omen of ill fortune, they said, when the sacrifice
   had no heart in it.

   It is just the same with you. You have done all these things and there
   has been as much reality in what you have done as there was devotion in
   the poor fool's windmill, when he tied a prayer to it and put it up in
   the garden--every time it blew round, he counted that as one more
   prayer. There was as much heart in your prayer as there was in his
   windmill-- that is to say, none at all! Go on no longer with this
   useless round of performances, I implore you. I would not have you give
   up the performances, but seek the spirit that can make them true and
   acceptable in God's sight. Stop awhile and ask God to give you that
   inward spirit that quickens, for that is what is needed--"the flesh
   profits nothing."

   But I must also speak to you who are the children of God, and I must
   ask you--How often do you forget this all-important Truth of God? I
   know it is not likely that I would leave my chamber any morning without
   prayer. But, oh, Brothers and Sisters, I have often left it without
   having the spirit of prayer! I should not like to pass a day without
   reading the Scriptures, but I am afraid it is very often the mere
   "flesh" of formal reading and not the spirit breathing in the Word. And
   how often is our conscience satisfied with the mere form without the
   spirit? Now, if we were what we ought to be, we would never be content
   with the form unless we could also see the spirit in it.

   Mother, would you be content to have at home a child who was dead?
   Suppose someone should say to you, "Why, this child is just as good a
   child as ever it was! Look at it! It has not lost a leg, or an arm, or
   any part of its body!" "Ah, but," you would say, "it is dead." "Oh,"
   says one, "there is no great difference. It looks as beautiful, now, as
   ever it did." "Ah," says the poor mother, "but there is a vast deal of
   difference between what it was when it was alive, and what it is now it
   is dead." Just transfer that idea to your poor dead prayers, your poor
   dead Bible readings, your poor dead sacraments, your poor dead goings
   to chapel and all that! Ah, how many of our sacrifices are just poor
   dead things when we bring them to the Lord! They have died in the night
   and then we come and offer them before God! How frequently do we
   satisfy our conscience with having "the flesh"--the embodiment of the
   sacrifice--and yet, all the while, we forget the spirit! But let us
   remember that God only looks for the life. He does not trouble about
   the body and we ought, in all we do for him, to take care, first of
   all, that the spirit is there and then we may rest quite sure that the
   flesh and blood of the devotion will take care of themselves.

   II. This, I believe, is the true meaning of the passage. But the common
   rendering of it, if anyone reads it without noticing the context, would
   be, "Why, that means, 'It is the Spirit that quickens.' That is to say,
   'IT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT THAT QUICKENS; THE FLESH PROFITS NOTHING.'"

   Our friend will excuse me when I say that it cannot mean that. You
   notice that the "s" in the word, "spirit," in the text has not a
   capital letter. If it meant the Holy Spirit, it would be so marked, to
   separate it from the spirit to which I have just referred--the inward
   spirit, the life of a thing. This word, "spirit," here does not mean
   the Holy Spirit. Still, almost every ordinary reader would make that
   mistake and say, "It is the Holy Spirit that quickens; the flesh
   profits nothing." Well, it is a mistake that will not do him any hurt,
   because if it does not say so here, it does say so somewhere else! And
   if it is not true in this one particular text, it is true all over the
   Bible! And it is true in a Christian's experience, so that a man may
   make a great many worse mistakes than that. Well, then, let us for once
   make that mistake, and then let us get the Truth of God out of it--"It
   is the Holy Spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing"--

   "Can anything beneath a power Divine

   The stubborn will subdue?

   'Tis Yours, Eternal Spirit, Yours

   To form the heart anew.

   'Tis Yours the passions to recall,

   And upwards bid them rise

   And make the scales of error fall

   From Reason's darkened eyes.

   To chase the shades of death away,

   And bid the sinner live--

   A beam of Heaven, a vital ray--

   'Tis Yours alone to give."

   How often have I thought, when I have been preaching, "There is a young
   woman in the gallery and down there in that area is a young man--how
   interested they look during the sermon!" I have met with them, I have
   admired their characters. They have had an amiable carriage and
   deportment. There has been much in them that everybody would tell
   others to imitate and emulate. I have said, "Ah, I shall soon have them
   added to the Church--there is so much that is good about them, it will
   be such an easy transition for them--they are so moral and so
   excellent, surely it will be very easy for them to take a step into the
   Kingdom of Heaven." I don't say that I have said so much as that in
   words to my heart, but that has been about what I have thought. Well,
   there has been a very different sort of fellow, a strange looking
   object, certainly, who came running into the Chapel one Thursday
   evening, towards the end of the service. He was not even washed, nor in
   any way prepared for Divine worship--he only came to hear something
   that would make him laugh, as he thought. I did not expect to have him
   converted, but the next time I sat to see enquirers, in he
   came--cleaned and brushed up--but I recognized him, for all that, and I
   said to him, "Didn't you come into the Chapel, one Thursday night,
   after you had been hammering and tinkering away somewhere? I thought
   you looked a strange customer, certainly." "Yes," he said, "and the
   Lord met with me that night!"

   Now, I sat many and many a time to see enquirers, but I did not see the
   young man or the young woman come. Why was this? The Lord meant to
   teach His servant that "the flesh profits nothing." That man seemed to
   me far from God, but that young man and that young woman seemed very
   near. But the Lord said to me, "I will let you learn that all their
   morality and all their goodness did not put them near the Kingdom of
   Heaven, or help towards their salvation. I could save one as well as
   the other, and if I chose to show My Sovereignty, I might even let
   publicans and harlots enter the Kingdom of Heaven before those who,
   becoming proud of their morality, would not stoop before Me."

   Have you not, sometimes, met with a person of such a peculiar character
   that you have said, "Is it not a pity someone cannot talk with that
   man?" I often have notes of this sort. A father writes to me, "I wish
   you could get hold of my son. He is a very interesting young man. If
   you were to put the Truth before him to suit his turn of mind, he would
   be sure to lay hold of it, for if you knew how he was mentally
   constituted, you would say at once there was a peculiar adaptation in
   his mind for the reception of the Gospel." Well, I have been told that
   a dozen times, but I never found it true even once! "The flesh profits
   nothing." No peculiar adaptation of mind is any more susceptible of
   Gospel influences than another. Dead sinners are all dead and all dead
   alike! Some may be black and some may be white--some may be well washed
   and

   dressed, and some may have all the mire and filth of sensuality about
   them--but they are all dead! And when converting Grace comes to deal
   with them, it finds as much for its exercise in the one case as in the
   other. It finds as much to help it in the one heart as in the
   other--that is to say, it finds nothing to help it at all. It brings
   all that is helpful within itself--it kindles its own fire with its own
   torch! It blows the fire with its own breath and asks for nothing in
   the sinner, be he who he may!

   Then, again, we have sometimes said, "If such-and-such a man were
   converted, dear me, what a shining Christian he would make! He is a man
   of brilliant talents, of great intellectual power and of extensive
   fortune. Oh, if he were but converted, what a jubilee it would be to
   the Church of God! How much he would do for Christ!" Well, do you know,
   I have always found out that these fine people who, when they were
   converted, were to be something extraordinary--if they have been
   converted and we have got them--have not turned out to be quite so
   great after all! I knew a minister once, who, with great joy and
   gladness, baptized a man. It was on a New-Year's Day and I remember
   with what self-congratulation he said, "The Lord has sent me one of the
   best New-Year's gifts I ever had." And he looked upon that man and
   said, "Ah, this is a Brother! He is a great gain to the Church. He is a
   man of such active spirit, of such an excellent turn of mind and he is
   everything that could be desired." Well, I have just happened to live
   long enough to see that man tear the church apart and drive the
   minister out of his pulpit! And he is still alive--a thorn in the side
   of that church and a huge prickly bramble that they would be glad
   enough to eradicate--but they have not the power to do that. No, the
   Lord will show us that "the flesh profits nothing." "You may have him,"
   says the Lord, "if he is such a fine fellow, take him. You will find he
   will not be much good to you, after all. I will let you know that 'the
   flesh profits nothing.' 'It is the Spirit alone that quickens.'"

   On the other hand, we have seen some come whose "flesh" could not help
   them. They were the poor, the mean, the illiterate, the despised--and
   we have seen the Grace of God blaze up in their hearts to an intense
   degree of fervor! And we have seen them stand confident and strong,
   notwithstanding the nothingness of the flesh. And then we have said,
   "Verily, O God, it is marvelous how, when the flesh is weak, Your Grace
   is strong." And we have heard an answer from "the excellent glow,"
   which said, "Ah, the flesh profits nothing; it is the Spirit that
   quickens."

   Now, I do not believe that there is any form of our flesh, nor any act
   of our flesh, nor anything that our flesh can do, or attempt to do, or
   think of, or suggest, that can in any way assist in the great spiritual
   work of our salvation. It is the Spirit alone that quickens, and you
   will find, till you die, that "the flesh profits nothing," and profits
   no one except the devil. It often profits him, but in God's ways. And
   in God's holy Gospel, you will always find the flesh lusting against
   the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. You will have to feel
   this Truth, that the flesh at its best estate profits nothing. "It is
   the Spirit that quickens."

   Now, my Brothers and Sisters, in conclusion, I will ask you this
   question--Have you received the influences of the Holy Spirit? And have
   those influences led you to worship God, who is a Spirit, "in spirit
   and in truth?" For, if not, though some may put you in the cradle of
   ceremonies and rock you to sleep, I will not be one of them! Although
   men may tell you you are right enough because you are outwardly so
   religious, because you are no Sabbath-breaker, no swearer, no drunkard,
   I warn you that unless you are born again from above, you cannot see
   the Kingdom of God! And when drunks, harlots and all manner of ungodly
   persons shall be driven from the Presence of God, you, also, shall
   share their fate, for you are dead in trespasses and sins, even as they
   are! If you would ever enter Heaven, you must be quickened by the Holy
   Spirit. No more shall I say, but earnestly entreat the Spirit of the
   blessed God to impress upon your hearts this solemn thought and lead
   you to renounce the works of the flesh--and put your trust in Him "who
   is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe." May the
   Lord's mercy rest upon you all, for Jesus' sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Lesson of the Almond Tree

   (No. 2678)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 10, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL
   7, 1881.

   "Moreover the word of the LORRD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what do
   you see? And I said, I see a branch of an almond tree. Then said the
   LORD unto me, You have seen well: for I am ready to perform My word."
   Jeremiah 1:11,12.

   OBSERVE, first, dear Friends, that before Jeremiah becomes a speaker
   for God, he must be a seer. The name for a Prophet, in the olden time,
   was a "seer"--a man who could see--one who could see with his mind's
   eye, one who could also see with spiritual insight, so as vividly to
   realize the Truth of God which he had to deliver in the name of the
   Lord. Learn that simple lesson well, O you who try to speak for God!
   You must be seers before you can be speakers.

   The question with which God usually begins His conversation with each
   of His true servants is the one He addressed to Jeremiah, "What do you
   see?" I am afraid that there are some ministers, nowadays, who do not
   see much. Judging by what they preach, their vision must be all in
   cloudland, where all they see is smoke, mist and fog. I often meet with
   persons who have attended the same ministry for years--and when I have
   asked them even very simple questions about the things of God, I have
   found that they do not know anything. It was not because they were not
   able to comprehend quickly when the Truth was set forth plainly before
   them, but I fear that it was, in most cases, because there was nothing
   that they could learn from the minister to whom they had been
   accustomed to listen. The preacher had seen nothing and, therefore,
   when he described what he saw, of course it all amounted to nothing.
   No, my Brother, before you can make an impression upon another person's
   heart, you must have an impression made upon your own soul. You must be
   able to say, concerning the Truth of God, "I see it," before you can
   speak it so that your hearers shall also see it. It must be clear to
   your own mind, by the spiritual perception which accompanies true
   faith, or else you will not be able to say with the Psalmist, "I
   believed, therefore have I spoken." Let me say again that sentence
   which I uttered a minute ago--the speaker for God must first be a seer
   in the Light of God.

   And, next, the true speaker for God must see what God sets before him.
   In this case, the Lord had set before Jeremiah's eye "a branch of an
   almond tree." We might have thought that as a preparation for his
   prophetical work, he would have seen mysterious wheels full of eyes, or
   flaming seraphs and cherubs, or the wonderful creatures that were
   caused to appear in the dreams of Ezekiel and the Revelation to John.
   Instead of this, Jeremiah simply sees "a branch of an almond tree" and,
   beloved Friends, when you look into the Bible, you will see some very
   simple things there--such things as save little children's souls--such
   things as men with no education can understand and believe! Be not
   anxious to be numbered among those who are so "eclectic" and "cultured"
   that if God sets before them the branch of an almond tree, they cannot
   condescend to notice it.

   That is something which everybody can see, so why should such
   remarkable eyes as theirs behold the plain things which ordinary
   individuals can perceive? They want to see--I scarcely know what they
   want to see, except their own foolish dreams--and even those are hidden
   from them. God give us Grace to see branches of almond trees when He
   sets them before us--I mean may He give us Grace to see such simple
   Truths as these--"You must be born again." "This is a faithful saying,
   and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
   save sinners." "He that believes and is baptized, shall be saved." What
   do your see, my Friend? Do you see what God would have you see, what He
   has put before you in His Word? If so, I may say to you what the Lord
   said to Jeremiah, "You have seen well." But if not,

   however gorgeous the panorama or pageant which you have invented for
   yourself to behold, you might as well be blind, for you will only be
   following some will-o'-the-wisp that may amuse for a while, but will
   ultimately destroy the souls of men!

   Further, those who would speak aright for God must also take care to
   see with all their eyes. I do not suppose that everybody here who had
   seen the vision of a branch, would have known it to be "a branch of an
   almond tree." I do not imagine that I would, though I think I could,
   after close examination, identify a branch if it were from an olive
   tree, or orange tree, having become familiar with them during my visits
   to the South of France. But I do not know that I would, in a moment, be
   able to say of a certain branch, "That is the branch of an almond
   tree." But Jeremiah understood these things and, therefore, as soon as
   he saw what was set before him, he did not merely say, "I see a
   branch," but, "I see a branch of an almond tree." He distinguished at
   once the kind of branch that was revealed to him in vision, for he was
   a man who had those powers of discernment and discrimination which are
   most necessary in the Lord's servants. And if you, dear Friend, are
   called to teach the children in the Sunday school, or if you try to win
   souls by private conversation, or if you are a preacher of the Word,
   blessed are you if you can see below the surface of the Truth of God
   and can peer into its hidden depths of meaning and get a spiritual
   insight into the Word of God so that you do not merely see a small
   portion of the Scriptures, but you perceive a far larger part than most
   people do! You should, if you can, see it all.

   I think that many years of spiritual education and Divine training
   would be required for you to attain to that position--at any rate, to
   see all that is necessary for the due discharge of your ministry, all
   that may help you to know the meaning of the Truth and to bring it out
   for real, practical use among those to whom you seek to be made a
   blessing. O seer, ask to have clear eyes! Speaker, remember that your
   speaking must begin with your eyes and--though it may seem a strange
   thing to say--the first education for the true servant of God does not
   concern his tongue so much as his eyes! "What do you see?" Seek to be
   able to see all that you can see! And take care that you do not miss
   anything through inadvertence or neglect. "Search the Scriptures." Be
   you one of those who gazes into the Truth, as the angels desire to look
   into it, so that when you see the vision, you shall be able to say,
   with Jeremiah, "I see a branch of an almond tree."

   Next, the servant of the Lord must seek to win the approval of his
   Master as Jeremiah did. It will be a grand thing for you, dear Brothers
   and Sisters who try to speak to others, if you would receive such
   praise as God so freely gave to Jeremiah, at the very first moment of
   his ministry, when He said to him, "You have seen well." You shall
   speak well if you have seen well. O my dear young Brothers in the
   College, you who are here tonight, I hope that it will be true of you,
   whenever you think of the Doctrine of Human Depravity, that you have
   looked into your own hearts and seen the evil of your own nature till
   you have wept over it! So shall it be said to each one of you, "You
   have seen that well." I hope that you will so clearly see the truth of
   the Fall that you will recognize the evil that comes of it and the evil
   that abides in the corrupt nature of man.

   And then may you get such a sight of the Cross--such a clear view of
   the atoning blood and understand so fully the great Doctrine of
   Substitution and the Divine plan of reconciliation, that God may be
   able to say to you, "You have seen well." A lack of distinctness in our
   understanding of the Truth of God will lead to a lack of distinctness
   in our utterance of it. Oh, to have eyes like those of the Heavenly
   Bridegroom, of whom His spouse said, "His eyes are as the eyes of doves
   by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and fitly set," for, in His
   turn, He says to His bride, "Behold, you are fair, My love; behold, you
   are fair; you have doves' eyes." The ministers of the Church of Christ,
   who have, to a great extent, to be her seers, need to have clear,
   far-seeing, and pure-seeing eyes! May God grant us the power to
   distinctly trace His wondrous Grace from the eternal Fountain of
   electing love, along the streams of never-ceasing mercy which bring
   final perseverance to the saints, right onward to the coming of our
   Lord and the blessed rising of all His Church to be with Him in His
   Glory forever and ever! Before you venture to tell anything of the
   Gospel message to others, you need to hear the Lord say to you, as He
   said to Jeremiah, "You have seen well."

   For this purpose it will be necessary that your eyes should be
   enlightened. What an appropriate prayer is that for you Sunday school
   teachers and Christian ministers to offer, "Open You my eyes, that I
   may behold wondrous things out of Your Law"! I think that if I had, as
   a preacher, to make only one request to my Master, and He asked me,
   "What will you that I should do unto you?"--I should reply, "Lord, that
   I may receive my sight more fully than ever, and see Your Truth more
   clearly than ever," because there is no fear about our speaking for God
   if our seeing is what it should be. That is the main matter and,
   therefore, the Lord asks each one of us, "What do you see?" If our
   answer proves that we

   have seen well, it is because the Spirit of God has enlightened us and,
   enlightenment from God having been once received, we shall proclaim to
   others right gladly what God has revealed to us.

   Yet once more, those who see what they can see and take care to see it
   well, are the people who shall receive further instruction, for it was
   when Jeremiah said, "I see a branch of an almond tree," that the Lord
   went on to explain the vision to him, saying, "You have seen well: for
   I will hasten My word to perform it." Those who do not see what they
   can see shall not be allowed to see any more. If you will not use, in
   diligently studying the Scriptures, the judgment and perception which
   you already have, God will not give you further light since you neglect
   the gift that is in you. He will leave your fire to burn low because
   you do not stir it up--and it shall get to be more dim than it is now,
   for he who will not learn more when God is willing to teach him shall
   forget what he already knows. I charge you, who are called to teach
   others in any way whatever, to submit yourselves fully to the teaching
   of the Holy Spirit. A disciple is the only person who can become an
   Apostle. A scholar in the school of Christ is the only one who can be
   sent out to tell others what his Master wishes to have made known to
   the sons of men.

   I have spoken thus with the view of helping those who are working for
   Christ. But now I must try to explain the vision mentioned in our text.
   "Jeremiah, what do you see? I see a branch of an almond tree."

   I. Observe, first, that THE ALMOND IS A WAKEFUL TREE. The Hebrew word
   which is rendered, "almond," comes from a root signifying to be
   wakeful, so this passage might be read thus, "I see the wakeful branch.
   Then said the Lord unto me, You have seen well: for I will be wakeful
   concerning My word to perform it."

   When the other trees are asleep, before the warmth of the springtime
   has awakened them from their winter slumbers, the almond tree awakes
   and opens the lovely eyes of its abundant blossoms. In Jeremiah's
   country it begins to bloom in early January and it is in such haste to
   produce its fruit that it is often ripe before the end of March. You
   know how, even in our suburban gardens, one of the first signs of the
   approach of spring is that the almond tree begins to blossom. The East
   wind often keeps it back, yet it struggles to its utmost to come out
   while other trees are asleep. Even before the chestnut, which is
   generally up as early as almost any of our trees, has been able to cast
   off the blankets in which it slept during the winter, the almond tree
   has opened its eyes and looked out as if it were asking whether
   springtime is not coming. The almond is a wakeful tree, and so says the
   Lord, "I will be wakeful concerning My word to perform it."

   Note, first, that God never forgets a promise. Alas, you and I do not
   remember all our promises! How often are they made only to be broken!
   But God never forgets one that He has given. We even forget God's
   promises and, often, when we are in trouble, we can hardly recollect
   one that we can plead before Him. But God never yet forgot a
   promise--all these centuries in which He has been dealing with men, He
   has never yet failed to keep His word. "Has He said, and shall He not
   do it?"

   What is equally wonderful, God has never forgotten a single person to
   whom a promise belonged--not even the least. Even if they have only
   desired to seek Him, or if they have only commenced to seek Him, He has
   been gracious to them--He has heard their cry and has delivered them.
   This is a big world and there are many millions of people in it, yet
   not one of them has ever been able to say that God has failed to keep
   one of His promises. More than that, in the whole universe, throughout
   all the ages, there has never been a forgotten soul! He who counts the
   brilliant stars, counts such dim things as our understanding--and He
   who numbers the very hairs of our head never fails to reckon the cries
   of our hearts.

   Further, there has never been a single occasion of a promise which God
   has allowed to slip. When the promise has become due, He has discharged
   it to the tick of the clock! There are no dishonored bills recorded
   against God in the archives of men or of angels! No one can look up to
   the heavens and say to Him, "You have deceived me and I was deceived."
   But we can say, "Faithful and true are You, O Jehovah; this is part of
   Your Son's title, for He is the faithful and true Witness, and You are
   the faithful Promiser who always performs what He has promised." "The
   Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness."

   Let me also add that there is not a threat in God's Word which has not
   been fulfilled, or which will not yet be executed. He has been a
   wakeful God in that respect. When men have persisted in their iniquity,
   He has not allowed them to escape the just punishment of their evil
   deeds. Happily for us, we cannot hear the sighs and cries of the
   spirits shut up in Hell, but they are there. In His mercy God has made
   a great gulf between us and those who are tormented in that flame-- but
   they are there, though we cannot see or hear them. As surely as God
   lives, their iniquity and transgression are al-

   ready receiving their just recompense of reward--and there is a worse
   doom to follow. As God watches over His people to do them good, so does
   He watch over the transgressor who is finally impenitent--and makes him
   to know the terrors of His wrath. That is the black side of this Truth
   of God and it must not be ignored. You may rest assured that a judge
   who does not punish the guilty is as unjust as the one who does not
   acquit the innocent. There must be with every king who is worthy of the
   name, an execution of the sentence of the law upon evildoers, as well
   as the award of praise for them that do well. Paul says, concerning the
   earthly representative of authority, "He bears not the sword in vain."
   And that sentence is certainly true concerning the King of Kings.
   "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

   Look, then, dear Friends, at this branch of an almond tree and believe
   in a wakeful God who will surely deal with men according to His Word,
   whether in promise or in threat.

   II. But the more obvious sense of the text is that which I give under
   the second head. THE ALMOND IS IN HASTE TO BLOSSOM AND BEAR FRUIT.
   Hence our translators have rendered the passage, "I will hasten My word
   to perform it." The almond tree is not slow to bloom--it is one of the
   very first trees to tell us that springtime is near. And the Lord is
   quick to fulfill His Word.

   Very briefly, let me remind you of the quickness of God to fulfill His
   threats. Do you realize, dear Hearers, you who are now hearing the
   Gospel, but have not received it, that God's threats take effect at
   once? "No," you say, "'He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor
   rewarded us according to our iniquities.'" That is most true, yet there
   is a sense in which His sentence takes effect at once. For instance,
   "He that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed
   in the name of the only begotten Son of God." If you have heard the
   Gospel--and some of you have heard it many, many years--and yet have
   not heeded it, you will not be condemned for the first time at the Last
   Great Day, you are condemned even now! Some people say to us, "Why do
   you ministers, in your preaching, so constantly deal with another life,
   instead of dealing with this one?" Our answer is that we do deal with
   this life--we deal with it continually, for we believe that both sides
   of that text are true at this very minute, "He that believes on the Son
   has everlasting life: he that believes not the Son shall not see life;
   but the wrath of God abides on him." Even now, at this moment, while
   you are in this building, if you are not a Believer in the Lord Jesus
   Christ, the wrath of God is abiding on you!

   Listen again. There is another immediate effect of the Word of the Lord
   which follows as quickly as the blossom appears upon the almond tree.
   Upon some hearers, it produces an instant hardening. You remember how
   Paul wrote, "We are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are
   saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savor of death
   unto death; and to the other the savor of life unto life"? You, dear
   Friends, are deriving, from every Gospel sermon that you hear, either
   life unto life, or else death unto death. If you get no good from it,
   you will assuredly get harm. An unbelieving hearing of the Gospel is a
   multiplication of curses to your soul--another sermon for which you
   have to give account, another rejected exhortation recorded against
   you, another earnest invitation which you have refused--and for which
   you will be held responsible. You are heaping up to yourselves wrath
   against the Day of Wrath even while you hear the Word of the Lord. I am
   not now talking about what will happen to you when you die, or when you
   rise for the final judgment--I am speaking about what is happening NOW!
   The same sun which melts wax hardens clay. And the same Gospel which
   melts some persons to repentance hardens others in their sins. Take
   heed that you do not soon see the almond tree blossom in this terrible
   sense.

   There is also another sense in which a definite result is speedily
   coming, for you must soon die unless Christ comes shortly. In any case,
   it cannot be long before some here will be gone. We who have reached
   middle life must not reckon on continuing to live for many years--and
   others are already bald with age, or their hair is gray--so they must
   soon die. Suppose, however, that you young people should live to be
   ninety--yet how soon that period will be ended! Years seem to spin
   round, especially as we grow older. I thought, when I was a boy, that a
   year was a very long time. But, now, one scarcely seems to have time to
   kiss his hand before it is Christmas again! People say, "Christmas is
   coming," as if it were a long way off, but the next one is coming as
   soon as the last one has gone! Time flies very rapidly as years advance
   upon us--it even appears to quicken its pace, though it does not really
   go any faster than it used to do. It will be but a short while and you,
   my dear Hearer, if you die without Christ, will find that God is not
   slack concerning His threat-- that though He seems to tarry in
   long-suffering, yet He comes in due season after all. And when He
   comes--ah, when the last trumpet rings out and the Great White Throne
   is set and the angels gather in solemn pomp to the tremendous judg-

   ment of the grand assize--you will find that the time which seemed long
   enough, proved all too short, while the eternity, which you despised,
   you will dread with such despair as we cannot even now imagine!

   Forever, forever, forever, forever lost! I see "a branch of an almond
   tree" for some of you, for it may be that I am addressing some who will
   never enter any place of worship again. I may be speaking to some out
   of these many hundreds who will not be alive this day next week. Out of
   our great congregation, there never is a gathering of the same people
   twice in this place week by week. Even among our membership, there are
   now, on the average, two a week who are taken Home, and I know not how
   many more out of the congregation. Who will be next? I see, for that
   next one, "a branch of an almond tree," for God will hasten His Word to
   perform it.

   While I have felt compelled to speak of these solemn Truths, I am glad
   to turn to the other part of the subject which is this--that God is
   quick in performing His promises. They are like the almond tree--they
   blossom and bear fruit very quickly. "What s ort of promises," you ask,
   "are thus speedily fulfilled?"

   Well, first, the promise to give salvation to all these who believe in
   the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen--

   "The moment a sinner believes, And trusts in his crucified God, His
   pardon at once he receives, Redemption in full thro'His blood." I see
   "a branch of an almond tree" here. The Psalmist says, "His word runs
   very swiftly," and I am a witness that it does. Many years ago, I, a
   poor sinner, went into a place of worship to hear the Gospel preached.
   The preacher repeated the Lord's command, "Look unto Me, and be you
   saved." I looked to Christ and I was saved that very instant. It takes
   no longer to tell the story than it did to work the miracle of mercy.
   Swift as a lightning flash I looked to Christ, and the great deed was
   done! I was a pardoned and justified soul--in a word, I was saved! Why
   should not the same thing happen to you who are here? It will happen to
   everyone who shall now be led to believe in Jesus Christ.

   "Oh, but," says one, "there are often long delays before peace is
   enjoyed." Then it is because you make them, for God does not. "But
   sometimes we have to wait," says one. Yes, yes. I know all about that
   waiting. Do you remember, in the parable of the prodigal son, where he
   waited? Why, with the harlots and others with whom he wasted his
   substance in riotous living, or with the swine when he was feeding them
   with the husks with which he would gladly have filled his own empty
   belly! That is where he waited! But when did he end his waiting? When
   he said, "I will arise and go to my father." He did not wait any
   longer, for we read, "And he arose and came to his father." And then it
   is written, "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him,
   and"--"and"--"and"--"and stood still, and waited for him to come"? No,
   no! I know that God waits to be gracious, but, according to the
   teaching of that parable, "when he was yet a great way off, his father
   saw him, and had compassion, and ran."

   Do you know how fast Godcan run? Come, now, there is a task for you! We
   know, sometimes, how fast fleet runners can go. What a rate they go! As
   we hear about them, we seem to realize the force of David's description
   of Saul and Jonathan, "They were swifter than eagles, they were
   stronger than lions." But again I ask, can you tell me how fast Godcan
   run? No, you do not know, you cannot tell. But you do know that He is
   all on fire with love to embrace a poor penitent sinner--and He speeds
   towards him at an amazing rate! Remember that hymn with which we
   commenced this service--

   "On cherub and on cherubim, Full royally He rode, And on the wings of
   mighty winds, Came flying all abroad. 'And so delivered He my soul."
   Swift as the lightning's flash is the glance of Divine compassion that
   brings life to a penitent soul! Believe, then, in Jesus and "the great
   transaction's done!" "He that believes on the Son has everlasting
   life." "Why, Sir, he only believed a minute ago! Has he already
   received eternal life?" Yes, he has everlasting life just as surely as
   if he had been believing in Jesus for 50 years! If you do but believe,
   this blessing is at once yours! "I see a branch of an almond tree." Oh,
   that you also may see it blossom before your very eyes, although, when
   you came into this House of Prayer, it seemed as bare as the rest of
   the trees that have been nipped by the wintry winds!

   This part of our subject is just as true about prayer. The man who
   knows how to pray remembers God's promises concerning prayer and its
   answer. Think of that remarkable passage in Isaiah 65:24--"It shall
   come to pass, that before

   they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will
   hear." That is quicker than the telegraph! "Before they call, I will
   answer." God knows what petition is in your heart! He foresees what
   will be the utterance of your tongue and He has the answers all ready
   for them. I have found many of my prayers answered years before I
   prayed them. "No," you say, "that could not be." Well, there was one of
   them that was answered more than 1,800 years before I prayed it. That
   was when I cried to God for a Savior and He gave me One all those
   centuries before I was born, even the Savior who worked out for me a
   complete salvation on Calvary's accursed tree! O you praying souls, "I
   see a branch of an almond tree!" When men begin to pray in faith, they
   are speedily heard!

   So is it when God's people want to have their spiritual life revived.
   When we get into a dull doleful state, as we sometimes do, if we cry to
   God, He is able to quickly revive our drooping spirits. You remember
   that verse in the Song of Solomon, "Or ever I was aware, my soul made
   me like the chariots of Amminadib"?--Which were, I suppose, noted for
   their swiftness--"I was dull, motionless, lifeless; but before I could
   tell where I was, I found myself almost flying along like the chariots
   of Amminadib." So may it be with you, dear Friend! Though you are like
   Laodicea, neither cold nor hot, yet remember what the Lord said to the
   angel of that Church. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any
   man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will
   sup with him, and he with Me." Renewed communion with Christ may be
   enjoyed at once, even by you who have fallen into a lukewarm state!

   Our subject also applies to deliverance from trouble. "The righteous
   cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles."
   God may not take away your trouble, but yet, in a moment, He may give
   you Grace to bear it and turn the trouble, itself, into a source of
   joy. "I see a branch of an almond tree" full often. In times of deep
   depression, God can lift up the heart very speedily.

   So can He bless His Word. As neither snow nor rain returns to Him void,
   so is it with His Word--it shall prosper in the thing to where He sent
   it, and it shall prosper at once. O you who want to win souls, go about
   your work very boldly, believing that God will bless you! "Lo, I am
   with you always, even unto the end of the world," said Christ. When
   Peter preached, the Apostles and disciples did not wait for several
   years to find out the result of his sermon--though I daresay there were
   further results after a long time--but they picked up 3,000 birds which
   had been brought down by that one discharge of the great Gospel gun!
   Oh, that you and I would so work for God as to expect immediate
   results--and go and look for them! "I see a branch of an almond tree."
   I believe that there are some here who will, tonight, lay hold on
   Christ. It was a great joy to me to have a Sister come in, just before
   service, to tell me that, years ago, she found the Lord when I was
   preaching at the Agricultural Hall. She said, "That will comfort you."
   I said, "Yes, it does. It shows me that I was useful once, but," I
   added, "I want to be useful now. I want to see souls brought to Christ
   now." And so they will be! Let us believe it and see this branch of an
   almond tree blossom tonight!

   III. Now, to close, I can only briefly remind you that THE ALMOND TREE
   SETS AN EXAMPLE TO ALL WHO WOULD BE LIKE GOD. He hastens His Word to
   perform it. Oh, that you and I would be in haste to perform our word!

   Is there one here who wishes to seek the Lord?' 'Seek you the Lord
   while He may be found; call you upon Him while He is near." There will
   be a friend or two, on the lower platform, after the service, to talk
   with any of you who wish to say anything to them about your own souls
   and to hear from them some good words about the Lord Jesus Christ. Do
   not go away, even from this service, till you have sought and found the
   Savior! Seek Him now, you young people! Recollect that precious
   promise, "Those that seek Me early shall find Me." Others shall find
   the Lord if they seek Him, but, certainly, the young shall do so even
   if others do not. Be up early, then, while yet you are in your teens,
   before you get to be a young man or woman--seek the Lord now, for you
   shall surely find Him if you search for Him with all your heart. God
   help you to do it!

   Then, you who have found Him, be prompt in obeying Him. Do you know
   what David said? "I made haste, and delayed not to keep Your
   commandments." If you have found the Savior by faith, be baptized
   according to His command and His example. Unite yourself with His
   people and begin at once to serve Him.

   And then, you who have been serving the Savior, if you have any good
   desire in your heart to do anything for Christ, do it You may be dead
   tomorrow morning, therefore I would advise you to do something for
   Christ tonight. Are you going to leave something in your will for the
   Master's cause? Be your own executor if you can--and whatever you think
   of doing, do it speedily. Do not leave anything till tomorrow that can
   be done today. "I see a branch of an almond tree." There are some men
   who must act now, or they never will do anything, for it is pretty
   nearly the end of the day with

   them. Up, Brother, up! "I see a branch of an almond tree." Do what you
   can tonight. Speak to your children about Christ tonight. Wake them up
   if they are in bed. Speak to that friend to whom you have often
   intended to speak. I know of one who resolved to speak to a man who
   used to come to his counter twice a week to buy some goods. He thought,
   "The next time he comes in, I will speak to him about his soul." He
   never came again! On the morning when he should have come, there came a
   messenger to say that he was dead. Therefore, take advantage of every
   opportunity while it lasts. "In the morning sow your seed," but do not
   wait for the morning! "In the evening withhold not your hand" and,
   "whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might."

   And, lastly, be ready for your immediate departure. Be prepared to go
   Home to Heaven tonight. Come, now, are all things ready for your
   journey? If not, pack up all the luggage, label it, and have everything
   ready for the start at any moment. Blessed is that man who is ready to
   blossom in Heaven any instant. "Oh," says one, "I should not like to
   die tonight. I believe that I am a Christian and that I am saved, but I
   do not feel ready to go." Set your house in order, then, for your house
   cannot be right if it is not in order! If your house is in order, why,
   then you are ready to die! There is no right living except living as
   you would wish to live if you knew that this was to be your last day.
   The right way to spend the next hour is so to spend it as if it were
   your last hour. The Lord bring us into that happy condition that it
   shall not matter to us one single farthing whether we live or whether
   we die--and may He keep us in that blessed state, for Christ's sake!
   Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 18:1-19.

   Verse 1. I will love You, O Lord, my strength.' 'I do love You, and I
   will love You yet more and more. I bind myself to You for the future as
   well as the present."

   2. The LORD is my rock and my fortress, andmy deliverer; my God, my
   strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my
   salvation, and my high tower Note how David delights to heap up poetic
   imagery to describe his God. They who glory in the Lord would gladly
   speak worthily of Him and because there is no one object in Nature that
   can fully set Him forth, they mention many, as David does here. Like
   he, if we would convey even a faint idea of what God is to us, we must
   think of all things that are strong and worthy of our confidence--and
   putting them all together, we must say that our God, our strength, in
   whom we trust, is all this and much more,

   3. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I
   be saved from my enemies. Prayer brings salvation. Prayer must,
   however, be mingled with praise, for prayer and praise make up the
   breath of the Christian life. Have I not often reminded you that we
   breathe in the air of Heaven by prayer, and then breathe it out again
   in grateful praise?

   4. 5. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men
   made me afraid. The sorrows of Hell compassed me about: the snares of
   death prevented me.' 'They were before me, behind me, all around my
   path whichever way I turned."

   6. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: He
   heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into
   His ears. What a difference there is between this living God of
   David--our living God--and that impersonal nonentity which, nowadays,
   is regarded by many as God. The god of the pantheist--what is he? A
   nobody and a nothing! But our God made the heaven; and our God hears
   the prayer of all who truly cry unto Him.

   7. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills
   moved and were shaken, because He was angry. The cry of one of His
   oppressed children stirred Him to anger! Nothing moves the heart of God
   like an injury done to His people. You remember how the Prophet
   Zechariah wrote to the captive Jews in Babylon, "Thus says the Lord of
   Hosts, He that touches you touches the apple of His eye."

   8. 9. There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, and fire out of His
   mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it He bowed the heavens also, and
   came down; and darkness was under His feet In this wonderful poetic
   description, Jehovah is represented as descending from His Throne at
   the cry of one of His children in distress.

   10. And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yes, He did fly upon the
   wings of the wind. So swift is prayer to reach the ears of God, and so
   swift is God to come and answer His people's prayers!

   11. He made darkness His secret place; His pavilions round about Him
   were dark waters and thick clouds of thee skies. Like an Oriental king
   who travels beneath his royal canopy, the Lord is pictured as coming to
   earth with the bursting clouds and opening heavens as the pavilion of
   the Deity.

   12. At the brightness that was before Him, His thick clouds passed,
   hail stones and coals of fire. These are some of the weapons with which
   He assails the adversaries of His people. With this dread artillery, He
   smote Pharaoh of old when He rained hail upon the land of Egypt, and
   fire mingled with the hail, and the fire ran along the ground.

   13. 14. The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave
   His voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yes, He sent out His arrows,
   and scattered them; and He shot out lightning, and discomfited them.
   God Himself came forth on His people's behalf, and fought for them from
   Heaven. As we read that "the stars in their courses fought against
   Sis-era," so did God make the very tempests in the skies to be like an
   invincible legion, sweeping before it the enemies of His anointed
   servant.

   15-18. Then the channels ofwaters were seen, and the foundations ofthe
   world were discovered at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast ofthe breath
   of Your nostrils. He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of
   many waters. He deliveredme from my strong enemy, and from them which
   hatedme: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day
   of my calamity. They went before him, they blocked his way.

   18, 19. But the LORD was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large
   place; He delivered me because He delighted in me. Oh, how sweetly this
   record continues! Never was there a poem more lofty in its diction.
   Even Milton cannot equal the language of this Psalm! This Inspired
   writing rises superior to all human compositions, even if regarded only
   from the poetic point of view. Oh, what must have been the Psalmist's
   experience when he was delivered after this wonderful fashion! And if
   God has delivered you and me in a quieter and gentler way, yet He has
   quite as surely delivered us! And blessed be His name from this time
   forth, and even forevermore!
     __________________________________________________________________

Christ's Indwelling Word

   (No. 2679)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 17, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL
   10, 1881.

   "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly inn all wisdom; teaching
   and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
   singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16.

   THAT is a very beautiful name for Holy Scripture. I hardly remember to
   have met with it anywhere else--"Let the word of Christ dwell in you."
   Remember, dear Friends, that Christ Himself is the Word of God, and
   also remember that the Scriptures are the word of the Word. They are
   "the word of Christ." I think that they will be all the sweeter to you
   if you realize that they speak to you of Christ, that He is the sum and
   substance of them, that they direct you to Christ, in fact, as John
   says of His Gospel, that they were "written that you might believe that
   Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have
   life through His name."

   Remember, also, that the Scriptures do, in effect, come to us from
   Christ. Every promise of this blessed Book is a promise of Christ, "for
   all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him, Amen, unto the
   glory of God by us." They all come to us through Christ, God speaks
   them to us through Him as the Mediator. Indeed, we may regard the whole
   of the Sacred Scriptures, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of
   Revelation, as being "the word of Christ."

   The text tells us, first, how to treat the Scriptures. ' 'Let the word
   of Christ dwell in you richly." And, secondly, it tells us how to
   profit by them.' 'In all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another
   in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your
   hearts to the Lord."

   I. First, then, we are told here HOW TO TREAT THE SCRIPTURES--"Let the
   word of Christ dwell in you richly."

   In order that it may dwell in you, it must first enter into you. It is
   implied, in our text, that the Apostle says, "Let the word of Christ
   enterinto you." Then you must read it, or hear it, for, unless you do,
   you will not know what there is in it. Yet there must be something more
   than the mere hearing or reading of it, for some hear the Truth of God
   with one ear, but let it go away out of the other ear. And others are
   great readers, yet they seem to read only what is on the surface. The
   letter passes under their eyes, but the deep spiritual meaning never
   enters into their heart. If you read a portion of Scripture every day,
   I commend you for doing so. If you make a practice of reading right
   through the Bible in a stated period, I commend you still more. Some I
   know read the Bible through every year, in due course. This is well,
   but all this may be done and yet "the word of Christ" may never have
   entered into the reader!

   You know how children sometimes learn their lessons. I am afraid that,
   at a great many schools, there is no true instruction--the scholars
   have simply to repeat their lessons without ever getting at the sense
   and meaning of them. And, a week or two after, they have forgotten all
   that they were supposed to have learned! Do not let it be so with our
   knowledge of Scripture--let us not merely know it so as to be able to
   turn to its different chapters, or to be familiar with certain passages
   in it, or even to repeat all its words. This is but to let "the word of
   Christ" pass by your door, or look in at your window! Paul says, "Let
   it dwellin you."

   So I say again that in order that it may dwell in you, it must first
   enter into you. You must really know the spiritual meaning of it. You
   must believe it, live upon it, drink it in--you must let it soak into
   your innermost being as the dew saturated the fleece of Gideon. It is
   not enough to have a Bible on the shelf--it is infinitely better to
   have its Truths

   stored up within your soul. It is a good thing to carry your Testament
   in your pocket--it is far better to carry its message in your heart.
   But mind that you let it get right into you!

   How differently some people read the Bible from the way in which they
   read any other book! I have seen a young woman sitting down, on board a
   steamboat, completely absorbed in a very suspicious looking book. I
   have passed behind her and passed before her, but she has not taken the
   slightest notice of me. Presently, I saw a tear brushed away from her
   eye--I knew that she was not reading the Bible--and it was my firm
   conviction that she was reading a novel. I have often noticed how such
   people let the novels get right into them, trash as they generally
   are--but when the most of people read the Bible, they appear to be
   anxious to get the unpleasant task finished and put away! In some cases
   they seem to think that they have performed a very proper action, but
   they have not been in the least affected by it, moved by it, stirred by
   it. Yet, if there is any book that can thrill the soul, it is the
   Bible! If we read it aright, we shall, as it were, lay our fingers
   among its wondrous harp strings and bring out from them matchless music
   such as no other instrument in the world could ever produce! There is
   no book so fitted or so suited to us as the Bible is. There is no book
   that knows us so well. There is no book that is so much at home with
   us. There is no book that has so much power over us if we will but give
   ourselves up to it! Yet, often, we only let it look in at our window,
   or knock at our door, instead of inviting it to enter our very heart
   and soul--and therefore we miss its power.

   Then, when it once gets into you, let it remain there. A person could
   not be said to dwell in a house even though he should enter into the
   most private part of it, if he only passed through it and went away. A
   man who dwells in a house abides, resides, remains, continues there.
   Oh, to have "the word of Christ" always dwelling inside of us--in the
   memory, never forgotten! In the heart, always loved! In the
   understanding, really grasped with all the powers and passions of the
   mind fully submitted to its control! I love those dear Christian people
   who do not need to refer to the printed page when you speak to them
   about the things of God, for they have the Truth in their hearts. They
   have a springing well within their souls at all times and they have
   only to hear a Scriptural theme started and, at once, they begin to
   speak of the things which they have looked upon and their hands have
   handled of the Word of Life, because it dwells in them.

   What is the good of merely external religion? I heard of some people
   who met together to pray about a certain matter, but they could not
   pray because the Bishop had not sent the form of prayer which they were
   to use on that occasion. I think that if they were believers in the
   Lord Jesus Christ, they might have managed to speak to God without the
   necessity of having a written or printed form to guide them. Yet there
   are many who fancy they cannot offer a proper prayer unless they have
   it in a book. And they cannot talk about the things of God, or they can
   say but very little about them because they have not "the word of
   Christ" dwelling within them. O dear Friends, let it be always in you,
   from morning to night, abiding as a constant visitor within your
   spirit--no, not merely as a visitor, let it dwell with you--

   "No more a stranger or a guest, But like a child at home."

   Further, "let the word of Christ dwell in you" so as to occupy your
   whole being. If it dwells within you, let it take such entire
   possession of your being that it shall fill you. To push the truth of
   Christ up into a corner of your nature--to fill the major part of your
   being with other knowledge and other thought--is a poor way to treat
   "the word of Christ." It deserves the fullest attention of the best
   faculties that any man possesses. The Truth of God revealed by the Holy
   Spirit is so sublime that its poetry outsoars the eagle wings even of a
   Milton. It is a deep so profound that the plumb line of Sir Isaac
   Newton could never find the bottom of it. The greatest minds have been
   delighted to yield their highest faculties to its wondrous Truths. Dear
   young Friends, you who have only lately put on Christ, I beseech you
   not to let other books stand on the front shelf and the Bible lie
   behind. Do not, for the most part, read those other books and only read
   small portions of Scripture now and then--let it always have the chief
   place. The most excellent of all sciences is the science of Christ
   Crucified and the Bible is the textbook for all who would learn it! If
   other forms of knowledge are useful, they are like the planets--but the
   knowledge of God as revealed in Christ Jesus is as the sun. Let this
   always be the center of your system of knowledge and let all the rest
   that you know move in subordination and subjection to that first and
   best form of knowledge.

   If I may know myself, and know my Savior--if I may know my sin and the
   Atonement by which it is put away--if I may know my way through this
   life and my way into the eternal life above, I will be content if I
   know but little else. Gladly would I intermeddle with all knowledge
   and, though "much study is a weariness of the flesh," yet would I find
   a

   pleasure in such weariness if I only knew even as much as Solomon knew.
   But it would be vanity of vanities, and altogether vanity, if you and I
   were as wise as Solomon, and yet did not know the Truth of God.
   Therefore, "let the word of Christ dwell in you" so as to occupy the
   whole of your being! Let it be the resident, the occupant, the master
   and ruler of your entire nature!

   Once more. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you." That is, let it be
   your most familiar friend. We know the people who live in our home, but
   we do not really know other people. When someone asked Mr. Whitefield,
   "What do you think of Mr. So-and-So's character?" He answered, "I
   cannot say, for I never lived with him." Ah, that is the true test! It
   is living with people that lets you know what they are. In like manner,
   if you will live with "the word of Christ," especially if you will let
   it dwell in you and abide with you as a constant friend, you will get
   to know it better, and the better you know it, the more you will love
   it. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, if you meet with a man who
   finds fault with the Bible, you may be certain that he never read it.
   If he would but read it in the right spirit, he would be of another
   opinion. And if you find a professing Christian indifferent to his
   Bible, you may be sure that the very dust upon its cover will rise up
   in judgment against him! The Bible reader is always the Bible lover,
   and the Bible searcher is the man who searches it more and more.
   Various pursuits have a measure of fascination about them, but the
   study of God's Word is fascinating to the highest degree. Jerome said,
   when he was pondering a certain text, "I adore the Infinity of Holy
   Scripture." I have often felt that I could say the same. The Bible is a
   book that has no bounds to it. Its thoughts are not as men's thoughts,
   a multitude of which may go to make up half an ounce! Any one of the
   thoughts of God can outweigh all the thoughts of men. This Book is not
   a book of pence, or a book of silver, or even a book of gold, but a
   book whose every leaf is of untold value! He shall be enriched, indeed,
   who lets "the word of Christ" richly dwell in him.

   My dear Friends, I should like you to so read the Bible that everybody
   in the Bible should seem to be a friend of yours. I should like you to
   feel as if you had talked with Abraham and conversed with David. I can
   truly say that there is hardly anybody in the world that I know so well
   as I know David. In making The Treasury of David, I have labored, year
   after year, in that rich field of Inspiration, the Book of Psalms, till
   I assure you that David and I are quite familiar friends. And I think I
   know more about him than about any man I ever saw in my life. I seem to
   know the ins and outs of his constitution and experience, his grievous
   faults and the graces of his spirit. I want you to be on just such
   intimate terms with somebody or other in the Bible--John, if you like,
   or Mary. Sit at Jesus' feet with her. Or Martha--it will not hurt you
   to make the acquaintance of Martha and do a great deal of serving,
   though I do not want you to get cumbered with it. But do find your
   choicest friends in the Scripture. Take the whole company of Bible
   saints home to your heart, let them live inside your soul. Let old Noah
   come in with his ark, if he likes, and let Daniel come in with his
   lions' den, if he pleases--and all the rest of the godly men and women
   of the olden time--take them all into your very nature and be on
   familiar terms with them! But, most of all, be specially intimate with
   Him of whom they all speak, namely, Jesus Christ your blessed Lord and
   Master!

   As for the doctrines revealed in the Bible, you should have them at
   your fingertips. The great Truths of the Word of God should be as
   familiar to you as a scholar makes his much-loved classics to be, or as
   the mathematician makes his plus and minus, his a and his x, familiar
   to him from hour to hour. So should you prize "the word of Christ."
   "Let it dwell in you richly in all wisdom."

   II. But now, secondly, I am to tell you How TO PROFIT BY THE WORD OF
   CHRIST, if we once get it to dwell in

   us.

   First, seek to profit by it yourself' 'Let the word of Christ dwell in
   you richly in all wisdom." Let it make you wise. The man who studies
   his Bible well, will become a wise man. If God the Holy Spirit teaches
   him, I believe that he will become a wise man even in something more
   than a spiritual sense. Every Scot child used to be taught the Book of
   Proverbs--it was one of the class books of Scot schools--and I have
   heard it said that this particular form of instruction has largely
   helped to make our Scot friends so sharp. And I should not wonder if
   that is the case. They certainly are as wise a race of people as we are
   likely to meet with. I wish our Irish friends would also study the Book
   of Proverbs. If it would make them as cool as it has made our Scot
   friends, it might improve them without taking away any of their natural
   humor and warmth of heart. I wish that English people, also, would read
   more of the Bible. I can truly say that when I have met with men in
   whom "the word of Christ" has dwelt richly, I have often found them
   very shrewd even about commonplace things.

   I remember a man, in a certain workshop, making a great many very rude
   remarks and, at last, he was silenced by one of the workmen who said to
   him, "I think, Sir, you are referred to in the 20th Chapter of
   Proverbs." He did not explain his meaning, but the man who was thus
   addressed went home and when he looked up the chapter, he found these
   words in the third verse, "Every fool will be meddling." It was an
   admirable rebuke for him and all the better because he had an hour or
   two before he knew exactly what it was. And when he reached his home
   and was at leisure to think, he could look up the passage and see how
   appropriate it was to his case. If you will take the Word of God for
   your guide, even in domestic and business matters, you will often
   manifest a shrewdness which, perhaps, may not be natural to you, but
   which will come to you through "the word of Christ" dwelling in you
   richly in all wisdom. That, however, is only a small part of the profit
   which it will bring to you.

   Do you want wisdom with which to master yourself? "Let the word of
   Christ dwell in you richly." Do you need something to cheer a naturally
   sinking spirit? "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." Do you
   wish for that which will calm an angry mind, a temper all too apt to be
   suddenly excited? "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." Are you
   in a calling where you are sorely tempted and do you long to know how
   to be kept from falling into sin? "Let the word of Christ dwell in you
   richly." Is your position a very difficult one? Are you scarcely able
   to balance the claims of different relationships? "Let the word of
   Christ dwell in you richly." Are you expecting to have a time of
   intense strain and trial such as you have never experienced before?
   Prepare yourself for it by letting "the word of Christ dwell in you
   richly." It shall give you all manner of wisdom by which you shall be
   able to baffle even the subtlety of the old serpent himself! We used to
   have in many of our churches a number of solid, substantial men--"men
   that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to
   do"--and an equal proportion of deeply-taught, godly matrons, true
   mothers in Israel. Well, those stalwart Christians were brought up on
   such spiritual meat as I have been commending to you. They were
   diligent students of the Word of God and if we are to have a succession
   of such men and women, they can only be qualified by going to the
   University of Scripture and taking their degree by permitting "the word
   of Christ" to dwell in them richly!

   The next way of using "the word of Christ" to profit is to seek to
   profit others by it' 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all
   wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and
   spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." We are
   to know the Truth of God so as to be able to teach and admonish one
   another.

   First, we are to seek the profit of our fellows by teaching one
   another. No one man can ever teach such a vast congregation as I have,
   so as to give the separate instruction that is needed by each one. This
   work must be done by the members of the Church themselves. "The word of
   Christ" must dwell in you and then you must become a Mutual Instruction
   Society. Every Christian should exercise the office of the pastorate
   according to his ability and his opportunity. In such a Church as this,
   every one of the members must look well not only to his own spiritual
   affairs, but also to the well-being of others. What sweet and gracious
   instructions the older ones among you can give if you tell your
   experience! It is very interesting to any of us to hear it, but how
   helpful it is to the beginners in the Divine life!

   And if, in addition to relating your experience, you talk of the
   Scriptures that have been opened up to you--the promises that have been
   fulfilled to you--the passages in the Bible that have been applied to
   your heart by the Holy Spirit who Inspired them--you will greatly
   instruct your fellow Christians. A dear Brother in the Lord said to me,
   the other day, "I do not often meet, now, with those people who talk
   about the things of God to one another. Even when I meet with
   Christians, their conversation is generally concerning a meeting or a
   Conference that is going to be held, or something that is to be
   done--we do not seem to talk much about Jesus Christ, Himself, and
   about experimental Truth, and about the sorrows and the joys of God's
   people." I wish we did talk more of such things. It is well to be busy
   for the Lord, but it is still better to be in communion with Him. You
   who are deeply taught in the Scriptures should try to teach others for
   their profit.

   One way of teaching one another is mentioned in the text--"in Psalms
   and hymns and spiritual songs." A learned divine, a little while ago,
   discovered that no hymn ought to be sung unless it was distinctly
   directed and addressed to God and was intended to be full of praise
   throughout. Well, we do have some remarkably wise men nowadays--at
   least, in their own estimation--but it appears that the Apostle Paul
   thought that "Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" were to be used for
   instruction and admonition as well as for the praises of God! And, to
   my mind, there is no teaching that is likely to be more useful than
   that which is accompanied by the right kind of singing! When I am
   preaching, I often

   find a verse of a hymn the very best thing I can quote--and I have not
   the shadow of a doubt that, frequently, a verse of sacred poetry has
   struck a man who has been altogether missed by the rest of the sermon.
   Think how compactly the Truth of God can be taught by means of "Psalms
   and hymns and spiritual songs," and how likely it is to be remembered
   when the very measure and rhyme and rhythm help the memory to treasure
   up the message! I shall never forgot what repentance is while I can
   say--

   "Repentance is to leave The sins I loved before, And show that I in
   earnest grieve By doing so no more."

   It is well to have the Truth of God put into the form of a verse that
   the memory may be able to lay hold of it, and to retain it. Do try,
   dear Friends, to get so full of "the word of Christ" in all forms of
   it, that you may run with it. You know, it cannot come outof you if it
   is not first inyou. If you do not get "the word of Christ" into you,
   you will not be instructive in your general conversation.

   In addition to instruction, there is to be admonition. That is a very
   difficult thing to administer wisely. I have known a Brother try to
   admonish another and I have felt that he would have done better if he
   had left the task alone, for he has only caused irritation and
   resentment. There is a gracious way of admonishing which cannot be too
   frequently practiced. When I first began to preach, I am afraid that I
   used to say a great many strange things--which, of course, I do not do
   now--but having, on a certain occasion, said something rather striking
   and, perhaps, not quite wise, there was an excellent Christian man who
   wanted to set me right. He did not come and thrust himself upon me in a
   very solemn manner and provoke me to scoff at him and his reproof.
   Neither did he say anything so as to irritate me, but, finding my Bible
   lying about, he stuck a pin into it at the words, "Sound speech, that
   cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be
   ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you." When I was at home, I
   looked at that pin, and I looked at that text, and I said to myself,
   "Whose house was I in last?" When I remembered, I said, "That is the
   man who stuck that pin in there, depend upon it." I never felt vexed
   with him! On the contrary, I was very grateful and I always loved and
   admired him. And I thought, "Now, if he had spoken to me about what I
   had said, it is possible that he might have stuck the pin into me where
   I should not have liked it--but as he only stuck it into my Bible, it
   did not irritate me." You see, also, that I gratefully remember the
   rebuke even to this day.

   Sometimes the best way to give an admonition will be by singing a Psalm
   or a hymn. The clerks in the old Meeting Houses, when they used to be
   allowed to choose the hymns, often took away much of the evil effect of
   an erroneous sermon by their wise selection of the closing verses. Now
   and then, if you are discreet, you can quote an appropriate verse-- as
   people say, "accidentally on purpose"--and you can bring in a portion
   of a Psalm that shall exactly say for you what you might have said in a
   blundering way! And the dear Brother who has done wrong will accept the
   rebuke without being enraged by it. When you attempt to snuff the
   candle, do not put it out by your clumsiness, but take the golden
   snuffers--in the form of a verse of a Psalm, or a hymn, or a spiritual
   song--and even while you sing it, you will be administering the
   admonition and the instruction which it is your duty to give.

   I wish to put this matter so that it shall be remembered by you, and I
   want especially to press it home upon you, dear Friends, members of
   this Church of more than 5,000 souls. What can we do unless you all
   look after one another? And how shall we ever get on unless, in
   addition to preaching, there shall be continual mutual instruction
   going on, wise and joyful and cheerful--and accepted in a kind, loving
   and generous spirit? God fill you with "the word of Christ," that you
   may thus teach and admonish one another!

   But, lastly, "the word of Christ," when it dwells in us, is to profit
   us in our relation to God Himself, for, after all, the main objective
   of our singing--the principal purpose of our teaching and
   admonishing--must be the glory of God! "Singing with grace in your
   hearts to the Lord." Oh, may "the word of Christ dwell in us" so richly
   that you shall bless God from morning to night! May you so overflow
   with holy thought and sacred knowledge that your whole being shall be a
   hymn of praise to the Most High and your entire existence shall be a
   glorious hallelujah! I do not think that we, any of us, sufficiently
   value the Divine ordinance of praise. Neither do I think that we ever
   shall, till "the word of Christ" has taken full possession of our
   souls.

   You have been upstairs to pray, you say, and you have got no comfort
   from the exercise. Let me suggest that the next time you go upstairs,
   you sing a Psalm. "Oh, I have been up and down," says one, "trying to
   awaken myself into earnestness of supplication." May I also propose to
   you that you do not try that method again for a while, but begin to
   praise God. How many times a day do you praise Him? I think you do get
   alone to pray and you would be ashamed if you did not, once, twice, or
   three or even more times in the day--but how often do you praise God?
   Now, you know that you will not pray in Heaven--there it will be all
   praise. Then do not neglect that necessary part of your education which
   is to "begin the music here." Start at once praising the Lord! Many of
   our doubts and fears would fly away if we praised God more. And many of
   our trials and troubles would altogether vanish if we began to sing of
   our mercies. Oftentimes, depression of spirit that will not yield to a
   whole night of wrestling, would yield to ten minutes of thanksgiving
   before God! Praying is the stalk of the wheat, but praise is the very
   ear of it. Praying is the leaf of the rose, but praise is the rose
   itself, redolent with the richest perfume.

   Praise God, then, "in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," and if you
   say you do not know how to do it, then "let the word of Christ dwell in
   you richly." It is a praise-begetting thing! Out of every Book of
   Scripture will stream praises unto Jehovah. Out of every promise will
   spring a sonnet. Out of every Divine Truth enjoyed and lived upon will
   rise a spiritual song. The whole Revelation of God is the condensed
   essence of praise--you have only to give it a fitting opportunity, by
   setting it simmering on the fire of a graceful heart--and you shall
   find a sweet cloud of holy incense rising from it, acceptable to the
   Most High. Therefore, Beloved, be much with your Bibles and let your
   Bibles be much with you--for your own profit, for the profit of others
   and for the glory of God! So be it, for Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: COLOSSIANS 3:1-17.

   Verse 1. If you then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are
   above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Your Lord and Master
   has gone up to Heaven. You profess that He represents you and that you
   have gone up there in Him and with Him. Then do not seek the things
   that are down here below, the things of earth--but live where your life
   has gone. Where your treasure is, there let your heart be also. "Seek
   those things which are above."

   2. 3. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
   For you are dead. You profess to be dead to the world. Is that
   profession false? You have observed that Scriptural ordinance in which
   you profess to be buried with Christ--was that observance only an empty
   form? If there was any truth in your profession, "You are dead"--

   3. And your life is laid with Christ in God. You have a new life
   now--it is up yonder, "where Christ sits at the right hand of God." Do
   you not feel drawings upward? Are there no longings after the high and
   heavenly estate where Jesus is? Come, Beloved, let your soul break
   loose for a while and, like a lark, having found its liberty ascends
   with joyous wing, singing as it rises till it is out of mortal sight,
   so let it be with you!

   4. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also
   appear with Him in Glory. You are hidden now, your life is veiled in
   Him, but, at His Second Coming He shall shine forth in all His Glory
   and "then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of
   their Father." Beloved, seek no greatness here! Ask not for any
   exaltation of yourself among the sons of men, but wait for your true
   manifestation with Christ in Glory!

   5. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;
   fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and
   covetousness, which is idolatry. Kill all these evil things! Do not let
   them live in you for a single moment. The command applies not only to
   the grosser actions which are summed up under the head of fornication
   and uncleanness, but to all that leads to those foul sins. Not only to
   the fire, but also to the sparks, such as "inordinate affection," a
   sort of softness which is seen in some persons, men and women, too, and
   which often leads to something far worse--and "evil concupiscence," the
   first desires towards that which is unchaste. God give us Divine Grace
   to kill these loathsome things at once, for if thoughts of evil are
   indulged, they soon become actsof evil, and then who knows how far we
   may go in the way of unholiness?

   Sin, if allowed to grow in the heart, will soon take gigantic strides
   and come out in the life. Depend upon it, whenever a professing
   Christian goes into overt sin of the kind mentioned here, he does not
   do it all of a sudden. The evil has long been festering and fomenting
   within his heart, or it would not have manifested itself thus. Oh, if
   he had only watched and destroyed the thief before he broke into the
   house, what a mercy it would have been! You notice that covet-

   ousness is put down with the most filthy sins and it is described as
   idolatry. The desire to possess the goods that belong to others--the
   lust to get gain at any price--this is idolatry.

   6, 7. For which things 'sake the wrath of God comes on the children of
   disobedience: in which you also walked some time, when you lived in
   them. This was true of the Colossians and it was true of almost all
   those to whom Paul wrote, for these gross evils were scarcely regarded
   as sins in his time, so polluted had the nations become. I hope that in
   the case of many now living, they have been preserved by Christian
   training from having walked even for a time in such sins.

   8. But now you also put off all these. Put them all off, like old
   clothes that are never to be worn again. "Put off all these"--

   8. Anger It is hard work for some to pull that garment off, for it fits
   them so tightly. This burning coat of wrath will not readily come off,
   but the Apostle's command is, "Put it off! Put it off!" It does not
   become a Christian to be an angry man.

   8. Wrath, malice. Christ will not live in a heart that harbors malice.

   8. Blasphemy. Thank God that if we ever wore that robe, we pulled it
   off long ago.

   8. Filthy communication out of your mouth. All talking that is of a
   dubious character must go. Anything which savors of corruption and
   defilement must be put away from every Christian.

   9. Lie not one to another In Paul's day, lying was thought to be a
   virtue unless the liar happened to be exposed. In that case it was
   considered wrong. But to lie through thick and thin, and to lie so
   dexterously as to deceive, was looked upon by an Oriental as an
   accomplishment of which he might be proud. So the Apostle might well
   write, "Lie not one to another"--

   9, 10. Seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds; and
   have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
   of Him that created him. There is nothing false or untrue in God. God
   is true and in Him is no falsehood at all. And if you and I have really
   been renewed, as we profess to have been, we shall hate the very
   semblance of a lie and our word will be as good as our bond.

   11. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor
   uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all,
   and in all Whenever you hear certain very wise Brothers and Sisters
   say, "Such-and-such a promise in the Bible is for Israel, not for the
   Gentiles," do not be misled in the least by their assertion! Just quote
   this text to them-- "There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor
   uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all,
   and in all." These distinctions all vanish when once we come to Christ!
   We are one in Him and every promise to Believers is good to all who are
   in Christ Jesus, for "Christ is all, and in all."

   12. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, hearts of
   mercies, kindness. Be ready to feel for others. Be very considerate of
   their needs. Look at others as if they were your kith and kin. If you
   and they are in Christ, they are indeed your kin, so put on
   kinned-ness, or, "kindness"--

   12. Humbleness of mind. Do not try to be a big man. He who thinks
   himself big has not yet learned the true spirit of Christianity.
   Especially towards those who are sorrowful and sad, be pitiful, be
   kind, be humble. 12. Meekness. If others try to provoke you, do not be
   provoked by them, but be gentle and meek.

   12. Long-suffering. Continue to put up with others, remembering the
   Lord's long-suffering with you.

   13. Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man has a
   quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. Hear
   this, Beloved, I pray you! Especially those of you who have hot tempers
   and have fallen out with one another. "Let not the sun go down upon
   your wrath." Remember how much Christ has forgiven you and show a
   forbearing and forgiving spirit to others.

   14. And above all these things put on charity. Or, rather, "love"--

   14. Which is the bond of perfectness. The perfect bond, the belt that
   goes round and keeps every other garment of virtue in its place.

   15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are
   called in one body. Do not fall out with one another. You are called to
   peace, for you are called in one body. Does one hand in the body fight
   with the other hand? Does the foot contend with the eye? Of course not,
   for they are in one body. So are you in one body with all your fellow
   Christians, therefore lay aside all strife. I deeply deplore when I see
   Christians--and especially eminent Christians-- contending with one
   another about minor matters of small account. Surely, almost anything
   ought to be borne before

   there should be public strife among members of the one body! God grant
   that such a state of things may speedily come to an end wherever it has
   existed! We have enough to do to "earnestly contend for the faith which
   was once delivered unto the saints," without contending for our own
   dignity or honor.

   15. And be you thankful. That is a nice little text, "Be you thankful."
   When you are grumbling at your plain food, put this as a sandwich
   between your bread and butter, "Be you thankful." When you are
   complaining of the East wind, just try if you cannot spell this little
   sentence, "Be you thankful." When you are murmuring about those sharp
   pains and that long sickness, this is the kind of tune for the little
   bird to whistle at your window, "Be you thankful." We have all much for
   which we ought to be thankful, however sad we may think our lot to be.
   Look on the bright side, rejoice in God! "Be you thankful."

   16, 17. Let the word of Christ dwellin you richly in all wisdom;
   teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual
   songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you
   do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
   to God and the Father by Him. Do not draw any line of demarcation, and
   say, "So far is secular and so far is religious." Let your whole life
   be religious--and if there is anything proposed to you in which you
   cannot glorify God--do not touch it! "Whatever you do in word or deed,
   do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the
   Father by Him."

   If any of you go to the theater, can you go there in the name of the
   Lord Jesus? Why, you would not dare to cross the threshold with such
   blasphemy in your soul! And when you go to any place of doubtful
   amusement, can you go there giving thanks to God and the Father by
   Jesus Christ? Can you thank the Lord that you are permitted to go and
   pray for Divine blessing when you go and when you leave? A lady once
   said to a Christian minister, "The pleasures of going to the play are
   very great. There is the pleasure of thinking of it beforehand, the
   enjoyment of it at the time, and then the pleasure of thinking of it
   afterwards." "Yes, Madam," said the good man, "and there is one other
   pleasure which you seem to have forgotten--that is the pleasure of
   thinking of it on your dying bed. I would like you to remember that."
     __________________________________________________________________

Ruth Deciding for God

   (No. 2680)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 24, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL
   21, 1881.

   "And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from
   following after you: for where you go, I will go; and where you lodge,
   I will lodge: your people shall be my people, and your God my God."
   Ruth 1:16.

   THIS was a very brave, outspoken confession of faith. Please notice
   that it was made by a woman, a young woman, a poor woman, a widow woman
   and a foreigner. Remembering all that, I should think there is no
   condition of gentleness, or of obscurity, or of poverty, or of sorrow
   which should prevent anybodyfrom making an open confession of
   allegiance to God when faith in the Lord Jesus Christ has been
   exercised. If that is your experience, my dear Friend, then whoever you
   may be, you will find an opportunity, somewhere or other, of declaring
   that you are on the Lord's side. I am glad that all candidates for
   membership in our Church make their confession of faith at our Church
   Meetings. I have been told that such an ordeal must keep a great many
   from joining us, yet I notice that where there is no such ordeal, they
   often have very few members--but here we are with 5,600 or thereabouts,
   in Church fellowship and, very seldom, if ever, finding anybody kept
   back by having to make an open confession of faith in Christ. It does
   the man, the woman, the boy, or the girl--whoever it is--so much good
   for once, at least, to say right out straight, "I am a Believer in the
   Lord Jesus Christ and I am not ashamed of it," that I do not think we
   shall ever deviate from our custom. I have also noticed that when
   people have once confessed Christ before men, they are very apt to do
   it again somewhere else. And they thus acquire a kind of boldness and
   outspokenness upon religious matters--and a holy courage as followers
   of Christ--which more than make up for any self-denial and trembling
   which the effort may have cost them.

   I think Naomi was quite right to drive Ruth, as it were, to take this
   brave stand in which it became an absolute necessity for her to speak
   right straight out and say, in the words of our text, "Entreat me not
   to leave you, or to return from following after you: for where you go,
   I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge: your people shall be my
   people, and your God my God." What is there for any of us to be ashamed
   of in acknowledging that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ? What can
   there be that should cause us to be ashamed of Jesus, or make us blush
   to acknowledge His name?--

   "Ashamed of Jesus? That dear Friend On whom my hopes of Heaven depend?
   No, when I blush, be this my shame, That I no more revere His name." We
   ought to be ashamed of being ashamed of Jesus! We ought to be afraid of
   being afraid to acknowledge Him! We ought to tremble at trembling to
   confess Him and to resolve that we will take all suitable opportunities
   that we can find of saying, first to relatives, and then to all others
   with whom we come into contact, "We serve the Lord Christ."

   I should think that Naomi was--certainly she ought to have
   been--greatly cheered by hearing this declaration from Ruth, especially
   the last part of it--"Your people shall be my people, and your God my
   God." Naomi had suffered great temporal loss. She had lost her husband
   and her two sons, but now she had found the soul of her
   daughter-in-law. And I believe that, according to the scales of true
   judgment, there ought to have been more joy in her heart at the
   conversion of Ruth's soul than grief over the death of her husband and
   her sons. Our Lord Jesus has told us that "there is joy in the presence
   of the angels of God over one sinner that repents." And I always
   understand, by that expression, that there is joy in the heart of God,
   Himself, over every sinner's repentance! Well, then, if Naomi's husband
   and sons were true Believ-Volume 46 www.spurgeongems.org 1

   ers--if they had been walking aright before the Lord--as, let us hope,
   they had done, she need not have felt such sorrow for them as could at
   all compare with the joy of her daughter-in-law being saved.

   Perhaps, some of you, dear Friends, have had bereavements in your
   homes, but if the death--the temporal death-- of one should be the
   means of the spiritual life of another, there is a clear gain! I am
   sure there is and though you may have gone weeping to the grave, yet if
   you have evidence that, with those tears, there were also tears of
   repentance on the part of others of your family--and with that sad
   glance into the grave there was also a believing look at the dying,
   risen, and living Savior--you are decidedly a gainer and you need not
   say with Naomi, "I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home,
   again, empty." Really, Naomi, with her converted daughter-in-law at her
   side, if she had only been able to look into the future, might have
   been a happier woman than when she went away with her husband and her
   boys, for now she had with her one who was to be in the direct line of
   the progenitors of Christ--a right royal woman--for I count that the
   line of Christ is the true imperial line and that they were the most
   highly honored among men and women who were in any way associated with
   the birth of the Savior into this world. And Ruth, though a Moabitess,
   was one of those who were elected to share in this high privilege. So I
   beg you, if you have been sorrowful because of any deaths in your
   family circle, pray God to outweigh that sorrow with a greater measure
   of joy because, by His Grace, He has brought other members of your
   family to trust in Jesus!

   Another thought strikes me here. That is, that it was when Naomi
   returned to the land which she ought never to have left--it was when
   she came out from the idolatrous Moabites among whom she had, as you
   see, relatives, and friends, and acquaintances--it was when she said,
   "I will go back to my own country, and people, and God"--that then the
   Lord gave her the soul of this young woman who was so closely related
   to her. It may be that some of you professedly Christian people have
   been living at a distance from God. You have not led the separated
   life. You have tried to be friendly with the world as well as with
   Christ--and your children are not growing up as you wish they would.
   You say that your sons are not turning out well and that your girls are
   dressy, flighty and worldly. Do you wonder that it is so?

   "Oh," you say, "I have gone a good way to try to please them, thinking
   that, perhaps, by doing so, I might win them for Christ!" Ah, you will
   never win any soul to the right by a compromise with the wrong! It is
   decision for Christ and His Truth that has the greatest power in the
   family and the world, too. If a soldier in the barracks is converted
   and he says, "I mean to be a Christian, but, at the same time, I will
   join with the other men as much as I can. I will sometimes step into
   the tavern with them," and so forth, he will do no good. But the moment
   he boldly takes his stand for his new Captain and is known to be a
   Christian--his comrades may begin to scoff at him, but they will also
   begin to be impressed--and if he bravely maintains that stand and never
   gives way in the least degree, but is faithful to his Lord and Master,
   then he will be likely to see conversions among his fellow soldiers.

   It was while Naomi was on her way back to her own land that she heard
   the good news that her dear daughter-in-law had decided to be a
   follower of Jehovah and to say, "Your people shall be my people, and
   your God my God." This gave her great joy, but how must some of you
   Christian people feel when you find out that others have been caused to
   stumble through your living at a distance from Christ? What pangs of
   remorse will seize you when you discover that your arm has been
   paralyzed for good--that you have been unable to lead others to the
   Savior because you, yourself, were living so far from Him that it was a
   serious question whether you were not growing to be a worshipper of the
   Moabite idols and giving up altogether your profession of being a
   follower of the one true God?

   Now, with this as a preface, I come directly to the subject of the
   text. Here is a young woman who says to a follower of Jehovah, "Your
   people shall be my people, and your God my God."

   I. My first observation is that AFFECTION FOR THE GODLY SHOULD
   INFLUENCE US TO GODLINESS.

   It did so in this case. Affection for their godly mother-in-law
   influenced both Orpah and Ruth for a time "and they said unto her,
   Surely we will return with you unto your people." They were both drawn
   part of the way towards Canaan, but, alas, natural affection has not
   sufficient power, in itself, to draw anybody to a decision for God! It
   may be helpful to that end. It may be one of the "cords of a man" and
   "bands of love" which God, in His infinite mercy, often uses in drawing
   sinners to Himself, but there has to be something more than that mere
   human affection. Still, it ought to be of some service in leading to a
   decision and it is a very dreadful thing when those who have godly
   parents seem to be the worse, rather than the better for that fact, or
   when men, who have Christian wives, rebel against the Light of God and
   become all the more wicked because God has blessed their homes with
   godly women who speak to them lovingly and tenderly

   concerning the claims of the religion of Jesus. That is a terrible
   state of affairs, for it ought always to be the case that our affection
   for godly people should help to draw us towards godliness. In Ruth's
   case, by the Grace of God, it was the means of leading her to the
   decision expressed in our text, "Your people shall be my people, and
   your God my God."

   Many forces may be combined to bring others to this decision. First,
   there is the influence of companionship. Nobody doubts that evil
   company tends to make a man bad. And it is equally sure that good
   companionship has a tendency to influence men towards that which is
   good. It is a happy thing to have side by side with you one whose heart
   is full of love to God. It is a great blessing to have as a mother a
   true saint, or to have as a brother or a sister one who fears the Lord.
   And it is a special privilege to be linked for life, in the closest
   bonds, with one whose prayers may rise with ours, and whose praises may
   also mingle with ours. There is something about Christian companionship
   which must count in the right direction unless the heart is resolutely
   bent on mischief.

   There is something more than this, however, and that is the influence
   of admiration. There can be no doubt whatever that Ruth looked with
   loving reverence and admiration upon Naomi, for she saw in her a
   character which won her heart's esteem and affection. The few glimpses
   which we have of that godly woman, in this Book of Ruth, show us that
   she was a most disinterested and unselfish person--not one who, because
   of her own great sorrow, would burden others with it and pull them down
   to her own level in order that they might in some way assist her. She
   was one who considered the interests of others rather than her own--and
   all such persons are sure to win admiration and esteem. When a
   Christian man so lives that others see something about him which they
   do not perceive in themselves, that is one way in which they are often
   attracted towards the Christian life. When the sick Christian is
   patient. When the poor Christian is cheerful. When the Believer in
   Christ is forgiving, generous, tenderhearted, sympathetic, honest and
   upright, then it is that observers say, "Here is something worth
   looking into--from where comes all this excellence?" And they take
   knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus and that they have
   learned these things of Him--and in that way they are, themselves,
   inclined to become His followers.

   Nor is it only by companionship and admiration that people are won to
   the Savior. There is also the influence of instruction. I have no doubt
   that Naomi gave her daughter-in-law much helpful teaching. Ruth would
   want to know about Naomi's God and Naomi would be only too glad to tell
   her all she knew. When the Spaniards went over to South America, they
   treated the poor natives so badly that the Indians did not wish to know
   anything about the Spaniards' god, for they thought, from the cruelties
   they had suffered, that he must be a devil! And there are certain sorts
   of professors who are so unkind--they have such an absence of
   everything gentle and generous about them--that one does not want to
   know anything about their god, for if they are like he, he probably
   isthe devil!

   But, dear Friends, it ought not to be so with us. We should make people
   want to know what our religion really is and then be ready to tell
   them! I have no doubt that, many a time, in the land of Moab, when her
   daughters-in-law ran in to see her, Naomi would begin telling them
   about the deliverance at the Red Sea and how the Lord brought His
   people through the wilderness and how the goodly land, which flowed
   with milk and honey, had been given to them by the hand of Joshua. Then
   she would tell them about the tabernacle and its worship, and talk to
   them about the lamb, and the red heifer, and the bullock, and the
   sin-offering and so on. And it was thus, probably, that Ruth's heart
   had been won to Jehovah, the God of Israel. And, perhaps, for that
   reason--because of Naomi's instruction--Ruth said to her, "'Your people
   shall be my people.' I know so much about them that I want to be
   numbered with them. 'And your God shall be my God.' You have told me
   about Him--what wonders He has worked--and I have resolved to trust
   myself under the shadow of His wings." Well, Beloved, it ought to be
   thus with us, also. We should take care that the influence of our
   companionship, the influence of our lives in which there should be
   something for observers to admire and the influence of our
   conversation, which should be full of gracious instruction, should lead
   those who come under our influence in the right way.

   Besides that, I have no doubt that some persons are drawn towards good
   things by a desire to cheer the godly persons whom they love. And
   though I do not put this forward as one of the highest and strongest
   motives, yet I do feel at liberty to suggest to some young people here
   that their sins are a great grief to their loving fathers and mothers
   and that, if their hearts were given to Christ, it would fill the whole
   house with holy joy! It was a great joy to me when my sons were born,
   but it was an infinitely surpassing joy as, one after the other, they
   told me that they had sought and found the Savior! To pray with them,
   to point them yet more fully to Christ, to hear the story of their
   spiritual troubles and to help

   them out of their spiritual difficulties was an intense satisfaction to
   my soul. Ah, my young Friends, you do not know how much those who love
   you would be cheered if you were converted--especially any of you who
   have not lived as you should have done--who have, perhaps, even gone
   away from home and acted in a way that might well bring your father's
   gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. I think that he would almost dance
   with delight if he could only hear that you were truly converted to
   God!

   I know a minister who took out of his pocket an old letter that was
   nearly worn to pieces. He made a journey from the country to bring it
   up for me to see. It was not really old--it was worn out because he had
   so constantly taken it out to read. It was somewhat to this effect. His
   son had been such a scapegrace and such a disgrace to his family that
   he was helped to go abroad--and he came to London to join the ship. As
   he had heard his father speak of me, he thought that he would spend his
   last Thursday night, before starting on the Friday morning, in hearing
   me in this Tabernacle. And here God met with him, for I was moved by
   the Holy Spirit to say, "Here you are, Jack--going away from home, from
   your father's house, oh, that the great Father in Heaven would take you
   to Himself!" It happened that his name was Jack, so it was the very
   words for him--and the Lord blessed it to him then and there. He went
   to America. He did not write to his father to tell him about his
   conversion till he had had time to prove the reality of it. But when he
   had been baptized and had joined the Church, and walked consistently
   for six months, he sent the good news home. The old man said, "I
   thought he might have been lost at sea, but the Lord had saved him
   through your preaching. God bless you, Sir!" I had a thousand blessings
   heaped upon my head by that grateful father. It was only a simple
   sermon that I had preached on a Thursday night, but it was the means of
   that son's conversion and it was the source of great joy to that
   father--he did not mind about his son being in America, or what he was
   doing--so long as he had become a true Believer in the Lord Jesus
   Christ! What a mercy it would be if this sermon should be blessed as
   that one was!

   I think, too, that there was another thing which had great influence
   over Ruth, as it has had over a great many other people. That is, the
   fear of separation. ' 'Ah," said one to me only last week, "it used to
   trouble me greatly when my wife went downstairs to the communion and I
   had to go home, or to remain with the spectators in the gallery. I did
   not like to be separated from her even here. And then, Sir, the thought
   stole over me, 'What if I have to be divided from her forever and
   ever?'" I think that a similar reflection ought, with the blessing of
   God, to impress a good many. Young man, if you live and die impenitent,
   you will see your mother no more, except from an awful distance, with a
   great gulf fixed between her and you, so that she cannot cross over to
   you, or you go over to her! There will come a day when one shall be
   taken and another left. And before the great separation takes place at
   the Judgment Seat of Christ--when there shall be a division made
   between the goats and the sheep, and between the tares and the wheat--I
   implore you to let the influence of the godly whom you love help to
   draw you towards decision for God and His Christ.

   II. My time would fail me if I dwelt longer on this point, though it is
   a very interesting one, so I must pass on to my second observation
   which is, that which RESOLVES TO GODLINESS WILL BE TESTED. Ruth speaks
   very positively--"Your people shall be my people, and your God my God."
   This was her resolve, but it was a resolve which had already been put
   to the test and she had, in great measure, satisfactorily passed
   through it.

   First, it had been tested by the poverty and the sorrow of her
   mother-in-law. Naomi said, "The Almighty has dealt very bitterly with
   me," yet Ruth says, "Your God shall be my God." I like that brave
   resolution of the young Moabitess. Some people say, "We would like to
   be converted, for we want to be happy." Yes, but suppose you knew that
   you would notbe happy after conversion? You still ought to wish to have
   this God to be your God. Naomi has lost her husband, she has lost her
   sons, she has lost everything--she is going back penniless to
   Bethlehem--and yet her daughter-in-law says to her, "Your God shall be
   my God." Oh, dear Friends, if you can share the lot of Christians when
   they are in trouble. If you can take God and affliction. If you can
   accept Christ and a cross--then your decision to be His follower is
   true and real! It has been tested by the afflictions and the trials
   which you know belong to the people of God, yet you are content to
   suffer with them in taking their God to be your God, too.

   Next, Ruth's decision had been tested when she was bidden to count the
   cost Naomi had put the whole case before her. She had told her
   daughter-in-law that there was no hope that she should ever bear a son
   who could become a husband to Ruth--and that she had better stay and
   find a husband in her own land. She set before her the dark side of the
   case--possibly too earnestly. She seemed as if she wanted to persuade
   her to go back, though I do not think that, in her heart, she could
   really have wished her to do so. But, my young Friend, before you say
   to any Christian, "Your people

   shall be my people, and your God my God," count the cost! Remember if
   you are following an evil trade, you will have to give it up. If you
   have formed bad habits, you will have to forsake them. And if you have
   had bad companions, you will have to leave them. There are a great many
   things which have afforded you pleasure which must become painful to
   you and must be renounced. Are you prepared to follow Christ through
   the mire and the slough, as well as along the high road and down in the
   valley as well as up upon the hills? Are you ready to carry His Cross
   as you hope, afterwards, to share His crown? If you can stand the test
   in detail--such a test as Christ set before those who wanted to be His
   followers on earth--then is your decision a right one!

   Ruth had been tried, too, by the apparent coldness of one in whom she
   trustedand whom she had a right to trust, for Naomi did not at all
   encourage her. Indeed, she seemed to discourageher. I am not sure that
   Naomi is to be blamed for that and I am not certain that she is to be
   much praised. You know, it is quite possible for you to encourage
   people too much. I have known some encouraged in their doubts and fears
   till they never could get out of them. At the same time, you can
   certainly very easily chill enquirers and seekers. And though Naomi
   showed her love to Ruth, yet she did not seem to have any very great
   desire to bring her to follow Jehovah. This is a test that many young
   people find to be very trying--but this young woman said to her
   mother-in-law, "Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from
   following after you: for where you go, I will go; and where you lodge,
   I will lodge: your people shall be my people, and your God my God."

   Another trial for Ruth was the drawing back of her sister-in-law. Orpah
   kissed Naomi and left her. And you know the influence of one young
   person upon another when they are of the same age, or when they are
   related as these two were. You went to the revival meeting with a
   friend and she was as much impressed as you were. She has gone back to
   the world and the temptation is for you to do the same. Can you stand
   out against it? You two young men went to hear the same preacher and
   you both felt the force of the Word of God, but your companion has gone
   back to where he used to be. Can you hold out, now, and say, "I will
   follow Christ alone if I cannot find a companion to go with me?" If so,
   it is well with you--

   "Can you cleave to your Lord? Can you cleave to your Lord,

   When the many turn aside?

   Can you witness He has the living Word,

   And none upon earth beside?

   And can you endure with the virgin band,

   The lowly and pure in heart,

   Who, wherever the Lamb does lead,

   From His footsteps never depart?

   Do you answer, 'We can'? Do you answer, 'We can,

   Through His love's constraining power'?

   But, ah, remember the flesh is weak,

   And will shrink in the trial-hour.

   Yet yield to His love, who round you now,

   The bands of a man would cast

   The cords of His love, who was given for you,

   To the altar binding you fast" But one of the worst trials that Ruth
   had was the silence of Naomi I think that is what is meant, for after
   she had solemnly declared that she would follow the Lord, we read,
   "When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she
   stopped speaking unto her." She left off stating the black side of the
   case, but she does not appear to have talked to her about the bright
   side. "She stopped speaking unto her." The good woman was so sorrowful
   that she could not talk! Her heart-break was so great that she could
   not converse. And such silence must have been very trying to Ruth--and
   when a young person has just joined the people of God, it is a severe
   test to be brought face to face with a very mournful Christian and not
   to get one encouraging word!

   Sometimes, Brothers and Sisters, we must swallow our own bitter pills
   as fast as we can, that we may not discourage others by making a wry
   face over them. It is sometimes the very best thing a sorrowful person
   can do to say, "I must not be sad. Here is young So-and-So coming in. I
   must be cheerful, for here comes one who might be discouraged by my
   grief." You remember how the Psalmist, when he was in a very mournful
   state of mind, said, "If I say, I will speak thus--

   behold, I should offend against the generation of your children. When I
   thought to know this, it was too painful for me"? Let it be too painful
   for us to give any cause for stumbling or disquietude to those who have
   just come to the Savior, but let us cheer and encourage them all we
   can. Still, Naomi's silence did not discourage Ruth--she was evidently
   a strong-minded, though gentle young woman, and she gave herself up to
   God and His people without any reserve. Even though she might not be
   helped much by the older Believer and might even be discouraged by
   her--and still more by the departure of her sister-in-law, Orpah--yet
   she still pressed on in the course she had chosen!

   Well, you do the same, Mary. And you, Jane, and John, and Thomas. Will
   you be like Mr. Pliable and go back to the City of Destruction? Or will
   you, like Christian, pursue your way and steadfastly hold on through
   the Slough of Despond, or whatever else may be in your pathway to the
   Celestial City?

   III. Now, thirdly, and very briefly, TRUE GODLINESS MUST MAINLY LIE IN
   THE CHOICE OF GOD. That is the very pith of the text--"Your God shall
   be my God."

   First, dear Friends, God is the Believer's choicest possession. Indeed,
   it is the distinguishing mark of a Christian that he acknowledges a
   God. Naomi had not much else--no husband, no son, no lands, no gold, no
   silver, no pleasure, even--but she had a God. Come, now, my Friend, are
   you determined that, henceforth and forever, the Lord shall be your
   chief possession? Can you say, "God shall be mine. My faith shall grasp
   Him, now, and hold Him fast?" Next, God was, henceforth, to Ruth, as He
   had been to Naomi--her Ruler and Law-Giver. When anyone truthfully
   says, "God shall be my God," there is some practical meaning about that
   declaration. It means, "He shall influence me. He shall direct me. He
   shall lead me. He shall govern me. He shall be my King. I will yield to
   Him and obey Him in everything. I will endeavor to do all things
   according to His will. God shall be my God." You must not want to take
   God to be your helper, in the sense of making Him to be your servant,
   but to be your Master and so to help you. Dear friends, does the Holy
   Spirit lead you to make this blessed choice and to declare, "This God
   shall be mine, my Law-Giver and Ruler from this time forth?"

   Well, then, He must also be your Instructor At the present day, I am
   afraid that nine people out of ten do not believe in the God who is
   revealed to us in the Bible. "What?" you say. It is so, I grieve to say
   it. I can point you to newspapers, to magazines, to periodicals and
   also to pulpits by the score in which there is a new god set up to be
   worshipped--not the God of the Old Testament--He is said to be too
   strict, too severe, too stern for our modern teachers. They do not
   believe in Him. The God of Abraham is dethroned by many, nowadays, and
   in His place they have a spineless god, like those of whom Moses spoke,
   "new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not." They
   shudder at the very mention of the God of the Puritans! If Jonathan
   Edwards were to rise from the dead, they would not listen to him for a
   minute--they would say that they had quite a new god since his
   day--but, Brothers and Sisters, I believe in the God of Abraham, and of
   Isaac, and of Jacob! This God is my God--yes, the God that drowned
   Pharaoh and his host at the Red Sea and moved His people to sing
   "Hallelujah" as He did it! The God that caused the earth to open and
   swallow up Korah, Dathan and Abiram and all their company--a terrible
   God is the God whom I adore--He is the God and Father of our Lord and
   Savior Jesus Christ, full of mercy, compassion and Grace, tender and
   gentle, yet just and dreadful in His holiness and terrible out of His
   holy places. This is the God whom we worship and he who comes to Him in
   Christ, and trusts in Him, will take Him to be his Instructor--and so
   shall he learn aright all that he needs to know. But woe unto the men
   of this day who have made unto themselves a calf of their own devising
   which has no power to bless or to save them! "Your God" says Ruth to
   Naomi--not another god--not Chemosh or Moloch, but Jehovah--"shall be
   my God." And so she took Him to be her Instructor, as we, also, must
   do.

   Then, let us take Him to be our entire trust and stay. O my beloved
   Friends, the happiest thing in life is to trust God--first to trust Him
   with your soul through Jesus Christ the Savior--and then to trust Him
   with everything and in everything. I am speaking what I know! The life
   of sense is death, but the life of faith is life, indeed! Trust God
   about temporary things--no, I do not know any division between
   temporary things and spiritual things--trust God about everything!
   About your daily livelihood, about your health, about your wife, about
   your children--live a life of faith in God and you will truly live and
   all things will be right about you. It is because we get to
   partlytrusting God and partly trusting ourselvesthat we are often so
   unhappy. But when, by simple faith, you just cast yourselves on God,
   then you find the highest joy and bliss that is possible on earth--and
   a whole series of wonders is spread out before you! Your life becomes
   like a miracle, or a succession of miracles, God hearing your prayers
   and answering you out of Heaven, delivering you in

   the time of trial, supplying your every need and leading you always
   onward by a matchless way which you know not, which every moment shall
   cause you greater astonishment and delight as you see the unfolding of
   the Character of God. Oh, that each one of you would say, "This God
   shall be my God. I will trust Him. By His Grace I will trust Him now."

   IV. The last thing is that THIS DECISION SHOULD LEAD US TO CAST IN OUR
   LOT WITH GOD'S PEOPLE AS WELL AS WITH HIMSELF, for Ruth said, "Your
   people shall be my people."

   She might have said, "You are not well spoken of, you Jews, you
   Israelites. The Moabites, among whom I have lived, hate you." But, in
   effect, she said, "I am no Moabitess now. I am going to belong to
   Israel and to be spoken against, too. They have all manner of bad
   things to say in Moab about Bethlehem-Judah, but I do not mind that,
   for I am going to be, from now on, an inhabitant of Bethlehem and to be
   reckoned in the number of the Bethlehem people, for no longer am I of
   Moab and the Moabites."

   Now, dear Friend, will you thus cast in your lot with God's people and,
   though they are spoken against, will you be willing to be spoken
   against, too? I daresay that the Bethlehem people were not all that
   Ruth could have wished them to be. Even Naomi was not--she was too sad
   and sorrowful--but, still, I expect that Ruth thought that her
   mother-in-law was a better woman than she was herself. I have heard
   people find fault with the members of our Churches and say that they
   cannot join with them for they are such an inferior sort of people.
   Well, I know a great many different sorts of people and, after all, I
   shall be quite content to be numbered with God's people, as I see them
   even in His visible Church, rather than to be numbered with any other
   persons in the whole world! I count the despised people of God the best
   company I have ever met with--and I often say of this Tabernacle, as I
   hope members of other Churches can say of their own places of worship--

   "Here my best friends, my kindred dwell, Here God, my Savior, reigns."

   "Oh!" says one, "I will join the church when I can find a perfect one."
   Then you will never join any. "Ah," you say, "but perhaps I may." Well,
   but it will not be a perfect church the moment you have joined it, for
   it will cease to be perfect as soon as it receives you into its
   membership! I think that if a Church is such as Christ can love, it is
   such as I can love. And if it is such that Christ counts it as his
   Church, I may well be thankful to be a member of it. Christ "loved the
   Church and gave Himself for it"--then may I not think it an honor to be
   allowed to give myself to it?

   Ruth was not joining a people out of whom she expected to get much.
   Shame on those who think to join the church for what they can get! Yet
   the loaves and fishes are always a bait for some people. But there was
   Ruth, going with Naomi to Bethlehem--and all that the townsfolk would
   do would be to turn out and stare at them and say, "Is this Naomi? And
   pray who is this young woman that has come with her? This Naomi--dear
   me! How altered she is! How worn she looks! Quite the old woman to what
   she was when she left us." Not much sympathy was given to them, as far
   as I gather from that remark, yet Ruth seemed to say, "I do not care
   how they treat me. They are God's people, even if they have a great
   many faults and imperfections, and I am going to join them."

   And I invite all of you who can say to us, "Your God is our God," to
   join with the people of God, openly, visibly, manifestly, decidedly,
   without any hesitancy, even though you may gain nothing by it! Perhaps
   you will not, but, on the other hand, you will bring a good deal to it,
   for that is the true spirit of Christ. "It is more blessed to give than
   to receive." Yet, in any case, cast in your lot with the people of God
   and share and share alike with them.

   I conclude by saying that whatever the other Bethlehem people might be,
   there was among them one notable being, and it was worth while to join
   the nation for the sake of union with him. Ruth found it all out by
   degrees. There was a near kinsman among those people and his name was
   Boaz. She went to glean in his field and, by-and-by, she was married to
   him. Ah, that was the reason why I cast in my lot with the people of
   God, for I said to myself, "There is One among them who, whatever
   faults theymay have, is so fair and lovely that He more than makes up
   for all their imperfections! My Lord Jesus Christ, in the midst of His
   people, makes them all fair in His fairness and makes me feel that to
   be poor with the poorest and most illiterate of the Church of Christ,
   meeting in a village barn, is an unspeakable honor since He is among
   them!"

   Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is always present wherever two or three
   are gathered together in His name. If His name is on the list, there
   may be a number of odds and ends put down with Him--members of
   different denominations, some strange persons, some very old people--as
   long as His name is on the list, I do not mind about what others are

   there, put my name down! Oh, that I might have the eternal honor of
   having my name written even at the bottom of the page beneath the name
   of Jesus, my Lord, the Lamb! As Boaz was there, it was enough for Ruth,
   and as Christ is here, that is quite enough for me! So I hope I have
   said sufficient to persuade you, who say that our God is your God, to
   come and join with us, or with some other part of Christ's Church and
   so to make His people to be your people. And mind you, do it at once,
   and in the Scriptural fashion, and God bless you in the doing of it,
   for Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Covenant Blessings

   (No. 2681)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 1, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A THURSDAY EVENING, IN THE
   SUMMER OF 1858.

   "He has given meat unto them that fear Him: He will always be mindful
   of His Covenant." Psalm 111:5.

   THIS verse occurs in one of the Hallelujah Psalms, that is, those
   commencing with "Praise you the Lord." We often find the Psalmist
   praising and extolling God--let us imitate his example. Let us do so
   because we shall find it very pleasant and profitable and because,
   also, it is our bounden duty. One of the highest exercises of the new
   life is praising God! Our doubts and fears are indications of life, for
   the dead man neither doubts nor fears. But our songs of praise are far
   higher demonstrations of the life within and are more worthy fruits of
   a soil which has been the subject of God's husbandry, which has been
   plowed by the agonies of the Savior and made fertile through His
   precious blood. My Brothers and Sisters, our life should be one
   continuous Psalm with here and there a note descending very deep! Yet
   we should always seek to sing as we live. The stars sing as they shine
   and they sing by shining. Let us sing while we live and live by
   singing--and let our life be perpetually singing one great Psalm!

   There are many ways of praising God. We should do it with the lips and
   grateful is the voice of song in the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth.
   We should do it by our daily conversation--let our acts be acts of
   praise, as well as our words be words of praise. We should do it even
   by the very look of our eyes and by the appearance of our countenance.
   Let not your face be sad, let your countenance be joyous! Sing wherever
   you go, yes, when you are laden with trouble, let no man see it. "You,
   when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face." Be you always
   glad, for it is God's commandment, through His servant, the Apostle
   Paul, "Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, Rejoice." And yet
   once more he says, "Rejoice evermore." That we may have themes for
   song, David has in this Psalm mentioned many subjects. Let us attend to
   the subjects of the text--the subject, I might have said, for it is all
   one. This verse is the voice of experience. It is not the voice of
   hope, saying, "He will give," but the voice of experience--"He has
   given meat unto them that fear Him" and the voice of faith--"He will
   ever be mindful of His Covenant."

   We shall notice, first of all, the gift--"He has given meat unto them
   that fear Him." Then we shall notice the Covenant--"He will ever be
   mindful of His Covenant." And then, lastly, the character of the
   persons here spoken of--"He has given meat unto them that fear Him."

   I. Let us first consider THE GIFT. "He has given meat." We are to
   understand this expression, of course, in a twofold sense, of our
   necessities. The first, temporal. The other, spiritual.

   First, we are to understand this expression in a temporal sense. Our
   bodies need meat. We cannot keep this mortal fabric in repair without
   continually providing it with food. God's children are not, by the fact
   of their being spiritual men, prevented from feeling natural
   needs--they hunger and they thirst even as others do. Sometimes, too,
   they are even called to suffer poverty and know not where their next
   morsel of meat shall come from. Blessed be God--

   "He that has made our Heaven secure Will here all good provide"--

   and God's Covenant relates not merely to the great and marvelous things
   that we need spiritually, but it is a Covenant which includes in the
   catalog of its gifts, mercies that are food for the body, mercies for
   our immediate and pressing needs--"He has given meat unto them that
   fear Him."

   God has never suffered His people to starve. "The young lions do lack
   and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good
   thing." The promise is as true under the New Covenant as under the Old,
   that our bread shall be given us and our water shall be sure. The Lord,
   who feeds the ravens, will not be less careful of His people. He who
   supplies every insect with its food and feeds the prowling lion in his
   majesty, will not suffer His own home-born children, those who are
   nearest His heart, to perish for lack of nutriment. "The cattle on a
   thousand hills are His," so He will not allow His children to lack for
   their meat. He it is to whom the earth belongs and the fullness
   thereof--He will not, then, suffer His children to go without necessary
   supplies. "He has given meat unto them that fear Him."

   Some of us are qualified to speak from experience upon this point. We
   may truly say that God has always given us our meat. Indeed, we have
   not lacked anything. Up to now the road has been to us like that of the
   Israelites when they came to the camp of the Syrians and found the way
   strewn with gold, silver and garments! God has provided for our needs
   even before they have come. He has anticipated our necessities. But
   there are others of you who have been brought so low by poverty and
   affliction that you are qualified to speak in a still more emphatic
   fashion. You have sometimes gone, with a hungry stomach, to an empty
   cupboard. You have wondered where your supplies would come from. You
   may even have been houseless and homeless. But ah, children of the
   living God, has He utterly failed you? Though He has reduced you very
   low, so that the last morsel was eaten from the cupboard, has He not
   ultimately supplied your needs and that, too, by means not miraculous,
   but almost so? Has He not in Providence sent you things which you
   needed and which you scarcely expected to receive? In answer to prayer,
   has He not delivered you out of your deepest tribulations? And when you
   were well-nigh famished, has He not spread your table with plenty when
   you have bent your knees before Him? Yes, you tried ones, you have
   tested this text and have proved it true! You sons of poverty and toil,
   you have had to rest the whole weight of your daily maintenance on the
   promise of God without anything to look to but that--and have you ever
   found Him fail you? No, you will unanimously bear witness that this is
   a great Truth of God, "He has given meat unto them that fear Him."

   But it is surprising, sometimes, how God has done it! I have heard many
   a story from the poor among my own flock of how God has delivered
   them--strange stories, at which some of you would laugh if I were to
   repeat them. There are some of them who could write, "Banks of Faith"
   that would be as wonderful as that of William Huntington! Some of you
   laugh at that book and do not believe it, but it is only because there
   are so many things of the same sort all put together that they seem to
   be incredible through their number. But there are many of the Lord's
   servants who could easily compose a "Bank of Faith" like Huntington's,
   for they have had their most deep necessities and their most poignant
   sorrows--and they have had their relief well-nigh miraculous--so that,
   if God had thrust His hand out of the clouds and handed down bread and
   clothing for them, their deliverance would not have been more
   apparently from His hand than it has been in the way whereby His
   Providence has supplied their needs! They can say that He has done it
   and He has done it marvelously and constantly, too. "He has given meat
   unto them that fear Him."

   Why, if the child of God were in such a position that the earth could
   not yield him bread, God would open the windows of Heaven and rain
   manna from there again! If a Christian could be placed in such a
   position that the common course of Providence could not serve his end,
   God would change the nature of everything, rather than break His
   promise! He would reverse all the seasons and unloose the very bonds of
   Creation, itself, and let the laws of Nature run riot, rather than
   suffer one of His promises to fail, or one of His children to lack. "He
   has given meat"--and He will always do so-- "unto them that fear Him."

   But we are to understand this expression chiefly in a spiritual sense.
   God's people need spiritual meat. I was talking, the other day, to a
   minister who certainly is not noted for his great soundness in the
   faith. He was making a joke to me about certain people in his
   congregation who said they could not feed under him. "There is Mrs.
   So-and-So," he said, "who tells me that she cannot get a bit of food
   out of my ministry. I do not know how it is," he continued laughingly,
   "for I do not think you say half as many good things as I do! But yet
   the old woman cannot feed upon my sermons." He laughed at the idea of
   feeding under a ministry, but there is a good deal more in the
   expression than many think. There is much meant by it that cannot be
   expressed by any other word. It is only the true Christian who can
   understand its meaning. He hears a very eloquent discourse delivered,
   "but," he says, "I have got no food out of it." Or he hears a very
   learned discourse, "but," he says, "I cannot feed under that." There is
   a peculiar style of preaching and a peculiar style of hearing which can
   only be described as a "feeding preaching" and a "feeding hearing," in
   which the child of God feels

   that, though he may have learned little that is fresh, yet still his
   soul has been receiving spiritual food and he can go on his way
   rejoicing.

   And, my Brothers, the House of God is one of the principal places where
   He feeds His people. And those to whom He has committed the solemn work
   of the ministry should be very careful that there is something in what
   they say that the child of God can feed on. The child of God can never
   feed under a ministry unless he hears the doctrines of Grace and
   listens to the things of the Kingdom of God.

   "Our minister preached a fine metaphysical sermon the other day," one
   says. "I never heard such a clear distinction as he made between that
   point and the other." But the child of God goes out and says, "Well, I
   don't need any of his metaphysics--there was no food in the sermon for
   my soul. I went there to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. I went to be
   taught something for my soul's welfare, something about the Heaven that
   is to come, or the Hell that is to be shunned. I wanted to hear
   something about communion with Christ, something about the Eternal
   Covenant. But there was nothing of the kind in the whole discourse."
   Sermons need to be instructive! There should be real teaching in them
   concerning the things of the Kingdom of God. "Why," said a good writer,
   once, "if you were to hear six lectures by a geologist, he would be the
   poorest geologist in the world if he did not give you some clear ideas
   concerning geology. But you may hear 60 sermons from many preachers
   without getting any notion of their system of divinity."

   It is the glory of the men of this age that they have no system of
   divinity--they have cast creeds to the wind--they have no forms in
   which they can systematically state the Truths of God which they
   believe. The reason is because they have nothing to state! No man will
   avoid having a system when he has certain definite principles. It is
   impossible for a man to believe the Truths in God's Word without
   insensibly to himself forming a creed of some sort or other. It is the
   fashion to talk about giving up creeds, but creeds are only the orderly
   way of stating God's Truth. If we hold the Truths, themselves, we shall
   always be able to set them out in some fashion and to communicate our
   knowledge to others so that, in a given number of discourses, our
   hearers will be pretty tolerably acquainted with our ideas of the Truth
   of God. "He has given meat unto them that fear Him" under the ministry.
   Sometimes God gives your minister such a gift of utterance that if he
   were to preach for a week, you would listen to him. There are periods
   when your own minister gives no food to you, though he does to others,
   because he has to care for different members of God's family. But there
   are other periods when the Lord seems to have given him such bountiful
   gifts that he has let fall handfuls to be gathered by the gleaners as
   did the man, Boaz, and you pick them up and feast on them and are
   satisfied.

   There is another way in which God gives food to His children--that is,
   in the Bible. This precious volume is the greatest granary of spiritual
   food for God's people. Would to God you read it more! With your
   magazines, newspapers and tracts on this, that and the other subject,
   you have too much covered up this ancient Bible, this grand old Book,
   this emporium of all wisdom, this sum of all knowledge! Yes, Christian,
   if you need spiritual meat, study a chapter of God's Word. If you need
   to have food for your souls, give up, for a little while, reading the
   works of even the best of men, and take a Psalm for the theme of your
   study--or if not a whole Psalm, take one verse of it! Take it for your
   daily meditation--chew on it and digest it all day long--and so you
   will find meat for "them that fear Him."

   Let me just say a word or two of caution to you on this point. When you
   read the Bible, do not think that you will get spiritual food out of it
   simply by reading. I know some people who make a point of reading two
   chapters of the Bible every day. They do so as a sort of mental
   exercise--they simply run their eyes down the page and, after all, do
   not know a word they have been reading. That is not the way to feed
   upon God's Word! We cannot truly feed unless we understand and believe
   what we read. In reading the Scripture, do as Luther advised. He says,
   "When I get a promise, I treat it as if it were a tree in my garden. I
   know there is rich fruit on it and if I cannot at once get it, I shake
   the tree backwards and forwards by prayer and meditation until, at
   last, the fruit drops into my hand." Do you the same! Read a short
   portion of Scripture--turn it over and over, again, in your meditation
   all day long--and then, if you cannot get anything out of it, I will
   tell you a way whereby you will be sure to get something. Go down on
   your knees before the passage and say, "O Lord, open this passage to
   me! Give me something out of it. Teach me to understand it." And it
   will not be long before God refreshes you with dainty portions from the
   tables of Paradise and makes your soul glad with choice morsels of
   royal dainties wherewith He feeds His own chosen ones!

   But there is another way of getting spiritual meat, even when we have
   not our Bible with us. The Lord sometimes gives meat "unto them that
   fear Him," by bringing Jesus Christ home to them, without the use of
   the Word--simply in

   meditation and communion. You know, Beloved, after all, that what a
   child of God feeds upon is Jesus Christ. When the Jews went to the
   Temple, they did not eat the tongs and fire shovels. They did not eat
   the garments of the priests and the bells and the pomegranates. They
   valued all these things, for they were made according to God's orders
   and, therefore, they thought them precious. But they did, at the
   appointed season, eat the paschal lamb. So the Christian does not eat
   the Doctrines of the Word--he feeds on Christ! He loves the Truths of
   God. He loves the ordinances, he loves everything in the Bible for
   Christ's sake. But his food is the Lamb, Himself! Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
   is the real food for all the Lord's chosen! And are there not most
   sweet and happy moments when the spirit is carried aloft in blessed
   communion, when Jesus Christ seems very present and very precious, when
   we lean our head on His bosom, when we seem to feel the very beating of
   His heart and to realize His love for us, when we lose ourselves in Him
   and almost forget that we have a separate existence? Then we are--

   "Plunged in His Godhead's deepest sea, And lost in His immensity!"

   I was much struck, the other evening, at a Prayer Meeting, by the
   prayer of one of our Brothers, which came home to my heart. When he
   prayed, he said, "O Lord, give me Mary's place--

   "'Oh that I could forever sit

   With Mary at the Master's feet!

   Be this my happy choice,

   My only care, delight and bliss,

   My joy, my Heaven on earth, be this,

   To hear the Bridegroom's voice.'" He prayed that he might have Mary's
   part and always sit at the feet of Jesus. But, by-and-by, the good
   man's fervor increased and in his prayer he said, "No, my Master, I
   have not asked enough of You. Mary's place is too low for me, if I may
   have a better one. Lift me up higher, Lord! Give me John's place--

   "'Oh, that I might, with favored John,

   Forever lean my head upon

   The bosom of my Lord!'"

   As he pleaded for that higher degree of communion between his soul and
   Christ, I thought, "Surely, now you have asked enough." But, suddenly
   rising another flight on the wings of communion, like the eagle taking
   its last soar into the skies, he said, "No, Lord, John's place does not
   suffice me. You have lifted me from Your feet to Your bosom, now lift
   me from Your bosom to Your lips." Then, quoting the words of the
   spouse, "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth: for Your love is
   better than wine," he sweetly paraphrased it thus, "Let the lips of my
   petitioning meet the lips of Your benediction. Let the lips of my
   praise meet the lips of Your acceptance--so shall the kiss of love be
   consummated and my joy be complete."

   Yes, and when we, also, are favored to go through these various stages
   of fellowship with Christ--to go from the foot to the bosom and from
   the bosom to the lips. To go from the mere learner to be a friend and
   companion and then to go still higher--to be lifted up and to feel our
   fellowship with Christ by standing as high as He does and our lips
   being on His lips--it is there that the child of God almost insensibly
   receives strength and, like Elijah smitten by the angel, he rises up
   and finds his meat baked upon the coals, eats thereof and lives upon it
   for forty days! This is, indeed, a most precious mode of feeding for
   our souls!

   But, somehow or other, God does give meat to His children and will
   never leave them to be famished. You have often noticed, I daresay,
   that when one means of feeding fails for God's children, others become
   available and effective. You are sick and cannot be fed by the public
   ministry--you cannot go out to hear sermons--so God's Word becomes more
   precious to you. Or, you have nobody to read to you and your sight has
   failed--generally, then, communion becomes more precious. One way or
   other, God will have His children fed.

   II. We will now consider THE COVENANT. "He will always be mindful of
   His Covenant."

   God has made many Covenants at divers times and none of these Covenants
   has He ever broken. Let me briefly mention these Covenants. There was
   the Covenant with Adam, the Covenant of Works--"Obey Me and you shall
   live; disobey Me and you shall die." That Covenant God did not break.
   He did not subject Adam to pain or misery until he had first broken the
   Covenant and so became the inevitable heir of suffering. God made a
   Covenant with Noah that the wa-

   ters should no more go over the earth--and the rainbow, the sign of
   that Covenant--has lit up the sky ever since at various intervals. And
   the earth has not been drowned with a flood a second time. He made a
   Covenant with Abraham, that he would give the land of Canaan to be the
   heritage of his seed. And that Covenant has He kept. Neither has He
   altered the thing that went out of His lips. He made a Covenant with
   David, that his seed should sit upon his throne and that Covenant He
   kept.

   But the Covenant here referred to is a better Covenant than all these,
   it is the Covenant of Grace. That is a sweet subject to preach upon!
   Suffer me to go back to the time when this Covenant was made. It is
   older than the oldest things that man has ever seen--the Covenant of
   Grace is more ancient than the everlasting hills. It was made by God
   with Christ for us before all worlds were created! God had foreseen
   that man would be a sinner. Jesus Christ and His Father were determined
   to save him and, therefore, a Covenant was made between them. God the
   Son, on His part, stipulated that He would suffer all the punishment
   which all the elect deserved to suffer--that He would offer a perfect
   righteousness on their behalf and pay all the demands of God's justice.
   God the Father, on His part, covenanted that all the elect, being
   redeemed by the blood of Christ, would most certainly be accepted and
   saved. That is the Covenant of which God is always mindful.

   Some people believe in a rickety kind of Covenant which I could never
   find in the Bible--a Covenant that has conditions in it which you and I
   are to fulfill. If there were such a Covenant as that, it would not be
   a Covenant of Grace, but of works. If the Covenant of Grace were made
   with men--with those that should be saved, on condition of their
   believ-ing--it would be as impossible for any man to be saved on that
   condition as it would be on the condition of obeying, since faith is no
   more possible to unaided man than is perfect obedience! Faith in Christ
   is as difficult a thing, to a man dead in trespasses and sins, as is
   perfect obedience to every command of God. The Covenant of Grace is a
   Covenant without any conditions on our part, whatever, of any sort, in
   any shape, in any form, or any fashion. The Covenant, in fact, is not
   made between us and God--it is made between God and Christ, our
   Representative. All the conditions of that Covenant are fulfilled so
   that there are none left for us to fulfill! The conditions were that
   Christ should suffer--and He has suffered. That Christ should obey--and
   He has obeyed. All that is done. And all that is now standing is the
   unconditional Covenant, that God will give to all His elect, though
   dead in sin, power to live! That He will give to them, though black,
   perfect cleansing in the fountain filled with blood! That He will give
   to them, though naked, a robe of perfect righteousness! That He will
   ultimately accept them to dwell with Him forever in Glory everlasting.
   This Covenant, on which our hopes are built, this glorious Covenant,
   is--

   "Signed, sealed and ratified, In all things ordered well."

   Will God ever forget it? No, "He will always be mindful of His
   Covenant," in everything that it guarantees and towards every person
   who is interested in it. God will not suffer one single promise of the
   Covenant to be unfulfilled, nor one single blessing of the Covenant to
   be kept back. Every iota, jot and tittle of the covenanted purpose of
   God shall be fulfilled--and everything which He has promised to His
   people in the Covenant, and which Christ has bought for His people
   through the Covenant--shall most infallibly be received by His people!
   As for the persons interested therein, not one of them shall be
   forgotten. If in the Covenant, they shall most assuredly be saved
   despite every attack of the devil, all their own wickedness, or any
   "accident," so-called, of Providence, or whatever may happen! All who
   are in the Covenant must and shall be gathered in. The Arminian says
   there are some in the Covenant who tumble out of it--that God has
   chosen some men--that He justifies them, that He accepts them--and then
   turns them out of His family.

   The Arminian holds the unnatural, cruel, barbarous idea that a man may
   be God's child, and then God may disown him because he does not behave
   himself. The idea is revolting even to human sensibility! If our
   children sin, they are still our children--though chastened and
   punished--yet never do they cease to be numbered among our family.
   There are many of God's children who have gone astray from Him and been
   chastened for it, but it were an idea too barbarous to suppose that God
   would disown His child for any sin he commits. He keeps fast His
   Covenant--He loves them, sinners though they may be. He keeps them from
   running riotously into sin, but when, sometimes, they go astray, as the
   best of them will, still His loving heart towards them is unchangeably
   the same!

   I do not serve the god of the Arminians at all! I have nothing to do
   with him and I do not bow down before the Baal they have set up! He is
   not my god, nor shall he ever be! I fear him not, nor tremble at his
   presence. A mutable god may be

   the god for the Arminian--he is not the god for me. My Jehovah changes
   not! The god that says today and denies tomorrow. That justifies today
   and condemns the next. The god that has children of his own one day and
   lets them be the children of the devil the next has no relation to my
   God in the least degree! He may be the relation of Ashtaroth or Baal,
   but Jehovah never was nor can be his name. Jehovah changes not! He
   knows no shadow of turning. If He has set His heart upon a man, He will
   love him to the end. If He has chosen him, He has not chosen him for
   any merit of his own-- therefore He will never cast him away for any
   demerit of his own. If He has begotten him unto a lively hope, He will
   not suffer him to fall away and perish! That were a breaking of every
   promise and an abrogation of the Covenant! If one dear child of God
   might fall away, then might all. If one of those for whom the Savior
   died might be damned, then the Savior's blood would be utterly void and
   vain. If one of those whom He has called according to His purpose might
   perish, then would His purpose be null and void. But, children of God,
   you may lay your heads upon the Covenant and say with Dr. Watts--

   "Then should the earth's old pillars shake And all the wheels of Nature
   break, Our steady souls should fear no more Than solid rocks when
   billows roar." III. Now I close by noticing THE CHARACTER OF THE
   PERSONS HERE REFERRED TO--"them that fear Him." Those who fear the Lord
   are in the Covenant of His Grace.

   The anxious enquirer or the young convert oftentimes says to the
   minister, "Sir, how can I know that I am elect?" And the usual answer
   is, "You have nothing to do with that--you may think of that matter,
   by-and-by." Begging the gentleman's pardon, that is not true! A sinner
   has everything to do with it. Instead of having nothing to do with
   election, he has everything in the world to do with it. But it is said
   that he need not trouble his mind about it. Perhaps he should not, but
   he will, and it is no source of comfort to tell him that he ought not.
   If I have a toothache, it is poor comfort for a physician to tell me
   that I ought not to have it. So, when a sinner is troubled about the
   Doctrine of Election, it is poor comfort to tell him he ought not to be
   troubled. The best way is to go fairly through the whole question and
   say to him, "Do you fear the Lord? Then, so sure as you are a living
   man, you are elect. You have the fear of the Lord before your
   eyes--then you need have no doubt but that your name is in the
   Covenant." None have feared the Lord who were not first loved by the
   Lord. Never did one come and cast himself at the feet of Jesus simply
   because he feared the penalty of sin. And none ever came to embrace the
   loving skirts of the Redeemer because he feared lest he should go
   astray without having been first called, chosen and made faithful. No,
   the fear of God in the heartis the proof of being God's elect one. If
   we fear Him, we may believe that He will always give meat to us and
   that He will always keep His Covenant towards us which He has made for
   us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

   "But," says one, "how am I to know whether I am elect?" Beloved, you
   cannot know it by any outward profession. You may be of any church in
   the world, or of no church, and yet be one of God's elect. Nor can you
   know it even by the sentiments which you receive as being true, for you
   may know truth and yet not have truth in your soul. You may be orthodox
   in your head and heterodox in your heart. You may believe everything
   and yet be cast away at last. The only way whereby you can judge
   yourself is this--Do you fear the Lord? Do you reverence His name and
   His Sabbath? Have you trembled at His Word? Have you cast away your
   self-righteousness at His command? And have you come to Him and taken
   Christ to be your All-in-All? I do not ask you whether you fear
   Hell--many fear Hell who fear not God. Do you fear to offend a loving
   Father? Do you fear lest you should go astray from God's commandments?
   Do you cry to Him--

   "Savor, keep me lest I wander?" Do you ask Him to preserve you? And can
   you honestly say that if you could be perfect, you would be? That you
   desire to be freed from sin? That you hate every false way? And is it
   your dally groaning to be set free from guilt and to be wholly
   surrendered to the Crucified? Lastly, can you say this after me--

   "A guilty, weak and helpless worm, On Christ's kind arms I fall-- He is
   my strength and righteousness, My Jesus and my All?"

   Then you are elect! Then you are justified! Then you are accepted and
   you have no more reason to doubt your acceptance and your election than
   you will have when you stand before the Throne of God, amid the blazing
   luster of eternal Glory!

   You are elect and you always were elect! God has chosen you. Your
   fearing Him is the evidence of it and your believing in Christ, without
   any righteousness of your own, is proof positive that you were chosen
   of God before the foundation of the world!

   Now what shall I say in conclusion? There are some of you who fear not
   God. Alas, for you, that you should be in a state so utterly miserable
   and pitiable, without the fear of God before your eyes! Oh, that God
   would teach you to fear Him! Oh, that He would break your hearts and so
   make you feel your ruined state as to bring you to His feet to receive
   the perfect righteousness of Christ--then would you fear Him--and then
   might you rejoice that He would give you meat and keep you in His
   Covenant.

   I think I hear one say, "I am a great sinner. I am in the very front
   rank of the army of guilt. I have truly transgressed and gone astray
   from the Most High. Tell me, did Jesus die for me? Did He die--not as
   some say He died, for all men-- but in that special sense which ensures
   salvation?" I will answer you. Can you say, "I am a sinner," not as a
   kind of idle compliment that most men pass when they say they are
   sinners and do not mean what the word implies, for they no more mean
   that they are sinners than that they are horses. But do you really
   believe that you are sinners deserving God's wrath and the fire of Hell
   forever? Then the Lord Jesus died for you and, "this is a faithful
   saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
   world to save sinners." If the word is to be understood in the sense in
   which Hart uses it when he says--

   "A sinner is a sacred thing,

   The Holy Spirit has made him so"--

   if you feel you are a sinner in that sense, Christ died for you.

   But you say, "I wish He had set my name down in the book, that I might
   read it." Why, my Friend, if He had done so, you would believe it was
   intended for somebody else! If the book contained the name of Smith, on
   such a street, Smith would declare that there were so many Smiths that
   it could not be meant for him! And if you could read your name, you
   would still doubt that it could, by any possibility, be a description
   of you, since another person might bear the same title. But since it
   says, "sinners," Satan himself cannot beat you out of that. God has
   taught you what the term, "sinner," means and Satan cannot unteach you
   that. Are you, then, a sinner--fully, wholly, in all the black sense of
   the word? Then Christ died for you. Cast yourself upon that Truth of
   God-- Christ died for sinners.

   "But," you say, "Sir, if I were a little better, I might believe that
   He died for me." I would not, for He died for sinners. Or you say, "If
   I were a saint, I might believe that He died for me." I would not, for
   he died for sinners. Only prove yourself a sinner and you have proved
   that Christ died for you! Only be sure that you are a sinner, that you
   have revolted from God and that you know it--only confess with your
   heart your transgressions and take this title to yourself, and you may
   believe that Jesus died for you.

   Let me give you a lesson in logic--not from Whateley nor Watts, but
   from the logic of Faith. It is extraordinary how different are the
   conclusions of Faith from those of Reason. Once Reason came along and
   heard a man cry, "I am guilty, guilty." She stopped and said, "The man
   is guilty. God condemns the guilty, therefore this man will be
   condemned." She went away and left the man condemned, ruined and
   quivering with fear. Faith came and heard the same cry, rendered more
   bitter by the cruel syllogism of Reason. Faith stopped. She said, "The
   man is guilty, but Christ died for the guilty--therefore the man will
   be saved." And her logic was correct--the man lifted up his head and
   rejoiced!

   Reason came one day and saw a man naked. And she said, "He has not on a
   wedding garment. Can naked souls appear before the bar of God? Should
   they have a place at the supper of the Lamb? The man is naked--he must
   be cast out for naked ones cannot enter Heaven!" Then Faith came by and
   said, "The man is naked. Christ worked a robe of righteousness--He must
   have made it for the naked--He would not have made it for those who
   have a robe of their own. That robe is for the naked man and he shall
   stand in it before God." And her logic was correct and just. The other
   might seem strictly according to rule, but this was still better.

   Reason one day heard a man say that he was very good and righteous. She
   saw him go up to the Temple and heard him pray, "Lord, I thank You that
   I am not as other men," and Reason said, "That man is better than
   others and he will be accepted." But she argued wrongly, for, lo, he
   went out and a poor sinner by his side, who could only say, "God be
   merciful to me, a sinner," went down to his house justified--while the
   proud Pharisee went on his way disregarded. The logic of Faith is to
   argue white from black, whereas the logic of Reason argues white from
   white.

   Luther says, "Once upon a time the devil came to me and said, 'Martin
   Luther, you are a great sinner and you will be damned.' 'Stop, stop,' I
   said, 'one thing at a time! I am a great sinner, it is true, though you
   have no right to tell me of it. I confess it. What next?' 'Therefore
   you will be damned.' 'That is not good reasoning. It is true I am a
   great sinner, but it is written, 'Jesus Christ came into the world to
   save sinners,' therefore I shall be saved. Now go your way.' So I drove
   off the devil with his own sword and he went away mourning because he
   could not cast me down by calling me a sinner."

   I have a right to believe that Jesus Christ died for me and I cast
   myself wholly upon Him. Do the same, poor disconsolate one, for you
   have nothing of your own to depend upon! But you, O great, and good,
   and rich man, I have nothing to say to you!--

   "Not the righteous, Sinners, Jesus came to save."

   While you have a rag of your own, you shall never have Christ's robe!
   Go your way, your righteousness shall prove like the shirt of Hercules,
   when it burnt him and did eat his flesh away--though you glory in it,
   it shall be the winding-sheet of your soul forever.

   But if you have nothing and are poor, penniless and miserable--reduced
   to utter spiritual destitution and pov-erty--in God's name I preach to
   you the Gospel! Christ died for you and you shall not perish. God will
   not punish Christ for us and then punish us afterwards. He will not
   demand the payment, first at His hands and then again, at ours. He is
   not unjust to punish, first, the Scapegoat, the Surety, the
   Substitute--and then to punish you. Christ was your Substitute--He bore
   your guilt, He carried your iniquities upon His head. Your sins were
   numbered upon Him and your punishment was laid upon Him!

   Go your way. You can never be punished. Your sins, which are many, are
   all forgiven. Rejoice in pardon bought with blood--be glad, be
   satisfied, be happy even till you die--and then you shall be happy
   forever!
     __________________________________________________________________

A Song and a Solace

   (No. 2682)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 8, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
   1, 1881.

   "You have granted me life and favor, and Your visitation has preserved
   my spirit And these things have You hid in Your heart: I know that this
   is with You." Job 10:12,13.

   BEFORE I speak upon these two verses, I will read the four which
   precede them, that you may note the connection in which they are found.
   Job is in great trouble, in sore distress of soul. His heart is very
   heavy and his unfriendly friends are casting salt into his wounds
   instead of trying to heal them. In his distress, he turns to his God
   and appeals to Him in this fashion (beginning at the 8th verse)--"Your
   hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet You
   destroy me. Remember, I beseech You, that You have made me as the clay;
   and will You bring me into dust again? Have You not poured me out as
   milk and curdled me like cheese? You have clothed me with skin and
   flesh, and have fenced me with bones and sinews." Then follows our
   text--"You have granted me life and favor, and Your visitation has
   preserved my spirit. And these things have You hid in Your heart: I
   know that this is with You."

   You see that Job is appealing to the pity of God and this is the form
   of his argument--"You are my Creator--be my Preserver. You have made
   me--do not break me. You are dealing very harshly with me, I am almost
   destroyed beneath the pressure of Your hands. Remember that I am Your
   own creature. Weak and frail as I am, I am the creation of Your hands.
   Therefore, despise not Your own work. Whatever I am, with the exception
   of my sin, You have made me what I am. 'Tis You who has brought me into
   my present condition--consider, then, O God, what a poor, frail thing I
   am and stay Your hand and do not utterly crush my spirit."

   This is a wise prayer, a right and proper argument for a creature to
   use with the Creator. And when Job goes still further and, in the
   language of our text, addresses God not only as his Creator, but as his
   Benefactor, and mentions the great blessings that he had received from
   God, his argument still holds good. "Do not, Lord, change Your method
   of dealing with me. You have given me life, You have shown me special
   favor, You have hitherto preserved me. Cast me not away from Your
   Presence. Dismiss me not from Your service, let not Your tender mercies
   fail, but do unto me, now, and in days to come according as You have
   done unto me in the days that are past."

   In speaking about these two verses, I am going to use them in two
   senses. The first in one sense and the second in another, but both and
   each of them in its own true meaning, so far as I understand it. First,
   here is a song for bright days. "You have granted me life and favor,
   and Your visitation has preserved my spirit." Secondly, here is a
   solace for dark nights. "And these things have You hid in Your heart: I
   know that this is with You."

   I. First, then, let us use the former part of our text as A SONG FOR
   BRIGHT DAYS--"You have granted me life and favor, and Your visitation
   has preserved my spirit."

   Whatever we have received that is good, has come to us from God as a
   matter of pure favor--certainly we have deserved nothing at His hands
   but displeasure, and everything short of death and Hell is a mercy--and
   a thing for which to magnify the goodness of God. In this first portion
   of our text, there is a mention of three blessings that must never be
   forgotten. The great charter of God's bounty includes three notable
   things which He has granted to us--life, favor and His visitation which
   has preserved our spirit.

   Now, then, you joyful ones, unite with me while we, first, bless God
   for granting us life. To a Christian, life is a blessing in itself.
   Considered alone, it is a blessing. But to the ungodly man it may turn
   out to be a curse, for it would have been better for that man if he had
   never been born. But to a godly man like Job, it is a great mercy even
   to have an existence. Blessed be the Lord who brought us into the world
   and gave breath to these lungs, and the flowing life to these veins!
   Blessed be God for having made us! Sometimes, as I gaze upon the world
   in springtime, or in the summer, it appears to me that it is a great
   happiness to all Nature to simply exist. Look at the lovely lily, as it
   stands quite still and never speaks--it seems to praise God in silence
   by its beauty. But a Christian should go beyond a mere flower. He ought
   to feel that it is a great favor to be made by God. The man who knows
   that his eternal future is secured by the unfailing Grace of God may
   forever praise the Lord who has given him life!

   I find that in the Hebrew, this word, "life," is in the plural--"You
   have granted me lives" and, blessed be God, we who believe in Jesus
   have not only this naturallife which we share in common with all men,
   but the Holy Spirit has begotten in the hearts of Believers a new life
   infinitely higher than mere natural life--a life which makes us akin to
   Christ, joint-heirs with Him of the eternal inheritance which He is
   keeping for us in Heaven! A Christian is lifted into quite another
   sphere of action--he is no longer in the carnal but in the
   spiritual'realm and, therefore, he understands things that are hidden
   from carnal eyes--and he lives in the midst of a world into which the
   unregenerate cannot possibly come. An unconverted man cannot enter into
   the Kingdom of Heaven. He cannot even see it until he is born again,
   regenerated by the Holy Spirit! But once he is born again, he can bless
   God for giving him a second life infinitely better than the first one!
   Our well-being is a far higher thing than simply our being! The new
   creation is vastly superior to the first creation, good as that was,
   and the life of God in the soul is infinitely above the mere ordinary
   life of man!

   Let us praise God, then, for life, and especially for this higher life
   if it is ours. What a joy it is to live in this respect! You know that
   when a person is very sick and ill, and can scarcely turn in bed, or
   lift a hand--when every sense is deprived of enjoyment and every vein
   or nerve becomes a road for the hot feet of pain to travel over--then
   life is hardly to be called life. But when God graciously raises us up
   from sickness, we ought to bless Him for giving us life again--
   prolonged, restored, enjoyable life. And when the heart itself is
   sick--when the spirit flags and the soul is ready to burst with inward
   grief--then the spiritual life seems scarcely to be life. But when,
   through the mercy of God, the Holy Spirit comes to us and applies the
   pardoning blood of Jesus to our heart and conscience, and whispers
   peace to our troubled spirit so that we can read our title clear to
   mansions in the skies, then our spiritual life is life indeed! We run,
   we leap, we fly! We would scarcely exchange for the bliss of angels the
   joy which the spiritual life brings to us at such times. And we bless
   and magnify the Lord who has granted us this higher life, this life so
   blessed, so superlatively blessed that even here below it makes us
   anticipate and realize some of the glory of Heaven itself! Are you, my
   Brother, my Sister, enjoying these lives? Do you feel that it is your
   privilege to be one with Christ and to live because He lives? And do
   you really know that you have received this wondrous blessing? Oh,
   then, sing unto the Lord as long as you live, for it is the living,
   even the living in Zion who shall praise Him as we do this day! Let
   this be one of your songs in this bright day of your happy experience.
   Let the joy of your heart ring it out in the words of our text--"You
   have granted me life."

   Next, we have to praise God for granting us favor I am quite unable to
   tell you to the fullest all that is wrapped up in that word, "favor."
   Favor from God! It is a great word in the original, a word big with
   meaning, for it means the love of God. What the expression, "the love
   of God," fully means, we cannot tell, for Charles Wesley truly wrote--

   "God only knows the love of God." God loves immeasurably. The force and
   extent of true love never can be calculated--it is a passion that
   cannot be measured by degrees as the temperature can be recorded on the
   thermometer. It is something that exceeds and overflows all
   measurement, for a man gives all his heart when he truly loves. So is
   it with God--He sets no boundary to His love. When He loves a man, the
   great infinity of His Being flows out towards His chosen. How much God
   loves you, my Brother, my Sister, if you are, indeed, one of His elect
   and redeemed people, it would not be possible even for an angel to
   calculate! Bernard of Clairvaux wrote--

   "The love of Jesus--what it is, None but His loved ones know"-- but I
   correct the poet, for even His loved ones cannot know it, except in
   that sense which Paul intended when he wrote to the Ephesians, "that
   you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with
   all saints what is the

   breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of
   Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the
   fullness of God." We might rightly paraphrase Job's words and say, "You
   have granted me life and love." Oh, what wondrous words to put
   together, life and love! Life without God's love is death. But put
   God's love with it and then what a song we ought to send up to His
   Throne if we feel that He has given us both spiritual life and infinite
   love.

   The word, "favor," however, means not only love, but, as we ordinarily
   use it, it means some special form of Divine Grace and goodness. I know
   that there are some people who never will admit that God favors anyone,
   or that He has any special love toward some more than toward others.
   They do not like that hymn which Dr. Watts wrote. I heard one alter the
   verse--

   "Let those refuse to sing That never knew our God; But favorites ofthe
   heavenly King May speak their joys abroad."

   The gentleman did not like the word, "favorites," so he gave out the
   line--

   "But subjects of the heavenly King."

   I let him sing it in that fashion, for I thought that very likely he
   was only a subject. But I sang the line correctly because I knew that I
   was one of the King's favorites, and I was resolved to rejoice in that
   fact! So I am at this moment, for I know that I have received special
   favor from God and that there are some who have not received such favor
   and mercy. If, at this hour, anyone of you is a child of God, it is
   because God has done more for you than He has done for others. If there
   is a difference between you and others, somebody made that
   difference--and whoever made it ought to be honored and praised for it.
   Did you make it yourself? Shall I put the crown on your head? Why, if
   you are right-hearted, you will cry, "No, no! It is God who has made me
   to differ from others! It is His Grace which has been given to me, to
   bring me out of the darkness in which others have been left."

   So, whatever others may think or say, we, at any rate, believe in that
   special form of Grace which may be called favor--"You have granted me
   life and favor." The Lord has given peculiar favor unto His own chosen
   people and this makes them sing a song that rises above all the others!
   "He has not dealt so with any nation." "Let the redeemed of the Lord
   say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy." Let them
   praise the Lord with thanksgiving evermore and if you, dear Friends,
   belong to that privileged company, praise the Lord!

   By the word, "favor," is also meant Grace in all the shapes which it
   assumes, so Job's words might be rendered, "You have granted me life
   and Grace." Come, my Brothers and Sisters, if you can say this, just
   think over all that it means. "You have granted me the Grace and favor
   of Your electing love and of Your redeeming love, the Grace of
   effectual calling, the Grace of regeneration, the Grace of
   justification, the Grace of adoption, the Grace of perseverance until
   this day, the Grace of sanctification," (for all this is of Grace).
   "You have given it, You have granted it of Your free favor and granted
   it to me."

   "I do not know whether God has granted this Grace to me," says one.
   Well, my dear Brother, you cannot sing while you doubt this, but if,
   through faith in Jesus, you know that God has given you life and Grace,
   sing away, sing despite all that might stop you, for this is a mercy
   which should forever monopolize the music of everyone who has been thus
   favored of God! "You have granted me life and Grace." I do not know
   what any other person in this place might say, but if no one else said
   it, I would be compelled, in the courts of the Lord's House and in the
   midst of His people, to say, "I bless His name for giving me life and
   Grace. I am altogether undeserving of such mercy, yet He has favored me
   with His goodness, so that I cannot do otherwise than feel overwhelmed
   by His Grace." I do not know whether you can all say the same, but I
   feel persuaded that there are scores, hundreds, yes, even thousands of
   you who might stand up and say, "We bless God that though unworthy of
   His notice, He has granted us life and Grace."

   Now let us dwell, for a minute or two, on the third blessing of this
   Divine grant--"and Your visitation has preserved my spirit.." There is
   a wonderful range of meaning in those words, but Job, no doubt, first
   refers to the Providence of God by which He makes, as it were, a
   visitation of all the world, but especially of His own people. As a man
   who possesses a large estate, if he is wise, goes around and looks over
   all his cattle and his servants and his fields--and makes a visitation
   to see whether all is going well, for he knows that the master's eye
   does much--so does God visit the earth, inspect it and care for the
   creatures whom He has formed to live upon it. "He gives to the beast
   his food, and to the

   young ravens which cry." The Lord keeps a watchful eye upon the whole
   universe. He leads out the stars, calling them all by their names, and
   nightly marshals their serried ranks. He counts even the sparrows, so
   that not one of them falls upon the ground without His knowledge. It
   has been the Providence of God that has preserved us up to now, so let
   us bless Him for this great favor.

   Some of us have had very special Providential deliverances. we will not
   mention them, tonight, because they are too many. It has been well
   said, "He that watches Providence shall never be without a Providence
   to watch." I am sure it is so. You who have had your eyes divinely
   opened must have seen an act of God's gracious Providence everyday.
   Some will only see God's Providence in deliverance from a terrible
   catastrophe--such as an escape from fire, or from a railway accident,
   or something of that unusual and startling kind. But, indeed, the
   Providence of God is watching over us just as much when we sit in our
   home, or sleep in our beds, or go about our daily duties. People used
   to say of Dr. Gill, my illustrious predecessor, that they could easily
   find him, for he was always in his study. And someone remarked, "At any
   rate, he is in a safe place there--a man is out of harm's way when he
   is studying at home." It so happened that the Doctor was called away
   from his study one day when a high wind blew down a stack of
   chimneys--which crashed right through the house into his study--and
   would have surely killed him if he had been in the place where he was
   usually sitting! Truly, it is the Providence of God that preserves our
   lives as much when we are at home as if we were out on the vast deep
   when it is tossed with tempests.

   Now, Brothers and Sisters, is it not wonderful that some of us are
   alive at all? Have not most of you reason to praise God for some very
   singular instances of his guardian care which has preserved you in
   being until this day? Refuse not to sing to God the song of
   thanksgiving which is His due! Prolonged life should beget continual
   gratitude and votive offerings ofjoyful praise should ascend unto the
   Most High.

   Oh, but that is only the beginning of the meaning of Job's words, "Your
   visitation has preserved my spirit." God has visited those of us who
   are His people in other ways besides the watching of His Providence.
   Let me mention some of them. He has visited some of us with
   correction--and we do not like that form of visitation. We have been
   smitten heavily with His rod till all our bones have ached and the
   blows have been so severe that they have left black bruises. Or we have
   lost friend after friend, or we have been corrected by the scandal and
   the slander of wicked men, or in some way or other God has used man as
   the rod in His hand to chasten us. "Now no chastening for the present
   seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the
   peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
   thereby." Look back and see whether you cannot say to God, "Your
   visitation in correction has preserved my spirit." Can you not say,
   "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now I have kept Your Word"?
   There have been times, in the lives of some of us, when nothing but
   affliction could have saved us from falling into gross sin. We would
   have been carried away with pride, but we suffered from grievous
   depression of spirit and so could not afford to be proud. There have
   been times when we would have been exalted above measure, but the thorn
   in the flesh was graciously given to us, a messenger of Satan came to
   buffet us, and so we were preserved in the hour of temptation.

   There are some whom God will yet permit to be rich, who would not have
   been capable of managing so much money to the Lord's honor and glory if
   they had not, for a while, had to live on short commons. The very thing
   we regret most in Providence will probably be that in which we shall
   rejoice most in eternity. You know, in this world, we see the wrong
   side of the carpet that is being woven. We are like Hannah More in the
   carpet factory, when she said to the workman, "I cannot see any
   design--there seem to be a great number of loose pieces of wool, but I
   cannot perceive any pattern or order." "No, Madam," said the man, "of
   course you cannot, because you are standing on the wrong side of the
   carpet. If you will come to the other side, you will then see it all."
   We are on the wrong side, at present, but God will take us to the other
   side, by-and-by, and then we shall each one say, "O my Lord, how
   wrongly did I judge You! How little did I understand Your dealings with
   me! I thought Your visitation would have crushed me, but it preserved
   my spirit."

   There are other visitations, however, such as the visitations of
   consolation. Oh, how sweet those are to the soul when in trouble! You
   and I must have known times when our spirits have gone down below
   zero--when no earthly friend could comfort us and we could not think of
   any source of consolation for ourselves. Just then, some unnoticed
   promise of the Word of God has dropped into our soul with charming
   effect. It was, perhaps, but a sentence of half a dozen words, but they
   came from God, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, and they were so
   powerfully applied to our spirit that we said, "I do not mind what
   burden I have to bear, for I know that Christ's Grace will be
   sufficient for me. I cannot tell what the

   Divine will may be concerning me, or however dark and dreary may be the
   Valley of the Shadow of Death through which I shall have to pass, but
   God's rod and staff are evidently with me and they will comfort me in
   the most trying hour and my Lord, Himself, will surely bring me through
   all my tribulations." Cannot some of you say that your blessed Savior,
   who has suffered for you and who understands all your griefs, has come
   and bound up your broken hearts, and given you unfailing comfort when
   you were in such sorrow that you feared you would have lost your reason
   and, perhaps, even taken your own life? But here you are, the living to
   praise Him, and to say, "Your visitation by way of comfort has
   preserved my spirit."

   Once more, how sweet are the visitations of God in communion! Have you
   not sometimes had such communion with your Lord, during a sermon, that
   you have said, "My steps had well-nigh slipped, but now my Lord has
   come near unto me and he has made me to stand so firmly that nothing
   can cast me down"? Or perhaps you have gone upstairs to your room when
   you have been weighed down under very heavy grief and you have told it
   all to Jesus--whispered it all into the ear that never wearies of His
   people's complaints. And, after awhile, you have come down and you have
   felt, "Now I do not mind what happens. I can even face a frowning
   world, for Jesus Christ's visitation has preserved my spirit." I am
   also sure that many of us can say that at the Lord's Table, in the
   breaking of bread, our spirits have been so refreshed that we could go
   out into our daily callings, or back to our domestic griefs and feel,
   "It really does not matter now. I can shoulder my cross, for I have
   seen the Crucified! I can bear my own sorrows, for I have had
   fellowship with Him in His sorrows. I could even die for His sake, for
   I have entered into fellowship with His death."

   "Your visitation has preserved my spirit." I want you, my Brother, my
   Sister, to pray for that visitation tonight. Ask the Lord Jesus not
   only to pay a visit to your soul, but to come and stay with you. You
   have only to open the door of your heart and He will come in. That is
   what He said even to lukewarm Laodicea. "If any man hears My voice and
   opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he
   with Me." So open wide the door at once. You say, "But there is nothing
   within--it is only an empty house." That does not matter to Him, for He
   will bring with Him the provisions on which He will sup with you, and
   you with Him. Open the door, give Him heart-room! Say, "Come in,
   blessed Savior! Why do You stand outside?" He says to you who are slow
   to admit Him, "My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops
   of the night." Oh, keep not the door of your heart closed against Him
   any longer! At least be willing that He should enter. Praythat He may
   enter! Cry to Him to enter and He will surely come in to you, and you
   shall have such a blessed season that you shall say, "Your visitation
   has preserved my spirit."

   I have it deeply impressed upon me--so I must say it--that there are
   some of you who had better get a good feast tonight, for you have a
   great sorrow coming. You had better enter into close fellowship with
   Christ tonight, for the dark clouds of trouble are gathering about you.
   The tempest lowers and if your ship is not prepared to weather the
   storm by having Christ on board, it will go ill with you. Avail
   yourselves of this present opportunity of a visit from Christ! Creep to
   the Cross! Clasp it to your heart, hide yourselves there, for no
   lightning flash can strike you there--that Cross will conduct the
   lightning of Divine wrath right away from you and you will be saved!
   And you will say afterwards, "I am glad that I stayed for the Communion
   and that I communed, for I did not merely eat bread and drink wine, I
   spiritually ate the flesh and drank the blood of my Lord. And I had
   fellowship with Him and He has made me strong to suffer or to serve."
   If it is so with us now, or if it has been so in the past, let us sing
   unto the Lord a glad song of thanksgiving for this trinity of
   blessing--life, favor and preserving visitation--yes, let us sing unto
   Him as long as we live!

   II. Very briefly must I speak upon the second part of our subject, that
   is, A SOLACE FOR DARK NIGHTS "And these things have You hid in Your
   heart: I know that this is with You."

   There is another interpretation of this verse, quite different from the
   one that I am going to give you, but I do not think that Job ever could
   have meant what some people think he did. I believe that when he said,
   "These things"--that is, life, favor and God's gracious
   visitation--"These things have You hid in Your heart: I know that this
   is with You," that he meant, first, that God remembers what He has
   done, and will not lose His pains. ' "You have granted me life and
   favor,' Lord, You have not forgotten that. You have hidden that in Your
   heart, You remember it well. Since You have done this for me, and You
   remember that You have done it, therefore You will continue Your mercy
   to me and not lose all the Grace and goodness which You have already
   bestowed upon me."

   Just think of that for a minute. Even if you have forgotten all that
   God has done for you, God has not forgotten it! If you do a kindness to
   a man, it is very probable that he will not remember it, but you will.
   Many children forget all the

   kindness and love of their mother, but the mother remembers all that
   she did for her children in the days of their helplessness and she
   loves them all the more because of what she did for them. There is a
   little secret which I may whisper in your ear. If you want people to
   love you, do what you can for them, yet, possibly, you will not gain
   their love by that process. But if you let them do something for you,
   they will be sure to love you, then! When you have done much for
   anyone, you are especially bound to that person, so Job puts it thus,
   "You, Lord, have done much for me. You have all this in Your
   remembrance and I am persuaded that this binds You to me--Your great
   goodness in giving me life, and favor, and in visiting me--all this has
   bound You to me, and I am persuaded that You will not leave me." That
   is the teaching of the verse many of us delight to sing--

   "His love in time past forbids me to think

   He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink.

   Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review,

   Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through."

   If the Lord had not meant to finish His work, He would never have begun
   it. If He had not meant to bring us to Heaven, He would not have
   snatched us like brands from the burning. If He had not meant to
   complete His work, He would not have spent so much upon us. "Spent so
   much upon us?" asks one. Yes, He lavished upon His people more than all
   the millionaires who were ever upon the earth have possessed! He
   expended more than there is in Heaven with the exception of that which
   He spent upon them. "What is that?" you ask. He spent the life of His
   only-begotten Son--and Heaven itself does not contain any other
   treasure that is at all comparable to the Father's equal Son! He spent
   the best He had upon us and do you think that, after that, He will ever
   leave us? No, that can never be! Though He were to take away all our
   property. Though He were to deprive us of every one of our children.
   Though He were to cover us from head to foot with sores. Though He
   should cause us to sit upon a dunghill and scrape ourselves with a
   potsherd. Though the very wife of our bosom should bid us curse God and
   die. Though all our friends should become miserable comforters and make
   us ready to curse the day on which we saw the light--yet still, God
   must be gracious to us, and we must trust Him! Yes, though He should
   slay us, yet must we trust Him! All the goodness of the past is an
   infallible guarantee that He will be good to us even to the end,
   according to that Word concerning the Lord Jesus, "Having loved His own
   which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." That is one
   meaning of the verse.

   But, next, I think that the words, "And these things have You hid in
   Your heart: I know that this is with You," have this meaning, that God
   sometimes hides His favor and love in His heart, yet they are still
   there. At times it may be that you get no glimpse of His face, or that
   you see no smile upon it. When that is my experience, I love to turn to
   that verse in the 63rd Psalm--"Because You have been my help, therefore
   in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice." It is all shadow, shadow,
   shadow--no sunshine--I cannot see my God, but the very shadow is the
   shadow of His wings and as you may often see the chickens cower down
   beneath the mother hen, and nestle there, so in the shadow of His wings
   will I rejoice! And you, dear Friend, may share that blessed and safe
   shelter. "He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings
   shall you trust: His truth shall be your shield and buckler."

   When there is no light, you shall walk on as steadily as if seven suns
   were shining! When there is no comfortable assurance for you. When
   there is no temporal deliverance. When there is nothing for you out of
   the winepress or out of the barn. When there is no friend nor helper
   near you, when the fig tree does not blossom, when you have no flocks,
   and your herds are cut off by the storm--when God's mercy seems to be
   clean gone, forever, and His promises all appear to fail, it is not
   really so--

   "He hides the purpose of His Grace To make it better known."

   The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, therefore, O tried child
   of God, learn what Job, here, teaches us, that these things are still
   hidden in the heart of God, and that Eternal Love holds fast to the
   objects of its choice.

   "I know that this is with You," said Job, so the last thing I want you
   to learn from his words is that God would have His people strong in
   faith to know this Truth Job says, "I know that this is with You." I
   speak to many persons who say that they are Christians and who,
   perhaps, are Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ--and one of their
   clearest evidences is that they are very happy. Dear young people, I am
   glad you are so happy. True religion makes people happy--it is a
   perennial fountain of delight. But do not set too much store by your
   emotions of delight, because they may be taken from you--and then where
   will your evidences be? God's people sometimes walk in darkness and see
   no light. There are times

   when the best and brightest of saints have no joy. I will not say
   whether they are not to be blamed for that--it is probable that they
   are, in most instances, though I do not see that Job could be much
   blamed. I wish I were able to be a thousandth part as good as he was
   with a thousandth part of his pains and troubles. But it is a fact that
   whether rightly or wrongly, God's people are not always joyous. As
   Peter says, "For a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through
   manifold temptations." Whenever you get into that condition, dear young
   people, if you have learned to trust Christ before, trust Him still! If
   your religion should not, for a time, yield you any joy, cling to it
   all the same! Do not give it up, for if there is any time when you need
   faith, it is when your spirits sink and when your outward trials
   multiply.

   You see, God does not give you faith in order that you may merely run
   about in the meadows with it all among the fair spring flowers. I will
   tell you for what purpose He gives you faith--it is that you may put on
   your snow-shoes, go out in the cold wintry blast and glide along over
   the ice and the snow. He does not give you faith that you may put it on
   as I remember seeing Napoleon's guard with armor in which I saw my face
   as well as ever I did in a mirror. The Lord does not give you faith
   merely that you may go on parade with it and show yourself--you are to
   fight with it! There is not a fragment of faith that you have which
   will not be dinted by the blows of the enemy and rusted through
   exposure to the weather. You will have difficulties, mark you, as
   surely as you have faith! You will have a difficulty in maintaining
   your faith against the assaults of the adversary, for wherever there is
   faith in the world, there are trials for it to encounter.

   Railway men do not build bridges over rivers without an intention of
   sending engines and trains across them--and God does not give faith
   without an intention of letting it be tried. And He wants you to know,
   when He does try you, or permit others to try you, that He still loves
   you. When He leaves you for a little while in the dark, He loves you
   just as much as when you were in the light. A little child cries and
   says that her mother does not love her because she has put her to bed
   and gone downstairs, and left her in the dark. She will always be a
   baby if the mother stays there with a candle by the hour together till
   she gets to sleep. The mother wants her child to grow into a woman and
   she trains her accordingly. So is it with us. God does often humor our
   littleness and weakness by doing many kind things to us as we do to
   poor feeble little children, but He wants us to grow up and become men
   and women in Christ Jesus and to be strong in the Lord.

   I pray that you, my dear Brothers and Sisters, may be stalwart
   Christians of this sort. You see, if our faith is to depend upon our
   disposition--our joy or our sorrow--it will always be fluctuating up
   and down--and we shall be apt to think that we may be saved today and
   lost tomorrow. That is not the teaching of the Bible! When you are on
   the mountain with Christ, you are safe, but when you are at the bottom
   of the valley with Christ, you are just as safe! When you sit at the
   table with Christ, you are safe, and so are you if you should be at sea
   with Christ in a vessel. Only have faith in Him and say, "My God, Your
   will towards me to give me life, and favor, and preservation may be
   hidden, but it is still in Your heart, 'I know that this is with You.'"

   Now I must leave these things with you. You who know and love the Lord
   will seek a renewal of His visitations tonight. But as for you who do
   not know Him, oh, how I wish that you did! Often as I come on this
   platform and look upon this throng of people, I would wonder why so
   many came if I did not know that the earnest, simple preaching of the
   Gospel will never fail to bring people together. But as you have come
   to hear the Gospel, I pray you also to receive it. Do not merely hear
   it, but acceptit. If there were diamonds to be given away, here, and I
   said that I would give them to everybody who was willing to have them,
   I am sure that you would not be content to hear me talking about their
   beauty, their facets, or their particular brilliance--but you would
   each one cry out, "Hand me one!" "Give me one!" "Pass me down one worth
   a hundred thousand pounds! I will be content with thatand you may leave
   off talking if you like!"

   I will leave off talking about Christ if you will take Him as your
   Savior. I shall not need to extol Him when you have once accepted Him,
   for you will find out His excellence for yourselves. The Scripture
   says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Oh, that you would all
   taste and see for yourselves! You would know His goodness far better
   from that taste and sight than you can ever know it from any human
   language, however earnest it may be! God bless you all, for Christ's
   sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Bitterness of the Cross

   (No. 2683)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 15, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 12,
   1881.

   "They...shall be in bitterness for Him." Zechaariah 12:10.

   You know, dear Friends, that this text primarily refers to the Jewish
   nation. They will not always be blinded as they are at present. The
   veil will ultimately be taken away from their eyes and their heart. And
   when it is taken away, it will not be by the enlightenment of mere
   reason, or through the process of argument by itself, but it will be
   through the outpouring of the Spirit of our God! The verse from which
   our text is taken makes this quite clear--"I will pour upon the house
   of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of Grace
   and of supplications."

   Our Lord Jesus Christ can only be seen in His own light. The Grace of
   God must be given to us before we can see and understand Christ at
   all--and this shall be the great proof that Grace has been given to
   Israel--that they shall look upon Christ. It is good evidence that
   Grace has been given to any man when he looks upon Christ, obeying the
   great command--"Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the
   earth." This is the first sign and token of Believers and it is to be
   our continual distinguishing mark, for we are always to be "looking
   unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith." There is much more
   in a look at Christ than many suppose--it is the index of everything
   that appertains to the Christian life. There must be life in an eye
   that can see and when there is life in the eye, there is life in the
   whole man who possesses that eye. When an eye can see Christ, it can
   see other things that He intends it to see. That eye which has been
   enabled to behold Him and which has taught the heart to cry, "My Lord
   and my God," is prepared to see all the wondrous things that are in
   God's Law!

   The first mark of Grace, then, in the Jew, will be that he shall look
   to Christ. By that word, "look," I do not understand a mere transient
   glance at Him, but a long, lingering, wistful, discerning, penetrating,
   loving look at Him and unto Him, as it is in that verse, "They looked
   unto Him, and were lightened." At first, it may be only a furtive
   stolen glance, but when men come to see and feel the full power of
   Christ, they will want to have a long, fixed, steady gaze at Him.
   Blessed will be the day when the Jews shall be brought even to think
   seriously about Christ! At present, they will scarcely listen to the
   arguments concerning Him. They denounce the Nazarene and close their
   ears against His Gospel, but the day shall come when they will hear,
   when they will listen diligently and incline their ears and come unto
   Him that their soul may live. They shall look, and look, and look, and
   look, and look, until the vision shall, at last, break in upon their
   very soul--and then they shall say, "It is He! Yes, it is He of whom
   Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write. This is no other than the
   promised Messiah, the Son of David and, alas, up to now, both we and
   our fathers have rejected Him." And as they thus look and realize the
   greatness of their guilt, they will begin to weep and lament that they
   have so long refused their only Savior.

   So the first effect upon the Jews of a true sight of Christ--and, as we
   are all constituted so much alike, the first effect upon any man who
   has a true sight of Christ--is that it produces sincere sorrow. "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." I must confess
   that I have no love for a dry-eyed faith. The faith that never wept
   over sin will have to be wept over, one of these days. If you say that
   you have seen Christ and yet you have never bemoaned yourself, and
   mourned over your transgressions, I think you must have seen a false
   christ, and not the true Son of

   God, for they who behold His wounds are, themselves, wounded. They who
   gaze upon His pierced heart are, themselves, pierced to the heart--no,
   they are pierced inthe heart. And they who, by faith, see the flowing
   of His precious blood, feel their very hearts bleed on account of Him
   and all that He endured on their behalf. A sight of His Crucifixion
   crucifies sin! A sight of His death--if it is a true sight--is the
   death of all love of sin! If, then, you have never felt the mournful
   effect of the sorrowful spectacle of the bleeding Savior, you still
   have need to stand and to look, and look, and look again, until you do
   feel it, for so it will always be--"They shall look upon Me whom they
   have pierced, and they shall mourn."

   That is the general thought of this verse--the Jews will look to Christ
   and they will mourn. And the same thing happens with Gentiles--they
   also look to Christ and mourn. So the theme we are to consider is the
   wonderful Truth of God that when we rightly look to Christ, whether we
   are Jews or Gentiles, we are "in bitterness for Him, as one that is in
   bitterness for his firstborn." It is quite true that of all sights in
   the world, the sight of Christ crucified is the sweetest. People say,
   "See Naples and die." But it would be worthwhile to see Christ, by
   faith, even if that sight were necessarily followed by death. Of all
   that can be seen in the world, there is nothing so delightful as a
   believing sight of Jesus Christ. I appeal to all of you whose eyes have
   ever been ravished with that wondrous vision--do you not say to your
   Lord--

   "A glimpse--a single glimpse of You,

   Would more delight my soul

   Than this vain world, with all its joys,

   Could I possess the whole"?

   At first sight it seems strange that the mourner turns his eyes sooner
   to the place called Calvary than to the sacred spot where the star of
   Bethlehem shone. And still more strange that there should be more
   delight to be found in Gab-batha and Golgotha than even in the Mount of
   Transfiguration. The Cross of Christ is the first resort of sorrow for
   sin and it is the last abode of holy Grief--where she lays aside her
   weeds and puts on her beautiful array. Yet there must be some
   bitterness always associated with Calvary--do not be startled at that
   thought. The command concerning the paschal lamb was. "With bitter
   herbs shall you eat it." So marvel not that the Lamb of God, however
   sweet He is, and however nourishing to our souls, can never be enjoyed
   by us without the bitter herbs of godly sorrow for sin. "They shall
   mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in
   bitterness for Him." And that bitterness shall be of the most intense
   kind--"as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."

   Our line of thought will be this. First, I want to point out to you
   that our first sight of Christ brings bitterness. Then, secondly, I
   will try to show you that our continued sight of Christ works in us
   throughout life a measure of the same bitterness. And, thirdly, I will
   ask you to notice that this bitterness has most gracious effects upon
   us.

   I. First, then, I want to point out to you that OUR FIRST SIGHT OF
   CHRIST BRINGS BITTERNESS INTO OUR SOUL.

   When a man, for the first time, by faith, sees Christ upon the Cross
   and understands the meaning of His great substi-tutionary Sacrifice, he
   is bitterly grieved because he has not known Him before. Imagine the
   case of a Jew who has, perhaps, lived in a nominally Christian country
   for 50 years. He has frequently heard the name of Jesus mentioned in
   various ways, but he has always received it with indignation, possibly
   even with ridicule. It is quite likely that he has spoken very bitter
   things against the Nazarene, repeating the old stories current among
   his race concerning the Prophet of Nazareth and, all the while,
   thinking that he was doing service to Jehovah by rejecting One whom he
   supposed to be a pretender. Imagine that man, all of a sudden,
   convinced that Jesus of Nazareth is, indeed, the Son of God, the only
   Savior of sinners, the promised hope of Israel's seed! Why, I think if
   there were not many sweet and precious thoughts to be mingled with the
   bitter ones, he would be almost driven to utter despair! Surely he
   would, with humble penitence and many tears, fall down at that dear
   Savior's feet, and cry, "Forgive me, Lord, every opprobrious epithet
   that I have ever uttered. Pardon me for every scornful word that I have
   spoken. Forget every hard and cruel speech that I have made against
   You, O You bleeding Lamb of God, whose blood takes away the sin of the
   world!"

   I beseech some of you who are not Jews, but sinners of the Gentiles, to
   remember that your position is no better than theirs and, in some
   respects, it is even worse! I know mine was, because I knew Jesus to be
   the Messiah. I never had a doubt about that and yet I did not believe
   in Him. I acknowledged Him to be the Son of God. From my childhood I
   was taught that great Truth of God and I accepted it as a fact, yet I
   did not obey Him as my Lord and my God. I knew Him to be the only
   Savior of sinners and if anyone had spoken contrary to that Truth in my
   presence, my indignation would have

   burned against him! Yet, all the while, so far as my own consciousness
   was concerned, He was no Savior to me. I knew that He hung on the Cross
   that He might save the guilty, but I did not, for a long time, realize
   that I had a personal interest in His saving Grace. From my own
   experience, I am sure that the bitterness of anyone who has sinned in
   that way, when at last he understands the great plan of salvation and
   finds that Christ loved him and gave himself to death for him, must be
   quite as great as the bitterness of the Jews who make the same
   discovery.

   For, lo, my Brothers and Sisters, they did it ignorantly in
   unbelief--but you and I have done it wantonly, or at least carelessly
   and indifferently--knowing that we were rejecting our mother's Savior
   and our father's Christ. Herein is much of bitterness that you ought to
   feel--and when you do get a true view of Jesus as your Substitute and
   Savior, you will feel it very acutely and you will say to yourself,
   "Oh, that I had known Him before! Oh, that I had loved Him before! Oh,
   that I had trusted Him before! Alas, that all these years should have
   been wasted and that I should have chosen sin rather than the
   Savior--and the pleasures of the world sooner than the delights of His
   dear love!" I know that you will have bitterness about that matter when
   you really come to Christ for salvation.

   Next, there will come over your soul, when you get a true sight of
   Christ, much bitterness on account of your having slighted the
   extraordinary love of Christ to you. This Truth of God will come home
   to your heart with amazing power. "He loved me and gave Himself for me.
   For me He wore that crown of thorns. For me He endured that terrible
   scourging. For me He bore the piercing of those nails. For me He
   agonized unto that bloody sweat. For me He suffered even unto death."
   And then you will say, "And yet I have been, all this while, slighting
   Him! Others have loved me and I have returned their love, ashamed to be
   thought ungrateful. But all of them put together have never loved me as
   He has done, yet I have been His enemy and, as far as I could, I have
   opposed Him! He has stood outside my door and knocked, and I have kept
   Him waiting there till His head has been filled with dew and His locks
   with the drops of the night. Woe is me! Woe is me, that I should have
   treated so ill my best Friend!"

   It is long, dear Brothers and Sisters, since my heart ceased to shut
   Him out. I admitted Him long ago, but even while I am talking to you
   about it, I feel all the old bitterness of that sad past coming over
   me. I could stand here and weep to think that, though I loved Him
   comparatively early in life, I did not love Him earlier and did not
   sooner yield to His persistent knocking and to the gracious pressure of
   His infinite love. Another bitterness which ought soon to be banished,
   steals over the heart--it is this, the fear lest Christ shouldnot be
   ours, after all I have known some who have understood the Doctrine of
   the Cross right well and have believed in the great love of Jesus
   Christ for sinners. But then there has come over their mind and heart
   that dark doubting thought, "Will His blood be available for us? Will
   He ever be ours? After years of rejecting Him, shall we ever find Him,
   or have we forever missed Him? Is our day of Grace past, or does He
   still wait to be gracious? Will He still accept us, or has He gone
   away, saying, 'I will give them up; they are joined unto idols, so I
   will leave them alone'?"

   Oh, the bitterness of such questions as those! To see Living Water,
   clear as crystal, leaping up close by you and yet to fear that you may
   not drink of it! To see the Bread of Life placed upon the table and yet
   to doubt whether your unworthy lips may ever taste of that heavenly
   food! That is bitterness, indeed, but let it be a bitterness that goes
   away at once and forever, for there is no question about that matter!
   If you will believe in Jesus, that is proof positive that God wills it.
   The question is never about God's will when once your will is
   surrendered to Christ. If you are willing to accept Christ, it is
   because it is the day of God's power and He has made you willing. If
   you will have Christ, He presents Himself to you with this gracious
   word, "Whoever will, let him take the water of life freely." So let
   that bitter thought be nailed up to the Cross and die forever!

   Then there follows, over and above all this, the black, bitter thought
   that our sin caused His death on the tree. The awakened soul sighs, "My
   sins! My sins! My sins!" Nothing ever reveals sin like the Cross of
   Christ. Milton pictures Ithuriel with his spear touching the toad that
   lay squatting at Eve's ear--and suddenly it arose in the form of the
   dark fiend of Hell! So does the Cross touch what we thought to be only
   mistakes and errors--and they rise before us in their true character as
   hellish sins! In the light of Calvary, sin does like itself appear--and
   what is the likeness of sin there? Why, the murderer of the Son of
   God--the murderer of the Prince of Life--the murderer of man's best
   Friend whose only crime was this--"found guilty of excess of love" and,
   therefore, He must die! O Sin, is this what you are? Are you a
   God-killing thing? I have heard of men being guilty of regicide, but
   what shall I say concerning Deicide? Yet Sin virtu-

   ally and as much as it can, stabs at the Godhead, crying, with the
   wicked husbandmen, "This is the Heir! Come, let us kill Him and the
   inheritance shall be ours."

   This is the terrible character of sin--it will imbrue its hands in the
   blood of Him who is perfectly innocent and perfectly benevolent. It
   will take man's best Friend by the throat, condemn Him as if He were a
   felon, nail Him to the Cross and then stand and gaze at Him and mock
   His very death-throes! There is nothing upon earth that is so devilish
   as sin. Oh, to what extremes of atrocity has sin not gone? And such is
   your sin and mine, to a greater or lesser degree. A sight of the Cross,
   therefore, brings bitterness into the soul because it shows us what sin
   is and what are its ultimate issues and true designs if it could carry
   them out. Never do we smite upon our breast so hard as when we see the
   Cross of Jesus. We are condemned at the Mercy Seat even more fully than
   we are at the Judgment Seat. This is the condemnation of sin in the
   soul of man, that he sees what it did in murdering the Christ of God
   and this causes the repenting sinner to "be in bitterness for Him, as
   one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."

   To this is added another source of bitterness, namely, the discovery of
   the wrath of God on account of sin. You stand in imagination and look
   at Jesus Christ dying upon the Cross and you say to yourself, "The
   Romans are here and the Jews are here, and all men are here,
   representatively, but there is Someone greater than all these here."
   Then there comes to you from the ancient prophecy this message, "It
   pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when You shall
   make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall
   prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His
   hand." Yes, God Himself put Christ into the sinner's place through
   wondrous love to us, and as Christ stood in the sinner's place, though
   a sinner He could never be, God treated Him as if He were actually the
   sinner! Look how the Father's wrath burns against human sin! He could
   not be angry with His well-beloved Son, but, inasmuch as Christ stood
   in the sinner's place, God poured out the vials of His wrath upon Him
   just as if He had been guilty! Behold how the Father smites Him! These
   are His words, "Awake, O sword." Will not the rod suffice, great God?
   No. "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is
   My Fellow, says the Lord of Hosts. Smite the Shepherd."

   But will not some common smiting be sufficient? No, to the very heart
   He must be smitten, and Jesus must die the death of the Cross, that we
   may live forever. "How God must hate sin, then, and what wrath must
   fall upon me!" That is the convicted sinner's thought. "My sin is
   personal and actual and not, like Christ's, imputed. And since it is my
   own, how can God continue to bear with me?" And the dark suggestion
   comes into the soul, "He will not bear with you much longer, for it is
   written, 'I will ease Me of My adversaries.'" Yes, verily, a true sight
   of the Cross makes us full of bitterness on account of the awful guilt
   of sin and the Divine wrath which it provokes!

   And then comes the bitterness of the dread of never being forgiven. The
   convinced sinner says, "God spared not His only-begotten Son when sin
   was laid upon Him! Then, surely, He will not spare me! I am full of
   guilt and I have within me a fountain of evil which is perpetually
   bubbling up with foulness--how can the pure and holy God spare me?
   Where can I flee to get away from His Presence? How can I escape from
   the bolts of His righteous wrath? Let me fly where I may, He will
   pursue me and overtake me and destroy me!" Do any of you know what it
   is to feel like this? I remember when I did. I was in such terror that
   I feared lest every step I took should be my last--and that I should
   stumble first into my grave and then into Hell! "Did the Cross
   reallymake you feel like that?" you ask. Yes, certainly, for I could
   not but think that, though Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why have You
   forsaken Me?" I could never have to ask that question because I knewwhy
   God had forsaken me--my sin was sufficient to drive Him away from me
   forever!

   I feel quite sure that God intends our first sight of Christ to fill
   our soul with bitterness and, therefore, I ask you most seriously to
   question your conversion unless there was some measure of this
   bitterness mingled with it. A sinner's sight of Christ must breed
   sorrow for sin--it is unavoidable--and the more clear that sight shall
   become, and the more it is mixed with faith, and the more sure we are
   of pardon, the more bitterness will there be in it. When we know that
   our sins are forgiven, it is then that we, most of all, realize their
   guilt and abhor and hate them. That hymn which we sometimes sing
   exactly sets forth this Truth of God--

   "My sins, my sins, my Savior,

   How sad on You they fall!

   Seen through Your gentle patience,

   I tenfold feel them all.

   I know they are forgiven,

   But still their pain to me

   Is all the grief and anguish They laid, my Lord, on Thee. My sins, my
   sins, my Savior! Their guilt I never knew Till, with You, in the desert
   I near Your passion drew. Till with You in the garden I heard Your
   pleading prayer, And saw the bloody drops of sweat That told Your
   sorrow there." II. Now, secondly, OUR CONTINUED SIGHT OF CHRIST WORKS
   IN US THROUGHOUT LIFE A MEASURE OF THE SAME BITTERNESS.

   For, first, as the great love of Christ is better known, it brings
   deeper grief for sin. We then more deeply lament that we could ever
   have slighted such love and that such love could ever have been called
   to so vast a sacrifice as that which it made for us. I do not suppose,
   Beloved, that your knowledge of the love of Christ at first was at all
   comparable to what it is now. If you have studied in the school of
   Christ's love and have believed it to be the most excellent of all the
   sciences, you will, by the teaching of the Spirit, and by experience,
   attain a clearer knowledge of the love of Christ which passes
   knowledge. And side by side with that will be a growing sense of
   abhorrence of yourself and detestation of the sin which nailed your
   Savior to the tree. It must be so! Deeper love to Christ will breed
   greater grief and a yet more bitter bitterness on account of sin.

   There will also be, in your heart, a more intense bitterness arising
   from the dread of grieving your Lord. Oh, have you not sometimes wished
   that you could die rather than run any risk of apostasy? I marvel not
   at the poor Methodist who, when surrounded by blasphemers who seemed as
   if they would drive him from Christ, fell on his knees and prayed the
   Lord to take him Home to Heaven, so that he might never again be
   tempted to go astray. Bitterer than death itself would it be for us to
   ever dishonor that dear name by which we are called! Feel you not so,
   my Brothers and Sisters? I believe that the higher your joy in Christ,
   the greater will be your fear lest you should bring disgrace upon Him.
   You stand almost on the top of the mountain of communion--you seem to
   be transfigured with your Master and to be glowing with the light that
   streams from Him--yet even there the thought comes to you, "What if,
   after all this, I should slip with my feet? Peter, who was one of the
   three with the Lord on the holy mount, afterwards denied his Master
   with oaths and curses! Then, may not I also be found wanting in the
   time of trial?"

   This self-examination is almost necessary to the mellowing of our holy
   joy. As the sycamore fig never ripens till it is bruised, so there is a
   high joy of fellowship that needs bruising by a sense of our own
   weakness before its essential sweetness shall be fully developed. I
   have a great fear concerning your condition if you never felt anything
   of this bitterness-- this dread lest, in thought, or word, or deed, by
   omission or by commission, you should grieve the sweet and tender love
   of Christ. You know how the spouse said, "I charge you, you daughters
   of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field"--by all that
   is most gentle, and timid, and delicate, and jealous, and full of
   love--"that you stir not up, nor awake my love, till He pleases." It is
   thus that the holy soul feels the bitterness of an inward jealousy lest
   she should be treacherous to her Lord, or that anything should occur to
   grieve Him.

   The next bitterness is caused by a deeper regret on account of our own
   unworthiness. I think that those who much love Christ and who have had
   a clear view of His love, can never be satisfied with themselves. Do
   you ever rise from your knees and say, "I am quite content with that
   prayer"? If so, I fancy that you cannot have prayed "with groans which
   cannot be uttered." Did you ever preach a sermon, Brother, and feel,
   after it was finished, that you could run up the topgallants and cry,
   "Never man preached as I have done"? If so, I am afraid that it was
   very poor preaching, with many fine feathers in its tail to spread out
   like a peacock's, but with few feathers in its wings to make it mount
   up like an eagle! It will never do for us to be satisfied with
   ourselves, for vehement love thinks nothing good enough for Christ.
   When it reaches its best, it says, "My best is utter poverty compared
   with Him." "Oh," says the saint who truly loves his Lord, "I am ashamed
   to bring Him even my best offerings and when, sometimes, I lie at His
   feet and feel that I am perfectly consecrated, I still wish that there
   was something better to consecrate--and that I could keep up that
   complete consecration at all times and seasons--and under all
   circumstances."

   But since it is not so with any of us, there is a bitterness that
   mingles with the very sight of Christ. You may look at yourself until
   you get quite pleased with yourself, but you cannot remain so when once
   you look at Him. You know how Job spoke to the Lord, when he took his
   right position before Him, "I have heard of You by the hearing of the
   ear: but now my eyes see You. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in
   dust and ashes." Those brethren who think themselves perfect had better
   come and look at their Lord--and then, if their comeliness is not
   turned to corruption, I shall be greatly mistaken. A glimpse at Him
   would act like flames of fire turning dry stubble into ashes, for, in a
   moment, all their glory would be utterly consumed!

   Then, again, I am sure there is another bitterness that will always
   accompany a true sight of Christ, and that is, an intense horror at
   man's rejection of Him. Have not you, Beloved, sometimes looked at your
   Lord and loved and adored Him, till, first, you have pitied men, and
   afterwards you have pitied Christ? With those who love Christ most,
   there comes to be, after a time, sympathy with Jesus rather than with
   men. I can understand how, even when the enemies of God shall be
   destroyed at the last and the smoke of their torment shall rise up
   forever and ever, the perfect ones in Heaven will sing, "Hallelujah."
   Certain persons, who are on earth at the present time, if they had been
   at the Red Sea and seen old Pharaoh's army cast into the depths, would
   have mournfully said, "This is very, very grievous to us." But as for
   me, if I had been there, I would have joined with Moses and with Miriam
   and said, "Sing you to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the
   horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea." I confess that I have
   very little sympathy with Pharaoh, but I have the most intense sympathy
   with Jehovah and with His people--and I question whether the wonderful
   sympathy with lost sinners which some people profess to feel, is not
   sympathy with their sin as much as with themselves, perhaps
   unconsciously to those who indulge it.

   If we were perfectly holy, we would desire to do just what God does and
   we would wish God to do exactly what He is doing--and we would rejoice
   without question in all the will of God. One result of such a state of
   mind as that would be that we would cry with the Psalmist, "Horror has
   taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake Your Law." I do
   not know that I ever felt a greater horror in my soul than when, in
   Rome, I stood at the foot of the Santa Scala--"the holy staircase," as
   they call it--on which they pretend to show the marks where our Savior
   fainted on the stairs in Jerusalem. I saw poor deluded creatures go up
   and down those stairs upon their knees, repeating certain forms of
   prayer all the while. Ah, me, it did seem horrible and, worst of all,
   the priests have turned the Christ, Himself, into an idol! There is a
   little black picture of Him, at the top of the stairs, which is reputed
   to have been painted by Luke--and it is kissed and worshipped--and thus
   even our blessed Master is made to act the lackey to idolatry! I
   thought that if I could have borrowed a thunderbolt or two for a little
   while, I could have made a clean sweep here and there in Rome, but the
   time for that is not yet. That time will comeand a very clean sweep
   there will be when the cry is heard, "Babylon the great is fallen, is
   fallen...And her smoke rose up forever and ever."

   But, Brothers and Sisters, there is an intense bitterness in your heart
   when you truly come to see Christ on the Cross, as you realize that all
   people do not believe in Him, that His Kingdom has not yet come and
   that His will is not done on earth as it is in Heaven. Men still reject
   Him. They scoff at His Gospel, they despise His cause, they set up idol
   gods and false saviors--and all this is as a dish of bitter herbs to
   these who really love Him. It seems passing strange that He should ever
   have entered into this awful battle between good and evil, that He
   should have come, the foremost and noblest of champions, baring His arm
   for the war and that in the fight He should not only have sweat, as it
   were, great drops of blood, but that He should have had His heart
   broken in the fray! Ah, me, how sad it is that He, whom angels worship
   and in whom God, Himself, delights, should be trampled by the feet of
   wicked men like mire in the streets--that they should dare to defile
   with their spit that face which outshines the sun and pour contempt and
   scorn upon Him who fills eternity with the splendors of the Deity!

   All this is like bitter herbs to those who love Him. Still, the final
   victory will be won by Him and it will be worth all that it costs! Up
   the everlasting hills He has already ascended, victor from the fight
   and today He divides the spoil with the strong. But, oh, that it had
   been possible for that bitter cup to have passed from Him! Oh, that it
   had been possible that He should not drink the Hell-draught! Yet He did
   drink it to the last dregs--it is all over now--glory be to His holy
   name! But the taste of the bitter herbs is always present with the true
   Paschal Lamb to those who spiritually feed thereon by faith.

   III. Now I must close by noticing that THIS BITTERNESS HAS MOST
   GRACIOUS EFFECTS UPON US.

   First, it must be evident to you all that this bitterness works great
   hatred of sin. We see how cruel sin has been to Christ and we,
   therefore, seek to avoid it. The burnt child dreads the fire, but we
   are not quite in that condition. We dread the fire of sin because it
   burned the Savior--that is why we hate it so intensely. Sin murdered
   Him--can we ever tolerate it? Could anyone ever play with the knife
   that had killed his best friend? Could he preserve it as a choice
   treasure? No, he would, if he could, fling it into the depths of
   oblivion! And Sin, you cruel murderous thing that slew our Savior, we
   would take revenge upon you! We abhor you! God has made you bitter to
   us and there dwells in that bitterness a power that helps to sanctify
   us.

   But, next, that bitterness makes Christ very sweet ' 'Why," you ask,
   "how is that?" Well, I suppose that the bitter herbs made the paschal
   lamb taste all the sweeter to the Israelite of old, and I am sure that
   a bitter sense of sin, bitter regrets that we should ever have cost our
   Savior so much and a bitter sense of our own unworthiness all make
   Christ more precious to us. It is like the two balances in a pair of
   scales--when you go up, Christ goes down--and when you go down, down,
   down, down, to nothing, and far below zero, then Christ goes up. No man
   can know the sweetness of Christ who has not tasted the bitterness of
   sin.

   Next, it makes all worldly things lose their taste. If you get some of
   the bitterness that comes of mourning about Christ, the sweetest things
   of the world will have but very little attraction for you. I will give
   you an illustration of this Truth of God. Suppose you had an only son
   and that you lost him--would not everything look dark about you? It
   comes home to a man's heart very heavily when such a treasure is taken
   away from him. He has a farm, but he has no joy in it. The old home
   seems to be a very dreary place to him now. He wishes to move away from
   it and to forget all it contained. That is the kind of bitterness of
   which our text speaks--"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." And thus the world loses its charms for
   true Believers. As Paul says, "It remains that both they that have
   wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they
   wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not," because
   a stronger flavor has taken possession of their palate and made them
   forget everything else. Thus, the bitterness of mourning for Christ
   takes away the power to enjoy the sweets of this world.

   But there is something better than that, for it removes the bitterness
   from the things of this life. Suppose you suffer great pain. Yesterday
   I was by the side of a dear Sister in Christ who has undergone terrible
   pain, and she said to me, "Thoughts of the Lord Jesus, and of His
   sufferings were so sweet to me that I seemed only to remember my own
   griefs as they helped me to remember His." That is how it should be
   with each of us. As we are called to suffer, we should say--

   "His way was much rougher and darker than mine, Did Christ, my Lord,
   suffer, and shall I repine?"

   How often the bitterness of poverty has vanished when men have thought
   of Him who had nowhere to lay His head! How frequently the bitterness
   of persecution has departed when His followers have remembered that He
   was despised and rejected of men--a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with
   grief! One brings us what he says is a bitter draught and we say, "Do
   you call that bitter? I have tasted something much more bitter than
   that. I can drink it, and even rejoice in it, since I have been taught
   how to take the very gall of bitterness, that which has the intensity
   of the bitterest Peruvian bark-- sympathy with my Savior in His awful
   sufferings."

   And let me also tell you, dear Brothers and Sisters, that one effect of
   this bitterness upon the soul that feels it is to take away all
   bitterness against your fellow men. If you have really felt the
   bitterness of your sin against Christ, you have said to yourself,
   "Well, now, after this I must be sweet, gentle, kind, tender and
   forgiving towards others. Somebody has offended me. Ah, but then how
   much I offended God! He says he will not ask my forgiveness. Yes, but
   my Lord prayed for those who put Him to death and said, 'Father,
   forgive them,' though they sought not forgiveness! Must not I do the
   same?" I am sure that if you mourn on account of your own sin, you will
   be the last person in the world to be harsh and severe in your judgment
   upon others. You will say, "I cannot take up the stone to cast at them,
   even if others do so." The poor harlot comes before the Savior and the
   self-righteous Pharisees will accuse her--but none of us, I think, will
   do so, for who among us has not been guilty? And if we have been
   pardoned, how can we condemn others? I charge any of you who harbor
   ill-will against others to remember that you cannot be Christians if
   you carry that foul serpent in your bosom! You can bring no acceptable
   sacrifices to God's Altar while you are at enmity against your brother.
   "He that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God
   whom he has not seen?" Whatever else you may or may not

   do, this you must do--forgive as you would be forgiven and let the
   bitterness of your sympathy with Christ take away from your nature all
   bitterness, harshness, unkindness and malice towards your fellow men.

   Last of all, in this bitterness with Christ, there is an unutterable
   sweetness. If I were asked when I have felt most happy, if the question
   were put to me in the most unlimited sense--"When did you feel such
   happiness as you could wish always to feel?"--I would not quote any of
   the days of earth's mirth, for, as the crackling of thorns under a pot,
   so is the best of mortal merriment. I could not even quote the day in
   which I first knew the Lord because, though there was an intensity of
   delight about it, it was not so deep as the joy I am going to mention.
   Neither, if I had to ask for a joy that might continue with me, should
   I ask to have the high delights which I have often experienced when in
   sweetest fellowship with my Lord, for that kind ofjoy is killing--we
   cannot endure much of it. But I think that the sweetest joy I ever felt
   was when, racked with pain and broken all asunder, I fell back upon the
   Omnipotent Love of God, like a child who cannot walk, or move, or even
   stand, but just lies on its mother's breast quite passive, quite at
   peace.

   I think that mourning for sin is as sweet a flower as blooms outside
   Heaven. I suppose that pearl of flowers blooms not on the other side of
   Jordan. It is the only flower on earth that I would like to carry
   there, just as Rowland Hill used to say that repentance and he had kept
   such sweet company that the only regret he had about Heaven was that he
   supposed he would not repent there. Well, all that is good we shall
   have there--"and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that
   defiles." But I assure you, from my own experience, that the still,
   calm, quiet joy which does not well up out of yourself, but comes into
   you direct from Christ, by the way of the Cross--that dew which falls
   not on Hermon, but on Calvary--is the rarest and brightest dew that
   ever charms us this side of Glory!

   God give you all to know, to the fullest extent, the sweet
   bitterness--the bitter sweetness--that comes of a sight of Christ
   Crucified, for His dear name's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Two Arguments Against Sin

   (No. 2684)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORDS-DAY, JULY 22, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
   29, 1881.

   "However I sent unto you all My servants the Prophets, rising early and
   sending them, saying, Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!"
   Jeremiah 44:4.

   THIS verse portrays what a minister should be and the picture is a
   burden upon my heart and conscience, for it shows that the true
   preacher, or Prophet, or man of God, should be one whom God sends early
   to do His work. It is, as it were, as though his Master were up early
   in the morning, bidding him make haste to go to His service and not let
   the grass grow under his feet, for men are sinning--and to suffer them
   to continue in sin unrebuked, even for an hour, is truly dreadful. It
   is as though one were to leave a house burning without giving an alarm
   and calling the firemen, or to see a person in imminent peril in the
   street without immediately attempting to do something for his rescue.
   Notice that in this verse God represents Himself as rising early, to
   show how He realized the greatness of man's danger and the importance
   of his being speedily delivered from it. The Lord said that He rose
   early in order that He might send His Prophets--of course that
   theymight go early, that they might go at once and waste no time--but
   be instant in season and out of season to warn men not to do the
   abominable thing which God hated! A minister, then, is one who should
   be diligent in his Master's business, fervent in spirit, serving the
   Lord by endeavoring to warn men of the terrible nature and consequences
   of sin.

   He is also to be one who speaks as God's representative. Not only
   speaking God's Truth, but, as it were, speaking it with God's mouth,
   for these Prophets were not to say, "Oh, do not this abominable thing
   that God hates," but they were to personify'God, to put themselves into
   His place and to say as though He said it, "Oh, do not this abominable
   thing that Ihate!" What a responsible and privileged position is this
   for any man to occupy, to have to speak for God in this fashion! Paul
   referred to it when he wrote to the Corinthians, "Now then we are
   ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray
   you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God." It is a high honor
   but a tremendous responsibility to have to do Christ's pleading, to be
   intercessors for the Intercessor, and to stand up and speak God's
   thoughts as though He had set us to be His spokesmen for a time--to
   plead with the sons of men on His behalf. As I have realized this
   responsibility, I have sometimes dreaded my office with an unutterable
   dread, though I would not change it to become ruler of all the empires
   of earth, or even to be an archangel in Heaven, for I reckon that to be
   even first among the angels is nothing compared with being an
   instrument, in the hand of God, of saving the souls of men! Yet how
   awful and how solemn a thing it is for any man to be called to stand
   and speak as though God did speak by him and say, "Oh, do not this
   abominable thing that I hate!"

   There is another lesson to be learned from this picture--not only that
   the minister should rise up early to meet an early God, and should
   speak in God's name, but he is also to speak in God's style--that is,
   pleadingly and pathetically. I count it an easy thing to proclaim the
   Truth of God as one might do it from the desk of a classroom, or to be
   oratorical and to wax eloquent over the great themes we have to make
   known. But it is quite another matter to plead with men, to be pathetic
   and to speak as God does here, "Oh, do not this abominable thing that I
   hate!" This is the work and this is the difficulty which often burdens
   our spirits. You remember that the disciples said to Christ, on one
   occasion, "Lord, teach us to pray," for they felt as if the strong
   desires that burned within His heart might well burn in theirs, and
   that

   they had even greater necessities than He had. But when they heard Him
   preach, they felt at once that He outsoared them all. When they saw the
   tears of pity stream from His eyes and listened to His lament over the
   doomed city of Jerusalem, then they realized that He overmatched them
   and they felt, if they did not say it, "Never man spoke like this Man!"
   And they did not cry, "Lord, teach us to preach as You do!"

   They could not hope to rise to that great height and we feel just as
   they did. Oh, that these lips could use language borrowed from the lips
   of the Well-Beloved! Oh, that these eyes could run with tears like
   those that welled up from the great heart of the loving Savior of
   sinners! His sermons show us what true preaching is--it should be the
   highest form of persuading, it should be really, only in a better sense
   than that in which the term is generally used, peilpleading--a pleading
   with men, by weighty arguments, that they would leave their sins and
   turn to God! Christ's sermons show us a pleading in which God the Holy
   Spirit exercises His own supreme office and works upon the minds of the
   hearers through the utterances of Him who speaks to them. As this is
   what a minister ought to be, may God help us poor creatures to attain
   to this high standard! You who are His people can also help us by your
   prayers, which we greatly need.

   Now, turning from my text as it especially related to the Jews in
   Jeremiah's day, I want to apply it to you, dear Friends, who are still
   unconverted. In this verse God tells certain people that He had risen
   early and sent unto them His servants, the Prophets, one after another,
   to plead with them on His behalf. Will you, if you can, kindly
   recollect when your consciences were first touched? Can you remember
   when that happened? It is highly probable that the sweet tones of your
   mother's voice were associated with your first religious thoughts, or,
   perhaps, there was a godly man--your father--since passed into the
   skies, who pleaded with you, his son, in Christ's name. These were your
   Prophets sent from God--could there be any better messengers from Him
   than a gracious mother or grandmother, or a godly father?

   Why, some of you were plied with the Gospel almost before you knew
   anything else! Before you had committed any overt act of sin, you heard
   of Jesus' wondrous Grace and dying love! And, since then, you have not
   been without messengers from Heaven who have brought you loving
   entreaties and invitations. How have you treated them? If you are still
   unconverted, I am sure that you have not dealt with them as they ought
   to have been received--you have turned a deaf ear to the voice of love
   and mercy, or else you would not now be without God, without Christ and
   without hope! So I come once more, in my Master's name, as His
   messenger--will you slight me and reject my message? If you do, I must
   sorrowfully endure it and cry, with others of my Master's servants,
   "Who has believed our report?" Yet I pray you, do not do it, for,
   though I speak but feebly, no man more sincerely or more heartily
   desires the good of his hearers than I do. And I ask you who do know
   the Lord to join me in pleading that God, the Holy Spirit, will bless
   the message I am about to deliver in Christ's name.

   In our text there are two arguments against sin. What God has to say to
   unconverted men is here put in very few words--"Oh, do not this
   abominable thing that I hate." This short sentence contains the two
   arguments against sin upon which I am going to speak. The first is,
   from the nature of sin itself--this abominable thing." and the second
   is, from the feeling of God towards sin--"this abominable thing that I
   hate."

   I. The first argument in our text against sin is DERIVED FROM THE
   NATURE OF SIN ITSELF--"this abominable thing."

   The particular sin of which the Prophet was speaking was that of
   idolatry. Those Jewish people would make idol gods in some form or
   other and they would bow down before them and neglect the worship of
   the one invisible Jehovah. And God calls their idolatry "this
   abominable thing." It is rightly so called, for it is abominable
   ingratitude. That a man should not worship his Maker, that he should
   refuse obedience to his Creator, that he should say to Him who made the
   heavens and the earth, and who also made him and keeps him in being, "I
   will not worship You! I refuse to bow down before You. I choose to
   adore another god--Baal, Ashtaroth, Venus, Bacchus, anything but the
   one true God--and I will not worship You, O Jehovah, the Creator of all
   worlds!" This, I say again, is shameful ingratitude!

   It is also an abominable thing because it is so degrading and debasing.
   Everybody ought to be able to see that for a man with intellect and
   mind to bow himself down before a carved image is most degrading. That
   he should worship that which is made of wood, or stone, or metal is
   practically to make himself inferior to the dead thing which he
   worships! I know of no act in which a man seems to bring himself lower
   than when he prostrates himself before a material object and says,
   "This is my god," or, "This is what I worship." So God truly calls
   idolatry an "abominable thing." And it will appear to you all the more
   so when you recollect the kind of gods that these people's images
   represented. They did, in effect,

   say to Jehovah, the Maker of Heaven and earth, the good and gracious
   God, "We will not worship You, but we will worship that golden calf, or
   those images that have eyes but see not, and hands but feel not, and
   ears but hear not. We would sooner bow down to these dull dead blocks
   of wood than worship You." Oh, this is abominable! I know no more
   appropriate word than that which God has here used--"this abominable
   thing." An immortal being prostrating himself before a piece of wood! A
   man, created by Jehovah, bowing down before an image which he has,
   himself, made! This is indeed loathsome! It is insulting to God and
   provokes Him to the highest degree.

   "We are all agreed about that," you say. I am glad to hear you say so,
   yet you may be idolaters, for all that. Have you never heard of those
   concerning whom Paul wrote to the Philippians, "whose God is their
   belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things"? Did
   you ever hear of "the self-made man who worships his creator"? I have
   heard of him and seen him, too! And I confess that I have more respect
   for a man who worships a god shaped out of the filth of the kennels
   than for the one who worships himself because, to worship one's own
   self seems to me to be the nethermost depth of degradation! For the
   Israelites to say of the golden calf, "These are your gods, O Israel,
   who brought you up out of the land of Egypt," was degrading--horribly
   so! But for a man to say to himself, practically, if not in so many
   words, "I am my own god"--surely this sinks him still lower!

   There are some who worship strong drink and who offer themselves as a
   sacrifice at its shrine. There are many who immolate upon the altar of
   Bacchus, wife, children, home, character and life itself--and they go
   down to their dishonored graves, not burnt in the arms of Moloch, but
   drowned in their own cups. When you talk of idolaters and abominable
   things, is there any worse form of idolatry than this? Then look at the
   various forms of covetousness which the Apostle Paul says, "is
   idolatry." Think of the guilt of the men who grind the faces of the
   poor and, perhaps, even pinch themselves so that they may amass more
   gold and have it written concerning them at the last, "He died worth so
   much," when he was really utterly worthless! He who worships the little
   round images of the Queen is as gross an idolater as the man who bows
   down before Juggernaut or Baal! The sin of idolatry is still abundant
   everywhere and it is always, in its nature and essence, a degrading
   thing to man and an insult to God and, therefore, He continues to say
   to all idolaters, "Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!"

   There are many other sins, besides idolatry, which are abominable in
   the sight of God. And there is one point about them that hampers a
   preacher very much. That is, he cannot bear witness against them,
   because even to speak of some sins is to help to spread them. It is
   dangerous work to handle gunpowder and, even when we need to move it
   from the magazine, we feel that we must do it with great fear and
   trembling. Alas! Alas, there are abominable sins that are terribly
   common in this awfully guilty London--sins of unchastity that defile
   the body and pollute the mind. I fancy that I can see God standing by
   some young man who is about to go into this kind of sin and I seem to
   hear Him say, "Oh, do not this abominable thing!" I think I also hear
   God crying out to some woman who has turned aside from the paths of
   purity-- "Oh, do not this abominable thing!" It may not appear at the
   time, when the mind is under the spell of the serpent's fascination, to
   be so abominable as it really is, but, soberly thought of, what a curse
   it is to this city and what a curse it is to each individual who is
   contaminated by it! Young man, keep far away from the house of the
   strange woman--yes, I must say it plainly--God would have me say it,
   for He, Himself, says, "Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!"

   There are other abominable sins besides these fleshly lusts which war
   against the soul, such as the tempting of others to sin. It is an awful
   fact that there are some people who seem to set themselves deliberately
   to instruct others in vice and transgression. They will defile the
   imagination and the heart of children and of growing young men and
   women--this is a dreadful thing. If any of you are in the habit of
   singing low songs, or of talking ill-savored language, I would have you
   hear my God say to you through my lips, "Oh, do not this abominable
   thing that I hate," for it is a horrible evil for you to be spoiling
   these fair flowers while yet they are in the bud! Then there is the
   habit of using profane and filthy language which is so common in this
   city--I think more prevalent than ever it was. It is a most senseless
   as well as wicked practice. There is nothing to gain in it. George
   Herbert quaintly and wisely wrote--

   "Take not His name, who made your mouth, in vain-- It gets you nothing,
   and has no excuse. Lust and wine plead a pleasure, avarice gain-- But
   the cheap swearer, through his open sluice, Lets his soul run for
   naught, as little fearing. Were Ian Epicure, I could bate swearing."

   There are many who sin greatly by slandering others. They lie against
   their neighbors' characters and they are never better pleased than when
   they can, by exaggeration, make some little flaw into a grave fault.
   God says to all who slander, and lie and speak not the truth, "Do not
   this abominable thing that I hate!" Then there is hypocrisy which is
   always far too rife--the making of a profession when there is nothing
   at the back of it--the pretending to be gracious when there is no Grace
   in the heart, and to be faithful when there is no faith in the soul. O
   Sirs, if you will be lost, I pray you, do not be lost as hypocrites! If
   you are determined to perish, choose some other way of perishing than
   that which Judas took when he joined himself to the Apostles and yet
   sold his Master for 30 pieces of silver. God says to you, with a
   special emphasis, "Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!"

   Another aspect of the abominable character of sin will be apparent if I
   remind you that there are some persons in whom sin--any sin--is
   peculiarly abominable. If you were privileged, as I was, to be born
   into a Christian family, having had a grandfather and a
   great-grandfather and other ancestors all walking in the ways of God,
   and having a father and a mother whose first and chief desire was to
   train you in the fear of God, you know that for you to do wrong under
   such circumstances is, indeed, an abominable thing! Poor gutter
   children and persons who dwell in the worst dens and slums of
   London--and who have never been taught as you and I were--cannot sin to
   the same extent as we can who have so long known better and who have
   been trained aright from our earliest days. O you children of godly
   parents, I pray you look well to your walk and hear the Lord say
   especially to you, "Do not this abominable thing that I hate!"

   There are also some persons who are gifted by Nature, or by that Grace
   which God sometimes intertwines with Nature, with a tender conscience.
   Some seem, from the very first, to be more callous and hardened than
   others, but there are some of us who, from our very childhood, remember
   how we could not sleep unless we had said our prayers, or, if we had
   told a lie, we could not rest till we had confessed it. And if we had
   disobeyed our parents, we were tormented with remorse even though they
   did not know what we had done! Chastening was not needed to bring us to
   repentance, for we chastened ourselves. It is a great mercy to have a
   tender conscience--but to sin against it is a peculiarly abominable
   thing.

   Mind, my young Friend, you who are sorely tempted just now, I charge
   you not to do violence to your conscience! Whatever you do, be sure to
   keep it tender, for it is one of your best friends and it will, by
   God's Grace, be the means of guiding you to Heaven! Do not trifle with
   its warnings. Do not sear it with the hot iron of even an occasional
   transgression, but, at once, obey the Savior's call and trust to Him
   for the salvation only He can give! It is an abominable thing for any
   man to sin, but it is a hundred times worse in some than it is in
   others because they have clearer light and a plainer perception of what
   sin really is.

   And, sometimes, sin becomes an especially abominable thing to a man who
   has previously committed it and smarted from it, and who has escaped as
   by the skin of his teeth--and yet goes back to indulge in it again.
   Have you ever tried to save a poor moth, on a summer's evening, when
   you have been sitting at work or reading by the light of the gas or a
   candle? It comes dashing towards the light and singes its wings--and
   there it lies, helpless, on the table. You have taken it up very
   tenderly and put it away from the light in the hope that it might,
   perhaps, escape. But the very first thing it has done, when it has
   recovered even the partial use of its wings, has been to fly back into
   the flame again! You have said, "There is no saving you, poor silly
   thing, for you are determined to die by your own folly. You will not
   let me rescue you." And it is just so with some sinners whom we try to
   rescue--they will go back to the very thing that has already burnt
   them!

   Perhaps I am addressing one who, but a little while ago, was on a bed
   of sickness and, as you were lying there looking into eternity, you
   cried, "Lord, save me. If You will but spare me, I will turn from sin
   and I will seek the Savior until I find Him." Yet you are not doing
   anything of the kind though the Lord did spare you! Peter's solemn
   words might be repeated to you, "You have not lied unto men, but unto
   God." Remember what happened to Ananias and Sapphira when they sinned
   thus. I pray God not to visit you in judgment, but, in His great mercy,
   to lay all your sin as a heavy burden upon your conscience that you may
   feel the evil of having broken your vows and your promises, for this
   is, indeed, an abominable thing in the sight of God--and also an
   abominable thing in the judgment of all honest, right-thinking men!

   Thus might I continue to point out various circumstances which increase
   the guilt of sinners, but I will only say one more thing and then I
   shall have finished the consideration of this first part of our
   subject. The observation I wish to make is this. There are some of us
   to whom sin has become such an abominable thing that we can honestly
   say we would

   sooner suffer every pain of which the body is capable than we would
   willfully commit sin. There are various things in this world which are
   loathsome to all our tastes, but we would be willing to have them all
   around us, however distasteful they might be, rather than be in the
   presence of moral evil. It grates upon our ears, it galls our mind, it
   frets our heart, it aggravates all our spiritual senses to be brought
   into contact with sin! Sin is to us more horrible than death, more
   diabolical than the devil, more hellish than Hell, itself, for the
   pains of Hell would lose their sharpness if it were not that sin is the
   undying worm that causes them. Sin, transgression, iniquity, evil in
   all its forms, untruth, every violation of God's Law--all this is an
   abominable thing which every right-minded man is bound to hate, to
   loathe, to detest with all the energy of his being! One great reason
   why we implore men to forsake sin, and pray the Holy Spirit to enable
   them to do so, is because it is an abominable thing.

   "Oh," someone says, "sin is a sweet thing!" No, no, it is an abominable
   thing! "It is a delightful thing," says another. No, it is an
   abominable thing! "Oh, but it is a fashionable thing--you can see it in
   courts of kings and princes-- and the great men of the earth love it."
   Even though they do, it is an abominable thing! Though it should crawl
   up to a monarch's throne and spread its slime over crown jewels, it
   would still be an abominable thing. It once entered Heaven, itself, and
   befouled and defiled a mighty angel and all who followed him--and you
   can see what an abominable thing it is when you realize how it degraded
   them and cast them down from their high estate to be, "reserved in
   everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."

   II. Now, for a little while, I will speak to you upon the second reason
   why sin should be repented of and forsaken. That is because of THE
   FEELING WHICH GOD HAS TOWARDS IT. Note how strongly He puts it. "Oh, do
   not this abominable thing that I hate!"

   God hates all evil, all injustice, all wrong-doing, all immorality, all
   sin of every kind. He hates it! He is not indifferent to it, nor
   tolerant of it, but His whole soul goes out in righteous indignation
   against it. And He hates it, first, because He is infinitely pure. If
   He were not, Himself, perfectly pure, He might tolerate or excuse sin,
   but the delicate, matchless purity of His Nature causes His holy anger
   to burn with a fierce flame against everything that is unrighteous. A
   pure and holy God must hate sin.

   He hates it, too, because it is such an injury to you, His creatures,
   and, therefore, He says to you, "Oh, do not this abominable thing that
   I hate!" He hates it because it so grievously mars what He made
   perfect. Sin has spoiled all the beauty of God's highly-favored
   creature, man. I cannot tell what a perfectly lovely being Adam was
   before he fell, but I am sure that both Adam and Eve, in their unfallen
   state, must have had about them a matchless grace to which their
   loveliest sons or most beautiful daughters cannot now attain. And this
   also I know, that if you have a face most exquisitely fashioned and
   well proportioned, yet when evil passions rage behind it, it looks
   positively diabolical! On the other hand, a man who is truly converted
   to God and living to bless his fellow men, even though he has only
   ordinary features, has real beauty about him which we can all perceive.
   I have seen a very plain woman who has been full of love to Christ and
   who has consecrated herself to His service, look quite lovely when the
   Grace of Christ has shone through her face and illuminated her whole
   life.

   But God hates sin because it spoils men and women, not only in face,
   but especially in heart. Men and women, as God sees them, are rendered
   ugly through sin. Any beauty that the sinner may possess is marred in
   the sight of the Most High and He cannot look upon it except with
   abhorrence. Besides, where does the sweat on our brow come but from our
   sin? Where do these aches and pains come but from our sin? Where do the
   thorns and thistles come, which we must dig up with hard toil, but from
   our sin? Where do yon hillocks in the churchyard come, those graves
   that cause so many hearts to break, but from our sin? And because sin
   works such havoc upon the creatures He has made, God hates it.

   God hates it, too, because it drives Him to do what He dislikes doing.
   Isaiah tells us that judgment is, "His strange work," a work at which
   He is not so much at home as in His works of mercy and Grace. and His
   own words confirm the Prophet's testimony--"As I live, says the Lord
   God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." Though He must
   smite the guilty, it is, as it were, with His left hand that He smites,
   for He would far rather that they turned to Him and lived. Yet God must
   be just, for He would cease to be God if He were not just--and if He
   did not punish sin. But, in effect, it is sin that has put the sword
   into God's hand and made the chains that men must wear forever, and lit
   the eternal fires that never can be quenched. O Souls, God hates sin
   for your sakes and He cries to you, "Oh, do not this abominable thing
   that I hate!"

   To me, the most touching thing in my text is God's pleading with
   men--"Oh, do not do it; do not do it. Do not live any longer in sin.
   'Do not this abominable thing that I hate!'" It is such wondrous
   condescension on God's part to thus plead with sinners. It is the act
   of a king to command, but here it is more like a father who persuades,
   expostulates, implores, entreats. "Oh, do not this abominable thing
   that I hate!" It is God solemnly dealing with men in earnest--a
   Suppliant to them, as it were, saying to them, "Oh, do not this
   abominable thing!" This kind of language is suitable for us to use
   towards God. We may well cry, "Oh, do not smite me! Do not condemn me!"
   But, here, God takes the Suppliant's place and cries to us, "Oh, do not
   destroy yourselves! Do not force Me to punish you! Do not reject My
   love! Do not despise My Son! Do not refuse My mercy! Do not neglect My
   call! Do not continue in sin--'this abominable thing that I hate!'"

   It is as though God had such sympathy with men that He stood and
   pleaded with them, as a man's own mother or father might with him. Have
   you ever heard a mother or a father, when a child has seemed to be
   determined to follow an evil course, saying, "Do not so, my child! I
   pray you, do not so"? Will such wrong-doing hurt the father? Not
   personally. Will it injure the mother? No, not in her own person, but,
   somehow, parents so identify themselves with their children that they
   suffer when their children sin--and they say to them, "Do not so! Oh, I
   beg you, do not so, lest, in injuring yourselves, you also bring my
   gray hairs with sorrow to the grave." It is amazing that God, whose
   thunders shake the heavens, should say to His fallen, rebellious
   creatures, "Do not so." I wish I knew how to repeat these words, but my
   tongue may not even attempt the impossible task, for I cannot speak as
   God did when He said, "'Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!'
   I hate it for your sake. I hate it for its own sake. Do not grieve Me.
   Do not vex Me. I grieve because it injures you and I am vexed because
   of the misery and woe it will surely bring upon you unless you repent."

   The greatest wonder of it all is--and with this I must close--that God
   not only pleaded thus with men, once, but He did it many times, for He
   sent Prophet after Prophet and this was always the message He gave to
   each of them, "Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!" I can
   conceive of a prince, in very great pity to an erring subject, saying
   to him, "Do not so! Do not so!" But I cannot conceive of a great
   potentate again, and again, and again, and again, and again, with
   tears, coming to a subject and saying, "Oh, do not break my law! Do not
   this abominable thing!"

   But hear it, O you heavens, and be astonished, O earth, as this strange
   story is told to you! God has pleaded with some here for 20
   years--twenty years of patience--twenty years of rejected love! Twenty
   years, did I say? With many of you it is thirty, or even 40 years! You
   know it is so. Forty years was the Lord tried by the children of Israel
   in the wilderness and 40 years has He been tried by many who are still
   alive! Would you have had patience with anybody who had vexed you for
   40 days Some of you cannot keep your tempers for 40 seconds! Certainly
   you boil over in less than 40 hours! Yet God has had patience with you
   for 40 years! Yes, and all that while some of you have been hearers of
   the Gospel or, if you have not regularly gone to hear it, you might
   have done so, for it has been preached quite close to you. The most of
   you have been living in a city that is well provided with the means of
   Grace. I said 40 years, but in some cases it is 50 years--and there is
   one, over yonder, with whom it is now 60 years of slighted love and
   Divine compassion. Is there one with whom it is 70 years? Seventy-five
   years? Eighty years? Perhaps it is even so and yet you are still
   despising your God and neglecting your own soul!

   How I wish that I knew how to say to you, in God's name, "Oh, do not
   this abominable thing that I hate!" Come, Friend, give up your sin!
   Renounce your folly! Trust in Christ--ask God to receive you. Say, "I
   will arise and go to my Father and will say to Him, Father, I have
   sinned." If you go to Him with that confession, you may be sure that He
   will receive you! Otherwise He would never have sent you tonight's
   pleading message. He would not have spared you to be here if He had not
   meant to accept you when you seek His face! Remember, the way of
   salvation is by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. You trust Him and
   then, by His Grace, He helps you to overcome sin! He gives you a new
   nature and you become saved. Trust Him now! The service is almost over
   and the clock has struck the hour for closing, but Mercy's hour has not
   yet struck. God still waits to be gracious! "Believe on the Lord Jesus
   Christ and you shall be saved." Trust Him now. May He enable you to do
   so by His infinite mercy! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JEREMIAH 1.

   Verses 1-3. The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests
   that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: to whom the word of the
   LORD came in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the
   thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the
   son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of
   Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of
   Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. Jeremiah was a young man when he
   was called to the prophetic office and he was sent of God, as a young
   Prophet, to help the young king, Josiah. His public life, therefore,
   opened somewhat happily. But, after the death of Josiah, wicked kings
   sat upon the throne and it was the painful lot and yet, in some
   respects, the choice privilege, of this weeping Prophet to be sent upon
   his Master's errand, time after time, to a disobedient and gainsaying
   people who repaid him only evil while he sought their good. The Holy
   Spirit, you see, is careful to note important dates in the history of
   God's servants--and you and I should also keep a record of the times
   when God sets us to work and when He gives us special Grace for the
   service to which He has called us.

   4-6. Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Before I formed
   you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb
   I sanctified you, and I ordained you a Prophet unto the nations. Then
   said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. He was
   but young and, when young men are called to be ambassadors for God, it
   behooves them to feel the weight of the responsibility that rests upon
   them--and to be conscious of their lack of experience and of their need
   of fitness for the work. In that consciousness of unfitness, there
   often lies the evidence of their fitness for the task entrusted to
   them! Perhaps out of weakness they shall be made strong, but if they do
   not feel their weakness, they are not likely to cry to God for help, or
   to receive it from Him. "Ah, Lord God!" said young Jeremiah, "behold, I
   cannot speak: for I am a child."

   7. But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for you shall go
   to all that I shall send you, and whatever I command you, you shall
   speak. Now, even a child can often speak anything that has been said to
   him. To repeat what he is told to say is not beyond his capacity and,
   after all, this is a Christian minister's principal work! Somebody
   says, "We need thinkers." Yes, so we do, but we need men whose thoughts
   shall be subordinate to the thoughts of God--ministers who do not come
   to utter their own thoughts, but to deliver their Master's message--to
   tell to us what He has told them. Is that sermon merely what you think,
   Sir? Then, what do I care what you think? What is that to me anymore
   than what I thinkmay be to you? If, however, you can come to me and
   say, "Thus says the Lord," I will give diligent heed to your message
   and I am bound to receive it--but woe be to that minister whose word
   shall be other than this!

   8. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with you to deliver you, says
   the LORD. When a king sends an ambassador to a foreign court, he cannot
   usually go with him, but God's ambassador always has his King with him.
   Oh, what courage he ought to have with such a Companion!

   9. Then the LORDput forth his hand and touched my mouth. For you young
   Brothers who are to be preachers of the Gospel, I cannot wish anything
   better than that the Lord may touch your mouth in this way. In the old
   times that some of us remember, godly men used to pray that the Holy
   Spirit would be "mouth, matter and wisdom" to the preachers of the
   Word. It was not at all a bad prayer, for it was a petition that He
   would give to His servants the right subject, the right spirit and the
   right utterance--that He would teach them howto speak, whatto speak and
   in what spirit to speakit.

   9. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in your
   mouth. That is a true picture of a Spirit-sent preacher of the
   Gospel--a man who has God's words in his mouth. I said before that the
   minister must not utter his own thoughts, but here we see that he must
   not even utter his own words! God's thoughts are best delivered in
   God's words-- and the more of Scripture there is in our teaching, the
   more true, the more Divine and the more powerful will it be.

   10. See, Ihave this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,
   to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to
   build, and to plant What a mysterious power rested on this God-sent
   messenger! Poor Jeremiah was often in prison, frequently at death's
   door, yet he was the master of nations and kingdoms and the Lord gave
   him authority to root them up or to plant them, to throw them down or
   to build them up! What wondrous power God gives to those who faithfully
   preach His Word! Well might Mary, Queen of Scots, say that she was more
   afraid of John Knox's preaching than of all the armies that came
   against her!

   11-14. Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah,
   what do you see? And I said, I see a branch of an almond tree. Then
   said the LORD unto me, You have seen well: for I will hasten My word to
   perform it. And the

   word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What do you see?
   And I said, I see a boiling pot; and the face thereof is toward the
   north. Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break
   forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. The Chaldeans and the
   Babylonians were like a great cauldron, boiling and seething, sending
   forth smoke and steam over the nations and ready to scald Jerusalem to
   its destruction!

   15, 16. For, lo, I will call all the families ofthe kingdoms of the
   north, says the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set,
   everyone, his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and
   against all the walls thereof round about, andagainst all the cities of
   Judah. And I will utter Myjudgments against them touching all their
   wickedness, who have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other
   gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. God tells Jeremiah
   that He was about to destroy Jerusalem because of the people's sin.
   Jeremiah was not merely to foretell their doom, but he was also to tell
   the reason of it--that it was the result of their sin and especially of
   the sin of idolatry, to which mankind is always exceedingly prone. It
   is most difficult to keep men to pure spiritual worship--the worship of
   the unseen God in spirit and in truth. They will get away, if they can,
   to some outward form or another. They will take the very bread of
   communion and worship it! Or the image of the bleeding Savior and make
   an idol of that. Somehow or other, they will have something visible, or
   tangible, as the object of their adoration. Men will fall into idolatry
   of one kind or another even to this day--and this is a God-provoking
   offense from which may the Lord, in His mercy, graciously preserve all
   of us perfectly clear!

   17. You, therefore, gird up your loins. ' 'You have a hard task before
   you, Jeremiah, a stern life's work cut out for you--'therefore gird up
   your loins.'"

   17. And arise. "There must be no waiting, no idleness--'Arise.'"

   17. And speak unto them all that I command you. "Do not trim it at all,
   or pare it down, or omit distasteful portions, but, 'speak unto them
   all that I command you.'"

   17. Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound you before them. We
   ought to be so afraid of God that we are afraid of nobody else--

   "Fear Him, you saints, and you will then Have nothing else to fear."

   Send all your fears to Heaven and there let them stay there!

   18, 19. For, behold, Ihave made you this day a fortified city, andan
   ironpillar, and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings
   of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and
   against the people of the land. And they shall fight against you; but
   they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you, says the LORD,
   to deliver you.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Oft-Repeated Invitation

   (No. 2685)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 29, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
   10, 1881.

   "And let him who thirsts come. And whoever will, let him take the water
   of life freely." Revelation 22:17.

   Our morning's discourse [Sermon #1608, Volume 27--THE DOUBLE "COME"]
   was upon the first part of this verse--"The Spirit and the bride say,
   Come. And let him that hears, say, Come." I tried to show that everyone
   who has truly heard the Gospel call is bound to go forth and, in his
   turn, cry to others, "Come to Jesus." But if every hearer of the Gospel
   is to say, "Come," certainly every preacher of it is especially called
   to repeat the invitation again and again. I seemed, this morning, to
   have it laid upon my own heart that the very next time I entered the
   pulpit, I must take care to make this call the burden of my discourse,
   as I ask you, dear Friends, also to make it the burden of yours. "Let
   him that hears say, Come." But let him that preaches say it with a more
   distinct emphasis than anyone else! So, tonight, I daresay that my
   message will appear to some of you to be monotonous, for I shall strike
   the same note again and again, and again, and bring out from it only
   this one sound, "Come, Come, Come!" Yet let me tell you that if God
   shall bless that invitation, and sinners do come to Christ, there will
   be more music evoked from this note than if my sermon had been as
   brilliant as the highest human eloquence could make it, for angels in
   Heaven and God, Himself, will rejoice if sinners are brought to the
   Savior!

   People used to say of George Whitefield--who commonly finished up his
   discourse by crying, "Come to Jesus," with his hands uplifted and his
   eyes streaming with tears--that when he was hard up for an idea, he
   always cried, "O Sinners, come to Jesus!" God be praised if all
   preachers imitate him in that respect when they are hard up for an
   idea, for I know of no idea that could possibly equal in value an
   earnest, simple, loving Gospel invitation! How that man of God would
   stand on Kennington Common or Moorfields and cry, in trumpet tones,
   "Come, O come! Why will you not come? Come now to Jesus"! The best of
   it is that his cries were not in vain, for the people did come--they
   came by hundreds and thousands unto Him who said, "All that the Father
   gives Me shall come to Me; and him that comes to Me I will in no wise
   cast

   out."

   I. In handling my text, I am going to make a few remarks, and this
   shall be the first of them. I call upon every unconverted person here
   present who hears the message of my text, to notice THE GREAT SOLEMNITY
   OF THE INVITATION. "Let him who thirsts come. And whoever will, let him
   take the water of life freely."

   To my mind, the solemnity of this invitation lies partly in the fact
   that it is placed at the very end of the Bible and placed there because
   it is the sum and substance--the aim and objective of the whole Bible.
   It is like the point of the arrow and all the rest of the Bible is like
   the shaft and the feathers on either side of it. We may say of the
   Scriptures what John said of his Gospel, "These are written"--all these
   books that are gathered together into one grand library called the
   Bible--"these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the
   Christ, the Son of God. And that believing you might have life through
   His name." So far as you are concerned, this blessed Book has missed
   its purpose unless you have been led by it to come to Christ!

   It is all in vain that you have a Bible, or read your Bible, unless you
   really "take the water of life" of which it speaks. It is worse than
   vain, for if it is not a savor of life unto life to you, it shall be a
   savor of death unto death! Therefore it seems to me that this is a very
   solemn invitation because all the books of the Bible do, in effect, cry
   to sinners, "Come to

   Jesus." All the Prophets of the Bible, all the Apostles of the Bible,
   all the threats of the Bible, all the promises of the Bible gather
   themselves up and focus themselves into this one burning ray, "Come to
   Jesus! Come, and take the water of life freely." Oh, that it might burn
   its way right into your heart! It is the very end of the Bible,
   then--the end of the Bible in two senses--its end and its objective
   that you should believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

   The solemnity of my text lies also in another thing, for it might have
   been something very different I t says, "You thirsty ones, come and
   drink the water of life." But shall I tell you what it might have said?
   Let me read to you the 11th verse of this chapter. "He that is unjust,
   let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy
   still." I am devoutly thankful that I have not to come to this railing
   and to say to you, "My unconverted Hearers, you may listen to me if you
   like, but it will be of no use. You are unconverted and so you always
   must be! You are unjust and you always must be unjust. You are filthy
   and you always must be filthy!" God might have sent me with that heavy
   message of woe, but it is a sweetly solemn thought to my heart that,
   instead of doing so, He has bid me say, "You unjust, come to the Just
   One and be made just by Him. You filthy, come to the Water of Life and
   wash and be clean."

   God is not yet dealing with you according to His infinite Justice--it
   is mercy that rules this hour! Mercy is flowing through this place like
   a life-giving river--will you not drink and live? No axe is yet
   uplifted to smite the sinner--it is still bound up in the rods that
   Mercy has tied around it and there is no order to unfasten the cords.
   Love, Grace, Welcome--these are the sort of words we can still use--and
   I pray God that you may be glad that it is so and give most earnest
   heed to these words lest you should have to listen to a message of
   quite another character. Look, for instance, at the 15th
   verse--"Outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and
   murderers, and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie." Did I
   hear you say, "We are not dogs, nor sorcerers," and so on? Perhaps you
   are not, yet you may be loving and practicing a lie--and you are doing
   so if you are trusting in your own righteousness and cherishing the
   notion that you do not need a Savior!

   If you who are unconverted do not need a Savior, then the Gospel is a
   monstrous folly and the death of Christ upon the Cross was a
   superfluity, not to be praised, but to be condemned! O Sirs, do not
   love or practice that lie, but NOW, while Christ is freely preached to
   you, come, I pray you, and listen to His wooing words! Take Him now and
   have Him forever!

   Suppose that, instead of my having to say to you, "Come to Jesus," you
   heard a voice, loud as the thunder when the very heavens seem to crack
   and rend, shouting to you, "Come to judgment.." Suppose you heard the
   trumpet of the archangel announcing that Christ had come from Heaven
   with His mighty angels, "in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that
   know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ"?
   You wilhear it one day--you may hear it within the hour! You must hear
   it before long--and this will be the chief note of it--

   "Come to judgment! Come to judgment, come away!" Would to God that you
   would listen, now, to the voice that cries, "Come to mercy! Come and
   find mercy now, that you need not fear the great Day of Judgment, come
   when it may."

   That, then, is my first remark--that the invitation of the text has a
   very solemn setting.

   II. Now, secondly, I want you to notice, in the invitation before us,
   THE SUITABILITY OF ITS PROVISIONS. "Let him who thirsts come. And
   whoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

   That is just what you need--your greatest need is life. Merely to
   breathe, eat and drink is not, according to God's notion, living. That
   is a mere animal kind of life and there is a far better and higher life
   than anything that men know about until God's Grace quickens them and
   makes them truly live. Life is needed by every unconverted man and
   woman. Life--not merely an outward change of life, or a
   reformation--but the reception of a new lifeby regeneration, as our
   Lord said to Nicodemus, "You must be born again." There are some things
   that you may be or may not be, but this is a must be--"You must be born
   again."

   Our text speaks of "the water of life" which men are bid to take and
   which God most freely gives. It is called "the water of life" because
   it quenches thirst A man may scarcely know what thirst of soul really
   is even when he has begun to experience it. He has a sense of unrest
   and a desire for something that he does not possess. He does not know
   what that something is, but he knows that something is lacking--that is
   one indication of thirst of soul. And when the Spirit of

   God comes and deals with a man or woman, he or she gets a still more
   intense sense of uneasiness and unhappiness--and the pangs of desire
   are still more acute within.

   Thirst is a very strong form of desire. Hunger may be somewhat appeased
   by various expedients, but I have been told that the pangs of thirst
   are terrible in the extreme. When it really burns a man, it is like a
   fierce fire raging within him. So, when a soul needs, desires, longs
   and pines for this unknown gift, it does not know what it really does
   need, but its one need is a Savior. It needs renewal, it needs
   forgiveness, it needs life and God, here, in our text, presents the
   blessing to mankind under the figure of, "the water of life," which
   removes the thirst of the soul, refreshes the drooping spirit and
   cleanses the whole life. Oh, that men would but take it--and take it at
   once!

   My dear Hearer, let me assure you that, in the Gospel, there is exactly
   what you require. Have you been trying to make yourself better and yet
   you are conscious that you are no better? The Gospel, received by
   faith, will make you better. Are you unhappy? Do you long to find
   something that will give you peace? The Gospel would give you peace if
   you would only believe it! You say that you want to get away from your
   old sinful self and to be made anew. Well, in the Gospel, that great
   work is provided for and many here can testify that, by its means, they
   have been made new creatures in Christ Jesus. There is a black past in
   your history that you would gladly forget--and in the Gospel there is
   revealed the Fountain that can wash out all its stains. Perhaps some of
   you are dreading the dangerous future--in the Gospel there is ample
   protection for all that lies before you. Possibly, to some of you, the
   present is a time of great darkness--in the Gospel there is light for
   the present--yes, joy even for this moment in which you seem to be
   driven almost to despair! When I preach about the water of life, so
   freely given by God, I mean just this--that all you need between here
   and Heaven, Christ is ready to give you! All that your soul can
   possibly require to enable you to stand in the Presence of God without
   fear and to dwell in the bosom of God forever, made perfectly like to
   God by His Grace--all that is in the Gospel for you! And we are
   commanded to invite you to partake of it in the name of Jesus Christ
   our Lord!

   I think the thought of the suitability of the provision of the Gospel
   for me is one that is worth dwelling upon. I have always felt, since I
   believed the Gospel, that it was made on purpose for me. If it does not
   suit any other man, it exactly fits me. And if you try it, my Hearer,
   you will find that it exactly fits you, also! The Lord knows your
   measure and He has made it just the right size and shape for you--there
   is not a particle of your being which the Gospel cannot cover. There is
   not a wish in your heart, which ought to be there, that the Gospel will
   not gratify! If you accept it, it will fill you to the brim with
   happiness and you shall overflow with exceeding joy of heart in the
   treasure which Christ has brought to you!

   III. But I must hasten on to notice, in the third place, THE FREENESS
   OF THIS GIFT, because our text says, "Whoever will, let him take the
   water of life freely."

   The Gospel is priceless in value, but it is to be had "without money
   and without price." The salvation of God can never be purchased. I am
   amazed that anyone should ever cherish the idea of a man buying a place
   for himself in Heaven. Why, the very streets are paved with exceedingly
   rich and rare gold, and a rich man's whole fortune would not buy a
   single paving stone in those golden streets! There is nothing that you
   can ever bring to God as the purchase-money for salvation! He is
   infinitely rich--what does He want of yours? If you are righteous, what
   do you want from Him? The impossibility of salvation by human merit or
   good works ought to be clear to every thinking man. If we do all that
   God bids us do, we are doing no more than we ought to do--and even then
   we are unprofitable servants!

   You may offer whatever terms you please, but God will never sell
   Christ. Judas did that, but the Father never will. He gives Him freely
   to all who are willing to have Him, but He will never sell Him. He will
   never barter and haggle with you concerning Him--so much alms and so
   much repentance, and then you shall have Christ? No, Sirs, I tell you
   again that my Lord will never degrade His well-beloved Son by
   bargaining with you about Him! Will you have Him for nothing? I hear
   people say, sometimes, that certain things cannot be had "for love or
   money." Well, God will not give Christ for money, but He will give Him
   out of pure love to you! If you will have Him freely and for nothing,
   the great transaction is done--He is yours and you have Him! But if you
   bring anything to pay for Him, you cannot have Him. If all the stars in
   the sky were worlds of gold and you could carry them all in your belt
   and then take them out and throw all those starry treasures down upon
   the floor of Heaven as the price of a single gleam of Divine Love, you
   could not buy it!

   Solomon said, "If a man would give all the substance of his house for
   love, it would be utterly despised." And if a man could give the whole
   universe, he could not purchase the love of God! No--yet you can have
   Christ for nothing--

   now, at once, just where you are if you will take him on God's terms!
   Will you have Him? Oh, that we would as freely takeas God freely gives!
   And why, since God is willing to give, should I be unwilling to
   receive? O my Heart, my Heart, my Heart, why are you unwilling to
   receive--unwilling to be saved--unwilling to be pardoned--unwilling to
   have Christ for nothing? Fool that you are, I might truly say this of
   myself if I were unwilling to accept God's free gift! If I had some
   gold to give away tonight, I would not need to say much to induce you
   to have it. The other day I saw a diamond which was said to be worth a
   hundred thousand pounds--and if I had it here and said, "Dear Hearer,
   you may have it, and have it for nothing," the only conceivable reason
   why any of you would hesitate to take it would be because you might not
   believe me. Otherwise, you would all cry out at once, "Thank you, Sir!
   Pass it over here! Have you anymore diamonds to dispose of on the same
   terms?"

   Everybody would be willing to accept it for nothing. But when we preach
   Christ and His Gospel, then men want to buythe priceless treasure--they
   want to feelsomething, or to besomething, or to dosomething, or else
   they will not have Him! I have no warrant to offer Christ to any man in
   exchange for the payment of even a penny, but I do declare that He is
   to be given freely, according to my text, "Let him who thirsts come.
   And whoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

   IV. Now I pass on to make a further remark concerning THE WONDERFUL
   SIMPLICITY OF THE WAY OF SALVATION. Two words describe it here. "Let
   him who thirsts come. And whoever will, let him take."

   Surely everybody understands those two words. Take the first--"Come" If
   a physician should advertise that every person who was sick might come
   to him, you would know what that meant. If you were sick, you would
   soon be at his door if you could get there. And you would put yourself
   into his hands if you believed him to be able to cure you. Treat the
   Lord Jesus Christ as you would treat an eminent physician, that is, go
   to Him. "Where is He?" you ask. "I know how to go to an earthly
   physician, I either walk or ride to his house or consulting room."
   Well, you can stand still and yet come to Christ because we reach Him
   by mental traveling, not bodily traveling. Think of Christ--that is the
   way to come to Him. Think much of Christ--that is still further on the
   way to Him. Believe Him, believe in Him, believe on Him--that is,
   trustHim, and all is done. As soon as you have trusted Christ, you are
   a saved man, or woman, or child. That very trust of yours is an
   evidence that your heart is changed--you would never have trusted the
   Son of God with your soul if salvation had not already come to your
   house! Now, that is coming to Christ--just putting yourself into His
   hands.

   The other word is quite as simple--"Take." Everybody knows what it is
   to take something. To take water, for instance, the text says, "Whoever
   will, let him take the water of life freely." Well, what does a man do
   when he takes water? Perhaps he has a hand that trembles so much that
   he can hardly hold the glass or cup that contains the water, yet he
   takes it. Anybody can take water. There is no need to send a child to
   school to teach him how to take it. He puts it to his mouth and it
   flows down. That is all--and that is exactly how, in a spiritual'sense,
   we take the water of life, and take Christ, Himself. There is another
   passage, you know, which says, "The word is near you, even in your
   mouth," and, as I have often told you, when anything is in your mouth
   and you want to keep it, the proper thing to do with it is to swallow
   it, that is all. I do not know how to make the process of receiving
   Christ more simple than that. You smile, dear Friends, but the very
   essence of the Gospel lies in receiving Christ like that--it is taking
   into yourself what God freely gives to you--that is all.

   "Come...take." "Come...take." "Come...take"--not run, fly, leap,
   bring--no, but, "come...take." Oh, that you could all see how simple is
   this wondrous plan of salvation! The other day there passed away one
   who had, as I judge, been a Believer for years, but it had always been
   a question with her friends whether she was a Believer or not. And she
   said to my brother, when upon her death-bed, "The simplicity of the
   Gospel has been a stumbling-block to me all my life, but now that I am
   about to die, instead of being a stumbling-block, it is my delight, for
   what would I do, now, without the simple Gospel, 'Believe and live'?"
   She was a very good Churchwoman, one of the best I ever knew. She
   always observed all fast days and feast days and did all manner of good
   things. She never seemed to do anything wrong, but always to do what
   was right. Yet those are just the people who find it difficult to yield
   to Christ, because of their self-righteousness.

   But whoever you may be, you will have to come down to God's terms if
   you wish to be saved! There is only one door to Heaven and but one way
   for the worst and for the best. You must bow down and accept Jesus as
   the sinners' Savior, or

   else you cannot have Him at all! God's terms are, "Come...take." So, do
   not try any other plan. Do not say, "Well, I will bring something." Do
   not bring anything! It is not what you bringto Christ, but what you
   take ofChrist that will save you! Therefore hear and heed the message
   of the text. God make you to hear it in your very soul! It is the true
   Gospel message--"Come...take."

   V. My fifth remark is this, NOTICE THE BREADTH OF THE GOSPEL
   INVITATION. "Let him who thirsts come. And whoever will, let him take
   the water of life freely."

   I will suppose that I am addressing a person who is very anxious about
   his soul--one who has been for weeks or perhaps for months seeking
   salvation, but who has not found it. I take him by the hand and I say,
   "My dear Friend, you are the very individual to whom my text refers.
   You know that the first part applies to you--'Let him who thirsts
   come.' You have an earnest desire to be saved, you have that thirst of
   which the text speaks, so come and take the water of life

   freely."

   Yet even while I am speaking, I can see another Brother and I know that
   he is groaning and saying, "Oh, I wish I had that thirst! I wish I had
   that desire, but I have not any. I do not feel anything! All that I
   feel is that I wish I did feel, but I do not feel at all." Come along,
   my Friend, you are another of the very men that I am sent to seek, for
   the second part of the text says, "Whoever will, let him take the water
   of life freely." The first net has somewhat wide meshes, so some little
   fish slip through it, but the second one has very small meshes. I wish
   it would catch the very smallest fishes--the sprats or the whitebait--I
   mean those persons who have the least possible desire to be saved.
   "Whoever will." "Whoever will." "Oh, I am willing enough," says one,
   "but perhaps, after all, I am not one of those persons who are
   invited!" Oh, but it says, "Whoever will." I am very fond of that word,
   "whoever." I think that the translators have left, "whoever," out in
   some places--may the Lord forgive them and teach them better! But we
   shall always keep it in even if they leave it out-- and I am sure it
   ought to be here--"whoever will." It is a word that the Holy Spirit has
   blessed to thousands of souls and He has not blessed a lie or a
   blunder, so I am quite sure that it is "whoever will!" We will stick to
   that, we must have that glorious Word of God--"whoever will, let him
   take the water of life freely."

   "Oh, but he is a very poor man!" What does that matter? "Whoever will."
   "But he is a very ignorant man, he does not even know his letters!"
   What has that to do with the text? "Whoever will." "Ah, but he has been
   a very bad man!" Well, what about that? It is, "whoever will." Does he
   will to trust Christ? Is he willing to take the water of life? Then,
   "let him take the water of life freely." "Oh, but," says one, "he is
   altogether an out-of-the-way sinner! You do not know how shamefully he
   has behaved." No, and I do not want to know! But I do know that if he
   will but take the water of life, he may do so, for the text says,
   "whoeverwill."

   There is no limit to the mercy of God to all who trust His dear Son!
   And there is no limit to you but that which your own will imposes. If
   you nilit, that is, make nothing of it, then it shall be nil, that is,
   nothing, to you. But if you willit, it is God's will that you should
   have it! When your will is brought to accept the Savior, then, depend
   upon it, it is God's will that you should have Him! "Whoever will."
   "Whoever." I cannot conceive, in any language, a wider sweep of word
   than that, so come along, poor troubled Sinner, come to Jesus Christ!
   Accept Him and you shall be saved here and now!

   VI. Now I close with the last remark, which concerns THE EARNESTNESS OF
   THIS CALL ON GOD'S PART-- "Whoever will, let him take the water of life
   freely."

   Who is the Person that invites? Listen. First, it is the Holy
   Spirit--gentle, loving, tender, gracious, mysterious, adorable, Divine.
   He says, "Come." The Spirit that brooded over the chaos in the first
   creation and brought forth order, says, "Come, and be made new in
   Christ Jesus." Who is it, next, that says, "Come"? "The bride"--that
   is, the entire Church of God. All the people of God cry to you, "Come!"
   Those on earth and those in Heaven, too--if you could hear them speak
   out of the excellent Glory, you would know that the very joy they have
   in Christ moves them to call you to join them! They are leaning over
   the battlements of Heaven and beckoning you to Christ. The bride, that
   is, the whole Church in Heaven and on earth, says, "Come, come!"

   And then, next, everyone who hears the Gospel is bid to say to you,
   "Come." Because the Lord knew how hard you would be to convince, He has
   told everybody who hears the Gospel to try and bring you--"Let Him that
   hears say, Come." If you were to receive an invitation to a feast, it
   is possible that you would go the first time you were asked. But if you
   had a dozen letters inviting you, tomorrow morning you would say, "Dear
   me, this is very remarkable! I have 12 letters, from 12 different
   people, all inviting me to this banquet." Suppose, when you went out of
   your door in the morning, there was a servant who stood there, and
   said, "Sir, I have come to invite you to the banquet." "Why, dear me!"
   you would say, "I have already been invited a dozen times." During the
   day, there comes a telegraph inviting you to this same banquet--perhaps
   you do not think much of that, but when you get home, your wife says,
   "Dear, I want to invite you to go to that banquet." You smile and
   possibly you even put her off, but there comes in a dear child of
   yours, and he says, "Father, I have been to that gentleman's house to a
   banquet and he has asked me to give you an invitation, and I do so want
   you to go to it." You could hardly refuse that! And if, every time you
   met 50 or a hundred people, they all invited you to go, you would, at
   last, say, "Well, I really must go, for it seems such a strange thing
   that everybody is inviting

   me."

   That is just the case with some of you here. We mean never to let you
   have any rest till you come to Christ! I have heard that there are some
   friends about this Tabernacle who "bother" people concerning their
   souls--and I hope they will keep on "bothering" them! They will not let
   them come and go out of this building without having an earnest word
   with them--I hope it will always be so. We have some Brothers and
   Sisters here who are sharpshooters--they are just now lying low in the
   rifle-pit, taking aim at some of you--and they will shoot at you before
   you get away tonight! I hope they will hit you, too, because whoever
   hears the Gospel is bid to say to others, "Come." You will get girdled
   round with a ring of invitations, for God means to bless you and,
   therefore, if you escape one, He will not let you escape another!

   Listen further. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself says, ' 'Come." On one
   occasion, on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and
   cried, "If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me, and drink." And
   another day our blessed Master said, "Come unto Me, all you that labor
   and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." So, here is Jesus
   calling, and the Holy Spirit calling, and His people calling--even the
   Prophet Isaiah is still calling! Dear good man, he has been in Heaven
   for thousands of years, yet at this moment he cries out of the holy
   Book, "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, it is like the old ages, the
   ancient centuries come back again to call to you to come to Christ! I
   hear that call from Heaven. I hear Christ calling from the Throne of
   God. I hear the Spirit calling. I hear the bride calling. I am calling
   as one of those who have heard the Gospel for myself. Listen, then, oh,
   listen! Was there ever such a chorus of united invitations? Did ever so
   many hearts combine before about any one thing? Will you not come? Will
   you not come? Why will you die? Why will you die when the water of life
   flows at your feet?--

   "Stoop down and drink, and live!" May God lead you so to do, for
   Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH1:1-20.

   This is a chapter which, I think, teaches an important lesson to those
   of us who desire the salvation of men, for it shows us how God sets
   about that work. He begins by exhibiting the sinner's sin to him before
   He proclaims mercy to him--and if we want to be the means of doing good
   to men, it will not be by merely crying to them, "Believe, believe,
   believe"--there must be a laying of the axe at the root of the tree of
   self-righteousness and a cutting away of all trust in self. A man must
   realize his danger before he will desire to escape from it and it is a
   mistaken kindness which refuses to set before him the peril in which he
   is. God, who is infinitely tender and inconceivably merciful, shows us,
   in this chapter, how to go to work with sinners.

   Verses 1, 2. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw
   concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,
   andHezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, andgive ear, O earth: for
   the LORD has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they
   have rebelled against Me. "If they were simply My subjects, I could
   bear their rebellion better than I can, now, for they are my children.
   I have nourished them and brought them up and, after long and
   persevering kindness towards them, I might have expected some affection
   from them in return, but, 'they have rebelled against Me.'"

   3. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel
   does not know, My people do not consider See how the Lord still
   acknowledges the children of Israel as His people, though He contrasts
   their conduct with the behav-

   ior of the ox and the ass. So we see that, however far God's people may
   have gone into sin, they are still His people and He does not deny
   their relationship to Him. "Israel does not know, My people do not
   consider."

   4. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of
   evildoers, children that are corrupters. What a terrible picture! A
   nation burdened with iniquity, as full of sin as their fathers were,
   and their offspring growing up like themselves. By hereditary
   transmission they have received a predisposition to evil that cannot be
   taken out of the blood except by Divine power!

   4. They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One
   ofIsrael unto anger, they are gone away backward. What a description
   this is of the state of the unregenerate--even of God's elect among
   them who are still crushed under the ruins of the Fall! Perhaps, as I
   am reading this chapter, some poor soul here is saying, "That just
   describes me." Well, let it describe you, but lament, mourn and
   humiliate yourself before the Most High as you realize what is your sad
   condition! You have acted worse towards God than an ass does to its
   master. You have behaved shamefully towards Him and thus you have
   provoked Him to anger. Do not think lightly of your sin, but let it
   weigh heavily upon your spirit, as you are "laden with iniquity," God
   grant that it may be a heavy burden to you! The Lord next goes on to
   exhibit the sin of the people in the light of His chastisement. When a
   child sins and does wrong, a wise parent uses correction to see whether
   he cannot overcome the evil tendencies, but alas, there is no
   correction that will ever get sin out of the sinner! See what God did
   with these people, and what came of it.

   5, 6. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and
   more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint From the sole
   of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds,
   and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither
   bound up, neither mollified with ointment' 'You are already in this
   terrible plight and your sufferings are the direct result of your
   sins."

   7, 8. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your
   land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as
   overthrown by strangers. And the daughter ofZion is left as a cottage
   in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
   Now, to translate all this into plain English, I have known men who
   have been chastened fortheir sins and bytheir sins. God has chastised
   them and they have been severely chastised--but no obedience, no
   repentance has followed upon the chastisement. Men have been brought,
   by their sin, from wealth to poverty, from competence to actual need.
   Have we not seen them, by drunkenness, brought to rags, and by vice
   brought to rottenness? Have we not seen men brought to the very gates
   of Hell by their iniquities, yet still they have clung to those
   iniquities? They have begun to drink the cup of their own damnation
   and, even when they realized what they were doing, they have still
   clutched the burning chalice in their hands and have willingly drained
   it to the last dregs! Oh, it is horrible, it is terrible, to see at
   what a cost men will ruin their own souls! They go to Hell as if they
   were at a steeplechase--no hedge is too high and no brook too wide for
   them--and they ride to destruction at a desperate pace. If we who are
   God's people were half as earnest in serving Him as the ungodly are in
   their efforts to be lost, what great service we should render to Him!
   God reminded these people of all that He had done to them by way of
   chastening--yet no good had come of it.

   9. Except the LORD ofHosts hadleft us a very small remnant, we
   shouldhave been as Sodom, and we should have been like Gomorrah. I am
   afraid that this verse applies to London at the present time. To what
   an awful extent has the sin of the people gone--and among those who
   commit it are many of the great ones of the earth. It is a crying
   iniquity which may well make God angry. I marvel not that there are
   alarms, and all sorts of frightful rumors in the city which has become
   like Sodom and Gomorrah of old.

   10. Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the
   Law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. Isaiah next goes on still
   further to expose the sin of the people and, anticipating that they
   would say that they had been very religious, that they had attended the
   means of Grace, that they had been observant of the outward ritual of
   God's sanctuary, he admits the truth of it all--and then shows what is
   the real value of it.

   11. 12. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?
   says the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of
   fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or
   of he goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required this
   at your hand, to tread My courts?Have not some of you at times felt as
   if the Lord had said to you, "What right have you to be among My
   people?" For years you have been worshipping professedly, but not
   sincerely. It is a wonder that the seat you sit on bears you up when
   your worship has been all hypocrisy--a delu-

   sion--you have only given to God the external husk of devotion! The
   kernel of true heart-worship has never been there

   at all.

   13, 14. Bring no more vain oblation; incense is an abomination unto Me;
   the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot
   endure--away with them; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your
   new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates: they are a trouble
   unto Me; I am weary to bear them. When God is wearied by a man's best
   things, what must His feelings be concerning the man's worst things?

   15. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide My eyes from you:
   yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full
   of blood. When even a man's prayers become an abomination in the sight
   of God, what must the man, himself, be? As long as men live in sin and
   love it, God will not hear their supplications. Whether their hands are
   stained with blood, or whatever other sin it is of which they are
   guilty--until they forsake the evil, God will not answer their prayers.
   The Lord, having thus set before the people their sin and the
   aggravation of that sin in that they had continued in it after severe
   chastisement, and the further aggravation of it in that, all the while,
   they had professed to be true and faithful servants of Jehovah, though
   they had been in constant rebellion against Him, He yet goes on to
   speak to them in this gracious fashion--

   16, 17. Wash you, make yourself clean; put away the evil of your doings
   from before My eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment,
   relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. That
   is to say, "Bring forth fruits meet for repentance, so that it may be
   seen that your heart is really changed and that you desire better
   things, and things more pleasing in My sight." Then listen further to
   this marvelous message--

   18. Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your
   sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are
   red like crimson, they shall be as wool There is not as much music to a
   poor convinced sinner's ears in a whole oratorio of Handel as there is
   in this one verse of Scripture! But your ears must be attuned to this
   music before you can appreciate its blessed sweetness. He only knows
   the music of mercy who knows the misery of sin! I think that I must
   read this precious verse again--"Come now, and let us reason together,
   says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet"--we will not dispute
   about them, they are all you think they are, and much worse--"though
   your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they
   are red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

   19. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the
   land.' 'You shall not any longer be 'as a lodge in a garden of
   cucumbers, as a besieged city.' You shall be no more desolate, but,
   'you shall eat the good of the land.' I will take away from you My
   chastisement when I take away your sin. I will take care to feed you if
   you will but come back to Me. There shall be feasting, music and
   dancing, instead of starving, sighing and sorrow, if you will only
   return to your Father's house. 'If you are willing and obedient, you
   shall eat the good of the land.'"

   20. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword:
   for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it. So the Lord has mercy in His
   right hand for those who will turn from their sin--but He has a sword
   in His left hand for those who will continue to live in their
   iniquities. God grant us Grace, now, to yield to the sweet reasoning of
   His love, and to turn from our sins, for His dear Son's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Deceived Heart

   (No. 2686)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, AUGUST 5, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A THURSDAY EVENING, IN THE
   SUMMER OF 1858.

   "He feeds on ashes: a deceived heart has turned him aside, that he
   cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?"
   Isaiah 44:20.

   THE Prophet, no doubt, is here primarily referring to the heathen. He
   accounts for the fact of their gross stupidity in bowing down to
   worship blocks of wood and stone by asserting that their deceived
   hearts had turned them aside so that they never sought to know the
   Truth of God, nor asked the question whether their idol was not a
   delusion and a snare. The idolater practically never said, "Is there
   not a lie in my right hand?" With the immediate connection of my text,
   however, I shall have, at this time, very little to do. I shall only
   attempt to draw from it a few lessons which, I trust, may be useful to
   some persons, if God, the blessed Spirit, shall be pleased to apply the
   Truth to their hearts.

   There is but one true religion and there is only one way of receiving
   that religion. There are many false religions and there are many wrong
   ways of professing the true religion. There are a thousand paths that
   lead to Hell, but only one that leads to Heaven. In the many broad
   roads that lead to destruction, there is room for innumerable winding
   alleys, but the way that leads to Heaven is a strait and narrow
   one--there is no room for any divergence there. We must have the same
   religion and have it in the same way, or else we shall not arrive at
   that hoped-for end, towards which, by our profession, we pretend to be
   pressing.

   Now, Beloved, there are many persons who are deceived in their
   religion. They are professing a wrong religion, or else they are
   holding the right religion in a wrong way. This shall be our first
   point, that there are many persons who are entirely deceived in their
   religion. We shall, secondly, notice that their religion is
   unsatisfactory to them. We may rest quite certain that any religion
   that is unsound and untrue is not satisfactory to the conscience--"He
   feeds on ashes." But then we shall have to notice, in the next place,
   that although that is so, yet there are many who seem perfectly content
   with their false religion, although, to us, it is clear that they are
   not satisfied, but are feeding upon ashes, yet they say that they are
   satisfied with their own condition, the reason being that, as our text
   puts it, "a deceived heart has turned him aside, that he cannot deliver
   his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Having briefly
   run over those particulars, I shall then address myself to the
   representatives of the different classes of deceived persons, those who
   profess religion, but do not possess it, and shall endeavor with all
   the might that God, the Holy Spirit, shall give me, to arouse and
   awaken them, lest they perish in their strong delusion!

   I. In the first place, then, THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE ENTIRELY
   DECEIVED IN THEIR RELIGION.

   I need scarcely refer to the idolater who bows himself down before the
   idol that his own hands have fashioned. However sincere he may be,
   however devout in his worship, however punctual in the observance of
   his ceremonies, we are perfectly sure that he is a deceived man. And
   when we discover the stupidity of such a form of worship, we marvel
   that any man should be found so deficient in sense and wisdom as to
   continue to be deceived by such a travesty of religion.

   And I need only, in passing, mention the Roman Catholic. He, too, has a
   false religion. To us it is perfectly clear that he is deceived while
   he strives, by his good works and by his sacraments, to reach a Heaven
   to which he cannot attain if he seeks it by the works of the Law and
   not by the righteousness of faith. We know that there is no admittance
   to Heaven

   save by the blood and the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, relied upon
   by a Divinely-imparted faith. Let the Roman Catholic be as earnest and
   as devout as he may--let him strive with all his might and let him
   carry out his own convictions to the fullest, yet of this we are sure,
   beyond a doubt--he is a deceived man and his religion is a thing that
   is utterly worthless!

   On the other hand, we have another class of persons living in our midst
   who pretend to have no religion at all, but who, in fact, have a
   superstition of their own--I mean the men who generally class
   themselves amongst Freethinkers, the people who will not believe the
   Bible and who cannot walk in the narrow way in which their grandmothers
   walked because it would imply a sort of slavery if they were to walk in
   the way of the Truth of God. They think they are bold and brave men,
   who glory in dashing away the fetters of right and doing wrong because
   of the freedom of it. They think it is a high prize and a great
   attainment, when they are able to despise everything which their
   fellows regard as being venerable and true. And, in fact, one of their
   greatest ambitions is to strive to reach such a height of impudence
   that they can laugh at everything that has the stamp of antiquity and
   truth upon it--and may just let their own wild thoughts fly as they
   will, without bit or bridle, guide or rein! Now these men, however true
   they may be to their convictions, we know, are deceived in their
   religion--for, after all, it is a religion--a religion of credulity and
   no one is so credulous as the man who professes not to believe
   anything! No man is so ready to suck in any delusion as the one who
   professes to abhor superstition. You will never find anyone so ready to
   be led astray as the man who says that he cannot be led astray. He who
   despises the miracles of our Lord and all that is recorded in the Word
   of God is the most gullible creature alive--and we know that however
   high his opinion of himself may be--he is a deceived man and feeds upon
   ashes!

   But, alas, to come nearer home, we have another class of men who are
   also deceived in their religion--false professors, who, in a sense,
   have the true religion, but have not got it in the right way. We have
   some men whose doctrines are orthodox, whose theological views are
   sound--if they were tried before the Westminster Assembly they would
   come off with flying colors! They hold the Truth of God taught in our
   Catechisms and Creeds, nor do they swerve a hair's-breadth from the
   technicalities of our doctrine, but, alas, they hold it in a wrong way!
   They hold the Truth of God in licentiousness, or they hold it in
   hypocrisy. We have some who make a fair profession, but who, after all,
   have no heart in the matter and neither part nor lot in the things of
   God. We have some who have been baptized in the pool who have never
   been baptized with the Holy Spirit--some who sit at the Lord's Table
   and eat the bread and drink the wine, but never have had any real
   fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We dare not deny the fact that
   in the purest Churches there are men who have, by great craft and
   subtlety, deceived the fallible judgment of minister, deacons and
   brethren. It is not possible for us to keep the church thoroughly pure!
   Let us stand at its gate both night and day, let us watch without
   sleep, for enemies will smuggle themselves in! We may be ever so
   careful, yet the enemy will creep in and sow tares among the wheat.

   We doubt not that there is, in many churches, a far larger proportion
   of deceived persons than we would like to think. We are afraid that
   there are many more who will share the doom of Judas than it would be
   charitable for us to declare. Alas, hypocrisy must be rife in a church
   that is so cold or lukewarm. There must be far too many in our midst
   who are not true to God when the world can point to members of the
   Church, and say, "If these are the children of God, if these are
   Christians, then it is far better not to make a profession at all than
   to live as they do." There have been men who have been looked up to as
   great and mighty in the Church, but who have turned out as black as
   Hell itself! And so we are obliged to think that there are still
   hypocrites here and there, whom the Great Day shall reveal, but who are
   at present unknown to us. Perhaps hundreds, or even thousands are to be
   found in the various Churches throughout the length and breadth of our
   land who have no solid ground of hope. Although they may be trusting in
   themselves that they are righteous, they are deceiving themselves, and
   others, too--and fearful shall be their discovery when the Lord shall
   strip them of their masks and disguises--and make them naked to their
   eternal shame.

   II. My second remark is that ALTHOUGH THERE ARE MANY PERSONS THUS
   DECEIVED IN RELIGION,

   WE ARE NOT TO SUPPOSE THAT ANY OF THEM ARE REALLY, IN HEART, CONTENTED
   WITH THEIR RELIGION. They may seem to be satisfied with themselves, but
   we know that in their innermost spirit, they are not.

   Our text says of the idolater that "he feeds on ashes." You see a man
   on his knees before his idol god. He has brought an offering to the
   priest. He kneels down and repeats his form of prayer. He rises and you
   say, "What a clear conscience that man has! That worship is enough for
   him--he can go to his bed and rest in peace, tonight, for he has said
   his prayers

   to his god, he has chanted a solemn litany that may be accepted and,
   certainly, with all the forms and ceremonies of his religion, he will
   have a quiet conscience." But we are very apt to look upon the surface
   of things when, in reality, it is very different down below! And I
   believe that there is not an idolater beneath the heavens who does not
   find his religion unsatisfactory. I am fully aware that human nature is
   fallen. I know that reason has become darkened and blinded, but I do
   not believe that the idolater's reason is so dark that a ray of the
   Light of God cannot get into it and, therefore, I believe that,
   sometimes, the poor man realizes that there must be a God higher and
   better than the block of wood or stone which he worships. I cannot
   conceive, as my own heart could not rest without a Savior, that another
   man's could! I think the mind of the heathen has enough light left in
   it to prevent him from being thoroughly satisfied and contented with
   his religion. No, it is true, as our text says--"he feeds on ashes." He
   must know that his religion is but as refuse on an ash heap--something
   that degrades, but can never content him.

   It is just the same with the Roman Catholic. He will tell you, when he
   converses with you, that he is quite content with his religion, but I
   cannot believe it. There may be times when he is so imposed upon as to
   believe that, in his church, there is infallible salvation and that, by
   attention to ceremonies as absurd and wicked as those of idolaters, he
   shall obtain the favor of the Lord his God. But there are hours when
   Romanists, especially in this country, must tremble for the stability
   of their religion! There are times when they must be a little shaken.
   Surely there is enough of moral dignity and conscience in most men to
   teach them that a rotten rag cannot have any saving virtue about it!
   Surely the man who has kissed the toe of the Pope must feel everything
   within him that is noble recoil from the act! There ought to be enough
   humanity in man to rise above that groveling system which has sought to
   bring human nature lower than the dregs of the brute creation! I cannot
   suppose that a man who has a soul--a soul whose high aspirations are
   among the best proofs of its immortality--can be content with that poor
   piece of outside show which we call Popery! No, in that case, also, man
   "feeds on ashes." He is not satisfied with his religion, although he
   may pretend to be.

   Now, in the next case, I speak with still greater confidence. It is
   just so with the infidel--"he feeds on ashes." He says he is very well
   content to be a Freethinker. He looks you boldly in the face and he
   laughs at your fears. As to death and all that is to come after it,
   what does he care about such things? He is not a child to be frightened
   with a nursery tale! He would as soon think of believing the story of
   Jack the giant-killer as of Christ on the Cross. He is not going to
   believe what priests tell him. He is quite content to be wherehe is and
   what he is. Yet see him on board ship in a storm--how is it that he
   cries to God there How is it that Volney, the atheist, who took on
   board a large number of his infidel books to distribute--when a storm
   arose fell on his knees and asked God to give him mercy through Jesus
   Christ--and then, when he got on shore, cursed the God whose mercy he
   had implored?

   A storm soon drives the infidelity out of a man. There is too much
   manhood left in him to let him continue so base a thing as an infidel!
   A man may be wicked enough to say that he has arrived at such a pitch
   of unbelief as to doubt the existence of God, but I do not think anyone
   has ever really thought so in his heart unless he were entirely
   demented and bereft of his senses. Infidelity will do very well for you
   when you can have a heated dance and merry revelry, but sickness and
   death are tests which it cannot endure! Many have found, then, that the
   ashes upon which they were feeding were but the preparation for feeding
   upon the burning coals of the eternal wrath of God!

   I must also say that it is the same with the fourth class, that is, the
   people who make a profession of religion, but who have no religion in
   their hearts. We know that you are not at ease. We know that you are
   feeding upon ashes. You come to the Baptismal Pool and the Communion
   Table. You accost the deacon and the pastor with all confidence. You
   talk of experience even as they talk and you look as if religion made
   you happy--but we know better! Nothing can ever make the conscience
   really quiet, nor give the soul a solid peace excerpt true religion
   rightly received in the heart. If there were any other cure for the
   heartache except the blood of Christ applied to the conscience, surely
   so costly a remedy need not have been provided. This I know--many of us
   tried everything else except true religion to give us peace, but we
   never could find it. We tried obedience to the Law of God, we tried
   what we could do by a bare profession without religion in the heart,
   but we could never find rest for the sole of our feet till we came to
   Christ! And we do not believe that you have anymore rest than we had.
   We believe that your deceived heart has turned you aside, for you are
   feeding upon ashes even now!

   III. But, in the third place, IT IS A STRANGE THING THAT ALL THESE
   PEOPLE SEEM VERY WELL CONTENTED WITH THEIR FALSE RELIGIONS.

   The idolater, the Romanist, the infidel, the mere professor--all these
   people seem very satisfied with themselves and their delusions, and
   sometimes we marvel how this can be. How can it be that an idolater can
   think that a piece of wood, part of which has just boiled his kettle,
   and another part of which has been fashioned into a seat for him to sit
   upon-- how can he think that the remnant of that wood can become a god?
   It seems strange to us that the very heathen should not laugh at one
   another for their folly, and we know that an old poet put this ironical
   utterance into the mouth of an idol that was set up in a vineyard,
   "Formerly I was the stump of a tree, a useless log. And the carpenter
   hesitated whether to make me into a table or a stool and, therefore he
   made me a god." We ask, how is it, how can it be, that the heathen can
   find any satisfaction in so silly a superstition? How is it that the
   Romanist can be content with such a mere sham as his religion is? How
   can the infidel live in such an uncomfortable atmosphere as that cold,
   credulous unbelief that now surrounds him? How can it be that the mere
   professor can get peace of mind as he now has, or even that appearance
   of peace of mind which he is able to keep up when he speaks to us? We
   answer, the true reason is this--it is not that these men are
   thoroughly satisfied with their religion. It is not that they
   themselves firmly believe in it--it is, as the text says, "a deceived
   heart has turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say,
   Is there not a lie in my right hand?"

   If they were once to ask that question honestly, it would be fatal to
   their false religion! Let the infidel just sit down and ask this
   question, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Let him solemnly, as
   before the tribunal of his own conscience, if he cannot say it before
   God, sit down and examine what he pretends to believe and fearlessly
   ask himself, "Is this not a lie?" Let the Romanist do the same, let the
   idolater do the same, let the false professor do the same! And then, as
   soon as it had been done, conscience would be at once enlightened and
   would give its answer--and each man would say, "Yes, the religion upon
   which I have been building my hope is a lie and I renounce it to seek a
   better."

   But the deceived heart does not let that question ever come up, or if
   it is asked, the question is put away as quickly as possible. Up rises
   one devil in the heart and says, "Did not your grandmother worship that
   idol? Have not multitudes of other people done the same?" And if the
   question is asked again, another devil says, "Look at the tens of
   thousands who go to the shrine of Juggernaut. Are there not millions
   who bow before the shrine of Buddha? Common custom shall decide what is
   right." The Roman Catholic says, "Look at Christendom as a whole--is it
   not almost everywhere covered with the adherents of my religion?"
   "And," says the infidel, "I do not stand alone--some of the master
   spirits of the age have dared to think as I think." "And look," says
   the man who is making a false profession, "am I not as good as Mrs.
   So-and-So, and as pious as Mr. This or Mr. That? I am sure that there
   is no need of any examination of the position that I hold." And so,
   between them all, the poor heart is so deceived and baffled that the
   question never really comes before the conscience, "Is there not a lie
   in my right hand?" For I repeat that if this question were truly to
   come before the conscience, there could not be any mistake about the
   answer that even poor fallen reason must give, "Your religion is a lie,
   therefore away with it!"

   IV. Now, for the rest of the time at our disposal, I WANT TO SPEAK TO
   THOSE WHO ARE PROFESSORS OF RELIGION, BUT WHO DO NOT POSSESS IT.

   I will introduce myself to you, Sir, at once. You have not, for a long
   time, asked yourself any questions about your religion. Will you
   honestly put to yourself the inquiry in my text, "Is there not a lie in
   my right hand?" "Well," you reply, "I was baptized and I joined the
   church many years ago, and I concluded that I was converted and, at any
   rate, the church was satisfied with my testimony. I am not troubled
   with any doubts, or fears, or anxieties, and I am quite sure that if I
   am not all right, it will go very hard with a great many other people."
   Yes, Sir, I have no doubt it will go very hard with a great many
   people, but your conclusion does not prevent me from returning to the
   question, as far as it concerns you, personally. I want to put this
   question to you--Is there not a lie in your right hand? I do not say
   that you have a lie on your forehead--you would not like to put it
   there. But is there not a lie in your right hand? Now, come, open your
   palm. No, I mean your right hand, not your left one. Your right
   hand--that hand with which you act.

   I do not mean that left hand which you have been keeping in reserve to
   lay upon your hypocritical heart. No, it is your right hand that I
   mean. It is your acts, your life, your conversation that I want to know
   about! Have not these been such as to prove that there is a lie in your
   right hand? We do not know all your conversation, do we? God knows all,
   but we do not. You have been able to keep many vices to yourself, or
   there are many things that you do in business that you know are
   wrong--so I will again put the question to you--Is there not a lie in
   your right hand? Are you quite sure that you are truly converted to
   God? Do you think, if you were, that you could live as you are living?
   Do you imagine that

   the indulgence of such-and-such a vice and such-and-such a sin can be
   consistent with Divine Grace in your heart? Do you suppose that if you
   were really the possessor of the Grace of God, you could be what you
   now are? Does not your own conscience say, "No. I have a lie in my
   right hand"?

   If you knew anyone who was a member of a Christian Church and who lived
   as you live, would you not be among the very first to say, "Such a man
   ought not to be in the Church"? Very well, then, measure your own corn
   by the same bushel which you use when you are measuring your
   neighbor's. Do you not, even now, know several people whom you regard
   as being mere formalists and hypocrites? Have you not, sometimes,
   saidso? Now, what is the difference between yourself and them? Do you
   not think that if you could get into their bodies and look out of their
   eyes, you could see enough in yourself to condemn you, quite as
   justifiably as you now condemn them? Yes, I think that if conscience
   speaks now, it will be obliged to say, "Ah, it is so, Sir. Alas, it is
   so!" And then, when conscience hears this question asked again, "Does
   it not look as if you had a lie in your right hand?" how are you to
   escape front the solemn answer, "I fear I have. If my life is
   inconsistent with my profession. If my feelings and inward experience
   are not in conformity with the words that I speak with my lips, then
   most certainly I must have a lie in my right hand"?

   Now, O professor, you who are a mere professor, I will address you, yet
   again, and may God bless the words I speak to the warning of some who
   have a name to live and yet are dead! Ah, Sir, you have not had a doubt
   about your state for a long time and a true child of God has said, "Oh,
   that I could get into the place where that man is, that I could be as
   easy in my mind as he is!" Little does the child of God know what a
   miserable fraud you are, nor how your deceived heart has beguiled you.
   Ah, if he did know, he would wish to be anything butwhat you are! Your
   peace is not the result of the assurance of faith--it is only
   presumption. Your confidence does not arise from trusting in Christ,
   but from sheer delusion. There was a time when you did tremble for
   yourself. When first you were united to the Church you did often ask
   yourself, "Am I Christ's, or am I not?" Now all those doubts and fears
   have vanished and it is very seldom you ask any question about
   yourself. You fold your hands and take it for granted that all is right
   with you. Are you not, you think, a member of the Church--then why
   should you be asking yourself any searching questions? When the
   minister is preaching specially to you, you look up to the gallery and
   you see a drunk--and you say you hope the message will touch his heart.

   When the minister is saying something strong about inconsistencies, you
   look across the Chapel and you notice somebody there--and you think
   surely that ought to reach his conscience. Ah, man, is it not God's
   message to you? Ought it not to reach yourconscience, but from the fact
   that it does not, may we not draw the fearful inference that you are
   given up to a strong delusion to believe a lie--that your deceived
   heart has turned you aside so that you have a thousand artifices and
   schemes to evade an honest answer to that most important question--"Is
   there not a lie in my right hand?"

   As God's ambassador, let me clear my conscience of your blood as I try
   to reach even your hardened conscience. Professor, I beseech you, as in
   the sight of God, let this question for once come home to your heart!
   Oh, you that have only a profession, let this question be answered by
   each one of you, now--"Is there a lie in my right hand? Am I a true
   Christian or a false professor? Am I making a profession to be what I
   am not, or am I, in the sight of God, what I am in the sight of man?" I
   shall not exempt myselffrom this solemn self-examination and I would
   ask you, my Brothers in the ministry, and those of you who are deacons,
   and all of you who are members of this or any other Christian Church,
   not to exempt yourselves. Let the question come home to each of us, "Is
   there not a lie in my right hand?"

   Oh, remember that to have made a profession of religion and yet to be
   deceived is one of the most frightful things to be imagined! And while
   it is so frightful, it is also sadly frequent--to have our face toward
   Zion by profession, and yet to be going towards Hell by our actions! To
   go with bold, brazen-faced impudence to the very gates of Heaven and
   cry, "Lord, Lord, open to us"--and to have those gates barred fast
   against us and to hear the Lord say--"Depart from Me, I never knew you!
   Depart, you cursed!" That is, I say again, frightful beyond all
   conception, but it is as frequent as it is frightful! My Brothers and
   Sisters, would you have that to be your lot? O my God, let it never be
   my portion! If I am to be damned, let it be as the worldling! Let me be
   as the sinner who openly lives and dies in his sin--but never suffer me
   to endure that double Hell that consists, first, in the torment ofjust
   punishment for my sin and then in the added torment of my disappointed
   hope. O my God, whatever You suffer me to be, permit me not to have a
   hope of Heaven and then, at the last, to have that hope turn out to be
   a delusion!

   Do you, my Friend, put away the question of the text and say you know
   that you are all right? You are the very person who ought to let the
   question come home to you! Are you sure that all is well with you? Then
   perhaps you have no right to be sure. Do you never doubt? Have you
   never had any fear about the future? Then, remember what the poet
   Cowper so wisely said--

   "He has no hope who never hada fear

   And he that never doubted of his state,

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

   Does your confidence stand so firm that nothing can shake it? Perhaps,
   then, it is not built upon a rock. There are things that stand very
   firm for a time that, after all, will not endure forever. The great
   mountains stand fast, but they shall be removed and be carried into the
   midst of the sea. And your hope may seem to have a firm foundation, yet
   you may find yourself swallowed up in a fearful whirlpool of horrible
   destruction. I appeal to some men who think that they need not heed my
   earnest words--men who are not members of Christian Churches, but who
   are reputed to be Christians. There are some among us who are generally
   reputed to be children of God--their conversation is full of weighty
   religious matters--no one better understands the Truth of God than they
   do. Yet they have one master vice, one evil propensity that leads them
   astray everyday. In the name of God, I have warned them of the
   consequences of continuing in sin. As they must stand before Jehovah's
   bar and as I, who have warned them, must stand there with them, I do
   entreat them to let the voice of warning reach them!

   O Man, it is little to have had a pious mother! It is little to have
   been enlightened concerning the things of the Kingdom of God! It is
   little to know the Truth and to love sweet and savory doctrine! It is
   little to be a friend of all good men and to be beloved of them! It is
   little to have had all this if you have not Divine Grace in your heart!
   Little, did I say? It is nothingat all to your advantage, but it is
   notlittle--it is a great and fearful thing to have had all these
   advantages and all this knowledge, and still to have suffered some base
   thing that was beneath your manhood to turn you aside and destroy all
   your hopes of Heaven!

   There are some whom we know who live in this fair world of ours and who
   live near our hearts, too--men who might go to Heaven, we sometimes
   think, if it were not that they are too covetous to get there. Some we
   could not find any fault with except that they are given to strong
   drink--and that sin is their curse and ruin and will forever shut them
   outside the gates of Paradise. And some we know, whose love we prize
   and whose company we seek, who have some secret fault which now and
   then is discovered by those who watch them warily--and that fault is
   like a great cancer, eating up the man's vitals! His clothes are neat
   and trim. His friends call him "a perfect gentleman," yet he is
   carrying damnation in his heart by that secret lust and darling vice!
   Oh, you who are making a boast of your religion, or who keep it
   secretly and have some kind of a hope, I beseech you take warning! It
   is not my pleasure thus to address you, but if I did not speak thus,
   how should I render in my account at the Last Great Day? If I sat in
   those pews in which you sit, I would scorn the minister who did not
   speak faithfully to me and I would soon cease to be a hearer of such a
   man! I would not go to a Chapel if there were not a man in the pulpit
   who spoke the Truth of God in simple language and, as I judge you, you
   wish to hear the Truth of God plainly.

   As I would wish it to be told to me, so have I told it to you, and if
   there should be any individual whose deceived heart has turned him
   aside, and who says, "The minister was very personal. He evidently
   meant me. His word was like a sword and it cut me to my very heart"--if
   that is the case with any of you, let the preacher at once admit that
   he did mean you! He does not deny that he has been personal! He meant
   you and he beseeches you to take his message to your heart. If you are
   angry with the preacher, he can well afford to bear it. Though he does
   not wish for it, if your soul can be saved in that way, he will rejoice
   in it! If there could be a possibility of making some man so angry that
   his conscience pricked him, I would fall on my knees and say, "My God,
   if that man should kill me, if it will be the means of saving his soul,
   let him do it! If an honest warning should so stir up his wrath, then
   even so let it be, only grant, my Father, that the end may be served in
   letting him know the folly and the evil which were leading him astray."

   Brothers and Sisters, let every one of us retire to our closets and
   examine ourselves. Put your hopes in the crucible-- see whether they
   will stand the test of the Word of the Lord which is like a fire. Judge
   yourself as you would judge another. If you are acquainted with another
   man who, you know, is living in the commission of a sin which makes his
   profession a falsehood--and you also are living in that sin--do not
   think any better of yourself than you think of him. If

   you knew a man whose limb was rotting with mortification, would you not
   urge him to have it cut off? Well, then, have your own cut off! If you
   saw a man who was rushing swiftly to Hell, would you not start off
   boldly and warn him? Then, be as bold with yourself as you would be
   with others! Talk to yourself as you would talk to other people. If you
   would observe this rule, I would not be afraid of what will happen to
   you--and some of you will thank God that you were ever led to examine
   yourselves, for now, as guilty sinners, you can flee to the Cross of
   Christ and, by faith, lay hold of Him who is able to save to the
   uttermost all them that come unto God by Him!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE14:25-35.

   Verse 25. And there went great multitudes with Him. During at least a
   part of His earthly ministry, Christ was very popular. The people
   crowded at His feet and they were willing to make Him a king. But you
   must have observed that He was always faithful in speaking to the
   populace--He did not flatter them. He also dealt in the same fashion
   with those who professed to be His followers. He winnowed the heap that
   was laid upon the floor and drove away the chaff from the midst of the
   wheat.

   25, 26. And He turned and said unto them, If any man comes to Me, and
   hates not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers,
   and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. Do
   not misunderstand this passage. Our Lord does not use the word, "hate,"
   in our common acceptation of the term, for no man would hate his own
   life. He means that the love of all these must be secondaryto the love
   we bear to Him. Compared with our love to our Lord, all lower love must
   be more like hate. We must be willing to give up everything--to give up
   even ourselves-- our entire selves--to Him, for Christ will have all or
   nothing. He will never divide the human heart with any rival. If we
   profess to serve Him, we must have Him for our only Master and not
   attempt to serve two masters. I fear that this Truth of God greatly
   needs to be enforced nowadays, for we have numbers of so-called
   Christians who are worldlings first, and Christians afterwards. We have
   a great many professors who might be accurately described by the words
   of a little girl concerning her father. When someone asked her, "Is
   your father a Christian?" she replied, "Yes, but he has not worked much
   at it lately." There are plenty of that sort. Christianity is their
   trade, their business, their profession--but they have not worked much
   at it lately--they carry it on very slightly, indeed. Let it not be so
   with us. If we would be followers of Christ, our whole hearts must be
   His.

   27. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be My
   disciple. If there is any cross-bearing involved in Christianity--such
   as the cross of holy living, or the cross of believing old-fashioned
   doctrines and not being "abreast of the times"--if there is any sort of
   cross which is involved in the conscientious discharge of our duty as
   followers of Christ, we must bear it, or else we cannot be His
   disciples. Our Lord's words are very clear and explicit--"'And whoever
   does not bear his cross'--be he who he may, whatever pretensions or
   professions he may make--if he does not bear his cross, 'and come after
   Me, cannot be My disciple.'"

   28-30. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sits not down
   first, and counts the cost, whether he has sufficient to finish it?
   Lest haply, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish
   it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to
   build, and was not able to finish. Do you not think that there are a
   great many towers of that kind about in our day? I mean, unfinished
   Christian characters, persons who profess to be followers of Christ,
   but are not! They just exhibit to you their own shortcomings. They are
   people with good intentions who did make some attempt to follow Jesus,
   but, since it involved too much self-denial, they were not able to go
   that length--so they turned back and walked no more with Him. They
   began to build a tower, but never finished it. May God, in His mercy,
   prevent you and me from becoming a laughing-stock to all eternity! I
   believe that in the Last Great Day and forever, those persons who knew
   enough about the Gospel to wish to be Christians, and who were somewhat
   actuated by right motives, but yet who never went so far as to give up
   their hearts to Christ, will stand forth as monuments of their own
   folly and even the demons in Hell will point at them and say, "These
   men began to build, and were not able to finish."

   Such persons will be unable to answer that contemptuous sneer. If you
   have conscience enough to begin to follow Christ, even reason, itself,
   requires you to go the whole length. If you know that it is right for
   you to do so, why do you not go through with it? If you are
   sufficiently convinced of its rightness to go as far as you do, why not
   go still farther?

   God grant that you may! Better never begin to build than to commence
   without having counted the cost and then to find that you have not
   sufficient to finish.

   31, 32. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sits not
   down first and consults whether he is able, with ten thousand, to meet
   him that comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the
   other is yet a great way off he sends an ambassador, and desires
   conditions of peace?If you cannot fight the world, the flesh, and the
   devil--if there is no power that can help you to do it, or if you are
   not willing to be helped by the only Power that can help you-- if you
   will not surrender yourself to Christ that He may baffle all the hosts
   of the adversary, then it is of no use for you to begin the war.

   33. So likewise, whoever he is of you that forsakes not all that he
   has, he cannot be My disciple. In Christ's days and afterwards,
   discipleship usually involved the absolute giving up of everything that
   His followers had, for those were times of persecution. And if such
   seasons should come to us, we must have such love to Christ that, for
   His sake, we could forsake all that we have. Otherwise we cannot be His
   disciples.

   34. Salt is good: but if the salt has lost its savor, how shall it be
   seasoned? Christianity is good, but if the very life has gone out of
   it, what can you do with it? A dead professor is the most corrupt thing
   under Heaven. Some there are who think that God's salt can lose its
   savor and yet get it back again. I remember one who told me that he
   knew a person who had been born again four times. That doctrine of
   re-re-re-regeneration is one that I have never found in the Word of
   God. I believe that true regeneration never fails to take effect and
   that it never loses that effect. It begets within the soul a life that
   cannot die, but, if that life could die, it could never be brought back
   again. The Apostle Paul puts this matter beyond dispute in Hebrews
   6:4-6--"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and
   have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy
   Spirit, and have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the
   world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto
   repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
   and put Him to an open shame."

   35. It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men
   cast it out A dead profession of religion is utterly useless and if it
   could be possible that a man should be really quickened by the Spirit
   of God, and yet that the new life should depart from him, he would be
   in a hopeless case, indeed.

   35. He that has ears to hear, let him hear. Let all of us give good
   heed to this injunction, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Too Good to Be Saved!

   (No. 2687)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, AUGUST 12, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
   17, 1881.

   "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the
   other." Luke 18:14.

   THE publican was justified rather than the Pharisee. The outwardly
   worse man of the two was accepted rather than the one who was
   apparently better. "This man went down to his house justified rather
   than the other." Observe, dear Friends, our Savior's gentle way of
   describing the contrast between these two men. He says that the
   publican was "justified rather than the other," but we all know that
   behind this mild and lenient expression, there is the sad and solemn
   Truth of God that the Pharisee was not justified at all. It is
   concerning that fact that I am about to speak to you. The publican was
   justified and the Pharisee was not, yet our Lord only said, "This man
   went down to his house justified rather than the other." It will be
   true wisdom on our part, also, to sometimes state a Truth in the very
   mildest way possible. A Scriptural Doctrine loses nothing of its effect
   by being tenderly expressed--indeed, a forcible Truth of God may even
   have its force increased by being rather understated than overstated.
   Our Lord Jesus Christ knew when to use this holy art and He did so on
   this occasion and, therefore, you and I will be wise if we do the same
   when a fitting opportunity occurs.

   Notice, further, dear Friends, that the pith, the marrow, the very
   center of the blessing that we expect to get in worship is
   justification. To be accepted of God, to be regarded as just, to be
   esteemed by Him as doing the right thing--this is what we ought to seek
   whenever we come together for worship! And in that sense the publican,
   with his earnest cry for mercy, was justified--that is, he was accepted
   by God, he was regarded as one who had been made just--while the
   Pharisee, who stood there ostentatiously publishing his own
   excellences, was not justified, was not accepted, was not considered a
   just man and did not receive from God any of the favors which He is
   accustomed to give to those who rightly worship Him in spirit and in
   truth.

   The reason why the Pharisee did not receive that which is the end of
   all worship--namely, acceptance with God, and justification in His
   sight--was that he reckoned himself too good to be justified. According
   to his own opinion, he was altogether too righteous a man to need God's
   favor and mercy. And I want now to speak to any of you who think you
   are too good to be saved. I am always preaching to sinners and I have
   had the great delight of seeing many and many a sinner taken in the
   Gospel net and saved. Now I want to talk to those who are scarcely
   sinners except that, by way of compliment, they acknowledge that they
   are. "Yes," they say, "we are all sinners." And if they go to church,
   they say, "Lord, have mercy upon us miserable sinners." Yet, all the
   while, they neither look miserable, nor are they really conscious that
   they are sinners in the sight of God and already under condemnation. I
   want to speak especially to this class of persons. It is a great pity
   that it should be so, yet there are many people who, in their own
   estimation, are much too good to be saved, too good ever to be
   justified, too good ever to go to Heaven! There may be some such
   persons here. If so, may God the Holy Spirit bless to them what I have
   to say in Christ's name!

   I. My first remark is that THERE ARE STILL SUCH PERSONS AS THIS
   PHARISEE.

   There are still in the world many persons who, in their own opinion,
   are too good to be justified, too good to be saved. They come to this
   condition because they compare themselves with others. This Pharisee
   said, "God, I thank You that I am not as other men are, extortioners,
   unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." He felt himself to be
   quite a

   saint compared with the publican. He went up many degrees in his own
   estimation when he thought of what a wicked extortioner that publican
   had been! And he remembered someone who had been an adulterer and
   another person who had been unjust--and contrasting himself with these
   people, he felt that he was the most respectable individual whom he
   knew--a man to be held in very high esteem! He felt that God ought to
   be thankedfor making such a man and if nobody else would do it, he
   would do it himself, for that was a duty which ought to be discharged
   at once. So remarkable a specimen of human excellence ought not to be
   left on the face of the earth, ungratefully forgotten by men--and as
   many of them did seem to forget him and not to see his excellences, he
   would, himself, bless God that there was, at any rate, one person in
   the world who was all he ought to be, if not a little more! He reckoned
   himself to be so good because he compared himself with other men.

   My dear Hearer, are you very good by the same sort of measurement? Are
   you superlatively excellent because you judge yourself by a similar
   standard? If so, let me ask you kindly to make use of that standard in
   another way by comparing yourself, not with those whom you regard as
   your inferiors, but with those whom you must acknowledge to be your
   superiors. You have surely read some biographies of really devout,
   earnest, holy, consecrated men whose lives much exceed yours in all
   that is of true worth. So, if you will look upinstead of looking down,
   I think you will soon begin to say, "Ah, I am far short of their
   standard! I am nothing like those men were. I am not living such a
   careful, prayerful, watchful, self-denying, consecrated life as they
   lived." Let this thought take a little of the conceit out of you. Begin
   to think that you are not quite so good as you thought you were and it
   may do you some service if you meditate for a while upon that fact.

   "But," you say, "we cannot all be expected to come up to their
   standard." Ah, but you areexpected to do that, and a great deal more,
   for, if you are going to be justified by your works, you will have to
   go far above their standard! The true standard by which you are to
   measure yourself is not even the most saintly of the saints, nor the
   most devoted of the martyrs and confessors. The standard for any man
   who would be saved by his own righteousness is God's holy Law! Listen
   to it--"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
   all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and
   your neighbor as yourself." Have you come anywhere near that standard?
   I am sure you have not. You have fallen far short of what God demands
   of you, so what does it matter though you say, "I am better than some
   people are"? You are evidently worse than others are and you are much
   worse--infinitely worse--than you ought to be! And the perfect Law of
   God, if you are to be justified by it, requires a perfect obedience to
   all its commands--and that you can never render. O dear Sirs, you are
   laboring under a terrible mistake! You are, in your own judgment,
   superlatively good, but you come to that conclusion only by comparing
   yourselves among yourselves--a process which, as the Apostle Paul tells
   us, is "not wise." Measure yourselves by the Law of God and you will
   shrink into nothing at once if you are a man of honor, wisdom and
   sense.

   There are some who think themselves much too good to be justified by
   God and they are under that delusion because they have set one duty
   above another Listen to this Pharisee's boast--"I fast twice in the
   week." Among the Pharisees of our Lord's day, I believe that Monday and
   Thursday were the regular fast days. I have heard that among certain
   modern Pharisees, Friday is the appointed time for fasting, but that is
   a matter about which I do not know much. The Pharisee evidently felt
   that it was a most important thing to fast twice in the week--and then
   he added, "I give tithes of all that I possess." There were certain
   tithes that were demanded by God's Law, but he seems to imply that he
   did more than was required of him, for he gave tithes of allthat he had
   coming in. I daresay that, like the rest of the Pharisees, he had
   tithed the "mint, and anise, and cumin"--probably, all together it did
   not amount to much, and in comparison with, "the weightier matters of
   the Law--judgment, mercy and faith"--which he had omitted, it was as
   nothing at all. But he was very careful to pay the tithe of his mint,
   anise and cumin.

   That might have been to his credit if he had not set it up as being the
   chief and main thing to be put in the front, the choice article to be
   exhibited in the window to let everybody see what a remarkably
   excellent person he was! "I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of
   all that I possess." He did not say anything about the widows' houses
   that he had devoured, nor about the pretense and hypocrisy that lurked
   behind his long prayers. He did not say anything about his pride and
   his contempt for his fellow men, which he even dared to express in what
   he called his prayers. No, but he brought certain other things to the
   front--out of all true proportion--and then he felt himself to be
   wonderfully good.

   Well, now, we know some persons who are most regular in their
   attendance at a place of worship. Perhaps someone asks, "Is not that a
   good thing for me to do?" Yes, it is an excellent thing, but I do not
   say much about it if you give short weight in your shop, or if you tell
   lies in your home, or anywhere else, or if you are living an unchaste
   life. There are other things to be thought of besides going to a
   meeting on Sunday. "Oh, but we have been baptized and we take the
   communion." Yes, I know you do and it is a very important thing that
   you should do so if you are a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and if
   you are really living as true Believers should live. But if you put any
   religious ceremony to the front and omit the more vital matters, it
   will not do!

   Then you know there are some persons who say, "Well, Sir, I was
   baptized as an infant, I was confirmed by the bishop, I have always
   attended the parish church, I give my guinea to every contribution, I
   have family prayer, I have--I hardly like to say how many good things I
   have." Just so. That is the way with some people--they put a certain
   set of duties into the front, while other duties are neglected. And
   they bring to God one duty blood-red with the murder of another. There
   are some who have given to God what they have gained by lying and
   trickery in their business, or they have given to God what they have
   ground out of the bones and marrow of the poor. Is it not often so? But
   it is not to be expected that God will accept either ourselves or our
   offerings because we choose to put one set of external duties into the
   front and then say, "We are superlatively good." It is a dreadful
   delusion! May God save you from it, my Friend, if you are under it!
   Remember the solemn words of the Lord Jesus upon this very
   point--"These ought you to have done, and not to leave the other
   undone."

   There are also some persons who reckon themselves to be very good
   because they conceive themselves to have done almost more than they
   ought There is one family of the "Good-Enoughs" and there is another
   family of the "Too-Goods." They are cousins, I believe. Certainly, they
   are very closely related. This Pharisee belonged to the family of the
   "Too-Goods." I have already reminded you that he said, "I fast twice in
   the week." Now, according to the law of the Jews, they were to fast
   once in the year--so this man gave a hundred days for one, for he
   fasted twice in the week. They were to give a tithe of the produce of
   their land, but he did more than that. He said, "I give tithes of all
   that I possess. Surely, there is a balance to my credit. If I do fall
   short anywhere, I have gone over the mark in some other things and have
   done more than was required of me."

   Alas, it is often the characteristic of hypocrites that they overdo one
   part and underdo another! Remember that striking simile in Hosea
   7:8--"Ephraim is a cake not turned." What happens to a cake that is not
   turned? Why, it is done too much on one side and it is not done at all
   on the other! It is burnt black upon the coals on one side and the
   other side is dough just as it was when it was put down to bake! How
   many there are who always keep looking at their burnt side! "Oh," they
   cry, "we are baked and more than baked." Yes, but look at the other
   side of you, which God also sees-- there, you are underdone. Oh, that
   we might have sense enough to look at ourselves in a true light and to
   see the whole of ourselves--for then our foolish self-righteousness
   would soon vanish!

   Let me speak to these very good people a little longer. This Pharisee,
   though he was so very good in his own esteem--could not be justified
   because he did not pray. Someone asks, perhaps, "Did he not pray?" No.
   He went up to the Temple to pray, but he did not pray. There was not a
   word of prayer in all that he said. And you, my Friend, may have knelt
   down every morning and every evening since you were a child, and yet
   never have prayed, for prayer is the speaking of a poverty-stricken
   heart to a rich God--the actual asking of something from God--but you
   have not felt that you needed anything from Him, so you have not asked
   for it! You have never cried out of your heart unto the Lord. You have
   uttered a certain form of words and that has been the end of it. You
   may say your prayers everyday till you die and yet never have prayed at
   all. How could this Pharisee expect that he should be saved when he had
   never prayed?

   And, next, he did not love his fellow men. And it is a rule with God
   that if we love not our fellows, we shall not have their love. If we
   forgive not our erring brother, neither will the Lord forgive us. This
   Pharisee did not love his brother-- he put all the rest of mankind into
   one bundle and he said, "God, I thank you that I am not as other
   men"--the whole lot of them. He himself stood there alone--he was the
   one man for whom God was to be thanked! He did not love his fellows, or
   else he would have thought better of them and he would not have put
   them all down as unworthy to be associated with himself, nor would he
   have set himself up above them all. Specially, he did not love that
   publican. He was horrified to find him standing so near him and he
   uttered, even in the House of God, a contemptuous expression concerning

   his fellow sinner. How could God send a man home justified when he was
   unloving and without sympathy for his fellow man?

   Notice, also, that this Pharisee did not ask for mercy. Look again at
   his pretended prayer. There is not anything in it concerning mercy. He
   said, "God, I thank you," but he did not cry, "Give me mercy. Grant me
   forgiveness. Pardon all my transgressions against you." There was not a
   word of petition or supplication--then how should God give the man that
   which he never asked forr How should He bestow justification on one who
   never sought it?

   Perhaps the most fatal flaw of all was that there was no reference to
   an atonement in his devotion. He said, "God, I thank You that I am not
   as other men are," but there was no plea that the atonement offered on
   the altar might avail for him. Yet, deep down in the poor publican's
   prayer, there lies an allusion to the Propitiation or Mercy Seat. The
   penitent cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner," has in it the veiled
   thought of the great propitiatory Sacrifice! But how shall God hear the
   prayer of the man who does not plead the blood of Jesus, nor make any
   mention of His great Sacrifice for sin? The Pharisee was altogether too
   good in his own esteem, so he was not justified. I wonder whether there
   are any such people here?

   II. Secondly and but briefly, let me say concerning such persons as
   this Pharisee, that THEY CANNOT BE JUSTIFIED.

   I can support my statement by the following reasons. First, for God to
   justify them would be to dishonor Himself by putting Himself in the
   place of a debtor to them--and that can never be the case. This man as
   good as pleaded, if he pleaded at all, that God should accept and
   justify him because he had not done certain things, but he had done
   other things--therefore God was, as it were, indebted to him for his
   extraordinary excellence! But Man, Woman, do you think that God will
   ever be debtor to you? Will you dare to stand before your Maker and
   talk to Him as if you had some merits of your own which deserved
   commendation from Him? Probably you would not say that in so many
   words, but there are many who are practically saying as much as that.
   They kick against the Doctrine of Election, for instance. They say that
   for God to save one person, and not another, is wrong, for they have as
   much claim upon Him as others have--which is true, for they have no
   claim at all, just as others have none at all! Yet their very
   opposition to God's exercise of His Sovereign rights proves that, deep
   down in their hearts, they believe they have some claim upon Him and
   that God is, in some sense, their debtor. But, dear Friends, you can
   never be justified while you talk or act in such a way as that! God
   will freely give Heaven, itself, away! He will give His own Son as the
   free gift of His Grace, but He will have no dealings with you if you
   think you have any claims upon Him. Claims upon Him? Wretches who
   deserved, long ago, to have been cast into Hell--how can you talk about
   your own merits when you appear before the infinitely holy God?

   Further, God cannot justify these self-righteous people because, if He
   did, it would be as good as saying that Christ's Atonement was not
   necessary. If you can go to Heaven by your own works, why did Christ
   die? If you can get there by fasting, prayer, religious observances and
   moralities, then yonder Cross with Christ upon it was a superfluity and
   a mistake! There was no need for any plan of salvation and no need of
   an atonement by blood, if, after all, men might be good enough to save
   themselves! But we know that there is no salvation apart from Christ's
   atoning Sacrifice, so God cannot justify the self-righteous when, in
   order to do so, He would have to cast a slur upon His own wisdom and
   upon His own well-beloved Son. You good people, you who are too good to
   be saved--I mean, too good in your own esteem--you cannot be justified!

   Further, if God were to justify those who are like this Pharisee was,
   He would be either making two ways to Heaven or else shutting sinners
   out You see, dear Friends, God must shut the sinners out if the door
   into Heaven is only for the good, or else He must make a special
   entrance for the gentlefolk--a little private door where qualified
   people can go in by presenting tickets describing their own merits.
   But, if that were to be the case, we would have to get the Bible
   altered, for this blessed Book tells us that there is only one way of
   salvation and the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, says that He is the Way.
   The Bible says that there is only one foundation and that "other
   foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
   The Apostle Peter, speaking to the rulers and elders of Israel, said,
   "This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is
   become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other:
   for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we
   must be saved."

   Suppose that sinners are to be saved partly by works and partly by
   Grace? Then what is to become of those who have no good works to plead?
   Shall they be lost? No, yet, if they are to be saved, they must be
   saved by Grace alone. Then

   there must be two ways to save men--some by Grace--that is the way for
   sinners. Some by Grace and works--that is the way for respectable
   people like some of you. Then we should have two gates to Heaven and if
   two, why not twenty? And then, at last, it would come to this, that we
   might have twenty thousand different ways to Heaven! I have seen a book
   entitled, "Every Man's Own Lawyer," and we might in time have another
   book upon the subject, "Every Man His Own Savior." That is what it
   would practically come to, at last, if there was more than one way of
   salvation! But it is not so and never shall be so. There is one way of
   salvation for all who come to God and that is by faith in Jesus Christ!
   And if you will not walk in this narrow way--if you are too good to
   travel along this pilgrim path--you shall perish in your accursed
   self-righteousness! Accursed, indeed, it is, for it has shut multitudes
   out of all hope of mercy because they have thought themselves too good
   to be saved!

   If the self-righteous are to be saved, we must alter the Bible in other
   places besides those I have quoted. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, "They
   that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not
   to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." You must strike that
   passage out and so you must the reference to "Him that justifies the
   ungodly." It must no longer be said, "Blessed is he whose transgression
   is forgiven, whose sin is covered," but we shall have to make David
   say, "Blessed is he who has never sinned at all, but whose merits
   deserve eternal life." Poor David would have come off badly under such
   a rule!

   You will also have to alter the Church as well as the Bible. I must go
   out and most of my Brothers and Sisters will have to go out, for we
   shall not be able to get along with such good people as you are! We
   have all been sinners and God has had mercy upon us--and we love Him
   much because He has forgiven us much--and when you self-righteous folk
   come in, you will not like to associate with us. And when we pray, "God
   be merciful to me, a sinner," you will feel ashamed of us. Yet, mark
   you, the Church will not be altered in order to please you!

   If it were, we would also have to alter many of our best hymns. We
   could not sing the hymns we have sung this evening. "Rock of Ages" also
   would have to go, for we should feel that Toplady made a mistake when
   he wrote it. And "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," would have to follow it. If
   this is the right system--if the good people are to come to Christ with
   their own goodness and to be saved because they are so good--then what
   is to become of the whole of our Hymn-Book? Why, everything will be
   turned upside down! But mark this--the turning upside down will come in
   another way. It is you self-righteous ones who will be turned upside
   down! And if you will continue to be deluded and to believe a lie, you
   will have to suffer for it. I pray that God, in His mercy, may abase
   you now with true humility and lay you low at the feet of Jesus, for,
   if not, you will have to be abased at the coming of the Lord, in the
   Day when He shall judge all things according to Infallible Truth of
   God--and your fancied righteousness will then melt away like hoar-frost
   at the rising of the sun--and you will cry out in despair, "Woe is me!
   Woe is me! I thought myself good and excellent, but now I am cast out,
   while sinners, whom I despised, are brought in to feast on His wondrous
   mercy forevermore!"

   III. Now I shall conclude by observing, concerning these people who
   are, in their own esteem, too good to be justified by Grace and who do
   not, therefore, seek God's Grace, that IT IS MOST FITTING THAT THEY
   SHOULD NOT

   BE JUSTIFIED.

   I will tell you why it is most fitting and, first, because it is taking
   them on their own standing. A man ought never to object to be taken at
   his own valuation. I once had an experience which may illustrate the
   way in which God will deal with men who are like this Pharisee. There
   came to me a gentleman--a very great gentleman--who wished to become a
   student of the College. He told me that in all probability, I had never
   had such a remarkable genius as he was offering himself as a student.
   Of course I was amazed and deeply gratified. I asked him in what way he
   could display his genius and he replied that he had been studying for
   the ministry for many years, that he was most fluent and eloquent and
   that, if I liked, he would preach me a sermon on the spot upon any
   subject that I chose to give him. I said, "No, I do not think that I
   could listen to a sermon from you just now, for I have a good many
   other people waiting to see me." He went on to tell me about his
   wonderful attainments, but I stopped him and said, "I must decline your
   application." "But why?" he asked. "Well," I answered, "we have no such
   men as you are in the College. We have none of your sort." "Well,
   then," he said, "it is time you had." So I told him that the tutors
   were very ordinary sort of persons and, according to his own account,
   he knew very much more than they did, to begin with, and I also said
   that the President of the College was a still more ordinary person and
   that, considering the way in which I was confounded by his dazzling
   genius in that short con-

   versation, I really must decline him. It was not possible that we
   should be able to get on together, for there was nothing that he could
   learn, as he already knew everything, so there was no need for him to
   become a student with us.

   You may imagine his surprise because I took him on his own footing. He
   showed himself off to be such a remarkably wonderful man that all I
   could feel was, "I can read you through and through and understand what
   a fool you are." I did not tell him so, but I met him on his own ground
   and told him that he was much too good for me to receive into the
   College. I believe it was right that he should be so answered, for
   Solomon said, "Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in
   his own conceit." And, oh, how grimly and solemnly will God, at the
   last, answer every self-righteous fool according to his folly--"You say
   that you did not sin as that publican did. No and, therefore, you did
   not repent as that publican did. Christ came into the world to save
   sinners, but, according to your own declaration, you are not one of
   them, so He did not come to save you. He has shed His blood to wash the
   filthy, but you say that you are not filthy, so you shall never be
   washed, you shall forever remain as you are." This will be one way of
   letting the self-righteous see how God laughs at the calamity of those
   who have despised His mercy when their fear comes. All their
   self-righteousness was a mocking and a laughing at Christ and His
   precious blood--and at Free Grace and the Gospel--so the time will come
   when they will hear another kind of laugh and it will be but fitting
   that they should.

   It is fitting that the self-righteous should not be justified and they,
   themselves, cannot wonder at it, because they know that they are
   unwilling to accept the Gospel They cannot wonder that they do not have
   its blessings, for they do not like its terms! There are some of you, I
   fear, who are not willing to make a confession of your sin. You say
   that you do not wish to be saved by charity, to be delivered from going
   down to the Pit by the Sovereign, unmerited Grace of God-- you must
   have a hand in the matter, somehow, for you think you have some claim
   upon God! Well, then, do you wonder that what you will not receive is
   denied you? They who shut their eyes must not marvel if the sun seems
   no more to shine for them. When men will not hear, they must not be
   surprised if the voice ceases to speak. Take heed unto yourselves, you
   who are trusting in your own righteousness, lest God, taking you at
   your word and seeing you unwilling to accept the blood and
   righteousness of Christ, may justly give you over to perish in your
   sin!

   What an awful sight that will be--a man everlastingly a martyr to his
   own pride! Even the demons in Hell might ask, "Why did that man come to
   Hell? Was he unjust?" No. "Was he an extortioner?" No. "Was he an
   adulterer?" No. "Then, why did he come here?" Because he would not go
   to Heaven by Grace! He thanked God that he was not as other men are,
   but he has not much to thank God for, now, for he finds himself cast
   out while many of the other men, whom he despised, are saved. "But why
   did he go to Hell?" Only to keep up his own pride, to have his own way
   and not to bow his neck to Christ's righteous rule. When a man
   sacrifices his life for his country, when a man loses his life on
   behalf of science--above all, when a man is burned to death for God and
   for the Truth, I can honor him--but when a man loses his soul for the
   sake of his pride, angels and men may well cover him with everlasting
   contempt!

   O Sirs, I pray you, if pride is keeping you out of Heaven, give it up
   and cast yourselves down at Jesus' feet! The old fable tells us of a
   fox that entered into a vineyard by a very small hole. He was very
   thin, then, but he ate so many of the grapes that he grew to be twice
   his former size and could not get out again! He could have been caught
   and killed because He had grown too big to make his escape, so there
   was nothing for him to do but to starve himself down to his former size
   and so get out to a place of safety. And if you have made yourselves so
   big with your own righteousness that you cannot get through that strait
   and narrow way of yielding to Christ, trusting Him and obeying
   Him--then you must shrink and starve yourself down to this size. I pray
   God speedily to bring you down to it till you, too, shall be a bankrupt
   sinner, an emptied sinner, a condemned sinner--and then shall just look
   to Christ upon the Cross and live, for--

   "There is life for a look at the Crucified One, There is life at this
   moment for you"-- if you will but look there for it! But if you will
   look only to yourself for it, you will perish in your iniquity and your
   blood will be upon your own head. God bless this word to all whom it
   concerns, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 18:1-14.

   Verse 1. And He spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought
   always to pray and not to faint. ' 'Not to faint" in their expectation
   of answers to their supplications and, therefore, give up prayer, but
   to persevere in presenting their petitions at the Throne of Grace
   because prayer is never lost labor. There may be a time during which
   God does not appear to answer prayer, but He will ultimately answer it.
   Therefore "men ought always to pray, and not to faint" in prayer. If
   they do not pray, they will faint in many ways. Their courage will
   faint. All their hope as to the future will faint and fall into a dead
   swoon, as it were. So, dear Friends, you have your choice between
   praying and fainting! The doctrine our Savior laid down was "that men
   ought always to pray, and not to faint." And this is the parable which
   He related in illustration of that Truth of God.

   2. Saying, There was in a city a judge who feared not God, neither
   regarded man. He was a most unfit person to be a judge, as many in
   Eastern cities still are. They are ready enough to take bribes, but
   they are not so prompt in giving just judgments. They generally attend
   to the business of the rich and the powerful, but neglect the poor and
   needy. So was it with this judge who, "feared not God, neither regarded
   man."

   3. And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying,
   Avenge me of my adversary. Probably someone had come and taken away
   from her the little bit of land that her husband had left her, upon the
   produce of which she and the children might have lived, and she could
   not get it back. So she comes to the judge, and cries, "Avenge me of my
   adversary."

   4. And he would not for a while. He had plenty of applicants who could
   pay him better than this poor woman could, so he disregarded her
   petition. But he little knew that, in her, he had to deal with a woman
   who meant to be heard and who intended to press her suit until she won
   it. She was evidently a very determined character. Though a
   broken-hearted widow, yet she was not broken-spirited even though the
   judge refused, for a while, to attend to her plea.

   4, 5. But afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor
   regard man; yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest
   by her continual coming she weary me. She came again and again, and
   again and again--she would not leave off coming, for she meant to have
   the justice she sought and she got it. Now that is the way to pray, as
   if we would even weary God with our supplications, though we can never
   do so! It is impossible to weary Him with earnest believing entreaties,
   yet we must show the same determination in prayer which this
   importunate widow manifested while pleading with the unjust judge.

   6. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge says. He is unjust,
   but he is now obliged to be just! He is hardhearted, but he is
   compelled to yield! The widow has conquered him, not by her money, but
   by her importunity! She is there so often that she troubles him and he
   says he must give in and grant her request.

   7. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto
   Him, though He bear long with them? He may seem to be slow about it,
   but when His people cry to Him, He will ultimately hear them if He does
   not at once. Do not imagine that the children of God will always be
   laughed at and downtrodden. God will yet arise and take their side.
   They may be pushed into a comer for a while, but they shall come out
   into a large room in due season, for God will certainly avenge His own
   elect.

   8. I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the
   Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?'f anybody could
   find it, He could, for He creates it all and He knows where to look for
   it, yet there is so little of it that even He, whose eyes can detect
   the faith that is as small as a grain of mustard seed, can scarcely
   find it. There is all too little real faith in the world and those who
   think they have most of it, when they get into troubled waters, soon
   find they have not any to spare--and much that they thought was faith
   does not turn out to be so. O Brothers and Sisters, how little do we
   trust our God compared with what He deserves!

   9. 10. And He spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in
   themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. Two men went
   up into the Temple to pray. They were both alike in going up to the
   Temple, but they were very different in coming back from the Temple. It
   is a very important thing to come to the House of God in a right state
   of heart--and it is a still better thing to go away from the Lord's
   House really benefited and improved. These two men went up to the
   Temple with the same objective--each of them went there "to pray." Both
   intended to pray, though they did not both do so--but that was their
   objective.

   10. The one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. A tax-gatherer, one
   of the most hated people in Christ's day, because none but the lowest
   class of Jews would collect taxes for the Romans and, as a general
   rule, they farmed the taxes

   and greatly increased them by demanding of the people much more than
   was due. They were, therefore, held in the worst possible repute. I am
   not sure that tax-gatherers are the objects of much love anywhere, but,
   among the Jews, they were detested because they were collecting tribute
   for the Romans whom the conquered nation abhorred.

   11. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank You,
   that 1 am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or
   even as this publican. So it is evident that he noticed one person who
   was there, though I do not find that the publican took any notice of
   him. We can tell by this remark that the mind of the Pharisee was
   wandering from his supposed devotions. It is a bad sign in a so-called
   worshipper when he knows a great deal about other people who are in the
   Lord's House. I have known many people whose recollection, after a
   sermon, has been quite as much about who was there and who was not
   there, as it has been about what was in the sermon, and what was not in
   it! So this Pharisee's eyes went gadding about and he spied out the
   poor publican, but, after a contemptuous reference to him, he returned
   to the catalog of his own virtues and excellences.

   12. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
   There his prayer ended and he stood in a most enviable state of
   contentment, delighted with himself, lost in the contemplation of his
   own ineffable purity. I think I see him in all his glory, yet I quickly
   turn to the other part of the Temple, further away from the most sacred
   place, for there I behold the true worshipper.

   13. And the publican, standing afar off Not afar off from the Pharisee,
   only, but afar off from the sacred shrine, the innermost Temple, as if
   unworthy to be there at all--"the publican, standing afar off."

   13. Would not lift up so much as his eyes unto Heaven. That throne of
   the Highest--as if even a glance from his unholy eyes might defile that
   sacred place! He bowed his eyes downward, as if to read in the earth
   the record of his sin. He did not dare to look up.

   13. But smote upon his breast His heart smote him and he smote upon his
   heart.

   13, 14. Saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner I tell you, this man
   went down to his house justified rather than the other: for everyone
   that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall
   be exalted. The great Lord and Master acts as He would have His true
   servants do. It was said of some of them that they turned the world
   upside down and that is exactly what He does! He abases those who exalt
   themselves and He exalts those who abase themselves. He lifts up the
   lowly and casts down them of high degree in their own estimation--and
   so shall it be to the end of the world.
     __________________________________________________________________

"Good Judgment"

   (No. 2688)

   A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, AUGUST 19, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JULY
   21, 1881.

   "You have dealt well with Your servant, O LORD, according unto Your
   Word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed Your
   Commandments." Psalm 119:65, 66.

   WHEN the Psalmist wrote these words, he was contemplating the goodness
   of God. In the verse preceding our text, the 64th, he sang, "The earth,
   O Jehovah, is full of Your mercy!" as if he could not walk abroad
   without seeing evidences of it, or look upward, or backward, or around
   him, without everywhere perceiving the Omnipresent goodness of the Most
   High. Whatever season of the year it is in which we take our walks
   abroad into the field of Nature, we ought to be in such a condition of
   mind and heart as to see proofs of the fullness of God's love
   everywhere around us, but especially, I think, it should be so in these
   summer months when the fields are ripening toward the harvest and we
   see how God is fulfilling His ancient Covenant, "While the earth
   remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and
   winter, and day and night shall not cease." How thankful we ought to be
   that the Lord thus remembers the earth and makes it bring forth the
   corn and everything else that is necessary to supply the needs of men!
   So let us bless God that the earth is still full of His mercy.

   Is our own life in the same condition, or are we strangers to the
   goodness of God? Is there mercy all around us, yet none for us? Well,
   let others answer these questions as they may, there are many here
   present who can reply most emphatically, "No, the earth is full of
   God's mercy and we can, each one of us, say to Him, 'You have dealt
   well with Your servant, O Lord.' Though You have had so many others of
   Your creatures to care for, You have not forgotten poor me. Though I am
   but the merest atom, dwelling in a world which is, itself, nothing more
   than a speck when compared with the innumerable worlds that throng Your
   universe, yet You have not failed to let Your mercy come to me, even to
   me."

   I have sometimes lighted upon a little flower right in the depths of
   the forest glades. It seemed as if it were hidden quite away, utterly
   concealed by the towering trees and yet it bloomed as sweetly as if it
   had been watched over and cared for by the utmost skill, for somewhere
   between the branches--I could not tell where--there was a little window
   through which the sun shone into the heart of that tiny flower, kissing
   it into perfume, and tinting it with those lovely colors which made it
   so attractive! All around it, the soil was bare, but this sweet flower
   flourished all by itself, and so, Brothers and Sisters, if you have
   lived in the midst of those who have forgotten your God, you have been
   hidden away in obscurity, yet the Lord has not forgotten you and,
   somehow--yes, and continually--the beams of His gracious sunlight have
   come even to you and you must bless and praise and magnify Him to whom
   you owe all that you have and are! Therefore cheerfully bear witness
   with the rest of God's people to this blessed fact and join with the
   Psalmist in saying, "You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord,
   according unto Your Word."

   You may go further and say, "You have dealt well with all Your
   servants, O Lord, according to Your Word." David had not always thought
   so, but he did think so when he came to sum up the total of his life's
   experience and to write it down in his diary--for I suppose that the
   119th Psalm was made up of the entries in David's diary as he went
   along. This was the summary of all that he had experienced, that God
   had dealt well with him--but as he had not always thought so, he felt
   that he had been very much misled and mistaken in judgment--and
   therefore he prayed this prayer: "Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
   for I have believed Your Commandments."

   There will be three things for me to talk about tonight. First,
   judgment expressed. David expressed his judgment as to how God had
   dealt with him and very sound and judicious judgment it was--"You have
   dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according unto Your Word."
   Secondly, I shall have to speak to you about judgment desired--"Teach
   me good judgment and knowledge." And, thirdly, I shall tell you about
   judgment possessed. The Psalmist already possessed a measure of good
   judgment--he was not altogether left to be as the foolish, for he could
   truthfully say to the Lord, "I have believed Your Commandments." He had
   possessed judgment enough for that and that is one reason why he might
   expect to have more, for it is an old law of God's Kingdom, "Whoever
   has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance."

   I. First, then, here is David's JUDGMENT EXPRESSED--"You have dealt
   well with Your servant, O Lord."

   Looking through his past life, he came to the conclusion, first, that
   God had dealt with him. It is a very awe-inspiring Truth of God and one
   that should make us feel that this life is a solemn thing, because in
   it God deals with us. We thought that we had been having dealings with
   our fellow men and so we have, but, all the while, there has been
   Another who has also been dealing with us. And we say, "Under all, and
   over all, and within all, have been the dealings of His Providence."
   Or, rather, let us say, "the dealings of God, Himself," so that we can
   personally say, "You have dealt with Your servant." It will not be
   strange if we add, "How dreadful is this place! This is none other but
   the House of God and this is the gate of Heaven. Surely the Lord is in
   this place."

   There are some who cannot or who will not see that God deals with men
   in this mortal life. Alas, for them! God is the very Life of life and
   there are some of us who could not be made to think otherwise than that
   God has dealt with us, for there have been portions of our life which
   have been so surprising that whenever we look back upon them, they
   amaze us! There is no novel that ever was written that can equal in
   interest the true life of a believing man. His path is strewn with
   wonders and thick with marvelous displays of his Lord's love. I will
   not refer especially to any man's life. If I did, it would have to be
   the one I know best, that is, my own. Each man must speak according to
   his own experience and I am compelled to say, and to say it without the
   slightest hesitation, "The Lord has dealt with my soul." As surely as I
   live, I have spoken with Him and He has spoken with me. No, more than
   that, He has dealt out innumerable mercies to me and constantly dealt
   with me--and through me He has dealt with many others, also. And this I
   know, that life would not be worth living if it did not continually
   touch the hem of Jehovah's garments! The very virtue of life streams
   into our life through our being in contact with Him. Where the little
   circle of our existence impinges upon the unutterably vast
   circumference of His power and Glory is where we get the blessings that
   we need!

   I wish that we recognized far more clearly than we do that God is
   around us at all times. In the olden days, the saints often met with
   God--sometimes beneath a tree, or beside a bush, or in a lone desert,
   or outside a city wall, or by a brook at midnight, or in a furnace all
   aglow--they met Him in all manner of places, for He was much about in
   those good old days, or else there were men about, then, who were quick
   to record His manifestations to His people. But have not we also beheld
   His face again and again? Have not we often had communion with the
   Well-Beloved? Has He not had dealings with us, also? Surely the beams
   and timbers of this House of Prayer would cry out against us if we did
   not say, "Verily, the Lord has been mindful of us and He has manifested
   Himself unto us as He does not unto the world. Truly, God has dealt
   with us."

   This is also true of every man, though not in the same sense, nor to
   the same extent. God has dealt with you all. Into whatever position you
   have been cast, God has had some dealings with you. Take heed lest His
   dealings of long-suffering, being slighted, He should begin to deal
   with you after another fashion, for He has a rod of iron, and woe be to
   the potter's vessels in the day when He begins to dash them in pieces!
   Oh, that He might deal with us only in mercy and never come to deal
   with us in wrath, as He will have to do with the men who go on in their
   iniquities! That is the first judgment of David, that God had dealt
   with him.

   But he also judged that God had dealt well with him--"You have dealt
   well with Your servant, O Lord." And this, too, is our conclusion.
   Taking God's dealings as a whole, He has dealt well with us. There are
   some points in His dealings with us which have been so special that the
   words of our text hardly appear emphatic enough to describe them. For
   instance, when I think of God's purposes concerning us from before the
   foundation of the world, it hardly seems sufficient to say, "The Lord
   has dealt well with us." When I remember the Covenant, that
   "Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things, and sure," I want to say
   something much stronger than that God has dealt well with us--I prefer
   to say that He

   has dealt with us like a God, in a Divine way for which there is no
   earthly comparison! Then, when He gave His Son to bleed and die for us
   and when He sent His Spirit to convert us, and then to dwell in us, it
   is not enough if I say, "You have dealt well with Your servants." It is
   better than well! It is indescribably, unutterably well that God has
   dealt with us in the way of free, rich, Sovereign, Immutable,
   everlasting love--glory be to His holy name!

   But take our personal experience, for I suppose the Psalmist is here
   referring to that. How well the Lord has dealt with us in Providence!
   Adding up all our varied experiences, we can truly say that all things
   have worked together for our good. Life has been a strange mixture for
   some of us--our coat of arms might be the checkers, black and white,
   for we have had sweets and bitters intermingled--bitter sweets and
   sweet bitters. What strange compounds many of our lives are! The
   evening and the morning have made the day from the creation and we have
   had darkness and brightness, but, putting the whole together, the
   result has been more than well. If we had been the pilot of our own
   ship, we could not have steered it better than God has done--no, we
   could not have guided it anything like as well as He has done. We would
   have been sure to make a spiritual shipwreck long ago if we had been
   our own pilots. We would have been bankrupts before now if we had been
   our own managers! But God has managed our affairs so successfully that
   looking upon the whole of them at this moment, we can truly say that
   God has dealt well with us.

   I may go much further than that and say that if we were to take to
   pieces the whole of God's dealings with us, there is not one fragment
   out of it all of which we would not have to say that God has dealt well
   with us in it. This is especially true of those parts of His dealings
   with us which have seemed to be the roughest. Oh, how we ought to bless
   God for the use He has made of the rod! Among all the blessings of the
   Covenant, surely there is none that, for our present imperfect state,
   has in it greater immediate virtues than the rod of the Covenant from
   the strokes of which we have not been spared! How grateful we ought to
   be for sanctified affliction! Wisely did the poet write, concerning the
   varied experiences of God's children--

   "'Tis well when on the mount They feast on dying love, And 'tis as well
   in God's account, When they the furnace prove."

   I am sure that in looking back upon all the way that the Lord has led
   you, those of you who are His children will be bound to say that
   goodness and mercy have followed you all the days of your life! There
   has not been a single mistake or one unkind act on God's part. He has
   sometimes cut you with the very sharpest knife He had and it was
   necessary for Him to cut deeply with it so as to get out the very roots
   of the cancer that was destroying you. You would have been lost if it
   had not been that you lost your all--but that loss was your greatest
   gain! I have heard of one who said that he never saw till he was blind.
   And of another who said that he never ran in the way of God's
   Commandments till he lost the use of both his legs. Oftentimes that
   which has thrown us down has, in the best sense, lifted us up! So each
   Believer can adopt the language of the text, and say, "You have dealt
   well with Your servant, O Lord." In every place, and at every time, it
   has been all well!

   It has also been well in every sense of the word. "Well"--that is to
   say, wise. "Well"--that is to say, kind, which is something more than
   being simply wise. "Well"--that is to say, kinder than kind, the
   kindest of all! What God has done for us has always been the best thing
   that could be done! It could not have been better. I sometimes fear
   that, on our part, it could hardly have been worse--shame on us that it
   was so bad! But, on His part, nothing could possibly have excelled
   it--every step that He has taken has been full of infinite love and
   wisdom. And as to the ultimate effects and results of it all, it is
   well. There will come something better for us out of all that God has
   prepared for us than has come out of it yet. All is well, and all shall
   be well. Pronounce the word with all the emphasis that you can lay upon
   it and look at it from all sides, and then say, "You have dealt well
   with Your servant, O Lord."

   Now let me shift this kaleidoscope a little, that you may take another
   peep at all the marvels that it contains. Notice, next, that God has
   dealt well with us as His servants--"You have dealt well with Your
   servant, O Lord." Of course He has dealt well with us as His children,
   giving us the child's portion and the heir's portion! He has dealt well
   with us as His bride, as the members of His mystical body and so on.
   But David said to the Lord, "You have dealt well with Your servant,"
   and I will try to show you how He has dealt well with us as His
   servants.

   First, He has given us blessed work to do. There is no such employment
   as serving God--this employment is our enjoyment! To serve God is to
   reign! The Lord has sometimes given us difficult service--so we have
   thought--but He

   has always given us proportionate strength and has never exacted of us
   more than He has enabled us to accomplish. On another occasion, David
   wrote, "Unto You, O Lord, belongs mercy: for You render to every man
   according to his work." That is to say, "You have supplied the straw
   when you have expected the bricks to be made. You have given the five
   talents if you have looked for five other talents to be gained as
   interest on them. You have dealt well in giving little work to those
   who have had little strength and less work when the strength has grown
   less, and more strength when more work had to be done and most strength
   of all when work and suffering came together. You have been very
   considerate of Your servant's broken bones and many weaknesses. You
   have dealt well with Your servant in that way."

   But servants expect to receive not only work, but provision--and the
   Lord has dealt well with His servants in that respect, also. He has
   always kept us in livery--sometimes we may have thought that our
   clothes were getting pretty well worn out and that it was time for us
   to have a change--and it has always come. We have also always had food.
   God has never kept a stinted table and we may say of our Heavenly
   Father's house that there is always bread enough and to spare for all
   His servants. The Lord has supplied us in Providence and especially in
   Grace. What fat things full of marrow, what wines on the lees
   well-refined has He prepared for us! God never starves His servants or
   puts them on short commons. No, each one of them can truly say to Him,
   "You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your Word,
   both in provender and in labor."

   And servants like, beside that, to get a word of encouragement now and
   then from their masters. There was one who left an excellent master
   with whom he had traveled all over the Continent. And when his master
   asked the reason why he wished to leave him, he answered, "You have not
   been unkind to me; you have given me all the wages that I needed, but
   when I have been with you in the darkest nights, in the heaviest
   tempests, in the most terrible frosts, you have never spoken a cheering
   word to me and I cannot continue to live such a life as that." You know
   that a kind word or a smiling look will go a long way and in this
   respect, also, we can, each one, say, "You have dealt well with Your
   servant, O Lord." How graciously He has smiled upon us when we have
   been trying to serve Him! How much He has made of our little! He has
   often commended us even when we have been blaming ourselves--and when
   we confessed that we were unprofitable servants and only spoke the
   truth when we said so, He has been ready to say, "Well done, good and
   faithful servants." He has often said to us, "I know your works," at
   the very time when we have hardly known them ourselves! Or, if we have
   known them, we have wanted not to recognize them, but to pass them by
   as if they were unworthy of notice. The Lord has, indeed, dealt well
   with His servants in the way of encouragement.

   And so He has in respect to our wages. He has given us earnests of the
   pay which we shall receive at the end of our day's toil. Oh, that
   blessed pay! How rich we shall be when we receive it, not of debt, but
   all of Grace--a whole Heaven and a whole Christ, and a whole God for
   our whole hearts to enjoy throughout the whole of eternity! Was there
   ever such a "penny" as that paid to laborers at the close of their
   day's work? But even on the way the Lord has given us blessed earnests,
   sweet pledges of what is yet to come to us. We have good cause to love
   our Master and to love His work, and to be grateful to Him for the pay
   He gives us for it. And again, each one of us can say to Him, "You have
   dealt well with Your servant, O Lord." Is there any one of His servants
   here who will not say this? I always think that God has dealt well with
   me in not turning me out of doors and I still pray the prayer--

   "Dismiss me not from Your service, Lord"-- for I count it my highest
   honor to be permitted to do anything for Him. He might well say to any
   of us, "You are not worth your salt," and send us adrift, but He has
   not done so and we can still say to Him, "You have dealt well with Your
   servant, O Lord, and still permitted him to take his place in the ranks
   of those that wait upon You and, therefore, blessed be Your holy name!"

   So far, you see, David's judgment is one in which we fully
   coincide--"You have dealt with Your servant" and, "You have dealt well
   with him." But we also agree with him that God has dealt with us
   according to His Word. It greatly sweetens a blessing when we know that
   it comes to us by way of the promises. Whatever God has done to us, in
   love and kindness, is only what He said He would do! Look back, now,
   and see whether the print of Providence does not exactly answer to the
   type of the promise. Concerning many things that we have needed, God
   said, "I will give them to you." And now we can say to Him, "You have
   done so." He promised that He would be with us. He promised that He
   would bless us. He promised that bread would be given us and that our
   waters should be sure. He said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake
   you" and all along He has acted according to His Word!

   Even when He has chastened us, He has only fulfilled His own Word, "As
   many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." His pruning has been as Christ
   said it would be, "Every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it
   may bring forth more fruit." When He chastises us for our disobedience,
   He only fulfils His threat, "If you walk contrary to Me, I will walk
   contrary to you." It is all according to the Word and if anybody wants
   to know what the life of a Christian is, let him read what the promise
   of God is, for, as far as God is concerned in the life of a
   Christian--the promise is a prophecy of what it will be--and the
   prophecy is fulfilled in the life of every man who puts his trust in
   God.

   Now this was a sound judgment on David's part, but it was a judgment at
   which he appears to have arrived after God's dealings with him were
   almost ended. It would be far better and much wiser if we could daily
   learn to say, "You are dealing well with Your servant, O Lord,
   according to Your Word." But we are often so foolish that, like old
   Jacob, we say, "All these things are against us." David probably felt
   that in former days he had often made a mistake, so he here corrects
   himself and expresses a true and just judgment concerning the dealings
   of God with him. May we be taught to judge righteously of God while the
   work is still going on! Is there anybody here, out of all God's people,
   who will do otherwise? If so, let me just suggest that if we cannot
   say, "You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your
   Word," then, in effect, do say this, "You have not dealt well with Your
   servant, O Lord--and You have not kept Your Word."

   Is there any child of God prepared to talk like that? Not one! And if
   you or I cannot say, "You are dealing well with Your servant, O Lord,
   according to Your Word," then we are, in effect, saying, "You are not
   dealing well with Your servant, and You are not acting according to
   Your Word." Are we prepared to say that? No, not to say it--not to say
   it--perhaps we would be more honest if we did, but if anybody thinks
   it, let him prostrate himself before the God of Heaven and earth and
   ask for the forgiveness of his ungrateful unbelief in daring to think
   that God can be otherwise than good and kind towards a soul redeemed
   with the heart's blood of Christ, chosen from before the foundation of
   the world and ordained to everlasting glory with God Himself! May we
   fall back again, then, upon the bold assertion of the text and say to
   God, if we do not say it to anybody else--say it as we walk home and
   say it as we kneel by our bedside--"You have dealt well with Your
   servant, O Lord, according to Your Word--and blessed be Your holy
   name!"

   Now I must pass on to speak very briefly concerning the other two
   heads--they are the practical application of this first one.

   II. Secondly, we have to consider GOOD JUDGMENT DESIRED. "Teach me good
   judgment and knowledge." David felt that his judgment had been greatly
   at fault, so that he had made great mistakes with regard to God. And
   now that he had come to a more correct judgment, he offered this
   prayer: "Teach me good judgment and knowledge." This is what all
   Christians need--better judgment--more good judgment--more sound
   judgment. May God help us, for the future, first, to judge His
   Providence better!--

   "Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His Grace."
   Next, judge your sufferings better and learn to believe that it is good
   for you that you have been afflicted. May we get our judgment more
   correct so that it may not be so hasty, or so unbelieving! May our
   judgments not be, as they sometimes have been, desponding, dark,
   dreary! We need to have our judgments brightened up. Pray God to make
   them better.

   Then we shall be able to have good judgment in matters of doctrine. I
   wish we could get all Christians to have good judgment in this respect.
   They go to hear one man who is very fluent. He preaches Calvinistic
   doctrine and it is very sweet to them. Another preaches Arminian
   doctrine and contradicts all that the first one said--but to these
   people it is equally good, for he, also, is an eloquent man. Almost any
   error is sucked down by nine out of ten of the professors of the
   present day so long as it is sufficiently sugared! If you will but
   spice it well, it matters not to them what it is. I have been shocked
   to find how some will go and listen to the very drivel which is not the
   Gospel of God at all, so long as it is but fitly spoken! May God give
   us good judgment upon this matter! We have not as much as we ought to
   have, otherwise we would have judged more wisely concerning much that
   we have heard.

   "Lord, teach me good judgment and knowledge," means, "Let me know You.
   Let me know Your Truth. Let me know the voice of Christ, so that I may
   not follow a stranger, because I know not the voice of strangers and
   have that

   discretion which is not to be deceived." There are some preachers who
   would deceive the very elect, if it were possible, but the true saints
   shall not be deceived, for God will teach them "good judgment and
   knowledge."

   We also need good judgment concerning our temptations. We are often
   like silly little birds, which, for want of judgment, are allured by a
   bird call. Satan, like a cunning fowler with foolish birds, makes sure
   work of uninstructed Christians! They are taken as in a net and if the
   Lord did not graciously deliver them, they could not escape. We need
   good judgment to spy out the hidden temptation and to see through the
   devil's tricks and traps. He does not come to men showing his hoofs and
   horns--but he comes as an angel of light--and he is never so much a
   devil as when he appears to be an angel of light. I feel pleased to
   think that the Revised Version has altered that clause in the Lord's
   prayer to, "Deliver us from the Evil One." Some do not like it because
   they do not believe in the Evil One. Or, perhaps, because they are too
   much his friend to wish to pray against him! But, in these days he is
   so intensely an Archenemy and he slinks about so craftily, that many
   people have begun to imagine that he no longer exists! And he can do
   ten times more mischief because of that delusion, so we will pray
   against him flat to his face, "Deliver us from the Evil One. Give us
   good judgment and knowledge, that we may not be ignorant of his
   devices." We also need good judgment as to the many false spirits that
   are gone forth into the world. "Try the spirits," is an admonition that
   is still necessary and we need to be taught good judgment that we may
   be able to do it--and discern between good and evil.

   I will not detain you by speaking at any length upon this point, only I
   just want to say that if we have been mistaken about God, the
   probability is that we have been mistaken about other things. And even
   if the dealings of our own Heavenly Father have sometimes perplexed us
   and we have come to wrong conclusions concerning them, we ought to
   distrust our own judgment about other things and constantly go to God
   the Holy Spirit for teaching and enlightening, offering this prayer,
   "Teach me good judgment." I wish that those who are troubled with
   skepticism and doubt would go to God in this way. If men who have
   difficulties would tell them to God in prayer, spreading out their
   dilemmas before the Most High, I believe He would teach them good
   judgment and they would see their way where now everything seems to be
   dark and dubious. Let this plan be tried and I believe it will not be
   tried in vain!

   III. My last point is concerning JUDGMENT POSSESSED.

   The Psalmist had some good judgment and, therefore, he asked for more.
   He possessed a measure of right judgment, which he expressed in these
   words, "I have believed Your Commandments." That is a very unusual
   expression because, generally, people believe doctrines, or believe
   promises. But David says that he believed God's Commandments. That is a
   phase of faith that is very seldom spoken of and it means that,
   notwithstanding all David's troubles, he had believed God's sacred Law
   to be a wise one, a just one and a true one. He had believed that it
   came from God and he had, therefore, reverenced it. He had believed it
   to be infinitely wise and, therefore, he followed it. He believed it to
   be right and, therefore, he stuck to it. He believed that in the end it
   would turn out to be the wisest policy to do as God had bidden him, so
   he stood to that. He seems to say, "Lord, I am very foolish, yet I have
   had wit enough given me, by Your Spirit, to believe that Your
   Commandments are the best that can be, so I wish to keep them and to
   believe that Your Commandments are the best guide to me in life and,
   therefore, I desire to follow them."

   Brothers and Sisters, if you do not know much, yet if you know enough
   to be able to say to God, "I have believed Your Commandments and, by
   Your Grace, I have not departed from Your Truth," then all will come
   right with you. Suppose a man is tempted to steal. I do not mean to go
   and pilfer, but to falsify an account, or cheat in business, or what is
   much the same thing--to get money by borrowing it when he knows he
   cannot repay it? Well, the man who acts like that does not really
   believe God's Commandment, "You shall not steal." I have heard of one
   who needed wood in winter time and his neighbor in the next farm had a
   stack of wood. As he walked along the road, something whispered in his
   ear, "All things are yours." "Well," he said, "that thought comes from
   God! I will go and take home a log or two." When he had climbed over
   into the field and begun to get the wood out of the stack, there came
   to his mind another passage of Scripture, "You shall not steal," and he
   dropped the wood at once!

   My dear Friends, never believe an impression that is contrary to God's
   Word! In fact, I would like you not to believe any impression but that
   which comes from Scripture, itself. I met, the other day, a person who
   was impressed that he was to preach for me. He said that it was
   revealed to him, by the Spirit of God, that he should preach for me one
   Sunday. I told him that he could do so when the Spirit of God also
   revealed it to me, for I did not believe in lopsided revelations. I
   thought that it was necessary for the revelation to come to me as well
   as to him. When it does, I will attend to it. Some

   people have, every now and then, a supposed revelation that just suits
   them. A man believes that it is impressed upon him to do exactly what
   he wants to do! For instance, he is sure that he ought to get married.
   Many young people are quite sure about that matter when it would be far
   better for them not to do anything of the sort. A man is often
   impressed that he ought to do a thing simply because he wants to do
   it--the wish is father to the thought. Now, if you believe God's
   Commandments, you will not always believe in what looks like a
   Providence. Do you not know that there are devil's providences,
   sometimes? At least that is what I call them.

   When Jonah went down to flee unto Tarshish, he found a ship going
   there--was not that a remarkable providence? Perhaps he said to
   himself, "I felt some doubt about whether I was right in going there,
   but when I got down to the seashore, there was a ship--and there was
   just room for me to go as a passenger, and the fare was just the amount
   that I had--and so I felt that it must be of the Lord." Nonsense,
   Jonah! It is of the Lord for you to do what is right! And if you have
   judgment enough to do that, let others be foolish enough to follow this
   impression or that, this whim or that, this notion or that which may
   come to them from Satan--or their own evil hearts!

   Be you, dear Friends, wise enough to stand to the plain Commandments of
   the Word. God help you to do so, for uprightness and integrity shall
   preserve you and nothing else will. "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so
   shall you dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed." Those who do
   not believe God's Commandments and run off to all sorts of shifts and
   schemes, and tricks of their own, will have to suffer for it! Pray to
   God to teach you good judgment. And if He has given you a measure of
   it, may He continually give you more and more, for His name's sake!
   Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM119:64-72.

   Verses 64-67. The earth, O LORD, is full of Your mercy: teach me Your
   statutes. You have dealt well with Your servant, O LORD, according unto
   Your Word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed
   Your Commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray.--Prosperity
   had been to the Psalmist like the gap in the hedge through which the
   sheep wander from the shepherd, but affliction had been to him like the
   prickly bushes that often stop the sheep from wandering still further,
   so he says, "Before I was afflicted I went astray."

   67. But now have I kept Your Word. What a benefit, then, affliction had
   been to him! And what a blessing it often is to us! So, instead of
   dreading it, as we usually do, we ought to welcome it and be on the
   look-out for the blessing which is to come to us through it. Many a
   child of God has joined with Dr. Watts in singing--

   "Father, I bless Your gentle hand-- How kind was Your chastising rod
   That forced my conscience to a stand, And brought my wandering soul to
   God! Foolish and vain, I went astray Ere I had felt Your scourges,
   Lord-- I left my Guide, and lost my way; But now I love and keep Your
   Word."

   68. You are good, and do good. What a delightful description this is of
   God and His works! Who is good? Our Lord Jesus supplies the answer,
   "There is none good but One, that is, God." And His works are like
   Himself--"You are good, and do good."

   68. Teach me Your statutes. In the 25th Psalm, David wrote, "Good and
   upright is the Lord: therefore will He teach sinners in the way." And
   here, because the Lord is good, and does good, the Psalmist prays,
   "Teach me Your statutes." He will teach us that which is good because
   He is, Himself, good. What a blessing it is for us to have such a
   Teacher! How wonderful it is that God should be so condescending as to
   take us into His school!

   69. The proud have forged a lie against me. They have kept on hammering
   away until they have finished the falsehood. They have "forged" it, as
   one forges a deadly weapon in the fire.

   69. But I will keep Your Precepts with my whole heart ' 'It is no use
   for me to trouble about them. When they have forged one lie, they will
   probably forge another and there is practically no end to that black
   business. It is no use for me

   to try to answer them. I will turn to a far more profitable
   occupation--'I will keep Your Precepts with my whole heart.'"

   70. Their heart is as fat as grease. Insensible, lifeless--they have no
   conscience, no feeling--they are so proud of their prosperity that they
   are afflicted with fatty degeneration of the heart.

   70. But I delight in Your Law. What a blessing it is for us to find our
   fatness there--to delight in the marrow and fatness of God's Law!

   71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn
   Your Statutes. The Psalmist was so impressed with the benefits which he
   had derived from his afflictions, that he returned to the subject--"It
   is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Your
   Statutes." There is much teaching power about God's rod. He always
   keeps one in His school and it is greatly needed for such dull scholars
   as we are. Many a child of God can repeat the Psalmist's testimony--"It
   is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Your
   statutes." "You have whipped a little knowledge into me and not much
   has come in any other way."

   72. The Law of Your mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and
   silver David had a great deal of gold and silver, far more than any of
   us have, but yet he thought very little of it in comparison with God's
   Law. Many people despise gold and silver because they have not any. The
   fox said the grapes were sour because they were beyond his reach. But
   here is a case in which a man had as much gold and silver as he could
   ever want--yet he says that the Law of God's mouth was better than all
   of it, and he was wise in saying so! For gold and silver can be stolen.
   Riches often take to themselves wings and fly away. Even great wealth
   may soon be spent and gone, but God's Law never leaves those who love
   it, nor lets them lose it. When all our spending money is gone, then is
   the Commandment of God still our treasure. Happy is everyone who can
   say, with David, "The Law of Your mouth is better unto me than
   thousands of gold and silver."
     __________________________________________________________________

The Ever-Living Christ

   (No. 2689)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, AUGUST 26, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
   24, 1881.

   "I am He that lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevemore,
   Amen." Revelation 1:18.

   WE long, sometimes, to behold Christ in His Glory. Certainly, it is one
   of our brightest hopes that we shall see Him as He is. Every true
   Believer can say, with Job, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He
   shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin,
   worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall
   see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another." But,
   Brothers and Sisters, as we are now constituted, we are quite unfit for
   the vision of our Master's Glory. It was well that, when He was on
   earth, He veiled himself in the form of man, for when He did lift up
   the veil a little, as He did on the Mountain of Transfiguration, the
   sight, though it was but a glimpse, was too much for Peter, James and
   John. They were overpowered by it! They fell asleep on the holy mount
   and even when they were awake, they knew not what to say. And as we now
   are, if we could be favored with a sight of Christ in His Glory, it
   would be too much for us, also.

   It was too much, even, for John, and we are far inferior to him--our
   eyes are not as clear and strong as his were-- yet he could not endure
   that wondrous vision! The gray old saint in Patmos had been familiar
   with his Master more years than most of us have known Him. He had laid
   his head upon the Savior's bosom--a privilege accorded to none beside
   himself. He had stood at the Cross and seen the blood and water flow
   from that dear heart that loved him so well and yet, though he was
   "that disciple whom Jesus loved," when he had a sight of his glorified
   Master, he fell at His feet as dead! The full Glory of Christ is too
   much for us to behold while we are here on the earth, so ask not to
   have it yet, dear Friends. By-and-by, when you are fitted for it and
   Christ has prepared a place for you, His prayer shall be fulfilled in
   your happy experience! "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." He might say to each one of you, "Not yet, My
   child, not yet may you see Me as I Am. Your eyes are not yet fit for
   such a sight as that."

   Observe, Beloved, how the Savior comforted John when, through the
   excessive Glory of the vision of his Lord, he swooned away and was as
   one dead. First, He laid His right hand upon him--and that is where
   yourcomfort and mine must always come from--from the hand that was
   crucified for us. There streams from that pierced hand a wondrous power
   that makes the weakest strong. A touch of it proves how near Christ is
   to us. We know, when He touches us, that He is Man as well as God, and
   the familiar touch which brings Him so consciously near our spirit
   makes us glad and joyous, and we become strong again. And if the fact
   of His Incarnation--the Truth of God that Christ is flesh of our flesh,
   and bone of our bone--should not suffice to cheer us, then He adds, as
   He did to John, "Fear not." The Master is saying that to each one of
   you who believe in Him, but especially to such of you as are very faint
   and weak and who feel that you are soon to die. He is drawing near to
   you, Brothers and Sisters, who are shortly to lay aside the frail
   tabernacle of this mortal body. The glinting and gleams of the Glory
   yet to be revealed overcome you, but He whispers in your ear, "Fear
   not; I am the First and the Last: I am He that lives, and was dead."
   All these words are full of good cheer to spirits that faint away with
   expectation of the coming of the King and to hearts that are ravished
   with desire for the company of the Best-Beloved.

   "Fear not," He says, and that we may not fear, let us now look into the
   things here made known which ought to be a cause of strength and
   comfort to us. They seem to me to be three--though there are many
   more--there are three that strike me most. The first is, the identity
   of Christ However glorious He may be, and His very face is as the sun
   when He shines in His strength, yet He is the same Christ as when He
   was here on earth. "I am He that lives, and was dead." Those words
   prove to us the identity of Christ. The next ground of sweet comfort,
   whenever we think of Christ in His Glory, is the perfection of His
   work, which is implied in the expression, "and was dead." He has
   nothing to do with death now-- as far as He is personally concerned,
   that is all over. You see that the words are in the past tense--"I am
   He that lives, and was dead." And then, thirdly, the great source of
   heart-cheer to every Believer, as he trembles in the Presence of his
   glorified Master, is the fact ofChrist's eternal existence. ' 'I am
   alive forevermore." He will never again be the dead Christ of
   Calvary--"I am alive forevermore, Amen."

   I. Let us begin, then, with the first great Truth that I mentioned--and
   I must necessarily speak somewhat hurriedly on each one--THE IDENTITY
   OF OUR BLESSED MASTER should greatly comfort us when we think of His
   Glory.

   Christ in Heaven is the same as He was here. A great change has passed
   over Him, but not a change as to His identity or His Nature--and
   especially not a change as to His heart of love to us, for He is "Jesus
   Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever"--absolutely the
   same! He who now makes all Heaven bright with His Presence is the same
   Christ who was born at Bethlehem, trod the waves of Galilee's
   storm-tossed lake, hung upon the Cross, was wrapped in the cerements of
   death and laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea. That same Jesus has
   risen from the dead and is now sitting at the right hand of God,
   reigning over all worlds! I want specially to bring before you this one
   thought--that while Christ was here, during the 40 days after His
   Resurrection--He was manifestly the same Jesus that He had been during
   His earthly life. We will not suppose--we cannot imaginethat any change
   has taken place in Him since then. The 40 days of His Glory on earth
   were a fair specimen of what He now is and He was, then, the same Jesus
   that the disciples had known before He was crucified.

   There were certain points about Him in which He made it quite clear
   that He was the same. The first was, His tenderness. He was always meek
   and lowly, gentle and kind, and He was just the same after He rose from
   the dead. Mark tells us that, "when Jesus was risen early the first day
   of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had
   cast seven devils." There is a fine touch of tenderness in that mention
   of the seven devils in connection with Christ's appearance to Mary
   Magdalene. She was one who loved Him much. She had been one of the last
   to watch by the sepulcher and now she was to be the first to meet her
   Lord after He had risen from the dead. It was just like Christ to
   manifest Himself first to her--to find one of the weakest of His
   followers, one of those who loved Him most--and one for whom He had
   already done the most.

   Then, it was just like He to send His angel with this message to the
   women, "Go your way, tell His disciples"--the very men who had all
   forsaken Him and fled! The cowards who had deserted Him in His hour of
   greatest need--"tell His disciples"--and then follows that tender,
   Christ-like touch--"tell His disciples and Peter"--poor, willful Peter
   who said that he would die rather than deny his Lord, yet he did deny
   Him with oaths and curses! Yet Christ sent him a special personal
   message, "tell His disciples and Peter that He goes before you into
   Galilee: there shall you see Him, as He said unto you." I am quite sure
   that this is the same Christ who said to Peter, "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."

   Then, further on, dear Brothers and Sisters, notice Christ's tenderness
   to Thomas. Even after Christ had risen from the grave a whole week,
   Thomas was still unbelieving. He had said that he would not believe
   that his Lord had risen unless he could see in His hands the print of
   the nails and put his finger into the print of the nails, and thrust
   his hand into the wound in Christ's side. On the second Sabbath, the
   Master came again to His disciples and, after saying to them, "Peace be
   unto you," He spoke to Thomas no word of anger, but simply said, "Reach
   here your finger and behold my hands; and reach here your hand, and
   thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing." There
   were, necessarily, some rebukes during that memorable period, for love
   must rebuke that which is not right, but those rebukes were like the
   reproof of which David said, "It shall be an excellent oil which shall
   not break my head." They were just such rebukes as always come from
   Jesus--and only from Jesus--so we are sure it was the same Man who had
   both died and risen again.

   And if another instance is needed to complete and crown the evidence,
   look at our Lord when He invited the disciples to eat fish with Him by
   the lake and then, afterwards, said to Peter, "Simon, son of Jonas, do
   you love Me more than

   these?" Thrice He repeated the question, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you
   love Me?" And then He commissioned him to feed His lambs and act as
   under-shepherd to His sheep. That was exactly like Christ--there was no
   counterfeit about such an action as that! He might then and there have
   said, "I am He that lives, and was dead"--the disciples would have
   recognized the tones of His voice, the manner of His speech and the
   spirit of His rebuke. Everything about it was so tender that it could
   not have been imitated and we say at once, as John said to Peter, "It
   is the Lord!" We cry, like Thomas, "My Lord and my God!"

   A second characteristic which, in connection with other things, proves
   the identity of Christ, is His energy. If Christ, after the
   Resurrection, had been very slow, dull, heavy, lethargic, we would have
   said, "This is not He who was eaten up with the zeal of God's house.
   This is not the Christ who was clad with zeal as with a cloak." But on
   that day of our Lord's Resurrection, He appeared first to Mary
   Magdalene, then to Simon Peter. Then, toward evening, He joined the two
   disciples going to Emmaus and, after He had revealed Himself to them,
   they could scarcely reach Jerusalem before He was there in the midst of
   the eleven saying, "Peace be unto you." We have not a complete record
   of all that transpired during those 40 days, but we have sufficient
   record to show us that our Lord was busy, here and there, showing
   Himself, sometimes, to little groups of two or three, and at one time
   to as many as 500 brethren at once. And we can see that His
   never-tiring energy was steadily maintained through those days of His
   glory-life while yet He tabernacled here below.

   Another point, too, is especially noticeable in the records of those 40
   days. That is, the constantScripturalness of the blessed Master's talk
   You know that, in His day, even the religious people did not quote
   Scripture as He did. The Rabbis said, "Rabbi Yohannin has said," or,
   "Rabbi Simeon has said," or, "Rabbi Levi has said so-and-so and
   so-and-so." But Christ quoted nothing from the Rabbis. On the way to
   Emmaus, "beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded unto
   them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." It was
   always His custom to do so and often He seemed to go out of His way to
   do or say something "that the Scripture might be fulfilled." He was
   always careful that by some act or word of His, He might fulfill a
   prophecy which, perhaps, we never would have understood if He had not
   fulfilled it. So, after He had risen from the dead, if He had not been
   a Bible-loving Christ, we might have questioned whether He was the same
   Christ.

   I have reminded you what He said to the two disciples going to Emmaus.
   And when He was back at Jerusalem among the eleven, He said to them,
   "These are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you,
   that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of
   Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Me. Then
   opened He their understanding that they might understand the
   Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it
   behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day."
   His constant reference to the Word. His manifest delight in quoting
   it--the Scripturalness of His whole conversation--all this is clear and
   convincing evidence that He was the same Christ who, all His life, from
   the temptation in the wilderness to His death on the Cross, constantly
   quoted the Scriptures! There was no other such teacher, in His day, who
   continually drew his instruction from the written Word. He was the one
   lone Man who was mighty in the Scriptures and who perpetually quoted
   them and, as He continued to do so after His Resurrection, this was
   another proof of His identity! He was the same Christ, depend upon it.

   There was another trait in His Character which must not be forgotten.
   That is, His love for the souls of men. Does that come out after His
   Resurrection? Yes, it does, not only in the incidents to which I have
   referred, but also in His declaration "that repentance and remission of
   sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at
   Jerusalem." I can see a great deal in those three words, "beginning at
   Jerusalem." Depend upon it, they were spoken by the Man who wept over
   Jerusalem and who cried, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the
   Prophets and stone them which are sent unto you, how often would I have
   gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens
   under her wings, and you would not!" "Give them one more opportunity of
   coming to Me," He says, "preach repentance and remission of sins, in My
   name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." That is the Man, I am
   sure, of whom it is written, "Then drew near unto Him all the publicans
   and sinners to hear Him."

   The Pharisees and scribes said of Him, "This Man receives sinners, and
   eats with them." That is why He said to His Apostles, "Begin with the
   greatest sinners first--'beginning at Jerusalem.'" I know it is He, it
   must be the Christ, Himself, for, before He died, He prayed for His
   murderers, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." And
   having risen from the dead, it was for those very murderers that He
   gave His commission of Grace and mercy! His care for men, and for the
   very worst of them, and His love for souls, and for those that were
   most of all in need of His pity and

   forgiveness prove that He was the same Christ who "was moved with
   compassion on the multitudes, because they fainted, and were scattered
   abroad, as sheep having no shepherd."

   One other thing I may note, for it helps to prove the identity of
   Christ. That is, His mention of the Spirit, for, in those times, there
   were none but Christ who preached about the Spirit of God. I greatly
   fear that there are not very many who do so now. Oh, how the Spirit of
   God is neglected in many sermons! I heard of one preacher, of whom it
   was said that people who listened to him did not know whether there was
   a Holy Spirit--they had not heard of Him for so long that they thought
   surely He must have ceased to operate! But our Lord continually
   mentioned the Spirit. In that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and
   cried, "If any man thirsts, let Him come unto Me, and drink. He that
   believes on Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow
   rivers of living water. (By this spoke He of the Spirit, which they
   that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet
   given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)." In that blessed
   Chapter where He tells us about the Comforter whom the Father would
   send to us in His name, He showed that He was, Himself, clothed with
   the Spirit and He spoke much of the Spirit. Now see how He spoke after
   He had risen from the dead--could anything be more plain than
   this--"Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry you
   in the city of Jerusalem, until you be endued with power from on high"?
   In His last words to His disciples, there is always this reference and
   deference to the Spirit, this Witness to the necessity of His
   operations, this warning to His followers that they can do nothing
   without Him, that they cannot preach the Gospel successfully unless the
   Spirit of God is with them. That is the same Christ upon whom the
   Spirit rested without measure! I am sure it is He and when He says, "I
   am He that lives--and was dead," all the tokens of the 40 days go to
   prove the identity of the risen Christ with the Christ who died upon
   the Cross!

   Let us dwell on that thought for just a minute before we pass on.
   Christ in Glory is none other than He who was here. No man ever loses
   anything by going to Heaven--an ordinary man gains much by going there,
   so I am sure my Lord is none the worse for entering into His Glory--He
   is none the less tender, none the less zealous, none the less mighty to
   save! And just as we might have been glad to run to Him when He was
   here, so may we gladly go to Him now, for He is just the same.

   II. Now I must speak very briefly upon the second head, although I
   might enlarge upon it to almost any extent, for it relates to THE
   FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST.

   When our Lord used to John the words, "was dead," and applied them to
   Himself, He meant that He had performed the crucial part of the
   Atonement The very central point of the Atonement was death--there was
   no way of making atonement for sin except by the shedding of the
   precious blood of Jesus, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
   There must be life to atone for sin--and that life
   sacrificed--therefore, Christ "was dead." It was no dream, no delusion,
   no sleep, no swoon, no coma. He "was dead." Though it was not possible
   for our blessed and glorious Savior to be held by the bands of death,
   yet He "was dead."

   This meant, further, that Christ's work was ended and done with There
   are some people who talk about presenting the perpetual sacrifice of
   the "mass." There is perhaps, no grosser blasphemy under Heaven than
   the idea that we can offer up the body and blood of Christ again. "Once
   and for all" Jesus died, but He is not a dead Christ now! Pictures of
   Christ dead, crucifixes and all things of that sort may, to some
   extent, represent what He was, but they do not represent what He is. I
   should not care to have hanging up in my house, the picture of a dead
   friend, representing him as he looked when he was dead--especially if
   he had been raised to life again. I would rather wait for his portrait
   till I could get one of him alive, for the picture of a dead man is not
   the man's likeness at all! I saw in a friend's house, the other day,
   the likeness of a minister and I said, "Oh, dear, how ghastly he
   looks!" The gentleman replied, "I am told that the photograph was taken
   after he was dead." "Well, then," I said, "put it away at once, pray
   put it away! That is not the likeness of the man at all, for the man
   was gone before it was taken." So, dear Friends, do not feel any kind
   of reverence for representations of the dead Christ--He is not dead and
   we ought not to think of Him as dead.

   I have seen, and some of you must also have seen, in Roman Catholic
   countries, figures of the Savior on the Cross till you have grown sick
   of the sight and you have said, "If there is anything that could drive
   me away from being a Christian, it is these perfectly hideous
   caricatures of Christ that some people stick up at every corner of the
   road." Christ is not dead! He " was dead." It is in the past tense,
   never forget that--but He is not dead now. "He is not here: for He is
   risen,

   as He said." And our trust is not in a dead Christ, but in the
   ever-living Christ who is still able "to save them to the uttermost
   that come unto God by Him, seeing He always lives to make intercession
   for them."

   Remember, also, dear Friends, that in the enterprise upon which our
   Lord's heart was set--the enterprise of saving men--the love which led
   Him to die is living love. He has proved, once and for all, and beyond
   all doubt, how much He loves His people! "Greater love has no man than
   this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." He has done that
   and, therefore, He has proved His love to guilty men in a way that is
   perfectly indisputable and--

   "Now though He reigns exalted high, His love is still as great."

   And remember, next, that the purpose of Christ in dying will certainly
   be accomplished, now that He has laid down His life for His people and
   taken it up again. I am not one of those who think that the result of
   Christ's death ever hung in jeopardy for a single moment. I believe
   that all He intended to do by His death will be done and that there is
   not one soul, for whom He stood as Substitute, that shall ever be lost.
   He has paid the debt for all His elect and they shall never be charged
   with their debts again--they are gone, and gone forever. If the Son of
   God has actually laid down His life to achieve a certain purpose, I
   cannot suppose that He will be prevented from achieving it. I can
   imagine myself living and dying for a certain end and yet being foiled,
   for I am but a man. I am not capable of such blasphemy as would be
   involved in believing that the Son of God could ever be born and live
   for a certain set purpose--and die to carry out that purpose and yet
   not accomplish it! "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall
   be satisfied." He "was dead" and He has, therefore, put forth all His
   strength for the accomplishment of the end He had in view--and that end
   will certainly be achieved!

   And remember, too, that the merit of His death lives. He "was dead,"
   but all the merit of that death is just as efficacious, today, as
   though He had only died today. Imagine for a moment that this was the
   morning of Christ's Resurrec-tion--that I stood here to tell you that I
   had gone with Mary Magdalene and seen His empty tomb--and that He had
   spoken to me as He did to her. With what freshness and power would I
   talk to you about those dear wounds of His and about the meaning of His
   death and the Sacrifice which He had offered! Well, now, although more
   than 1800 years have passed since His Resurrection, it is just as fresh
   to God and just as acceptable to God as ever it was! Still does He
   approve of the atoning Sacrifice of the Well-Beloved and the merit of
   it comes up perpetually before Him like the odor of sweet incense.

   This is a glad, a joyous theme over which I would gladly linger--to
   think that Christ's work is all done, all finished, all complete--there
   is nothing more to be done for His people's redemption! As He Himself
   said, before He gave up the ghost, "It is finished." That expression,
   "was dead," comes to me like the sound of a peal of bells tolling the
   death of death and ringing in the jubilee of all who believe in Jesus!
   He "was dead," but He is dead no longer! He lives now and He is "alive
   forevermore!"

   III. With that third word of comfort I am going to conclude. THE
   ETERNAL EXISTENCE OF CHRIST should always comfort us whenever we think
   of His Glory. He that was dead is "alive forevermore."

   Here, then, you warriors of the Cross, is unique leadership. Never did
   men before have such a leader as this One, who has proved His ardor for
   the accomplishment of His purpose by dying to achieve it, and who now
   lives to see that purpose fully accomplished! When Mohammed was
   alive--false prophet though he was--he inspired his followers with
   extraordinary enthusiasm when he snatched up a handful of dust from the
   road and flung it in the faces of his adversaries, crying, as he did
   so, "Let them be blinded." His followers believed that a miracle would
   really be worked and they, therefore, rushed upon their enemies and
   swept them away like chaff before the whirlwind. Yet now that Mohammed
   is dead and gone, his religion wanes and must, in time, expire. But our
   Master is not dead, our Leader is alive! He still rides at the head of
   the army of the Cross and calls us to battle for truth and right. The
   ungodly hear Him not, but as many as believe in Him still hear His
   clear voice ringing out the command, "Onward, hosts of God! Forward to
   the fight! 'Go you into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every
   creature' until I come."

   We take comfort from the fact that we are led by the living Christ.
   When the Cid, Rodrigo Diaz, had been slain in battle, these who had
   been accustomed to dread his mighty sword did not, for a time, know
   that he was dead. His followers mounted the dead Cid on horseback and
   the very sight of him, though it was only his corpse that they saw,
   made his adversaries flee before him. We set no dead Christ in the
   forefront of our army--it is the livingChrist who marches be-

   fore us and, therefore, we are confident of victory, for never was a
   host so led as by Him who can say, "I am He that lives, and was dead,
   and behold, I am alive forevermore."

   Next, here is a singular guarantee. He, who was dead, is now alive.
   Then, Brothers and Sisters, He will carry on His work! If, when He
   died, He had never risen again, but had left His cause in our puny
   hands, it would soon have failed. But He has risen and, "He shall not
   fail nor be discouraged, till He has set judgment in the earth: and the
   isles shall wait for His Law." His Kingdom shall extend to the utmost
   bounds of the earth--"they that dwell in the wilderness shall bow
   before Him and His enemies shall lick the dust." Be you sure of this,
   Beloved, that there is a guarantee of victory in the fact that Christ
   is still alive! In these dreary times in which we live, men tell us
   that Christianity is a failure, that the Gospel is a delusion and I do
   not know what is notgoing to happen. Yes, yes, but there is one very
   important thing which they omit to mention. He lives, He lives, HE
   LIVES who can never be crucified again! The Lord has set Him as King
   upon His holy hill of Zion and though "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," for the Lord reigns and He shall
   reign forever and ever, Hallelujah!

   In addition to this unique leadership and this singular guarantee of
   success, we also have, here, special encouragement to sinners. I verily
   believe that if my Master were here tonight in bodily Presence, there
   are some of you who have been seeking Him who would come and fall at
   His feet. Yes, you would be only too glad if you might wash His feet
   with your tears and wipe them with the hairs of your head. Well, He is
   living and He is here, though you cannot see Him or touch Him--but you
   may come to Him! You have not to travel any distance with weary feet in
   order to get to Him. Your minds can get to Him at once! Forget your
   eyes, awhile--they are poor dim things that hinder true sight. That may
   seem to be a strange description of our eyes, but it is true. And when
   we have got rid of them we shall see much better than we do now. But,
   oh, for once, believe without seeing! Believe that Jesus Christ is near
   you and ask Him to save you! Come to Him and, by faith, touch the hem
   of His garment just as if He were here corporeally. Cry to Him, "Jesus,
   Son of David, have mercy on me," for He will hear you and grant your
   request! Say, "Lord, that I might receive my sight" and He will
   spiritually open your eyes, now, even as, in the days of His flesh, He
   literally opened the eyes of blind men! You may well come to Him, for
   He is just the same Jesus as He used to be when He said, "Come unto Me,
   all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He
   lives, He lives, HE LIVES! Therefore go to your homes and find Him
   there! Go to your bedrooms and tell Him that you need Him! Cast
   yourselves down before Him in humble penitence and true faith, and He
   will save you! He will bless you because He still lives to make
   intercession for all that come unto God by Him.

   Now I close by noticing that there is something in this text which has
   a solemn warning in it. Christ lives and as He lives, woe be to those
   who persecute His people! Woe be to those who make a jest of Him, or
   trifle with His Truth, neglect His Gospel and put off seeking their own
   salvation until tomorrow! O my dear Hearers, if Christ were dead, we
   ought to respect His memory. But since He lives, remember that He takes
   cognizance of every insult to His cause and though He is always ready
   to forgive, yet, if your ears refuse the invitations of His Grace--if
   you hold out against His warnings and entreaties, He will surely come
   again--and when He comes, there will be upon that face of love
   something which you will dread more than all the lightning and thunders
   of the Last Tremendous Day!

   What, do you think, will be the most dreadful thing in the Day of
   Judgment? The fairest sight that ever was seen by mortal men--the face
   that causes the holy angels to sing and that makes Heaven for the
   saints--the face of Christ--love and justice, gentleness and truth,
   Godhead and Manhood blended in that matchless face. While His saints
   clap their hands with jubilant exultation at the sight of Him, the most
   awful thing in all the world to the ungodly will be that face, for, as
   they look into it and see the lines of suffering, and of suffering
   despised--and see the marks of love, and of love rejected--of majesty,
   and of majesty that has been insulted--as they look there, they will
   cry to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face
   of Him that sits on the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the
   great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

   O Sirs, that must be a dreadful thing which turns the best thing in
   Heaven into an object of the utmost terror! So, give up that sin of
   yours, I pray you. Give up that unbelief! Give up that
   self-righteousness! Give up everything that will, as it were, curdle
   the very love of Christ till even His great love shall turn to
   jealousy--for fiercer than the lion with his

   prey is love when once it is transformed into wrath! "Kiss the Son,
   lest He be angry, and you perish from the way, when His wrath is
   kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in
   Him," for their confidence is in Him who still says, "I am He that
   lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore." God bless
   you, for His dear name's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS5.

   Verse 1. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men
   in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and
   sacrifices for sins. Notice that the high priests were taken from among
   men, not from among angels. Hence, our Lord Jesus Christ took not on
   Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. The
   Jewish high priests were ordained for men. They acted on behalf of men
   and they stood in the place of men. So the Lord Jesus Christ stood in
   the place of His people that He might offer to God for them two
   things--gifts--that is, such offerings as the Jew made when he
   presented the fine flour, and oil and other bloodless oblations which
   were only intended for thanksgiving. Christ offered thanksgiving unto
   His Father and that offering was a sweet savor unto God. But beside
   those gifts, the priests offered sacrifices, and our Lord Jesus Christ
   did the same, for He was made a Sin-Offering for us, though He, Himself
   knew no sin!

   2. Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of
   the way. The marginal reading is, "Who can reasonably bear with the
   ignorant"--that is, one who does not lose his temper even when they are
   very slow to learn what he teaches them. Having taught them 19 times
   and finding that they do not understand or remember the lesson, he is
   ready to teach them the 20th time! He is one who will give them line
   upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little,
   because he has compassion on the ignorant. Then there were others who
   tried the high priest far more, even, than the ignorant did--they were
   those who erred from the right path, those who went out of the way and
   who continued to do so even after many warnings and much earnest
   exhortation. The true priest must have patience with people of this
   sort.

   2. For that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. So all the
   high priests under the Law of God were. They had to confess their own
   ignorance, they had to admit their own errors and wanderings and,
   therefore, they could the more readily have patience with others. Our
   Lord Jesus Christ had neither ignorance nor sin of His own, but He has
   become so completely one with His people, bone of our bone, and flesh
   of our flesh, that He can have compassion upon us, ignorant and out of
   the way as we may be. Are you distressed, my Brothers and Sisters,
   because you feel your own ignorance? Do you mourn because you have gone
   astray? You have to come to no angry Christ--you have to approach One
   who will be very gentle toward you! Come boldly to Him, then, and
   confess your folly and expect the pardon that He is waiting to bestow.

   3. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for
   himself, to offer for sins. We know that, being compassed with
   infirmity and imperfection, the high priests first offered sacrifices
   on their own account and then, afterwards, offered them on behalf of
   the people. Christ, being pure and holy, needed no sacrifice for
   Himself, but He did offer a complete, acceptable and sufficient
   Sacrifice for us.

   4. And no man takes this honor unto himself but he that is called of
   God, as was Aaron. Men could not constitute themselves high priests,
   for the appointment was made by God alone.

   5. 6. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest;
   but He that said unto Him, You are My Son, todayhave I begotten You. As
   He says also in another place, You are a Priest forever after the order
   of Melchisedec. Beloved, there is rich comfort for all Believers in the
   fact that Christ is God's appointed and accepted High Priest! God
   ordained Him to do what He has done and is doing, and will do--and
   therefore it is impossible but that God should accept Him and all His
   work.

   7, 8. Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and
   supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to
   save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared; though He were a
   Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered. Just as
   the earthly high priests offered sacrifices for themselves, so Christ,
   though He needed not to offer sacrifice for Himself, did need to
   prayfor Himself. You know, Beloved, how He gave Him-

   self unto prayer upon the cold mountains at midnight, and how
   Gethsemane's Garden witnessed the bloody sweat falling in clots to the
   ground. "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things
   which He suffered." God had one Son without sin, but He never had a son
   without suffering. We may escape the rod if we are not of the family of
   God, but the true-born child must not--and would not if he might--avoid
   that chastisement of which all such are partakers.

   9. And being made perfect That is, perfect in His obedience, perfect as
   a Sacrifice, perfect as the Mediator and Substitute for His people.

   9. He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey
   Him. Brethren, what a grand expression that is, "eternal salvation!"
   You know that there are some who preach a temporary salvation. They say
   that you may be in Christ today and out of Christ tomorrow, that you
   may be saved by Grace at one hour, but damned by sin the next. Ah, but
   the Bible says no such thing! This may be the Gospel according to
   Arminius, but it is not the Gospel according to John, nor according to
   Paul, nor according to our Lord Jesus Christ. That Gospel is--

   "Once in Christ, in Christ forever;

   Nothing from His love can sever." Christ became the Author of "eternal
   salvation" and the word, "eternal," must mean without end, so that, if
   we once receive the salvation which Christ has worked out, we are saved
   in time and shall be saved throughout all eternity! Christ is the
   Author of this eternal salvation--not our good works--though our faith
   and our works become the evidencesof our having received this eternal
   salvation.

   10. Called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedec. Then
   the Apostle appeared to be going on to enlarge upon the Melchisedec
   priesthood, but he stopped. Perhaps he remembered what his Master said
   to His disciples on one occasion, "I have yet many things to say unto
   you, but you cannot hear them now." In a similar fashion Paul writes.

   11-14. Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered,
   seeing you are dull of hearing. For when for the time you ought to be
   teachers, you have need that one teach you again which are the first
   principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of
   milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful
   in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs
   to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have
   their senses exercised to discern both good and evil
     __________________________________________________________________

Meditation on God

   (No. 2690)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A THURSDAY EVENING IN THE
   SUMMER OF 1858.

   "My meditation of Him shall be sweet." Psalm 104:34.

   DAVID, certainly, was not a melancholy man. Eminent as he was for his
   piety and for his religion, he was equally eminent for his joyfulness
   and gladness of heart. Read the verse that precedes my text, "I will
   sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God
   while I have my being. My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be
   glad in the Lord." It has often been insinuated, if it has not been
   openly said, that the contemplation of Divine things has a tendency to
   depress the spirits. Religion, many thoughtful persons have supposed,
   does not become the young--it checks the ardor of their youthful blood.
   It may be very well for men with gray heads who need something to
   comfort and solace them as they descend the hill of life into the
   grave. It may be well enough for those who are in poverty and deep
   trial, but that it is at all congruous with the condition of a healthy,
   able-bodied, successful and happy man, is generally said to be out of
   the question.

   Now, there is no greater lie than this! No man is so happy but he would
   be happier still if he had true religion. The man with a fullness of
   earthly pleasures, whose barns are full of corn and whose presses burst
   with new wine would not lose any part of his happiness, had he the
   Grace of God in his heart! Rather, that joy would add sweetness to all
   his prosperity. It would strain off many of the bitter dregs from his
   cup. It would purify his heart and freshen his tastes for delights and
   show him how to extract more honey from the honeycomb. Religion is a
   thing that can make the most melancholy joyful and, at the same time,
   it can make the joyous ones still more joyful! It can make the gloomy
   bright, as it gives the oil ofjoy in the place of mourning and the
   garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Moreover, it can light
   up the face that is joyous with a heavenly gladness. It can make the
   eyes sparkle with tenfold more brilliance and, happy as the man may be,
   he shall find that there is sweeter nectar than he has ever drunk
   before if he comes to the Fountain of Atoning Mercy and knows that his
   name is registered in the Book of Everlasting Life!

   Temporal mercies will then have the charm of Redemption to enhance
   them. They will be no longer to him as shadowy phantoms which dance for
   a transient hour in the sunbeam. He will account them more precious
   because they are given to him, as it were, in some codicils of the
   Divine Testament which has promise of the life that now is, as well as
   of that which is to come. While goodness and mercy follow him all the
   days of his life, he will stretch forth his grateful anticipations to
   the future when he shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever! He
   will be able to say, as the Psalmist does here, "I will sing unto the
   Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my
   being. My meditation of Him shall be sweet."

   Taking those last few words as the theme of our discourse, I shall
   speak, first, concerning a very profitable exercise-- "meditation."
   Secondly, concerning a very precious subject--"My meditation of Him.
   And, thirdly, concerning a very blessed result--"My meditation of Him
   shall be sweet."

   I. First, here is A VERY PROFITABLE EXERCISE--"meditation."

   Meditation is a word that more than half of you, I fear, do not know
   how to spell. You know how to repeat the letters of the word, but I
   mean to say, you cannot spell it in the reality of life. You do not
   occupy yourselves with any meditation at all. What do many of you who
   are merchants know concerning this matter? You rise up in the morning
   just in

   time to take your accustomed seat in the omnibus. You hasten to your
   counting house for your letters and there you continue all day long,
   for business when you are busy, or for gossip when business is dull.
   And at night you go home too tired for the wholesome recreation of your
   minds. Week by week, month by month and year by year it is still with
   you one everlasting grind, grind, grind! You have no time for
   meditation and you reckon, perhaps, that if you were to set apart half
   an hour in the day to ponder the weighty matters of eternity, it would
   be to you a clear loss of time. It is very wise of you to economize
   your minutes, but I suppose that if half an hour in a day could earn
   you a hundred pounds, you would not say that you could not afford it,
   because you know how to estimate pecuniary profit! Now, if you equally
   knew how to count the great profit of meditation, you would deem it a
   positive gain to yourselves to spend some time therein, for meditation
   is most profitable to the spirit--it is an extremely healthful and
   excellent occupation. Far from being wasted time, it is a judicious
   employment of time.

   Do not imagine that the meditative man is necessarily
   lazy--contrariwise, he lays the best foundation for useful works. He is
   not the best student who reads the most books, but he who meditates the
   most upon them. He shall not learn most of divinity who hears the
   greatest number of sermons, but he who meditates the most devoutly upon
   what he does hear. Nor shall he be so profound a scholar who takes down
   ponderous volumes, one after the other as he who, reading little by
   little, precept upon precept, and line upon line, digests what he reads
   and assimilates each sentiment to his heart by meditation--receiving
   the Word of God first into his understanding--and afterwards receiving
   the spirit of it into his own soul. Meditation is thus a very excellent
   employment. Let me for a few minutes tell you some of its uses.

   First, I think meditation furnishes the mind somewhat with rest. It is
   the couch of the soul The time that a man spends in necessary rest, he
   never reckons to be wasted because he is refreshing and renovating
   himself for further exertion. Meditation, then, is the rest of the
   spirit. "Oh," says one, "I must have rest. I have been working and
   toiling incessantly for months! I must have a day's excursion. I must
   do this thing and the other." Yes, and such recreation, in its proper
   place, is desirable. We ought to have seasons of innocent recreation,
   but, at the same time, if many of us knew how to spend a little time
   daily in the calm repose of contemplative retirement, we would find
   ourselves less exhausted by the wear and tear of our worldly duties. To
   meditate would be to us a salutary recreation and, instead of running
   ourselves out of breath, and laboring till a respite is compulsory, we
   would spread our intervals of ease and refreshing over the whole year
   and secure a small portion everyday by turning aside from the bustling
   crowd to meditate upon whatever subject we wish to occupy the most
   honorable place in our mind.

   Just as a change of posture relieves the weariness of the body, a
   change of thoughts will prevent your spirits becoming languid. Sit down
   in a silent chamber, at eventide. Throw the window up and look at God's
   bright stars--and count those eyes of Heaven. Or if you like it better,
   pause in the noontide heat and look down upon the busy crowd in the
   streets and count the men, like so many ants upon the anthill of this
   world. Or if you care not to look about you, sit down and look within
   yourself--count the pulses of your own heart and examine the emotions
   of your own breast. At times, 'tis well to muse upon Heaven, or, if you
   are a man loving to revel in the prophetic future, turn over the mystic
   pages and study the sacred visions recorded in the Book of Daniel, or
   the Book of Revelation. As you enter these hallowed intricacies and
   meditate upon these impressive symbols, you will rise up from your
   study mightily refreshed! You will find it like a couch to your mind.

   Again, meditation is the machine in which the raw material of knowledge
   is converted to the best uses. Let me compare it to a winepress. By
   reading, research and study, we gather the grapes, but it is by
   meditation that we press out the juice of those grapes and obtain the
   wine! How is it that many men who read a lot know very little? The
   reason is they read tome upon tome, and stow away knowledge with
   lumbering confusion inside their heads till they have laid so much
   weight on their brain that it cannot work! Instead of putting facts
   into the press of meditation and fermenting them till they can draw out
   right inferences, they leave them to rot and perish. They extract none
   of the sweet juice of wisdom from the precious fruits of the vine. I
   like, when I have read a book for about half an hour, to walk awhile
   and think it over. I shut up the volume and say, "Now, Mr. Author, you
   have made your speech, let me think over what you have said. A little
   meditation will enable me to distinguish between what I knew before and
   the fresh subject you have communicated to me--between your facts and
   your opinions--between your arguments and those I should make from the
   same premises." Animals, after they have eaten, lie down and
   ruminate--they first crop the grass and afterwards digest it. So,
   meditation is the rumination of the soul whereby we get that nutriment
   which feeds and supports the mind.

   When you have gathered flowers in the field or garden, you arrange them
   in proper order and bind them together with the string of memory, but
   take heed that you put them into the water of meditation, otherwise
   they will soon fade and be fit only for the dunghill. When you have
   gathered pearls from the sea, remember that you will have gathered with
   them many worthless shells and much mud--therefore, sort them in your
   memory, and only keep those that are worth preserving. You must also
   open the oyster to extract the pearl and polish it to make it appear
   more beautiful. You may not string it in the necklace of your mind
   until it has been rubbed and garnished by meditation. Thus, you see
   that we need meditation to make use of what we have discovered. As it
   is the soul's rest, so it is, at the same time, the means of making the
   best use of what the soul has acquired.

   Again, meditation is to the soul what oil was to the body of the
   wrestlers. When those old athletes went out to wrestle, they always
   took care, before they went, to oil themselves well, to make their
   joints supple and fit for their task. Now, meditation makes the soul
   supple--makes it so that it can use things when they come into the
   mind. Who are the men that can go into a controversy and get the
   mastery? Why, the men who meditate when they are alone! Who are the men
   that can preach? Not those who gad about and never commune only with
   their own hearts, but those who earnestly think as well when no one is
   near them as when there is a crowd around them. Who are the authors to
   write your books and keep up the constant supply of literature? They
   are meditative men. They keep their bones supple and their limbs fit
   for exercise by continually bathing themselves in the oil of
   meditation. How important, therefore, is meditation as a mental
   exercise, to have our minds in constant readiness for any service!

   I have thus pointed out to you that meditation is in itself useful to
   every man. But you did not come here to listen to a merely moral
   essay--you came to hear something about the Gospel of God--and what I
   have already said is but an introduction to what I have to say
   concerning the great necessity of meditation in religion. As meditation
   is good for the mind, even upon worldly topics and natural science, it
   is much more useful when we come to spiritual learning. The best and
   most saintly of men have been men of meditation! Isaac went out into
   the fields at eventide to meditate. David says, "I will meditate on
   Your statutes." Paul, who himself meditated continually on all that
   related to the Gospel, writing to Timothy concerning the important
   things necessary in a good minister of Jesus Christ, says, "Meditate
   upon these things; give yourself wholly to them; that your profiting
   may appear to all." To the Christian, meditation is most essential. I
   would almost question the being of a Christian and I would positively
   deny his well-being who lived habitually without meditation. Meditation
   and prayer are twin sisters and both of them appear to me equally
   necessary to Christian life. I think meditation mustexist where there
   is prayer, and prayer is sure to exist where there is meditation.

   My Brothers and Sisters, there is nothing more needed to make
   Christians grow in Grace, nowadays, than meditation. Most of you are
   painfully negligent in this matter. You remind me of a sermon that one
   of my quaint old friends in the country once preached from the text,
   "The slothful man roasts not that which he took in hunting." He told us
   that many people who would hunt for a sermon were too lazy to roast it
   by meditation. They knew not how to put the jack of memory through it
   and twist it round by meditation before the fire of piety, and so to
   cook it and make it fit for their soul's food. So is it with many of
   you--after you have caught the sermon, you allow it to run away. How
   often do you, through lack of meditation, miss the entire purpose for
   which the discourse was designed? Unless you meditate upon the Truths
   of God we declare to you, you will gather little sweetness, you will
   acquire little profit and, certainly, you will be in no way established
   therein to your edification. Can you get the honey from the comb until
   you press it? You may be refreshed while you listen to the sermon, but
   it is the meditation afterwards which extracts the honey and gets the
   best and most luscious savor!

   Let me tell you that there ought to be special times for meditation. I
   think every man should set apart a portion of each day for this
   gracious exercise. A Christian will always be in a lean state if he has
   no time for sacred musings before his God. Those men who know most of
   God are such as meditate most upon Him. Those who realize most
   experimentally the Doctrines of Grace are those who meditate and soar
   beyond the reach of all sublunary things. I think we shall never have
   much advancement in our churches until the members begin to habitually
   accept the counsel, "Come, my people, enter you into your chambers and
   shut your doors behind you." Or that other, "Commune with your own
   heart upon your bed, and be still." Till the din and noise of business
   somewhat abate and we give ourselves to calmer thought and, in the
   solemn silence of the mind find at once our Heaven and our God, we must
   expect to have regiments of dwarfs, and only here and there a giant.
   Giant minds cannot be nourished by mere casual hearing. Gigantic souls
   must have medita-

   tion to support them. Would you be strong? Would you be mighty? Would
   you be valiant for the Lord and useful in His cause? Take care that you
   follow the occupation of the Psalmist, David, and meditate! This is a
   very happy and profitable exercise.

   II. Now, secondly, let us consider A VERY PRECIOUS SUBJECT--"My
   meditation of Him shall be sweet." Christian, you need no greater
   inducement to excite you than the subject here proposed--"My meditation
   of Him shall be sweet." To whom does that word, "Him," refer? I suppose
   it may refer to all the three Persons of the glorious Trinity--"My
   meditation upon Jehovah shall be sweet." And, verily, if you sit down
   to meditate upon God the Father, and muse upon His Sovereign,
   Immutable, unchangeable love toward His elect people--if you think of
   God the Father as the great Author and Originator of the plan of
   salvation--if you think of Him as the mighty Being who, by two
   immutable things, wherein it is impossible for Him to lie, has given us
   strong consolation who have fled for refuge to Christ Jesus--if you
   look to Him as the Giver of His only-begotten Son and who, for the sake
   of that Son, His best gift, will, with Him also freely give us all
   things--if you consider Him as having ratified the Covenant and pledged
   Himself ultimately to complete all His stipulations, in the gathering
   in of every chosen, ransomed soul, you will perceive that there is
   enough to engross your meditation forever, even were your attention
   limited to the manifestation of the Father's love!

   Or, if you choose to do so, you may meditate upon God the Holy Spirit
   Consider His marvelous operations on your own heart--how He quickened
   it when you were dead in trespasses and sins--how He brought you near
   to Jesus when you were a lost sheep, wandering far from the fold--how
   He called you with such a mighty efficacy that you could not resist His
   voice--how He drew you with the bands of love which would not let you
   go. Think of how often He has helped you in the hour of peril--how
   frequently He has comforted you with His promises in times of distress
   and trouble. And if you remember that, like holy oil, He will always
   supply your lamp until life's last hour--He will always replenish you
   with His influences, proving Himself still your Teacher and your Guide
   till you get up yonder, where you shall see your Savior face to face,
   in the blessed Presence of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy
   Spirit--in such great truth you may well find a vast and, indeed, an
   infinite subject for your meditation.

   But, tonight, I prefer rather to confine this word, "Him," to the
   Person of our adorable Savior ' 'My meditation of Him shall be sweet."
   Ah, if it is possible that the meditation upon one Person of the
   Trinity can excel the meditation upon another, it is meditation upon
   Jesus Christ--

   "'Till God in human flesh I see, My thoughts no comfort find. The holy,
   just, and sacred Three Are terrors to my mind. But if Immanuel's face
   appears, My hope, my joy begins! His name forbids my slavish fears, His
   Grace forgives my sins."

   Precious Jesus, what can be a sweeter theme for me to think of than
   Your exalted Being--to conceive of You as the Son of God, who, with the
   golden compasses, struck out a circle from space and fashioned this
   round world? To think of You as the God who holds this mighty orb upon
   Your shoulders, You who are the King of Glory, before whom angels bow
   in lowliest homage? And yet to consider You as, likewise, bone of my
   bone, and flesh of my flesh--

   "In ties of blood with sinners one"-- to conceive of You as the Son of
   Mary, born of a virgin, made flesh like ordinary men, clothed in
   garments of humanity like mortals of our feeble race--to picture You in
   all Your suffering life, to trace You in all Your passion, to view You
   in the agony of Gethsemane, enduring the bloody sweat, the sore
   amazement. And then to follow You to the pavement, Gabbatha, and thence
   up the steep side of Calvary, bearing the Cross, braving the shame when
   Your soul was made an offering for my sins, when You did die the
   reconciling death 'midst horrors, still to all but God, unknown!
   Verily, here is a meditation for my soul which must be "sweet" forever!
   I might, like the Psalmist, say, "My heart is composing a good matter."
   The marginal reading is, "it boils, or bubbles up, while I speak of the
   things which I have made touching the King: my tongue is the pen of a
   ready writer."

   Christ! "My meditation of Him shall be sweet." Consider Christ in any
   way you please and your meditation of Him will be sweet. Jesus may be
   compared to some of those lenses you have perhaps seen which you may
   take up and hold in

   one way and you see one light. You hold them in another way and you see
   another light--whichever way you turn them, you will always see some
   precious sparkling of light and some new colors starting up to your
   view. Ah, take Jesus for the theme of your meditation! Sit down and
   consider Him, think of His relation to your soul and you will never get
   to the end of that one subject!

   Think of His eternal relationship to you! Remember that the saints were
   free from all condemnation, in union with the Lamb, before the world
   was made. Think of your everlasting union with the Person of
   Jehovah-Jesus before this planet was sent rolling through space, and
   remember how your guilty soul was accounted spotless and clean even
   before you fell! And after that dire lapse, before you were restored,
   justification was imputed to you in the Person of Jesus Christ. Think
   of your known and manifest relationship to Him since you have been
   called by His Grace. Think how He has become your Brother, how His
   heart has beaten in sympathy with yours, how He has kissed you with the
   kisses of His mouth and His love has been to you sweeter than wine.
   Look back upon some happy, sunny spots in your history, where Jesus has
   whispered, "I am yours," and you have said, "My Beloved is mine. Think
   of some choice moments when an angel has stooped from Heaven and taken
   you up on his wings and carried you aloft to sit in heavenly places
   where Jesus sits, that you might commune with Him.

   Or think, if it shall better please you, of some pensive moments, when
   you have had what Paul sets so much store by--fellowship with Christ in
   His sufferings. Think of seasons when the sweat has rolled from your
   brow, almost as it did from that of Jesus--yet not the sweat of
   blood--when you have knelt down and felt that you could die with
   Christ, even as you had risen with Him. And then, when you have
   exhausted that portion of the subject, think of your relationship to
   Christ which is to be developed in Heaven. Imagine the hour to have
   come when you shall--

   "Greet the blood-besprinkled band, On the eternal shore"

   and forever range the--

   "Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood, Arrayed in living green."

   Picture to your mind that moment when Jesus Christ shall salute you as
   "more than a conqueror," and put a golden crown upon your head, more
   glittering than the stars. And think of that transporting hour when you
   will take that crown from off your brow and, climbing the steps of
   Jesus' Throne, you shall put it on His head, and crown Him once more
   Lord of your soul, as well as "Lord of All." Ah, if you come and tell
   me you have no subjects for meditation, I will answer--Surely you have
   not tried to meditate, or you would say with the Psalmist, "My
   meditation of Him shall be sweet."

   Suppose you have finished thinking of your Savior as He is especially
   related to you. Consider Him, next, as He is related to the world.
   Remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus, "God sent not His Son into the
   world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be
   saved," and, undoubtedly, He will one day save the world, for He who
   redeemed it by price and by power, will restore it and renew it from
   the effects of the Fall. Oh, think of Jesus in this relationship as the
   Repairer of the breach, the Restorer of paths to dwell in! He will come
   again to our earth one day and when He comes, He will find this world
   still defaced with the old curse upon it--the primeval curse of Eden.
   He will find plague, pestilence and war still here--but when He comes,
   He will bid men beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into
   pruning-hooks--war shall be obliterated from among the sciences. He
   shall give the Word and there shall be a great company that will
   publish it and, "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,
   as the waters cover the sea." Jesus Christ shall come! Christians, be
   always watching and waiting for the Second Coming of your Lord Jesus
   Christ! And while you wait, meditate upon that coming.

   Think, O my Soul, of that august day when you shall see Him with all
   His glorious train, coming to call the world to judgment and to avenge
   Himself upon His enemies! Think of all His triumphs when Satan shall be
   bound, death shall be crushed and Hell shall be conquered--and when He
   shall be saluted as the universal Monarch, "God over all, blessed
   forever. Amen." "My meditation of Him shall be sweet."

   I believe that even when we get to Heaven, we shall need no subject for
   meditation there, except Jesus Christ. There will be little else we
   shall want of Heaven besides Jesus Christ. He will be our bread, our
   food, our beauty, and our glorious dress. The atmosphere of Heaven will
   be Christ! Everything in Heaven will be Christ-like. Yes, Christ is the
   Heaven of His people. To be in Christ and to be with Christ, is the
   essence of Heaven--

   "Not all the harps above Can make a heavenly place, Should Christ His
   residence remove, Or but conceal His face."

   III. Let me proceed to point out A VERY BLESSED RESULT. "My meditation
   of Him shall be sweet." This depends very much upon the character of
   the one who meditates. I know some persons who come into chapel and who
   are very glad when they hear the minister pronounce the benediction and
   dismiss the assembly. They are very glad when all is over and they
   would far rather hear the parting doxology than the text. As for a
   meditation on Christ, instead of saying it is sweet, they would say it
   is very dry. If they happen to hear an anecdote or a tale, they do not
   mind remembering that--but a meditation which would be entirely on
   Christ would be dry to them--and they would be glad to hear it brought
   to a close. Ah, that is because of the taste you have in your mouth!
   There is something wrong about your palate. You have your mouth out of
   taste through eating some of the world's poor dainties! You have some
   of the powder of the apples of Sodom hanging on your lips and that
   spoils the glorious flavor of your meditation on Jesus! In fact, it
   prevents your meditating on Christ at all. It is only a hearing of the
   meditation with your ears, not a receiving it with your hearts. But
   here the Psalmist says, "My meditation of Him shall be sweet."

   What a mercy, dear Friends, that there is something sweet in this world
   for us! We need it, I am sure, for, as for most other things in the
   world, they are very, very bitter. Go through the great laboratory of
   this world and how many will be the cases that you will see marked
   bitter! There are perhaps more aloes put in our cup than any other
   ingredient. We have to take a great quantity of bitters in the course
   of our lives. What a mercy it is, then, that there is one thing that is
   sweet! "My meditation of Him shall be sweet." So sweet, Beloved, that
   all the other bitters are quite swallowed up in its sweetness! Have I
   not seen the widow, when her husband has been called away, and he who
   was her strength, the stay and sustenance of her life, has been laid in
   the grave--have I not seen her hold up her hands and say, "Ah, though
   he is gone, still my Maker is my Husband. 'The Lord gave, and the Lord
   has taken away,' blessed be His holy name"?

   What was the reason of her patient submission to the will of God?
   Because she had a sweet meditation to neutralize the bitterness of her
   reflections. And do I not remember, even now, seeing a man whose
   property had been washed away by the tide, and whose lands had been
   swallowed up and become quicksand, instead of being any longer
   profitable to him? Beggared and bankrupt, with streaming eyes, he held
   up his hands and repeated Habakkuk's words, "Although the fig tree
   shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of
   the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock
   shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the
   stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my
   salvation!" Was it not because his meditation on Christ was so sweet
   that it absorbed the bitterness of his trouble? And oh, how many, when
   they have come to the dark waters of death, have found that surely
   their bitterness was past, for they perceived that death was swallowed
   up in victory through their meditation upon Jesus Christ!

   Now, if any of you have come here with your mouths out of taste through
   affliction and trouble. If you have been saying with Jeremiah, "He has
   filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunken with wormwood. He has
   also broken my teeth with gravel, He has covered me with ashes," take a
   little of this choice cordial--I can assure you that it is sweet!
   Lacrymae Christi, i t is called. If you will take these tears of Jesus
   and put them in your mouth, they will take away all the unpleasant
   flavor that is already there! Or, again, I bid you take this meditation
   upon Christ as a piece of scented stuff that was perfumed in Heaven. It
   matters not what you have in your house--this shall make it redolent of
   Paradise-- shall make it smell like those breezes that once blew
   through Eden's garden, wafting the odor of flowers. Ah, there is
   nothing that can so console your spirits and relieve all your
   distresses and troubles as the feeling that now you can meditate on the
   Person of Jesus Christ. "My meditation of Him shall be sweet."

   But, my dear Hearers, shall I dismiss you without asking you whether
   you have ever had a true meditation upon our Lord and Savior Jesus
   Christ? I do not like to preach a sermon without pressing it home to
   the consciences of my hearers. I never like to bring you out a sword
   and show it to you, and say, "Here is a sword, and it is sharp." I
   always like to make you feel that it is sharp by cutting you with it!
   Would to God that the sword of the Spirit might penetrate many of your
   hearts! When I see so many gathered together on a weeknight, I am
   astonished. When I came to London, I did not fancy there would be half
   such a company on the Sabbath, much less on a weekday. But why have you
   come, my Brothers and Sisters? "What did you go out to see? A reed
   shaken with the wind?" What have you come out to see? A Prophet? No,

   but I say that you have come to see something more than a Prophet--you
   have come to see and hear something of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our
   Lord! How many of you meditate on Christ?

   Christian men and women, do not many of you live below your privileges?
   Are you not living without having choice moments of communion with your
   Savior? I think if you had a free pass to Heaven's palace, you would
   use it very often. If you might go there whenever you liked and hold
   communion with some person whom you dearly loved, you would often be
   found there. But here is your blessed Lord Jesus, the King of Heaven,
   and He gives you that which can admit you to intimate communion with
   Him! And yet you live without meditating upon His work, meditating upon
   His Person, meditating upon His offices, and meditating upon His Glory.
   Christian men and women! I ask myself, and I ask you, is it not time we
   should begin to live nearer to God? What is to become of our churches?
   I do not know what to think of Christendom at large. As I travel
   through the country and go here and there, I see the churches in a most
   deplorable state. True, the Gospel is preached in most places of
   worship, but it is preached as it might be by bumble-bees in
   pitch-ers--always with the same monotonous sound--and little or no good
   is done. I fear that the fault lies in the pews as well as in the
   pulpits. If hearers are meditative, preachers must be meditative. It is
   very true that water does not run uphill, but when you hearers begin to
   meditate and pray over the Word, your ministers will realize that you
   have gone beyond them--and they will themselves meditate and give you
   the Gospel just as it comes fresh from their hearts--and it will be
   food for your souls.

   And for the rest of you--you who have never meditated on Jesus
   Christ--what do you think will become of you when the bitterness of
   death's agony shall be in your mouth? When you taste death, how do you
   hope to destroy its ill flavor? Yet "that last, that most bitter cup
   which mortal man can taste" is but a dire foretaste of what is to
   follow! The first drops are bad enough, when you sip herethe beginning
   of remorse on account of sin, but that future cup in Hell-- that
   terrible mixture which God deals out to the lost in the Pit--what will
   you do when you have to drink that? What will you do when it will be
   your sad meditation that you rejected Jesus, that you despised His
   Gospel, that you scoffed at His Word? What will you do in that dread
   extremity?

   You worldly business men, will your ledgers afford you a sweet
   meditation in Hell? Ungodly lawyer, will it be sweet for you to
   meditate on your deeds and documents when you go there? Laboring man,
   will it be a sweet meditation to you to think that your wages were
   spent in drunkenness, or your Sabbaths profaned and your soul
   neglected? And you, mere professor, will it be a sweet meditation to
   you to sit down and think of your hypocrisy? And, ah, you
   carnally-minded men who are indulging the flesh, pampering the appetite
   and not serving the Lord--whose god is your belly and whose glory is in
   your shame--will your career furnish a sweet meditation to you at the
   last? Be assured of this, my Hearers, your sins must be your
   meditation, then, if Christ is not your meditation now!

   O wicked men! Wicked women! Let me say my closing word to you and to
   all who know not God. I will give you a subject for your meditation
   tonight--it shall be a parable. A certain tyrant sent for one of his
   subjects and said to him, "What is your employment?" He answered, "I am
   a blacksmith." "Then go home," he said, "and make me a chain of such a
   length." He went home. It occupied him several months and he had no
   wages all the while he was making the chain, only the trouble and pains
   of making it. Then he brought it to the monarch, who said, "Go back,
   and make it twice as long." He gave him nothing to do it with, but sent
   him away. Again he worked on and made it twice as long. He brought it
   up again, and the monarch said, "Go and make it still longer." Each
   time he brought it, there was nothing but the command to make it
   longer. And when he brought it up at last, the monarch said to his
   servants, "Take it and bind him hand and foot with it, and cast him
   into a furnace of fire." There were his wages for making the chain!

   Here is a lesson which will afford you a subject for meditation
   tonight, you who are servants of the devil. Your master is telling you
   to make a chain. Some of you have been 50 years welding the links of
   that chain and he says, "Go and make it still longer." Next Sunday
   morning you will open that shop of yours and put another link on. Next
   Sunday night you will be drunk and put another link on. Next Monday you
   will do a dishonest action, and so you will keep on adding fresh links
   to the chain. And when you have lived 20 more years, the devil will
   say, "Add still more links!" And then, at last, his command will be,
   "Take him and bind him hand and foot, and cast him into a furnace of
   fire." "For the wages of sin is death."

   There is a subject for your meditation! I do not think it will be
   sweet, but if God makes it profitable, it will do you good. You must
   have strong medicines, sometimes, when your disease is bad. God apply
   this message to your hearts! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Sorrow and Sorrow

   (No. 2691)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
   31, 1881.

   "For godly sorrow works repentaance to salivation not to be repented
   of: but the sorrow of the world works death." 2 Corinthians 7:10.

   MANY years ago and, indeed, in some measure to a later date, preachers
   of the Word seemed mainly to dwell upon the inner experience of men.
   They both preached sermons and wrote books in which they set forth the
   condition of convinced sinners, describing what they usually felt
   before they found peace with God. They were very strict in their search
   for the genuine tokens of true repentance and the internal evidences of
   regeneration. They preached continually upon the work of the Spirit of
   God in convincing sinners of their lost condition, but they were not
   accustomed to say to them so baldly and so boldly as we do now,
   "Believe, and live." And the consequence was that a large number of
   truly awakened persons were kept in bondage and did not come into the
   liberty wherewith Christ makes Believers free--at least, not so soon as
   they do nowadays. I believe that under God's blessing, those
   experimental preachers were the means of producing very sturdy
   Christians. They did a great deal of deep plowing with a very sharp
   plowshare before they began to sow the good Seed of the Kingdom of God.
   They took care to use the pointed needle of the Law of God to make a
   way for the silken thread of the Gospel, so that what they did sew was
   well sewn--and the garments which they made did not tear quite so
   easily as much of the spiritual raiment does which is made in these
   days of more showy, but less substantial, labor.

   Still, there was this defect about that style of preaching--it led men
   to look too much within instead of looking away from self to Christ. No
   matter how faithfully they proclaimed the Grace of God, they preached
   some sort of preparation for the reception of that Grace and,
   therefore, sinners often looked to themselves to see whether they had
   that preparation rather than to the Grace of God which it was most
   desirable that they should seek. I believe you may say so much about
   the disease of sin, that instead of leading the sinner in despair to
   turn his gaze to Christ, as the bitten Israelites looked to the brazen
   serpent as the only remedy--you may merely make him sit down and study
   the disease--and look, and look, and look again for the various
   symptoms you have described. And though he will be well acquainted with
   the disease, he will not, in that way, find a cure for it. You may dive
   as far as you like into the sea, but you will not find any fire there.
   You may rake as long as you please in the burning fiery furnace, but
   you will never reach any cooling blocks of ice. You may hunt, for many
   a day, in the human heart's natural death, but you will not there
   discover any signs of life. And, within the morgue of man's corruption,
   you shall never be able to discern any remedy for a sin-sick soul. It
   was in that particular that the experimental preaching lacked an
   important element.

   But now, times have changed and many of us who are ministers of the
   Gospel, do very plainly proclaim to sinners the message, "Believe, and
   live." This plain declaration rings out from almost every part of our
   land--not yet quite in every place--I would that it were so--but still,
   there is a large company of Evangelical preachers continually repeating
   the Apostolic message, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall
   be saved." I am sure that much good must result from this proclamation
   of the Truth of God, for this is God's ordained way of blessing the
   souls of men. And yet--and yet--I sometimes fear lest there should be
   all sowing and no plowing--lest there should be the preaching only of
   the remedy, with almost an entire ignoring of the disease--and lest the
   message, "Believe, and live," should take the place of that other great
   Truth of God, "You must be born again."

   It will never do for men to be led to think that they are healed before
   they know that they are sick unto death, or to imagine that they are
   clothed before they see themselves to be naked, or to be taught to
   trust Christ before they are aware that they have anything for which
   they have need to trust Him! It would be a happy circumstance if, in
   our preaching, we could have a blending of these two elements so that
   we could have somewhat of our forefathers' deep experimental teaching
   and, with it, and growing out of it a plain, unfettered delivery of the
   Gospel declaration, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be
   saved."

   "How are the two things to be reconciled?" someone asks. My dear
   Brother, I have long ago given up trying to reconcile friends who never
   fell out. These two Truths of God are both taught in Scripture and,
   therefore, they cannot be at variance with one another. You would be as
   much puzzled to prove where they differ as I would be to show that they
   agree. I am confident that they do agree because I find them both in
   the Book. Therefore, let them both be preached. Somehow, we are
   constantly coming across Truths that lie side by side, like the metals
   on which the railway carriages run. If we only preach one of them, it
   will be like trying to run the train on a single rail. You know that
   there are often two Truths, if not three, closely connected with one
   another. I am frequently led to see that there is a trinity of Truths
   as there is a Trinity in the Godhead--and if they are all preached, in
   due proportion, they will balance one another and prevent any one Truth
   of God from being too prominent. Luther, with his free justification by
   faith, is apt to go too far unless there shall come in Calvin and
   Zwingli, with their balancing Truths, to set him right. Even Paul's
   Inspired Words might have been the means of leading some men astray
   unless James had also been inspired to write on the practical side of
   the Truth of God so that Paul's meaning could be the better understood.
   There is nothing wrong in the teaching of either Paul or James--they
   are both right--the two together bring out both aspects of Truth.

   I am going to preach tonight about sorrow for sin. I hope it has not
   yet quite gone out of the world. I trust that sorrowful penitence still
   exist, though I have not heard much about it lately. People seem to
   jump into faith very quickly nowadays. I do not disapprove of that
   happy leap, but still, I hope my old friend, Repentance, is not dead! I
   am desperately in love with repentance--it seems to me to be the twin
   sister to faith. I do not, myself, understand much about dry-eyed
   faith--I know that I came to Christ by the way of Weeping-Cross. I did
   not come to shelter beneath His blood immediately when I heard of it,
   as I now wish that I had done, but when I did come to Calvary, by
   faith, it was with great weeping and supplication, confessing my
   transgressions and desiring to find salvation in Jesus, and in Jesus
   only.

   Now, concerning this sorrow for sin, I want, first, to remove certain
   erroneous ideas with regard to it Secondly, to distinguish between the
   two sorrows mentioned in the text--the godly sorrow which works
   repentance to salvation, and the sorrow of the world which works death.
   And then, thirdly, we will indulge ourselves in sorrow for sin. We will
   finish up with some happy sorrow, that blessed, godly sorrow which is
   never to be repented of or regretted!

   I. First, then, I want to try to REMOVE CERTAIN ERRONEOUS IDEAS WITH
   REGARD TO SORROW FOR

   SIN.

   Some persons seem to think that mere sorrow of mind in reference to sin
   is repentance, but it is not. Read the text, and you will at once see
   that it is not. "Godly sorrow works repentance." Therefore, it is not,
   itself, repentance. It is an agent employed in producingrepentance, but
   it is not, itself, repentance. There is, in the world, a great deal of
   sorrow on account of sin which is certainly not repentance and never
   leads to it. Some transgressors are sorry for sin for a time-- they are
   convicted of guilt with a transitory conviction which soon passes away.
   Many are sorry for sin because of its temporal consequences--and many
   more because of its eternal consequences. They are afraid of Hell. If
   there were no Hell, they would like to continue to live in sin. They
   would be delighted if it could be proved that there is no God. Nothing
   would please them better than to have the Law of the Lord and all its
   penal consequences abolished. They are as fond of sin as ever they
   were, but they sorrow because they see that it is bringing them down to
   the gulf of Perdition. Now, that kind of sorrow is not repentance! A
   moth may burn its wings in the candle and then, full of pain, fly back
   to the flame. There is no repentance in the moth, though there is
   pain--and so, there is no repentance in some men, though there is in
   them a measure of sorrow on account of their sin. Do not, therefore,
   make a mistake in this matter, and think that sorrow for sin is, or
   even necessarily leadsto, repentance.

   Next, do not fall into the other mistake, and imagine that there can be
   such a thing as repentance without sorrow for sin, for there can never
   be such a thing! I heard a person say, and, as I thought, say very
   flippantly, that it was a great thing to know the Greek language
   because, in that way, you found out that repentance "simply meant a
   change of

   mind." The Brother who said that did not appear to me to know much
   about the English language, and I was quite certain that he did not
   know alpha from beta i n the Greek language--but that is what he said,
   "it simply meant a change of mind." Ah, it doesmean a change of mind,
   but what a change of mind! In my opinion, such a translation of the
   Greek as that would not imply that repentance was anything less than it
   is commonly understood to be, but a far greater thing. It is an entire
   and total change of mind, a turning of the mind right round, so that it
   hates what once it loved and loves what once it hated--it forms
   different judgments from what it always did before--and no longer puts
   bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter, darkness for light and light
   for darkness. It judges righteous judgment, for the change of mind is
   thorough and complete! And therefore I say that there is no repentance
   that is worth anything which is not accompanied by sorrow for sin.

   Just think for a moment. Here is a man who says, "I repent." But are
   you really sorry that you sinned? "No," he replies. Then, my dear Sir,
   you cannot have truly repented, for a man who has not got so far as
   repentance is often sorry for having done wrong. When a man is
   convinced that he has transgressed against God, he ought to be
   sorry--and if you tell me that there can be such a thing as spiritual
   repentance and yet no sorrow for having broken the Law of God, I tell
   you that you do not know what you are talking about! The thing is
   clearly, on the very face of it, impossible! There must be a deep
   hatred of the sin that you have committed and even of the thought of
   ever committing that sin again. There must be sincere sorrow that you
   should have ever transgressed against God and that you should be liable
   to transgress again. If there is no such sorrow as that in your heart,
   one of the things which are necessary to a genuine repentance is
   absent.

   I have tried, thus, to correct two mistakes, but there is a third which
   I must point out to you. There are some persons who seem to think that
   we must reach a certain point of wretchedness or else we are not truly
   penitent They imagine that we must grieve up to a certain point of
   temperature or we cannot be saved. And they watch the convicted sinner
   to see when he gets near to what they consider to be a sufficient
   measure of brokenness of heart. But there are different methods of
   measuring this state of the spirit. I believe that some of our
   Hyper-Calvinistic brethren rigidly apply a very long measure, indeed,
   to all cases of this kind. I remember that one young friend, before
   whom I had set the Gospel very simply, said to me, "But is that all I
   have to do? Have I only to believe in Christ in order that I may be
   saved? Why, my father was six months in trouble of soul before he could
   find the Savior. And part of the time he was so bad that he had to be
   put in a lunatic asylum." Yes, that is the kind of notion some people
   have--that there is a certain amount of alarm, distress, apprehension
   and fear which a man has to feelbefore he is up to the mark in this
   respect. But there is nothingat all in the Word of God to support that
   idea!

   I will not waste time by dwelling upon it because it is altogether a
   baseless supposition. We admit that many who come to Christ have passed
   through very great terror and agony before doing so, but a large part
   of their suffering was the work of the devil--not the work of the
   Spirit of God at all! A great part of it might have been spared if they
   had not been so ignorant. And a still larger part of it they might
   never have suffered if they had heard the Gospel preached with greater
   simplicity and had not been muddled and handled so roughly by some who
   put their own experience into the place of the Savior! After all, we
   are not saved by any feelings or alarms that we may have. The source of
   eternal life is yonder, on that Cross, and he who looks there, be he
   who he may or what he may, shall find salvation in the glance that
   spies out the wounded God! Not our wounds, but His wounds--not our
   griefs, but His griefs--not our tears, but His blood saves us! Away,
   therefore, forever, with the notion that there is a certain point of
   grief that has to be reached to qualify us for coming to the Savior!

   Then, again, there is another mistake made by many--that this sorrow
   for sin only happens once--as a sort of squall, or a hurricane, or
   thunderstorm that breaks over a man once, and then he is converted and
   he talks about that experience all the rest of his life, but he has
   nothing more to do with it. Why, dear Friends, there is nothing more
   erroneous than that! For myself, I freely confess that I have a very
   much greater sorrow for sin, today, than I had when I came to the
   Savior more than 30 years ago. I hate sin much more intensely, now,
   than I did when I was under conviction. I am sure I do. There are some
   things that I did not know to be sin, then, that I do know to be sin,
   now, and therefore I strive to be rid of them. I have a much keener
   sense of the vileness of my own heart, now, than I had when first I
   came to Christ, and I think that many other Believers here will say
   that it is the same with them. Sorrow for sin is a perpetual rain--a
   sweet, soft shower which, to a truly gracious man, lasts all his life!
   He is always sorrowful that he has sinned. He is con-

   tinually grieved that there should still be any sin remaining in him
   and he will never leave off grieving till all that sin has gone.

   I could almost wish that in Heaven, itself, the Lord would let me mourn
   that I ever sinned. Good old Rowland Hill used to say that the only
   thing about Heaven that he did not quite like was that he should leave
   off repenting there. He supposed that no tear of sorrow for sin could
   be ever allowed to fall there. It is a sweet thing to be sorrowful for
   sin, to be sorrowful for impurity, to be sorrowful for anything that
   made Jesus sorrow--it is not a thing that happens once and then is done
   with--the godly sorrow of a Believer lasts throughout his life.

   I want to also correct another mistake, namely, that sorrow for sin is
   a miserable feeling. The moment the word, "sorrow," is mentioned, many
   people suppose that it must necessarily be grief of a bitter kind. Ah,
   but there is a sweet sorrow, a healthysorrow. In honey, there is a
   sweetness that cloys after awhile. We may eat too much of it and make
   ourselves ill. But in repentance there is a bitter sweetness, or a
   sweet bitterness--which shall I call it?--of which, the more you have,
   the better it is for you! I can truly say that I hardly know a sweeter
   joy than to lay my head in my Heavenly Father's bosom and say, "Father,
   I have sinned, but You have forgiven me and, oh, I do love You!" It is
   such bliss, whenever you are troubled in heart, to go to God, again,
   just as you went to Him at the first, as a poor sinner and to say,
   "Lord, I mourn to think that I should have been what I have been--that
   I should have fallen so far short even of my own ideal of what I meant
   to have been. But I know that You love me and the more sure I am of the
   fact, and the more glad I am because of it, the more grieved I am to
   think that I do not live as such love as Yours deserves that I should
   live."

   What have you been doing that is wrong, Brother, Sister? Are the
   consolations of God small with you? Is there any secret sin that is
   keeping you sad and sorrowful? Shall I help you find out the source of
   the evil? Have you been neglecting the reading of the Word? Have you
   been lax in private prayer of late? Have you been getting covetous? As
   you have grown richer, have you grown tighter in the fist? Have you
   been getting more worldly? Do you speak less about Christ than you used
   to and more about vanity? Have you been mixing with bad company? Have
   you been entangled by a so-called friend who is no help to you, but who
   really hinders you greatly in spiritual things? Have you been forming
   some associations that you know Christ does not approve of? Have you
   been letting things go a little amiss in your business-- only a little
   amiss? Still, you know that things are not straight and that you could
   not face a thorough examination of your affairs. Have you fallen out
   with your brother and can you not forgive him? Have you had a quarrel,
   you two sisters, and will you not love each other? Yet you call
   yourselves Christians!

   So I might go on to mention 50 other things and any one of those things
   would be quite sufficient to take from you the joy of the Lord and to
   bring you into a lean state, spiritually. You know that you were once
   like the land of Egypt during her seven years of plenty, when all went
   well with you. I pray God that you may not have seven years of famine,
   as they had in Egypt, for it is amazing how the lean cows will eat up
   the fat cows, and yet never be any the fatter themselves. One would
   have thought that if the seven lean beasts ate up the seven fat ones,
   they would get fat, themselves--but they did not! And you may have a
   sad time of declension that will eat up all your years of zeal and holy
   joy, yet those years may not be one whit the better because of the
   strange feast!

   Come, Brother! Come, Sister! You and I cannot afford to live at a
   distance from Christ! We cannot afford to live in a state of misery. A
   Christian who is not glad--why, what sort of a Christian is he? I
   cannot bear to see religion served up with vinegar. No, Brothers and
   Sisters, it ought to be sweet in itself--so sweet that if you poured a
   bottle of vinegar in it, you would not make it sour! A Christian ought
   to be a happy person. He is not true to his colors--he is not true to
   his Master--he is not true to himself--unless he is happy! Let us have
   a good drink of the "wines on the less, well refined," till we forget
   our misery and remember it no more in the ecstatic joy and intense
   delight which the love of Christ and communion with God shall give us
   again! If you have backslidden, come back this very hour! Confess your
   sin in backsliding from God, and Christ will soon give you back your
   old joy and gladness.

   It does not spoil your happiness, my Brother or Sister, to confess your
   sin. The unhappiness is in notmaking the confession. If you are a child
   and you have done something wrong towards your father, you are unhappy
   as long as you try to conceal it. You old folks can remember that when
   you were boys at home and you had been doing wrong, you sometimes said,
   "I shall not acknowledge it." But all the while that you hardened
   yourself, you were miserable--you know that you were! You missed your
   father's good-night kiss and your mother's smile. And although, as long
   as you stubbornly held out, you thought yourself very brave, yet you
   were very miserable. But did you not also know what it was,

   afterwards, to go and say, "Father," or, "Mother, I was very wrong to
   do what I did and I am truly sorry"? Then, as you received the kiss of
   full forgiveness, I do not suppose you ever felt more happy than that
   in all your life! That is the way for God's child always to do.
   Whenever you have done wrong, go at once to your Heavenly Father with
   godly sorrow for that sin--and get the sweet kiss of His forgiving love
   all over again! That is not wretchedness, it is happiness of the
   highest kind! It is the safest and surest way to maintain communion
   with God that I know of--unless, indeed, it is true, as some of our
   friends say, that they live without sinning altogether--about which I
   will say no more just now.

   There are some who also erroneously think that sorrow for sin must be
   mixed with unbelief They suppose that if a man is sorrowful for sin, he
   must be afraid that he will be lost, he must fear that his sin can
   never be forgiven him. Permit me, however, to explain that no such
   black cloud as that need follow upon the heels of our repentance! The
   best sorrow for sin is that which never doubts Christ's ability to wash
   it out--that cries out in grief for having sinned--and yet says, "Wash
   me, and I shall be whiter than snow." It is not right, on the part of
   your child, if he comes and says, "Father, I have done wrong and I do
   not believe you will ever forgive me." Why, he is wrong all over, then,
   is he not? You can see the evil that is in his heart boiling over in
   such talk as that! But there is no need for it to be so with you, my
   Brother or Sister! Rather say, "My Father, I have sinned, and I mourn
   that I have done so, but, at the same time, I not only know that You
   will forgive, but I know that You have already forgiven me for Christ's
   sake. I have laid my hands upon the head of the great Sacrifice and
   Substitute and I know that, ere I was born, in His own Person, He
   carried my sin away, even as of old the scapegoat carried the sin of
   Israel into the wilderness, and it is gone forever, for You have said,
   'The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none;
   and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.' Lord, I trust to
   the substitutionary Sacrifice offered by Your dear Son, and I feel at
   perfect peace with You. And, for that very reason, I hate sin more than
   I ever did, and I grieve more than I ever did in my life, to think I
   should ever have been guilty

   of it."

   Thus have I tried to remove a few erroneous ideas out of the way. Yet I
   fear that they will continue to deceive many as long as the world
   stands.

   II. Now, secondly, I want to help you to DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE TWO
   SORROWS MENTIONED IN THE TEXT. First, there is a godly sorrow which,
   "works repentance to salvation not to be repented of." If you have
   marginal notes in your Bibles, you will see that in the preceding
   verse, where we read, "you were made sorry after a godly manner," in
   the margin it reads, "you were made sorry according to God." And that
   rendering lets a great deal of light into the meaning of our
   text--"sorrow according to God."

   Now, mark, the true sorrow which we ought to have and which saves men
   instrumentally, is sorrow on account of sin because it is sin against
   God. That is the very pith of godly sorrow, as penitent David cried,
   "Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in Your
   sight." And as the prodigal said, "Father, I have sinned against
   Heaven, and in your sight." O my dear Hearers, ask yourselves whether
   you have sorrowed for sin because it is sin against God--for any
   hypocrite is sorry for sin which injures himself, or which may damage
   his reputation among men--but the essential thing is to be sorry
   because the evil is a wrong done to God. You know that men do not
   generally trouble much about wrong done to God. A crime is usually a
   wrong done to man, so we think it is a horrible thing. But a sin,
   inasmuch as it is against God, many people do not care at all about
   that.

   If I were to personally address any man or woman in this place, and
   say, "You are a sinner," each one would reply, "Yes, that is true." But
   if I were to say to a man, "You are a criminal," he would be ready to
   knock me down! So, you see, a criminal is one who offends against men
   and that is, in our view, a very horrible thing. But a sinner being
   only one who offends against God--that is not, according to most
   people's notion, anything in particular--so they do not care much about
   it. Oh, but when a man is really awakened, he sees that the wickedness
   of the offense is that it is an offense against God! That is the worst
   part of the offense, as he rightly judges, and he therefore sorrows
   over it. This is a sorrow which is to be cultivated by us--the mourning
   over sin because it is committed against God.

   Then, notice, that it is also a sorrow which is associated with a
   believing faith, for a godly sorrow must be one that makes the heart
   that feels it yield itself to Christ. Yielding itself to Christ, it
   must believe in Christ, for, if I do not believe in Christ, it is
   certain that I have not yielded myself to Him. Therefore, the only
   sorrow for sin that is worth having is that which brings me to yield
   myself up to the Lord Jesus Christ and to accept God's mercy in God's
   own way. If you have any sort of sorrow for sin which does not lead you
   to believe in Christ, away with it! Away with it! A repentance

   that does not repent at the Cross is a repentance which will have to be
   repented of--true sorrow for sin must be blended with a childlike
   submission to God and consequent confidence in Christ--otherwise it is
   not "godly sorrow."

   "Godly sorrow" is, next, known by its leading to repentance. It "works
   repentance"--"a change of mind" about everything and especially about
   sin. A man is so sorry for having done wrong that he now thinks
   differently of all wrongdoing. He thinks differently of his entire life
   and his mind is made up, God helping him, to live just the opposite way
   to that in which he has formerly lived. When sorrow for sin leads to
   that result, we may be quite sure that it is the work of the Spirit of
   God and that it is acceptable in His sight.

   It also leads on to deliverance from sin, for the text says, "Godly
   sorrow works repentance to salvation." Now, what is salvation? Some
   people think that it means being saved from going down to Hell. That is
   the resultof salvation, but salvation means being saved from the power
   of sin and being saved from the tendency to sin, as well as being saved
   from the punishment of sin. That is a blessed sorrow which leads us to
   such a change of mind that the bonds of sin are snapped and we become
   free men in Christ Jesus, saved in the Lord with an everlasting
   salvation from the bondage and the power of sin and Satan!

   That is the kind of sorrow to cultivate, for it leads to perpetual
   perseverance in the ways of God. Notice that the text says it is a
   salvation not to be repented of, or, if you like, a repentance not to
   be repented of. I have known men repent after a fashion, and they have
   been very sorry for it afterwards. I knew a wild sort of fellow who was
   brought to his knees at the penitent-form and he did cry away at a fine
   rate--but you could never get him inside that place again. He was
   always ashamed of himself, for it was a repentance that needed to be
   repented of, and he did repent of it. There is many a dog that gets
   back to his vomit as soon as he can, and there is many a sow that is
   sorry for being washed, and glad enough to get back to wallow in the
   mire. But that is not the kind of change that the Apostle mentions
   here. True godly sorrow is that which leads to repentance never to be
   repented of, for the man says, "No, I left my sin, and if I wanted to
   go back to it, I have plenty of opportunity to do so. But I cannot go
   back to it, I hate it. There," he says, "I have been tempted over and
   over again and my feet had well-nigh slipped, but the eternal life
   within me, kept there by the Spirit of God, has driven me back to
   Christ! I could not do this great wickedness and sin against God. I
   have already smarted too much to put my hand again into the fire. I
   grieved my God too much and brought too much grief upon my own heart,
   for me to play the fool, again, and once more to go into the purlieus
   of iniquity."

   Happy is that man who has had enough of the smart of sin to make it
   sour and bitter to him all the rest of his days, so that now, with
   changed heart and renewed spirit, he perseveres in the ways of God,
   never thinking of going back, but resolved "through floods or flames"
   to force his way to Heaven, to be, by Divine Grace, master over every
   sin that assails him! That is the kind of sorrow which I pray that God
   may work in everyone here who has never yet felt it.

   III. Now, to close, let us pray God the Holy Spirit to enable us to
   INDULGE OURSELVES IN GODLY SORROW FOR SIN.

   I will not say anything about the sorrow of the world that works death,
   but leave that sad subject in order that we may devote this little
   space that remains to the enjoyment of godly sorrow for sin.

   Remember, Beloved, that it is now all forgiven. Our sin is all gone. It
   will never be mentioned against us anymore forever! The depths of the
   ocean of oblivion have covered the Egyptians of our sins, there is not
   one of them left. Therefore, "sing you to the Lord, for He has
   triumphed gloriously." The Red Sea waves of the Redeemer's blood have
   rolled over all our sins and they sank to the bottom like a stone. "As
   far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our
   transgressions from us." That is, they are removed to an infinite
   distance from which they can never be brought back! They are gone--they
   are all gone, and gone forever!

   And now, Beloved, let us ask ourselves--how could we have sinned
   against such a forgiving God? If we had known how readily He would
   forgive us, surely we could not have offended Him as we have done. Such
   a God as He is--was there ever any like He? Well might the Prophet
   Micah exclaim, "Who is a God like unto You, that pardons iniquity and
   passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?" O God, how
   could I ever have offended You? Having done so, how could I continue to
   rebel against You all those long years? How could I resist the
   yearnings of Your love and the entreaties of Your Spirit? Oh, why did I
   linger so long before coming back to such a Father, who clasped me to
   his heart and kissed away all my transgressions, and said, "Bring forth
   the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes
   on his feet." Burst forth into tears, O eyes that have so long been
   dry! O hearts that have been like the

   rock in the desert, let the sweet love of God strike you, like the rod
   of Moses, and let the waters leap forth! The thought that we have
   sinned against such a God may well cause us godly sorrow.

   And, then, we should further sorrow as we remember that our pardon has
   come to us through Jesus Christ Yet it was against Him that we
   sinned--against Him who, for our sakes, left the Throne and royalties
   of Heaven, and was born a Babe at Bethlehem--against Him who sat weary
   on the well at Sychar and said, "Give Me to drink," yet to whom we
   refused to give the water of our heart's love. Think, Brothers and
   Sisters, that you and I have sinned against Him who said, "Foxes have
   holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has not
   where to lay His head." We have sinned against Him who never did us any
   wrong, never did us an ill turn, or said a hard word to us, but who,
   blessed be His infinite love, went up to the Cross for us and gave His
   hands to the cruel nails, and His whole body to death, that He might
   redeem us from our sins, and save us forever. O Jesus, my Savior,
   against You have I offended! O strong Son of God, Incarnate Deity,
   whom, though we have not seen, we do by faith unceasingly adore, it is
   against You we have offended! We have sinned against Him to whom we are
   married forever--against Him who is bone of our bone, and flesh of our
   flesh--against Him, the kisses of whose mouth are sweeter than honey or
   the honeycomb. O my Heart, you might well break, though you were made
   of cast steel, to think that you have rebelled against Him who is all
   goodness and all love to you!

   I tell you, dear Friends, one thing that always makes me grieve to
   think that I have sinned, is my election. Oh, when I first knew that
   God had chosen me to be His from before the foundation of the world, I
   could not make out how I could have been so mad as to have lived
   without Him--to have lived in opposition to Him. And then, when I found
   that Christ had engraved me, even me, upon the palms of His hands, and
   written my name upon His heart, then I smote upon my breast and said,
   "Woe is me that I, a man so much loved, should, nevertheless, have been
   such a transgressor and have sinned so grievously against my God!"

   Come, Brothers and Sisters, plunge with me into this pool of holy
   sorrow! Well you may, for think how some of you have been favored by
   Sovereign Grace! Think how God called you out of the depths of sin--how
   long and how patiently He bore with you! Some of you were converted
   when you were 60 or 70 years old--can you ever love Him enough, and can
   you ever grieve enough because you lived so long in sin? And you who
   were converted when you were but boys and girls--can you ever bless Him
   enough for calling you so early? Can you ever blame yourself enough for
   not loving Him more, and not serving Him better? As for me, I am the
   worst and the lowest among you all because I owe more to God's Grace
   than anyone else in this place. To have this sweet privilege of talking
   about His love, why, I would not change places with Gabriel, himself,
   for he, at any rate, has never had the privilege of telling such a
   story of redeeming Grace and dying love as I have to tell! Yet I am
   ashamed of myself for speaking so coldly and so feebly concerning my
   blessed Savior. I could almost flee from my pulpit because I cannot
   speak better of Him and move your hearts more earnestly to hate your
   sin.

   But so it is--the more mercy we have received, the more sorrow for sin
   should we feel. The more love, the more delight and rapture we have
   experienced, the more lamentation should we make that we should ever
   have sinned, and that we should be so prone to sin again even after we
   have been forgiven! I often have to cry, "O wretched man that I am! Who
   shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Some people tell me that
   Paul wrote that lament before he was converted, or when he was just
   converted, and they talk about rising above all such experiences as
   that. But I find that the nearer I get to God, the more is my
   experience just like that of the Apostle when he wrote those words. And
   whereas I only knew that I had so much sin when I had a clear view of
   God and a strong sense of being His, yet it is then that I have learned
   how terrible it is that there should still be the possibility of sin
   hanging about me, and I have cried, "Oh, that I were delivered from
   this body of death that still drags me down to the dust!"

   I am sure it will be the same with you, Beloved. The more your joy in
   the Lord and the nearer you come to perfection, the deeper will be your
   lamentation--the bitterer, yet in some senses the sweeter will be your
   sorrow that there should be any sin still remaining within you. I say
   again, this is sweet sorrowing--sweet, sweet sorrow and, till you get
   to Heaven, I could scarcely wish you any better joy than this--to go
   home and creep to the foot of the Cross and lie there, sorrowing over
   your sin against such a Savior, yet rejoicing that it is all forgiven--

   "He that is down needs fear no fall, He that is low no pride"--

   so, as you lie there, look up--

   "And view the flowing Of the Savior's precious blood, With Divine
   assurance knowing He has made your peace with God."

   And then say--

   "My sins, my sins, my Savior, Their guilt I never knew"--

   "till I knew what they cost You--till I knew Your great love to
   me--till I knew my sins were all forgiven! But now they are forgiven,
   they torture me with a sweet grief of which I would gladly die."--

   "Lord, let me weep for nothing but sin,

   And after none but Thee;

   And then I would--oh, that I might!

   A constant weeper be."

   This is joy, rest, patience, bliss--just to lie there and weep, and
   wash with tears the feet that came upon that errand of love and mercy
   for us! And still look, and love, and long, and weep, and look, and
   love, and long, and weep again, and kiss again and again the blessed
   feet of Him who has redeemed us unto God by His blood!

   The Lord keep us there, dear Friends! Amen. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Church Increase

   (No. 2692)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST
   18, 1881.

   "The children which you shall have, after you have lost the other,
   shall say again in your ears, The place is too small for me: give me
   aplace that I may dwell. Then you will say in your heart, Who has
   begotten these for me, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate,
   a captive, and wandering to and fro? And who has brought these up?
   Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?" Isaiah 49:20,21.

   MEN who have no Grace in their hearts despise the Church of God. Those
   who have only a little Grace have but slight sympathy with her
   condition. Men who have great Grace and are conscious of having
   received much mercy from God have great sympathy with the Church of
   God, and a deep regard for her. You remember how David, in that
   memorable penitential Psalm, the 51st, after he had poured out his
   whole soul in pleading for mercy and forgiveness for himself, concluded
   his prayer by saying, "Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion: build
   You the walls of Jerusalem." In like manner, those who have needed
   mercy, have pleaded for mercy and have received much mercy, are usually
   those who are most anxious that the people of God should be happy, that
   the cause of God should prosper, that the Truth of God should speedily
   overthrow error and that the Christ of God should be exalted and
   glorified in the earth.

   I do not expect to say anything upon this subject which will interest
   those who have no love for the Church of God, but those who belong to
   her and who are spending their lives to promote her welfare because she
   is the bride of Christ, will, I trust, find something in what I say
   which will interest and perhaps encourage them. I shall come at once to
   the text and notice that, first, we must expect a measure of decrease
   in the Church But then, secondly, we may expect a great increase in the
   Church And, thirdly, from what this text has to say upon that subject
   and also for other reasons, we ought to be encouraged to seek the
   increase of the Church of God.

   I. First, then, dear Friends, THERE IS A DECREASE GOING ON IN THE
   CHURCH OF GOD ON EARTH.

   Zion is represented here as mourning for the children that she had
   lost. The Jewish Church in the olden times saw her sons and daughters
   slain with the sword, or carried away captive. Afterwards, she saw the
   great majority of the nation refusing Christ and turning away from
   Him--and thus the Jewish Church was diminished and brought very low.
   The same thing has happened in many other cases and I am going to apply
   the text to ourselves and our own churches. We must naturally expect to
   see, in each separate church of Jesus Christ, a certain process and
   measure of decrease.

   For, first, some are being drafted from us to supply the choirs of
   Heaven with fresh musicians. That is a happy source of loss which we
   would not stop if we could! Perhaps, in the case of each sheaf that is
   gathered into the heavenly garner, there are some who would gladly
   detain it, to the loss of that particular sheaf, and also to the loss
   of the great Husbandman. When we speak as we ought concerning those who
   are thus taken Home, we thank God that when the shocks of corn are
   fully ripe, they are no longer left in the field to suffer through the
   falling showers or the blighting mildew, but they are carried away to
   their proper place in the garner of God!

   Therefore, Beloved, bury not the saints with dolorous music, but sing
   Psalms of praise as you bear them to the grave. I like the old Puritan
   style of funeral. The body of the Believer was borne to the tomb upon
   men's shoulders and the surviving friends sang Psalms and hymns as they
   marched along. Their faith taught them that they had no need to sorrow
   as those that are without hope, so they took care to always mingle the
   music of a joyful faith with the tears that they shed

   over the departure of those who had fallen asleep in Christ. So let it
   always be with us. As star by star descends below the horizon of earth,
   it shines far more brightly in the skies above! Should not Jesus have
   His own? Is it not still His prayer, "Father, I will that they also,
   whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My
   Glory"? Should we wish to detain them from their Lord's embrace, or rob
   the Master of the satisfaction of receiving Home His loved ones? No,
   certainly not! That source of decrease has lately taken away some of
   the godliest and most gracious of ministers. Some of the officers of
   the Church who seemed to be its pillars, have been removed, and others,
   less known, but equally gracious, have also been missed from our midst.
   So must it continue to be--therefore, let us not rebel against the
   blessed necessity. Who among us would wish to alter the Lord's
   arrangement? No, let this form of decrease still go on and let the
   Church on earth be the nursery for the Church above! Let it be the
   school, the place of education, the training-ground, until the children
   shall come of age and enter upon their inheritance fully prepared to
   enjoy it to the praise and glory of their Lord!

   Each separate church will also have a measure of decrease through the
   removal of God's servants from one place to another This is a
   circumstance which is sometimes much regretted, but I think it should
   not be so. "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be
   increased." Often, the removal of a Christian out of a particular place
   is in order that he may be more helpful to another community than he is
   in his present position. I have frequently seen Brothers and Sisters
   who were just ordinary members of this Church--good, useful people--but
   they did not attain to any very great prominence. Yet, in another place
   they have been exceedingly useful. I go into the country to preach and
   the deacon shakes hands with me. And as I look at him, I say, "Ah, I
   remember you." "Well, Sir," he replies, "I moved away from London some
   years ago and the Lord has been pleased to put me here, so that I may
   help this little cause. It has been strengthened, I hope, by my
   coming." And I find the Brother greatly developed by being
   transplanted. He is where the trees do not stand so thickly together as
   they do here, and he grows all the better for the change.

   Sometimes, under the shadow of some great tree, there is a large number
   of saplings, and they grow pretty well. But, by-and-by, the big tree is
   cut down and it is not altogether a loss--for then the minor trees,
   that were beneath it, begin to develop and to become strong forest
   trees themselves. So is it, sometimes, that men are overshadowed in one
   position, and their removal is for their own development. On the whole,
   it is a gain to the Church of God for certain churches to lose some of
   their members. Do not, therefore, always regret this source of
   decrease. For my part, I thank God for the many whom we lose by
   emigration. I am glad that some friends have gone to America. What
   would the United States have been, at this moment, if it had not been
   for "the men of the Mayflowef in the olden times, and the many pilgrim
   fathers and pilgrim sons and daughters who have since gone across the
   Atlantic to be as salt in that part of the earth?

   Look still further away to Australia, so largely peopled by those who
   are of our race. What a mercy that it is so! Would you have those lands
   given up to Romanism, or to Mohammedanism, or to Paganism? God forbid!
   Salt ought not to be kept in a box--it is meant to be rubbed into the
   meat--and Christians are intended to be scattered all over the carcass
   of this world, to salt it all, and act with purifying and preserving
   power in every place! Let not the members of any one church, therefore,
   sit down and sigh, and cry, because their fellow members are removed.
   There are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it, so try to
   catch some more! If your Brothers and Sisters are gone where they can
   be more useful, God speed them! Freely and cheerfully let them go! A
   heart that should try to keep all the blood within itself would be no
   source of life to the body--no, it could not itself live--but the heart
   that continually pumps in the blood and then pumps it out again is the
   one that is serving its proper purpose.

   That is what churches should do--let them not be stingy, but rather
   lavish in the cause of God. Depend upon it, if we decrease in numbers
   because our friends depart to other spheres of service for the Savior,
   it is not a thing to weep over! We must try to get in some new members
   to take their places and may God prosper the endeavor!

   But there is another source of decrease over which we must greatly
   grieve, and that is the backsliding of many professors. Over this
   decrease I mourn even more than over another, grievous as that is,
   namely, the sifting process by which the chaff is removed from the
   wheat For when the saints backslide, they are still God's people,
   although their power for good, their influence, their help to the
   Church of God is gone until they are brought back--and that is very
   lamentable. Churches lose much, if not in number, yet certainly in
   strength, in fervor, in power of prayer, by the declining in Grace of
   some who once ran well, but who have been hindered. Pray much, dear
   Friends, that God would keep all who are members with us from growing
   cold. May they have their first love restored, if it is at all
   declining, and may they have much

   more than that, for it is not much to stay just as we were when we were
   spiritually made alive--we ought to "grow in Grace." Our first love
   should be like the kindling of the fire when, perhaps, there are
   shavings or straw set alight, and it burns apparently more fiercely
   than it does afterwards. Yet, later on in the Christian life, there
   ought to be a steady flame like the glow of the coals when they are
   turned in the grate to one solid ruby. That steady glow of permanent
   love to the Lord Jesus Christ is what we should seek after--but we do
   not see it in some of our members. Then, by-and-by, they cease their
   attendance at the Communion Table and they are missing from various
   forms of Christian work and service--and so the church has ineffective
   members and thus it has to regret a real decrease.

   As for that other decrease over which we mourn--the sifting by which
   the chaff is separated from the wheat--how sadly true it still is, as
   the beloved Apostle wrote, "They went out from us, but they were not of
   us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with
   us: but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were
   not all of us." There is a separating process always going on in the
   professing church and the most effectual fan of all is a faithful
   ministry. After a while, some of our hearers do not like what we
   say--it is too personal, too cutting, too searching. They want to
   listen to that kind of preaching which will allow them to go on
   comfortably in their sins and to keep up a name to live even while they
   are dead.

   How constantly our Lord's teaching kept on sifting His disciples! After
   one of His utterances concerning human inability apart from Divine
   Grace, we read, "From that time many of His disciples went back, and
   walked no more with Him." As He continually brought out some of the
   deeper Truths of God as His disciples were able to bear them, there
   were certain of the mixed multitude that had joined with His followers
   who went off this way and that way. So is it always--and so mustit be
   under the faithful preaching of the Word--and you must not be
   astonished or grieved when it is so. It is a gain to any church to lose
   such members as these, for the mixed multitude usually falls a-lusting
   as it did in the olden times. Half the sin in the camp in the
   wilderness came not from the children of Israel, but from the riff-raff
   and rabble that went up out of Egypt with them--and that were mingled
   among them to their hurt.

   Do not, dear Friends, ever believe that the true saints of God can
   finally turn away from Him and be lost. There was a notable sermon
   preached, last Sunday, in St. Paul's Cathedral, against the
   perseverance of the saints. Did you notice why it was preached and the
   whole tone and tenor of it? It was this--if the saints shall finally
   persevere, why, then, we do not need "the sacraments." Ah, that is the
   great secret! Calvinism is the death of priest-craft! Calvinism is the
   end of "sacraments" and, hence, "sacraments" must be cried up and God's
   everlasting love must be proved to be mutable, and the Covenant to be
   founded on an "if and an "an," and the Christ of God is, after all, to
   be just a toy for "priests" to play with! The preacher, perhaps
   unintentionally, let the cat out of the bag--"the sacraments" must be
   cried up, "the priests" must be kept up and everything else must go!

   But we do not believe any such teaching as that! We still hold to it
   that when Christ gives to His sheep, eternal life, they shall never
   perish, neither shall any pluck them out of His hands. Yet there are
   some that come in among His sheep that are only goats or wolves in
   sheep's clothing and, after a time, these depart and the church thus
   apparently decreases. But so it must be to the end, even as Judas went
   to his own place, yet the Apostles did not really lose by his
   departure. They were rather the gainers thereby and, as those who are
   not true converts go out from her, the church need not lament except
   for their sakes--certainly, not for her own!

   I have brought this subject forward because I may be addressing some
   Brothers and Sisters who see the tide running out in their churches,
   and they are very sad as they watch the ebb. I have not seen much of
   that sort of thing, myself, but the least ebb troubles me and I go
   before God in prayer about it. I cannot bear to lose one of the members
   of my church, or to see one of them turn aside from the company of the
   faithful. Yet there is another side to this picture and we must not
   shut our eyes to it.

   II. So I ask you now to consider with me the second part of our
   subject. That is, THERE IS AN INCREASE TO BE EXPECTED IN THE CHURCH OF
   GOD. There are new converts yet to come in, as says my text--these
   children which Zion is to have, after she has lost the others.

   And, Brothers and Sisters, these new converts are necessary. No church
   can be healthy without the constant infusion of fresh blood. Unless
   there are new converts, you cannot see the church built up. They often
   help to keep the old members warm and zealous. How I like, at a Prayer
   Meeting, to hear a Brother pray for the first time! I am not greatly
   grieved even if he breaks down, for it is the best kind of praying in
   the world when a man breaks down. Such an incident

   puts a sense of reality into the whole meeting. Our good old friends,
   who cannot break down, but must inevitably run on till the winding was
   all worked out, are not always the most edifying to us. But those who,
   from very passion of earnestness, cannot find words in which to express
   their feelings, and so come to a pause with a sigh or groan, or a flood
   of tears, often do us the most good. The young converts are also quick
   in inventing new ways of usefulness and they venture to do things which
   some consider "imprudent." Oh, how I love that word, "imprudent," in
   such a connection! I like "imprudent" young people. The more
   "imprudent" they are, in the cause of God in the judgment of stolid,
   cold-hearted professors, the more I rejoice in them! Imprudence which
   believes in God and dares to do exploits in His strength is far
   preferable to that prudence which has no faith and is, therefore, a
   poor, dead, useless thing.

   So you see that the church needs new converts and, therefore, she ought
   to have every preparation for their reception. There should always be
   an arrangement in every church to afford a welcome to the coming ones.
   Everything should be in readiness for the reception of the newborn
   converts. They should scarcely have to ask for admission and,
   certainly, as soon as they come, they should see that it is the
   church's joy to welcome them. Hence we should always be on the lookout
   for them. We ought to look for new converts every Sunday. I do not
   think any sermon ought to be preached without each one of you Christian
   people saying, "I wonder whether God has blessed the message to this
   stranger who has been sitting next to me? I will put a gentle question
   to him and see if I can find out." I have known some hearers to be
   annoyed at such a question being put to them by an earnest Brother. Do
   not be annoyed, dear Friend, if you can help it, because you are very
   likely to be treated in that way again! It is our custom to do it here,
   so you will have to put up with it. And the only way to get over the
   annoyance is to give your heart to Christ and settle the matter once
   and for all! Then, the next time you come here, you will not be asked
   the question because they will know who you are, for they will
   recognize your happy face--or if anyone else shouldask you the
   question, you will give such a glad answer to it that you two will
   rejoice together!

   We expect people to be converted when they come here. So much is this
   the case that I know a friend, who came to take a sitting--I will not
   point it out, but I know just where he is now occupying it--and he said
   that he must see me before he took the sitting. He said, "I understand
   that if I take a sitting here, you will expect me to be converted." I
   said, "Oh, yes, I do expect that." "Well," he replied, "I cannot
   guarantee that." "No, my good man," I answered, "I know you cannot, but
   you use the word 'expect' in a different sense from what I do. I hope
   you will be converted through coming here--that is what I mean." "Oh,"
   he said, "I hope so, too." And that is just what happened! When people
   come to the House of God and they expect to be saved, and we expect it,
   too, it is tolerably certain that they will be converted before long!
   We may rejoice and bless God if you live in an atmosphere of holy
   expectancy! Where the great door stands wide open for the prodigal son
   to come back--where all in the house are on the watch for his return,
   where they keep on sending letters to him to ask him to come home--is
   there not a good hope that such a wanderer will, indeed, return, and
   that the great Father will be made glad?

   Churches need converts and they should be on the lookout for them, and
   all who love the Lord should labor earnestly on their behalf All of us
   who believe in Jesus should seek, as God helps us according to our
   individual talent, to bring others to the dear Savior's feet. If we do
   this, we shall often be made to remember that all true conversion comes
   from God alone. There is no possibility of converting anybody by
   persuasion, by logic, by rhetoric, or anything of the sort. It is the
   work of God, and the work of God, alone! And though He uses
   instrumentality in almost every case, yet He will not use that
   instrumentality which thinks itself sufficient for the work. He will
   make us know that we are nothing-- and then He will make everything of
   us. He does not mind how much He makes of His servants when all that He
   does for them brings the more glory to His own name, and they do not,
   even with their little finger, touch the honor of it, or wish to do so.

   When we come to that point, and we are all pleading and laboring for an
   increase to the church, it will come. And when it comes, it is probable
   that we shall be astonished at the number of those who come. ' 'The
   children which you shall have, after you have lost the other, shall say
   again in your ears, The place is too small for me: give me a place that
   I may dwell." Or, to quote another text, the church shall say, "Who are
   these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" I wish I
   could put it into the heads of some Christian people that when there
   are large additions to a church, the new members are not necessarily at
   all inferior to those who come in by slow degrees and in small numbers.
   My own solemn impression is that it is more probably a work of God in
   conversion when there are many than when there are but

   few. For, look, when there are few converts, the tendency of human
   nature is to encourage as many as possible to come forward and, in the
   process, to bring some who, if more caution had been used, and more
   true judgment exercised, might have been bidden to stand back for a
   while. The tendency of the minister and of everybody else is to try to
   bring in some when but few are being converted--and the probability is
   that they will not, all of them, prove to be true Christians. But when
   there are a great many candidates coming forward, I can vouch for it
   that we become even more earnest than usual not to receive any but
   those who are, as far as we can judge, truly converted! Every elder is
   doubly watchful at such a time and everybody tries, if possible, to
   prevent an enthusiasm which might deceive people into the notion of
   their being Christians when they are not. We feel that we can afford,
   as it were, to use many sieves and strainers, many tests by which to
   try whether they really are the children of God or not--whether they
   are resolved and determined that they will follow Christ at all
   hazards.

   I say not this as though I would depreciate the work of God in the
   conversion of ones, twos and threes. No, no! I bless God for them, but
   I want to make it clear that when great numbers of converts come, it is
   wrong of people, for that reason, to think that it is notthe work of
   God. I would, on the contrary, conclude that it isthe work of God when
   many are saved at one time. If Peter, when he preached on the day of
   Pentecost, had been the means of the conversion of half-a-dozen of his
   hearers, it would have been a thing for which to praise God, and no one
   ought to have suspected the genuineness of the half dozen. But, as
   Peter's ministry was blessed of God to three thousand, there was not
   any more reason to say that there was one too many! Remember, also,
   dear Friends, that they were all baptized before night and the whole of
   the three thousand were received into the church that same day. Many
   critics might have said, "Oh, dear, there is far too much excitement!"
   Are you afraid of excitement, Brother? You have excitement in political
   affairs, you have excitement in business matters, you have excitement
   in your family.

   What excitement there was in your house when but one little stranger
   came there and shall there be no excitement in the Church of God when
   souls are born there? Why, surely we may be permitted to share in a
   Divine excitement, for there is an excitement in Heaven! Our Lord Jesus
   has told us that "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God
   over one sinner that repents." There was considerable excitement when
   the prodigal son came home--it was so great that they killed the fatted
   calf and had a festival ofjoy. There was holy merriment in the
   house--it was the scene of intense excitement and I think, within
   reasonable bounds--within such bounds as true reason would dictate from
   the great events that are happening! The conversion of a soul is the
   grandest event in human history next to the Redemption--there must be a
   blessed excitement among the people of God!

   Dear Friends, expect great numbers of sinners to be converted by the
   proclamation of the Gospel! I remember praying, when I went to preach
   in the great shed at Bedford, belonging to Mr. Howard, the plow maker,
   that God would be pleased to bring at least some few souls to Himself
   by that service. Dear old Mr. Howard, a Wesleyan friend who has since
   gone Home to Heaven, kept on saying, "Amen, Amen, Amen" while I was
   praying. but he did not say, "Amen," to that particular petition. When
   I went home to the house, he said to me, "I joined with you in all your
   prayer except when you asked that God would at least convert a few
   people. Why, my dear Friend," he said, "did you not pray that God would
   convert every soul there?" I said, "I will, tonight, Mr. Howard. I am
   rebuked by what you have said." We do not ask enough of God! Open your
   mouth wide and He will fill it. Oh, that we would open our mouths wide
   in large requests to God that He would bring in the converts by
   hundreds of thousands to the glory of His holy name!

   The next thing that was a subject for astonishment to Zion was, how
   those converts came to be born at all She inquired, in the language of
   the text, "Who has begotten these for me?" The reason was that she did
   not feel as if she had any power to bring forth all these. "Why," she
   said, "I have been in a truly sad state. 'I have lost my children, and
   am desolate, a captive, and wandering to and fro.' How did it ever
   happen that all these should be my children?" Ah, Brothers, sometimes
   we ask the same question!

   Yesterday, [Wednesday, August 17, 1881] I had a joyous day--all the
   bells of my heart rang! While many of you have been away at the
   seaside, I thought there was a little difference in the numbers coming
   to hear. And when I sat to see inquirers, there did not seem to be
   quite as many as usual coming forward and I was troubled about it. But
   yesterday I had so many sheaves that the cart was loaded with them, and
   my helpers came to me, every now and then, and said, "What a joyful
   day!" I do not know whether all the friends whom I saw yesterday are
   here, but they delighted my soul

   with the stories they told me of what the Grace of God had done for
   them. I bless God and take courage as I see another great slice cut out
   of the kingdom of Satan and transferred to the Kingdom of Christ!

   Quite a number of people who had never known the Lord, or anything
   about Him--outsiders altogether--had dropped in here and heard the
   Word--and found Christ! And they kept on coming, hour after hour, till
   I was weary with the blessed task of speaking to them, one by one,
   about their souls. And as I went home I kept saying to myself, "How has
   all this come about?"--because I have often felt so dull and heavy when
   I have been preaching. "Who has begotten these for me?"

   And, dear Friends, if God blesses you in your Sunday school classes,
   you also will say, "However has this come about? What could I have said
   that could have brought my scholars to Christ?" If the Lord shall bless
   you much, my dear Brother, in your preaching, you will more and more
   marvel that He should ever use such a poor tool as you are. I do not
   mean that you are a worse tool than I am, for I feel that I am a still
   poorer instrument than you are, but I often wonder that God uses me as
   He does, and I think you will also marvel that He uses you. When the
   church has grown feeble, when she has seemed to have no hope that God
   should bless her, but He then comes and visits her, and a multitude of
   converts is suddenly brought forth, she may well say, "Who has begotten
   these for me, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a
   captive, and wandering to and fro?" Take comfort then, Beloved, from
   the fact that whatever the decreases in the church may be, we may also
   expect increase--and in their number, the converts will surprise
   us--and in their being converted at all, we shall greatly marvel!

   But what Zion wondered at next was, how they had been nurtured, for she
   says, "Who has brought these up?" They were not merely born, but they
   had been brought up! And we also meet with persons who come forward to
   tell us that they are converted to Christ--and they are by no means
   fools. No, but when we begin to question them concerning the things of
   God, they answer us sensibly and intelligently. They do not need us to
   lead them like little children and to put the words into their mouth,
   for they know what to say--yet some of them have only been converted
   about a month and they have not been used to hearing the Gospel--but
   since they have heard it, they seem to have sucked it in like Gideon's
   fleece drank in the dew! Many doctors of divinity make a dreadful
   muddle of their theology, but these dear converts are as clear as
   possible upon what they believe. They have it all at their fingertips
   and they can tell what, "Covenant," means, and what, "Substitution,"
   means, and what, "Regeneration," means.

   We say, "Who has brought these up?" It seems so amazing to us! Has it
   not often been so to you, also, dear Friends? Yet, all the while we
   have been forgetting the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and we have said,
   "Why, my poor teaching could not have taught them all this." No, nor
   has it taught them all this. There is a higher Teacher than the best of
   ministers, there is a better Teacher than the most earnest and the most
   advanced of Christians--and He still fulfils that gracious promise,
   "All your children shall be taught of the Lord."

   A further cause of wonder was the sudden appearance of this great
   increase. Zion inquires, "These, where had they been?" Ah, that is just
   what I thought and said last night--and that is why I took this text,
   for it kept coming to my mind, "These, where had they been?" Some of
   them I had seen here forever so long, but others of them I had never
   seen at all, except on two or three Thursday nights lately I noticed
   them and, perhaps, at one or two Prayer Meetings. And I began to think
   that there was something good coming to pass with them, or else they
   would not have come. So I kept saying to myself, as I went home,
   "These, where had they been?" A month ago, I could not have found them.
   "These, where had they been?" They have sprung up and come forward all
   of a sudden through the blessed working of the Spirit of God! "These,
   where had they been?" Shall I tell you where they had been? Some of
   them had been in godly families, with fathers and mothers praying for
   them. No wonder that they came to close in with Christ! Some of them
   had been in the Sunday school, in classes where Brothers and Sisters
   love their children and never rest till they bring them to decision for
   Christ. It is not so very amazing that they should, by-and-by, come
   forward! "These, where had they been?" Well, they had been under the
   influence of Christian wives, Christian children, sometimes Christian
   brothers and sisters--and so, at last, the gracious influence took
   effect upon them, by the power of God's Spirit, and out they came!
   Thank God that there are great numbers still under those sacred
   influences, for they are sure to come in due time, and say, "We are on
   the Lord's side."

   Then there were some others. "Where had they been?" Well, they had long
   been listening to the Gospel, regularly sitting in their pews--and we
   had heard of them as people who had been attracted by our ministry for
   20 years, but who

   did not know the Lord. What a blessing it was for them that even after
   the hardening influence of listening so long to the Gospel had operated
   upon them--for it has such an influence in some cases--yet, at last,
   God Himself touched the Rock, and the waters streamed forth! There are
   some such persons now coming forward to join us in church
   fellowship--let us pray for all the rest of our fellow worshippers who
   are unconverted, that they also may come after them.

   But there were others whom I saw yesterday about whom I might well ask,
   "These, where had they been?" On the Lord's-Day, at home in their
   shirtsleeves. On weeknights, at the theater or the music hall, finding
   enjoyment in the lowest form of amusement. "Where had they been?" Never
   troubling church or chapel, some of them scarcely ever entering such an
   edifice at all! But God, in His Providence, brought them for once to
   hear the Word and, as one said to me, "I laid hold of something and
   something laid hold of me, and I shall never part with it, for it will
   never part with me." This is how it happened with many utterly
   irreligious people--those who had no fear or thought of God. And there
   were some still worse, who had gone into sin, and transgression, and
   crime--but they had been induced by some kind friend to come and listen
   to the Gospel, so there they were to tell of "free Grace and dying
   love," and to testify what Infinite Mercy had done for them!

   "These, where had they been?" Well, I cannot tell you where they had
   all been. Some had been at death's dark door, buried in sorrow and in
   sin, in poverty and in vice. Others, though they were not apparently so
   bad as these, were, notwithstanding, quite as much lost, for they were
   in the dark wood of self-righteousness, boasting that they were not as
   other men, and that they were as good as they ought to be, and so
   deceiving themselves. Now, it is just as much a marvel of mercy for God
   to save a self-righteous man as it is for Him to save a drunk or a
   harlot, and it takes as much of the almighty Grace of God to tear a man
   away from his own righteousness as to pull him away from his sin. Oh,
   the wonders of redeeming love that out of every place can fetch its
   thousands upon thousands to make the Church of God glad, and to cry in
   sweet surprise, "These, where had they been?"

   III. I have no time to dwell on the third point, further than just to
   say that ALL THINGS SHOULD ENCOURAGE

   THIS CHURCH--and the same rule applies to every church that God
   blesses--TO SEEK LARGER INCREASE.

   For, first, dear Brothers and Sisters, there is the same power to
   convert ten thousand as there is to convert one. The Lord, who brought
   you in, can bring thousands in! And if He adds to our Church some
   hundreds now and then, why should He not be constantly doing it? His
   arm is not shortened and He is still ready to bless us.

   Besides, we ought to be encouraged by the fact that the converts come
   in answer to prayer Notice that these additions to our Church have come
   just when we have been praying more than ever. Every Thursday night,
   before the service, there is a Prayer Meeting at 6 o'clock, in which a
   few friends gather to pray especially that their Pastor may be helped
   to preach. And tonight I suppose there were three or four hundred
   gathered together with that objective, and it is real praying, let me
   tell you--short, deep, earnest cries to God for a blessing--and the
   preacher cannot help preaching when he is prayed for like that! As that
   Prayer Meeting has increased in intensity and power, a blessing has
   already begun to come! Some of us are conscious of it--we cannot help
   seeing it. Is it possible for me not to believe in prayer? Can I deny
   that there is such a thing as the electric fluid when I see a tower
   shivered by a lightning flash? If I were fool enough, I could deny
   that, but I never could be such a fool as to deny the power of prayer
   which I see everyday exhibited in all sorts of things, and all sorts of
   ways! Very largely, in proportion as we pray, God blesses the Word. It
   has been so for years and they who have been among us, and know, can
   bear witness that this is an unexaggerated statement of fact. Well,
   then, if that is so, let us pray! If prayer can be the means of
   bringing souls to Christ, let there be no stint in that matter!

   And, further, since the converts come from all sorts of places, let us
   carry the Gospel into all sorts of places. There is not any part of
   London, however bad it may be, where God may not have an elect soul in
   it. Go after him, then! Down in the deepest kennel, in the worst court,
   in the filthiest houses, following the vilest occupation, there may be
   some whom God in mercy means to bless through you--so go after them,
   and go after them at once! You can never tell where God's chosen ones
   are. "These, where had they been?" is the question concerning those who
   have come to Him. And where they were, there are others--

   "How many sheep are straying, Lost from the Savior's fold? Upon the
   lonely mountain, They shiver with the cold Within the tangled thickets,

   Where poison vines do creep,

   And over rocky ledges,

   Wander the poor lost sheep.

   Oh, come let us go and find them!

   In the paths ofdeath they roam--

   At the close of the day

   'Twill be sweet to say--

   'I have brought some lost ones home. What a little thing God often
   blesses to save a soul--a word from a sister--a little note from a
   Christian woman-- half a word in these aisles! A man, who was never
   before spoken to about his soul, had not been pleaded with for five
   minutes before he came under conviction of sin--and he soon found the
   Savior. The very smallest thing has been made the means of bringing
   souls to Christ! Will you not, dear Friends, make use of those little
   things? Will you not use everything? Will you not be willing to spend
   and be spent for Christ in this blessed work of soul-saving? "In the
   morning sow your seed, and in the evening withhold not your hand: for
   you know not what shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they
   both shall be alike good."

   Go on, dear Brothers and Sisters, to cry mightily to God, and to labor
   earnestly for Him, till we shall, in glad surprise, bless and magnify
   His Grace that multitudes are brought to Him, and that His name is made
   to be yet more renowned! Let us constantly have your prayers at home as
   well as here, and the Lord be with you all! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Priest and Victim

   (No. 2693)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   AUGUST 28, 1881.

   "He offered up Himself." Hebrews 7:27.

   I DO not know when I have ever felt a more decided conflict of emotions
   in my own heart than I do just now. Happy is the man who has such a
   message as that in my text to deliver to his fellow men--but burdened
   is the man who feels that the message is far too great for his lips,
   or, indeed, for any human tongue to convey. To be allowed to announce
   to men that our Lord Jesus Christ "offered up Himself on their behalf
   is, indeed, an errand which angels might envy, but the theme is too
   great for any human being to compass. I comfort myself with the
   reflection that it does not require any excellence of speech to tell
   it--the excellence lies in the Truth itself. And if men's minds are in
   a right condition--if they are conscious of their lost state and they
   really desire to know what Christ has done to save them from it--they
   will need no garnishing or tawdry fripperies of human eloquence. All
   they will need will be to hear, as plainly and as earnestly as it can
   be spoken, the message of reconciliation which God has sent through
   Jesus Christ, His Son. Yet I cannot help feeling that the meaning of my
   text is so weighty that it may break the backs of the words that
   attempt to bring it to us. The axles of my human medium of conveyance
   are ready to snap when freighted with such a load of Infinite Love and
   Wisdom as comes to us in my short, full text--"He offered up Himself."

   But, to begin, I would remind you, dear Friends, that the idea of a
   sacrifice for sin is, in some sense or other, found in almost all human
   religions. I believe that some of the most ignorant tribes of Africa,
   and also Unitarians, have been found without the doctrine of an atoning
   sacrifice in their religion, but I do not think there are any other
   persons so benighted as these to be found anywhere. Go where you may,
   you will discover that as soon as ever people begin to say, "God," the
   next thing they say is, "sacrifice." And though their idea of God is
   often distorted and their idea of sacrifice is also distorted, yet both
   ideas are there. Man, however degraded, cannot altogether forget that
   there is a God and then, shrinking back from the awful majesty of the
   Divine holiness, he at least hopes that there is a sacrifice by which
   his sins may be put away. He feels that there must be one if he is ever
   to be brought into connection with God and so, in some form or other,
   the notion of sacrifice crops up wherever there is any religion at all.
   It may be in the ghastly form of human sacrifice, which is a hideous
   misinterpretation which has crept in under the darkness and gloom of
   heathenism or false teaching. Or it may appear in the continued
   sacrifice of bulls, or lambs, or other victims, but, somehow or other,
   the idea is there. Man seems to know, in his inmost nature, that he
   must bring a sacrifice if he would appear before God, and this is, by
   no means, an error on his part. However erroneous may be the frmit
   takes, in its essence there is truth in it.

   Brothers and Sisters, did you ever know this Truth of God in your own
   souls? Has not the conviction come to you, under a sense of sin, as an
   absolute certainty, that sin must be punished? I will not say that you
   have thought so when you have imagined yourself to be all right, or, at
   least, to be pretty nearly clear of anything wrong. No, but when
   conscience has been awakened and has begun to speak in the quiet night
   watches, in times of sickness, or when you have seemed to be on the
   brink of eternity, I ask you, has there not come the thought that sin
   would surely be visited with punishment?

   That--

   "Dread of something after death"

   of which the world's poet speaks, is an indication of belief in the
   Truth of God which is most sure, that the Judge of all the earth will
   not suffer His Laws to be trampled on with impunity, but that He will
   certainly punish iniquity, transgression and sin.

   Then there has also come to your mind, I feel sure--at least I remember
   well when it came to mine--the thought that God could not pardon me
   without punishing my sin--or that, if He did, His moral government of
   the whole universe would be weakened. If He permitted the guilty to
   enjoy the same rewards as the righteous received, where would be His
   justice? An amnesty to the guilty would, practically, be an abolition
   of His Law--it would be tantamount to saying, "It does not matter how
   you live, all will come right at last." There are some who teach that
   doctrine, nowadays, and, to state it in plain English, this is the
   doctrine that they teach--that we may rebel against God, we may
   blaspheme God, we may despise God--we may cheat, we may lie, we may
   murder, and so on--but it shall be just as well with us one day as it
   will be with the best man that lives! Does not the least atom of common
   morality that remains in man compel him to shrink back from teaching so
   intolerable as that? It cannot be right! We need not argue about the
   matter, it is impossible that it should be so, for human society would
   go to pieces under such an arrangement as that and the Judge of all the
   earth would have to abdicate His Throne before this could be! Many
   years ago, I put into words for myself, when I was under a sense of
   sin, a feeling which I believe others must have had under similar
   circumstances. I said, "If God does not punish me for my sin, He ought
   to do so." I felt that if He did not condemn me for my sin, my
   conscience would condemn Him and that if He allowed me to go unpunished
   when I was guilty, in some way or other He would cease to be a just God
   and would no longer be worthy of the respect of my own conscience.

   Now, that is a truth, a great truth, a terrible truth and hence it is
   that the mind of the convinced sinner is driven to the hope of an
   atonement. If God is to pardon sin, there must be something done by
   which His Law can be honored, His justice can be vindicated and His
   truthfulness can be established. In fact, there must be an atonement!
   That is what it all comes to, or else pardon is impossible and you and
   I would be lost forever. I would to God that we all not only believed
   this Truth--as I suspect that the most of us do--but that we felt it to
   be the case in our own personal experience, that we realized our need
   of an atoning Sacrifice in order that God might be just, and yet be the
   Justifier of the ungodly--that the honor of His Law might shine out in
   unsullied purity like the terrible crystal and yet that "a rainbow
   round about the Throne, in sight like unto an emerald," might be seen
   by the sons of men, reminding them of the Covenant made between the
   Father and the Son concerning all who believe in Jesus Christ our Lord
   and Savior!

   This brings me to the blessed announcement of the text, that the
   Atonement which men have blindly sought after has been made! That the
   Sacrifice which the conscience longs for has been presented! Here is
   the best possible news in four words--"He offered up Himself." Spirit
   of God, help us to think about this sublime Truth and to speak of it
   aright!

   I. Here is, first, THE PRIEST--"HE offered up Himself." Jesus Christ,
   the Son of God, came into the world and "offered up Himself as a
   Sacrifice for sin. The Great High Priest, who officiated on the
   occasion of that wondrous and unique Sacrifice, was Jesus Christ
   Himself.

   "He," who was of infinite dignity--He who, in His first estate as very
   God of very God, was worshipped and obeyed by all the angels of
   Heaven--He who was with the Father when He spanned the heavens and laid
   the foundations of the universe--He it was, this Son of God, who
   "offered up Himself." No inferior priest was there. There were wicked
   men who were the instruments employed in accomplishing His death, but,
   after all, the great hand that presented the Lamb of God as the one
   Sacrifice for sin was the hand of the Christ of God--"He offered up
   Himself." Our High Priest is of such dignity that none can be compared
   with Him. He is the Son of the Highest, the equal of the Father. I want
   you to think of this Truth of God because it may help you to see how
   great must have been the merit of the Sacrifice when it was God
   Himselfwho "offered up Himself." He was no mere delegated or elected
   priest, but Christ Jesus, Himself, in whom "dwells all the fullness of
   the Godhead bodily"--Christ, who is the brightness of His Father's
   Glory and the express image of His Person, He it was who stood at the
   altar presenting "Himself to God as the one and only Sacrifice for sin!
   O sinful men, come here, for here is a Sacrifice which may well satisfy
   the demands of the Divine Law, since Christ Himself puts on the
   priestly garments and offers it to God!

   "He offered up Himself," that is to say, He voluntarily agreed to be
   the Victim for this wondrous Sacrifice. Did you not notice this Truth
   in the chapter we read just now? "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book
   it is written of Me), to do

   Your will, O God." Christ was not compelled to come to earth except by
   the sweet compulsion of His own love. And with that as His
   master-motive--

   "Down from the shinning seats above With joyful haste He fled."

   Voluntarily He took upon Himself our nature and was born at Bethlehem,
   and voluntarily did He tarry here for 33 years. He might have gone back
   when "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not," but He had
   come in order that He might be a Sacrifice for sin, so He remained
   until the hour appointed for His death. And, even then, He was not
   forced to die--"He offered up Himself." Pilate's servants and Herod's
   soldiers could not have slain Him unless He had been willing to die. He
   had but to breathe the wish and the legions of Heaven would have burned
   up the legions of Herod as chaff is consumed in the furnace! Neither
   the Romans nor the Jews could have nailed Him to the tree, nor could
   all their priests, nor all the ribald mob have put Him to death without
   His own consent. When He did but speak to them in the Garden of
   Gethsemane, they went backward and fell to the ground! He that made the
   earth to quake and open when He died could have shaken them off the
   earth, or buried them in it while He lived, if He had so pleased. But
   He voluntarily delivered Himself up to death.

   To the very last there was no compulsion upon Him to die, except that
   compulsion of love of which I have spoken. You and I must die. The
   infirmities of nature will compel us to give up the ghost, but He was
   strong and vigorous even at the moment of His death. That glorious
   shout, "Consummatum est--"It is finished!"--came from One who was still
   in the vigor of His strength and just entering on His eternal victory!
   When He bowed His head, it was because He would do it and willingly
   yielded up His soul, committing His spirit to the Father--not under
   constraint, but, "He offered up Himself." Oh, this makes the Sacrifice
   of Christ so blessed and glorious! They dragged the bullocks and they
   drove the sheep to the altar. They bound the calves with cords, even
   with cords to the altar's horn, but it was not so with the Christ of
   God! None compelled Him to die--He laid down His life voluntarily, for
   He had power to lay it down and to take it up again. "For the joy that
   was set before Him, He endured the Cross, despising the shame." "He
   offered up Himself."

   From this great Truth of God, we may learn two or three practical
   lessons. The first is the blasphemy of supposing that any so-called
   "priest" can offer up Christ. There are men who say that in the
   "unbloody sacrifice of the mass, there is offered to God a true, proper
   and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead." Stand back,
   Beloved! Withdraw from the sons of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, lest the
   earth should again open and swallow them up, and they should perish
   alive in their iniquity! "He offered up Himself," and yet these fools
   say that they offer Him again! God have mercy upon them, and open their
   blind eyes that they may no longer thus perpetrate an infamous
   blasphemy against His holy name!

   But there is also a lesson for us to learn and that is the folly of our
   attempting to offer any sacrifice whatever to God in and of ourselves,
   for, Brothers and Sisters, there never was such a Sacrifice as Christ
   on earth. It was the best Sacrifice that could ever be, yet nobody
   offered that but Christ Himself. What are your sacrifices and mine?
   They are very poor things--so shall we dare to offer them to God? No,
   let us ask Christ to offer all our sacrifices for us. If the best
   Sacrifice needed Christ to present it to His Father, then our imperfect
   sacrifices can only be offered by Jesus Christ our Great High Priest.
   And though we, who trust Him, and love His name, are all priests, for
   He "has made us kings and priests unto God," yet we are only priests in
   Him, and our sacrifices are only presented in and through Him. It must
   be so, for, if the chief Sacrifice is offered by Him, all the minor
   ones must also be presented by Him if they are to be accepted by God.

   And, dear Brethren, here is another lesson, namely, the security of
   those who trust in the Sacrifice of Christ, for if I accept the
   Sacrifice of Christ for me and trust in it, if I am not saved by
   it--suppose that to be possible--then it follows that the Great High
   Priest, when "He offered up Himself," did not perform an effectual
   work. That would be a terrible imputation upon His honor. God forbid
   that we should entertain it for a single moment! Much, it is said, in
   the offering of the "mass" in the Roman Catholic Church, depends upon
   the intention of the priest. I should think so, but we know what the
   intention of our High Priest was! We dare not rely upon the intention
   of any human priest, but we know that our Lord Jesus Christ "offered up
   Himself--not in fiction or hypocrisy, but in reality and with His whole
   heart and soul--and we are certain that He offered an acceptable and an
   effectual Sacrifice to God, and that we who trust in it must be saved.
   Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the effect of that dread
   Sacrifice must stand, for He who offered it is the Son of God! Fall
   back, my Soul, on this firm Rock and rest there securely whatever
   doubts may come to assail you!

   II. Now, in the second place, I shall ask you carefully to look at THE
   SACRIFICE. "He offered up Himself." That is to say, Jesus Christ did
   not offer lamb or ram, bird or bullock, but "Himself."

   That is a great word and it means that His whole Nature as Man was
   offered up in death as an Atonement for us-- His whole Nature as Man,
   perfect and sinless, and indissolubly united with His Divine Nature. I
   do not say that God died, nor would I put it quite so, but I will say
   that He who died was God, though Man, and that "He offered up
   Himself--the whole of Himself--in Sacrifice to God on our behalf. His
   precious body suffered pains which are indescribable, but which I pray
   you never to undervalue or forget. I have seen criticisms concerning
   what is called "the sensuous-ness" of certain of our hymns that speak
   of His wounds, and so on. Never mind the criticism--be willing to be
   called sensuous--Holy Scripture might be condemned on the same ground.
   You will never understand the agony of Christ's soul if you despise the
   agony of His body, for, while the sufferings of His soul were the soul
   of His sufferings, yet the sufferings of His body were the body of His
   sufferings and he who does not think much of the body of the sufferings
   is not likely to know much about the soul of them.

   His body was given for you and for me and, then, His spiritual
   Nature--His mind, His intellect, His heart, His imagination--every pure
   unspotted faculty of that blessed Soul of His--He gave up all for us!
   The alabaster box, His body, was broken, and the precious nard, His
   Soul, was poured out like a Divine perfume upon the head of our poor
   humanity. It was all given for us! "He offered up Himself." Not His
   garments only, though He was stripped naked--not His Glory only, though
   He emptied Himself--not His life only, though He laid down His life for
   us--but "He offered up Himself." Oh, it is a great word, but it
   describes a great Sacrifice and it needed all that to make an Atonement
   for our sins--and all that He gave.

   "He offered up Himself," that is, He presented Himself to God as a
   Sacrifice and He did actually die. O Brothers and Sisters, I cannot
   describe that wondrous death! You and I have never died. We have been
   sick, but to actual death we have never yet come. Some of us never
   shall know death as Christ knew it, for, remember, death was death to
   Him, but for His saints the bitterness of death is past. Christ had to
   endure death in all its bitterness, but He has taken away the wormwood
   and the gall of death for us who believe in Him. Many of those who were
   martyred for His name's sake, when they burned at the stake could sing
   as they died! They counted the flames as though they were but beds of
   roses, for He was with them, and God was with them to sustain them.
   But, for Him, there was no such succor, no Divine support. "Eloi, Eloi,
   lama Sabachthani?" was the cry into which more grief was packed away
   than can even be found in any sufferer in Hell! For, remember, the
   griefs of Christ were not the griefs sufficing for one lost man, but
   for unnumberedmyr-iadswho would otherwise have been banished from the
   Presence of God forever. "He offered up Himself." Oh, see Him die, if
   you can bear the sight! His blessed soul exhaled, His body left behind
   to be buried in the tomb. "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto
   death, even the death of the Cross."

   I always think, with regard to that offering up of Himself, that it was
   a very mysterious transaction into which you and I must not pry with
   any sinful curiosity. Yet, as I meditated upon this subject, it
   appeared to me that the Cross, which seemed so small a thing out yonder
   on that little rising ground of Golgotha--that one Cross, standing in
   the center of the three, appeared to me to be the center of the entire
   universe, and so it is. If the inhabitants in all the stars did not see
   Christ die. If from all worlds they could not behold the dreadful
   sight, yet they must have heard of it in many a star by this time.
   Swift spirits have told, in those bright orbs where myriads of unfallen
   creatures dwell, the story that on this little dusky planet, sin
   struggled against Incarnate Love, and Love, to conquer it, died and, in
   the dying, won the victory. I cannot tell you how many races of
   intelligent beings there are beside the hierarchy of angels, but it is
   not at all improbable that there are as many worlds as there are grains
   of sand upon the seashore--and perhaps every one of these teems with
   inhabitants more than our earth does--and they have heard and they keep
   on hearing, and the news keeps spreading everywhere that the God who
   made them all took human form and died to put away human sin!

   And, supposing this is the case, what do you think all these
   intelligent beings say? It must be that the impression made upon them
   is that sin is a horrible thing since it stabs at God Himself! All
   intelligences must also feel that God is just, since He will sooner,
   Himself, die than let sin go unpunished. It further rings throughout
   the spheres that God is Love--that He will sooner bleed to death than
   let His creatures perish! And that here He once proved, in His death,
   that He was Infinite both in His vengeance and His mercy! All the
   universe throughout eternity shall hear this wondrous story! It is so
   marvelous that it will never grow stale. They are telling it, tonight,
   to wondering assemblies, compared

   with which this vast congregation is but a drop in a bucket. Standing
   in some central star, some mighty intelligence is proclaiming this
   story, perhaps to as many worlds as there are men and women in this
   building. Certainly, it is worthy of such an audience, for never was
   there such news as that the Infinite, Immortal, Eternal, Invisible,
   Almighty loving God did come and take upon Himself the sin of men--and
   at last suffered and died in the place of guilty sinners!

   You say, perhaps, that I am dreaming while talking to you thus. But
   dear Friends, we sometimes learn more truth in dreams than when we are
   awake! At any rate, this I know, I would sooner be mistaken in
   enlarging too much upon the wondrous fact and efficacy of the Cross
   than I would ever become one of those who shrivel up the Atonement till
   there is little or nothing of it left. I believe that there was such a
   necessity for Christ to die as you and I have never yet imag-ined--that
   He did not die merely because His death was necessary upon this planet,
   but that it was necessary through every province of the infinite
   dominions of God--and that it was necessary to the very Nature of God,
   Himself, which is saying still more. There was a supreme necessity that
   Christ should die. I am sure of it, for otherwise He would not have
   died. The Father would never have given up His Son to the death of the
   Cross unless it had been imperative that this Sacrifice should be
   offered, or else that men should suffer forever. Oh, wonder of wonders!
   Tell it everywhere and never cease to tell it! "He offered up Himself."

   III. Now, lest I should weary you, I will, in closing, only say a
   little upon the third point, which is, CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES
   SURROUNDING THIS TRUTH WHICH ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO US.

   The first is this. "He offered up Himself," but He did not offer up
   Himself for Himself. That is an offering which cannot be imagined. So
   far as Christ was Himself, alone, concerned, there was no necessity
   that He should die. He was infinitely glorious and blessed. "He offered
   up Himself," but not for Himself. Then, for whom did He die? For men.
   We are told that He took not up angels, but He took up the seed of
   Abraham. He took up sinful men. O poor Sinner, I want you to think of
   this! Let your soul see Jesus on the Cross--bleeding, writhing,
   suffering, tortured, dying, dead. And then remember that there was not
   one pang, or groan, or sigh for Himself--it was all for others--for His
   enemies. I wish we could all say, one by one, "It was for me. He loved
   me and gave Himself for me. He endured the Cross for me. His blood was
   shed for me. Those agonies and cries and griefs were all for me. For me
   the death-pang and the expiring groan--all for me, for me." If you
   believe in Jesus, it is so. There must have been something great done
   for you there. Your great sin must have been buried there. The great
   Hell which you ought to have endured must have been extinguished there.
   So far as you are concerned, the great Heaven which you could never
   have entered must have been opened there, if He died there for you!
   Untold blessings are insured to you in that matchless death. Dwell on
   that thought, Beloved. "He offered up Himself," but not for Himself. It
   must have been, then, for the guilty! O my Soul, it must have been--it
   was--for you if you believe in Him!

   Next, notice that this great deed of love was really done. "He offered
   up Himself." He did really do it! I know that when I am preaching, some
   of you seem to think that I am only talking about fanciful or imaginary
   matters. If I were to begin to speak of President Garfield and his
   sickness, or about the wet weather and the harvest, you would say,
   "These are facts." O Sirs, but this also is a fact, and the greatest of
   all facts--"He offered up Himself." It happened long ago, but it is
   true that He did this! That same God that painted every flower--that
   spread the skies--the God that made us-- came here in human form and,
   after living here a life of blessing and beneficence, He died as a
   Sacrifice for human guilt! This is not something that is yet to be
   done. It is all over! Jesus Himself said, "It is finished." If I had to
   tell you that God would come here and become Man and die for us, you
   might say, "It may not be--it is too great a condescension. Do you know
   how great God is and can it be imagined that He should come down to
   earth, be veiled in human flesh and in that flesh should suffer and
   die? It cannot be!" But I have to tell you that it hasbeen done--it is
   an accomplished fact! He did it--"He offered up Himself." It may
   sometimes have been a question among Believers who lived before Christ
   died-- "Will He really die?" But it is no question to you and me, for
   He hasdied--His great deed of love is done!

   And He so completely did this that it will never be done again. If you
   will not accept this Christ, there will never be another, and if you
   will not be saved by His redemption, you will never be redeemed at all!
   And there is this comfort about it--that He only died once because
   there is no need that He should ever die again! His one death has slain
   death for all who trust Him. His one bearing of sin has put their sin
   away forever. God can now justly forgive the believing sinner and He
   may well blot out the debt when it has been paid by His Son. Well may
   He remit the sentence against us, now that His Son has stood in our
   place and borne the penalty due to our sin. God is therefore just when
   He justifies those for

   whom Christ died. Where would His justice be if He did not? Did Christ
   pay my debts and am I arrested for them? Did He die for me and shall I
   perish? Where, then, is the Atonement? Beloved, if you believe in
   Jesus, be glad that He died once and be still more glad that He cannot
   die again, and that there is no need that He should! The Atonement is
   completed. You are saved and you shall never come into condemnation.
   How I wish that I could preach on such a theme as this as it deserves!
   But I do not know how it is to be done. It does not seem to me as if
   any human words could ever fittingly set forth such a wondrous mystery.
   No, though they were written across the face of the sky--unless God
   Himself wrote them with a finger of lightning--I know of no way in
   which this Truth of God could be fitly set out--"He offered up
   Himself."

   But, my dear Hearers, I wish you would all lay hold of this blessed
   Truth! When I laid hold of it, it was the crisis in my whole
   history--and to this hour it is the joy of my soul! I could not give up
   this blessed belief--that "He offered up Himself" in the place of all
   His people, of all who believe in Him and that, therefore, they are
   safe forever!

   I must sum up, in a few words, much more that I might have said. And,
   first, this Truth quiets the conscience. "He offered up Himself."
   Conscience never murmurs after the blood of Jesus has been applied to
   it. I say to myself, "Jesus died for me. Jesus suffered in my place.
   Jesus took my guilt. Jesus bore my punishment." And my conscience says,
   "That is enough. That is all I need!"

   This Truth of God also satisfies my understanding. Let those who will,
   sneer at the simple Gospel and the Doctrine of Substitution, but I have
   no understanding that is too large to be satisfied with these things.
   It seems to me that if God appointed Christ to be an Atonement for sin,
   and if He is satisfied with His Sacrifice, I may well be content.
   Surely, if my great Creditor and Judge is appeased by what His Son has
   offered on my behalf, it is not for me to begin to quibble at it! I
   know how some criticize the great central Truth of the Atonement. I
   care not how they criticize it so long as God has accepted it! And
   since He has also accepted me in Christ Jesus, my Lord and Savior, my
   soul feels perfectly content and understands why she is contented.

   And, oh, how this Truth also wins the affections of men! Can you help
   loving the Christ who offered up Himself for you? And loving Him, do
   you not desire to honor and glorify Him? Do you not feel that you hate
   the sin that made Him die? Do you not wish to be like He and in
   everything give Him pleasure by a life of holiness, self-denial and
   self-sacrifice? I know you do! It must be so. Because Jesus sacrificed
   Himself for you, you feel that you must love Him with all your heart.

   Does not this Truth of God also awaken your admiration? Say, Brothers
   and Sisters, is there anything that can move you like this glorious
   Truth of which I have been speaking? Does it not awaken your highest
   admiration when you remember that the Lord Jesus Christ took your sin
   upon Himself and suffered in your place? I know that there is no hand
   that can sweep the strings of my heart with such power as can the hand
   that was pierced for me! This theme enkindles my enthusiasm and stirs
   my passions to a flame--and makes me wish for the tongues of men and of
   angels that I might be able to tell out this story of "love so amazing,
   so Divine." I would ask no other Heaven, if I might have my choice,
   than having to meditate upon the passion of my Lord and to tell it out
   to others--and then to fall at His dear feet and worship Him, world
   without end, for He was slain and has redeemed me by His precious
   blood! You take Christ out of the Gospel and out of your preaching, and
   see whether you will awaken any enthusiasm among your people!

   There is a cold, steely religion, sharp and deadly, out of which the
   Atonement has gone. But was it ever a power in this land, or any other,
   or will it ever be? Only preach the Christless Gospel and you shall
   have spiders in abundance in your places of worship--but very few men
   and women! They run away, if they are wise, from the place where Christ
   is not preached and His atoning blood is not constantly set forth!
   Point that place out to me on the map of London and I will show you the
   spot where there is a beggarly array of empty benches, and few hearers,
   for they flee, and rightly so, as hungry men flee from the place where
   there is no bread! And as the thirsty in the wilderness turn away from
   the dried-up well, they get still more thirsty as long as they stay by
   the empty mockery, so they hasten away from it.

   But preach Jesus Christ and Him Crucified--preach the atoning
   Sacrifice--and see how the people flock together! Let them believe this
   Truth, let them love it, and their whole spirit is stirred within them
   and everyone becomes a soldier of the Cross, a warrior for Jesus
   Christ! I am sure it is so and what I feel within my own spirit I know
   that you all feel, too, for, "as in water, face answers to face, so the
   heart of man to man."

   And, finally, this Truth of God that Christ offered up Himself, leads
   us who accept it to be ready for self-sacrifice. It makes the believing
   man say, "As He offered Himself for me, I must give myself for Him." It
   teaches the doctrine of the self-sacrifice of men for God and of men
   for men. This is the nursery of brave spirits and the school in which
   true heroes are trained. None have been bolder for the truth and for
   the right, and for the advancement of the ages, and for the Glory of
   God, than those who have enshrined the blood-red Cross within their
   hearts, and who have been prepared, for love of it, even to die. O
   Christ of God, You who have offered Yourself for us, we offer ourselves
   to You! Accept us now! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 10:1-22.

   Verse 1. For the law--The old ceremonial law of Moses--

   1. Having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of
   the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by
   year continually make the comers thereunto perfect Those that were
   sprinkled with the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices did not feel
   that their sin was forever put away. They went back, after the victim
   had been offered, with a certain measure of rest and relief, but not
   with that perfect rest which is the accompaniment of the pardon that
   Jesus gives to those who come unto God through Him.

   2. For--If the worshippers had thus been made perfect. If they had been
   completely cleansed and accepted through these sacrifices--

   2. Then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the
   worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. The
   fact that there was a lamb to be offered every morning and every
   evening, and that there was a great Day of Atonement to be observed
   every year, proved that there was sin still remaining, which had not
   been put away, and that the worshippers needed to come again, and
   again, and yet again, with fresh sacrifices for their fresh sins. The
   Apostle's argument is unanswerable.

   3, 4. 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. Your common sense tells you "it is not possible
   that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." Although
   rivers of such blood should continually be flowing, what efficacy could
   there be in them to put away the moral stain of guilt and transgression
   against God?

   5. Therefore when He comes into the world--That great HE--that Divine
   HE--our Savior and our God. "When He comes into the world."

   5-7. He said, Sacrifice and offering You would not, but a body have You
   prepared for Me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had
   no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is
   written of Me), to do Your will, O God. That will had not been done,
   although myriads of sacrifices had been offered. But Christ came to do
   that will by offering Himself as the one and only acceptable Sacrifice.

   8, 9. Previously when He said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt
   offerings and offering for sin You would not, neither had pleasure
   therein; which are offered by the Law; then said He, Lo, I come to do
   Your will O God. He takes away the first, that He may establish the
   second. An end was made of the types and shadows of the Ceremonial Law,
   that the real substance might be introduced by Christ. Never imagine,
   dear Friends, that the old Jewish Ceremonial Law is to drag on its
   existence, and to be intermingled with the Christian dispensation. Ah,
   no! As the shadows of the night vanish when the sun arises. As the
   lamps in yonder street are put out when daylight returns, so was it
   with all the types and shadows of the ancient Law when the great
   Antitype appeared!

   10. By that will. That is, the will of God as done by Christ--"By that
   will."

   10-12. We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
   Christ once and for all And every priest stands daily ministering and
   offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away
   sins: but this Man, after He had offered one Sacrifice for sins
   forever, sat down at the right hand of God. Oh, what a blessed doctrine
   this is--that the one Offering of Christ has done what the tens of
   thousands of offerings under the old Law never could accomplish! All
   the work of man is but the spinning of a righteousness which is undone
   as quickly as it is spun, but Christ has finished the seamless and
   spotless robe of His righteousness which is to last forever! By His one
   Sacrifice He has ended all the fruitless

   labor of the ages! And now, all of us who have believed in Him have all
   the benefits of His perfect work! Having completed his great task, He
   "sat down at the right hand of God."

   13. From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool
   "Expecting. " That was the subject of this

   morning's sermon. [Sermon #1616, Volume 27--Saved in Hope] We

   are expecting something better than we have yet seen. "We were saved in
   hope." We are expecting that which is yet to be revealed and our
   Covenant Head is expecting, too! This is the age of expectancy. We have
   not yet come to the fullness of the blessing that is ours in Christ
   Jesus. The mercy of God is, at present, only in the bud--the
   fully-developed flower has yet to be seen. Christ is expecting. His
   saints are expecting. The whole creation is expecting!

   14-17. For by one offering He has perfected forever them that are
   sanctified. Whereof the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us: for after
   that He had said before, This is the Covenant that I will make with
   them after those days, says the Lord, I will put My Laws into their
   hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and
   iniquities will I remember no more. Oh, what a blessed Covenant this
   is! Christ's death has established a Covenant of Grace in which there
   is no flaw and no possibility of failure, for the one condition of the
   Covenant has been fulfilled by Christ! And now it stands as a Covenant
   of "shalls" and "wills" on God's part from which He will never run
   back. It is not, "If they do this, and if they do that, I will do the
   other," but it is all, "I will." "I will put My laws into their hearts,
   and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities
   will I remember no more."

   18. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
   No more offering for sin is needed, for the work of Atonement is fully
   done, and done forever. As the sin of all who believe in Jesus is put
   away, what need is there of any further sacrifice on account of it? The
   Atonement is complete! Let us, therefore, rejoice in it and praise God
   for it!

   19-22. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest
   by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has
   consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and
   having an High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a
   true heart in full assurance offaith, having our hearts sprinkled from
   an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
     __________________________________________________________________

Grace Preferred to Gifts

   (No. 2694)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, SEPTEMBER 3O, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 1, 1881.

   "But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet I show you a more
   excellent way." 1 Corinthians 12:31.

   THERE are among us many who have recently joined the visible Church of
   Christ. We have heartily welcomed them and we desire to always
   entertain, concerning them, a joyous feeling of thankfulness that they
   have united with us. May they never have to regret it and may the
   Church of God never have to regret it, either! Dear Friend, now that
   you have become a member of a Christian Church, you should say to
   yourself, "What can I do for it? I have not come here merely to confess
   that I am saved and there to let the matter stop, but I have enlisted
   in an army that I may be a comrade with other soldiers, and be drilled,
   and trained, and equipped so that I may know how to march and to go
   forth to the battle. I have come into the church to be a member of a
   body. What is my office? Every member has its own special office in the
   body--it is not there merely for its own comfort, but to be a help to
   the whole system of which it forms a part. What, then, can I do?" The
   question which we should each one ask of the Lord is that which Saul
   asked on the way to Damascus, "Lord, what will You have me to do?"

   When that question is once answered and you, dear Friend, know your
   proper place in the body of Christ, and have taken that place, whatever
   it may be, I think that your next desire will be that you may be in the
   best spiritualhealth-- that you may be as vigorous as you can be--that,
   little though you ever may have to place at your Lord's disposal, yet
   that the best use may be made of that little! Even when we have done
   all those things that are commanded us, we shall still have to confess
   that we are unprofitable servants to our great Lord and Master. Yet
   everyone of us should pray that he may have as much to use for Christ
   as he can use, and that he may be as well fitted by the Holy Spirit for
   the Master's service as it is possible that he can be. I would like to
   give to God the best that I have and, as that must be my whole spirit,
   soul and body, ought I not to wish that my spirit, soul and body should
   be at their very best? I believe that many of you, dear Friends, feel
   just as I do about this matter. And, therefore, I shall not do wrong if
   I stir up the pure minds of those who have, through Infinite Mercy,
   given themselves to Christ, and say to them, "Make the most of
   yourselves. Make the best of yourselves. 'Covet earnestly the best
   gifts.'" But when I have said that, I shall have to add a caveat and,
   possibly, that caveat will rise into a word of encouragement and
   exhortation--"Yet I show you a more excellent way."

   There are two things in the text. There is, first, an excellent way.
   And, secondly, there is "a more excellent way "

   I. First, there is AN EXCELLENT WAY. That is, for each individual
   Christian to "covet earnestly the best gifts."

   Paul is not speaking here concerning ordinary gifts as we see them in
   men of the world who are gifted in various ways. He is referring to
   spiritual'gifts--gifts which we dare to ask of God, gifts which we may
   expect the Spirit of God to bestow upon us, gifts which can be used in
   the Church of Christ and which we desire to possess in order that we
   may use them to the Glory of God. We have not all the spiritual gifts
   which were entrusted to the first Christian Church. I do not suppose it
   would have been wise that we should have had them!

   The gift of miracles, for instance, if it had continued in the Church,
   would have attracted the notice of men rather to the supernatural power
   of God than to the moral and spiritual power of Christ Jesus our Savior
   as manifested through the Divine Spirit. This great spiritual battle
   between right and wrong, which is being fought out in the arena of the
   world, God never intended to be fought out by mere might and power
   through the dazzling display of signs and won-

   ders. He resolved to win the victory by the effectual working of the
   Holy Spirit, according to that word unto Zerubbabel, "Not by might, nor
   by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts." He intended to
   work in a spiritual manner upon the hearts of men and, therefore, He
   dispensed with the aid of miracles which had been necessary in the
   first stage of the Church's growth. You have, no doubt, often seen, in
   the case of a young tree when it is newly planted, that a stout stake
   is driven in by the side of it and the sapling is tied to that stake.
   But when the tree grows bigger and stronger, it needs no such support.
   So has it been with the Church of Christ on earth. At first it was
   feeble and needed to be upheld and sustained by the aid of miracles,
   wonders and signs--but it no longer needs that aid. Or, as you have
   seen a ship in the Thames being towed out to sea and then, when it is
   fairly out upon the ocean, it is trusted to its own steam, or to the
   winds of Heaven, so has it been with the Christian Church. She was
   towed out of the narrow river of Judaism onto the broad sea of later
   times and now the Blessed Spirit speeds her on her way without the tug
   of miracles!

   How far the gifts of healing may still remain in the Church, I should
   not like to be forced to say--either to say that they remain, lest any
   should be led into fanaticism--or to say that they are utterly gone,
   lest I should be denying some things which, at any rate, look like
   facts. God does, I doubt not, still hear the believing prayers of His
   servants concerning the sick. At least, in certain cases, and still
   should it be, as I judge, an ordinance to be observed, "Is any sick
   among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray
   over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the
   prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up."
   Be that matter how it may, that is not the subject of this evening's
   discourse. The spiritual gifts, of which I am to speak, are those about
   which there can be no question that they doremain and are to be had by
   those who earnestly covet them and diligently seek them.

   One of the first of these gifts is knowledge. Dear Friends, you who are
   beginners in the School of Christ, seek after more knowledge of the
   Word of God, and seek it very earnestly. You were brought to Christ
   knowing very little except yourself a sinner and Christ a Savior. But
   now that you are saved, you should try to "comprehend with all saints
   what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the
   love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with
   all the fullness of God." "Search the Scriptures." Be familiar with the
   Doctrines of Grace. Seek to be established in the faith and, as the
   Apostle Peter says, "Be always ready to give an answer to every man
   that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and
   fear."

   I wish that all religious professors sought to be more deeply
   instructed by the Word read and by the Word heard, and by experience
   and meditation in the things of God. Covet earnestly this spiritual
   gift of knowledge and give yourselves diligently to the search after
   it, that you may become fully established in the principles of the
   Gospel of Jesus Christ. What a blessing you will be to others if you
   have much knowledge of the things of God! How often you will be able to
   help those who are in spiritual difficulties! How frequently you will
   be enabled to flash light upon the darkness of the ignorant and to
   bring comfort to those who are in distress of soul! Solomon said,
   "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all your
   getting get understanding," which I would interpret here as an
   understanding of the Word of the Lord.

   Next to that, dear Friend, covet earnestly the power to impart
   knowledge. I t is not everybody who possesses knowledge who can convey
   it to others. There is a habit, there is a fitness, there is a spirit,
   there is a mode which men must obtain if they are to be "apt to teach."
   I have known some who have attempted to pour the Truth of God into very
   narrow-necked vessels such as children are, but they have spilled far
   more than they have poured in! Some are so confused in their
   proclamation of the Truth that they are misunderstood. Some put the
   wrong Truth foremost and seem as if they would explain the mysteries of
   the Revelation before they have taught the simplicities of Matthew and
   the other Evangelists! They are perpetually putting the cart before the
   horse. Do not so, Beloved, but ask the Holy Spirit to bestow upon you
   the gifts of teaching, that you may become to those whom God puts in
   your way, ready to communicate the Truth of God, breaking the Bread of
   Life upon which you have yourself first fed.

   With that gift of teaching, get, if you can, that other blessed gift of
   personal address, s o as to be able to "button-hole"people and to speak
   to them individually about their danger, and the way of escape from it.
   If you possibly can, do acquire the holy art of soul-winning! It is the
   finest piece of Christian education that I know of--the power to hunt
   for men as hunters seek their game--to track them to their hiding
   places--to stop up the holes in which they seek to get shelter, and to
   take them in Gospel nets and bring them as willing captives to your
   Lord and Master! This spiritual hunting is grand work--may you be well
   skilled in it! It is a very special gift. Covet it earnestly. I am sure
   that I greatly covet

   it. There are some here who have it in a very marked degree. I would
   that all God's people had this precious spiritual

   gift!

   Then there is what we call "gift in prayer"--the gift of public
   prayer--covet that also, dear Brothers and Sisters. Some excellent
   members of the church never pray in public and I do not blame them. God
   forbid that we should do so! Still, I am inclined to think that a very
   large number of our dumb people would have been able to speak and pray
   in public if they had only begun earlier in their Christian life. And I
   also believe that they would be able to do so now if they were not
   quite so proud. "Oh," you say, "that is rather a hard word." Well,
   Brother, you are afraid that you would break down, are you not? Now, if
   you would not mind doing so, and would break down two or three times,
   you would do well enough afterwards. Some of you, possibly, are afraid
   to pray even in your own family circle because you think that you would
   not find suitable words. Now, suppose that you were to tell the Lord
   that you are afraid you cannot use appropriate language, and ask Him to
   help you? And then suppose you can only utter half a dozen sentences?
   If your children come and complain that the family prayer was too
   short, it will be a novel sort of complaint! I have sometimes heard
   about its being too long--and if ever you hear me complain of anybody
   breaking down in the Prayer Meeting, I beg you to mark that word, for
   it will be a remarkable thing for me to say!

   On the contrary, I am glad to hear a Brother break down. I wish some of
   you would do so. Some of our young friends, when they break down, give
   new life to the meeting. They put real feeling into it, for we are all
   alive with sympathy towards them. Their breaking down does us far more
   good than the long, prosy prayers that rather weary us than help us.
   When some trembling Brother stands up in the meeting--when he pours out
   the requests of his heart with simplicity and earnestness, and in a way
   that suits us all--we thank God for him and we feel that we have been
   as much refreshed by the few minutes of his prayer as we should have
   been by the best possible discourse. So, dear Friend, covet earnestly
   the gift of public prayer, for it tends greatly to the edification of
   your fellow Believers. If you have the gift in any measure, cultivate
   it and seek to possess more and more of it.

   And what a precious gift is that of preaching the Word! Thank God that
   this gift is still preserved in the midst of the Church, for the
   pulpit, rightly filled, is the tower of the flock. It is the very
   bastion of the walls of Zion. As long as her watchmen shall stand there
   and cry aloud in God's name, the foe shall not be able to enter, or to
   break her peace. There are many men who have this gift who do not
   cultivate it, and do not use it as much as they ought. I say not that
   all preachers should become regular pastors of the flocks, but we have
   among us many men of business who could speak for Christ here and
   there, in the streets, or in a cottage, or in large assemblies, when
   they might be called upon, and who ought to endeavor, as much as in
   them lies, to get the power of speech that they may speak well for
   Jesus Christ. In this sense, dear Brothers, "covet earnestly the best
   gifts."

   Another very desirable spiritual gift is that of wisdom to direct tried
   souls. I have known and you have known, some who have been wise in this
   sense quite early in life. And others we have known--the gift usually
   comes in this way--who have become wise through experience. They are
   not easily deceived. They are men of steadfastness. They know what they
   believe and they know why they believe it. And when a difficult case,
   which has puzzled many, is brought before them, you are astonished to
   see what a discerning spirit God has given them, so that they at once
   indicate the right course to be taken. They can discover the clue of
   the maze, and those who follow it come to the desired point very
   speedily. Now, these persons are invaluable in the Church--matronly
   women, and venerable men--who can speak a word in season to him that is
   weary, or a word of warning to him that is ready to slip. And who can
   do it so kindly that no offense is taken at what they say--and who can
   do it at the right time, and in the right tone and spirit--so that the
   message is regarded and is not forgotten. I pray God to raise up many
   in our midst who shall have this very precious gift.

   I have sometimes heard people say, in disparagement of certain
   churches, that "they take in a lot of young people-- mere boys and
   girls!" Yes, and we would like to take in a lot more of that sort. We
   are always open to receive any quantity of Christ's lambs, for, in due
   season they will grow into sheep and so the flock will be perpetuated.
   I came to London just about the time when good Mr. Joseph Irons, of
   Camberwell, had finished his ministry. I had read how some people
   complained that in his early days, he had received a great many young
   people into his church. And when I came to New Park Street, I had the
   high privilege of finding these young people turned into old,
   experienced Believers! And among the first who came to join with us,
   when the standard was lifted up, was a goodly number of these gracious
   men and women--nearly all of whom are now with God--they became pillars
   in the midst of our church and they contributed

   greatly to its stability and its usefulness. They were some of the boys
   and girls whom young Joseph irons received into the Church, only,
   having been boys and girls perhaps 40 or 50 years previously, they were
   not very boyish and girlish when I knew them!

   What a comfort those who have been long in Christ are to the minister!
   What a help those who have much of the spirit of their Master are to
   their fellow members! What a terror they are to the ungodly! The devil
   himself cannot move these people from their steadfastness, for God is
   with them and, therefore, they are so strong that they overcome even
   the Evil One. Alas, it is always true that we have not many fathers!
   But when we do get some fathers and mothers in Israel, they are a great
   strength and a great treasure to us, and God is to be thanked for them.
   I want you young people to mind that, as you grow older, you grew
   wiser, and to see to it that you endeavor to live near to God, and to
   walk before Him, as to get deeper and deeper into the very heart of the
   Truth of God, so that, in later years, you may have the blessed
   spiritual gift of wisdom which will enable you to guide others.

   Meanwhile, there is a gift which comes to us without our using any
   direct means to obtain it--a sort of outgrowth from a godly character,
   namely, influence. I will not attempt to define what it is, but you
   know well enough when you feel it. A man stands up to pray in the
   Prayer Meeting and a stranger who may be present thinks, "What a
   delightful prayer that is, yet nobody seems to be affected by it!" Then
   another person stands up to pray. He is not very fluent and the
   stranger does not think that his prayer is at all remarkable, but he
   notices that the people appear to feel the force of it. Why is that?
   The difference is in the man who presents the prayer--there is an
   influence exerted by him which the other man does not possess. I
   believe that there are some men who, if they were very ill and could
   only be borne from their beds to say half a dozen sentences, would work
   more good in the hearts of those who heard them than some others would
   do by half a score of sermons!

   To quote a living instance--I may venture to do so, for I do not
   suppose that the Brother whose name I am about to mention will ever
   know that I did it. When I listened to dear Mr. George Mueller, I
   thought, "Well now, that is very simple talk. A child from the Sunday
   school might almost say all that he has said." Yet I was edified to the
   highest degree because there was George Mueller's influence at the back
   of all that he said. That was the secret of its power. I knew something
   of his holy life, his power with God in prayer, his faith and the great
   work which it had enabled him to accomplish. So the simplest sentence
   seemed to drop into my soul with weight, power and unction, for there
   was the influence of the good man behind it all! And glad enough was I
   to sit at his feet and listen to his gracious talk. I do not remember
   anything he said that was at all striking, or fresh, or new, or
   original--it was because the man had been with God and had his Lord's
   Presence continually with him, that his words came with unction and
   power!

   Now, Brothers and Sisters, this is a spiritual gift which we ought
   earnestly to covet. Oh, that we might be spiritually like Asher! You
   know that part of Asher's blessing was, "Let him dip his foot in oil!"
   What was the consequence of the fulfillment of that blessing? Why,
   that, wherever he went, he left an oily mark behind him. "What sort of
   a minister have you now?" I once asked a person who came from a place
   where the new minister had been for, perhaps, a year or two, and I had
   known the previous one--"What sort of a minister have you now?" The
   answer I received was, "Well, Sir, we have a man of this kind. If he
   comes into your house for only ten minutes, you know that he has been
   there." That is the sort of man I should like to be, and the sort of
   woman I wish you to be, dear Sister--so that when you go even for a
   little time into the company of others, they may know that you have
   been there! Yes, and when you do not go anywhere, when you are lying
   upstairs sick in bed, may you have such an influence about you that
   your power shall be felt far away! And those who have been serving God
   shall serve Him better and more earnestly, and more joyfully because
   they remember you-- and your influence--by God's blessing upon it,
   shall be quickening and strengthening to them. This was the kind of
   influence which Paul wielded even from his prison at Rome, for many of
   the Brothers and Sisters, waxing confident by his bonds, were moved to
   serve God all the better because their fellow soldier was compelled to
   be absent from the fight.

   All these that I have mentioned are spiritualgifts, therefore, seek
   them. Covet them earnestly for they will be a blessing to you, they
   will be a blessing to others and they will bring glory to God! That is
   an excellent way for you to walk in.

   II. But, in the second place, I have to speak to you, as the Apostle
   writes to these Corinthians, concerning "A MORE EXCELLENT WAY." Silver
   is good, but gold is better. A certain way may be excellent, but
   another way may be still more excellent. Gifts are good, but Grace is
   better. Get gifts, spiritual gifts, but also get Grace and, above all,
   get the

   best Grace, the noblest Grace, the greatest Grace--that is, LOVE, for
   love to God and love to your fellow men, and love to the Church of
   God--this is "a more excellent way."

   Get much Grace, then, first, because you need it. I do not know that
   you need gifts. Perhaps, dear Friends, you are not lacking in gifts.
   You require some for the service of your Lord, but perhaps you have
   enough, and it may be that if you had more, they would be an
   encumbrance to you. But I am sure that you need Grace. A man may be
   really better off with one talent than with five, but he cannot be
   better off with one measure of Grace than with five. The more Grace we
   have, the better, for thus we shall be "rich toward God," and this kind
   of riches brings no sorrow with it. You need a great deal more Grace
   than you think you do. Something is going to happen in which you will
   need great Grace. Perhaps there is to be more trial for you. Possibly
   there is to be more prosperity--and then you will certainly need more
   Grace! But, whatever is to come, get more Grace because you will need
   it.

   I must warn you young converts and also all other Believers, that one
   reason why you will need Grace is because the devil will be certain,
   sooner or later, to assail you with fierce temptations. If ever there
   is a railway made to a place where there are no temptations, I suspect
   that they will have to run a great many trains there--but will there
   ever be discovered such a country? Never, beneath the cope of Heaven!
   As long as we are here, we will be tried, and I am always slow to
   advise people to try to change their trials for any others. I remember
   the world's poet speaks of a something that--

   "Makes us rather bear these ills we have, Than fly to others that we
   know not of." The burden which I have to carry, I have carried so long
   that it begins to fit my shoulders--and I would not like to change it
   for yours, even though yours may be lighter than mine, for there is an
   awkward corner about yours that perhaps fits the shape of your back,
   but it would not so well fit mine! It would be more burdensome to me
   than it is to you, and my lead would be more weighty to you than it is
   to me. We had better let the temptations that we now have be bravely
   conquered than suppose that by changing our adversaries, we could
   secure a victory. If you were to get quite alone, as our Savior was in
   the wilderness, with nothing but the wild beasts round about you, you
   could not shut out the devil even then! Forty days He had for
   meditation, prayer and fasting, yet there was the devil waiting to
   assail Him again and again! So I repeat that not even solitude, if the
   lonely hours were spent in prayer, fasting and watching, could secure
   us immunity from temptation--it must and will attack us.

   We ought to be very grateful when, for a time, we are free from it, but
   we still ought to be on our watchtower, for, at any moment, that
   adversary, whose noiseless flight no ear has ever heard, that
   relentless foe--who is not to be perceived by the eye, for he is an
   invisible spirit who may descend from the air of which he is the
   prince, and alight at our side-- may begin to tempt us though we are
   fresh from our knees, and covered with the dew of communion with God!
   The mercy is that active and vigilant as Satan is, the Grace of God is
   more than a match for him! So again I urge you to get more Grace
   because you need it in resisting temptation.

   Next, get more Grace, because you can have it. There is no limit!
   Perhaps, even though you covet earnestly the best gifts, there may be
   some gifts which you will never receive. A Brother may wish to preach
   and yet he may never be able to do so. Another may desire to pray in
   public and yet, perhaps, he may never be bold enough to open his mouth
   in the assembly. One may long for wisdom that he may guide others, yet
   it may never be granted to him. But all can have Grace! That is a
   fountain which is always flowing, a river from which all who will, may
   drink. There are, in certain places, little ponds by the roadside, and
   as you pass by you may see notices giving warning that no dogs may be
   washed there. Go down to the River Thames and see whether you can find
   any notice of that kind there! There stands a bullock, knee-deep in the
   stream, and drinks all he wants--and all kinds of creatures come and
   wash or swim in the water. There is such a plenty of it that nobody is
   refused. So is it with the Grace of God--it is a vast river which
   cannot be exhausted and, therefore, the Divine invitation is, "Let him
   who thirsts come. And whoever will, let him take the water of life
   freely." So get more Grace, dear Friend, because you can have it!

   Get more Grace, also, because you will then be sure to be useful. I am
   not sure that you would be more useful if you had more talent. There
   are some men who have too many talents to ever be of much use to the
   church or the world. You may think that this is a strange thing for me
   to say, but I really mean it. They seem to have such big sails that
   their boat cannot sail--it capsizes. They need to have bigger boats and
   more of the ballast or burden of trouble to carry, and then, perhaps,
   they might bear their huge sails in safety. It is not every gift that
   makes a man useful, but I am sure that all

   Grace makes us useful. Gift is often barren, but Grace is always
   fruitful. You can bury a gift in a napkin, but who can put Grace in a
   cloth and hide it? Grace is one of the things that cannot be buried--it
   is a living thing, a burning thing, and it will make you useful if you
   have it--therefore, seek to have more and more of it.

   Get more Grace, dear Brother, because so you will assuredly glorify
   God. I am not sure that you would always glorify God if you had more
   gifts. How little glory God gets often out of great gifts! I remember
   how, when I began to preach the Gospel, I used to wish that Milton had
   been a preacher. I often thought what a grand thing it would have been
   if Shakespeare had been a minister. With his wonderful versatility of
   talent and poetry of expression, I thought he would have been a very
   powerful preacher. But, afterwards, I almost thanked God that we had
   not any Miltons or Shakespeares preaching. It is far better to have men
   of quite another stamp, so that the hearers may not be carried away
   either with poetical expressions or with an excess of worldly knowledge
   and ability. Those fishermen, over by the Sea of Galilee, who did not
   know much except about fish, were more fit to preach the Gospel than
   were those fine gentlemen at Athens who thought they knew everything
   that was to be known in all the world! They were too full of worldly
   wisdom to learn the wisdom that comes down from above. But those
   fishermen were just simple souls who could believe what they were told,
   and who could repeat to others what Christ had said to them--and that
   is the kind of instrument that Christ generally uses in the effecting
   of His gracious purposes of mercy.

   So, Beloved, covet earnestly much Grace, for Grace always glorifies
   God. There is not a grain of Grace in the world which does not reflect
   the light of His face from whom it came. Gifts may be prostituted to
   the vilest purposes, but Grace--the Grace of God--always brings glory
   to His holy name. Therefore, while you "covet earnestly the best
   gifts," "yet I show you a more excellent way." That is, seek to obtain
   continually more Grace.

   Now, in closing my discourse, let me tell you, beloved Brothers and
   Sisters, why this is "a more excellent way." First, you may have gifts
   and yet you may still be only natural men and women. The highest gifts
   of preaching that men have ever had, or of poetry by which they could
   write choice hymns, did not prove that they had passed from death unto
   life. They might still be in the gall of bitterness and be enemies to
   God as Judas was. Though they had very remarkable and special gifts as
   Judas had, for, no doubt, he worked miracles and, in the name of
   Christ, did many wonderful works. Gifts are but natural things and they
   are given to the children of the flesh. But Grace is supernatural and
   whenever it is bestowed upon us, it proves that we are the children of
   God after the Spirit.

   Remember, also, that you may have gifts and yet you may still be under
   the power of sin. Alas, how many who have the brightest natural gifts
   are still using them in the cause of Satan! And even some who have
   spiritual gifts of the kind I have described, yet since they are not
   gracious as well as gifted, are doing mischief rather than good to the
   cause of Christ. To my great grief I have known some who had a
   considerable gift in prayer, and who seemed to have a good knowledge of
   the Word, yet who, all the while, were living in some secret sin and,
   by-and-by, it was found out and they went out from us because they were
   never really of us. You may have the most brilliant gifts and appear to
   be notable Christian workers, yet, for all that, you may still be under
   the dominion of sin. And so it comes to pass that a man may have all
   gifts, all knowledge and all faith so that he could remove mountains,
   and he may even give his body to be burned, yet, if he has not love--if
   he has not Grace, he is still under the wrath of God! It must be an
   awful thing to preach like an Apostle and yet to be cast into Hell like
   a devil--to be able to instruct others and yet never to enter into the
   Kingdom of God--to be able to pray in public and yet never have any
   part or lot in the things of Christ--no union to Him, no salvation by
   Him.

   O Brothers and Sisters, do you understand and realize this? You may
   have great gifts and yet go to Hell! Therefore, while they are worth
   the having under proper conditions, they are not one tenth so much
   worth the having as Grace is, for he who has Grace is not under the
   curse or condemnation of the Law, or under the power of sin! Grace
   saves men, but all the gifts in the world, heaped together, cannot do
   that!

   Note, next, that gifts bring corresponding responsibility with them, so
   they may even make it harder for a man to be saved--but Grace saves the
   man. If I have 10 talents, then I have a tenfold necessity upon me to
   be diligent in putting them out to interest. When men boast of their
   talents, what fools they are! It is as though the packhorse should
   glory in the load he has to carry! Do you think a cab-horse is proud
   because he has to drag along a four-wheeler and, perhaps, five people?
   Does he think himself more greatly privileged than an animal that only
   has to carry his rider? No, yet that is the case of the gifted person,
   for, the more gifts, the more load, the more weight, the more burden!
   So a gift is not a thing to

   be eager after--it is Grace that we need, for, the more Grace, the more
   strength of wing to mount with, the more fleet-ness of foot to run in
   the ways of God. A gift is but an addition to our load, but Grace is
   strength with which to carry it. Covet the load if you may honor your
   Master by carrying it for Him, but, far more, covet the Grace which
   shall enable you to bear it to His Glory.

   Further, gifts bring many men into danger, but Grace never does. Gifted
   men are often in peril of being proud, but who, who is what he should
   be, is ever proud of his Grace? If it is true Grace, it will humble
   him. Gifted men, especially those who have great intellectual gifts,
   are very apt to be sophisticated and unwilling to receive the simple
   Gospel. Some people who have very big heads, and whose hearts are not
   as large as they might be, are bothered half their lives with doubts
   that never perplex those who, having more Grace, accept whatever they
   find in the Word of God. It is a great gift, no doubt, to have a clear
   brain, to have an insight into deep mysteries, and to be able to solve
   difficult problems. Yet I do not know that I am particularly covetous
   of it. I would prefer to cry, with Thomas, "My Lord and my God," though
   I would rather come to Christ in a different spirit from that of
   Thomas, for "blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have
   believed." Childlike faith is a diamond, but the faith that comes by
   reason is often, if it is a diamond at all, a very small one with a
   great flaw in it and, therefore, not so good for reflecting the
   brightness of the pure light of the Truth of

   God!

   But Grace does not bring us into any dangers. It neither puffs up nor
   yet unsettles. Therefore, while you covet the best gifts, covet Grace
   yet more. Alas, alas, how many have had gifts and have been made
   top-heavy by them! Their heads have been swimming through the height to
   which they have attained, while Grace has kept the humble Believer
   pursuing the even tenor of his way, doing good all his days, enjoying
   peace with God and receiving an abundant entrance into the joy of his
   Master whom he faithfully served according to his ability. Remember,
   also, dear Friends, that some may receive gifts, yet those gifts will
   not be tokens of God's love to them at all, for He may only have given
   them with a view to other people. Possibly you hand a porter at your
   door a, parcel of valuables to carry, but that is no proof of your love
   to him--it is a very handsome present that you are sending to a friend
   upon his birthday. The love token is to the person who gets it, not to
   the porter who carries it! I may come here tonight and be nothing but
   God's porter to bring precious treasures to your souls--and in the case
   of many a minister, or many a Sunday school teacher--it may be no token
   of love that God gives them His messages to carry. They are only the
   go-betweens--the porters--the love token is to those who receive it.

   How I dread the thought that I should ever be among you simply like a
   butcher, as I have seen him stand at his great block of wood, chopping
   up meat for all who come! Yet, all the while, he does not eat any of it
   himself. Perhaps he is a serving man, whose wages are scanty, so that
   he gets but little meat for himself. It is a poor portion if one has to
   be a butcher and yet is not, himself, able to feed. He is like a cook
   who scarcely tastes the dainties that she makes and, perhaps, has no
   care to do so, but only makes them and serves them up for other people.
   It is a dreadful thing, in spiritual matters, to be nothing but God's
   go-between--a ship that carries a rich cargo, but the captain of the
   vessel does not own a sliver of all that is on board. It all belongs to
   somebody else--he is but the carrier. Oh, remember, you who have great
   gifts, but no Grace, are only like big ships with high sails, you are
   only God's carriers and have no part nor lot in the matter! But he who
   gets Grace is an heir of God. He has the power, the privilege, the
   right to become a son of God!

   Remember, also, dear Friends, that though you covet gifts, and receive
   them, you will lose them one day. All the wisdom that a man has
   acquired he may lose in an instant by a crack from a stone on his
   skull. It is a great thing to have a good education, clear thought and
   abilities for usefulness. Yet a slight accident in a railway carriage
   may make a man as helpless as an imbecile, but, blessed be God, all the
   railway accidents in the world cannot take Grace from us! No, neither
   on earth, nor in Heaven, nor in Hell is there anyone who can separate
   us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord! If you have
   Grace, you will keep it, and it will keep you. But neither can you keep
   your gifts, nor can your gifts keep you--therefore Grace is infinitely
   to be preferred to the most excellent of gifts!

   Remember, yet again, that gifts cannot comfort a man when he is in deep
   depression of spirit, when he is sick and especially when he is near to
   death. Many a man, lying on a sickbed, has found comfort in the Grace
   which God has given him, but there never was one who found comfort in
   his gifts. What a mighty preacher Paul was! Yet he wrote thus
   concerning one thought that crossed his mind--"Lest that by any means,
   when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." Ah, we
   may live for 50 years or more and gather a great church, and do much
   good, but there is not a speck

   of the small dust of comfort in it all--for we remember that God may
   have simply used us as builders use their scaffolds as long as they
   need them. And when the house is built, they take the scaffold down and
   put the material away. God may use us in the same way if we have gifts
   without Grace! But if we have Grace, it will not be so with us. Grace
   unites us to Christ. It makes us living stones in the building of which
   He is the Foundation. When we come to be sick, Grace brings us the
   promises. Grace looks to Christ, Grace gives us hope, Grace gives us
   the foretaste and pledge of Glory, and especially is it so with that
   sweet and blessed Grace of love. The man who is full of Grace, though
   he has not a solitary talent, and is all unknown, yet is a happy and
   blessed man! In poverty and in obscurity, in sickness and in death, he
   is blessed because his soul is full of the majestic Grace of Divine
   Love.

   Thus have I set before you, dear Friends, the "more excellent way." God
   help you to run in it and may you have much Grace, for our Lord Jesus
   Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Christian Conversation

   (No. 2695)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, OCTOBER 7, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING IN THE
   AUTUMN OF 1858.

   "They shall speak of the Glory of Your Kingdom, and talk of Your
   power." Psalm 145:11.

   YOU have only to look at the preceding verse and you will discover, in
   a single moment, who are the people here spoken of who shall speak of
   the Glory of God's Kingdom and talk of His power. They are the
   saints--"All Your works shall praise You, O Lord; and Your saints shall
   bless You. They shall speak of the Glory of Your Kingdom, and talk of
   Your power." A saint will often be discovered by his conversation. He
   is a saint long before he knows it. He is a saint as being set apart
   unto salvation by God the Father in the Covenant decree of Election
   from all eternity. And he is a saint as being sanctified in Christ
   Jesus and called. But he is more especially a saint as being sanctified
   by the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit which renders him truly
   sanctified by making him holy and bringing him into conformity with the
   image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Yet it is not at all times
   easy to discern a saint except by Scriptural marks and evidences. There
   is nothing particular about the countenance or dress of a saint to
   distinguish him from his fellows. The saints have faces like other
   men--sometimes they are sadly marred and furrowed by cares and troubles
   which worldlings do not know. They wear the same kind of garments as
   other men wear. They may be rich or they may be poor, but, still, there
   are some marks whereby we can discern them, and one of the special ways
   of discovering a saint is by his conversation. As I often tell you, you
   may know the quality of the water in a well by that which is brought up
   in the bucket--so may we tell a Christian by his conversation.

   It is, however, much to be regretted that true children of the Lord
   often talk too little of Him. What is the conversation of half the
   professors of the present day? Honesty compels us to say that in many
   cases it is a mass of froth and falsehood and, in many more cases, it
   is altogether objectionable. If it is not light and frivolous, it is
   utterly apart from the Gospel and does not minister Grace unto the
   hearers. I consider that one of the great lacks of the Church,
   nowadays, is not so much Christian preaching as Christian talking--not
   so much Christian prayer in the Prayer Meeting, as Christian
   conversation in the parlor. How little do we hear concerning Christ!
   You might go in and out of the houses of half the professors of
   religion and you would never hear of their Master at all. You might
   talk with them from the first of January to the last of December and if
   they happened to mention their Master's name, it would be, perhaps,
   merely as a compliment to Him, or possibly by accident. Beloved, such
   things ought not to be! You and I, I am sure, are guilty in this
   matter--we all have need to reproach ourselves that we do not
   sufficiently remember the words of Malachi, "Then they that feared the
   Lord spoke often, one to another, and the Lord hearkened, and heard it,
   and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared
   the Lord, and that thought upon His name."

   Possibly some will ask, "Well, Sir, how can we talk about religion?
   Upon what topic shall we converse? How are we to introduce it? It would
   not be polite, for instance, in the company with which we associate, to
   begin to say anything about the Doctrines of Grace, or about religious
   matters at all." Then, Beloved, do not be polite! That is all I have to
   say in reply to such a remark as that. If it would be accounted
   contrary to etiquette to begin talking of the Savior, cast etiquette to
   the winds and speak about Christ somehow or other. The Christian is the
   aristocrat of the world. It is his place to make rules for society to
   obey--not to stoop down and conform to the regulations of society when
   they are contrary to the commands of his Master! Christ is the great
   Maker of laws, the King of kings and Lord of lords--and He makes

   His people also to be kings! Kings make rules for ordinary men to obey,
   so must Christians do. They are not to submit to others--they must make
   others, by the worth of their principles and the dignity of their
   character, submit to them! It is speaking too lightly of a Christian's
   dignity when we say that he dare not do the right because it would not
   be fashionable We care nothing for that, for "the fashion of this world
   passes away," "but he that does the will of God abides forever."

   Another says, "What could I speak of? There are so few topics that
   would be suitable. I must not speak upon doctrinal subjects, for it
   would offend one of the party. They might hold different views. One
   might be a Wesleyan, one might be a Baptist, one might be an
   Independent, one a Calvinist, one an Arminian--how could I talk so as
   to please all? If I spoke of Election, most of them would attack me at
   once! If I began to speak of Redemption, we would soon differ on that
   subject, and I would not like to engender controversy." Beloved,
   engender controversy rather than have wrong conversation! Better
   dispute over the Truth of God than agree about lies! Better, I say, is
   it to dispute concerning good doctrine! Far more profitable is it to
   talk of the Word of God, even in a controversial manner, than to turn
   utterly away from it and neglect it.

   But, let me tell you, there is one point on which all Christians agree
   and that is concerning the Person, the work, and the blessed offices of
   our Savior. Go where you will, professors, if they are genuine
   Christians, will always agree with you if you begin to talk about your
   Savior--so you need not be afraid that you will provoke controversy!
   But supposing the mention of your Savior's name doesprovoke dispute,
   then let it be provoked! And if your Master's Truth offends the
   gentlemen to whom you speak of it, let them be offended! His name we
   must confess! Of His Glory we will continually talk, for it is written
   in our text, "They shall speak of the Glory of Your Kingdom, and talk
   of Your power."

   Now, then, first, here is a subject for conversation-- ' 'They shall
   speak of the Glory of Your Kingdom, and talk of Your power." Secondly,
   we will try to find out some causes why Christians must speak
   concerning this blessed subject. And then, thirdly, I will very briefly
   refer to the effect of our talking more of Christ's Kingdom and power

   I. First, here is A SUBJECT FOR CONVERSATION. "They shall speak of the
   Glory of Your Kingdom, and talk of Your power." Here are two subjects,
   for God, when He puts Grace into the heart, does not lack a subject
   upon which we shall converse!

   First, we are to converse concerning the Glory of Christ's Kingdom. The
   Glory of Christ's Kingdom should always be a subject of discourse to a
   Christian. He should always be speaking, not merely of Christ's
   priesthood or His prophesying, but also of His Kingdom which has lasted
   from all eternity--and especially of that glorious Kingdom of Grace in
   which we now live, and of that brighter kingdom of millennial Glory
   which soon shall come upon this world to conquer all other kingdoms and
   break them in pieces.

   The Psalmist furnishes us with some divisions of this subject, all of
   which illustrate the Glory of Christ's Kingdom. In the 12th verse he
   says, "To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts." The glory of
   a kingdom depends very much on the achievements of that kingdom so, in
   speaking of the Glory of Christ's Kingdom, we are to make known His
   mighty acts. We think that the glory of Old England--at least, our
   historians would say so--rests upon the great battles she has fought
   and the victories she has won. We turn over the records of the past and
   we see her, in one place, vanquishing thousands of Frenchmen at
   Agincourt. At another period we see the fleets of the Spanish Armada
   scattered by the breath of God. We turn to different battles and we
   trace victory after victory, dotted along the page of history, and we
   say that this is the glory of our kingdom.

   Now, Christian, when you speak of the Glory of your Master's Kingdom,
   you must tell something of His great victories--how He routed Pharaoh,
   cut the Egyptian Rahab and wounded the dragon of the Nile. How He slew
   all the firstborn in one night. How, at His command, the Red Sea was
   divided. How the children of Israel crossed over in safety and the army
   of Egypt was drowned in the flood. Talk also of how God overcame Amalek
   and smote Moab. How He utterly cut off those nations that warred
   against Israel and caused them to pass away forever. Tell how Babylon
   and Nineveh were made to rue the day when God smote them with His iron
   hand. Tell to the world how God has crushed great nations and overcome
   proud monarchs. How Sennacherib's hosts were left dead within their
   camp and how those that have risen up in rebellion against God have
   found His arm too mighty for their strength and prowess. Tell of the
   terrible acts of our Savior's Kingdom! Record His victories in this
   world. But don't stop there! Tell how our Savior routed the devil in
   the wilderness when he came to tempt Him. Tell how He--

   "All His foes to ruin hurled,

   Sin, Satan, earth, death, Hell, the world."

   Tell how He has bruised the head of Satan. Tell how death has lost his
   prey. Tell how Hell's deepest dungeons have been visited and the power
   of the Prince of Darkness utterly cut off. Tell how antichrist himself
   shall sink like a millstone in the flood. Tell how false systems of
   superstition shall flee away like birds of night when the sun rises too
   brightly for their dim sight to bear. Tell all this, tell it in Askelon
   and in Gath! Tell it the wide world over that the Lord of Hosts is the
   God of battles! He is the conqueror of men and of devils. He is Master
   in His own dominions. Tell the Glory of His Kingdom and rehearse "His
   mighty acts." Christian, exhaust that theme if you can!

   Then, in speaking of the Glory of Christ's Kingdom, the next thing we
   talk of is its glorious majesty. The Psalmist further says, in the 12th
   verse that the saints shall not only "make known God's mighty acts, but
   also the glorious majesty of His Kingdom." Part of the glory of England
   consists not in her achievements, but in the state and majesty which
   surround her. In ancient times, especially, monarchs were noted for the
   great pomp with which they were surrounded. Thousands of houses would
   be razed to the ground to find a site for one dwelling for a king. His
   palace must be gorgeous with riches. Its halls must be paved with
   marble and its walls set with jewels. Fountains must sparkle. There
   must be feather beds of the riches down from sea ducks on which
   monarchs may recline. Music such as other ears do not hear. Wines from
   the uttermost regions of the earth and all manner of delights are
   reserved for kings! Precious stones and gems adorn their crowns and
   everything that is rich and rare must be brought to deck the monarch
   and increase the majesty of his kingdom.

   Well, Christian, when speaking of Christ's Kingdom, you are to talk of
   its majesty. Tell of your Savior's glorious majesty. Speak of the many
   crowns that He wears upon His head. Tell of the crown of Grace which He
   wears continually. Tell of the crown of victory which perpetually
   proclaims the triumphs He has won over the foe. Tell of the crown of
   love wherewith His Father crowned Him in the day of His espousals to
   His Church--the crown which He has won by ten thousand hearts which He
   has broken and untold myriads of spirits which He has bound up. Tell to
   all mankind that the Glory of your Savior's majesty far exceeds the
   glories of the ancient kings of Assyria and India. Tell that, before
   His Throne above, there stand, in glorious state, not princes, but
   angels! Not servants in gorgeous liveries, but cherubs, with wings of
   fire, waiting to obey His mighty behests! Tell that His palace is
   floored with gold and that He has no need of lamps, or even of the sun
   to enlighten it, for He Himself is the light thereof! Tell the whole
   world what is the glorious majesty of His Kingdom!

   But once more, Christians, in speaking of the Glory of Christ's
   Kingdom, you must talk of its duration, for much of the honor of the
   kingdom depends upon the time it has lasted. In verse 13 the Psalmist
   says, "Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and Your dominion
   endures throughout all generations." If one should say to you,
   concerning an earthly monarch, "Our king sits upon a throne which his
   ancestors have occupied for many generations," tell him that a thousand
   years are to your King but as one day! If another tells you that his
   king has crowns which were worn by kings a thousand years ago, smile in
   his face and tell him that a thousand years are as nothing in Christ's
   sight. When they speak of the antiquity of churches, tell them that you
   belong to a very ancient Church. If they talk to you of the venerable
   character of the religion which they profess, tell them that you
   believe in a very venerable religion, for yours is a religion which was
   from everlasting. Christ's Kingdom was set up long before this world
   was brought forth--when as yet neither sun, nor moon, nor stars had
   been created--Christ's Kingdom was firmly established! I wish
   Christians would more often talk about the Glory of their Master's
   Kingdom with regard to the time it has lasted. If you would begin to
   talk of the past history of Gods Church, you would never have to
   exclaim, "I have said all that can be said about it, and I have nothing
   more to say." You would need eternity to keep on going back, back,
   back, until you came to God alone! And then you might say--

   "In His mighty breast I see, Eternal thoughts of love to me."

   Then you may speak concerning the future duration of your Master's
   Kingdom. I suppose if you were to talk much about the Second Coming of
   Christ, you would be laughed at. You would be thought diseased in your
   brain, for nowadays there are so few who receive that great Truth of
   God, that if we speak of it with much enthusiasm, people turn away, and
   say, "Ah, we do not know much about that subject, but Mr. So-and-So has
   turned his brain through thinking so much about it." Men are,
   therefore, half-afraid to speak of such a subject, but, Beloved, we are
   not afraid to talk of it, for

   Christ's Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and we may talk of the
   Glory of the future as well as of the past! Some say that Christ's
   Church is in danger. There aremany churches that are in danger--and the
   sooner they tumble down, the better! But the Church of Christ has a
   future that shall never end. It has a future that shall never become
   dim. It has a future which shall eternally progress in Glory. Her Glory
   now is the glory of the morning twilight--it soon shall be the glory of
   the blazing noon. Her riches now are but the riches of the newly-opened
   mine--soon she shall have riches much more abundant and far more
   valuable than any she has at present. She is now young, but, by-and-by,
   she will come, not to her dotage, but to her maturity. She is like a
   fruit that is ripening, a star that is rising, a sun that is shining
   more and more unto the perfect day--and soon she will blaze forth in
   all her Glory, "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an
   army with banners." O Christian, here is a topic worthy of your
   conversation! Talk of the Glory of your Master's Kingdom. Often speak
   of it while others amuse themselves with stories of sieges and battles.
   While they are speaking of this or that or the other event in history,
   tell them the history of the monarchy of the King of Kings! Speak to
   them concerning the fifth great monarchy in which Jesus Christ shall
   reign forever and ever!

   But I must not forget to briefly hint at the other subject of the
   saints' conversation--"and shall talk of Your power "It is not simply
   of Christ's Kingdom of which we are to speak, but also of His power.
   Here, again, the Psalmist gives us something which will help us to a
   division of our subject. In the 14th and 15th verses, mention is made
   of three kinds of power of which we ought to speak--"The Lord upholds
   all that fall, and raises up all those that are bowed down. The eyes of
   all wait upon You; and You give them their meat in due season."

   First, the Christian should speak of Christ's upholding power What a
   strange expression this is, "The Lord upholds all that fall!" Yet
   remember John Bunyan's quaint old saying--

   "He that is down needs fear no fall;

   He that is low, no pride;

   He that is humble, ever shall

   Have God to be his guide."

   So David Says, "The Lord upholds all that fall." What a singular
   expression! How can He hold up those that fall? Yet those that fall, in
   this sense, are the only persons that stand! It is a remarkable
   paradox, but it is true. The man who stands on his feet and says, "I am
   mighty--I am strong enough to stand alone"--down he will go! But he who
   falls into Christ's arms, he who says--

   "But, oh! for this no power have I, My strength is at Your feet to
   lie"--

   that man shall not fall! We may well talk, then, of Christ's upholding
   power. Tell it to Christians--tell how He kept you when your feet were
   going swiftly to Hell. Tell how, when fierce temptations beset you,
   your Master drove them all away. Tell how, when the enemy was watching,
   He compassed you with His mighty strength. Tell how, when the arrows
   fell thickly around you, His mighty arm did hold the shield before you
   and so preserved you from them all. Tell how He saved you from death
   and delivered your feet from falling by making you, first of all, fall
   down prostrate before Him!

   Next, talk of His exalting power--"He raises up all those that are
   bowed down." Oh, how sweet it is, Beloved, sometimes to talk of God's
   exalting power after we have been bowed down! I love to come into this
   pulpit and talk to you as I would in my own room. I make no pretensions
   to preaching at all, but simply tell you what I happen to feel just
   now. Oh, how sweet it is to feel the raisings of God's Grace when you
   have been bowed down! Cannot some of us tell that when we have been
   bowed down beneath a bed of affliction, so that we could not even move,
   the everlasting arms have been around us and have lifted us up? When
   Satan has put his foot on our back, and we have said, "We shall never
   be raised up any more," the Lord has come to our rescue! If we were
   only to talk on that subject in our conversation with one another, no
   Christian need have spiritless conversation in his parlor! But nowadays
   you are so afraid to speak of your own experience and the mercy of God
   to you, that you will talk any stuff and nonsense rather than that! I
   beseech you, if you would do good in the world, rehearse God's deeds of
   raising up those that are bowed down.

   Moreover, talk of God's providing power--"The eyes of all wait upon
   You; and You give them their meat in due season." We ought often to
   speak of how God provides for His creatures in Providence. Why should
   we not tell how God has taken us out of poverty and made us rich? Or,
   if He has not done that for us, how He has supplied our needs day by
   day in an almost miraculous manners? Some persons object to such a book
   as Huntington's, "Bank of Faith," and I have heard some respectable
   people call it, "The Bank of Nonsense." Ah, if they had ever been
   brought into Huntington's con-

   dition, they would see that it was, indeed, a bank of faith, and not a
   bank of nonsense--the nonsense is in those who read it in their
   unbelieving hearts, not in the book, itself! And he who has been
   brought into many straits and trials--and has been Divinely delivered
   out of them--would find that he could write a "Bank of Faith" as good
   as Huntington's if he liked to do so, for he has had as many
   deliverances and he could write of the mighty acts of God who has
   opened His hands and supplied the needs of His needy child! Many of you
   have been out of work and you have cried to God to furnish you with
   employment--and He has! Have you not sometimes been brought so low,
   through painful affliction, that you could not rest? And could you not
   afterwards say, "I was brought low and He helped me"? Yes, "I was
   brought low, and He helped me out of my distress!" Yes, I see some of
   you nodding your heads, as much as to say, "We are the men who have
   passed through that experience. We have been brought into great
   straits, but the Lord has delivered us out of them

   all."

   Then do not be ashamed to tell the story! Let the world hear that God
   provides for His people! Go, speak of your Father. Do as the child
   does, who, when he has a little cake given to him, will take it out and
   say, "Father gave me this." Do so with allyour mercies! Go and tell all
   the world that you have a good Father, a gracious Father, a heavenly
   Provider! And though He gives you a hand-basket portion and you only
   live from hand to mouth, yet tell how graciously He gives it--and that
   you would not change your blest estate for all the world calls good or
   great!

   II. I must be brief in speaking upon THE CAUSES WHICH WILL MAKE
   CHRISTIANS TALK OF THE GLORY OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM AND HIS POWER.

   One cause is that it is the Kingdom of their own King. We do not expect
   French people to talk much about the victories of the English. And I
   suppose there is no Russian who would pay very many compliments to the
   prowess of our arms. But they will all talk about their own monarchs.
   Well, that is the reason why a Christian should speak of the Glory of
   his Master's Kingdom and tell of His power because it is the Kingdom of
   his own King. Jesus Christ may be or may not be another man's King,
   but, certainly He is mine! He is the Monarch to whom I yield absolute
   submission. I am no longer an alien and a stranger, but I am one of His
   subjects and I will talk concerning Him because He is my King.

   Secondly, the Christian must talk of the King's victories, because all
   those victories were won for him. He recollects that his Master never
   fought a battle for Himself--never slew an enemy for Himself. He slew
   them all for His people. And if for me--a poor abject worm--my Savior
   did this, shall I not talk of the Glory of His Kingdom, when He won all
   that glory for me? Will I not speak of His power, when all that power
   was exercised for me? It was all for me! When He died, He died for me.
   When He suffered, He suffered for me. And when He led captivity
   captive, He did it for me. Therefore, I must and will speak of His dear
   name! I cannot help testifying to the Glory of His Grace in whatever
   company I may be.

   Again, the Christian must talk of it, because he himself has had a good
   share in fighting some of the battles. You know how old soldiers will
   "shoulder their crutch and tell how fields were won." The soldier, home
   from the Crimea, when he reads the accounts of the war, says, "Ah, I
   know that trench! I worked in it myself. I know the Redan--I was one of
   the men who attacked it." He is interested because he had a share in
   the battle. "Quorum pars magna fuji" said the old soldier, in the days
   of Virgil. So we, if we have had a part in the battle, like to talk
   concerning it. And, Beloved, it is this which makes our battles dear to
   us--we help to fight them. Though there was one battle which our great
   Captain fought alone, and "of the people there was none with Him," yet,
   in other victories, He has permitted His people to help crush the
   dragon's head. Remember that you have been a soldier in the army of the
   Lord and that, in the Last Day, when He gives away the medals in
   Heaven, you will have one! When He gives away the crowns, you will have
   one. We can talk about the battles, for we were in them! We can speak
   of the victories, for we helped to win them! It is to our own praise as
   well as to our Master's when we talk of His wondrous acts!

   But the best reason why the Christian should talk of his Master is
   this--if he has Christ in his heart, the Truth of God must come out--he
   cannot help it. The best reason in all the world is the woman's reason,
   who said she should do it because she would do it. So it often happens
   that the Christian cannot give us much reason why he must talk about
   his Savior except that he cannot help it, and he will not try to help
   it! It is in him, and it must come out. If God has put a fire inside a
   man's heart, do you think it can be kept down? If we have Grace in our
   souls, will it never come out in conversation? God does not put His
   candles in lanterns through which they cannot be seen, but He sets them
   on candlesticks. He does not build His cities in valleys, but He puts
   them on hills so that they cannot be hid. So He will not allow His
   Grace to be concealed.

   A Christian cannot help being discovered. None of you ever knew a
   secret Believer--a secret Christian. "Oh," you say, "I am sure I have
   known such a man." But look, he could not have been a secret Believer!
   If you knew him, he could not be wholly secret! The fact that you knew
   him proves that he could not have been a secret Christian. If a man
   says that nobody knows a thing and yet he knows it, he contradicts
   himself. You cannot, then, know a secret Believer, and you never will.
   There may be, indeed, some who are secret for a time, but they always
   have to come out, like Joseph of Ari-mathaea, when he went and begged
   for the body of Jesus. Ah, there are some of you sitting in your pews
   who fancy I shall never discover you, but I shall see you in the
   vestry, by-and-by! Some of you keep on coming Sunday after Sunday, and
   you say, "Well, I must go, by-and-by, and make a profession of faith."
   Yes, you will not be able to sit there long--if you have the Grace of
   God within you, you will be obliged to come out and put on the Lord
   Jesus Christ by being baptized in His name! Why not do so without
   further delay? If you love your Lord's name, come out at once, and
   acknowledge it!

   III. Lastly, WHAT WOULD BE THE EFFECT OF OUR TALKING MORE OF CHRIST'S
   KINGDOM AND

   POWER?

   The first effect would be that the world would believe us more. The
   world says, "What a parcel of hypocrites Christian people are!" And
   they are about right concerning a good many of you. The world says,
   "Why, just look at them! They profess a deal of religion, but if you
   hear them talk, they do not speak differently from other people. They
   sing loudly enough, it is true, when they go to church or chapel, but
   when do you hear them sing at home? They go to the Prayer Meeting, but
   have they a Prayer Meeting at their own family altar? Believe them to
   be Christians? No! Their lives give the lie to their doctrines and we
   do not believe them." If we more often talked of Christ, I am sure the
   world would think us to be better Christians and they would, no doubt,
   say so.

   Again, if our conversations were more concerning Christ, we, as
   Christians, should grow faster and be more happy What is the reason of
   the bickering and jealousies between Christians? It is because they do
   not know one another. Mr. Jay used to tell a story about a man going
   out, one foggy morning, and seeing something coming in the fog. He
   thought it was a monster. But, by-and-by, as he came nearer, he
   exclaimed, "Oh, dear me! That's my Brother John!" So it often happens,
   when we see people at a distance and hold no spiritual conversation
   with them, we think they are monsters. But when we begin to talk
   together and get near to one another, we say, "Why, it is Brother John,
   after all!" There are more true Brothers and Sisters about us than we
   dream of. Then, I say, let your conversation, in all companies,
   wherever you may be, be so seasoned with salt that a man may know you
   to be a Christian. In this way, you would remove bickering better than
   by all the sermons that could be preached--and be promoting a true
   Evangelical Alliance far more excellent and efficient than all the
   alliances which man can form!

   Again, if we more often talked of Christ like this, how useful we might
   be in the salvation of souls!O Beloved, how few souls have some of you
   won to Christ! It says, in the Canticles, "There is not one barren
   among them." But are not some of you barren--without spiritual
   children? It was pronounced as a curse upon one of old that he should
   die childless. Oh, I think that though the Christian is always blessed,
   it is half a curse to die spiritually childless! There are some of you
   who are childless tonight. You never were the means of the conversion
   of a soul in all your lives. You hardly remember having tried to win
   anyone for the Savior. You are good religious people so far as your
   outward conduct is concerned. You go to the House of God, but you never
   concern yourselves about winning souls for Jesus! O my God, let me die
   when I can no longer be the means of saving souls! If I can be kept out
   of Heaven a thousand years, if you will give me souls as my wages, let
   me still speak for You! But if there are no more sinners to be
   converted--no more to be brought in by my ministry--then let me depart
   and be "with Christ, which is far better."

   Oh, think of the crowns that are in Heaven! "They that are wise shall
   shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to
   righteousness as the stars forever and ever." So many souls, so many
   gems! Have you ever thought what it would be to wear in Heaven a
   starless crown? All the saints will have crowns, but those who win
   souls will have a star in their crown for every soul! Some of you, my
   Friends, will wear a crown without a star--would you like that? You
   will be happy, you will be blessed, you will be satisfied, I know, when
   you will be there, but can you bear the thought of dying childless--of
   having none in Heaven who shall be begotten unto Christ by you--never
   having travailed in birth for souls--never having brought any to
   Christ? How can you bear to think of it?

   Then, if you would win souls, Beloved, talk about Jesus! There is
   nothing like talking of Him to lead others to Him. I read of the
   conversion of a servant, the other day. She was asked how she came to
   know the Lord. "Well," she said, "my

   master, at dinner, happened to make some simple observation to his
   sister across the table." The remark certainly was not addressed to the
   servant--and her master had no notion that she was listening--yet his
   word was blessed to her! It is well to talk behind the door that which
   you do not mind hearing afterwards in the street! It is good to speak
   that in the closet which you are not ashamed to listen to from the
   housetop, for you will have to listen to it from the housetop,
   by-and-by, when God shall come and call you to account for every idle
   word you have spoken!

   Souls are often converted through godly conversation. Simple words
   frequently do more good than long sermons. Disjointed, unconnected
   sentences are often of more use than the most finely polished periods
   or rounded sentences. If you would be useful, let the praises of Christ
   be always on your tongue. Let Him live on your lips. Speak of Him
   always! When you walk by the way, when you sit in your house, when you
   rise up and even when you lie down, it may be that you have someone to
   whom it is possible that you may yet whisper the Gospel of the Grace of
   God! Many a sister has been brought to know the Savior by a sister's
   pleadings that were only heard in the silence of the night. God give
   you, Beloved, to fulfill our text--"They shall speak of the Glory of
   Your Kingdom, and talk of Your power." They shall do it, mark you--God
   will make you do itif you are His people. Go and do it willingly!
   Begin, from this time forth, and keep on doing it forever!

   Say, concerning other conversation, Be gone from here! Be gone! This
   shall be my constant and only theme. Be like the harp of old Anacreon
   which would never sound any other note but that of love. The harpist
   wished to sing of Cadmus and of mighty men of wisdom, but his harp
   would resound of love alone. Be, then, like Anacreon's harp--sing of
   Christ alone! Christ alone! Christ alone! Jesus, Jesus only! Make Him
   the theme of your conversation, for "they shall speak of the Glory of
   Your Kingdom, and talk of Your power." God give you Grace so to do, for
   Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM137.

   Verses 1, 2. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yes, we wept,
   when we rememberedZion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the
   midst thereof Babylon was full of canals and rivers. The captive
   Israelites sought out lonely places where they might be away from their
   oppressors and might, in the company of their countrymen, pour out the
   sad stream of their griefs and sorrows. "The rivers of Babylon" seemed
   congenial to them and they mingled their tears with the flowing waters.
   They "sat down" as if they felt they were to be there a long while and
   were not soon to go back to their own land. And they "wept"--not simply
   because of their banishment and their woes, but also because of the
   mournful condition of their beloved Zion, which had been ravaged by the
   Chaldeans, plowed as a field and given over to desolation. Some of
   these poor captives had been singers in the courts of the Lord's House
   which had been burnt with fire. And others had brought their "harps"
   with them into their captivity, but they could not find any music in
   their hearts and, therefore, they fetched no sweet notes out of their
   harp strings. They did not break their harps, however, for they might
   need them some day, so they hung them up on the weeping willows which
   abounded by the water. Then came one of the sharpest trials they had
   ever had--a piece of bitter cruelty on the part of their oppressors who
   had no compassion upon the poor prisoners whom they had taken from
   their own land.

   3. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song;
   and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of
   the songs of Zion. As no cups except those that were taken out of God's
   holy House would do for Belshazzar when he wanted to make himself
   drunk, so no music would suit these heathen captors of Israel but the
   songs of God's House--"Sing us one of the songs of Zion." These poor
   people were crestfallen and utterly broken, yet their enemies cried,"
   Make mirthful music for us, sing us one of your sacred songs." They
   only wanted to laugh at it, or, at the very best, to listen to it
   simply as a piece of music that they might criticize, so they said,
   "Sing us one of the songs of Zion." But the captives could not and
   would not sing for any such purpose. Zion's songs were not meant to be
   sung for mere amusement, nor were her chants intended to be made the
   theme of mockery and ridicule by the ungodly.

   4, 5. How shall we sing the LORD'Ssong in a strange land? IfI forget
   you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. ' 'No," they
   said, "if we were to make mirth for the Babylonians, we would be doing
   serious damage to Zion, we should be traitors to Jerusalem." So the
   harpers said, "Sooner than we will play a tune to make mirth for you,
   let our right hands become paralyzed."

   6. If I do not remember you, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my
   mouth. They said it, each one, for himself--they would sooner be dumb
   than sing these sacred songs for the amusement of the ungodly revelers
   who had gathered round them. Instead of a song, they offered a prayer
   which must have sounded terrible in the ears of those who mocked them.
   It was a fierce prayer--a prayer made under a very different
   dispensation from that under which we live--a prayer by a patriot who
   had seen his wife murdered and his children dashed to pieces--and he
   prayed thus--

   6, 7. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O LORD,
   the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Raze it, raze
   it, even to the foundation!Those Edomites, who ought to have been like
   brothers to the Jews, were their most ferocious enemies, and they
   stirred up the Chaldeans to be more terribly cruel than they otherwise
   would have been.

   8, 9. O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed: happy shall the
   one who repays you as you have served us. Happy shall be the one who
   takes and dashes your little ones against the stones. For these people
   had gone all over the world, wherever they could, murdering and
   mutilating. Tens of thousands of little children had they brutally
   killed, multitudes of women had they ravished, a vast number of cities
   had they destroyed! They were the scourges of all nations and,
   therefore, moved to righteous indignation, the Jews felt that anybody
   who should overthrow that city of Babylon and put to death its
   inhabitants would be doing good service to the rest of mankind. And,
   mark you, all this came to pass in due time. When Cyrus turned aside
   the waters of the river which had been Babylon's great protection, and
   left the riverbed quite dry, he marched his troops right into the
   center of the city! And when the Babylonians, to defend themselves and
   a part of the city, were driven to great straits, we are told by
   historians that they destroyed their own wives and children, calling
   them useless mouths, that they might be able to defend themselves a
   little longer from the sword of Cyrus, so that, literally, it came to
   pass that the man who had destroyed his own children thought himself
   happy to be rid of them that he might maintain the fight.

   How dreadful is God when He deals with nations that have been cruel and
   ferocious! Go to Babylon this day, and see what ruinous heaps He has
   made, what desolation He has worked in that land.
     __________________________________________________________________

Wordless Prayers Heard in Heaven

   (No. 2696)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, OCTOBER 14, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 8, 1881.

   "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their
   tongue fails for thirst, I the LORRD will hear them, I the God of
   Israel will not forsake them." Isaiah 41:17.

   NOTICE, dear Friends, that this double promise to the poor and needy
   stands in connection with other great promises which guarantee the gift
   of wonderful strength and blessing to God's people. These promises seem
   to me to be such as the mightiest servant of God might well desire to
   have fulfilled in himself. Look, for instance, at the one in the 15th
   and 16th verses--"Behold, I will make you a new sharp threshing
   instrument having teeth: you shall thresh the mountains, and beat them
   small, and shall make the hills as chaff. You shall fan them, and the
   wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and
   you shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall glory in the Holy One of
   Israel." What a great promise that is! How it makes the child of God to
   participate in the greatness of Jehovah's strength! The picture here
   drawn is a very remarkable one. Here is a man--a poor, feeble man--so
   strengthened by God that he not only threshes wheat, but he threshes
   mountains! Nor does he find that the gigantic enterprise is beyond the
   strength imparted to him--the rocks and the hills are turned to chaff.
   Nor is that all that happens to them, for this man, Divinely
   strengthened, takes up a colossal winnowing fan and sets Alps, Andes,
   Himalayas flying just like the small dust from the threshing floor!
   This is grand work and it needs a man of God when he has come to the
   fullness of his strength through the indwelling of the Spirit of God.

   Whenever we quote a great promise like that, it usually depresses some
   little one in the Lord's family. He (or, more likely, she) begins to
   say, "But what can Ido? I cannot thresh mountains! No, rather, it seems
   to me that Satan's threshing me and desiring to have me that he may
   sift me as wheat. And, instead of me holding the winnowing fan in my
   hand, it is the winnowing fan that is being used upon me--and what I
   thought was a fine heap of wheat is being blown away-- and I am afraid
   there will be few precious grains left to lie upon the floor. Ah, me!
   Ah, me!" Well, now, our God has a gracious way of caring for all His
   children and, from the very nature of Him, I am quite certain that if
   one of His children could be forgotten, it would not be the little one!
   You mothers know that if ever there was one member of the household
   left out in the cold when you closed the door at night, it would not be
   the baby--you would be sure, first of all, to see that the wee mite was
   safely housed. And if it were possible that the Divine mind could pass
   over and forget one of the beloved family, it certainly would not be
   the little one or the tried one!

   There are special promises for the child of God in the time of
   trial--"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and
   through the rivers, they shall not flow over you: when you walk through
   the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon
   you." The Presence of God is with all His chosen ones at all times! But
   if there could be an exception to that rule, it certainly would not be
   in the case of those who are tried, troubled and depressed. No, the
   exception would be the other way. If the Good Shepherd left the 99
   safely folded in the wilderness, He would be sure to go after the one
   sheep that was lost--the weak and wounded one, the feeble and footsore
   one--even though the cause of its sufferings might be its own guilty
   wanderings! Oh, the splendor of the love of God! There is nothing to be
   compared with it under Heaven, or even in Heaven itself. It stands
   alone and unapproachable. He is always considering those among His
   people who are downcast, weak and brokenhearted!

   And I think that the promise of our text especially comes in, not for
   you mountain-threshers--not for you who are made so strong in the Lord
   and in the power of His might, but for some who cannot as yet get a
   grip of that grand Word of His to which I have referred. There comes in
   this sweet promise, "when the poor and needy," those who are not trying
   to thresh mountains, but are looking for that which is necessary for
   the supply of their own personal needs--seeking water They are in too
   low a condition to be able to rise to the dignity of service, but are
   just like poor Hagar and Ish-mael in the wilderness, seeking water.
   They have fallen into such a sad and sorrowful state of heart that
   instead of testifying to the goodness of God, they cannot testify to
   anything, for "their tongue fails for thirst." It is then, in their
   extremity, that the blessed promises shall come to them--"I the Lord
   will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them."

   I am going to follow the Good Shepherd's example and leave the 99--you
   Brothers and Sisters who are happy and joyful in the Lord, I must leave
   you to take care of yourselves, or, rather, the Lord will take care of
   you. I want just now to go after that one sheep that is lost! And I
   would not be surprised at all if there are not more than one out of
   every hundred here in the condition which our text describes! If so,
   may the Spirit of God cause the message to reach the hearts of all such
   sorrowing ones that God may again be glorified in the abundance of His
   mercy toward them! Let us begin at the beginning of the text and
   consider it from point to point very briefly. We will start with these
   people where the text starts with them.

   I. Here is, first, POVERTY OF CONDITION--"When the poor and needy seek
   water."

   This description, of course, applies to poverty of
   spiritualcondition--does it describe you, my Brother, my Sister?
   Sometimes we say that we are "rich, and increased with goods, and have
   need of nothing," though, all the while, we are "wretched, and
   miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." But there are other times
   when, consciously, among the poor, we are the poorest--and among the
   needy, our need puts us in the very front rank.

   Certainly, I think that most of us here would take the position of
   great poverty as to anything like merit What have we ever done that can
   commend us to God? When we have done all that our Master commanded, we
   must still say, "We are unprofitable servants--we have done that which
   was our duty to do. But we have not obeyed all His Commands by a long
   shot. "Self-complacency may be a very pleasant feeling to cherish, but
   he who walks near to God is a stranger to it. If ever God honors one of
   His children in public, I bear witness that He has a way of flogging
   him behind the door so as to make him feel that he has no glory save
   only in the Lord! What have you ever done, you who have won many souls
   for the Savior? You may thank God that He has thus honored you, but
   beware lest you ever take any credit for it, yourself, for that would
   be a strange perversion of the Truth of God. What if you have trained
   up that family of yours in the fear of God and have seen the Divine
   benediction resting upon your house? That is well, but are you the god
   of your house? What would you have been and what would your house have
   been if it had not been for the mercy of God to you and yours? Looking
   back upon the whole of our life, we have to thank God for it--and we
   must not let Him be robbed of any of the thanksgiving that is due to
   Him. As for ourselves, the only fit tribute to all that we have done is
   a tear! Let us thank God that He blots out our faults and our failings
   with the precious blood of His dear Son! And let us also weep bitter
   tears of regret over them that we should ever have sinned against Him.
   If any here present have any merits in which they think they can glory,
   there are, on the other hand, some of us who could sit down in dust and
   ashes and cry out in the agony of our souls, for we are
   poverty-stricken to the last degree as to anything of merit in and of
   ourselves.

   Yes, and we have poverty of another kind, namely, as to anything like
   strength Not that we would plead that as an excuse for not doing much
   for our Lord, for, albeit that we are fully conscious of our own
   weakness, we never yet learned that God's Law was limited by human
   power. We believe that it is our duty to do thousands of things which,
   by reason of our impotence, we never do and never, perhaps, can do.
   Still, the claims of duty remain the same as they always were, for if
   we have sinned away our power, God has not, therefore, lost any of His
   rights. We ought to have been perfect. Brothers, I say that if you and
   I had lived absolutely perfect lives, even then we would not have
   rendered a due return to God for the great debt we owe Him! If we have
   preached Christ's Gospel, we ought to have preached it like flaming
   seraphs. If we have suffered for Christ's sake, we ought to have been
   ready to die like martyrs. We ought, in our lives, to have reproduced
   the life of Christ! But when we struggle to attain to this high ideal,
   there is a shrunken sinew that makes us like Jacob, halt upon our
   thigh. And there is another shrunken sinew that makes us drop our
   arm--and there is scarcely a part of our mental and spiritual
   constitution which does not make us cry, with Paul, "To will is present
   with me; but

   how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I
   would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do."

   Truly, we are poverty-stricken as to our strength. The smallest sin is
   too much for us if God is gone from us. The slightest temptation blows
   us over like children who are weak upon their legs--only God can
   sustain us--and we need to constantly hear our Savior say to us, as He
   said to His disciples, "Without Me you can do nothing!" When we first
   heard that message, we used to think, "Oh, but surely we can do a
   little." Yet, every day, that word, "nothing," seems to toll the
   funeral knell of all self-confidence! Christ still says to us, "Without
   Me you can do nothing," and we know that what He says is true. Some of
   us are feeling the truth of this sentence and we are humbled in the
   dust as we realize that we are, indeed, poor and needy as to strength.

   Then, Brothers and Sisters, as to Grace, many of the children of God
   are, to their shame, obliged to confess that they are poor and needy
   where they oughtto be rich and where they mightbe rich--poor in
   patience, poor in courage, poor in faith, poor in hope, poor in love,
   poor in private prayer, poor in public influence--poor in every way.
   Although the Grace of God can make us so spiritually rich that we may
   be happy and be able, also, to be the means of blessing others, there
   are many of God's children who scarcely seem to have a penny of
   spending money, and they never appear to go to the King's treasury and
   dip their hands in, and take out great handfuls of the precious gold of
   Grace. They might do so if they would, but, alas, they continue
   miserably poor through their own fault! So this last confession must be
   made very humbly, as indeed the others I have mentioned ought to be.
   And perhaps I am speaking right home to some Brothers and Sisters here
   when I say that, as to merit, as to strength and even as to Grace, you
   feel yourselves to be "poor and needy."

   II. Our next remark is concerning URGENCY OF NEED.

   "When the poor and needy seek"--what? Money? No, that is only to be
   poor and needy. Bread? Yes, that shows a harder poverty than merely
   being "poor and needy." But it is not bread that these poor and needy
   ones are seeking, but "water." Why, that is generally to be had for
   nothing--a drink of water! It must be very hard times, indeed, when
   poor souls are in such a state that they are longing for water and
   seeking for it afar, as though there were none near at hand. Brothers,
   Sisters, are any of you in such a condition, so poor and needy that you
   are sighing after the Living Water? Though you have drunk of it before,
   are you still sighing for more of it and feel as if you do not know
   where to find it?

   This is an urgent necessity, for it touches a vital point A man can
   exist without money. He can live without garments. He could live longer
   without bread than he could without water, for you may relieve hunger,
   but the pangs of thirst are awful, so those have said who have had to
   endure it on a raft at sea. Water is a vital necessity of our being
   and, therefore, God has appended to it a feverishness, an agony, a
   burning, longing and intense desire to obtain it. Thirst is something
   dreadful! Are you, my Brother, my Sister, thirsting for God, for the
   living God? Are you crying to Him with David, "My soul thirsts for You,
   my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is"?
   Do you feel that you must get a visitation from God, or else your soul
   will die? Have you been in a dry and thirsty land where there is no
   water and have you come here saying, "Lord, I seek a cup--a necessary
   cup of Living Water, and I need it to drink, but I am so
   poverty-stricken that I cannot buy it. I am so weak that I cannot go
   far to find it. I am so ignorant that I scarcely know where to look for
   it! Lord, I am brought to this point--it is not any fancied Grace that
   I need, it is not some high-soaring aspiration after perfection that I
   cherish--but I need Grace enough to keep my faith alive! I need it now
   such a cup of water from the well as shall enable me to realize that I
   am a child of God"?

   Do I address one in whom this vital necessity has become an agonizing
   thirst? I think that I shall speak your experience when I say that I
   have sometimes known what it was to feel that I would sacrifice my
   eyes, and be blind, if I might but again get near my God. What
   difference does it make if you have to lie in bed and suffer, if you
   might but know that God's Countenance was lifted up upon your soul, and
   that joy and gladness were in your spirit? They who have never lost the
   consciousness of fellowship with God are to be envied. May there be
   many such here! But, if any have once known it and have lost it, I hope
   that they will be consumed by a vehement desire to have it back again,
   that they may once more drink of the Water which is infinitely better
   than that in "the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate." It were
   worthwhile that our blood were shed to get a drink of that Living Water
   again! It is truly sad when any child of God has sorrowfully to say--

   "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."

   Thank God that the void does ache and that the world cannot fill it! If
   you, dear Friend, have an agonizing desire to drink the Water of Life,
   you are the person to whom my text applies--"When the poor and needy
   seek water."

   Further, this is an immediate necessity. When a man's tongue fails for
   thirst and he seeks water, he needs it at once. When he is perishing
   for lack of water, he is not content if someone tells him that he shall
   find it, by-and-by--he needs to find it at once. "Water! Water!" he
   cries. "Give me water!" But as long as a man can cry as loudly as I
   have just done, he can wait a little while. But if he gets to the point
   that his tongue fails for thirst, then he needs it immediately, or he
   will die. O child of God, if you have lost the Presence of your God,
   you need to find it, again, while you are in that pew--you would not
   like to go home without having a sight of your Father's face, would
   you? And if you are in such a desperate state that you feel that you
   must have it, then you shall have it, depend upon it! I pray that you
   may be brought to such a condition that you shall be ready to die of
   sickness of heart unless your hope is speedily fulfilled and you can
   once again behold your God.

   III. The third step down--and it is a very long one, is
   this--DISAPPOINTMENT OF HOPE. "When the poor and needy seek water, and
   there is none."

   Ah, "there is none" even where they have found it before. They have
   sought it in the right places. They have gone where they used to
   go--where there are wells of water--yet they are bitterly disappointed,
   for "there is none." Have not some of you, at times, found it so in
   attending the means of Grace? You have gone again to the same place
   where, before, your heart was refreshed as you drank deep draughts of
   the Living Water. You listened to the same preacher whom you heard
   there before and, perhaps, to others there was as much sweetness as
   ever in his message--but to you there was none. Does not the preacher
   himself know what it is, sometimes, to have a subject that is just like
   a springing well and then, at another time, to find that he may pump as
   long as he pleases, but not a drop of water comes forth? If it is so
   with the preacher, it is certainly so with the hearers!

   Sometimes, there is an unction from the Holy One resting upon the Word
   so that it is like the ointment from the alabaster box--the heavenly
   perfume fills the whole house! At another time it is the same Truth of
   God that is preached and by the same lips and, possibly, with the same
   earnest desire for a blessing--yet the blessing is not given. "The wind
   blows" not only "where it wills," but as it wills--and there are times
   when not a breath of the heavenly breeze stirs the still air! And then,
   when "the poor and needy seek water" even where they used to find it,
   "there is none."

   It makes their case even more disappointing when they have, side by
   side with them, others who are seeking water and finding it, yet,
   "there is none" for them. Have you ever been to the Lord's Table--say,
   with your own wife--and when she has been going home, she has said,
   "Oh, what a precious Communion service! Was not the Lord manifestly
   among His people in the breaking of bread?" And you have been ashamed
   to tell her that you had not seen the Lord, even in His own ordinance?
   Your eyes had been blinded. You have been sitting here sighing and
   crying and no joy has come to you. I am sure it is often so in the
   hearing of the Word. It is so in the private reading of the Scriptures.
   It is so in all those means of Grace which God blesses to His people.
   We sometimes find Him blessing one and missing others, just as,
   sometimes, the rains are partial--one piece of ground is rained
   upon--and another piece, close by, is not rained upon. Thus it comes to
   pass that where others drink deep draughts, you poor and needy ones
   come seeking water, "and there is none."

   "And there is none." Of course, if you go to places where there is none
   of the Living Water, why, then, you have only yourself to blame when
   you cannot find it! If you go where the modern divinity is taught. If
   you go where you hear the new doctrines, you will find no Water of Life
   there. "There is none." That stream has been dried up long ago--the
   Sirocco of doubt has swept across it and it has vanished--and there is
   nothing left but the dry bed of the river. People who constantly go to
   hear that kind of teaching must not blame the Lord, or complain if they
   seek water and find none! When a bucket has the bottom out and the well
   has long since ceased to hold any water--if you go there for it--you
   will simply find that "there is none." But the pain of it is that,
   sometimes, the earnest child of God frequents a ministry which

   God has formerly blessed to him and others, yet he turns away
   sorrowfully from the well which has yielded him no water, and he says,
   "there is none." God is showing him the emptiness of the creature, the
   vanity of all mortal help. He has a great and a wise design in it all,
   and it may be that He will keep His child in that condition for a long
   time, as poor and needy, seeking water--and finding none.

   IV. Fourthly, we have here THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER--"And their tongue
   fails for thirst." They cannot speak. They cannot tell their fellow
   Christians about their trouble--"their tongue fails for thirst."

   They are ashamed to tell others what they feel. It is a sad state for
   any to be in, yet many are in it and, knowing that they are guilty and
   that it is their own fault that they have fallen so low, they cannot
   tell their fellow Christians anything about their condition. And so
   they miss one very useful means of comfort. And their tongue so fails
   for thirst that now, if a hymn is given out, they feel as if they must
   not sing it. If there is a promise quoted, they feel as if they could
   not appropriate it! And sometimes the prayer of a joyous Brother seems
   to shoot over their head--they cannot attain to his experience. Yes,
   "their tongue fails for thirst." They do not know how to express what
   they feel.

   If they were called upon to state their own feelings and convictions
   before the living God, it may be that they have become so mournful and
   sad that they could not describe themselves. Indeed, this is one of the
   painful parts of some men's condition--that it is indescribable. If
   they could only put it down in black and white, they might hope to get
   over it, but it is mysterious, singular, strange, unaccountable. They
   have fallen into such a strange condition--they have got down so low
   that "their tongue fails for thirst."

   Now I think we have gone about as low as we can. Here is a man who, to
   begin with, is poor and needy. Here is a man who is lacking water, who
   has sought it, but who cannot find it. Here is a man whose tongue is so
   parched with thirst that he cannot say a single word--he must sit down
   in sorrowful silence.

   V. Yet, strange to say, now is the time that he learns that SALVATION
   IS OF God!

   Look again at the text. It says, "I the Lord will hearthem." What? Why,
   they cannot speak! "Their tongue fails for thirst." Yet it says here,
   "I the Lord will hearthem." Well, but their tongue fails them! Yes, but
   He says it, "I the Lord will hear them." So that brings me to this
   point--that God's great objective in bringing His people down so low as
   this is to make thempray directly to Him--that now they may not seek
   any water, but just cry to Him who is the Fountain of living
   waters--that now they may not tell their friends about their need, nor
   even tell it to themselves--but in the very silence of their soul, they
   speak with God, for there is a kind of speech which is perfectly
   consistent with silence--the speech of sorrow--the exhibition of the
   wounds of misery--the opening up of the brokenness of the heart--the
   setting before God, not in eloquent descriptions, but in indescribable
   revelation, the intolerable need which lies within the soul! God means
   you, dear Friend, to turn right to Him!

   The text does not even say that they pray, because, sometimes, even
   prayer becomes a mechanical act and we are apt to rely upon it for
   comfort instead of upon our God. So the Lord says that He will hear
   them, though there is no mention of prayer, and they feel that they
   cannot pray. You feel, perhaps, as if you could not pray? Well, then,
   now turn yourself to God! Rest yourself on God. You feel that all is
   over with you, that your case is desperate? Then roll yourself upon the
   living God. This is the point to which He means to bring you, so do not
   let even your desire to pray be an obstacle between the Lord and your
   soul! If you cannot utter a word, pray in this sense--that your very
   heart, with unutterable groans, pours itself out like water before the
   living God! This is where He would have us come and, oftentimes, it
   needs all this bursting of the tempest, all this sorrow, all this
   grief, before the Lord can get us to really speak with Him, not in
   words, but from our very soul.

   The prayer which is hidden away in the texts--for, although there is no
   mention of prayer in it, yet it is hidden away there--is the prayer of
   inward thirst You know that it is useless to say to a man who is in
   distress of soul, "You must groan every morning, and you must groan
   every night." No, no--he groans when he cannot help it! And though I
   wish that all would have their special seasons for prayer, yet I
   believe that the most mighty prayer in the world is that which cannot
   be timed, or regulated, but which comes out because the suppliant must
   pray. "Oh, God!" There may be more real prayer in that abrupt prayer,
   when it is forced out of you by the overwhelming sense of your need,
   than there is when you put yourself into a comfortable position and
   kneel down to pray, for sometimes you may get up from that posture and
   say to yourself, "There, I think I prayed very well," yet, all the
   while, there may not have been any true prayer in it at all! But when,
   at another time, you say, "O Lord, I cannot pray! I feel as if I cannot
   pray"--why, dear man, you are praying!

   You are praying with all your might! There is more prayer, oftentimes,
   in that sense of not being able to pray than there is in the Pharisaic
   thought of having discharged the holy duty acceptably, for, in the one
   case it is the soul speaking by the Holy Spirit and, in the other case,
   it may be nothing more than the lips speaking into the air!

   This is the prayer of one who despairs of all means. I wish I could
   drive every sinner into that corner so that he would understand that as
   no Popish priest can save him, and as no good works can save him, as no
   sermon-hearing can save him, as no Bible-reading can save him, no
   praying can save him--NOTHING that he can do can save him! He must get
   to God and cast himself upon Christ or else he will be lost! To many of
   you I might say, "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you
   have eternal life, but you will not come to Christ that you might have
   life." That is where the true life lies, in Christ, not in the
   Scriptures, blessed as they are! I hope that no one will mistake my
   meaning, for I am only putting the Scriptures as the Lord Jesus Christ
   put them when He was speaking to the Jews. I desire to put the actual
   coming to Christ higher than anything else that is possible to you. Get
   away from all means, and just say, "Now they are all gone, and I will
   go to God and say, 'O God, if You do not help me, from where shall I be
   helped? Neither the barn floor nor the winepress can help me now--there
   is a famine in Samaria! I would gladly eat up the fruit of my own soul,
   yet it cannot satisfy me! I must go to You, my Father, for all around
   me I see husks which swine may eat, but I cannot. I must have You.'"

   Notice, also, dear Friends, that this is the prayer of
   faintness--"their tongue fails for thirst." Oh, what blessed prayer
   comes out of a heart that faints away on the bosom of Christ! What
   powerful pleading there is in that very act! It is abject weakness
   making the most mighty appeal it can to Almighty Love. "There, Lord,
   there is nothing more that I can do. There is no hope for me, in Heaven
   or on earth, apart from You. Now, if I perish, I perish. But will
   You--can You--let me die?" No, He cannot and He will not let us die,
   for now comes the step upwards! You have taken one already in that
   silent heart-prayer.

   Now comes the declaration of God--"I the Lord will hear them, I the God
   of Israel will not forsake them." Is it not something that God hears
   you? I think that I have frequently had to explain this word by
   speaking of the poor woman who was so pleased to see her minister. She
   was very poor and so was her minister. What good, then, did he do her?
   Did he speak to her a very comforting word? No. The good man did not
   happen, that day, to be in much of a mood to do so, yet he did that
   Sister a deal of good, she said. Why? Because he let her talk and she
   just told him all her troubles--and he looked sympathetic, for that is
   how he felt--and that was just what she needed! She needed somebody who
   would listen to her. It is wonderfully condescending on God's part to
   listen to us. Many of our complaints are only rubbish, yet He hears
   them patiently. Sometimes when people begin groaning and grumbling, I
   wish I was down the next street--but God is so patient and
   long-suffering that He hears all that His people say. Oh, what things
   you and I have had to tell Him! We did not like to tell anybody else,
   but we have felt that we must reveal it to Him. And we have done so
   very faintly and feebly, yet He has been listening to us--"I the Lord
   will hear them."

   You know, dear Friends, that you have only to get a hearing from God
   and you know what the consequence will be when your Heavenly Father
   knows what things you have need of. He only needs to know and He will
   surely supply all that you lack. So when you have got a hearing from
   God, you have got everything! There it is in our text, "I the Lord will
   hear them." We say that God is "a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering
   God." That is quite true, but it is not a Biblical expression. David
   said, "O You that hears prayer, unto You shall all flesh come." It is
   enough for Him to hear it. If He hears it, He will be quite certain to
   be moved with compassion and to come to the help of His child. It is
   all well with you, my Brother. It is all well with you, my Sister,
   though you cannot pray to God in words. Only exhibit your wounds--let
   their poor dumb mouths plead for you. They have pleaded! God has heard
   them and He will answer you. You shall yet come up out of the dungeon
   and from this time forth He will fulfill the promise, "I the God of
   Israel will not forsake them."

   You know what work God had with Jacob that night when the Angel
   wrestled with him. The trouble with Jacob was that he was so terribly
   strong--the chief work that had to be done upon him was to make him
   weak. The Angel wrestled with him and he wrestled width the Angel. He
   was a strong fellow, yet he never prevailed by his strength--and he
   would not have prevailed had not the Angel touched him, so that his
   sinew shrank and down he went. Then, as he fell, he still clung to the
   Angel and said, "I will not let You go, except You bless me." That fall
   of his won the day--it was the lame Jacob who took the prey! It is the
   God of Israel, also, who will bless you, but He must first touch you
   and make the sinew

   shrink. You must be nothingand nobodybefore God will help you. I have
   observed that whenever God has given success to my own preaching, I
   have had a time of sore soul-trouble either before it or afterwards. I
   have noticed that some Brothers who have suddenly come to the front and
   have apparently been very useful, have generally become top-heavy if
   the press has not abused them, or if they have not had some trying
   affliction--and you hear the sad news concerning them that they have
   gone astray. But when God ballasts the ship well--when He takes down
   the topsails--when He makes the vessel have a trial trip in stormy
   weather, then He is often pleased to put many of His saints on board
   such a ship as that! So, Brother, be thankful if you are a tried man,
   and believe that God is going to bless you. Be thankful, Brothers, if
   you have had an experience of this horrible thirst--if your tongue has
   been made to cleave to the roof of your mouth in anguish of ungratified
   desire after God. If you have been ground to pieces, like fine flour in
   the mill, now may you be offered unto God! If you have been slain, now
   may you be a sacrifice unto the Most High! But there must be the
   sentence of death in yourselves. There must be a breaking, and a
   grinding, and a tearing, or else it is not likely that there will be
   the sweet shining of Jehovah's face and perpetual joy and peace!

   I have been all this while trying to fish--I wonder whether, by God's
   Grace, I have caught the one for whom my hook was baited? Is there
   anybody here who has not any good thing in himself at all? Is there any
   poor wretch who feels that he is only fit to be swept up by the devil
   with a broom, and to be cast into the fire? Is that how you feel--as if
   you were the offscouring of all things and, in your own esteem, not
   worthy for God to tread on--such a thing as never should have been in
   existence--and, being here, ought to be put out of existence as soon as
   possible? O you nothing, Christ is willing to be your All-in-All!

   O you naked one, here is a garment to cover you! O you hungry one, here
   is food for you! My Lord seeks after you who are downtrodden, you who
   lie on the dunghill, forked out and ready to be spread on the field as
   if you were only so much manure. Still He calls you! Come and trust
   Him. You have nothing else to trust to. You have no other refuge, so
   fly to Christ! Fall down before your God, fall flat on your face, man,
   woman--and then, when the great shell bursts, which you are now
   dreading--not a fragment of it shall strike you! Your safety lies in
   casting yourself upon the mercy and Grace of God!

   Say, "It must be mercy, great mercy, nothing but mercy, that can meet
   my case. I am a lost, ruined, undone sinner, but I believe in the great
   love, Grace and mercy of God in the Person of His dear Son. And now,
   down I fall, trusting in Jesus crucified." You are a saved man if there
   lives one! Trust thus in Jesus and you have, in that very act, passed
   from death unto life! Therefore, go your way in peace. The Lord who
   killed you, has made you alive! The Lord who wounded you, has healed
   you. May His blessing abide upon everyone of you, for Christ's sake.
   Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ZECHARIAH 12:10-14; 111, 2.

   Zechariah 12:10. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of Grace and of supplications.
   This is a promise concerning Israel. Long have the Jews rejected the
   Christ, but the day is coming when they shall acknowledge Jesus of
   Nazareth to be the promised Messiah. In that day this promise will be
   fulfilled. God must always give "the Spirit of Grace" before men will
   pray aright. And wherever Grace is given, there is always true prayer.

   10. And they shall look upon Me whom they havepierced, 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.
   Discovering that they have rejected the true Messiah, they will be
   overcome with the most acute grief that was ever endured--grief
   altogether inconceivable.

   11. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the
   mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Me-giddon. One of the greatest
   mourning that was ever known was that when Josiah was slain in battle
   and the people lamented that their best of kings was so early taken
   away from them. Such shall be the sorrow that shall fall upon repenting
   Israel.

   12. And the land shall mourn, every family apart. There shall be
   universal mourning throughout the whole land, yet it shall be special
   and particular to each household--"every family apart."

   12-14. "The family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart;
   the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the
   family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of
   Shimei apart, and their wives apart; all the families that remain,
   every family apart, and their wives apart True repentance is the
   distinct act of each individual. It cannot, as a rule, be performed in
   the mass. There is a general repentance which, like that of the
   Ninevites, has a special excellence about it because it affects a whole
   city or nation, but that is not the kind of repentance which is
   described here. In this case, the sharpness of personal conviction of
   sin cuts and wounds the conscience of each individual and there is a
   bitter cry uttered by each one as if he were the only sinner in the
   world. Oh, how sincerely you and I would repent if we felt as if we
   were the only ones who had ever broken God's Law. Yet such a repentance
   as that we must feel if we would be personally forgiven.

   Zechariah 13:1. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the
   house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for
   uncleanness. They shall see their pardon when they have truly seen
   their sin. When once the foulness of their transgression is perceived,
   then the fountain of cleansing shall be perceived, too. No man ever
   knows the precious-ness of the God-given remedy till he has felt the
   force of the terrible disease. No one by faith plunges into the crystal
   Fountain of perfect cleansing without first lamenting the filthiness
   which needs to be removed!

   2. And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD of Hosts, that
   I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall
   no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the
   unclean spirit to pass out of the land. Where there is pardon, there is
   sure to be sanctification. The idols must fall and the false prophets
   must go. We cannot have our sins and have a Savior, too. If we have
   Christ to blot out our sin, we must have the same Christ to remove sin
   as to its authority, power and dominion over us!
     __________________________________________________________________

Angelic Interest in the Gospel

   (No. 2697)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, OCTOBER 21, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 25, 1881.

   "Which things the angels desire to look into." 1 Peter 1:12.

   THE Apostle Peter wrote his first Epistle to a persecuted people, many
   of whom were in great heaviness through manifold trials. The sufferings
   of the early Christians are something terrible even to think upon--the
   world has scarcely ever beheld more relentless cruelty than that which
   pursued the first servants of our Divine Lord and Master. Peter,
   therefore, when he wrote to these tried saints, sought to cheer and
   encourage them. What, then, did he write about? Why, about the Gospel!
   For there is nothing like the simple Doctrine of Salvation by
   Redemption to comfort the most distressed spirits.

   The chapter from which our text is taken is just as plain as the Gospel
   itself. Peter here tells the elect strangers that they were "begotten
   again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
   dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades
   not away." And he also reminds them that they "were not redeemed with
   corruptible things, as silver and gold," "but with the precious blood
   of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." In this
   Chapter we have all the great central Truths of the Gospel--Election,
   Redemption, Regeneration, Effectual Calling, Sanctification and Final
   Perseverance. Brothers and Sisters, whenever we need consolation, let
   us never go away from the Gospel to find it! The child of God always
   finds his best comfort in the things of God. If your comforts can only
   come to you from worldly society, it is quite clear that you belong to
   the world--but if you are one of God's true children, all that you need
   to cheer you under the heaviest trial is already provided for you in
   the Gospel of Christ--and will speedily be applied to you by the Holy
   Spirit, the Comforter, if you only seek it at His hands.

   Peter here prescribes a remedy for lowness of spirits and for general
   depression. That remedy is to take a deeper interest in the things of
   God, to give ourselves more intensely to the consideration and
   contemplation of them. They are well worthy of all the thought that we
   can give to them, for if the Prophets, those men with the grandest of
   human minds, Divinely Inspired, yet had to search deeply to understand
   God's Word as revealed to them, there must be something in it that we
   shall do well to search out! And if the holy angels, those mighty
   intelligences, do not so much see, as "desire to look into," the things
   of God, there must be some very deep things hidden within the
   simplicities of the Gospel which you and I ought to search out! If we
   did search them out, we would be greatly cheered and comforted. Our
   minds would be taken off those trials which now so often vex us. We
   would be lifted high above them. We would not travel slowly and
   painfully over this rough road and have our feet cut with every sharp
   flint--and our spirit pierced with every sore trial--but we would rise,
   as on eagle's wings, and ride on the high places of the earth and
   rejoice in the Savior who has done such great things for us! We would
   eat the fat things, full of marrow, which God has provided for those
   who diligently study His Word and prize it above all earthly treasures.

   I am not going to say anything at this time about the high interest
   which the ancient Prophets took in God's Word, but I shall confine
   myself very much to the interest which angels take in it in order that
   I may stir you up to imitate their example. I want, first, to remind
   you that angels take an active interest in the Gospel of our salvation.
   And, secondly, to show you that angels are eager students of it--"which
   things the angels desire to look into."

   I. First, I want to remind you that ANGELS TAKE AN ACTIVE INTEREST IN
   THE GOSPEL OF OUR SALVATION.

   It is true that they are not interested in it for themselves. They have
   never sinned and, consequently, they need no atonement and no
   forgiveness. Doubtless, they have some sort of indirect interest in it
   which I will not attempt to explain just now, but, certainly, as far as
   the Gospel brings salvation, healing, pardon, justification and
   cleansing, angels do not need it. Never having been defiled, they need
   not to be washed. And being perfect in their obedience, they need not
   to be forgiven for any shortcomings. And yet they take a deep interest
   in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ! What, then, shall I say of the
   madness of those who are defiled by sin and yet have no interest in the
   Fountain where they can be washed whiter than snow? What shall I say of
   the fatal folly of those who are guilty and yet take no thought about
   the method of pardon which God has provided in Christ Jesus, His Son,
   and our only Savior?

   The angels are not even interested in the Gospel because of its
   relation to any of their fellows, for fallen angels have no part nor
   lot in its provisions. When they fell from their first estate, God left
   them forever without hope--and they live in their rebellion against
   Him, waiting for the awful day when they shall receive the full
   recompense of their infamous revolt. There is no mercy for fallen
   spirits! I see how God exercised His Sovereignty, for when men and
   angels had both sinned, He passed by the greater sinners and took up
   the lesser ones. The fallen spirits "He has reserved in everlasting
   chains under darkness unto the judgment of The Great Day." Yet He
   looked on men, the creatures of a day, with eyes of pity and compassion
   and sent His Son to earth, in our nature, that He might redeem us from
   the wrath which was justly our due! The angels have no direct interest
   in the death of Christ, or the blood of Christ because of any blessing
   which will come through Him to any of their former angelic companions.
   Yet they desire to look into these things. What, then, shall I think of
   myself, and of you, my Brothers and Sisters, if, being saved, we take
   little or no interest in the Gospel as the one means of saving our
   fellow men? Shame upon us if we have less pity for mankind than angels
   have, for men are our brothers, and nothing can save them but the
   Gospel of Jesus! Our common humanity ought to make us seek their
   welfare and we ought to take the deepest imaginable interest in the
   things which make for the peace of their immortal souls!

   Angels take a deep interest in the Gospel because they observe God's
   interest in it That for which God cares, angels care for at once. That
   which grieves the Holy Spirit must be grievous to holy angels, too, and
   that which gladdens the heart of God must also make glad the spirits
   that bow adoringly around His Throne. The holy ones cry, each one to
   his fellow, "God is glorified in saving sinful men. Our blessed Lord
   and Leader went down to earth to accomplish the redemption of the
   fallen and, therefore, let us learn all we can concerning His wondrous
   work! And wherever there is anything that we can do to help it on, let
   us stand with outspread wings, eager to fly at the command of God."

   Doubtless, the angels also take an interest in the Gospel because they
   are full of love. Those pure spirits love as surely as they live, and
   not only do they love their God, and love one another, but they also
   love us who were made a little lower than the angels. They have a great
   affection for us--very much more, I imagine, than we have for them. We
   are their younger brothers, as it were, and we are, by reason of our
   flesh and blood, linked to materialism, while they are pure spirits.
   Yet they do not envy us the love of God, neither do they despise us on
   account of our faults and follies, though, I think, they must often
   wonder at us. They must sometimes be ready to ask questions concerning
   our strange behavior, just as two of them did when Christ had risen
   from the dead and Mary Magdalene was weeping. Those angels were full of
   joy because Christ had risen, so they said to her, "Woman, why do you
   weep?" What could there be to weep about when Jesus had risen from the
   dead?! Ah, Beloved, the angels must often be astonished at us and think
   we are the strangest creatures that can be! Yet they love us and,
   therefore, they take a great interest in that Gospel which promotes our
   highest good. They know what we too frequently forget--that nothing can
   make us so happy as for us to be holy--and that nothing can make us
   holy but being washed in the blood of Jesus and being renewed by the
   Holy Spirit. Out of their homage to God and their brotherhood to man,
   comes that interest which makes them desire to look into the deep
   things of God and His Gospel.

   The angels have always taken an interest in all that concerns men. Some
   of them stood at the gate of Eden, with a flaming sword which turned
   every way, to keep our first father out, should he attempt to force his
   way back when he had lost his right to all its joy, even as the most
   loving spirit in the world is still upon the side of justice and
   believes that God is righteous, even though Paradise is lost, and man
   is doomed to eat bread in the sweat of his face. They are on man's

   side, but much more on God's, and they say, "Let God, the ever Just
   One, be glorified, whatever becomes of the sons of men."

   After that fatal day of the Fall, the angels constantly watched over
   men here below, and frequently spoke with one and another of them as
   God sent them with messages of mercy to Abraham, or to Isaac, or to
   Lot, or to Jacob, or to others of the human race. But there was a great
   day when, in solemn pomp, the chariots of God, which are "twenty
   thousand, even thousands of angels," came down to Mount Sinai, when the
   Law of God was proclaimed. The angels were there as the courtiers of
   the great King, to give additional solemnity to the declaration of the
   Law of God. That they should have been present on that august occasion
   shows their interest in the sons of men.

   But I like better to speak to you of their coming to announce the birth
   of Him of whom we sing, "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is
   given." When that birth, which they had announced, took place, how
   gladly did they come and hover over Bethlehem's fields and sing the
   grand chorale, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good
   will toward men." It was their intense interest in us that made them
   glad that our Redeemer was born. Then, as we sang at the commencement
   of this service--

   "In all His toils and dangerous paths

   They did His steps attend,

   Oft paused, and wondered how at last

   The scene of love would end." At that notable time when He was tempted
   in the wilderness, and was with the wild beasts, when the devil had
   left Him, angels came and ministered to Him. They were always near Him
   while He was here--always invisibly attendant upon His footsteps. You
   remember how there appeared unto Him an angel strengthening Him when He
   was in His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane--it was a wondrous thing
   that the Son of God should have strength infused into Him by an angelic
   messenger! With what awestruck interest the angels must have watched
   our Lord upon the Cross!--

   "As on the tottering tree He hung,

   And darkness veiled the sky,

   They saw, aghast, that awful sight,

   The LordofGlory die!"

   But glad were they to descend to His empty sepulcher, and to enter it,
   and guard the place where, for a while, the sacred casket of His body
   had lain. They spoke to His disciples and comforted them by telling
   them that He had risen from the dead and, all along, they took such
   interest in everything relating to Him because they recognized in Him
   the Savior of sinful men--

   "They brought His chariot from above, To bear Him to His Throne,
   Clapped their triumphant wigs and cried, 'The glorious work is done!'"

   Nor is this all. We know, from Scripture, that they not only watched
   over the Savior, but they rejoice over penitents. The Lord Jesus has
   told us that "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over
   one sinner that repents." That is to say, there is joy in God's heart
   and the angels can see it. They stand in God's Presence and they can
   see that God is glad! And we know that they also share that gladness.
   In the parable of the lost sheep, our Savior represents the shepherd
   calling together his friends and his neighbors, and saying to them,
   "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." So they
   do, I am sure--they rejoice over every rescued one that is brought home
   upon the shoulders of the Good Shepherd!

   And, Beloved, they watch over every believing soul This is one of their
   chief offices, for, "are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth
   to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" That promise
   which Satan misquoted is true to every child of God--"He shall give His
   angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear
   you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone." From
   what spiritual evils they guard us, it is not for me to attempt to
   tell, nor to try to describe how, often, in mid-air, there are fierce
   fights between the demons from Hell and the good spirits from Heaven.
   Or how the prince of the power of the air is baffled and driven back by
   Michael the archangel as he comes to takes care of the living body of
   Christ, as once of old he guarded the dead body of Moses. Ah, we little
   know how much we owe these invisible agents of the ever-blessed God!
   They are deeply interested in all His children. The par-

   able tells us that Lazarus died, "and was carried by the angels into
   Abraham's bosom." What that expression means, I shall not attempt to
   explain, but I am quite sure that when we who love the Lord, die,
   angels will have something to do with our departure and with our
   introduction into the world of happy spirits--and into the
   presence-chamber of the Lord our God! I like Bunyan's account of the
   pilgrims passing through the river and the shining ones meeting them on
   the other side, and leading them up the steep ascent into the Celestial
   City where they see their Master's face with joy, and go no more out
   forever.

   Nor will they have done with us even then, for when we shall be with
   God eternally shut in, and safe from all danger of falling and sinning,
   the angels will swell the music of our continual song, for they shall
   sing, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,
   and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." Yet we
   shall be able to sing what they cannot, "You were slain, and have
   redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and
   people, and nation; and have made us unto our God, kings and priests,
   and we shall reign on the earth."

   Further, these dear attendants of our wandering footsteps here below,
   these patient guardians of our nightly hours, these angel guides who
   shall be our companions in death when wife and child and friend can go
   no farther with us--these glorious beings shall learn from our lips in
   Heaven the manifold wisdom of God. They will cluster around us amazed
   and gladdened as, one by one, we stand upon the sea of glass--and they
   will ask us to rehearse again and again the wonders of redeeming love
   and to tell them what Conversion meant, and what Sanctification meant,
   and how the power and wisdom and Grace and patience of God were seen in
   the experience of each one of us--and we shall be their joyful
   teachers, world without end!

   Have I not proved to you that angels take an active interest in the
   Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? And may I not come back to
   this practical point--do you,also, take an active interest in the
   Gospel--you in whose nature Christ appeared--you sons of men--you who
   must be forever lost unless the precious blood of the bleeding Lamb is
   sprinkled upon you?--

   "Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by, Is it nothing to you that
   Jesus should die?'"

   It was for such as you that He died, even for the guilty sons and
   daughters of men, "for verily He took not on Him the nature of angels,
   but He took on Him the seed of Abraham." He took up men, not
   angels--shall they, then, be interested in the Gospel, and shall not
   you, whom it especially concerns, also be interested in it? I have
   already reminded you that they have no brother angels to be converted
   by the Gospel. They have no sister angels to be turned to God by the
   story of Calvary, yet they are deeply interested in the Gospel and also
   in us! And will not you, my fellow Christians, take a deeper interest
   in the work of God and in the propagation of the Gospel, when your own
   flesh and blood must be converted by it, or else must eternally die?
   Our sisters and brothers, our sons and daughters, our wives and
   husbands, possibly even our parents, will perish forever unless Jesus
   Christ is brought to them--and they are brought to Him. What are you
   doing, you careless professors, you who can go calmly to sleep while
   men and women are being damned? What are you thinking of, you who eat
   the fat and drink the sweet in the courts of the Lord's House and yet
   never show to the prisoners this way to liberty, nor tell to the dying
   the good news that, "there is life for a look at the Crucified
   One"--nor say to the perishing that there is salvation even for them in
   Christ Jesus your Lord? Up, up! I charge you by every swift-winged
   angel who takes an interest in the Cross of Christ, and in the
   salvation of men, AWAKE, sons of men! If you may, any way, be the means
   of saving some, be active in the service of that Savior who gave His
   all for you! God bless that exhortation to all whom it concerns!

   II. Now we turn to the second point, which is this--that ANGELS ARE
   EAGER STUDENTS OF THE GOSPEL, and of all the Truths of God connected
   with it--"Which things the angels desire to look into."

   It is quite certain, then, that angels do not know all that is in the
   Gospel, for they desire to look into it. All the Gospel is not known to
   them and I do not think that it is all known to any of us. I have
   occasionally met with certain brethren who have professed to have the
   whole of the Gospel condensed into five points of doctrine, so that
   they could put it all into their waistcoat pocket and carry it there.
   And they seemed to think that they had not anything more to learn. If
   one tried to teach them any other Truth of God beside what they already
   knew, they were angry, for they did not need to know anymore. They are
   not like the holy angels, for they desire to look into these things.
   Dr. John Owen was, perhaps, the most profound Divine who ever lived,
   yet Dr. John Owen could not know, on earth, as much about certain
   things as

   angels did! And I should say that, this very day, he still desires to
   look into the mystery of redeeming love and the Glory of Christ of
   which he wrote with such wonderful power.

   The Apostle Paul had been converted many years when he wrote the
   Epistle to the Philippians, yet in it he expressed the longing of his
   heart that he might know Christ. But did he not know Him? And if he did
   not, who did? No doubt he felt that there was so much of Christ that he
   had not known that what he didknow amounted to very little. I have
   heard the word, perfection, used very glibly by some who seemed to me
   to know little of its meaning. But will any sane man claim that he has
   attained to perfection in knowledge To the Corinthians, Paul wrote, "If
   any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought
   to know." The mystery of Redemption was hidden in Christ from eternity,
   and it was only made known to the Church or even to the angels
   gradually. They do not yet know everything. Concerning His Second
   Coming, our Lord said to His disciples, "But of that day and hour knows
   no man, no, not the angels of Heaven, but My Father only."

   The devil also does not know everything. I am sure that Satan did not
   know that Christ came into the world to redeem men by dying for them,
   or else he would never have stirred them up to put Him to death. He
   would have been far too cunning for that--he would have tried, if
   possible, to keep Christ alive so that we might not have been redeemed
   by Him. The devil does not know as much as he thinks he knows, even
   now. And, often, he is outwitted by a simple-hearted child of God who
   knows how to believe in God, and is brave enough to do the right thing.
   Neither men, nor Prophets, nor angels, nor devils know all about the
   Gospel! They need to still go on studying, meditating and
   contemplating, as the holy beings before the Throne of God are
   doing--"'which things the angels desire to look into.'"

   But, Brothers and Sisters, though they do not yet know all about Christ
   and His Gospel, they want to know all they can. They have many other
   subjects to study. There are all the worlds that God has made, and
   possibly they have liberty to range over them all, yet I do not read
   with reference to the marvels of astronomy, "which things the angels
   desire to look into." Angels doubtless know much more than all our
   scientific men do concerning the former ages of this world. They could
   tell much about the various formations and strata of which geologists
   talk, yet I do not find it recorded that the angels have any particular
   desire to look into those things. When God created the world, "the
   morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."
   They have oftentimes admired the Providential arrangements of God and
   praised the wise Ruler who guides all things with Infinite Wisdom. But
   now their chief contemplations seem to be fixed on Christ and His
   Gospel!

   Just notice two or three passages of Scripture. Turn first to Exodus
   25:20, where we read concerning the cherubim, who belong to one order
   of angels, "The cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high,
   covering the Mercy Seat with their wings, and their faces shall look
   one to another, toward the Mercy Seat shall the faces of the cherubim
   be"-- "toward the Mercy Seat," as if their eyes were continually fixed
   upon the redemption of Christ, the Propitiation worked out by His
   Sacrifice. In Daniel's day these blessed spirits took the greatest
   conceivable interest in knowing all they could about our redemption. If
   you turn to Daniel 8:13, you can read what that man of God wrote. "Then
   I heard one saint-- 'one holy one'--speaking, and another holy one said
   unto that certain holy one which spoke, How long shall be the vision
   concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation?"
   "How long?"--that was the question which the holy ones asked long
   before Christ descended to earth! Read also Daniel 12:5--"Then I Daniel
   looked, and, behold, there stood two others, the one on this side of
   the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the
   river. And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the
   waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?"

   They asked again and again, "How long?" All their thoughts were
   concentrated upon the things of God and they desired to look into them.
   Now I want you to remember, in order that it may humble us, that angels
   have very keen intellects. I believe that they far excel us in their
   prayers of thought and yet, though they have learned so much about the
   Gospel, they do not pretend to have come any further than this--they
   desire to look into it. You and I, perhaps, suppose that we know all
   about the Gospel and that we do not need to have hours of study, and
   thought, and prayer, and the unction of the Holy Spirit. Poor miserable
   fools! Angels, who are vastly superior to us in intelligence, have gone
   no further than to have the desire to learn and to know. I am afraid
   that many of you have not got as far as that. It is a grand thing to
   desire to look into these things--it proves that we already know
   something of their worth when we desire to know more.

   Remember, also, that the intellects of angels have never been warped by
   prejudice. There is not a man among us who is not prejudiced to some
   extent. Our parents warped us in one direction and our companions have
   warped us another way and we have, all of us, the propensity to take a
   one-sided view of things, even though we may be perfectly ignorant of
   the bias and, sometimes, this prejudice of ours prevents us from seeing
   clearly. But it is not so with the angels. There is no beam, nor even a
   mote, in their eyes! Their knowledge is not infinite, but it is amazing
   knowledge as far as it goes. Yet even they see not all that there is in
   the Gospel, for, of it, as of the love of God, it can truly be said--

   "The first-born sons of light Desire in vain its depths to see. They
   cannot reach the mystery, The length, and breadth, and height!" Then,
   again, the angels have been long looking into these things. I know not
   what the age of the angels may be. We know nothing of any creation of
   angels since the creation of the world. In the long ages before man
   trod this earth, angels had begun to think of looking into the wonders
   of God's Grace. Yet, after thousands of years, they do not fully
   comprehend the mysteries of redeeming love. Ah, my Brothers and
   Sisters, the Gospel is a boundless thing, even as your ruin was
   infinite and horrible beyond conception. And woe to the man who tries
   to make out that there is but a little Hell, and a little God, and but
   little wrath of God! As surely as your overthrow was inconceivably
   terrible, so the designs of God for your redemption and your exaltation
   in Christ are inconceivably magnificent! "It does not yet appear what
   we shall be." Some of us have very large expectations of what God means
   to make even of His creatures who are now cooped up in flesh and blood,
   but our highest anticipations will probably be far exceeded by the
   glorious reality! Even angels do not yet fully know, after all their
   study, what the mighty love of God has done and will yet do for us!

   Do not forget, too, dear Friends, that angels are not subject to such
   infirmities as we are. I know that I have forgotten a great deal more
   than I know, and I suppose that most of you have done the same. And
   when we have learned a thing, we are often like people who take up a
   handful of water--it is soon all gone. What leaky sieves our memories
   are! Angels, however, have no such failure of mind. They have never
   sinned and, therefore, from much of our infirmity, they must be
   altogether free. Yet, though far superior to us in this respect, this
   is the position they have reached--they stand over the Mercy Seat, with
   wings outstretched, and with their eyes continually fixed upon that
   token of the Propitiation, desiring to look into it! That is where you
   and I also stand--if we are truly humble, we feel that this is as far
   as we have come as yet.

   Now, let us enquire-- What are the things which the angels desire to
   look into? I can only refer very briefly to them. They are, first, the
   Incarnation, life, and death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The
   way in which God could be just, and yet justify the ungodly. That
   sacred art by which the suffering of the Law-Giver made a sufficient
   recompense to the offended Law of God. The wondrous power of those
   sufferings God-ward and manward--how these sufferings have broken men's
   hearts and separated them from their sins. How they have given them joy
   and peace and united them forever to their God. You and I have only
   seen the sparkle on the surface of the crimson sea of Redemption--we
   cannot understand the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the
   sufferings and death of Jesus Christ our Lord--so let us still desire
   to look into it, as the angels do.

   Next, they desire to know something concerning the Resurrection of
   Christ. "How do you know that?" you ask. Why, the verse before the one
   containing our text speaks of "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory
   that should follow." So angels love to think of Christ as risen from
   the dead, of Christ ascended, and of Christ yet to come in His Glory.
   They desire to gaze into that mystery and to learn how the glorious God
   can become yet more glorious by taking upon Himself our nature and so
   magnifying His Grace above all His name, by redeeming fallen men, and
   by lifting them up into communion with God.

   Angels desire to look into all the mystery of human hearts--how they
   are fallen, how they are regenerated, how they are preserved, how they
   are sanctified, how they are strengthened, how they are taught, how
   they are perfected. There is a wonderful field for their inspection,
   there, in the work of the Holy Spirit upon the sons and daughters of
   Adam by virtue of the death of Christ!

   And angels want also to know what God is going to do with this poor
   world. It is an awful problem to us and so it is to them, I expect. Can
   you make this world out? Did you ever try to understand it? It is a
   dreadful nut for anyone to crack--all these millions of men continually
   dying without God and without Christ--and without hope. What are to be

   the eternal issues of it all? How will it come out that God is
   glorified at the last when such multitudes perish? There are some
   Brothers and Sisters who think they know all about this mystery--they
   have a philosophy which explains it all. I have no such philosophy, nor
   do I wish to have. I sometimes found, when I was a child, that it was a
   pleasant thing for me to be with my father and to hear him talk even
   when I did not fully understand what he was talking about. And so I
   find it a blessed thing to get near to God and to see what He is doing,
   even when I do not know what He is doing, for I am perfectly satisfied
   that He cannot do anything that is wrong! Still, angels and men may
   join in the common desire to look into the wonderful working of God's
   Providence and Grace.

   But the angels also desire to look into the glory that shall follow.
   What is the glory that is yet to come to those spirits of just men made
   perfect who, as yet, have not their glorified bodies, but are waiting
   for them until the resurrection trumpet shall sound? What will be the
   glory of that moment when, in the twinkling of an eye, the dead shall
   be raised incorruptible, and the living shall be changed? And what will
   be the glory of that dread hour when Heaven and earth shall gather
   before the last tribunal and, on the Great White Throne, the Judge
   shall sit, and all born of woman shall be gathered before Him to give
   an account of the deeds done in the body, whether they have been good,
   or whether they have been evil? And what glory it will be, before that
   day has closed, when over all the world of sinners the waves of God's
   Infinite Wrath shall roll, and they shall sink to the bottom like a
   stone, never to taint the earth again! And what a glory it will be when
   all those on the King's right hand, all the blood-washed, all the
   redeemed, shall stream up to their everlasting thrones to sit forever
   with their conquering Leader, and reign eternally, peers in the palace
   of the King, forever adoring, forever blessing His holy name! Oh, what
   glory will be there! I will not attempt to describe it, for even the
   angels, who are in Heaven, desire to look into this mystery! Even they
   scarcely know what will be the glory of "the general assembly and
   church of the first-born, which are written in Heaven."

   You know that the Greeks had, every now and then, a great gathering of
   all the nation in what they called their general assembly. Everyone was
   represented there--poet and philosopher, tragedian and military man.
   All the glories of Greece were there. Well, there is to come a general
   assembly, an ecumenical council of the entire Church of God. And when
   they shall all be there on the plains of Heaven--Prophets, confessors,
   Apostles, martyrs, humble men and women from every part of the
   world--not one of the redeemed will be absent! They will all be there,
   with their King in the midst of them, and what a shout of victory, what
   hallelujahs, what songs of joy, what triumphant jubilates shall welcome
   that glad day! By God's Grace, I shall be there. My Hearer, will you be
   there? Are you sure of it? If so, let the glad anticipation of it
   rejoice your heart even now, though you do not know what the full
   realization of it will be, for even angels, who have seen the lesser
   gatherings of the saints, have not yet seen the one universal
   assembly--the gathering of all the clans, the coronation of the Prince,
   the marriage of the bride, the Lamb's wife and all the Glory of
   God--and the splendor of the infinite meridian brilliance that will be
   displayed before the wondering eyes of God's elect saints and God's
   elect angels! They do not know what it is to be, nor do you, but we, as
   well as they, desire to look into it, and I hope we all desire to be
   there!

   Now let me close by saying that as the angels are such deep students of
   the things of God, let us try to be the same. I wish that I could stir
   up all my dear friends who are saved to try to look more closely into
   the things of God. I am afraid that we are going to have a greater
   proportion of superficial Believers than we have had in the past, for
   we have so many people who are always hallooing about their religion.
   God bless them and let them halloo as loudly as they like, but I wish
   that they had something more to halloo about. There are some who are
   always crying, "Believe, believe, believe!" But, for the life of them,
   they could not tell you what it is that you have to believe. And many
   shout, "Hallelujah!" who do not know what "Hallelujah!" means, or they
   would be far more reverent towards that blessed word, "Praise to
   Jehovah!" We want, Brothers and Sisters, that you who are saved should
   seek to know how and why you were saved! You who have a hope of
   salvation should know the reason for the hope that is in you!

   Study the Scriptures much. In the Puritan days, there used to be a
   number of contemplative Christians who shut themselves up to study the
   Word of the Lord, and so became masters of theology. Perhaps some were
   not so practical in winning souls as they ought to have been, but now
   we are getting to the opposite pole of the compass. We have many who
   are rushing about and professing to feed the people--but what do they
   give them? Where is your bread, Sir? "Oh, I could not let these poor
   people wait." But why do you not go and fill your basket? You have
   nothing in it. "Oh, I had

   not time to do that. I wanted to go and give them"--Give them what?
   Give them half of the nothing that you have brought? That will do them
   no good at all!

   There is nothing like having good seed in the basket when you go out to
   sow. And when you go to feed the hungry, there is nothing like having
   good bread to give them. And that cannot be the case, spiritually,
   unless we are diligent students of the Word, unless we search the deep
   things of God! By all means let us advance our forces into the recesses
   of the enemy's country, but let us secure our communications and let us
   have a good firm basis of Scriptural knowledge, otherwise mischief will
   come to our scattered powers. By all means be enthusiastic. By all
   means be intense, but you cannot keep a fire burning without fuel, and
   you cannot keep up real intensity and enthusiasm without a knowledge of
   Christ and an understanding of the things of God, "which things the
   angels desire to look into."

   Now, dear Friends, those of you who have nothing to do with this
   matter, I would like you to go away thinking that if an angel cares
   about these things, and if an angel studies them, it is time that you
   did the same. I know that you are going to take your degree at the
   University, good Sir, and I am very glad that you are likely to secure
   a good position in life. But I hope that you are not so foolish as to
   think that you know more than the angels! And if they desire to look
   into these things, permit me to ask you to study your Bible as well as
   all the other classics, for, after all, this is the best classic! I
   know, dear Sir, that you are a masterly thinker. You can make a great
   many hypotheses and pull them to pieces again, but I wish, for once,
   that you would consider this hypothesis--that, perhaps, you are not as
   wise as the angels. I should not wonder if that hypothesis should prove
   to be true!

   I have often noticed that people who rail at the Gospel do not know
   what it is. Many speak against the Bible, but if they were asked, "Did
   you ever read it?" they would have to answer, "No." He who studies
   God's Word is usually conquered by it--he falls in love with it and
   feels the power of it. So, as the holy angels desire to look into it,
   look into it, yourself, good Sir, and, on your looking there, may God
   give you to see Jesus, for all who look unto Him shall be saved
   forever! May you be one of that blessed company, for His dear name's
   sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The First and the Second

   (No. 2698)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, OCTOBER 28, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 9, 1881.

   "He takes away the first, that He may establish the second." Hebrews
   10:9.

   THE way of God with men is to go from good to better and from better to
   best. In the creation, "the evening and the morning were the first
   day." "And the evening and the morning were the second day." And so on
   to the sixth day. God often gives us darkness before He gives us light
   and He gives us some measure of light in the rising sun before He gives
   us the full glory of noontide. And this, I suppose, is not because God
   needs any such rule for Himself. He can give the best, first, if He so
   chooses, but I imagine that this arrangement is necessary because of
   our infirmity. It would never do for weak eyes to have the full light
   of the sun pouring down upon them. Often, when men are faint, and
   nearly dying of hunger, they would be killed outright if strong meat
   were at once set before them--they must be gently fed as they are able
   to bear it. So God, knowing the feebleness of His creatures and
   especially the feebleness of His sinful creatures, is pleased to bestow
   His mercies with great wisdom and prudence. Little by little, first a
   very little, it may be, and then rather more, and then still more, and
   then much more, and then most of all until He does exceedingly abound
   in mercy towards us according to the riches of His Grace.

   It often happens that the lesser blessing is a sort of preparatory
   school before the greater favor. The Law of Moses acted as an education
   for men to prepare them to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The
   types and shadows of the twilight of the tabernacle and temple services
   helped men, by-and-by, to appreciate the substance when the True Light
   began to shine among the sons of men. We have need to be continually
   educated and trained for that which lies before us. We are not fit to
   enter even Heaven, itself, until we have learned something of the
   heavenly things here below. There is a first in order that there be a
   second--and the first has to be taken away, when it has fulfilled its
   design, in order that we then may enter upon the second. Some lower
   good precedes the higher and when the lower good has educated us for
   the higher, then it is removed, and the greater blessing fills its
   place, even as it says in our text, "He takes away the first, that He
   may establish the second." I am going to sever these two sentences from
   their connection, just for the time being, because they seem to me to
   contain a valuable general principle which may be used for comfort and
   instruction in many ways.

   I. I shall ask you to notice, first, THE GRAND INSTANCE of this rule
   given in the chapter from which our text is taken, the instance which
   was the occasion of the utterance of the rule. "He takes away the
   first," that is, the sacrifices and offerings of the Ceremonial Law.
   "He takes away the first," that is, the blood of bulls and of
   goats--"that He may establish the second," which second is Christ,
   Himself, the one effectual Propitiation for sin, the great
   Burnt-Offering which the Lord accepts and by which He is reconciled to
   all who trust in it.

   The taking away of "the first" involved the removal of instructive and
   consoling ordinances. Let us never forget that "the first" was given
   for the wisest possible purposes and was, itself, exceedingly useful.
   God forbid that we should ever find fault with the first dispensation,
   for it was the means of great comfort and of much instruction to the
   people of God who lived under it. Though it was, in itself, little
   better than a piece of glass, yet the Old Testament Believers saw much
   through it. Those of them who had clear vision saw the same Christ
   through it whom we, by faith, see at this day. So that window was to
   them a very precious thing because of the future Glory which they were
   able to see through it. I can un-

   derstand how David enjoyed the ceremonies of the holy place in his day
   and how, when he was obliged to be absent, he longed once more to stand
   within the tabernacles of God and envied the very sparrows and swallows
   that could fly or build their nests around the courts of the Lord's
   House! I can realize how earnestly he desired to stand again and see
   the priests presenting the holy offerings before the shrine of the Most
   High. And I can easily comprehend that to tell him that all these
   observances were to be put away, would give him some cause for
   disquietude--but when he understood that they were to be removed in
   order that a second, and a better dispensation should be established in
   their place, then his disquietude would altogether cease!

   Brothers and Sisters, we ought, this day, to be far more happy than the
   Jews ever were when God had accepted their richest sacrifices, for
   what, after all, were holocausts of bullocks, what were thousands upon
   thousands of lambs compared with the only-begotten Son of God who has
   sacrificed Himself on our behalf? Of what use were all the rivers of
   blood that were shed and the seas of oil that were poured out? What
   comfort could they bring to Jewish Believers compared with that which
   we derive from the flowing wounds of the Christ of Calvary and from the
   fact that He who suffered on the Cross, that He who was dead and
   buried, has risen again, and gone back into Glory and is there
   pleading, on our behalf, the merit of His one finished, perfect
   Sacrifice? Yes, Beloved, let "the first" go! We need not drop a single
   tear over its departure, seeing that "the second," which is established
   in its place, is so infinitely superior to it!

   Many Jewish Believers tried, as long as they could, to keep some relic
   of the old dispensation. For many a year they sought at least to teach
   that converts to Christianity must be circumcised. But they gradually
   learned that with the coming of Christ--rather, through His death--the
   old dispensation was all taken away. Every fragment of it is gone and,
   if we are wise, we shall say, "Let it go. Why should we seek to
   preserve it? Why should we keep that which is dead, now that the
   ever-living One has come and dwells among us? So, let 'the first' go,
   and let 'the second' be established."

   I want, dear Friends, to urge all of you to come to this decision very
   emphatically. I beseech you never to try to bring back "the first." I
   do not suppose you will ever literally imitate the Jews and offer the
   sacrifices enjoined under the Ceremonial Law, but there is, in certain
   quarters, an attempt to bring back portions of it--ill-formed, broken
   bones of that which has long since been dead. For instance, when men
   insist that such an unscriptural ceremony as infant sprinkling is
   necessary to salvation, and that another man-made rite must be
   performed or else Grace will not come to us--if we yield to their
   pretensions for a single moment, we shall be putting ourselves under
   the bondage of a ceremonial law which has not even the authority which
   the Law given by Moses had! The two ordinances of Baptism and the
   Lord's Supper which Christ has left us are blessed means of instruction
   and comfort to living men and living women, but they are not saving
   ordinances! And he who tries to make them so, in any measure whatever,
   is to that extent seeking to bring back "the first" dispensation, which
   God has forever abolished! He is also endeavoring to disestablish "the
   second" dispensation. As far as he can, he is overthrowing it. But
   Christ will not share with rites and ceremonies, the glory of our
   salvation. We are either saved by Grace through faith, or else by the
   works and ceremonies of the Law--there can be no mingling of the two,
   for they are diametrically opposed to each other! There must be a clean
   taking away of "the first" that there may be an establishing of "the
   second."

   Then I want you, next, to take care that you regard "the second" as
   being really established, that is to say that there has been offered
   one great Sacrifice for sin, and that Christ's Sacrifice has put away
   sin and has put it away once and for all. This is the establishment of
   the real, perfect, everlasting Atonement Now, Christian people, you do
   believe this as a matter of doctrine, but have you truly appropriated
   all the blessedness of it? Do you know that your sins are forgiven you
   for His name's sake? That an Atonement has been presented for you by
   which you are so effectually purged from guilt that you will never need
   to bring any other purgation, or to look for any other atonement? Do
   you really regard yourself as one who will never have to offer another
   sacrifice for sin because your conscience is already completely purged
   and you are clean every whit? I know that some professors do not like
   Kent's verse, but I like it, for I quite agree with him when he says--

   "Here'spardon full for sin that's past, It matters not how black its
   cast; And, O my Soul, with wonder new, For sins to come, here's pardon,
   too!"

   The Christ who died on Calvary's Cross will not have to die again for
   my new sins, or to offer a fresh Atonement for any transgressions that
   I may yet commit. No, but once and for all, gathering up the whole mass
   of His people's sins into

   one colossal burden, He took it upon His shoulders and flung the whole
   of it into the sepulcher wherein once He slept-- and there it is
   buried, never to be raised again to bear witness against the redeemed
   anymore, forever. Regard Christ's Sacrifice, then, as firmly
   established and, having been once offered, never to be repeated--that
   one offering having completed the redemption of all the blood-bought
   throng--and so finishing the great work that nothing needs to be added
   to it!

   II. Now, secondly, I want to give you SOME HISTORICAL INSTANCES in
   which the same rule has been carried out. I must speak very briefly
   upon each point, so try to catch the words as they fly.

   First, God took away the earthly paradise, but He has given us Christ
   and Heaven. God gave to man, originally, perfect happiness. In the
   Garden of Eden there were all manner of delights. And under the
   Covenant made with our first father, all of these would have been ours
   if he had persevered in obedience. But Adam sinned and so the Covenant
   of Works was broken. He fell, and we fell in him and, therefore,
   paradise was taken away from him and from us. There is no hope of our
   ever going through the gate of that garden. Even if it had remained
   perfect and we could find it, we would see there the cherubim with a
   flaming sword turning every way to keep us out of the garden. Why have
   you taken away this paradise, Lord? The Apostle here gives us the
   answer to our question, "He takes away the first, that He may establish
   the second," for, now, as many as believe in Jesus are brought into
   another and a better Paradise. They are saved in the Lord with an
   everlasting salvation and there is prepared for them a place of joy and
   delight compared with which the bliss of Eden shall not even be
   mentioned--neither shall that earthly paradise be brought to mind or be
   spoken of anymore.

   Next, the first man has failed, but behold the second Man, the Lord
   from Heaven, and see again the meaning of our text, "He takes away the
   first, that He may establish the second." There was a man in that first
   paradise--he was the first man, Adam, and you and I were
   representatively in him, for he was the federal head of the human race.
   But he fell and he was taken away. Do we regret this and mourn over it
   as though it were an irreparable calamity? By no means, for the Lord
   has taken away the first man, Adam, that He may establish the second
   Man, the Lord Jesus Christ! Concerning these two, the Apostle Paul
   wrote to the Corinthians, "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the
   second Man is the Lord from Heaven." The first man ruined us, but we
   now have the second Man, who heads up His people, having become their
   federal Representative--and in Him they are saved beyond all fear of
   falling.

   "He takes away the first, that He may establish the second," is
   illustrated again in the case of Adam and Noah Adam was not only the
   federal head of the human race, but he was also its first father and
   founder. But, although God took away our first father, He gave the race
   a second father, even Noah, from whom we have all sprung as much as
   from the loins of Adam. Now Adam's safety depended upon the perfection
   of a creature, the obedience of a human being--but Noah's safety lay in
   a figurative death, burial and resurrection--he went into the ark and
   died to that old world in which he had lived so long. Inside that ark,
   as in a coffin, he was buried beneath the descending floods, and he was
   floated into a new world, to be the father of a race that should live
   through his death, burial and resurrection. As the Apostle Peter says,
   "The like figure whereunto even baptism does also now save us"--not
   that baptism saves us, but it is another figure of how we are saved by
   death, burial and resurrection, as Peter goes on to say, "not the
   putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good
   conscience toward God, by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: who is gone
   into Heaven, and is at the right hand of God." "He takes away the
   first, that He may establish the second."

   Father Adam was taken away, but Father Noah was given to be the new
   head of the race, and to him the Lord said, "This is the token of the
   Covenant which I make between Me and you and every living creature that
   is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud,
   and it shall be for a token of a Covenant between Me and the earth."
   That second Covenant, which God made with Noah, is infinitely more
   secure than the first Covenant which was broken by Adam.

   Brothers and Sisters, there is another great historical instance of the
   rule mentioned in our text in the case of the Covenants made with the
   literal and the spiritual Israel There was a first Covenant to which
   the Israelites gave their consent soon after they came out of Egypt.
   That was a Covenant of Works and when Moses rehearsed in the ears of
   the people the terms of that Covenant, "All the people answered
   together, and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do." Yet they
   soon forgot their solemn promise. You remember how the Commandments
   were "written with the finger of God" upon "two tablets of testimony,
   tablets of stone." But when the people turned aside to worship the
   golden calf

   which Aaron had made, we read concerning Moses, "it came to pass, as
   soon as he came near unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the
   dancing: and Moses anger 'waxed hot,' and he cast the tablets out of
   his hands, and broke them beneath the mount." In God's great
   long-suffering, the Commandments were given a second time, though
   Moses, and not God, wrote on the second tablets of stone and they were
   put away for safety into the golden ark, above which was placed the
   Mercy Seat of pure gold. This was another symbolical illustration of
   our text--"He takes away the first, that He may establish the second."

   The Law in the hand of Moses is broken that we may have the Law of
   Christ in the heart hidden away under the sacred covering of Divine
   Mercy in the Holy Place of the tabernacle of the Most High. The first
   Covenant of, "Do this, and you shall live," is taken away, that God may
   establish the second, which is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
   you shall be saved." The first Covenant, because it waxed old, has
   passed away. And now God has established a second Covenant, the
   Covenant of Grace--"They shall be My people, and I will be their God:
   and I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me
   forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: and I
   will make an Everlasting Covenant with them, that I will not turn away
   from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts,
   that they shall lot depart from Me."

   Thus I might keep on showing you how, all the way along in history,
   there has been a first, and then there has been a second, as there was
   in the case of the Temple at Jerusalem. Solomon built the first Temple,
   but God permitted that to be taken away that He might establish that
   second Temple into which Christ came, and so made the Glory of the
   latter house to be greater than that of the former one. All history
   seems to me to say, "This is God's usual method of procedure--to give
   the dim twilight first, and then to follow it with the full glory of
   the noontide brightness." We must, therefore, expect that it will be so
   in our time.

   III. But, now, leaving history in general, I come to your own
   individual history, so as to give you SOME INSTANCES IN YOUR OWN
   EXPERIENCE of the working of this rule--"He takes away the first, that
   He may establish the second.'"

   First, this is true of our own righteousness and Christ's. I shall
   speak of myself because, then, I shall be speaking of many of you,
   also. I once thought that I had a very fine righteousness of my own
   and, in looking back upon it, I am not at all sure whether it was not
   about as respectable as the righteousness which the most of my friends
   have possessed. Like the young man who came to our Lord, I could have
   said, concerning the Ten Commandments, "All these things have I kept
   from my youth up: what do I lack?" But I well remember the time when
   God's Holy Spirit began to pull my righteousness away from me. Oh, how
   fiercely I fought to keep it! There was a terrible tugging between my
   pride and my conscience, for even my conscience joined with the Spirit
   of God and the Word of God, in telling me, that though outwardly
   righteous, yet I was inwardly wicked!

   Still, for a long while, I could not understand and believe that I, the
   child of godly parents, who had never fallen asleep from the days of
   infancy without the repetition of the prayer my mother taught me, and
   who had never left my bedroom in the morning without having presented
   the petitions which I had learned as a child--I could not bring myself
   to think that I, who was so regular in attendance at the House of God,
   who read my Bible, who tried to understand theological books and so
   on--could not admit that I had a righteousness which was only like
   filthy rags, fit for nothing but to be burned! I tell you, dear
   Friends, I did not like that ugly truth and I fought very hard against
   it, but I bless God that He took away "the first" righteousness, that
   He might establish "the second." That second--"the righteousness which
   is of God by faith"--the righteousness which is imputed to everyone who
   believes in Jesus--is so much superior to "the first" that I can truly
   say with the Apostle Paul, "What things were gain to me, those I
   counted loss for Christ. Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss
   for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I
   have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that
   I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
   which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the
   righteousness which is of God by faith."

   Is there anybody here who is having his righteousness tugged at as mine
   was? Is that beautiful but flimsy house of your own righteousness
   beginning to tumble around your ears? Did a big brickbat come down just
   now? Was there a slate or two blown off the roof, or did the chimney
   pots begin to fall? Thank God for it! Thank God for it! If you have a
   very fine robe of righteousness, all of your own weaving, I am not
   desirous that you should be unclothed and left naked

   to your shame--but I am anxious that you should be clothed with that
   spotless robe which was woven in Heaven--and I know that you will never
   wear that wondrous garment until your own dirty rags are pulled off!
   Christ never comes and puts His glorious robes over our poor, beggarly,
   leprous rags. No, they must come off before He will clothe us, so He
   takers away "the first" that He may give us "the second." O poor
   Sinner, be wise enough to cry to Him, "Pull off my rags, Lord, if You
   will condescend to touch them. I do not want to keep one of them a
   moment longer." As for you who are so good, respectable and righteous
   in your own esteem, I tell you plainly that those fine robes, of which
   you are so proud, are only rotten rags, whatever you may think of them.
   Off with them! They must come off if you are to be saved, so ask God to
   take them off, now, and to clothe you in that wondrous raiment which
   Christ has prepared for all who trust Him!

   There is another first thing which God has taken away from us, and that
   is, our false peace. There are many of you who used to be perfectly
   happy although you were unsaved. You were full of peace and were not
   disturbed in mind at all. Why should you be? You used to say to
   yourselves, "Well, if it goes ill with me, I am sure it will be worse
   for my neighbors. If I am not all right, there are very few people who
   are." Yes, you said to yourself, "Peace, peace," when there was no
   peace! If, sometimes, your minister preached a sermon that came rather
   too closely home to you and troubled your conscience, you said to
   yourself, "Now, that is the kind of preaching that I do not like. I do
   not think I shall go to hear that man anymore, for, in my opinion,
   people ought not to be made so uncomfortable as I have been made."
   There are some people who would never have been saved if the Holy
   Spirit had not broken down their refuges of lies.

   There is another "first" that people do not like to lose--that is,
   their fancied strength You thought, dear Friend, that you could repent
   and believe in Christ whenever you pleased, and you said to yourself,
   "There is no hurry for me to decide to be a Christian. I can keep on
   attending the means of Grace and one of these days, when it is
   convenient, I will break my own heart, renew my own will, create myself
   a new creature in Christ Jesus." That was your meaning, though,
   possibly, you did not express it quite so plainly. Ah, I remember well
   when I first began to discover my own inability in spiritual things--it
   was a horrible discovery. I wanted to do good, but I found that evil
   was present with me. I longed to repent, but my heart was as hard as a
   stone. I earnestly desired to pray, but I could not pray a believing
   prayer--I could as easily have leaped over the moon as have prayed such
   a prayer by my own unaided efforts! I really wished to believe in
   Christ and though, now, it seems as plain and simple a thing as
   anything can be, yet, at that time, I could no more believe in Christ
   than I could make a new world. Oh, the horror of having one's strength
   all taken away! But what a blessed thing it is to lose all our first
   strength--to be reduced to utter weakness and to be quite incapable of
   any spiritual action, so that Christ says to us, "Without Me you can do
   nothing"--and all this in order that He may establish the second and
   better strength and enable us, each one, to say, "In the Lord have I
   righteousness and strength."

   The Lord Jesus Christ becomes a strength and a power to us when we have
   lost our own, but we shall never get His strength while we have our
   own, for He will never yoke His Omnipotence with our poor pretense of
   power. That cannot be! "He takes away the first." He brings you to a
   swooning state, He brings you to a fainting fit, He brings you to
   death's door, He brings you to the very grave of your own personal
   confidence and strength--and then He comes in and gives you life in
   Himself, and clothes you with power from on high. "He takes away the
   first, that He may establish the second.

   Further on in the Christian life, it often happens that the same rule
   holds good, that the Lord takes away many first things to establish the
   second. After people are converted, it frequently happens that they
   have a great deal too much confidence in their minister, or in some
   Christian friend. At first it is very helpful to their infant footsteps
   to have a little go-cart to which they can hold lest they should tumble
   down, but, after a while, when God means to teach them something for
   themselves, and to make them exercise their own judgments, perhaps He
   takes away that minister, or He takes away from them the pleasure that
   they once had in hearing him. Sometimes, I have known men so much
   depended upon that God has left those good men to themselves for a
   while, that their hearers might see what poor souls they were and so
   might never depend upon them again as they had done in the past.

   Why does the Lord take away that comfortable repose that His poor babes
   enjoy on the breasts of their teachers? Why, in order that they may
   find a better and sweeter repose on His breast! That they may get away
   from all confidence in men and come to full confidence in the Lord,
   their God and Savior. It is often a very hard lesson for some to learn,
   but it must be learned. As the Apostle Paul says, "Henceforth know we
   no man after the flesh: yes, though we have known Christ after the
   flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." There are some who seem
   to know Christ only by the

   teaching of other people, but it is far better to know Him by personal
   contact, by coming close to Him for yourself--and that blessing is
   often not realized except at a great expense of things once highly
   prized. In that sense, also, our text is true. "He takes away the
   first, that He may establish the second."

   So, too, there is an early joy that young Christians have. Oh, how full
   of delight they are! Some of them have a great deal more of flame than
   they have of real fire. Just as when a fire is first kindled, and the
   shavings, and the sticks are burning, there is not half the fire that
   there will be when the coals themselves are all aglow--there is not
   half the fire but there is more blaze and more crackle. So is it with
   many young people--they have no end of a blaze! Oh, they are so happy!
   They cannot tell how happy they are! But, after a while, that
   exuberance of joy goes and the quiet delight in the Lord which comes
   afterwards, instead of it, is much more solid and deep. They can give
   good reasons for their joy and though they are not so full of
   exhilaration as they were, their delight is really firmer, stronger and
   deeper than before. "He takes away the first, that He may establish the
   second."

   I have known many of God's dear people to be very frightened by some of
   their first experiences. They thought they were going to be lost
   because their early joy had departed from them, yet there was no need
   for cherishing such fears. You know that children lose their first
   teeth--it is good that they should do so, because there is a better set
   coming. And, often, it is very much like that with the Christian. He
   has a wisdom tooth to cut that he did not cut in the first stages of
   his spiritual life, and the first milk teeth that he has will have to
   come out, some of them, with many a painful tug. But they will have to
   come out in order that he may grow to a spiritual manhood. "He takes
   away the first, that He may establish the second."

   Oh, how many things you and I still have to gain by losing! How much we
   are to be enriched by our losses! How we are to make progress by going
   backward! How we have yet to mount by sinking! How we have yet to rise
   by descending! Paradoxical as all this may seem, it is to be so,
   according to the rule laid down in our text--"He takes away the first,
   that He may establish the second." There may be a lesson here, not only
   for young converts, but also for you who are experienced Christians.
   This passage may help you to understand some things which, perhaps,
   have seemed dark to you.

   IV. Now I close by giving you some INSTANCES TO BE EXPECTED to which
   the rule of the text will apply. "He takes away the first, that He may
   establish the second."

   Let all who are of the family of Christ remember that God will soon
   take away from us everything that we have here below. He will take us
   away from it, which is the same thing as taking it away from us. But,
   as you anticipate this great change, do not look forward to it with
   sorrow! Do not shed a single tear of regret at the thought of parting
   with anything that you now possess. Regret not the dear old home,
   notwithstanding all its happy associations. Mourn not that you must
   leave your beloved country, of which you say that, wherever you wander,
   it is still the joy of your heart! You will have to leave your native
   land and to leave your happy home--but you may be comforted by the
   assurance of the text, "He takes away the first, that He may establish
   the second," for there is a better country, that is, the heavenly land!
   We, who believe in Jesus, are citizens of the New Jerusalem and, as all
   earthly cities and the fair prospects of the country shall melt away
   from our eyes, we shall look upon a fairer land and a more glorious
   city, where no fog or blight shall ever come, but where--

   "Rocks and hills, and brooks and vales,

   With milk and honey flow.

   All over those wide extended plains,

   Shines one eternal day.

   There God the Sun forever reigns,

   And scatters night away.

   No chilling winds, or poisonous breath,

   Can reach that healthful shore--

   Sickness and sorrow, pain and death,

   Are felt and feared no more."

   God will take away our home on earth, but in our Father's House above
   there are many mansions. Therefore you may go, cheerful fireside! You
   may go, happy home! All that was loved, all that was delighted in may
   melt away, as I sing--

   "My Father's House on high,

   Home of my soul! How near,

   At times, to faith's foreseeing eyes, Your golden gates appear!"

   If Moses, from the top of Pisgah, was glad to die with the earthly
   Canaan in sight, how much more may we be happy to die with the heavenly
   Canaan just before us, into which we are to enter! "He takes away the
   first, that He may establish the second."

   The Lord has been taking away from some of you considerable portions of
   your family. Some dear children, who were once nestling at your breast,
   are now with Him in Glory. Father has also gone, and mother. Husband or
   wife, brother or sister--some of these dear ones are gone Home. The
   members of your family have nearly all gone, now, and you are left
   alone. You begin to count the friends of your youth upon your fingers.
   God is evidently taking away "the first." But do not forget how
   blessedly He is establishing the second! When you enter Heaven, you
   will be no stranger inside those pearly gates. There will be many there
   whom you knew and loved on earth, whom you will know and love above.
   They will meet you at the gates and they will joy and rejoice with you
   before the great Father's Throne.

   "Alas," says one, "I have lost all my family, and I am left alone and
   desolate." But if you are a child of God, remember what the Apostle
   once wrote, "I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
   of whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named." Though God has
   taken away that first family, He has established that second and far
   more numerous, and more glorious one! "Go, set the solitary in
   families." That is what He has done for you--He has taken away your
   first family connections, your first bonds of brotherhood and
   sisterhood, in order that He may establish the second higher
   relationships! He has dissolved the ties of blood that you may find
   better spiritual relationships among such as Jesus spoke of when He
   said, "Whoever shall do the will of My Father which is in Heaven, the
   same is My brother, and sister and mother." Even so we say of the
   saints on earth, and the saints before the Throne of God in Heaven,
   "These are sister, and brother, and father, and mother to us." "He
   takes away the first, that He may establish the second."

   And, Brothers and Sisters, this poor body of ours, which is so full of
   aches and pains at times, will be taken away to make room for a more
   glorious one! This one is getting worn-out--some parts of it have
   already fallen away. It is like an old lath-and-plaster building and
   cannot last much longer! It very seldom stands to the end of the 99
   years' lease, but it soon crumbles away and, by-and-by, with all of us,
   the old house will fall to pieces and be done with. Shall we fret over
   it? Shall our soul cry, concerning the body, "Alas, my sister! Alas, my
   brother?" No! "He takes away the first, that He may establish the
   second" and as we have, in this body of our humiliation, borne the
   image of the earthy, we shall, in the second condition of this body,
   bear the image of the heavenly!

   It shall be sown in dishonor, but it shall be raised in glory! It shall
   be sown in weakness, but it shall be raised in power! It shall be sown
   a natural body, but it shall be raised a spiritual body! "He takes away
   the first, that He may establish the second." And, oh, what a glorious
   second that will be! Our resurrection body will know no pain, no
   weariness, no weakness, no taint of disease or sin, no possibility of
   corruption or death. Well may we sing--

   "Oglorious hour! O blest abode!" when this poor body shall be made like
   unto the glorious body of Christ Jesus our Savior. "He takes away the
   first, that He may establish the second." Let the first go, then,
   without a murmur or a sigh!

   Once more, this earth shall be taken away to make room for the new one.
   In a little while there shall be heard the blast of the archangel's
   trumpet. I know not when or how the various closing events will happen,
   so as to put them together in chronological order, but I do know that
   at God's bidding, this fair earth shall suddenly be wrapped in flames.
   It is a beautiful world, say what you will about it. In many other
   parts besides Ceylon--

   "Every prospect pleases, And only man is vile."

   Wherever man squats down and raises up his long ranges of bricks and
   mortar, there everything is ugly. But out yonder, in God's forests, and
   on God's hills, and by God's sea, everything is fair, and grand, and
   Godlike, as if God Himself might come and sojourn there and not be
   ashamed of the world He has made, for it is still good. But in a
   moment, it will be wrapped in flames and it will be utterly consumed.
   Nothing of this present creation shall abide in its present condition!

   The Apostle Peter says, "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." Yet weep not, Beloved, neither
   lament, for Peter also says, "Nevertheless we, according to His
   promise, look

   for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness." "He
   takes away the first, that He may establish the second" and, on a
   brighter morning than your eyes have ever seen, you shall wake up and
   see the new heavens and the new earth! And you, with all the spirits of
   just men made perfect, shall come there to sing sweeter songs than the
   morning stars chanted when the world was first created! There will be a
   second creation, a second world, for the Lord will have taken away the
   first, but He will have established the second! The work of destruction
   will have been accomplished, but the work of re-creation will also have
   been finished and, oh, what joy and bliss it will be for the redeemed
   from among men, and for the holy angels, too, when the New Jerusalem
   shall come down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for
   her husband, and the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He shall
   dwell among them! "He takes away the first, that He may establish the
   second.

   I close by saying that it is my earnest prayer that some of you may, by
   God's Grace, have, your "first" taken away from you this very hour,
   that you may have "the second" given to you. Salvation lies not in "the
   first." That is all ruin and woe--the trail of the serpent is over it
   all. You will never go to Heaven if you remain in the same nature as
   you had when you were born. You must be born a second time! Or else, if
   there is not a second birth, you will have to endure the second death.

   God give you the Grace to believe in Jesus and to find in Him that
   second, higher, better life that you may enter into the second and
   perfect world, for then you will give Him all the praise forever and
   ever! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Examination Before Communion

   (No. 2699)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 2, 1881.

   "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and
   drink of that cup." 1 Corinthians 11:28.

   IT can never be too clearly understood that spiritual ordinances are
   only for spiritual persons. Baptism and the Lord's Supper belong to
   Believers and to none but Believers. It is an evil thing for any church
   to give either the one or the other of those two ordinances to those
   who are destitute of "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord
   Jesus Christ." There would have been no necessity for Paul to say, "Let
   a man examine himself," if the Lord's Table were free to all. If every
   man might come to it, then every man might come simply because he was a
   man, and he would have no occasion to examine himself at all. The very
   fact that there is an examination, presupposes that there are some
   persons who have no right to "eat of that bread, and drink of that
   cup." And our own personal examination is in order that we may discover
   whether we have a right to participate in this ordinance or not.
   Therefore, let every man clearly understand that the Lord's Table is
   for the Lord's people. As in a man's house, his table is for his
   family, so, in God's House, His Table is for His family, and if we do
   not belong to the family of God, we have no right to draw near to His
   Table at all!

   I fear that there are some unconverted people who imagine that they
   have performed a meritorious action when, on certain days in the year,
   they have, as they say, "taken the sacrament." But, my Friend, if your
   heart is not right with God, you were a thief and a robber when you
   came to His Table and took what He provided for His children alone! You
   did not come in by the Door, that is, Christ, but you climbed up some
   other way, and you were really sinning against God in that very act
   which you supposed to have some merit in it! Unless you believe in the
   Lord Jesus Christ. Unless you have been born again by the effectual
   operation of the Holy Spirit. Unless you truly belong to the household
   of faith, as you have no part in the spiritual mystery, so you have no
   right to the outward and visible sign by which that mystery is set
   forth. All this is implied in our text, "Let a man examine himself, and
   so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup."

   The ordinance of the Lord's Supper is not meant for the conversion of
   sinners. It is not intended to lead men to salvation, but it is
   intended for those who are already saved, those who are converted. I
   have heard of unconverted persons coming to the Lord's Table and the
   solemn impressions experienced there have led them to repentance and
   faith in Christ. We must always remember that God works how He pleases
   and, in such cases as those, He overlooked the communicants' great
   mistake and even in the midst of their error He worked according to the
   Sovereignty of His Divine Grace. Yet this is no excuse for ungodly
   persons venturing to come to the Communion Table, for they will be
   eating and drinking condemnation to themselves! And if it should please
   God to forgive the transgression and to save their souls, this will be
   an exception, and a surprising work of Grace, for it is not according
   to the Law of the Master's House. If any of you think that by being
   baptized and coming to the Lord's Table, you will thereby be saved, you
   "err, not knowing the Scriptures." You have no right to either
   ordinance till you have first come to Christ and are saved. But when
   you have passed from death unto life, when you have been washed in the
   Savior's precious blood, then is your time to come forward and, by
   being buried with Christ in Baptism, acknowledge your conversion and,
   by sitting with your fellow Believers at His Table and meditating upon
   His wondrous Sacrifice, of which the bread and the wine are the
   significant symbols, feed the spiritual life that God has imparted to
   you.

   Having given you this plain warning, I now come to my text, which
   teaches us, first, the objective of the examination commanded in
   it--"Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and
   drink of that cup." Secondly, it points out to us the matter of that
   examination. And, thirdly, the duty that follows after the
   examination--"Let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup."

   I. First, our text teaches us THE OBJECTIVE OF THE EXAMINATION
   COMMANDED IN IT--"Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that
   bread, and drink of that cup."

   The distinct objective of the examination is that the communicant may
   eat and drink at the Lord's Table. In some churches, there is a
   practice which is called, "fencing the tables," defending the Table of
   the Lord against the approach of improper characters. This is a very
   right and necessary thing to do, but some ministers have so guarded the
   table that very few have dared to come to it--and those who have come
   have often been persons who had more conceit than Grace, while the
   better part--the truly humble and broken-hearted ones--have been
   frightened away! It would appear, from the exhortations of these
   ministers, as if Paul must have said, "Let a man examine himself, but
   never let him eat of this bread, nor drink of this cup. Let him so
   examine himself that he shall come to the conclusion that he has no
   right to sit at the Table of the Lord and, therefore, shall go his way
   feeling that he is utterly unworthy of that high privilege." Beloved
   Friends, this is not my objective in preaching from this text, nor
   should it be yours in obeying it. Examine yourselves with the hope and
   the strong desire that you may be permitted to come to the Lord's
   Table. Do not let the examination take so morbid and melancholy a form
   that you almost look out for causes of self-suspicion, but the rather,
   especially as many of you have known the Lord for years, let your
   examination be made in order that you may come aright to the table,
   that you may come there in a right spirit, and not that you may be
   compelled to stay away. "Let a man examine himself," and then, in the
   spirit of self-examination, let him eat of this bread, and drink of
   this cup.

   Distinctly remember that the qualification for a place at the Lord's
   Table is notperfect sanctification. If it were, I am afraid that there
   would not be a soul here so qualified. And if there should be one who
   declared that he had attained to such a state, I should expect that he
   would prove to be the biggest hypocrite in the place! Recollect, also,
   that the qualification for coming to the Lord's Table is not the full
   assurance of faith. There might be some genuine believers in Christ who
   would not be able to commune if that were the qualification, but,
   happily, it is not. The least grain of true faith in Christ qualifies
   you! You are not to examine to see whether it is full noontide with
   your soul--have you even a little twilight? Have you been quickened
   into new life so much as to have a holy hunger and thirst for more of
   the Christ who is already yours? If so, you may come to His Table. Do
   not arrange the examination in such a way as to exclude yourselves
   unnecessarily. I will not, if I can help it, put it in such a style as
   to exclude one of you who ought to be admitted. On the contrary, my
   soul longs that the whole of you might truly feel and say, "Yes, we do
   love the Lord, and we are anxious to come and obey His command, and
   thus show His death in remembrance of Him."

   Well, that is the first great objective of this examination--not that
   you may be made to stay away, but that you may come, if you are really
   entitled to sit at the Table of your Lord!

   Note, next, that another objective of this examination is that every
   man may know that the responsibility of his coming to the Lord's Table
   rests wholly with himself ' 'Let a man examine himself, and so let him
   come." Not, "Let a man go to his minister and be examined." Or, "Let
   him go to his priest and make confession." No, no! "Let a man examine
   himself, and so let him eat." I can give no man a certificate which
   really entitles him to come to the Communion Table. In my office as
   pastor, it is my privilege to receive members into this Church. But, by
   so doing, we never mean to imply that we thereby certify that they are
   really converted. That is a matter which must rest with each man and
   his judgment of himself, if he is a wise man, will not be the opinion
   of his minister, but the verdict of his own conscience in the sight of
   God. Come to this Communion Table, Brothers and Sisters, as
   individuals! Come, each one, feeling, "I alone am responsible to God
   for what I am about to do. Taking the Word of God as my guide, I judge
   myself to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, I am
   about to sit at this table."

   I think that of all abominations, the idea of sponsors, either in
   Baptism or the Lord's Supper, is the most detestable. No man can be a
   sponsor for another! Everyone of you must individually stand before God
   and no godfathers or godmothers can, without telling a lie, promise for
   you that you shall keep God's holy Commandments, and walk in the same
   all the days of your life. It is not in their power, neither is it in
   the power of any minister to give you the right to come to the Lord's
   Table or to the other Christian ordinance--"Let a man examine himself."
   Take the responsibility upon your-

   self, each one of you, for so the Apostle puts it, and this will help
   you to come aright to the Table of the Lord. You are bidden to examine
   yourself, in order that you may come under an overwhelming sense that
   it is your own act and deed-- that you are not here because your mother
   came or your father came--that you are nothere because you are entitled
   to come by virtue of your church membership, but you are here, each
   woman, each man, each one of you, for himself or herself, having
   searched your own heart and asked God to search it, to see whether you
   ought to come, or not!

   In the next place, the objective of this examination is that everyone
   may come to the Lord's Table most solemnly-- not flippantly,
   thoughtlessly, heedlessly--but that each communicant may say, "I am
   going to eat of that bread and drink of that cup in resemblance of my
   dear Lord whom I really know and trust. There is no mockery or mere
   formality in this act. I come in downright earnest, bringing my heart
   with me, for I have looked into my heart, I have examined myself, and I
   take upon myself the responsibility of saying, 'Lord, You know all
   things. You know that I love You.'" So this examination means that you
   are to come to the Lord's Table with deep solemnity.

   And, surely, it also means that every communicant must come most
   humbly, for the result of any true examination of ourselves mush be
   deep humiliation of spirit. As for myself, I must confess that I am not
   what I want to be, and I am not what I ought to be. I can only come to
   the table declaring myself to be an unworthy one in whom the Grace of
   God is indeed magnified. That He should ever have put me among His
   children and permitted me to call Him, my Father, will be a wonder to
   me throughout eternity! See, then, the blessed result of this
   self-examination when it lays you low at the foot of the Cross, and
   makes you come to the Lord's Table, not boasting, "I have a right to be
   here," but humbly and gratefully saying, "I do indeed adore the Grace
   of God which has made it possible that such an one as I am should be
   allowed to sit down with the family of God at His banqueting table of
   love."

   Another result of the examination which is aimed at is that we may come
   to the Lord's Supper intelligently, knowing why we come and what reason
   we have to come, and on what footing we come. Examining yourself you
   will discover your soul-hunger and learn that you come to be fed.
   Examining yourself, you will discover spiritual life and understand
   that you come that it may be nourished by your meditation upon the
   Person of your Lord. You know, in holy ordinances, almost everything
   depends upon the right understanding of them. There is no efficacy in
   water, whether it is applied by immersion or by aspersion--the value of
   the ordinance depends upon the conviction which the man has when he is
   baptized--that it is the will of his Lord that he should thus confess
   his faith. There is nothing efficacious in that bread or that wine. The
   bread has no more virtue in it than there is in any other bread which
   the baker ever made. The wine is, in itself, no more a means of Grace
   than any other wine that ever was pressed out from the vintage. It is
   the thought that shall be excited by that bread and that wine that will
   be the benefit--it is the mind seeing through the visible sign that
   which is inwardly signified. Hence it is that our Lord calls us to this
   self-examination, that our intellect may be stirred and our mind may be
   prepared, under the influence of the Divine Spirit, to understand the
   meaning of that which He puts upon the table for us to feed upon.

   And, just once more, this examination is intended that we may come to
   the table with an appreciative joy. Let me explain that rather long
   word. You know if you come to the Communion Table saying, "I do not
   know whether I have a right to be here," you cannot enjoy yourself. If
   I were sitting at a man's table, and I said to myself, "I am afraid I
   have made a mistake. I do not believe he ever invited me," I should
   feel very uncomfortable while I was there, and I should be wonderfully
   glad when the dinner was over. But if, as I sat at the table, I said,
   "I know the gentleman invited me. I have his invitation with me and he
   is smiling upon me, for he is glad that I am here." That is how I like
   to feel at the Lord's Table--to know, after examination, that I am in
   my right place. Then I soon forget all about my right to be there and
   all I think of is that which is on the Table, and about my Lord who has
   invited me, and how I can enjoy the sweetest communion with Him, and
   partake of the dainties which He has put before me.

   I want you, Brothers and Sisters, to examine yourselves till you come
   to this conclusion, "We are not perfect, but we believe in Jesus. We
   are not yet fully assured, but we have a humble hope in Him. We are not
   the strongest of His warriors, but we have His life in us--we do know
   Him, and trust Him." Then you will feel, "The Good Shepherd feeds the
   lambs as well as the full-grown sheep of His flock, so we may come to
   Him for all we need." Then you will have nothing to think about as to
   yourself, but all you will have to do will be to say, "My Lord here
   gives me His flesh to eat, and His blood to drink, after a spiritual
   fashion. In these outward types, I will now feed upon Him. The fact
   that God took our nature upon Himself shall be as food to my soul. The
   equally blessed fact that being found in fashion as a Man, He took

   my sins upon Himself and suffered in my place shall be like generous
   wine to me. I will drink it down! I will feed upon it! I will live by
   it!" Then you will have joy and gladness in your soul and this supper
   will be what it really is--no funeral feast, but a banquet of delight
   for all the friends of Christ! "Let a man examine himself with the view
   that he may so eat and so drink when he comes to the Table of the Lord.

   II. Now, very briefly, I must dwell upon the second point which is
   this--THE MATTER OF THE EXAMINATION. "Let a man examine himself."
   Listen, Brothers and Sisters, while I ask you a few questions which
   will help you to examine yourselves.

   First, then, here is a spiritual feast. Am I spiritually alive to
   partake of it? Dead men have no right to come to a banquet. Am I, then,
   spiritually alive? Have I ever been quickened and renewed in heart and
   life? Has the Holy Spirit brought me into the spiritual world? If so,
   have I an appetite for this sacred feast? Do I hunger after Christ? Do
   I long for the Water of Life? Then I may come to this table, for here
   my Lord supplies the needs of those who are the living in Zion. The
   dead cannot feed on the richest dainties--corpses can neither eat nor
   drink. And dead sinners may not come to this festival for the living.
   But, if there is even a spark of spiritual life in you, though you are
   faint and sick, come along, for you have a right to come!

   The next question is--Here is a feast, but am I a friend of the Lord
   who is the Host at this table? The Lord Jesus invites all His friends
   to come to His banquets. Am I, then, His friend? And is He mine? Have I
   ever taken Him to be my Savior and am I trusting in His precious blood
   for my salvation? And then, in return, do I love Him and love His
   cause, and love His people? Do I commune with Him as friend communes
   with friend? Do I talk familiarly with Him? Am I on intimate terms with
   Him? Does He know me, and do I truly know Him? If so, I need not be
   afraid to come to His Table, for every friend of His is welcome there.
   Ask yourself these three questions. Am I alive? Have I a spiritual
   appetite? Is Christ my friend?

   Next, this feast is meant to set forth the death of Christ. That fact
   suggests another question. Do I really believe in His death? Of course,
   I believe that He died, but do I really, myself, trust Christ's death
   to save me? Do I believe that by His dying, He offered to God such an
   Atonement for the sins of men that whoever believes in Him is justified
   from all things? And have I, by faith, appropriated to myself His
   Atonement so that I am thereby justified in the sight of God? If so, I
   may come to His Table, for I am only doing, then, in outward sign, what
   I am really also doing in my inward spirit.

   Further, our Lord Jesus bids us "do this" in union with all His people.
   That suggests the question--Am I one of His people, and one with them?
   Do I really love them? The Apostle Paul says, "We being many are one
   bread"--"one loaf--and "one body." Is our union as close as this? I
   think, Brothers and Sisters, that if you have any malice or ill-will
   towards any of your fellow Christians, or towards anyone else, you
   ought not to come to the Lord's Table while you are in that condition
   of heart. You remember that Christ said, "If you bring your gift to the
   altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you;
   leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way; first be
   reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."

   The same rule applies to those who would be guests at this sacred
   feast. It is a hard thing for men to sit at the same table and all the
   while to be, as it were, eating one another's hearts out. No, no--there
   must be true love among the brotherhood--and if I have not love to all
   the people of God, I have no right to come to the Table of the Lord.
   Once more, this cup is the New Covenant in Christ's blood. That Truth
   of God leads me to ask another question--Am I in covenant with God in
   Christ Jesus? Have I accepted the Covenant of Grace? Have I yielded
   myself up to God by bringing to the great Father the Sacrifice of
   Christ which is the seal and ratification of the Covenant? Do I regard
   myself, at this moment, as one of the covenanted ones to whom the
   promises of God belongs? If so, I may certainly drink of the cup of the
   Covenant!

   Moreover, Jesus bids us observe this ordinance in remembrance of Him.
   Now, a man cannot remember what he never knew. Here, then, is another
   question--Do I know Christ? Have I ever seen Him with the eye of faith?
   Did I ever behold Him hanging on the tree and feel the burden of sin
   roll off my shoulders as I witnessed His amazing sufferings? In a word,
   do I really know Christ? Do I speak with Him in prayer? Do I commune
   with Him and tell Him my griefs and sorrows? Or, am I a stranger to
   Him? A stranger to Christ may not eat of this feast, but he who is
   acquainted with the great Lord who sits at the head of the Table may
   freely come and eat and drink that which is set before him.

   These are some very plain and simple questions which I beg you to put
   to yourselves. And if you do not know Christ, if you do not love Him,
   if you do not love His people, if you are not trusting in His blood, if
   you have never been born again, if you have nothing of the Grace of God
   in you, get far away from His Table, I pray you, for you would only be
   eating and drinking condemnation to yourselves if you partook of the
   emblems of Christ's broken body and shed blood! But if you have the
   least evidence of a work of Grace within your soul. If you have the
   feeblest faith--as long as it is true faith--if you are really resting
   in Jesus for salvation, come and welcome to His Table--

   "How happy are Your servants, Lord,

   Who thus remember You!"

   III. This brings me to the third head, which is THE DUTY AFTER THE
   EXAMINATION--"Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that
   bread, and drink of that cup."

   If you can satisfactorily answer all the questions I have given you, it
   is your duty to come to the Table of your Lord and to eat of the bread
   and drink of the cup! I know some professing Christians--I hope they
   are really Christians, it is not my place to judge them--but the
   commands of Christ seem to be very trifling and inconsiderable things
   with them. What would you think of anyone who said that he was a
   disciple of a certain teacher, but he did not care to observe his
   teacher's commands? Why, you would say that he was trifling with his
   master! Now, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke thus plainly concerning one of
   the two ordinances which He instituted--"He that believes and is
   baptized shall be saved." Yet we have met with a number of His
   professed followers who say, "Well, that Baptism is not a saving
   ordinance." Who said that it was? Would you attend to it if it were?
   Then, if you only mean to do what will pay you, your obedience will be
   selfish and of small value! Are you really a disciple of Christ? It
   should be the delight of a disciple to do what his Master bids him,
   whether there is any visible benefit to him in it, or not. It is not
   for you or me, Beloved, to question or quibble at anything which our
   Lord has commanded, but promptly to obey it.

   Another person says, "Well, I never come to the Communion Table, but I
   am just as good as those people who do." My dear Friend, I will not
   quarrel with you about your own goodness, but I generally find that
   those who think that they are good are not as good as they think they
   are. However, if the Lord Jesus Christ has given you this plain
   command, "This do in remembrance of Me," I ask you, believing it to be
   commanded by Christ, how can you call yourself His servant when you
   refuse to do what He bids you? I am not putting the question too
   strongly. You know that I have no faith in the saving power of
   ordinances. Do I not, as clearly as I can speak, constantly warn you
   against that error? Still, if it were only the picking up of a straw,
   and if Christ had commanded it, I do not see how a man could be sure
   that he was the servant of Christ if he did not pick up that straw when
   his Master told him to do it! The less the thing is in itself, the more
   does it become the test of our obedience. If these ordinances were
   essential to salvation, then everybody would observe them with the view
   of being saved by them, but, inasmuch as they do not save, and were
   never meant to save, but are, in fact, only the privileges of those who
   are saved, the observance of them becomes a test of a man's true
   discipleship, for it makes it clear whether he will obey Christ or not.

   "Well," says one, "I have examined myself and I do not feel that I have
   a right to come to the Lord's Table." Then, do not come, my Friend, as
   you are. Still, it is your duty to get into such a state that when you
   again examine yourself, you shall be able to say, "Now I have a right
   to come," for, if you have not a right to come to the Lord's Table,
   then you have no right to enter Heaven! If you are not fit to commune
   with the saints on earth, you certainly are not fit to commune with the
   saints above! So look to that matter at once, I pray you. And look to
   it very carefully.

   After examination, it appears from the text that it is the duty of
   every man who has examined himself to eat of the breadand drink of the
   cup. I t is very noteworthy that the Holy Spirit should have moved the
   mind of Paul to put it in this shape--"let him eat of that bread, and
   drink of that cup." Especially observe that he mentions the cup. "No,"
   says the Roman Catholic priest, "it is not for you. When I go up to the
   altar, as a priest, I drink the wine in that cup. It is not for you,
   you must not meddle with it. The cup does not belong to the laity."

   What shall I say to such a man? With what burning words shall I express
   the indignation that I feel against the apostate church that dares to
   withhold what Christ has so freely given? "There," says He to His
   disciples, "all of you drink of that cup"--but in comes a man who
   pretends to be a priest, and he says, "You shall not touch it." By that
   mark, as by many more, can the beast and the antichrist still be
   discovered this day, even as of old! Still does the cry ring out from
   Heaven, "Come out of her, My people, that you be not partakers of her
   sins, and that you receive not of her plagues," for

   plagues must come upon the arrogant priesthood that dares to take away
   from God's people that which Christ puts on His Table, and of which He
   says, "Drink you all of it."

   It is your duty, as Christians, to see to it that you eat of this
   bread, and drink of this cup, after you have examined yourselves and
   proved that you are really on the Lord's side!

   I will not prolong this exhortation further than to remind you that it
   is not only our duty to eat and drink, but "so to eat and drink as to
   discern the Lord's body. "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat
   of that bread, and drink of that cup." "So." That is one of the biggest
   little words in the English language! You remember one text where it is
   very big--"God so loved the world"--measure that word if you can--"God
   so l oved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
   believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Here, in
   our text, is another instance in which the word, "so," is very big,
   indeed. After examination of himself, a man is "so" to eat--in the
   spirit which that examination produces, which I have shown you is one
   of solemnity, humiliation and earnest delight in Christ--"so let him
   eat," so as to discern the Lord's body, which means just this. I take
   that bread, and I say, "This represents to me the great Truth of God
   that God was made flesh, and dwelt among us and that, today, He is one
   with men as well as one with God. I eat that bread and I feed
   spiritually on that Truth."

   Then I take the cup and I say, "This cup represents to me the blood of
   Christ, and I see in this cup the symbol that He died, 'the Just for
   the unjust,' to bring me to God. I take this wine to represent the
   blood of His Atonement, the great fact that He died as my Substitute.
   And as I drink the wine and it goes into my inward parts, I take the
   precious Truth of Substitution--Christ dying instead of me--and I put
   it into my very soul to nourish, to cherish and to delight me."

   Now that is the way to discern the Lord's body and that is the way,
   "so," to eat of that bread, and to drink of that cup, as to be
   spiritually profited! May God, the Holy Spirit, help you to enter into
   the spirit of the ordinance, and to observe it as Christ ordained it,
   for His dear name's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW26:17-39; 1 CORINTHIANS11:20-34.

   Matthew 26:17, 18. Now on the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened
   Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto Him, Where do You want
   us to prepare for You to eat the Passover? And He said, Go into the
   city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master says, My time is at
   hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My discip1es. See
   here the blending of Christ's humiliation and His Godhead. The Master
   had no room of His own in which He could keep the Passover. He had not
   even where to lay His head, yet such was His power that He had only to
   send messengers to one whom He knew, though perhaps the man did not
   know Him--and as soon as ever the message was delivered, the large
   upper room, furnished and prepared, was at once freely tendered for the
   celebration of the supper! Jesus Christ, even in His lowest estate, had
   the hearts of all men beneath His control.

   19-21. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made
   ready the Passover Now when the evening had come, He sat down with the
   twelve. And as they did eat, He said, Verily I say unto you, that one
   of you shall betray Me. This was a very unpleasant thought to bring
   into the midst of those who were gathered there for the memorial feast,
   yet it was most suitable for such a message to be spoken at the
   Passover, for at its institution, the Lord said to Moses, "With bitter
   herbs they shall eat it." And here was something bitter enough. I hope
   we shall have our Master's Presence at the Communion Table, yet it will
   be well for our joy to be sobered with such a painful thought as
   this--there may be a traitor with us even here.

   22. And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and began, each one of them,
   to say unto Him, Lord, is it I? The habit of self-suspicion, rather
   than suspecting somebody else, is a good one. If there is anyone in
   this place who is going to commit a gross sin, why may it not be
   myself? The natural tendency of each one of us is to say, "I shall
   never do such a thing as that, I am sure." Ah, me, if Grace were truly
   reigning in our heart, we would, each one, be suspicious of himself and
   not of others, and the question of each one would be, "Lord, is it I?"
   Not one of the Apostles asked, "Lord, is it Judas?" or, "Is it
   So-and-So?" But everyone of them began to say to Him, "Lord, is it I?"

   23, 24. And He answered and said, He that dips his hand with Me in the
   dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of
   Him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It had
   been good for that

   man if he had not been born. Remember, this "woe" applies not only to
   Judas Iscariot, but to anyone else who betrays Christ. Oh, if, under
   the pressure of persecution, or if being bribed by some present
   pleasure, or if through our own natural fickleness we should betray our
   Master, woe unto us! May the Lord, by His almighty Grace, keep us from
   committing such a sin as that! If we do betray our Lord, it would have
   been better for us that we had not been born.

   25, 26. Then Judas, which betrayed Him, answered and said, Master, is
   it I? He said unto him, You have said it. And as they were eating.
   While yet the paschal supper was proceeding. "As they were eating"--

   26. Jesus took bread, and blessed it. Or, as the marginal reading says,
   "gave thanks for it"--

   26. And broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat;
   this is My body. That is to say, "This represents My body." Our Lord
   could not possibly have meant that the bread was His body, for there
   was His body sitting whole and entire at the table--and they would have
   been astonished beyond measure if they had understood Him literally!
   But they did not do so, for they were well used too the Oriental custom
   of leaving out the word for, "like," and just saying, "It is
   so-and-so." Besides, Christ had also said, "I am the Door," "I am the
   Way," "I am the Good Shepherd." And there is also that striking
   sentence, "I am the Rose of Sharon." No idiot ever understood these
   passages literally! And those are more foolish than idiots who render
   literally these words--"This is My body." They are wickedly, wantonly
   and willfully foolish in thus misrepresenting our Savior's meaning!

   27. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
   Drink you all of it. That is, "Drink from it, everyone of you." Was
   this the institution of the Lord's Supper? Yes, but what do the
   Romanists say? Why, that the people may not drink of the cup and so
   they keep it away from them! But our Savior says to this representative
   company of all His disciples, "Drink you all of it."

   28. 29. For this is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for
   many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you. I will not drink of
   this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in
   My Father's Kingdom. "In that joyous day, that day of days when the
   battle will have been fought, and the victory won forever--then will I
   pledge you in My Father's Kingdom, and keep the feast with you forever!

   30. And when they had sung an hymn, they went out to the Mount of
   Olives. Oh, how brave it was on the Master's part to sing a Psalm just
   before He went out to be betrayed and to be crucified! Our second
   reading is also concerning the Lord's Supper. Turn to the first Epistle
   to the Corinthians, Chapter 11, verse 20. The Corinthian church, as I
   have often explained to you, was one that had no pastor. They had what
   is called "open" worship--everybody speaking who pleased, and there
   being no kind of government or discipline. They fell into every sort of
   conceivable disorder, and even the ordinance of the Lord's Supper was
   utterly degraded among them. Here is what Paul wrote to them.

   1 Corinthians 11:20, 21. When you come together in one place, it is not
   to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating, everyone takes his own supper
   before others, and one is hungry, and another is drunken. They had such
   low notions of the communion that they seemed to think that if they ate
   together, each one bringing his own provision, they would be
   celebrating the Lord's Supper! But Paul would not agree to that. What
   did he say?

   22. What? Have you not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise you
   the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to
   you?Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. They may not have
   meant to do so ill, but they had fallen into all sorts of disorder and
   Paul, therefore, first rebuked them, and then explained to them the
   right observance of the ordinance.

   23-27. For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered
   unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed,
   took bread: and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take,
   eat: this is My body which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of
   Me. After the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying,
   This cup is the new covenant in My blood; this do you, as oft asyou
   drink it, in remembrance ofMe. For as often as you eat this bread, and
   drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore
   whoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord,
   unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Note
   carefully the wording of this verse; it is not, "Whoever, being
   unworthy, shall eat and drink." It is not an adjective, it is an adverb
   and relates, not so much to the person, as to the way in which he came
   to the communion. Those who came to the Lord's Table in a half-drunken
   fashion. Those who regarded it merely as a common meal. Those who came
   there under false pretences. Those who came there not thinking of
   Christ's body at all--they would all be guilty of not discerning the
   Lord's body, and so of prostituting His ordinance, robbing it of its
   dignity and solemnity by coming there in such a condition.

   28, 29. But let a man examine himself, andso let him eat of that bread,
   and drink of that cup. For he that eats and drinks unworthily. We are
   all unworthy to come to the Table of our Lord. Who among us can
   possibly be thought to be worthy to come to such a feast as this? But
   the Apostle is writing concerning those who came there carelessly, or
   without thought, or with a wrong motive. Years ago, you know, nobody
   could hold certain government or municipal offices without taking what
   was called "the sacrament." That was making the Lord's Supper a
   picklock to office! That was, indeed, to eat and drink it unworthily!
   Such, also, as come merely for the sake of getting alms, or out of
   custom or formality, but leave their hearts behind them, eat and drink
   unworthily and shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord"--as
   guilty as they were who actually crucified the Savior. "For he that
   eats and drinks unworthily."

   29. Eats and drinks "condemnation" to himself For that is how the Word
   of God should be rendered. 29, 30. Not discerning the Lord's body. For
   this cause many are weak and sickly among you, andmany sleep. God

   is always carrying out a system of discipline in His Church. To a large
   extent, He lets the world, for the present, sin as it pleases, but in
   His own family He uses the rod. And when the Lord's Supper is
   dishonored, there is no doubt that the sickness and sleep here
   mentioned will follow. "For this cause many are weak and sickly among
   you, and many sleep." Many even die--not that they are lost--not that
   this sickness is sent as a curse, but as fatherly chastisement. And the
   death of many of its members is often a chastisement to the church
   which is thus weakened by losing its best helpers.

   31-34. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But
   when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be
   condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come
   together to eat: tarry one for another And if any man is hungry, let
   him eat at home; thatyou come not together unto condemnation. And the
   rest will I set in order when I come.
     __________________________________________________________________

Growth in Grace

   (No. 2700)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, IN THE
   AUTUMN OF 1858.

   "But grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
   Christ." 2 Peter 3:18.

   IT is worth while to remark that this passage immediately follows the
   17th verse, where the Apostle says, "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." He puts the one
   after the other, as if the one must be the means of the other. There
   had been some, in the Apostle's day, who had twisted, to their own
   destruction, certain expressions in the Epistles of Paul which Peter
   said were "hard to be understood." And, therefore, he warned Christian
   men and women to take heed lest they, "being led away with the error of
   the wicked," should "fall from their own steadfastness."

   In order that they might know how to stand and to be preserved from
   falling, he gave them this direction--"grow in Grace," for the way to
   stand is to grow. The way to be steadfast is to go forward. There is no
   standing except by progression. If you see even such a simple thing as
   a child's top rolling along your floor at home, you will observe that
   it will always stand upright as long as it keeps on rolling--but when
   it stops, down it goes! So is it with the Christian--as long as he is
   in motion, he stands--but if it were possible for the motion to cease,
   then the Christian would fall from his steadfastness. Glory be to God,
   he will be kept from falling, and he shall be presented faultless
   before the Throne of God! The way to stand, then, is to go forward. The
   way to be steadfast is to progress. The way to be alive, according to
   the Apostle, is to "grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and
   Savior Jesus Christ."

   We will offer, first of all, two or three remarks upon growth "in
   Grace" in general And, secondly, a few remarks upon growth in Grace
   being intimately connected with growth "in the knowledge of our Lord
   and Savior Jesus Christ. "

   I. First, then, we shall offer some remarks upon GROWTH "IN GRACE" IN
   GENERAL. What shall we say about

   it?

   The first remark we make is that there is a sense in which there is no
   such thing at all as growth in Grace. If you understand the word,
   Grace, as signifying free favor and the love of God towards His people,
   there is not, and there cannot be any growth in that at all--

   "The moment a sinner believes, And trusts in his crucified God"--

   he is, by the Grace of God, then and there justified and complete in
   Christ Jesus! And if he lives till his hair is gray, he will never be
   more justified, and never be more beloved than he is the very first
   moment in which he believes in Christ. As soon as ever I have a vital
   connection with the Lamb of God, I am "in Grace." Let me live on, let
   my Grace grow, let my faith increase, let my zeal become warmer, let my
   love be more ardent, yet I shall not be more "in Grace" than I was
   before! God will not love me more, He will not have a deeper and a
   purer affection in His heart to me then than He has the very first
   moment I turn to Him, nor will His Grace the less justify me, or less
   accept me, the first moment when I come to Him with all my sins about
   me, than it shall do when I stand before His Throne! We never grow in
   the Grace of election. We are always, as Peter says in his first
   Epistle, "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." And
   in that

   sense of being, "in Grace," there is neither growth nor any retrograde
   movement. So also is it in the matter of justification--

   "In union with the Lamb, From condemnation free, The saints forever
   were, And shall forever be."

   And they are at any one time as much justified as they are at any other
   time. Give me to be justified today, then I was justified yesterday,
   and I shall be justified tomorrow. As soon as I put my trust in the
   Savior, I became complete in Grace, so far as that was concerned, I was
   made perfect in Christ Jesus. I cannot be more than perfect and,
   therefore, I cannot in that respect grow in Grace. I cannot receive
   more justifying mercy. I cannot receive more pardoning Grace, for I
   have had it all at once and have so become perfect in Christ.

   But you will remark that our text does not say anything about Grace
   growing--it does not say that Grace grows! It tells us to "grow in
   Grace." There is a vast difference between Grace growing and our
   growing in Grace. God's Grace never increases--it is always infinite,
   so it cannot be more. It is always everlasting. It is always
   bottomless, it is always shoreless. It cannot be more and, in the
   Nature of God, it could not be less. The text tells us to "grow in
   Grace." We are in the sea of God's Grace--we cannot be in a deeper sea,
   but let us grow, now that we are in it. We cannot be more in it than we
   are, or than we have always been. We are in God's Grace. We are in the
   Covenant. We are in the scheme of redemption. We are in union with
   Jesus--we cannot be more or less so, for we are eternally secure
   through the blood of our Savior. But while itcannot grow, wecan grow
   more in it and so we shall "grow in Grace."

   I must make another remark. It is certain that while the Grace of God
   toward us does not grow, yet there is such a thing as the development
   of Grace. There are some persons who strongly object to the Doctrine of
   Progressive Sanctifica-tion and to our mentioning anything like growth
   in Grace. My Brothers and Sisters are welcome to object if they like,
   but I am sure, if they read the Scriptures (they will surely not object
   to Scriptural terms), they will find growth in Grace very frequently
   mentioned. If that does not mean progressive sanctification, then I do
   not understand the term, "growth in Grace," at all! It is quite certain
   that there are degrees in the development of Grace. You will surely not
   say that the young man who has been converted only for the last few
   months, knows as much of Grace, understands as much about it, and has
   as much faith and as much love, as the man who has for the last 20 or
   30 years been earnestly engaged in his Master's service!

   You will not tell me that one man, who is scarcely ever seen coming up
   to the House of God, and who is daily in a state of religious
   starvation, stands on a par in Grace with a man who is laboring for his
   Master, whose love is evident to all, and whose faith is testified
   before the whole congregation! You will not tell me there is a dead
   level in Christianity which all alike reach. If you do say so, I shall
   tell you that you have no eyes, or that you do not look about you. For
   it is certain that there are some who are further advanced than others
   are, some with greater faith than others have. There are "great faiths"
   as well as "little faiths," great loves as well as little loves! There
   are men of ardent spirits who have Grace more fully developed in them
   than it is in others. It is true, they are not more loved of God than
   others are, and not more justified, nor more accepted, for in that
   respect we all stand on a level, and there is no difference. But as to
   the development of Grace in our souls and the display of Grace in our
   lives, everyone must admit that there is a difference between different
   saints.

   I cannot understand the difference existing between various ministers
   of Christ, if it is not because of the difference in the degrees of
   Grace which they possess. Some have just started in the Christian
   ministry and have preached a little about redemption, but they have not
   gone far enough to preach about election, or, at least, not about the
   vital union of every blood-bought child of God with the person of
   Emmanuel. Or if they should now and then preach upon that blessed Truth
   of God, they cannot talk about the eternal security of the saints and
   declare how, against wind and tide, they shall all sail safely into the
   heavenly harbor. They have not grown enough in Grace to preach on such
   themes as these--so will not everyone admit that there are degrees of
   development in Grace--while it is also true that there are none of us
   more justified, more elect more chosen of God and loved of Him than any
   other Believers are?

   Now for a third remark, which is that growth in Grace is not to be
   measured by weeks, months and years. There are persons who think that
   the age of a man will tell how much he knows about Divine things. "Oh,"
   say some, "So-and-So is such a young man--what can he know about Divine
   Grace? There is a hoary-headed father there--he must know a

   great deal more." If you talk like that, you will soon find out your
   mistake. God often delights to show how He scorns and scoffs at all the
   distinctions of man. He makes the young men prudent and He even gives
   to children, knowledge and discretion! Out of the mouth of babes and
   sucklings He ordains strength because of His enemies. It is true--we do
   believe and we should believe that there is more knowledge beneath the
   gray hairs than under the youth's curly locks--generally speaking, it
   is so. Yet God, in order to display His Sovereignty, has so arranged
   that He sometimes puts His treasures into an earthen vessel that has
   not been fashioned more than a few years!

   Do not suppose that persons grow in Grace according to their years.
   Some grow faster in Grace in five minutes than others do in 50 years. I
   believe that some saints progress further in Grace in one single month
   than others do in 12 months or 12 years. I am sure I may speak
   concerning myself. I have sometimes grown more in Grace in one hour,
   than I have at other seasons in a week, a month, or a year--when God,
   in His Infinite Wisdom, has been pleased to give me a vision of the
   Savior, or to break up the fountains of wickedness that lay hidden in
   my soul. I have learned more in one hour, when the Holy Spirit's hand
   has been upon me, than I have in weeks and months simply with my own
   study. God's people grow like trees grow. Sometimes they take a start
   and grow upward. At another time, they are growing downward. Sometimes,
   apparently, the sap sleeps within the branch--a winter time comes over
   it and it is asleep.

   Do not imagine, my dear Friends, that because you are getting old, you
   are growing in Grace. People are continually warning young men of their
   danger. No doubt we are in danger, but let me remind you that there is
   not an instance in Sacred Scripture of a young man disgracing his
   profession--but there are instances in Scripture of men of middle age
   and of gray hairs doing so. It is thus we, who are young, are in the
   greatest danger and, therefore, God upholds us to show the power of His
   Grace. But some of you older folk conceive that you are not in peril
   and, therefore, God allows you to fall, that He may stain the pride of
   your self-glorying and let you see that it is not anything in
   flesh--neither age, nor standing, nor rank, nor condition which ensures
   our safety--but that He holds up the humble and casts down the proud!
   David did not fall into his great sin until he had certainly come to
   maturity and into the very prime of life--then he sinned with
   Bathsheba. Lot did not transgress so grossly before he became an old
   man.

   If you turn to the pages of Scripture, you will notice that wherever
   there has been a lamentable fall--as in the case of Peter--it has been
   a man who has grown up and become strong in years. God thus shows us
   that it is not mere years that can teach us Grace--in fact, that years,
   and age, and learning, and talent have nothing to do with Grace--and He
   could, if He pleased, take a child six years old and pour wisdom and
   knowledge into the lips of that child that could puzzle the seers of
   this world! He often takes the most unlikely instruments and uses them
   for the accomplishment of His purposes. And because men have said that
   experimental preachers must have gray heads, he says, "No, it shall be
   a youth who shall lead the multitude! It shall be a child, out of whose
   mouth I will pour words of wisdom, for I will overthrow all human glory
   and show mankind that it is not the preacher who is to be praised, but
   God." Salvation is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs but it
   is God that shows mercy! It is not the man who preaches, who
   accomplishes the work, but God working through the man. He could
   dispense with the man altogether if He pleased. At any rate, He will
   have the man He pleases, and at what age He pleases, and qualify him as
   He pleases.

   Once more, growth in Grace is not to be estimated by our feelings.
   There are some of you, Beloved, who think you are not growing in Grace
   because you do not feel so lively as you used to do. "Ah," you say,
   "when I was young, everything was bright. What peaceful hours I then
   enjoyed! I would go over hedge and ditch to hear the Gospel preached. I
   had such an intense desire to hear about God and Jesus Christ, such
   love to the Gospel that when I once got to hear a minister preach, it
   mattered not whoever he might be, it all seemed sweet. But now I am so
   depressed that I cannot enjoy the Truth of God as I used to do." Do not
   think because your wild heat is gone, that you have not grown. When we
   light a fire, we always put the straw and kindling at the bottom. And
   when we first light it, there is a deal of flame and a great deal of
   smoke. But, afterwards, when the flame gets hold of the coals, there is
   not so much blaze, but there is really more heat. You may have lost
   some of your flame and smoke, but you have more solid fire! We would
   rather warm our hands by the coals than by the straw, for that must
   soon go.

   So is it with Divine Grace--it begins with a flame which catches the
   lighter substances and lays hold on the imagination and the passions.
   But, later in life it appeals to the judgment, and makes the man one
   solid lump of burning fire. He is not a little flame, rising towards
   Heaven, that the wind might blow out with a puff, but he becomes so
   strong a fire

   that the wind shall but increase the flame, and shall make the heat the
   greater! So it may be with you. Perhaps you have become more solid
   though you are less fiery.

   Do not suppose, when you are depressed, that, therefore, you are not
   growing in Grace. Many of God's plants grow best in the dark and He
   often puts them in the dark to make them grow. When you are growing
   upwards, remember that there is such a thing as growing downward. You
   may have had, yesterday, a Divine manifestation that took you up to the
   top of the Delectable Mountains. You must not think you are big because
   you are up on high, for pigmies perched on Alps are still pigmies. And
   if you were ever so little, it would not make you any bigger if you
   were taken to the top of St. Paul's. If, on the other hand, you are
   deep down in a mine, do not imagine that you are any the smaller for
   that reason. I can tell you that you will often grow faster in the
   dungeon than on the top of a mountain, but it is not a pleasant place
   to be. When our depravity is revealed to us, when our desolation of
   spirit and our utter hopelessness and powerlessness are uncovered and
   made manifest by God's Holy Spirit, we grow, I believe, even faster
   than we do when, on the wings of seraphs, we are privileged to mount on
   high! So, do not measure your growth in Grace by your feelings. Some of
   you make a kind of barometer of your feelings. Do not do so! If we are
   in Christ, we are in Christ by faith, and not by feelings, and
   remember, whether your feelings are good or bad, you are no more or
   less a child of God. Your faith, Sinner, unites you with the Lamb--not
   your feelings! Trust Him in darkness, trust Him in distress, lean on
   Him when you cannot see Him. And when there seems nothing to walk on,
   still walk, for the ground is firm beneath the foot of faith!

   Just by way of warning, let me urge you not to think that you are
   growing in Grace because you happen to be doing a little more for the
   church externally. ' 'Oh," we often say, "now I am progressing, am I
   not? I am busy in the Sunday school, laboring hard there! I am
   preaching! I am doing this, or that, or the other--now I am truly
   growing in Grace." Ah, it is a proper thing to be diligent in good
   works and to be abounding in acts of righteousness, but if you begin to
   say, "Now I am growing," because of this or because of that, you have
   made a great mistake! It often happens that when we are very full of
   public labors, we are very short in private devotions. I must confess
   that it has been so with me--and that is a very lamentable thing--for
   then I was not really growing at all. A man may have his hands ever so
   full before the world and think he is doing much, but he may not be
   really growing in Grace, after all.

   Do not think that this is an excuse for anybody who is not doing much,
   you Issachar-like people, like "a strong ass between two burdens," too
   lazy to lift either! I am not giving you a word of comfort. You are not
   growing, for you are doing nothing--and those who are doing something
   must not boast of their growth. It has more to do with private devotion
   than with public exercise. It has more to do with meditation than with
   explanation. It has more to do with contemplation and adoration than
   with public service. We must look more to the state of the
   internal'matters, keeping up private prayer and attending to the
   reading of the Scriptures. If we do not, however much we may seem to
   progress outwardly, we are not any richer--we are only beating out the
   little gold we had into a thinner plate, and spreading it over a wider
   surface. The more we do for Christ, the more He will do for us, but let
   us take heed that while we water other people's vineyards, our own is
   not neglected, and that the stones of the hedges are not cast down. May
   God grant you, Brothers and Sisters, to grow in Grace!

   II. Now we come to the second thought, THAT GROWTH IN GRACE IS
   INTIMATELY CONNECTED WITH GROWTH "IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD AND
   SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST." In fact, there cannot be any

   Grace at all except as we know Christ! And there can be no growth in
   Grace except as we grow in our knowledge of Christ. We may always test
   whether we are growing by this question--Do I know more of Christ today
   than I did yesterday? Do I live nearer to Christ today than I did a
   little while ago? For increase in the knowledge of Christ is the
   evidence as well as the causeof true growth in Grace. In order to prove
   this, I will mention one or two Christian virtues, and you will see
   that they must increase as we know more of Christ.

   With regard to love, s ome of us say, "How little we love Christ!" Many
   of you sing--

   "'Tis a point I long to know,

   Oft it causes anxious thought--

   Do I love the Lord, or no?

   Am I His, or am I not?"

   That is a very good hymn--I find no fault with it--but please do not
   sing it too often! Now and then, you are welcome to it, but get through
   it as quickly as you can. I would far rather hear you sing that grand
   hymn of Toplady's--

   "A debtor to mercy alone,

   Of Covenant mercy I sing!

   Nor fear, with Your righteousness on,

   My person and offering to bring."

   "Oh!" you say, "I long to grow in love. I want to know that I love
   Jesus. I want to feel my heart going out after Him, and my soul knit to
   Him." Well, the way to grow in love is to know more of Christ. The more
   you know of the Savior, the better you must love Him. The more you
   discover of His beauties, of His excellences, of His virtues, of His
   perfections, and of His glories, the more your soul will be drawn
   towards Him. I tell you who do not love Christ at all, it is because
   you do not know Him, for if you knew anything of Him, you would love
   Him in proportion to your knowledge! The more you know of my Master,
   the more you will love Him. You have only lifted one corner of the veil
   that shrouds His forehead, you have seen but one portion of His visage,
   so you love Him--but if you had faith to lift the veil entirely, to see
   all of His blessed Countenance, to mark the majestic sweetness which
   sits enthroned upon His lofty brow. If you could focus on His eyes,
   which are "like the fish pools in Heshbon, by the gate of
   Bath-Rabbim"--if you could describe Him as being "altogether lovely,"
   ah, you would love Him more!

   Blessed are the men that improve upon acquaintance! Jesus Christ is one
   of those blessed ones--the more you know of Him, the more you love Him.
   Sweet Jesus! When I first saw You, I loved You! When first Your wounded
   hands and bleeding side were uncovered to me, then I loved You. Ah, but
   that love is nothing compared with what I have now. And oh, when I
   shall see You as You are--when my soul becomes changed into love--the
   love I have now shall seem to have been nothing but a spark compared
   with that vehement flame of love which I shall have to You then! Know
   more of Christ. Read more of Him. Think more of Him. Ask about Him more
   because you will be sure to grow in the Grace of love in proportion as
   you know more of Christ!

   So is it with regard to faith. What is the reason why so many of us
   groan because our faith is so feeble? It is because we do not know
   enough of Christ! There are many people who need to know a great deal
   more about Jesus than they know at present. And if they knew more about
   Jesus, they would have more faith. "Oh," says one, "when I look at
   myself, I think, 'Oh, what is to become of me?' Then I search to see if
   there are not some evidences of Grace." That is all wrong! You have no
   business to look there--you will not grow in faith by looking at
   yourself! One look at Jesus is worth 50 at yourself! If you would have
   more faith, keep your eyes on Jesus! The wounds of Christ on Calvary
   are the mothers of faith--these are the breasts from which faith must
   draw its nourishment. If you would grow in faith, you must live near to
   the Cross. The sweet flower of faith was first sown in Christ's
   precious blood--and it must be watered by it every day. Know more of
   Christ! Think more of Him and your faith will increase! Your little
   faith would soon get strong if you lived more on Jesus. If you would
   become Great-Hearts, by-and-by, and knock those giants about as
   terribly as Mr. Great-Heart did of old, live near to Jesus! Live with
   Jesus. Feast at His banqueting table, for there is no food so
   strengthening to the spirit as the flesh of your Lord, and no wine can
   so invigorate your soul as the blood of Jesus Christ your Savior.

   So is it with regard to our courage, for that is a Christian Grace, and
   one in which many are terribly deficient. Our Christian courage will
   always increase in proportion as we know Christ. We have far too many
   timid Christians who have not enough courage, I was about to say, to
   speak to a cheese-mite--they would not be able to profess the name of
   Christ before the smallest creature in the world! They would almost be
   ashamed to declare that they loved the Savior even within bare walls,
   for fear some bird of the air should hear them and go and tell the
   tale. They are so ashamed of their own faith (and yet it is real faith)
   that they scarcely dare to speak! The smallest stone in the road would
   make them stumble. A straw would be almost as great to them as a range
   of mountains like the Himalayas would be to others. They would be
   entirely cast out of the road if they had the least prospect that there
   could be a shadow in it for them to pass by! It is because we do not
   know enough of Christ that we are afraid of anything.

   I believe that when we come truly to know Christ, we shall be afraid of
   nothing at all. Shall we be afraid of man? No! We shall say, "Whether
   it is right to obey God rather than man, you judge." Shall we be afraid
   of the devil when we know Christ? No! We shall say, "Christ has the
   devil chained and He can always pull the dog of Hell in when he
   attempts to bite us. Christ has hold of the dragon and he cannot
   inflict deeper wounds than Christ wills." We shall not be afraid of the
   messenger of death, for we shall regard him as an angel of the Covenant
   sent to fetch God's people up to Heaven! Courage will always be
   increased in proportion as we know more of Jesus and if we could have
   Christ for our daily and

   hourly Companion, I believe all the hosts of Hell, marshaled in battle,
   would no more frighten us than would a flock of small birds that might
   settle upon our path! But we would say, "In the name of the Lord, we
   will destroy them." If you would have more true Christian courage, get
   more of "the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

   So is it with regard to our zeal, which is a Grace sadly lacking in
   these times. If we would be more zealous, we must live nearer to
   Christ. If the Son of Man were to come now, would He find zeal upon the
   earth? His own question was, "Shall He find faith?" But, would He find
   zeal It would be difficult even for Him to discover much of it among
   Christians. There is sound orthodoxy, but no zeal. There is heterodoxy,
   but still no zeal. Where do you find it? Just here and there. There is
   a remnant, according to the election of Grace, who are zealous for God,
   but, in these times--we are sorry to say it--religion has degenerated
   into a kind of formality. It is a fashionable thing to be pious. We
   have been going on in the same track as other people--there is an old
   cart-rut, and we all drive along it. We have kept on at the same pace
   as our fathers, but, oh, if we knew more of Christ, we would have more
   zeal!

   I cannot think it possible for men to lack zeal when they know Christ.
   They would then say, "Did my Savior shed His blood for me and shall I
   fear even to die for Him? Did He come all the way from Heaven to earth
   to save souls and shall not I also seek to win them for Him?" Would we
   have so many lazy preachers if they had more of Christ in their hearts?
   If they understood more of Jesus, would we have so many slothful,
   sluggish members in our churches, with so many who can make any excuse
   rather than labor for Christ, patching up any empty apology for
   idleness? No, Brothers and Sisters, if we knew more of the Savior, if
   we had more frequent visions of Him, if we saw Him more often on His
   Cross and viewed Him more frequently sitting with the crown upon His
   head, we would say, "I vow revenge against my sloth! All I can do will
   be too little for so good a Lord--

   'All that I am, and all I have, Shall be forever Thine. Whatever my
   duty bids me give, My cheerful hands resign. Yet if I might make some
   reserve, And duty did not call, I love my God with zeal so great, That
   I should give Him all.'"

   It is no use to try to get more zeal except in the right way, knowing
   more of Christ. And if we seek to grow in zeal as certain people we
   might mention have done, we shall have a zeal like a house on fire! It
   will do more mischief than it will do good. There may be some heat and
   a great deal of illumination, but it will die away, by-and-by, into
   black ashes, poisoning the churches everywhere. I have seen a certain
   kind of revival in England and I can always tell where such "revivals"
   have been by the scarred state of the places after them. These
   so-called "revivals" have been worked by excitable meetings, held by
   sundry preachers who have invented strange doctrines, but have said
   nothing about the Grace of God. They have for a time stirred up the
   people to a kind of religious furor, and they have left behind them a
   very desert. Before them it was like a garden of the Lord, but behind
   them barrenness and desolation. The church has been divided-- there has
   been a reaction, and the people have sunk into the most lamentable
   condition. If we would have true zeal, it must be by the preaching of
   the good old doctrine, proclaiming Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, for
   anything else comes of the devil, and to Hell it shall tend. Its issue
   shall be destruction--not salvation!

   But if we keep to the Truth of God, there will be "revival" enough. We
   want nothing but the good old-fashioned Gospel to stir the world again.
   Though men have tried new schemes, God will not claim them. All these
   heresies must be swept away and the true Gospel--distinguishing Grace
   of God in all the Sovereignty of election--must yet again be preached!
   And when it is preached in all its fullness, then shall the church be
   zealous and then shall Zion arise and shake herself from the dust, and
   put on her beautiful garments.

   Further, if we would grow also in the Grace of brotherly kindness, we
   must know more of Christ. O Beloved, we must lament that there is too
   little brotherly kindness in the world! There is a great deal of that
   mawkish, mistaken kindness which says, "We must never say anything
   contrary to anybody else's opinion. If we know of a doctrinal error, we
   must not expose it, because love of our brethren implies that, even if
   they are wrong, we would not tell them of it." But I think true
   brotherly kindness is always to preach the Truth of God and tell our
   brethren where they are wrong and give them the opportunity of getting
   set right. Brotherly kindness is to preach whatever we believe to be
   true, and to

   maintain what God has taught us. And then, after all, to say, "Well,
   Brother, you differ from me. I am not infallible. I still love you."
   But that is no love which makes us hide the Truth of God! True love
   will make us honest, zealous and affectionate.

   Why don't we love one another as much as we ought? It is because we do
   not love the Savior enough, and we have not seen enough of Him. If we
   had known more of the Savior, I am sure we should love Him better. I
   met with a strange idea the other day when reading a book by old
   Burroughs. He says, "If Jesus Christ were to come down to His Church
   now, He would see some of His children with black eyes. Some others
   would be seen scratched in the face and some bruised all over. He would
   say to them, 'What have you been doing?' If one should answer, 'Lord, I
   have been fighting with my brother, and he did this,' the Lord would
   say, 'Children of one family fight? The birds of one nest disagree? How
   sad it is!'" It is a strange thought, but it may be a profitable one,
   for if our Lord Jesus Christ finds His people quarrelling, what will He
   say?

   You may remember a story I have told you before. An old Scotch elder
   had been disputing with his minister at an elders' meeting. He said
   some hard things and almost broke the minister's heart. Afterwards, he
   went home and the minister went home, too. The next morning, when the
   elder came down, his wife said to him, "Eh, Jan, you look very sad this
   morning. What's the matter wi' you?" "Ah," he said, "you would be sad
   too if you had had such a dream as I've had." "Weel, and what did you
   dream about?" "Oh, I dreamed I had been at an elders' meeting and I
   said some hard things, and grieved the minister. And as he went home, I
   thought he died, and went to Heaven. A fortnight after, I thought I
   died, and that I went to Heaven, too. And when I got to the gates of
   Heaven, out came the minister, and put out his hand to welcome me,
   saying, 'Come alang, Jan, there's nae strife up here, and I'm happy to
   see you.'" The elder went to the minister to beg his pardon, but he
   found that he was dead. And he laid it so to heart that, within a
   fortnight, the elder, himself, departed. And I should not wonder if he
   did meet the minister at Heaven's gate, and hear him say, "Come along,
   Jan, there's nae strife up here." It will be well for us to remember
   that there is no strife up there. Glorified saints have no strife among
   themselves and we would love one another more in brotherly kindness if
   we thought more of Heaven, and more of our blessed Jesus!

   Lastly, there is another Grace in which we need to grow. That is, the
   Grace of humility. I am sure we would increase in that Grace if we
   lived nearer to Christ. O Humility, most precious thing, you are most
   rare! He who talks most of it has least of it. He who preaches of it
   best, full often is least the subject of its power! O Humility, I have
   sometimes thought that you were a phantom, and that pride was the
   reality! Humility, where are you? The depths of poverty say, "You are
   not in me," for the poor are often proud. The heights of riches say,
   "You are not here," for the rich are often proud, too. O Humility, you
   are not to be found in science, for philosophy puffs up. You are not to
   be found in ignorance, for that is the mother of pride. O Humility,
   where can I find you? Where are you? Nowhere can I see you, or know
   what you are--unless I sit at the feet of Jesus and behold myself a
   lost, ruined sinner purchased by Divine Love. If you, dear Friend,
   would be truly humble, you must look at your Savior, for then you will
   say--

   "Alas, and did my Savor bleed?

   And did my Sovereign die?

   Would He devote that sacred head

   For such a worm as I?"

   You will never feel yourself such a worm as when, by faith, you see
   your Savior dying for you! You will never know your own nothingness so
   well as when you see your Savior's greatness. When you grow in the
   Grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you will be
   sure to grow in humility!

   Growing Christians think themselves nothing, but, full-grown Christians
   think themselves less than nothing. The nearer we get to Jesus, the
   smaller self will appear to be. Self and Christ can never come close
   together. When I stand near self, Christ is small. When I stand near
   Christ, self is small. May God grant to you, dear Friends, to grow in
   the knowledge of Christ! Read the Scriptures more. Seek more the
   influences of the Holy Spirit upon them. Spend more time in
   devotion--ask God the Holy Spirit to give you a fresh sight of Calvary.
   Be more often on the Mount of Transfiguration, in the Garden of
   Suffering, in the Hall of Agony, under the Cross of Crucifixion! Live
   with Jesus and near to Him--and so, changed from glory to glory as by
   the Spirit of the Lord, you shall, each one of you, grow unto the
   stature of a perfect man or woman in Christ Jesus!
     __________________________________________________________________

Jesus Joyfully Received

   (No. 2701)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 16, 1881.

   "He...received Him joyfully." Luke 19:6.

   THIS morning [Sermon #1624, Volume 27--WELCOME! WELCOME!"] I showed
   you, dear Friends, how joyfully Jesus receives sinners--how He welcomes
   them-- how glad He is to find those whom He came to seek and to save.
   From this text it appears that when sinners receive Jesus, they receive
   Him joyfully, so that there is joy on both sides. It is a joyful
   business altogether--the Savior is glad to save and the sinner is glad
   to be saved! I know which of the two has the greater joy, for it is
   always more blessed to give than to receive, and the great heart of
   Jesus, in its Infinite Benevolence, is conscious of a rarer joy than
   even the saved sinner can experience. It is a delight to Him to save.
   So great is His joy that He cannot contain it all within His own heart
   and He represents Himself as calling together His friends and
   neighbors, and saying to them, "Rejoice with Me, for I have found My
   sheep which was lost."

   And when the two seas meet--the sea of the saved one's gladness and the
   sea of the Savior's joy--what blessed floods they make! How the dancing
   waves clap their hands with delight! Surely, joy on earth then becomes
   more than on any other occasion parallel with the joy in Heaven. Such
   joy before the Lord is "according to the joy in harvest." And such days
   are "as the days of Heaven upon the earth." How earnestly, then, you
   and I ought to seek to bring men to Christ! This is the best method of
   making joy in this sin-cursed world. This is the surest way of plucking
   up the thorns and the thistles that sin has sown and of making the
   myrtle and the rose to grow instead, according to that ancient
   promise-- "You shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the
   mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and
   all the trees of the field shall clap their hands"--even before you who
   are the means of reconciling men to their Maker, and of bringing
   sinners to their Savior!

   This joyous time of receiving Christ is the turning point in character,
   and it is also one of the tests of destiny. By this sign shall you
   discern between the men predestinated unto eternal life and those who
   have no share in the Divine decree. He that receivesChrist thereby
   proves that he isChrist's, but he that receives Him not shall surely
   perish as the result of his willful rejection of the Savior. The Gospel
   is, after all, the great fan that winnows the chaff from the wheat. It
   separates the precious from the vile, even as Christ said to the Jews,
   "You believe not, because you are not of My sheep." Whether or not you
   will receive Christ when He comes your way is the all-important matter
   for each one of you to decide. If your door is shut when He is passing
   by, He may never come your way again. But if, when He bids you come to
   Him, as He bade Zacchaeus make haste and come down, you receive Him
   with alacrity, opening the door of your heart that He may enter in,
   then shall you prove that you are His, that you are among those who are
   the blessed of the Lord, and who shall be blessed, world without end!
   So this matter of the reception of Christ is, as I called it just now,
   all-important--and I want to press it upon each unsaved person here
   with the urgent desire and the confident hope that some, like
   Zacchaeus, will joyfully receive Christ.

   This passage also teaches us that often the most unlikely persons are
   the first to receive the Savior. I would have said, and you would all
   have agreed with me, that the least likely person in the city of
   Jericho to receive Christ into his house was this rich little
   tax-gatherer, Zacchaeus--this man whom all the people disliked so much,
   that when Christ went to

   his house, "they all murmured, saying, that He was gone to be guest
   with a man that is a sinner." Yet he was the one person in that place
   who did entertain the Lord Jesus Christ! And many a time since has
   Christ been shut out of good men's doors, or the doors of those who
   have reckoned themselves as good men--but He has found shelter within
   the gates of sinners, and such sinners as have been reputed among men
   to be utterly given over and hopeless. I would not pick my congregation
   even if I might do so--I would much rather that they should come, as
   they do come, by God's choice and constraint. For the man whom I might
   think most likely to be blessed would probably pass the blessing by,
   and he whom we, in our poor, feeble judgment, might expect to be the
   last to receive the Savior, might turn out to be the first, the most
   willing and the most joyful receiver of Him! I cannot tell, therefore,
   who among you will take the Savior in. I wish I could hope that all who
   have not yet done so, would do it before the sermon ends. He is such a
   wondrous Guest that you may all entertain Him at the same moment! And
   He can come to each one's heart--He may be the Guest of everyone who is
   a sinner, and yet each sinner who receives Him shall find that a whole
   Christ has come into his heart!

   Let me also add that sometimes very strange motives may bring people
   where they will be led to receive the Savior. I need not allude to
   Zacchaeus climbing the sycamore tree, or only just allude to it in
   passing, but many a person has come into the House of God out of the
   idlest curiosity, or to oblige a friend, or to while away an hour.
   Rowland Hill used to say that there were some people who made a cloak
   of religion--and when they ran into Surrey Chapel, on a wet day, to
   shelter from the rain, he used to add, "and there are some who make an
   umbrella of it." It is still so--people are influenced by all sorts of
   motives--harmless motives, vain motives, foolish motives, even
   condemnable motives have brought persons where Jesus Christ has been
   passing by! And they have been the occasion of Christ's entering into
   hearts which otherwise had been closed to Him. It may be so with some
   of you who are here. Perhaps you hardly expected to be here and you
   scarcely know why you came. Yet it was written in the Book of Destiny
   that this night you should either accept Christ as your Savior, or you
   should be willfully guilty of shutting the door of your heart in His
   face! God grant that it may not be that latter action, but may you say
   to Him, "Come in, blessed Savior. Let salvation come, in Your Person,
   to my house and heart this very hour--then will I rejoice while You
   shall rejoice also."

   Thus have I introduced to you the text--"He received Him joyfully." Now
   I want to say to you, with regard to the reception of the Savior, that
   He is not here corporeally or physically, for He has gone back into
   Glory, to sit at the right hand of the Father. But He is here
   spirituallyaccording to His promise, "Lo, I am with you always, even
   unto the end of the world." He enters freely into men's hearts, but He
   cannot now be received corporeally into your houses, nor can He sit at
   your tables and partake of your feasts. But He can, by His Spirit,
   enter into your hearts and He can spiritually dwell there, and make a
   temple of your bodies, and reign there, finding a happy abode within
   your renewed nature.

   I. Now, if you would receive Him, I wish to call your attention, first,
   to the fact that, in order to salvation, THERE MUST BE A PERSONAL
   RECEPTION OF A PERSONAL CHRIST. "He received Him joyfully." There you
   have two persons both present. "He"--that is, Zacchaeus--"received
   Him"--that is, Christ--"joyfully." That looks very simple, yet there is
   a great depth of the Truth of God in it, as I will try to show you.

   For, first, there are some persons who suppose that in order to be
   saved, they are to receive a creed. That is quite true. You are to have
   a creed and I urge you to take heed what you believe. Go to the Law and
   to the Testimony and believe nothing but what is in the Word of God.
   But I pray you to also remember that a man may receive the most sound
   creed in Christendom--and yet be damned! He may believe, as a matter of
   head knowledge, all that should be believed. And yet, for all that, he
   may not believe anything with his heart, and so may perish. I believe
   that the devil is orthodox. In all that he says, he usually seems to
   propound either the Truth of God or something which shows that he knows
   what the Truth is, yet, though in that sense, he believes, and even
   goes as far as trembling, the devil is not changed in heart, nor will
   he be saved by what he believes! It is not receiving a creed which
   saves you--it is receiving a Person into your heart's love. It is not
   written in our text, "He received it, "but, "He received Him." Mark
   that--"He received Him joyfully."

   Again, salvation comes not through receiving an ordinance, or
   ordinances, however correct or Scriptural they may be. It is not said,
   "Zacchaeus received baptism, or, "Zacchaeus received the communion." I
   do not doubt that Zacchaeus did receive both ordinances, but it was not
   said to him, "This day is salvation come to your house because you have
   received the sacraments." No! Salvation came to him when he received
   Christ, when that blessed and Divine Person crossed the threshold of
   his heart and was welcomed as He installed Himself in the affections of
   the rich tax-gatherer. It was then

   that he was saved and, Beloved, if you are to be saved, Christ must
   come in a similar fashion into your understandings and your hearts.
   Salvation comes not through ordinances, however Scripturally and
   correctly they may be observed--it is Christ, and Christ alone, who can
   save your soul! It must be with you as it was with Zacchaeus when "he
   received Him

   joyfully."

   Furthermore, it was not even the Doctrine of Christ that Zacchaeus, on
   this occasion, received, though he did receive the Doctrine of Christ,
   and learned of Christ, and became His disciple. But, first, he received
   Christ, and then he received Christianity. Beware, I pray you, of being
   like many nominal Christians who know not Christ! Beware of that
   Christianity from which Christ has been eliminated! You must first
   receive the Master, or else it is idle to be associated with His
   servants. You may say that you belong to His Church, but if you are not
   joined to the Head, what will it avail you to claim to be in the body?
   If you are not vitally united to the Lord so as to become one spirit
   with Him, of what service will it be to you that you are reckoned among
   His followers and that your names are written on an earthly church
   roll? Zac-chaeus received Christ Himself--and this is the all-important
   saving matter--"he received Him."

   How did he receive Him? He received Christ as his Guest and entertained
   Him. Will you so receive Christ--giving Him your heart, your love,
   yourself--letting Him come and find meat and drink for His love within
   your souls? I beg you to admit Him thus. Behold, He stands at the door
   of your heart and knocks--again, and again, and again, with gentle hand
   knocking at the door, does He seek an entrance. Oh, open your heart to
   Him and let Him be your Guest this very hour!

   But, further, Zacchaeus received Christ as his Lord. Notice what he
   said. "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I
   have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him
   fourfold." That is the way in which you also must receive Christ as
   your Master and Lord.

   In so doing, Zacchaeus also admitted Christ as His Savior, for Jesus
   said, "This day is salvation come to this house." You will think it
   strange, but I have known some who have called Jesus, "Lord," who have
   not acknowledged Him as their Savior. Thank God it is changed with
   them, now, but I did know some who came to this house who honored and
   worshipped Christ according to the light they had--yet they did not
   understand their need of Him, nor did they accept Him as their Savior.
   As I said, just now, this has all been changed with them, and so must
   it be with any of you who would truly receive Christ. If you do not
   accept Him in His Character as Savior, you virtually reject Him
   altogether, since He can never be separated from the merit of His
   blood, and the love of His heart towards guilty sinners. What? Would
   you have an unwounded Christ--an unbleeding Christ--a Christ that never
   died for men? There is no such Christ as that except in fiction! The
   Christ of reality "is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
   And in that Character He must be received by us if He is received at
   all.

   II. Now I press on to notice that THE RECEPTION OF CHRIST, TO BE REAL,
   MUST IN EVERY CASE BE

   VOLUNTARY. Willingly, Zacchaeus "made haste, and came down, and
   received Him joyfully." That joyful reception of Christ shows the
   willingness of Zacchaeus. It proves how cheerfully, how gladly, how
   willingly--the words all carry the same sense--how joyfully, with the
   full freedom of his will, he received the Savior.

   Observe that the call of Grace does not hinder this willing reception.
   There was a previous call of Grace-- "Zacchaeus, make haste, and come
   down; for today I must abide at your house." But, although that call
   was graciously powerful and, in a Gospel sense, irresistible, yet it
   did not interfere with the free agency of Zacchaeus so as to make him
   unwillingly receive the Savior. No, he cheerfully, joyfully, received
   Christ as the result of that call. Here is where many people make a
   great mistake. They fancy that we who preach effectual calling, make
   out that men are like logs of wood or carved images--and things that
   are dragged or drawn about without any reference to their own will. We
   teach nothing of the kind! We preach that men are intelligent,
   responsible agents and that the Omnipotent Grace of God, in which we
   firmly believe, and our belief in which we are never ashamed to
   declare--nevertheless exerts itself in a way and manner suitable to the
   free agency of these human beings, so that Grace gets the victory. But,
   at the same time, a man acts as a man!

   Zacchaeus is not dragged down from the tree by an angel who lays hold
   of the nape of his neck and throws him down against his will. And the
   door of his house does not open by magic, but the man comes down from
   the tree, in the ordinary way, by the exercise of his own will and
   power and he opens the door of his home for Christ to enter. Yet,
   secretly, in his heart there was a power other than his own which was
   moving him to act as he did. This may not be easy to under-

   stand, or to explain in words, but it is easy enough in actual life! It
   is plainly seen in the lives of those who are converted to Christ.
   Nobody will say that Zacchaeus did not as freely let Christ into his
   house just as he had performed any action in his life. In fact, he
   never had put so much heart into anything he had ever done as he did
   into that act of receiving Christ. "He made haste, and came down, and
   received Him joyfully." He was glad to do it! He cheerfully yielded
   obedience to the Divine command!

   And, dear Friends, you and I must receive Christ cheerfully, willingly,
   voluntarily, or else we have not really received Him at all Christ will
   not force Himself into any man's house and sit there against the man's
   will. That would not be the action of a guest, but of an unwelcome
   intruder! Christ will not come in, as it were, mailed and armed, to
   forcibly take possession of any man's soul! What He does is gently
   change the bias of our will so that we willingly invite Him to enter
   our heart. We constrain Him to come in and to dwell with us! We say to
   Him, "Abide with us," and not only are we willing to have Christ, but
   we are anxious and desirous to have Him. To get Him, we would, if
   necessary, sell all that we have! To keep Him, we would lay down our
   very lives, for that which once seemed undesirable to us is now the
   height of our ambition, the very core and center of our highest desire!
   "He made haste, and came down, and received Him joyfully." His whole
   heart went with his reception of Christ.

   What do you say, dear Friend? Will you now receive Christ joyfully?
   Will you willingly receive Him? I know you will if you truly feel your
   need of Him and if you realize how exactly He meets that need. I know
   you will gladly receive Him if you understand what blessings come in
   His train--what wealth of happiness and joy He gives to the heart in
   which He condescends to dwell! You will say to Him, "My Lord, I repent
   most sorrowfully that I ever resisted You and, made willing in the day
   of Your power, I fling open the doors of my heart and cry, 'Come in!
   Come in, come in! Dwell with me from now on and go no more out
   forever.'"

   After Christ has been received into the heart, everything else will
   have to be done cheerfully and voluntarily. He did not command
   Zacchaeus to give the half of his goods to the poor, but,
   spontaneously, as soon as Christ came in, Zacchaeus said, of his own
   accord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor." No
   ordinance to this effect had proceeded from the Savior's
   lips--"Zacchaeus, you must restore fourfold to all whom you have
   wronged." No, but gladly, out of the fullness of his renewed heart, he
   freely said, "If I have taken anything from any man by false
   accusation, I restore him fourfold." This is the very essence of true
   religion--it is cheerful voluntariness. When a man who professes to be
   a Christian, begins to ask, "Must I do this?" or "Must I do that?"--He
   makes us stand in doubt concerning him. Believers in Christ are not
   under the Law, but under Grace. The principle that rules us is not,
   "Must I?" but, "May I?" It becomes to the Believer a joy and a delight
   to serve Christ! He is not flogged to his duty. The slave-driver's whip
   and the stocks are not for the freeborn citizens of the New Jerusalem!

   These things are for men of the world who will do nothing unless they
   are paid for it, one way or the other. The dread of Hell, or the hope
   of Heaven--these are the only motives that they recognize. But those
   who receive Christ dread no Hell, for they know that they can never go
   there! "He that believes on Him is not condemned." Such a man works not
   to obtain Heaven--why should He? Heaven is already his! In Christ Jesus
   it is given to Him by a Covenant which cannot be broken. So now he
   sings--

   "Loved of my God, for Him again With love intense I burn! Chosen of You
   ere time began, I choose You in return!"

   And this blessed voluntariness, this joyous freedom of the will
   conferred by Sovereign Grace becomes the very life and soul of vital
   godliness! Do you possess it, dear Friend? If not, may God the Holy
   Spirit speedily give it to you! If you have it, may He nurture it and
   make it to increase within you, and so, like Zacchaeus, whatever you
   do, you may do it joyfully, cheerfully, as unto the Lord!

   III. This brings me now to close with my third remark, which is, that
   THE RECEPTION WHICH WE GIVE TO

   CHRIST MAY WELL BE A JOYFUL ONE.

   To receive Christ into the heart, dear Brothers and Sisters--ought not
   that to be as glad a thing as for a man to welcome his long-desired
   bride, or his firstborn child, or to receive his estate when he comes
   to the ripeness of manhood? Yes, more than that! Ought it not to be as
   much joy to receive Christ as to receive Heaven, itself, for would
   there be any Heaven possible if we had not first received Christ? Ring
   the bells of Heaven and ring them yet again, for a soul has re-

   ceived Christ Jesus the Lord! It is the most joyous event on earth and
   it gives even new joy in Heaven. See how the angels fly upward from
   their various watching places to tell their brethren on yonder
   battlements that they may publish it in every golden street, "Another
   sinner has received Christ. Joy, joy forever!'" These are the things
   that make jubilees in Heaven! When sinners receive their Savior, they
   make glad rejoicing before the face of the Highest, Himself.

   If I hear that a certain person's reception of Christ had not much
   gladness in it, I am not necessarily led to suspect the reality of it,
   though I wish he had received Christ joyfully. When men receive the
   Word with gladness, if it is nothing but the bare Word, I can
   understand that they may be like the rocky ground which received the
   good seed. But, after a while, for lack of depth and moisture, the
   ground yielded not life enough or nourishment enough for the seed, so
   it withered away. But it is different when, instead of, "it," you read,
   "Him." "He received Him joyfully." That is another matter altogether,
   for, if Christ is received into the soul, He will not die. If Jesus is
   taken into the heart, He will not disappear and go His way. But where
   He once comes, He abides forever! So, let us have as much joy as we can
   connected with our conversion and let us not, because of that gladness,
   question its genuineness, but let us rather be all the more sure that
   it is a true work of Christ's Grace because, like Zacchaeus, we have
   received Christ joyfully!

   Think what joy there ought to be in the heart that receives Christ into
   it. First of all, what an honor it is! O poor lowly woman, or humble
   man, will the Lord of Glory really come and dwell in you? You are no
   queen, or prince, or philosopher--will the great Lord of All dwell in
   your frail body which is undecorated by costly dress, perhaps unadorned
   by natural beauty? Has He indeed come down to dwell with you? Then, you
   are indeed honored even above the angels, for we never read that Christ
   dwells in them! You ought to be indeed glad that the Lord has permitted
   you to receive such an honor as this.

   Then, next, where Jesus comes into the heart, He comes to put away all
   sin. Wherever Jesus is received, all the guilt of the past is blotted
   out and gone, never to be remembered anymore. When you receive Christ,
   you receive full remission of all your sin--every transgression goes
   into complete oblivion! Just think of that, and tell me if it is not a
   joyous thing to receive Christ! Will you not, then, like Zacchaeus,
   receive Christ joyfully?

   When you receive Christ, you also receive the fountain of inward
   purity, the well-spring of cleansing which shall overflow unto ultimate
   perfection. Receiving Christ, sin gets its death warrant. Every buyer
   and seller in the temple of your nature will have to go! Everything
   received by false accusation will have to be given up. Where Jesus
   comes, the devil flies away and angels come in with all their blessed
   train of beauty and holiness. To receive Christ is to drive out Hell
   and to let in Heaven--it is to end the darkness and to begin the
   everlasting day. Then, shall we not receive Him joyfully?

   Let me come close to you and whisper a little secret in your ear.
   Zacchaeus did not know it and the parallel does not hold good with his
   case, but it does with ours. There is great cause for joy in receiving
   Christ, because He will never go away again. When He once comes into
   our heart, He claims the freehold of it and, by a Divine entail, holds
   possession of it against all comers even to the end. I am not one of
   those who believe that a man can be a child of God, today, and a child
   of the devil tomorrow. Ah, no! When Christ, the strong Man armed, does
   really take possession of the heart, a stronger than He must come if He
   is to be driven out--and there is no one stronger than He is! Hell
   itself can find no power to match the might of Him who died to save His
   people from their sins! And you may depend upon it that He will fight
   for His own and preserve His own even until He comes to take them to be
   with Him forever! Therefore, be glad when Jesus comes into your heart,
   for it means salvation for you even unto the end.

   And, further, it also means eternal glory, for He who thus comes into
   your heart is the same Savior who prayed, "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." Oh, yes! He will bring you safely home to
   Glory. Admit Him and He will keep you here as His own until such a day
   as it shall please Him--and then He will gently waft your soul away to
   the better land where, transformed, and rendered white as snow, He will
   still dwell in you and walk in you, and you shall be His people, and He
   will be your God! Oh, the bliss of admitting Christ into the heart and
   life! There is nothing like it under Heaven and even Heaven, itself,
   can show nothing better than the joy of receiving Christ into one's
   inmost heart, for that is, indeed, Heaven begun below!

   So I will finish my discourse by begging all of you who are gathered
   together here, if you have never yet received Christ, to receive Him
   now. Perhaps someone enquires, "How can we receive Him?" Well, first,
   open the door which has

   hitherto been closed. Be willing that He should come into your heart,
   to rule your whole life. Next, stand at the door and invite Him to come
   in. By earnest prayer, entreat Him to enter. Then, believe in Him--that
   is really to receive Him, as John says, "As many as received Him, to
   them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
   on His name." So that believing on Him is receiving Him. It is trusting
   Him. You know what it is to trust yourself wholly to the care of
   another. Just as you might, on some dark night, when you had lost your
   way on the moor, trust yourself entirely with a guide who knew the way,
   even so trust yourself with Christ to lead you to His Father, and He
   will do it. You have received Him when you have trusted Him! O dear
   Hearts, do receive my Master! Blessed Spirit, lead them to do so, and
   to do so at once!

   I admire Zacchaeus very much for one thing in which he differed from a
   good many of you. You ask such a lot of questions and when you get them
   answered, or if they are not answered, you ask so many more. If
   Zacchaeus had been like you, I can imagine how he would have sat up in
   that sycamore tree, and when Christ called out to him, "Make haste, and
   come down," He would have said, "But_." And Jesus would have listened,
   and heard what he had to say, and answered him. Then he would have said
   again, "But, Lord__." And there he might have stayed up in that
   sycamore tree

   and no blessing would have come to him! There are so many of you who
   have been, as it were, up a sycamore tree for years! You always want to
   know more than you will ever know. You seem to be very clever at
   picking holes in the Gos-pel--you have wonderful skill in the art of
   trying how you can damn yourselves--and you will do it, one of these
   days, unless God should prevents you by His almighty Grace!

   If you can, you even spoil the precious promises of Scripture. You lay
   hold of one of God's golden coins and try to deface it. I mean that you
   take His promise and then seek to get the very life and soul out of
   it--not that you may claim it for yourself, but in order to show that
   it does not belong to you! I never yet heard of a man going to the law
   to prove that a fortune was nothis. Men are eager enough to get
   temporal things, but when you come to spiritual things, there are
   thousands of people who seem only anxious to prove that they can never
   be saved! If I were in your place, I would let the devil do that kind
   of work if he liked, it is very much to his taste, but, as for you, do
   not have even a little finger in it!

   Look at Zacchaeus. I can see him. As soon as ever Christ says to him,
   "Come down," why, dear me, the man is down before we can utter another
   word! And soon he is at the door of his house and saying to the Master,
   "Come in, Lord, come in! Heartily do I welcome You!" Now, then--go and
   do likewise--ask no more questions, but make haste, and come down, and
   receive Christ joyfully. "But I want to know this." You shall know it
   when you have received Christ. "But am I one of His elect?" I will
   answer your question as soon as you receive Him. A good Wesleyan
   brother said to a Calvinistic friend down in Cornwall, "Now, Malachi, I
   owe you these two pounds, but, before I pay you, you must tell me
   whether you are predestinated to have them." Malachi said, "Just put
   the two pounds here, in the middle of my hand, and I will tell you
   directly."

   That was very sensible on the part of Malachi and I say to you--Do not
   be asking about predestination or anything else, but just receive
   Christ! And when you have accepted Him, you may rest assured that He
   has given you power to become a son of God! You have believed on His
   name and, therefore, you are saved! That is the all-important point.
   So, like Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down, and receive Christ
   joyfully! The Lord grant that you may do it and unto His name shall be
   the praise forever and ever! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 19:1-27.

   Verses 1, 2. And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold,
   there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the
   publicans, and he was rich. Many of those tax-gatherers were rich. They
   usually farmed the taxes, and took care to extort all that they
   possibly could out of the poverty of the people.

   3. And he sought to see Jesus who He was. He did not seek to
   hearHim--his curiosity lay in another direction--he desired to seeHim.
   Who could this Man be who created such a stir? What kind of Man was He?

   3-5. And could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And
   he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him: for He
   was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up,
   and saw him. Zacchaeus went up into the sycamore tree that he might see
   Jesus, but he was, himself, seen there by Jesus. And that, dear
   Friends, is

   the first act in the process of salvation! Jesus looks at us and then
   we look at Him. So, here, the Lord spied out Zacchaeus up among the
   branches of the tree--"He looked up, and saw him."

   5. And said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I
   must abide at your house. His surprise at receiving such a message must
   have been overwhelming, yet he did not allow that surprise to delay his
   obedience to Christ's command.

   6, 7. And he made haste, and came down, and received Him joyfully. And
   when they saw it, they all murmured, saying that He was gone to be
   guest with a man that is a sinner ' 'This professedly superior Teacher,
   this Purist, this Teacher of the highest morality has gone to be guest
   with this tax gatherer--a man who is a sort of outlaw, a disreputable
   person altogether." Ah, how does the legal spirit in self-righteous men
   cry out against the sweet benevolence of our blessed Master who comes
   into the world for this very purpose--to be the Guest of sinners, that
   He may be the Physician of sinners!

   8. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half
   of my goods I give to the poor There was not one among those
   self-righteous people who would have done a tenth as much as Zacchaeus
   declared that he would do!

   8. And if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I
   restore him fourfold. There was not one among the murmurers who would
   have dared to say as much as that! There are a great many people who
   are quick to condemn those who are a hundred times better than
   themselves. I wonder whether there are any people of that sort here? I
   should not wonder if there are.

   9. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house,
   for as much as he is also a son of Abraham. When our Lord was here, His
   personal mission as a Soul-Winner was to the Jews, to those who were of
   the house of Abraham. So He shows that however much despised this man
   might be, he came within the compass of the Christ's immediate
   mission--"for as much as he is also a son of Abraham."

   10. 11. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was
   lost And as they heard these things, He added and spoke a parable,
   because He was near to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the
   kingdom of God should immediately appear Some of them dreamt of a
   temporal sovereignty with Christ at its head, so He taught them that
   His Kingdom was something very different from that.

   12, 13. He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country
   to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten
   servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy
   till I come.' 'Use these pounds on my account. Be stewards of them for
   me until I return."

   14-16. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him,
   saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to
   pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he
   commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given
   the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.
   Then came the first, saying, Lord, your pound has gained ten pounds. He
   was a modest man. He did not say, "I have gained ten pounds," but,
   "Your pound has gained ten pounds." And if God has blessed anyone so as
   to enable him to bring in a large result from the talent entrusted to
   him, he must ascribe it all to God, and not to himself--"Lord, Your
   pound has gained ten pounds."

   17-19. And he said unto him, Well, you good servant: because you have
   been faithful in a very little, have you authority over ten cities. And
   the second came, saying, Lord, your pound has gained five pounds. And
   he said likewise to him, Be you also over five cities. Observe that,
   whatever the triumph of Christ is to be, His faithful servants are to
   share in it. He is to be the King of the many cities in the rich
   provinces of His Father's domain, but He will give to one of His
   servants ten cities, and to another five cities. But what a vast
   dominion that must be out of which He can afford to give such rewards
   as this! Ten cities--can any earthly king give in this fashion? There
   are royal rewards at the last for those who are faithful now. No
   pitiful pence shall fall to the lot of those who diligently serve the
   Lord Christ--they shall have a rich reward, not of debt, but of Grace
   and, therefore, all the larger!

   20. And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is your pound, which I
   have kept laid up, in a napkin. He had not lost it, he had not spent
   it, he had not even dug a hole in the earth and hidden it--he had used
   a nice piece of linen to wrap it in and had taken great care of it. And
   there it was, just as when he received it. It had not diminished,
   neither had it grown at all.

   21. For I feared you, because you are an austere man: you take up that
   you laid not down, and reap that you did not sow. So there is a slavish
   kind of fear, a dread, a horror of God which will keep men out of His
   service. It ought not le-

   gitimately to do so, but, undoubtedly, there are some persons who, out
   of an evil timidity, are afraid to attempt anything for God or man, and
   hence their life is useless. Their talent cankers and rusts in the
   napkin in which they have wrapped

   it.

   22. And he said unto him, Out of your own mouth will I judge you, you
   wicked servant! You knew that I was an austere man. ' 'That was your
   opinion. According to your own confession, that was your idea
   concerning me--'You knew that I was an austere man.'"

   22, 23. Taking up that Ilaid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:
   why then gave not you my money into the bank, that at my coming Imight
   have required my own with usury? "With proper interest." God does not
   trouble about clearing His Character with ungodly men. You and I are
   very particular and punctilious in defending ourselves against false
   accusations, but God's Character needs no clearing. It is so
   transparent that if ungodly men choose to smear it, He argues with them
   on their own ground, and does not stay to answer their slanders. When I
   have heard people say of God that He is unjust or too severe, all I
   have felt inclined to say in reply was just this, "Whatever He may be,
   He is the God who will judge you at the last. And if you think thus of
   Him, so much the more ought you to yield yourself to Him and submit to
   His infinite majesty, for He is King of kings, and Lord of lords. It is
   an ill day when we attempt to be the judge of our Judge, and pretend to
   be the god of God. He is infinitely glorious, so let us bow before
   Him!"

   24-26. And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him thepound, and
   give it to him that has ten pounds. (And they said unto him, Lord, he
   has tenpounds). For Isay unto you, that unto everyone which has shall
   be given; and from him that has not, even what he has shall be taken
   away from him. They who have some already shall have more, especially
   in the matter of Grace. If you serve God well, He will give you more to
   do. If you love Him ardently, He will reward you by enabling you to
   have more love to Him. And if you exercise great faith, He will give
   you yet more faith. The way to be truly enriched, spiritually, is to be
   faithful to God in what we have.

   27. But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over
   them, bring hither and slay them before me. Whatever these words mean,
   it is certain that there is a terrible doom in store for all who are
   God's enemies! May none of us be found among them!
     __________________________________________________________________

"Marvelous Loving Kindness"

   (No. 2702)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER
   20, 1881.

   "Show Your marvelous loving kindness." Psalm 17:7.

   THE Lord's people, in the time of their trouble, know where to go for
   comfort and relief. Being taught of God, they do not hew out for
   themselves broken cisterns which can hold no water, but they turn to
   the ever-flowing Fountain, they go to the Wellhead--even to God
   Himself--and there they cast themselves down and drink to the full.
   David, when he wrote this Psalm, was evidently in very great distress
   and, therefore, he says, "I have called upon You, for You will hear me,
   O God: incline Your ear unto me, and hear my speech." What he needed
   was his God, as Dr. Watts expresses it--

   "In darkest shades if He appears,

   My dawning is begun.

   He is my soul's sweet morning star,

   And He my rising sun."

   Believers draw comfort both from God's ordinary and extraordinary
   dealings with them, for they regard God's loving kindness as being both
   an ordinary and an extraordinary thing. I have heard of a good Sister
   who, when a friend narrated to her some very gracious dealing of God,
   was asked the question, "Is it not very wonderful?" and she replied,
   "No, it is not wonderful, for it is just like Him." Begging her pardon
   and admitting the great Truth of God that she meant to convey, I think
   it is still more wonderful that it should be "just like Him." The
   wonder of extraordinary love is that God should make it such an
   ordinary thing, that He should give to us "marvelous loving kindness,"
   and yet should give it so often that it becomes a daily blessing, and
   still remains marvelous! The marvels of men, after you have seen them a
   few times, cease to excite any wonder. I suppose there is scarcely a
   building, however costly its materials, and however rare its
   architecture, as to which, sooner or later, you will not feel that you
   have seen enough of it. But God's wonderful works never pall upon you.
   You could gaze upon Mont Blanc, or you could stand and watch Niagara
   Falls, yet never feel that you had exhausted all its marvels. And
   everyone knows how the ocean is never twice alike. They who live close
   to it and look upon it every hour of the day, still see God's wonders
   in the deep!

   That God should bless us every day is a theme for our comfort. God's
   ordinary ways charm us. The verse before our text says, "'I have called
   upon You, for You will hear me, O God.' I know You will, for the
   blessing that I am about to ask from You is a thing that I have been
   accustomed to receive from You. I know You will hear me, for You have
   heard me in the past; it is a habit of Yours to listen to my
   supplications, and to grant my requests." I hope we can argue in a
   similar fashion, yet, at the same time, God's people draw equal comfort
   from the extraordinary character of the mercies He bestows upon them.
   They appeal to Him to show them His "marvelous loving kindness," to let
   them see the wonderful side of it as well as the common side of it. To
   let them behold His miracles of mercy, His extravagances of love, His
   superfluities of kindness--I scarcely know what words to use when
   talking of what the Apostle Paul calls "the riches of His Grace,
   wherein He has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence," "the
   exceeding riches of His Grace in His kindness toward us through Christ
   Jesus."

   I want, on this occasion, to dwell upon the extraordinary side of God's
   loving kindness and, using our text as a prayer, to say to the Lord in
   the language of David, "Show Your marvelous loving kindness." Sometimes
   a man is

   brought into such a condition that he feels that if God does not do
   something quite out of the common order of things, he will assuredly
   perish. He has now come to such a pass, that if some extraordinary
   Grace is not displayed towards him, all is over with him. Well, now,
   such a Brother may think that God will not give this extraordinary
   Grace to him. He may be troubled at the idea that some marvelous thing
   is needed. It is to meet that suggestion of unbelief that I am going to
   address you now.

   I. And my first remark is that ALL THE LOVING KINDNESS OF GOD IS
   MARVELOUS.

   The least mercy from God is a miracle. That God does not crush our
   sinful race is a surprising mercy. That you and I should have been
   spared to live--even though it were only to exist in direst poverty, or
   in sorest sickness--that we should have been spared at all, after what
   we have been and after what we have done, is a very marvelous thing.
   The explanation of the marvel is given in the Book of Malachi--"I am
   the Lord, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed."
   If God had possessed such a short temper as men often have, He would
   have made short work with us all. But He is gracious and long-suffering
   and, therefore, he is very patient with us. The very least mercy that
   we ever receive from God is a very wonderful thing, but when we think
   of all that is meant by this blessed word, "loving kindness"-- which is
   a compound of all sorts of sweetness, a mixture of fragrances to make
   up one absolutely perfect perfume--when we take that word, "loving
   kindness," and think over its meaning, we shall see that it is a
   marvelous thing, indeed, that it describes!

   For, first, it is marvelous for its antiquity. To think that God should
   have had loving kindness towards men before the earth was, that there
   should have been a Covenant of Election--a plan of Redemption--a scheme
   of Atonement-- that there should have been eternal thoughts of love in
   the mind of God towards such a strange being as man, is, indeed,
   marvelous! "What is man, that you are mindful of him? And the son of
   man, that you visit him?" Read these words with tears in your eyes--"I
   have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness
   have I drawn you." And when you know that this passage refers to you,
   tell me if it is not "marvelous loving kindness." God's mind is
   occupied with thoughts concerning things that are infinitely greater
   than the destiny of anyone of us, or of all of us put together! Yet He
   was pleased to think of us in love from all eternity and to write our
   names upon His hands and upon His heart, and to keep the remembrance of
   us perpetually before Him, for His "delights were with the sons of
   men." This antiquity makes it to be, indeed, "marvelous loving
   kindness."

   Next, think of its discriminating character, that God's loving kindness
   should have come to the poorest, to the most illiterate, the most
   obscure and often to the most guilty of our race. Remember what Paul
   wrote about this matter-- "not many wise men after the flesh, not many
   mighty, not manly 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." Dr. Watts expresses the
   same thought in his verses--

   "When the Eternal bows the skies To visit earthly things, With scorn
   Divine He turns His eyes From towers of haughty kings. He bids His
   awful chariot roll Far downward from the skies, To visit every humble
   soul, With pleasure in His eyes."

   God's choice is marvelous! I know of no better word to apply to His
   loving kindness to His chosen than that which is applied in the
   text--"Your marvelous loving kindness"--

   "What was there in you that could merit esteem,

   Or give the Creator delight?

   "Twas even so, Father, 'you ever must sing,

   'Because it seemed good in Your sight. There is no other explanation of
   this wondrous mercy, this "marvelous loving kindness," than the poet
   gives--

   "His love, from eternity fixed upon you,

   Broke forth and discovered its flame,

   When each with the cords of His kindness He drew,

   And brought you to love His great name."

   So, Beloved, think over the antiquity of God's loving kindness and then
   of the discriminating character of it--and surely you will be full of
   adoring wonder!

   After that, think also of the self-sacrificing nature of His loving
   kindness--that, when God had set His heart on man, and had chosen His
   people before the foundation of the world, then He should give--what?
   Himself. Yes, nothing short of that--that He should not only give us
   this world, His Providence, all its blessings, the world to come and
   all its glories, but that, in order to our possession of these things,
   He should give His own Son to die for us! Well might the Apostle John
   write, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us,
   and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." It was not that
   Christ died for us when we were righteous, "for scarcely for a
   righteous man will one die," "but God commends His love toward us, in
   that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." "When we were yet
   without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Isaiah had
   long before explained the mystery--"It pleased the Lord to bruise Him:
   He has put Him to grief." You who love your children, to lose one of
   whom would be worse than to die--you can realize a little of what must
   have been the Father's love to you in giving up His only-begotten Son
   that you might live through Him. Dwell on this great Truth of God, dear
   Friends. Meditate on it and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into its
   heights, depths, length, and breadths, for these lips cannot fully
   speak of its wonders! As you think over the Lord's ancient loving
   kindnesses which has always been, His distinguishing love towards His
   redeemed and His self-sacrificing love in giving up His Only-Begotten,
   you will be obliged to say, "It is marvelous loving kindness! It is
   marvelous loving kindness, indeed!"

   Then go on to think of the marvelous constancy of it That one should
   begin to love another is not so very wonderful--but that love, after it
   has been despised and ill-requited, should still continue--that the
   sweet love of Christ should not long ago have curdled into jealousy,
   and from jealousy have soured into indignation, is an extraordinary
   thing! He loved us, Brothers and Sisters, when we did not even know Him
   and yet hated the Unknown--when we did not even dimly understand His
   love to us and, perhaps, even ridiculed it, or at least neglected it!
   Yet He kept on loving us until He loved us into loving Him! But even
   since then, what has been our character? Are you satisfied with what
   you have been towards the Well-Beloved? Are you content with your
   conduct towards the Bridegroom of your souls? I know that you are not,
   and yet, notwithstanding your lukewarmness, your backsliding, your
   dishonoring of His name, your unbelief, your pride, your love of
   others, He still loves you, and even now, if you are not enjoying
   fellowship with Him, He has not gone away from you, for His Word still
   is, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock."

   He loves, He loves on and He still loves. Many waters cannot quench His
   love, neither can the floods drown it. It is, indeed, "marvelous loving
   kindness." Can you think of a better adjective than that? I cannot, yet
   I am conscious that even it does not fully express the miraculous
   character of this all-enduring love which will not take our, "No," for
   an answer, but still says, "Yes--'yes, I will betroth you unto Me in
   righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies.
   I will even betroth you unto me in faithfulness, and you shall know the
   Lord.'" Oh, this wonderful, this matchless, this unparalleled, this
   inconceivable, this infinite love! No human language can adequately
   describe it, so let us sit still and marvel at that which we cannot
   even understand.

   There is much in God's loving kindness to be marveled at in its strange
   ingenuity. I might keep on with this topic forever, applying one word
   and another to it, yet I should never have shown you even a tenth of
   its wonders, for it is an altogether inexhaustible theme! But it is
   wonderful how God deals with us with such a sacred ingenuity of
   tenderness. He seems to be always thinking of something for our good,
   while we, on our part, appear to be always testing His love in one way
   or another. Some fresh need is discovered only to receive a new supply
   of Grace. Some fresh sin breaks out only to be blotted out with the
   ever-pardoning blood of Jesus. We get into fresh difficulties only to
   receive fresh aid. The further I go on my way to Heaven, the more I
   admire the road as well as wonder at the goal to which that road shall
   bring me. "O world of wonders!" said John Bunyan, "I can say no less."

   They tell us, nowadays, that the world is worn-out and that there is no
   joy in life, and nothing fresh to afford delight. Ah, me, they talk of
   the attractions of fiction and of the playwright's art, and I know not
   what besides. They must travel all round the world to get a new
   sensation and many a man, today, is like the Emperor Tiberius who
   offered large

   sums of money to anyone who could invent a new pleasure, meaning, alas,
   too often, a new vice, or a new way of practicing it. But staying at
   home with Christ has more wonders in it than gadding abroad with all
   the wisest of the world! There is more to marvel at in half an inch of
   the way to Heaven than there is in a thousand leagues of the ordinary
   pathway of unbelieving men. They call their joys by the name of,
   "life," and say that they must "see life." But the Apostle John tells
   us that "he that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of
   God has not life." That is to say, he is dead. Death has its varieties
   of worms and rottenness. There are charnel-houses and charnel-houses,
   various processes and methods of corruption and, no doubt, there is a
   science that men may learn in the cemetery and call it life, if they
   like. But, oh, if they did but once see Christ upon the Cross, they
   would learn that they had been blind till then! If they did but know
   His loving kindness, they would rejoice in it in the sick-chamber, in
   the long weary night watches when every bone prevented sleep. They
   would even recognize it in the arrows of death that smote wife, and
   child, and brother. They would see it, not only in the table loaded for
   the supply of hunger, and in the garments furnished against the cold,
   and in every common blessing of Providence, but they would also see it
   in every despondency, in every deficiency, in every cross and every
   loss--and, seeing it, they would keep on saying, "It is all for the
   best. It is far better than the best could have been if it had been
   left to me. It is marvelous! It is marvelous loving kindness."

   I believe that when we get to Heaven, one of the wonders of the
   Glory-land will be to look back upon the road over which we have
   traveled. It will be marvelous to note the way in which God has led us
   and we shall, as our hymn puts it--

   "Sing with rapture and surprise, His loving kindness in the skies!" I
   must now leave this part of my subject with you, only again urging you
   to think over the Truth of which I have been speaking, that all God's
   loving kindness to His people is marvelous.

   II. Now, secondly, WE SHOULD DESIRE TO SEE THIS LOVING KINDNESS. The
   Psalmist says, "Show Your marvelous loving kindness." And we ought to
   ask God to let us see it--and that, I think, in four ways.

   First, let me see it with my intellect, that I may adore. Help me, O
   blessed Spirit, to see and understand what is the loving kindness of
   God to my soul! I know that it is written of some that "they shall
   understand the loving kindness of the Lord." Let me be among the number
   of those truly wise ones. O Lord, make me wise to see the end and
   design of Your Providence as well as the Providence itself! Make me
   wise to perceive how You have prepared Your Grace to meet my depravity,
   how You adapt Your holding me up to the slipperiness of the way and to
   the feebleness of my feet. Often shed a ray of light upon some passage
   in my life which otherwise I could not comprehend--and let the light
   stay there till I begin to see and to know why You did this and why You
   did that. "Show Your marvelous loving kindness."

   I am sure, dear Friends, that the lessons of a man's own life are too
   often neglected, but there is in the life of any ordinary child of
   God--let me pick you out wherever you may be--John, Mary,
   Thomas--enough to fill you with wonder and admiration of the loving
   kindness of the Lord if your mind is but sufficiently illuminated to
   perceive the hand of God in it, and to see what God purposed by it. He
   sometimes uses strange means for producing blessed results. With His
   sharp axe, He will cut down all our choice trees. As by a whirlwind or
   a tornado, He will devastate our gardens and make our fields a
   desolation. And He will do it all in order that He may drive us away
   from the City of Destruction and make us go on pilgrimage to the
   Celestial City, where the axe can never come, and the leaves will never
   fade. In His mysterious dealings with us, the Lord often seems to push
   us backward that we may go forward, and to deluge us with sorrow that
   He may immerse us in blessings! That is His way of wondrously working
   and if we did but understand it, according to the prayer of the text,
   "Show Your marvelous loving kindness," we would be full of adoring
   wonder.

   The next meaning I would give to this prayer would be, Lord, show Your
   loving kindness to my heart, that I may give You thanks. Lord, I know
   that You have been very good to me, but I pray You to show my heart how
   good You have been, by letting me see how unworthy I have been of this,
   Your kindness. It is very profitable, sometimes, to sit down and
   rehearse the loving kindness of God, mingling with it penitential
   reflections upon your own shortcoming. If you do this, you will at last
   break out with some such cry as this, "Why is all this mercy shown to
   me?" I know a dear Brother in Christ, a clergyman, whose name is
   Curme--he divides it into two syllables, "Curme, "so as to make it
   mean, "Why me? Why is all this goodness given to me, Lord?" And that is
   a question which I, too, would ask, "Why me,

   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?"

   Is this kindness, and this, and this, all meant for me? Can it really
   be intended for me? Such reflections as these will make me realize more
   than ever, how "marvelous" is God's "loving kindness" to me, and will
   fill my soul with adoring gratitude and thanksgiving.

   Then, next, we ought to pray the Lord to show His "marvelous loving
   kindness" to our faith, that we may again confide in Him. If He will
   cause the eyes of our faith to see that He has this "marvelous loving
   kindness" toward us, we shall be the more ready to rely upon Him in all
   the straits into which we may yet be brought. Do you believe it, my
   dear Friend? Brother in Christ, do you believe that God loves you? You
   know how sweet it is to be sure that your child loves you. Though it
   may well do so, because of its many obligations to you, yet is it sweet
   for its warm cheek to touch yours and to hear it say, "Father, I love
   you." But, oh, it is far sweeter for God to say, "I love you." Read the
   Song of Solomon through and be not afraid to appropriate the message of
   that sweet and matchless Canticle! Hear in it the voice of Jesus saying
   to you, "You are all fair, My love; there is no spot in you." "You have
   ravished My heart, My sister, My spouse; you have ravished My heart
   with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck." Such words as
   those may be sensuous to those who are sensuous, but they are deeply
   spiritual to those who are spiritual and, oh, the bliss of having such
   words as those to come from the Christ of God to us! Why, sometimes,
   when our Lord thus speaks to us, we hardly know how to bear our excess
   ofjoy! I would not ask for a better holiday than to have one hour alone
   with Jesus--to be undisturbed by any earthly care and to think of
   nothing else but the love of God--the love of God to me! Oh, that it
   were now shed abroad, in all its fullness, in this poor heart of mine!
   O Divine Love, what is there that can ever match Your inexpressible
   sweetness? Truly it is "marvelous loving kindness." Again I ask you--Do
   you believe this? Are you sure you do? Pray God to show it to your
   faith, distinctly and clearly, so that you shall be absolutely sure of
   it and practically depend upon it whenever you need it.

   One other meaning of the text may be show Your "marvelous loving
   kindness" to me, now, in my experience, that I may rest in You. Let me,
   now, at this present moment, O my God, experience something of that
   loving kindness in my soul, in whatever condition I may happen to be,
   that I may be so flooded with the consciousness of it that I may do
   nothing else but sit in solemn silence before You and adore You while
   beholding the blazing splendor of Your love! I cannot say anymore about
   this part of my theme, but must leave you to fill up the gaps in the
   sermon. This is not a topic upon which one should venture to speak if
   he wants to say all that should or could be said upon it.

   III. So, thirdly, dear Friends, I remark that IT SHOULD BE OUR
   DESIRE--and there are times when it should especiallybe our desire--TO
   SEE THIS "MARVELOUS LOVING KINDNESS" OF GOD DISPLAYED TO US IN ITS

   MARVELOUSNESS.

   I will make plain to you what I mean directly and, first, we would see
   it as pardoning great sin. I expect we have here, in this assembly, at
   least one whose sin lies very heavy on his conscience. We do not find
   many such people come out to week-evening services, but yet I thank God
   that they do come. Your sin is very great, dear Friend. I cannot
   exaggerate it because your own sense of its greatness far surpasses any
   descriptions I could give. You feel that if God were to pardon you, it
   would be a marvelous thing. If He were, in one moment, to take all your
   guilt away and to send you home completely forgiven, it would be a
   marvelous thing! Yes, it would. And I beg you to pray this prayer,
   "Lord, show forth Your marvelous loving kindness in me." God is
   constantly doing wonders. Then, glorify His name by believing that He
   can work this miracle of mercy for you. Do not be afraid to sing--

   "Great God of wonders! All Your ways

   Are matchless, God-like, and Divine.

   But the fair glories of Your Grace

   More God-like and unrivalled shine!

   Who is a pardoning God like Thee?

   Or who has Grace so rich and free?" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
   and you shall be saved, and saved immediately! Trust Him, now, and
   marvelous though it will be to you--I have shown you that God's loving
   kindness is all marvelous, that the extraordinary is ordinary with Him,
   and that the marvelous is but an everyday thing with Him--pray for this
   "marvelous loving kindness" to be manifested to you and you shall have
   it! One said, "If God ever saves me, He shall never hear the end of
   it." You may

   say the same and resolve that, henceforth, having had much forgiven,
   you will love much--having been saved from great sin, you will tell it
   on earth, and tell it in Heaven and, if you could, you would even wish
   to make Hell itself resound with the wondrous story--

   "'Tell it unto sinners tell, I am, I am out of Hell'--

   "and what is more, I am on the road to Heaven, for God's 'marvelous
   loving kindness' has been shown to me!"

   So God's loving kindness may be seen as pardoning great sin. And next,
   it may be seen as delivering from deep trouble. I may be addressing
   some poor child of God who is sorely perplexed. These are very trying
   times and we constantly meet with godly people who have a sincere
   desire to provide things honest in the sight of all men, but who do not
   find it easy to do. Some very gracious people have got into serious
   straits and how they will get out, they cannot imagine. If this is your
   case, dear Friend, I expect you feel very much as John Fawcett's hymn
   puts it--

   "My soul, with various tempests tested,

   Her hopes overturned, her projects crossed,

   Sees every day new straits attend,

   And wonders where the scene will end." Well, now, if you are ever
   brought through all your troubles, it will be "marvelous loving
   kindness" to you, will it not? Then go to God with the prayer, "Show me
   Your marvelous loving kindness," and He will do it. He will bring you
   up, and out, and through--not, perhaps, in the way you would like to
   come--but He will bring you out in the best way. "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 ways unto the Lord; trust also in
   Him; and He shall bring it to pass." Always expect the unexpected when
   you are dealing with God! Look to see, in God, and from God, what you
   never saw before, for the very things which will seem to unbelief--to
   be utterly impossible--will be those which are most likely to happen
   when you are dealing with Him whose arm is Omnipotent, and whose heart
   is faithful and true. God grant you Grace, dear Friend, thus to use the
   prayer of our text as the means of delivering you from deep trouble!

   Here is another way to use it. I think you may pray it thus--at any
   event, I mean to do so, whether you will or not-- "Lord, reveal Your
   marvelous loving kindness to me, so as to give me high joys and
   ecstasies of delight" I sometimes envy those good people who never go
   up and never go down, always keeping at one level--theirs must be a
   very pleasant experience, indeed. Still, if ever I do get on the high
   horse, then I go up far beyond anything I can describe. If ever I do
   ride upon the clouds, then I do not envy the people who stay along the
   smooth road. Oh, what deep depressions some of us have had! We have
   gone down to the very bottoms of the mountains and the earth, and her
   bars have seemed to be about us forever. But, after just one glimpse of
   God's everlasting love, we have been up there where the young lightning
   flashes, resting and trusting among the tempests, near to God's right
   hand! I think, no, I am sure we may pray for this experience! Should
   not the preacher of the Word wish to know the fullness of Divine Love?
   Should not the teacher of the young long to learn all that he can
   concerning God's Infinite Love? Though this is the love that passes
   knowledge, should not every Christian wish to know all that is knowable
   of this great love of God? Then let us pray, "Show Your marvelous
   loving kindness."

   It was truly said, "You cannot see God's face and live." But I have
   been inclined to say, "Then let me see God's face, and die." John Welsh
   said, when God was flooding his soul with a sense of His wondrous love,
   "Stop, Lord, stop! I am but an earthen vessel and You will break me."
   If I had been there and I could have borne no more, I would have said,
   "Do not stop, Lord! Break the poor earthen vessel--smash it to
   pieces--but let Your love be revealed in me!" Oh, that I might even die
   of this pleasurable pain of knowing too much of God, too much of the
   ineffable delight of fellowship with Him! Let us be very venturesome,
   Beloved, and pray, "Show Your marvelous loving kindness."

   And, when we have done that, I think we may put up this prayer for
   ourselves, as to our own usefulness. You want to do good, dear
   Brother--dear sister. Well, then, pray to God, "Show me Your marvelous
   loving kindness, O Lord! Use even such a feeble creature as I am. Let
   Heaven, and earth, and Hell, itself, see that You can save souls by
   poor ignorant men as well as by inspired Apostles and learned doctors!
   Lord, in my Chapel, show Your marvelous loving kindness. Crowd it with
   people and bring many of them to Christ. In my class, Lord, show Your
   marvelous loving kindness. If there never was a Sunday school class in
   which all were saved, Lord, let it be done in mine. Make it a marvelous
   thing." A

   dear Brother, who prayed at the Prayer Meeting before this service,
   kept on pleading that God would bless me again as He had done before. I
   liked that prayer--it was as if my friend meant to say to the Lord,"
   Whatever You did in years gone by, do the same over again. If ever it
   was a marvelous thing to see how the people thronged to hear the Word,
   Lord, make it still more marvelous."

   I remember when some people called our early success "a nine days'
   wonder." Well, well, well--it has been a good long nine days! But, oh,
   that we might have another nine days like it--just such another nine
   days! May God be pleased to send us as many conversions as we had at
   the first--yes, and I shall add, and ten times as many! And if ever
   there have been revivals in the Church of God that have been really
   marvelous, Brothers and Sisters, let us take up the cry, "Lord, show
   Your marvelous loving kindness again! Send us another Whitefield, and
   another Wesley, if such will be the kind of men that will bless the
   world. Send us another Luther, another Calvin, another Zwingli, if such
   are the men that will bless the world. Lord, send us another Augustine,
   or another Jerome, if such are the men by whom You will bless the
   world. But, in some way or other, Lord, show us Your marvelous loving
   kindness."

   "Oh, but," some would say, "we do not need any excitement. That is an
   awful thing, you know--anything like excitement." And, then, perhaps,
   they add, "We have heard so much of what has been done in previous
   revivals. It has all ended in smoke and, therefore, we really dread the
   repetition of such an experience." Well, then, Brother, you go home and
   pray, "Lord, show me Your moderateloving kindness." When you are on
   your knees, tonight, pray, "Lord, save half-a-dozen souls here, and
   there--

   "'We are a garden walled around,

   Chosen and made peculiar ground.

   A little spot, enclosed by Grace,

   Out of the world's wide wilderness.'-- "Lord, make it yet smaller,
   screw us up still tighter, to the glory of Your blessed name!"

   I don't think any of you can pray that prayer! You shall, if you like,
   but for my part, I mean to pray, and I hope many of you will join me in
   it, and may God hear us--"Show us Your marvelous loving kindness!" Oh,
   for some new miracle of mercy to be worked in the earth! Oh, for some
   great thing to be done, such as was done of old! Shall it be so, or
   not? On this promise it shall depend--"Open your mouth wide, and I will
   fill it." But if our mouths are not open, we cannot expect to get the
   blessing. "According to your faith be it unto you." The Lord grant that
   our faith may expect to see His "marvelous loving kindness" displayed
   yet more and more! Amen and Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM17.

   Verse 1. Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my
   prayer, that goes not out of deceitful lips. Good men are often
   slandered and misunderstood and, at such times, the first verse of this
   Psalm will well fit their lips. "Hear the right, O Lord." And, at all
   times, it is a great blessing when a supplicant can say to God, "Give
   ear unto my prayer, that goes not out of deceitful lips." It must be a
   dreadful thing to pray with lips that do not speak the truth! When
   men's thoughts are far away from their prayers, and they are muttering
   pious words but their heart is absent, what a mockery it must be in the
   sight of God! A dead prayer--who will claim it? Beware of dead prayers.
   You may dress them up as finely as you like, but, if there is no life
   in them, what good are they?

   2. Let my sentence come forth from Your Presence; let Your eyes behold
   the things that are equal. It is the appeal of a slandered man to the
   highest court. He takes his case into the Court of King's Bench, and
   asks God, Himself, to give the verdict concerning what he had done. It
   is a good case that will bear to be so investigated.

   3. You have proved my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have
   tried me, and shall find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not
   transgress. Happy is the man who is not afraid for God to come to him
   suddenly in the night, or to pounce upon him, as it were, at any hour
   of the day, for, whenever He comes, He will find His servant so acting
   that he will not mind who examines his conduct. He is keeping his lips,
   purposing that they shall not transgress God's Law, and he is ruling
   his whole body in like manner. Only the Grace of God can enable us to
   do this.

   4. Concerning the works of men, by the word of Your lips I have kept
   from the paths of the destroyer Notice that verse, young man! There is
   much-needed teaching there for you. There are many "paths of the
   destroyer" in this wicked

   city of London, and all over the world--and it is only by taking heed
   to our ways, according to God's Word, that we can hope to escape from
   them. How pleasant those "paths of the destroyer" often appear to be!
   How smooth and how alluring they are! All sorts of supposed delicacies
   and beauties will tempt you to go that way, and the foolish heart
   readily inclines to these indulgences, but happy is the man whose
   judgment is enlightened by God's Word so that he avoids it, and passes
   by "the paths of the destroyer."

   5. Hold up my goings in Your paths, that my footsteps slip not "I know
   that I am in Your way, but, O Lord, hold me up! I am like a horse that
   needs a careful driver, else I shall trip and fall, in rough places or
   in smooth, 'Hold up my goings in Your paths,' for I may fall even
   there. There are the sins of my holy things, so 'hold up my goings in
   Your paths, that my footsteps slip not.'"

   6-12. I have called upon You, for You wiil hear me, O God: incline Your
   ear unto me, and hear my speech. Show Your marvelous loving kindness, O
   You that saves by Your right hand them who put their trust in You from
   those that rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of Your eye, hide
   me under the shadow of Your wings, from the wicked that oppress me,
   from my deadly enemies who compass me about They are enclosed in their
   own fat--with their mouth they speak proudly. They have now compassed
   us in our steps--they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth like
   as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion
   lurking in secret places. Many godly men have such cruel enemies as
   David had, so they will do well to pray as he did!

   13-15. Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul
   from the wicked, which is Your sword: from men which are Your hand, O
   LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and
   whose belly You fill with Your hidden treasure: they are full of
   children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for
   me-- "What do I possess? What is my portion? Am I full of substance,
   like the men of the world, or have I little of this world's wealth? It
   is of small consequence, for, 'as for me'"--

   15. I will behold Your face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied,
   when I awake, with Your likeness. That is our portion! God grant that
   we may prize it more and more! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Preservation of Christians in the World

   (No. 2703)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 2D, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A THURSDAY EVENING, IN THE
   YEAR 1855.

   "I pray not that You should take them out of the world, but that You
   should keep them from the evil." John 17:15.

   THE text, as we observed on a former occasion, [Sermon #47, Volume
   1--CHRIST'S PRAYER FOR HIS PEOPLE contains two prayers--a negative
   prayer and a positive prayer. First, there is the negative prayer--"I
   pray not that You should take them out of the world." There are wise
   ends to be observed by their remaining here. It will ultimately
   increase their happiness in Heaven. It will give glory to God. It shall
   be the means of the conversion of others--therefore, "I pray not that
   you should take them out of the world," but I do pray--and here comes
   the positive prayer--"that, while they are in it, 'you should keep them
   from the evil.'"

   I. Let us first, then, CONSIDER THE EVIL FROM WHICH CHRIST PRAYS THAT
   HIS PEOPLE MAY BE KEPT.

   We have no hesitation in declaring that the only evil here intended is
   the evil of sin. It may be true that Jesus Christ pleads with His
   Father to preserve us from some of the direful afflictions which might
   be too much for our mortal frame to endure. It may be that, sometimes,
   the blows and attacks of the enemy are warded off by the arm of the
   intercession of Jesus. It may be that the great aegis of Almighty God
   is often held over our heads in matters of Providence to keep us from
   evil when we walk, and to guard us lest we dash our feet against a
   stone. We feel persuaded, however, that neither of these things is here
   intended, but that, "the evil," so continually spoken of in Scripture,
   the evil pre-eminently here meant, is sin and nothing else. "I pray
   that you should keep them from the evil."

   Afflictions are often beneficial, therefore Christ does not plead that
   we should be kept entirely from this kind of evil. Trial brings us to
   His feet and gives new life to prayer, therefore Christ has not asked
   that this bittersweet might not be given to us. Death itself, which
   seems an evil, is a good thing for Believers, so Christ does not ask
   that we may not die. The petition He puts up here for His people is, "I
   pray that You should keep them from the evil"--the special evil, the
   particular, the deadly evil of sin.

   Let us here remark that sin is an unqualified evil I t is the evil
   without the mitigation of any good in it. In sin there can be no
   good--it is evil, only evil and that continually. The lowest form of
   sin is "the evil." The highest is "the evil" more fully developed. Sin
   in an angel was "the evil," for it turned him into a devil. Sin in Eden
   was "the evil," for it plucked up the fair trees by the roots and
   blasted all their fruits--and sent Adam out to till the ground from
   where he was taken. Sin is always an evil--it brings no profit to
   anyone. It shall not profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and
   lose his own soul, and in especially the Christian it is evil, nothing
   but evil. Sin can never benefit him, it is an evil, only an evil, a
   powerful evil and a dreadful evil--it is unmitigated evil--it is "the
   evil."

   It is true, out of evil God brings good. Sometimes the very sins of
   God's people are overruled so as to preserve them from some greater
   sin, but that does not destroy "the evil." If God sends out bears from
   the woods to execute his commission, and they slay the mocking
   children, they are still bears. And if sin is sometimes made to be the
   means of honoring God, yet sin is sin, notwithstanding any purpose that
   God may accomplish by it. And no false preaching can ever make us

   believe any doctrine which would take away the deadly character which
   by right belongs to sin. It is always hurtful and dangerous.

   The Christian who trusts that, by any one sin, he may keep himself out
   of difficulty, or get himself out of difficulty, makes a terrible
   mistake. This cannot bring you good. "But," you say, "I am in real
   difficulties. My creditors are pressing me, what shall I do? If I could
   draw that accommodation bill, or forge that note, there might be some
   good in it." There cannot be any good in it! Sin is evil! It is "the
   evil." It is "the evil" without a single particle of goodness. It is
   "the evil" without any mitigation whatever. "Oh," says another, "if I
   were to do such-and-such a thing--it is but a little evil--I should
   then prosper in business! And then I could dedicate myself to God and
   serve Him better! And so, out of the evil, I could bring a good. The
   end would justify the means." No! If the means are bad, they are bad.
   If the means are evil, they are evil. Sin is sin and nothing but
   sin--and however there may, sometimes, appear to be temporary
   advantages in it--it is still evil, and only evil. What though the
   noxious draught may sometimes stimulate the man and seem to make him
   mightier, it really weakens him--and it will ultimately destroy him. A
   man may fancy sin to be good for a time. It may patch him up in
   respectability and make him stand a little more favorably in the eyes
   of worldlings, but the house repaired with such rotten material as that
   shall fall, notwithstanding all that is done to prop it up! All sin is
   unmitigated evil, and the only name we will give to it is, "evil." Let
   the monster plead as it may and ask us to call it good, we charge it
   with having slain our Lord--and we condemn it as an evil to be hated
   and avoided. A serpent may have beauteous blue hues upon his scales,
   but he is a deadly thing and is to be crushed to the earth.

   Next, we say that sin is "the evil" because it is an unparalleled evil
   You can find nothing in the world so evil as sin. Nothing has so
   desolated this fair earth of ours as sin has. Tell me that war has
   slain its tens and hundreds of thousands, that earthquakes have shaken
   down vast cities, that pestilence has devoured millions--describe to me
   the concussion of the elements, speak to me of the wild uproar of
   Nature abroad, and remind me of how it smites down man, and destroys
   his handiwork--but when you have written out the black catalog of all
   the terrible things that have happened to man, I will still tell you
   that sin stands up as the monster evil, the giant topping them all,
   head and shoulders above them, the most unqualified and unparalleled
   evil in the world!

   You ask me whether sin has done much evil, I answer you, "Yes." Look at
   Eden's garden blasted, a whole world drowned with water, even the tops
   of the mountains covered! Watch the earth open and Korah, Dathan, and
   Abiram go down into the Pit. Watch fire rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah
   and see the cities of the plain, with all their inhabitants, destroyed.
   But sin has done more than that--it has dug a Hell somewhere, we know
   not where--not in the caverns of the earth. That were a direful
   thought, that this home of the righteous for a season should become the
   dwelling of the damned. If there is anything worse than that, sin is
   guilty of it, for it slaughtered Emmanuel, it slew the Lord of Life and
   Glory! Sin betrayed Him, scourged Him, put a crown of thorns upon His
   head, spit in His face, crucified Him, nailed His hands and His feet to
   the accursed tree! Sin sat by and watched Him till He died. And that
   moment--blessed be His name!--the sins of all His people were finished.
   Sin is unparalleled. No evil can compare with it. Find what evil you
   please, sin stands out first and foremost as "the evil."

   Sin also, in some sense, is an evil that has no remedy. You may,
   perhaps, be somewhat startled by that thought, especially when you have
   so continually heard me say that the death of Christ takes away from a
   Christian the very guilt of his sin, so that he is not guilty before
   God, but stands accepted in Christ, with his Savior's righteousness on,
   so that he can plead that before God and even claim the merits imputed
   to him through Jesus. Still, what I have said is true--that for sin
   there still remains no remedy, even to the Christian, when he has
   committed it. There is the remedy of forgiveness, so far as he is
   concerned, but there is no remedy for the sin itself. Where, for
   instance, is the remedy for a sinful word that I have spoken? Can my
   tears bring it back and stop it from doing an injury to my fellow
   creatures? Even though Christ has forgiven me, that will not end the
   wrong I may have done to others. When I drop a single stone of sin into
   the ocean of this universe, it will continue to make circle after
   circle, always expanding. I may, through my whole life, labor with more
   than seraphic zeal, and with a Christ-like heart to undo the evil I
   have done--but if I might work throughout eternity I could never untie
   those knots that I have tied, or dash down those mountains that I have
   piled, or dry up the rivers I have dug.

   True, the sin is all forgiven. It will never be laid to my charge, but,
   I think, though Christ has forgiven me, I shall never forgive myself
   for some things in which I may have disgraced His name and dishonored
   His blessed Person. When

   some of you old blasphemers recollect that some in Hell were damned by
   your means, you may thank God that you are saved, but you cannot undo
   that ruin to immortal souls. Sin is the evil. Well might Jesus pray for
   His people, "Father, keep them from the evil," for an evil it is,
   which, though it has a remedy as to itself, has no remedy as to its
   consequences upon others. God grant that any evils which we may have
   worked, may be as much remedied as it is possible by the future
   holiness of our lives!

   Once more, sin is a most pestilent evil because it brings every other
   evil with it I think the worst evil sin has ever done to me is this--it
   has sometimes robbed me of the Presence of my blessed Master. There
   have been seasons when the Spirit has been withdrawn from me. There
   have been times when I have sought my Beloved, but have not found Him--
   when I have ardently desired His Presence, but could not find it, and
   my only song was--

   "What peaceful hours I once enjoyed,

   How sweet their memory still!

   But now I find an aching void

   The world can never fill."

   Sin was that veil that came between me and my Lord. Dear old Joseph
   Irons used to say, "Christ often hides His face behind the clouds of
   dust His own children kick up." So we make dust by our sins and Christ
   hides behind it. We build a wall by our transgressions and our Beloved
   hides behind that wall. Ah, Sin, you are, indeed, an evil, for you have
   robbed me of His sweet society, and taken away His blessed company! You
   have been sitting on the throne of my heart and He will not tolerate
   such an insult--He will not stay where sin is. You have entered into my
   soul and Jesus has said, "I will not tarry where there is sin. My
   Presence shall drive out sin, or sin shall drive out My Presence." "O
   Sin, how much misery I experience through you!" the Christian can say.
   Ah, Sin, how many poor and fettered Believers have had their fetters
   first forged by you? Sin, you are the anvil on which our doubts are
   welded. Sin, you are the fire in which our spirits are often molten
   down to grief. We could do all things were it not for you. O Sin--you
   clip the wings of faith, you dampen the flame of love, you destroy the
   energy of zeal--you are "the evil." My Master calls you so, and such
   you are. You need not to be renamed--that name once given you shall
   bear forever--and throughout eternity you shall be pointed at, in the
   pillory of scorn, by all the saints, as, "the evil." Well might Christ
   ask His Father that while He did not wish His children to be taken out
   of the world, He did wish that they might be kept from the evil!

   I charge you, you young converts who are about to put on the Lord Jesus
   Christ, remember that sin is "the evil." Through all your future lives
   you must remember that this is "the evil" you are to shun. Fear not
   affliction, fear not persecution--rather, rejoice, and be exceedingly
   glad if that should be your lot, for great is your reward in Heaven!
   But, I charge you, fear sin! I commend you to the God of all Grace who
   is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before
   the Presence of His Glory. But yet I beg you always to recollect that
   sin, itself, is "the evil" to you. It will always be so to you as long
   as you live and, though forgiven, it is still pardoned sin. Shun it in
   the least degree! Do not give way to little sins and you will not give
   way to big ones. Remember the proverb, "Take care of the pence, and the
   pounds will take care of themselves." Beware of little sins and you
   will not commit great ones. I charge you, keep your hearts in the love
   of God and may God, Himself, preserve you, according to our Savior's
   prayer, "that You should keep them from the evil."

   II. We can make only a very few remarks upon the second point, which is
   THE DANGER TO WHICH CHRIST'S PEOPLE ARE EXPOSED. Is there any danger of
   Christian men running into sin? After they have believed in Jesus and
   after they have been pardoned, will they commit sin again? After they
   have been adopted into God's family, will they sin? Will they, can they
   sin after all that! O Beloved! I thought once, when my Lord first
   pardoned me, that I could never sin against Him anymore. When black
   from head to foot, He spoke the cleansing word and made me white--when
   He took off my rags and clothed me in royal garments, and kissed me
   with the kisses of His love, and showed me His deep, affectionate
   heart, I thought, "O blessed Jesus! Can I ever again sin against You?
   Can it be that I, a pardoned rebel, whom You have forgiven so much,
   could do such a thing?" "No, precious Jesus," the young, convert
   thinks, "I can come and wash Your feet with my tears and wipe them with
   the hairs of my head, but I cannot sin, I will not sin." Ah, how soon
   is that beautiful vision taken away! How soon the theory is spoiled by
   experience!

   Beloved, do you not find that you are in danger of sinning right now?
   Those of us who are young--what danger of sinning we are in! While our
   passions are strong and our lusts furious, we have need to be kept of
   God, or we shall sin against Him. And you middle-aged gentlemen, to
   you, also, I have a word or two to say. You always pray so particularly

   for the young and the young people are very much obliged to you--and
   they always intend to pray especially for you, because you are in the
   most dangerous position! I remind you of what I have told you before,
   that there is in Scripture no instance of a young man falling into sin,
   but there is more than one such instance of a middle-aged man!

   You grandparents with snowy heads, whose hairs are whitened with
   age--know you not that you still have need of Divine keeping or you
   will fall? O you veterans in the army of the Lord, do you not
   acknowledge that if His Grace were withdrawn from you, you have enough
   tinder in your hearts to catch fire, for your souls are not yet
   perfectly purified? When I ask my old Brothers and Sisters whether sin
   is still present with them, each one of them always says, "Well, I
   thought I had a bad heart, once, but I knowI have one now. I thought I
   was vile, once, but I know I am now. I grow viler and viler as the
   years roll on and I see myself to be more and more so every day." Is it
   not so with you? Ah, is it not just so with you perpetually? And will
   you not confess, till your last dying moment, that you will be kept if
   God keeps you, but that if He were to leave you, you would be lost? I
   was pleased to hear some of the good answers the young people gave me
   when I asked them, "Do you think you will be kept faithful to Christ to
   the end?" "Yes, by God's Grace," they said. "But suppose God should
   leave you?" I next asked, and how exceedingly proper the answer was!
   "God will not leave me, so I cannot tell anything about that." That was
   a sweet way of answering the question. He has promised that He will not
   leave us, nor forsake us, so, Christian, while we warn you of the
   danger if God should leave you, we comfort you by telling you that He
   will not leave you!

   Mark the terrible threats that those poor Arminians have been speaking
   of so much. Those who know nothing of the Doctrines of Grace make out
   that sinners fall and come in again, and fall again, and come in
   again--and a more unscrip-tural doctrine cannot be propounded, for God
   solemnly declares that if it were possible for a man, once regenerated
   and sanctified, to apostatize, he would be lost beyond all remedy and
   there would remain no hope for him--"but a certain fearful looking for
   judgment and fiery indignation." I charge you to remember that if it
   were possible for you thus to fall, there is the precipice over which
   you must drop. There is no ransom for you in such a case as that! If
   true conversion fails, God will never try twice! If once He puts His
   hand on you, and fails, He has done with you. But it is not possible,
   glory be to His name! He has not yet failed and He never will! Still,
   we warn you, and Scripture tells us to do so, to remember that we shall
   be kept only through faith unto salvation and that our Lord Jesus
   Christ 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. My Father, which gave
   them to Me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
   of My Father's hand."

   III. This brings us to speak, thirdly, concerning THE KEEPER OF
   CHRIST'S PEOPLE. "I pray that You should keep them from the evil."

   We often get to keeping ourselves, Beloved, and a bad job we make of
   it, when we do that. If a Christian tries to keep his own heart without
   asking the help of God, he will be just as good a keeper as those
   guards whom Herod set to watch the Apostle Peter, and who, when they
   opened the prison doors in the morning, found that the prisoner had
   escaped. You may stand and watch your heart without God, but you will
   find that it has escaped and gone after sin, notwithstanding. The
   Christian must not trust to his guarding himself because he will
   sometimes be asleep, and then the enemy will catch him unawares. People
   are often ready, as the saying is, to put a lock on the stable door
   when the horse is gone. And Christians are sometimes very careful after
   they have sinned. Ah, but the thing is to lock the door while the horse
   is in the stable--and to take care before you sin. It is better to keep
   your house from being on fire than to get the fire put out ever so
   quickly.

   We, all of us, have need to be kept by God. We think we can keep
   ourselves, but we cannot, for poor flesh and blood will fail. Though
   the spirit may be willing, the flesh is weak, and if it were possible
   for us to keep ourselves a little while, we should soon be overcome
   with spiritual slumber. And then, you know, the devil would come
   walking into the camp in the middle of the night, and if he caught us
   slumbering, and off our guard, he would, if allowed of God, hurry us
   away to perdition! If you trust yourselves to God, He will preserve
   you. But if you try to keep yourselves, you will fail. How many
   different schemes people have for keeping themselves from sin! Why do
   they not go and ask God to keep them, instead of binding themselves
   hand and foot to this thing and the other, and so thinking to avoid
   sin? Let us give our hearts to God thoroughly, for He will preserve His
   own people. Oh, what a gracious promise the Lord has given concerning
   His vine-yard--"I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment;
   lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." Is not that a

   precious expression, "I the Lord do keep it"? The Lord seems to speak
   in His own defense, "They say I do not keep it, but I do. They say that
   I let My people fall away, but I do not. Look at My vineyard, 'I the
   Lord do keep it.' Whatever they may say, 'I will water it every moment;
   lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.'" This is the only
   ground of our con-fidence--that God keeps the feet of His saints and
   none that trust in Him shall be desolate.

   We must now conclude, praying on behalf of the Lord's people that God
   would keep them. Remember, Believer, that while it says God will keep
   you, He does it by means. You must look after each other. I like to
   admonish you to look after your Brothers and Sisters. Why, there are
   some of you sitting with only a rail between you, and yet you do not
   know your next door neighbors! Some of you, I know, sometimes talk too
   much, but I would rather you talk a little too much than not talk at
   all. Oh, how little like Christians some of you are--sitting down, side
   by side, and yet not knowing one another! The Church is meant to be a
   place where we shall be like children at home. Be sure to look after
   these young friends who are coming into the Church--try and take care
   of them. We need a few fathers who will lead them in the right way.
   Poor Souls, you cannot expect them to know much. Some of them, indeed,
   may have been long in the service of God--others have just commenced to
   run the Christian race--you must look after the young ones, and then
   the prayer of Christ will be fulfilled in their case, "I pray that You
   should keep them from the evil."

   Finally, remember that the only Keeper of the saints is God, and put
   your souls day by day into His hands. I beseech you, by the love of
   Christ, forget not His holy prayer of which I have been speaking to
   you! Often meditate upon the Grace that put you into the Savior's
   custody. Oh, forget not that you have been His from all eternity, and
   that it ill becomes you to sin! Do not forget that you are elect in
   Christ and it would be a disgrace to you to transgress. Recollect that
   you are one of the aristocracy of the universe--you must not mix with
   vile worldlings! Remember that the blood royal of Heaven runs in your
   veins--therefore do not disgrace yourselves by acts which might be
   tolerated in a beggar, but which would demean a prince of the heavenly
   household! Stand on your dignity! Think of your future glory! Remember
   where you stand and in whom you stand--in the Person of Jesus! Fall at
   His feet daily! Grasp His strength hourly, crying out--

   "Oh, for this no power have I My strength is at Your feet to lie."

   O Beloved, you who do not love the Lord, I cannot pray that God would
   keep you from the evil because you are already in it! But I do pray God
   to take you out of it. There are some of you who do not feel sin to be
   an evil and shall I tell you why? Did you ever try to pull a bucket up
   a well? You know that when it is full of water, you can pull it easily
   so long as the bucket remains in the water--but when it gets above the
   water, you know how heavy it is. It is just so with you. While you are
   in sin, you do not feel it to be a burden--it does not seem to be evil!
   But if the Lord once draws you out of sin, you will find it to be an
   intolerable, a heinous evil! May the Lord, this night, wind some of you
   up! Though you are very deep down, may He draw you up out of sin and
   give you acceptance in the Beloved! May you have new hearts and right
   spirits which are alone the gift of God! Remember the words of the Lord
   Jesus--"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find;
   knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for everyone that asks
   receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks it shall be
   opened." God give you Grace to ask, and seek, and knock, for Jesus'
   sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH49:1-23.

   Verses 1, 2. Listen, O isles, unto Me; and hearken, you people from
   far; the Lord has called Me from the womb; from the bowels of My mother
   has He made mention of My name. And He has made My mouth like a sharp
   sword; in the shadow ofHis hand has He hid Me, and made Me a polished
   shaft; in His quiver has He hid Me. Our Lord Jesus, that great Prophet
   of the Church, was in a special manner the Lord's in the matter of His
   birth. A wondrous holy mystery hangs about His birth at Bethlehem--He
   was, in that respect, the Lord's in a very remarkable sense. "He has
   made My mouth like a sharp sword." You know how our Lord's mouth, or
   the Word of His Gospel that issues from His mouth, is like a sharp
   sword--how it conquers--how it cuts its way--how, wherever it goes, it
   pierces "even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
   joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
   the heart." "In the

   shadow of His hand has He hid Me." You know how the protecting hand of
   God always covered Christ and how His Gospel is always sheltered by the
   Providence of God.

   3. And said unto Me, You are My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be
   glorified. I t is wonderful condescension on Christ's part to take the
   name of His Church so that He, Himself, is called, "Israel," in this
   passage. And there is another passage, equally remarkable, where the
   Church is allowed to take one of the names of Christ--"This is the name
   wherewith she shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness." Such an
   intermingling of interests, such a wonderful union is there between
   Christ and His Church, that these two are truly one!

   4. Then I said, Ihave labored in vain, Ihave spent My strength for
   nothing, and in vain: yet surely My judgment is with the LORD, and My
   work with My God. Our Savior did, in His earthly ministry, to a large
   extent labor in vain. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him
   not." He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, yet how few
   of them recognized Him as the good Shepherd. He told His disciples that
   after He returned to His Father, those who believed in Him should do
   even greater things than He had done. That promise was fulfilled on the
   day of Pentecost and since then it has been fulfilled over and over
   again in the history of the Christian Church.

   5. And now, says the LORD that formed Me from the womb to be His
   servant, to bring Jacob again to Him, Though Israel is not gathered,
   yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and My God shall be My
   strength. What though the Jews still reject the Messiah, their sin does
   not affect His honor. His Glory is still as great as ever it was in the
   esteem of the Most High!

   6. And He said, It is a light thing that You should be My Servant to
   raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I
   will also give You for a light to the Gentiles, that You may be My
   salvation unto the end of the earth. What a blessed passage this is for
   you and for me, Beloved! Strangers to the commonwealth of Israel were
   we, but, now, we who were afar off are made near by the blood of Jesus
   and so are made fellow-heirs with the seed of Abraham, partakers of the
   same Covenant blessing as the father of the faithful enjoys. In this
   let us exceedingly rejoice! And for this let us praise and magnify the
   name of the Lord.

   7. Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One, to Him
   whom man despises, to Him whom the nation abhors. What a true picture
   this is of the way in which the Jews still treat the promised Messiah!
   To this day they gnash their teeth at the very mention of the name of
   Jesus of Nazareth. And the bitterest words of blasphemy that are ever
   uttered by human lips come from the mouth of Israel against the Lord
   Jesus--"Him whom the nation abhors."

   7. To a Servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also
   shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One
   of Israel, and He shall choose You. The Father has chosen Christ to be
   the precious cornerstone of the eternal Temple and He has also chosen
   all the living stones that are to be joined to Him forever.

   8, 9. Thus says the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard You, and
   in a day of salvation have I helped You: and I will preserve You, and
   give You for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause
   to inherit the desolate heritages; that You may say to the prisoners,
   Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall
   feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. Dear
   Brothers and Sisters, what honor the Lord has put upon Christ! In
   proportion as He has been the despised of men and the abhorred of the
   Jewish nation, God has made Him to be His own delight, His
   Well-Beloved. He displays through Him the marvels of His saving power
   for His own Glory. I pray that it may be displayed in our midst just
   now, and in the way mentioned here--"I will preserve You, and give You
   for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to
   inherit the desolate heritages; that You may say to the prisoners, Go
   forth; to them that are in darkness. Show yourselves." Come, Beloved,
   after you receive such a message as this from God's mouth, what prison
   can hold you? What darkness can conceal you? The Word of Christ shall
   break your bonds asunder and change your darkness into the glory of
   noonday! May this gracious work be done for any of you who are
   prisoners!

   10. They shall not hunger nor thirst. To the woman at the well, Christ
   said, "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never
   thirst." That is a parallel to this passage--"They shall not hunger nor
   thirst."

   10. Neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for He that has mercy on
   them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them.
   Oh, the wondrous sweetness of these exceedingly great and precious
   promises! They are all concerning Christ, you see. Undoubtedly they are
   given with an eye to us, but yet much more with an eye to Him, that He
   may be glorified in the deliverance and guidance of His people, in the
   protection of them from danger, and in the abun-

   dant provision for the supply of all their needs. It would not be for
   Christ's honor to let you die of thirst, poor thirsty one! It would not
   glorify Him to lead you where there were no springs of water. Be sure,
   then, that God will always do that which will glorify His Son--and He
   will therefore deal well with you for His sake.

   11, 12. AndI will make allMy mountains a way, andMy highways shall be
   exalted. Behold, these shall come from far and, lo, these from the
   north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim. From
   far-away China they must come to Christ! The result of His death is not
   left to chance. Some say that His death did something or other, which,
   somehow or other, will benefit somebody or other. But we never speak in
   that indefinite way. We know that Christ, by His death, did eternally
   redeem His people, and we are quite sure that He will have all those
   for whom He laid down the ransom price. He died with a clear intent, a
   definite purpose, and for the joy that was set before Him, He "endured
   the Cross, despising the shame." "He shall see of the travail of His
   soul and shall be satisfied." The Divine intent and purpose of the
   death of Christ cannot possibly be frustrated. He reigns from the Cross
   and He shall win and conquer world without end!

   13. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into
   singing, O mountains: for the Lord has comforted His people, and will
   have mercy upon His afflicted. How? Why, by the very coming of Christ,
   by His birth at Bethlehem, and all the blessings which come with the
   Incarnate God, His afflicted ones are consoled and all His people are
   Divinely comforted. Shall we not, then, rejoice in Christ, who is
   Himself so full ofjoy that He teaches the very heavens to sing and the
   mountains to break forth in praise?

   14. But Zion said. Hear the lament of the poor Jewish Church, like a
   castaway left all alone--

   14. The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. When we are
   glad In the Lord and are singing out our heart's joy, there is pretty
   sure to be someone or other who sorrowfully sighs, "The Lord has
   forsaken me." People say that there never was a feast so well furnished
   but that somebody went away unsatisfied--but God will not have it so at
   His festivals and, therefore, the rest of the chapter shows how the
   Lord comforted this poor Zion, whose lamentation and mourning He had
   heard. Notice how He begins.

   15. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
   compassion on the son of her womb? "Can a woman"--the most tender
   parent of the two--"forget her child"--her own child, her feeble little
   child that still depends upon her for its nutriment and life--"her
   sucking child"?

   15. Yes, they may forget. I t is just possible. There have been such
   monstrosities--"they may forget."

   15. Yet will I not forget you--

   "Yet, says the Lord, should Nature change, And mothers, monsters prove,
   Zion still dwells upon the heart Of everlasting love."

   How that gracious assurance should comfort the little handful, the
   "remnant, weak and small," of God's people among the Jews! How it
   should also comfort any of God's servants who are under a cloud and who
   have lost, for a while, the enjoyment of His Presence!

   16. Behold, Ihave engraved you upon the palms of My hands. Where they
   must be seen and where He can do nothing without touching His people
   while doing it. When a name is engraved on the hand with which a man
   works, that name goes into his work and leaves its impress on the work.

   16, 17. Your walls are continually before Me. Your children shall make
   haste; your destroyers and they that made you waste shall go forth of
   you. Jerusalem, the very Jerusalem that is in Palestine, shall be
   rebuilt! God will remember her walls and the Church of God in Israel
   shall yet rise from that sad low estate in which it has been these many
   centuries. And all God's cast-down ones shall be comforted and His
   churches that seem to be left to die, shall be raised up again, for our
   God is no changeling. His heart does not come and go towards the sons
   of men--

   "Whom once He loves, He never leaves, But loves them to the end."

   18. Lift up your eyes round about and behold: all these gather
   themselves together, and come to you. What are all converted Gentiles
   doing, after all, but coming to the one Church? It is no longer a
   matter of Jew or Gentile, but all who believe are one in Christ Jesus.
   Let poor Zion rejoice that she herself is enriched by the conversion of
   these far-off sinners of the Gentiles!

   18. As I live, says the LORD, you shall surely clothe yourself with
   them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on you, as a bride does.
   Converts are the garments of the Church, her bridal array, her
   ornaments and her jewels. I wish that all churches thought so, but many
   of them think that gorgeous architecture, the garnishing of the
   material building in which they meet, the sound of sweet music and the
   smell of fragrant incense and choice flowers make up the dignity and
   glory of a church--but they do no such thing! Converts are the true
   glory of a church--"You shall surely clothe yourself with them all, as
   with an ornament, and bind them on you, as a bride does."

   19, 20. For your waste and your desolate places, and the land of your
   destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants,
   and they that swallowed you up shall be far away. The children which
   you shall have, after you have lost the others. The children of your
   childlessness--so it runs--the children of your widowhood. It was
   strange that she should have children then. It is not so among men, but
   it is so with the Church of God--"The children which you shall have,
   after you have lost the others."

   20-23. Shall say again in your ears, The place is too small for me:
   give me a place that I may dwell. Then shall you say in your heart, Who
   has begotten me these, seeing Ihave lost my children, andam desolate, a
   captive, andremoving to and fro? And who has brought up these? Behold,
   I was left alone; these, where had they been? Thus says the Lord GOD,
   Behold, I will lift up My hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard
   to the people: and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your
   daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be
   your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall
   bow down to you with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust
   of your feet I have heard this passage quoted as a reason why there
   should be a State Church--that kings should nourish the Church--Henry
   VIII, for instance, and George IV. It was poor milk, I am sure, that
   they ever gave the Church of God. Yet I have no objection whatever to
   this text being carried out to the fullest--yes, to the very
   letter--only mind where the kings are to be put! What place does the
   verse say that they are to occupy? "They shall bow down to you with
   their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet." There
   is no headship of the Church, here--nothing of that sort! The kings are
   to be at the feet of the Church, and that is what the State ought to
   do--submit itself to God and obey His commands, and give full liberty
   to the preaching of the Gospel! This is all that the true Church of
   Christ asks, and all she can ever fairly take if she is loyal to her
   Lord.

   23. And you shall know that I am the LORD. "Jehovah." "You shall
   understand the greatness of your God, His in-finiteness, His majesty,
   His all-sufficiency. 'You shall know that I am the I AM.'"

   23. For they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me. Glory be to His
   holy name, none that wait for Him shall ever have cause to be ashamed!
   May we all be of that blessed number, for Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

"Flee From the Wrath to Come"

   (No. 2704)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 9, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 23, 1881.

   "Who hats warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Matthew 3:7.

   "Who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us."
   Hebrews 6:18.

   WE will first consider the question of John the Baptist. "When he saw
   many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto
   them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath
   to come?" I have no doubt that the Pharisees and Sadducees were very
   much surprised to hear John addressing them in that way, for men who
   wish to win disciples ordinarily adopt milder language than that--and
   choose more attractive themes--for they fear that they will drive their
   hearers from them if they are too personal and speak too sharply. There
   is not much danger of that, nowadays, for the current notion now abroad
   is that Gospel ministers can sew with silk without using a sharp needle
   and that, instead of piercing men with the sword of the Spirit, they
   should show them only the hilt of it--let them see the bright diamonds
   on the scabbard, but never let them feel the sharpness of the two-edged
   blade! They should always comfort, console and cheer, but never allude
   to the terror of the Lord.

   That appears to be the common interpretation of our commission. But
   John the Baptist was of quite another mind. There came to a him a
   Pharisee, a very religious man, one who observed all the details of
   external worship and was very careful even about trifles. He was a firm
   Believer in the resurrection, and in angels and spirits, and in all
   that was written in the Book of the Law, and also in all the traditions
   of his fathers. He was a man who was overdone with external
   religiousness, a Ritualist of the first order who felt that if there
   was a righteous man in the world, he certainly was that one! He must
   have been greatly taken aback when John talked to him about the wrath
   of God and plainly told him that that wrath was as much for him as for
   other people! Those phylacteries and the broad borders of his garment,
   of which he was so proud, would not screen him from the anger of God
   against injustice and transgression, but, just like any common sinner,
   he would need to "flee from the wrath to come."

   I daresay that the Sadducee was equally taken aback by John's stern
   language. He, too, was a religious man, but he combined with his
   religion greater thoughtfulness than the Pharisee did--at least, so he
   said. He did not believe in traditions and he was too large-minded to
   care about the little details and externals of religion. He observed
   the Law of Moses, but he clung rather to the letter of it than to its
   spirit, and he did not accept all that was revealed, for he denied that
   there was such a thing as an angel or a spirit. He was a Broad
   Churchman--a man of liberal ideas, fully abreast of the age! He
   professed to be a Hebrew of the Hebrews, yet, at the same time, the
   yoke of religion rested very lightly upon his shoulders. Still, he was
   not irreligious!

   Yet here is John the Baptist talking to him, as well as to the
   Pharisee, about "the wrath to come"! They would both have liked to have
   a little argument with him, but he talked to them about feeingfrom the
   wrath to come. They would both have been pleased to discuss with him
   some theological questions and to bring up the differences between
   their two sects, just to hear how John would handle them, and to let
   them see which way he would lean. But he did not waste a moment over
   the matters in dispute between Pharisees and Sadducees--the one point
   he had to deal with was the one of

   which he would have spoken to a congregation of publicans and
   harlots--and he spoke of it in just the same way to these nominally
   religious people! They must "flee from the wrath to come," or else, as
   surely as they were living men, that wrath would come upon them and
   they would perish under it!

   So John just kept to that one topic--he laid the axe to the root of the
   trees as he warned these hypocritical professors to escape for their
   lives, otherwise they would perish in the common destruction which will
   overwhelm all ungodly men. This was not the style of preaching that
   John's hearers liked, but John did not think of that. He did not come
   to say what men wished him to say, but to discharge the burden of the
   Lord, and to speak out plainly what was best for men's eternal and
   immortal interests! He spoke, therefore, first, concerning the wrath of
   God and, next, he spoke concerning the way of escape from that wrath.

   Those shall also be our two topics. First, the tremendous peril--"the
   wrath to come." And, secondly, the means of escape--"Flee from the
   wrath to come."

   I. First, dear Friends, let us think of THE TREMENDOUS PERIL which
   overtakes all men who do not escape from

   it.

   That tremendous peril is the wrath of God. There is a wrath of God
   which abides on every ungodly man. Whether men like that Truth of God
   or not, it is written, "God is angry with the wicked every day." And,
   also, "he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not
   believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." And yet again,
   "he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God
   abides on him."

   But this wrath is in abeyance for a time and, consequently, men do not
   think much either of the wrath that now is, or of "the wrath to come."
   It will not, however, always be in abeyance. The sluices of the great
   deep will be pulled up and the awful torrents will come leaping forth
   and will utterly overwhelm all who are exposed to their fury. This
   "wrath to come" will, in part, fall upon men at death, but more fully
   at the Day of Judgment, and it will continue to flow over them forever
   and ever! This "wrath to come" is that of which John spoke, and of
   which we will now think for a while.

   I remark, first, that this "wrath to come" is absolutely just and
   necessary. If there is a God, He cannot let sin go unpunished. If He is
   really God and the Judge of all the earth, He must have an utter
   abhorrence of all evil. It cannot be possible that He should think the
   same of the honest and the dishonest, of the chaste and the unchaste,
   of the sober and the drunk, of the truthful and the lying, of the
   gracious and the dissolute. Such a god as that would be one whom men
   might rightly despise! But the true God, if we understand aright what
   He is, must hold all sin in detestation. All evil must be utterly
   abhorrent to His pure and holy soul. And it is not only because He can
   do it, but because He mustdo it, that He will, one of these days, let
   loose the fury of His wrath against sin!

   As it is necessary, in the very nature of things, that there should be
   certain laws to govern His creation, so is it equally necessary, in the
   very nature of things, that sin should be punished and that every
   transgression and disobedience should receive a just recompense of
   reward. This is the inevitable consequence of sin--there is nothing
   arbitrary about such a result. It is fixed in the very nature of things
   that, "for every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
   account in the Day of Judgment." And for every sinful action, they must
   appear before the bar of God. Do not think, when we speak about the
   wrath of God, that we picture God to you as a tyrant. We do but tell
   you that this is only the nature of things--that just as if you take
   poison, it will kill you, or if you indulge in drunkenness, or if you
   take almost any form of disease, it will bring pain and mischief to
   you--so sin must bring upon you the wrath of God--it cannot be
   otherwise. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle
   of God's Law can pass away till all is fulfilled--and one part of that
   Law requires that He should punish all transgression, iniquity and sin.

   And if now, for a time, the full manifestation of that anger is
   delayed, I beseech you, Brothers and Sisters, do not therefore trifle
   with it! The longer God's arm is uplifted, the more terrible will be
   the blow when at last He strikes. To sin against the patience and
   long-suffering of Almighty God is to sin with a vengeance! You do, as
   it were, defiantly put your finger into the very eye of God when you
   know that He sees you sin and yet you go on sinning because He does not
   immediately take vengeance upon you for all your evil works! It is in
   great love that He restrains His wrath, for He is "slow to anger, and
   plenteous in mercy." But as a torrent that is dammed up for a while,
   gathers force and strength, and every hour in which it is kept back it
   gets to be more irresistible, so must it be with "the wrath to come"
   when, at last it does come upon you! If it has waited for some of you
   for seventy, or sixty, or fifty, or even for 20 years, it will come as
   an

   overwhelming flood when, at last, it bursts the barriers which, at
   present, hold it back. Trifle not, therefore, with that long-suffering
   of God which may be blest to your salvation!

   Nor is "the wrath to come" any the less sure because it is delayed.
   Because sentence is not at once given against an evil work, therefore
   men say, ''We need not trouble ourselves. 'How does God know? And is
   there knowledge in the Most High?' Behold, He winks at our iniquities!
   He counts them as mere trifles. No harm will come to us because of
   them." Sirs, if you are prepared to cast away the Bible, I can
   understand a little that you should talk like that. But if you really
   believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God, you know what the
   consequences of your sin must be. Concerning the wicked, it is written,
   "If he turns not, He will whet His sword. He has bent His bow and made
   it ready. He has also prepared for him the instruments of death." Even
   if you are so foolish as to cast away your Bibles, yet, unless you
   think yourselves to be mere dogs and cattle that shall rot back into
   the ground from where you came, and be done with forever, you must
   expect that there will be another state of existence in which right
   shall be vindicated and wrong shall be punished! It seems to lie upon
   the very conscience of man, in the unwritten code of intuitive
   knowledge, or of knowledge handed down from father to son, that there
   must come a time in which God will surely bring every secret thing to
   light, and visit with judgment the proud and the high-handed
   oppressor--and vindicate the rights of men and the rights of His own
   Throne. It must be so! And if the wrath tarries for a while, it is none
   the less sure.

   I feel quite staggered as I try to speak of this "wrath to come"
   because when it does come it can be something very terrible because
   Divinity enters into the essence of it. The wrath of man is sometimes
   very terrible, but what must the wrath of God be? O Sirs, I have tried,
   these many years, humbly, yet earnestly, to preach the love of God, and
   I have never yet reached the height of that great argument, for His
   love is boundless! But so are all His attributes and, if you consider
   any one of them, you must say, "It is high, I cannot attain unto it."
   But the just indignation of God against sin must be commensurate with
   His absolute purity. That man who trifles with right and wrong, and
   thinks that these are mere arbitrary terms, has no indignation when he
   sees wrong done. But God, who is infinitely pure and holy, cannot--it
   is not possible that He should look upon sin without an awful
   abhorrence. "Oh," He says, by the mouth of His servant Jeremiah, "do
   not this abominable thing that I hate." He is not indifferent to
   sin--He hates it--and He pleads with men not to do it because it is so
   abominable and so hateful in His sight!

   What will "the wrath to come," be? If God but touches a man, as it
   were, with only His little finger, the strongest must at once fail and
   fall, the mightiest can scarcely open his eyes, and the seal of death
   is speedily imprinted on his brow. But what will it be when the hand of
   God shall begin to plague the ungodly, when He shall pour out all the
   vials of His wrath upon them and crush them with the bosses of His
   buckler? What will be their portion when He says, "Ah, I will ease Me
   of My adversaries, and avenge Me of My enemies?" Think, too, what must
   be the meaning of that terrible passage--let me repeat it to you slowly
   and solemnly--"Now consider this, you that forget God, lest I tear you
   in pieces, and there be none to deliver."

   Thus have I faithfully tried to set before you "the wrath to come." Now
   listen to me for a few minutes, and let me have your impartial
   judgments while I still further speak upon this important theme. Who,
   do you think, are the more honest men--those who tell you plainly what
   the Scriptures say concerning this wrath of God, or those who smooth it
   over, or deny it altogether? I will not judge them--before the Judge of
   the quick and the dead let those appear who dare to be apologists for
   sin, and to diminish the dread thought of God's anger against it! But I
   might, without any breach of Christian charity, be permitted to suspect
   the honesty of those who use flattering words to please and deceive
   their hearers! But I could not suspect the honesty of those who preach
   an unpalatable Truth of God which grieves themselves as much as it is
   distasteful to those who hear it!

   Let me also ask you which style of preaching has the greater moral
   effect upon yourself? Will you be likely to go and sin after you have
   heard of God's anger against it, or will you more readily commit
   iniquity when you have it salved over and you are told that it is but a
   little thing of which God takes no account? I was in the cabin of a
   vessel, one day, with a brother minister who was disputing with me upon
   the non-eternity of future punishment. And the captain of the ship came
   in and said, "What are you discussing down here? The scenery is
   beautiful, come up on deck and admire it." So I said to him, "This is
   the question in dispute, whether the punishment of sin is eternal, or
   not." "Well," he said, "we cannot have any theological discussion just
   now," but, turning to my opponent, he said, "Don't you go on deck and
   talk to my sailors any of your rubbish! They are bad enough as they
   are. But if you tell them what I heard you say just now, they

   will swear and drink worse than ever." Then, turning to me, he said,
   "You may talk to the men as much as you like--you will do them good and
   not harm by telling them that God will certainly punish their sins."
   Now, there is common sense in that argument of my friend--you know that
   there is! That which is most likely to do good, and to repress sin, is
   most likely to be right. But that which gives me latitude to offend my
   conscience, leads me to suspect whether it could ever have come from
   God at all, and makes me seriously doubt whether it can be true.

   And what, Sirs, will be the consequence if it should turn out that we
   are mistaken when we preach to you concerning the wrath of God? What
   losers will those of us be who have fled to Christ for refuge? But
   suppose it should turn out that we are right? Where will you be who
   have despised the wrath of God? We have two strings to our bow, but, to
   my mind, youhave none at all! I would not like to lie down upon my
   deathbed in the hope that death would be an eternal sleep-- that would
   be a miserable hope even if it could ever be fulfilled! I would not
   like to risk my destiny in the world to come upon the prospect of being
   annihilated because I did not believe in God! It would be a wretched
   thing to hope for, but what if even that poor hope should fail me?
   Where should I be then?

   But I can go with confidence before my God and say to Him, "Be Your
   wrath what it may--I know that it must be terrible to the last
   degree--but be it what it may, I will not dare it. And even if it would
   not hurt me, yet I would not make You angry, O God, by sinning against
   You. And if there were no punishment for sin but the loss of Your
   love--if there were nothing but the loss of Heaven, the loss of having
   failed to please You, my God--I would count that loss to be tremendous
   and terrible. Let me be reconciled to You, my Maker. Tell me how You
   can be just and yet forgive the guilty. To You I fly! Oh, save me from
   the wrath to come!"

   Thus have I set before you, as best I can, the tremendous peril.

   II. Now, in the second place, I want, for a few minutes, to tell you
   about THE MEANS OF ESCAPE. John said to the Pharisees and Sadducees,
   "Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"

   By this question, he seemed to imply that there is no way of
   deliverance from "the wrath to come" but by flight. Sinner, you cannot
   endure the wrath of God! If your ribs were granite and your nerves were
   brass, you could not endure the wrath of the Almighty! No, not even for
   a moment! If a man had a toothache, how dreadful it would seem to him
   to have to bear that pain for twelve months, even if he knew that there
   would be an end to it then. But what must the anger of God be when He
   comes to deal with our entire manhood and to punish our sins forever
   and ever? We cannot bear it--we must flee from it. What does this mean?

   It means, first, immediate action. You must escape, Man! If you remain
   where you now are, you will certainly perish. You are in the City of
   Destruction which is to be overwhelmed with the fiery flood of "the
   wrath to come." You must be in earnest to escape from it before
   judgment is executed upon the place and all who are in it! You must
   "flee from the wrath to come."

   Fleeing means not only immediate action, but swift action. He that
   flees for his life does not creep and crawl--he runs at his utmost
   speed and he wishes that he could ride on the wings of the wind. No
   pace that he can reach is fast enough for him. Oh, if God the Holy
   Spirit will make you, whom I am now addressing, feel your imminent
   danger, you will want to fly to Christ with the swiftness of a flash of
   lightning! You will not be satisfied to linger as you are even for
   another hour. What if that gallery should fall about your ears? What if
   God should smite the house while you are still in your sins? What if,
   in walking home, you should walk into your graves? What if your beds
   should become your tombs? It may be so with any one of you, so there is
   no time to linger or delay. Haste is the word for you--God sends it to
   you and says, "Today if you will hear My voice, harden not your hearts;
   behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

   To flee also means to go straight away at your objective. A man who
   flees for his life does not want any circuitous, round-about roads. He
   takes short cuts, he goes over hedge and ditch that he may get where he
   wants to be in the shortest possible space of time! So straight away to
   Jesus is the only direction for you just now. Some people will
   recommend you to read books which I am certain you cannot understand,
   for no living soul can. Or perhaps you may meet with persons who want
   to explain to you some wondrous mystery. Listen to them, if you like,
   at the Day of Judgment, when the great business of your salvation is
   over--but just now you have not any time for mysteries, you have no
   time for puzzles, you have no time to be confused and confounded--the
   one thing you have to do is to go straight away to Jesus, straight away
   to Jesus!

   You are a sinner and He is the only Savior for sinners--so trust
   Him--God help you to trust Him and thus to find immediate salvation! It
   is a straight road to Christ. The plan of salvation is not a thing that
   is hard to be understood. "He that believes on the Son has everlasting
   life." And he shall never come into condemnation, for he as passed from
   death unto life! There is the Gospel in a nutshell--lay hold of it and
   live by it. You have not time for anything else and you have no need of
   anything else, so flee, "flee from the wrath to come."

   Notice how John the Baptist explained to those Pharisees and Sadducees
   the way in which they had to flee. He told them, first, that they must
   repent. There is no going to Heaven by following the road to Hell!
   There is no finding pardon while continuing in sin. Depend upon it, Mr.
   Drunkard, you will not be forgiven for your drunkenness if you still go
   on with your drinking! Let not the man who is unchaste imagine that he
   can go on with his sin and yet be forgiven. Let not the thief dream
   that there is any pardon for him unless he quits his evil course and
   tries to make such restitution as he can to those whom he has wronged.

   There must be repentance, then, and that repentance must be practical.
   Note how John put it--"Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for
   repentance"--evidences of true amendment of life. It is no use whining
   and crying, and going into the enquiry rooms with a lie in your right
   hand, and then going home to swear and drink, or to break the Sabbath,
   and to live as you like--and all the while hoping to enter Heaven. No,
   sin and you must part, or else Christ and you can never keep company.
   You remember that message that John Bunyan thought he heard when he was
   playing at tip-cat on a Sunday on the village green? He suddenly stood
   still with the stick in his hand, for he thought he heard a voice
   saying to him, "Will you leave your sins and go to Heaven, or have your
   sins, and go to Hell?" That is the alternative which both the Law and
   the Gospel put before men. "Flee from the wrath to come." But there is
   no fleeing from wrath except by repentance of sin--and by fruits meet
   for repentance--evidencesof a real change of heart and life.

   Then John went on to say to the Pharisees and Sadducees that they must
   give up all the false hopes which they had cherished. "Think not to say
   within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father." Those Pharisees
   said, in deed, if not in word, "It really does not matter though we act
   the hypocrite, for Abraham is our father." And the Sadducees said, in
   effect, "Though we are unbelievers, it is of small consequence, for
   Abraham is our father." "No," answered John, "you must abandon all such
   false hopes as that." And if any of you, dear Friends, have said, "We
   shall be all right because we are regular church people." Or if you
   have said, "We are all right, for we are Baptists, we are Methodists,
   we are Presbyterians--our father and mother, and our grandfather and
   grandmother were good Christian people." Ah, yes, and so may your great
   grandfather and great grandmother have been, but your pedigree will
   avail you nothing unless you personally quit your sin and lay hold on
   Christ as your Savior!

   Nor is there anything else upon which you can depend for salvation.
   Your Baptism, your church or your chapel attendance, your eating of the
   Lord's Supper, your saying of collects, your family prayers, your
   giving of your guineas-- everything of your own put together will all
   be less than nothing and vanity if you trust to it! You must flee away
   from all such false hopes as that and get a better hope, even that of
   which my second text speaks--"That by two immutable things, in which it
   was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who
   have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us."

   John the Baptist did not tell his hearers all this, for he did not come
   to preach the Gospel to them. He came to preach the Law, but he did
   sufficiently indicate where they must go, for he said to them, "There
   stands One among you, whom you know not. He shall baptize you with the
   Holy Spirit and with fire." It is to Him, even to Jesus, that you must
   flee. If you would be saved, you must be among those who have fled for
   refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before you. That is the real
   refuge for sinners--the laying hold of Christ, the getting a faith-grip
   on Jesus as the one atoning Sacrifice, the looking to Him with tearful
   but believing eyes, and saying, "Jesus, Son of God, I trust in You. I
   put myself into Your hands, and leave myself there, that You may
   deliver me from the wrath to come."

   I pray you, Brothers and Sisters, wherever you are, you who think you
   are so good, be anxious to get rid of all that fancied goodness of
   yours! I beseech you, if you have any self-righteousness about you, to
   ask God to strip it off you at once! I should like you to feel as that
   man did who had a forged bank note and some counterfeit coin in his
   possession. When the policeman came to his house, he was anxious not to
   have any of it near him--so, shake off your self-righteousness! You
   will be as surely damned by your righteousness, if you trust in it, as
   you will by your unrighteousness!

   Christ, alone, the Gift of the free Grace of God--this is the gate of
   Heaven--but all self-satisfaction, all boasting, all exaltation of
   yourself above your fellow men is mischievous and ruinous, and will
   surely be deadly to your spirit forever.

   How does Christ deliver us from "the wrath to come?" Why, by putting
   Himself into our place, and putting us into His place. Oh, this blessed
   plan of salvation by substitution--that Christ should take a poor,
   guilty sinner, and set him up there in the place of acceptance and joy
   at the right hand of God and that, in order to be able to do so, Christ
   should say, "Here comes the great flood of almighty wrath--I will stand
   just where it is coming and let it flow over Me" And you know that it
   did flow over Him till He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood, and
   more, till He cried aloud, "My God, My God why have You forsaken Me?"
   And still more, till He cried, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head
   and gave up the ghost--

   "He bore, that you night never bear, His Father's righteous ire"--

   and so, suffering in your place, and putting you into the place of
   acceptance which He, Himself, so well deserves to occupy, He saved you
   from "the wrath to come."

   I used to think that if I once told this wondrous story of "Free Grace
   and dying love," everybody would believe it. But I have long since
   learned that so hard is the heart of man that he will sooner be damned
   than be saved by Christ! Well, you must make your choice, Sirs. You
   must make your choice for yourselves--only do me this one favor when
   you have made your choice--do not blame me for having tried to persuade
   you to act more wisely than I fear your choice will be. I sometimes
   tremble as I think of the account I have to give in concerning the many
   thousands who crowd this place to listen to my voice. What if my Master
   should say to me, at the last, "You flattered them. You tried to run
   with the times. You did not dare to preach to them the old-fashioned
   Gospel and to tell them of Hell and of judgment, and of atonement by
   blood?"

   No, my Master, by Your Grace, You will never be able to say that to me!
   With all my faults, infirmities and imperfections, I have sought to
   declare Your Truth, as far as I knew it, to the sons of men. Therefore,
   my Hearers, I shake my skirts free of your blood! If any of you shall
   reject Christ, I will have nothing to do with your damnation! Be
   spiritual suicides if you will, but I will not be your soul-murderer,
   nor act like Saul wished his armor-bearer to do when he bade him thrust
   him through with the sword. I implore you to "flee from the wrath to
   come!" Escape by quitting your sins and laying hold on Jesus! Do it
   this very moment, for you may never have another opportunity to do it!
   May the Lord, in His infinite mercy, grant you Grace to trust in Jesus!
   Amen and Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 3; 11:20-30; REVELATION 7:9-17.

   Matthew 3:1, 2. In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the
   wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is
   at hand. His was a preparatory ministry. His work was to prepare men's
   minds for Christ and never is the heart of man so ready to receive
   Christ as when it is in a state of repentance. When it is weary of sin,
   then is it that Christ comes in and is welcomed by the soul conscious
   of its guilt, tired of it, and longing to be rid of it.

   3, 4. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying,
   The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord,
   make His path straight. And the same John was clothed in camel's hair,
   with a leather belt about his waist; and his food was locusts and wild
   honey. Everything about him was impressive and everything was suitable
   to the message he had to deliver. He was so dressed as to be noticed,
   at once, as a man of ascetic habits. He was not the chaplain of a
   prince, otherwise he would have been clothed in soft raiment. He was
   not one who had a gentle message to deliver, or he would not have gone
   into the wilderness and summoned the people to come away from their
   avocations to listen to him. He was the rough pioneer to prepare the
   way for the King.

   5, 6. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region
   round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing
   their sins. That was his baptism--a baptism of repentance and of
   confession--preparatory to the coming of the Master. See what power
   there was in John because God was with him! I do not know that he had
   any remarkable eloquence. Certainly, some things about him were rather
   repulsive than attractive. But when God is with a

   man, the people must listen to him! Jerusalem must pour her thousands
   out of her gates and the rural districts must yield their hundreds--for
   if God speaks, no matter by whom--He will have human ears listen to His
   voice.

   7, 8. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his
   baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you
   to flee from the wrath to come?Bring forth therefore fruits meet of
   repentance. Answerable to your repentance, congruous therewith, arising
   out of it and truly provingits reality!

   9, 10. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our
   father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise
   up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of
   the trees. No mere pruning and trimming work did John come to do! He
   was the handler of a sharp axe that was to fell every worthless tree.

   10, Therefore every tree which brings not forth good fruit is hewn down
   and cast into the fire. I t is not enough to hew it down--into the fire
   it must go! And John minces not his words about the matter--he speaks
   the message of his Master straight out and plain.

   11, 12. Iindeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that
   comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to
   carry: He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire: whose
   fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather
   His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with
   unquenchable fire. See the humility of the true servant of Christ! He
   is not even willing to exercise the office of a slave and to carry his
   Master's shoes, or to unloose the laces of them. And who among us is
   worthy to occupy even the lowest office for Christ? There is an honor
   about it that far transcends any worthiness of ours. To serve Him at
   all, is honor, indeed! But, Brothers and Sisters, fix your eyes upon
   Christ and recollect what a Baptism it is into which He baptizes
   us--not with water, but into the Holy Spirit and into fire! Can we bear
   it? Can we endure the fire? It will only burn up that which ought to be
   burned--and happy is he to whom God has imparted that eternal life
   which can never be consumed!

   13, 14. Then Jesus came 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 You come to me?This is one of the most striking
   proofs that the ordinance of Baptism is not to be neglected by any of
   Christ's followers, for even He who, in Himself, could have had no need
   for it--who is, Himself, the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit and with
   fire, yet comes to the baptizer in water, and asks to be immersed!

   15. And Jesus answering, said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for
   thus it become us to fulfill all righteousness. Nothing that appertains
   to righteousness must be neglected--the little as well as the great
   must be observed!

   15-17. Then he allowed Him. And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up
   immediately 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 well pleased. This doctrine of repentance was preached by the
   Master as well as by the servant. Turn to the 11th Chapter of Matthew's
   Gospel and let us read a few verses, beginning at the 20th .

   Matthew 11:20. Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of His
   mighty works were done, because they repented not. They listened.
   Sometimes, they applauded. But they repented not and there is nothing
   really accomplished until men have repented. In vain have we preached
   until men are brought to repent! So the Master said--

   21, 22. Woe unto you, Chorazin! Woe unto you, Bethsaida! For if the
   mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
   they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say
   unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the Day of
   Judgment, than for you. Listen to that, you Gospel-hardened sinners,
   you who have heard and heard, and heard, but have not repented! See how
   great is your sin, for you have rejected what others would have
   received if it had been presented to them? See how your guilt
   accumulates--and its also punishment!

   23, 24. And you, Capernaum, which are exalted unto Heaven, shall be
   brought down to Hell: for if the mighty works which have been done in
   you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But
   I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land ofSodom in
   the Day of Judgment, than for you. Sodom--that is the blackest place of
   all! Ah, me, will that verse ever fall, like a millstone, upon any one
   of my hearers, to grind him to powder, because you heard the Gospel and
   rejected it-- always intending to receive it--but never receiving it at
   all? From such a doom, may God in mercy deliver you!

   25-30. At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank You, O Father,
   Lord of Heaven and earth, because You have hid these things from the
   wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father:
   for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things are delivered unto Me
   of My Father, and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows

   any man thee Father, save the Son, and he to whomever the Son will
   reveal Him. Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I
   will give you rest Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am
   meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For
   My yoke is easy, and My burden is light Just by way of contrast to what
   I am going to say in my sermon, let us read a few verses in Revelation
   7. [Sermons were always preached after the expositions--EOD.]

   Revelation 7:9. After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which
   no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and
   tongues, stood before the Throne, and before the Lamb. Our numbering
   can go a very long way--what, therefore, must be the countless hosts of
   the redeemed who are to be "a great multitude, which no man could
   number"? And what an infinite variety there will be among them, seeing
   that they shall not only be "of all nations," but out of those nations
   they shall be "of all kindreds, and people, and tongues"--that is, all
   sorts and conditions of men, of every race, and of every age from the
   first century down to the last. Christ's immeasurable redemption price
   must bring to Him a great reward! Isaiah long ago foretold that "He
   shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." And it
   is no little result that will satisfy Him for such travail of soul as
   He endured! This great multitude "stood before the Throne, and before
   the Lamb."

   9. Clothed with white robes. To set forth their purity, their victory
   and their entrance into the marriage state, for such was the color
   usually worn on such occasions. "Clothed with white robes," to show
   that they had entered into their rest, so that their garments were no
   longer soiled through their toil. They have reached their everlasting
   Sabbath, their weekday service is over forever!

   9-11. And palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying,
   Salvation to our God which sits upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb. And
   all the angels stood round about the Throne, and about the elders and
   the four beasts, and fell before the Throne on their faces, and
   worshipped God, The angels form the outerring. The elders, who
   represent the Church of the redeemed, are nearer to the Throne of God
   than even the holy angels are! Nearest to God in Heaven are those who
   have been redeemedfrom among men. How high a dignity--how noble an
   estate--awaits us, by-and-by! But, all alike, both saved men and
   unfallen angels, "fell before the Throne on their faces, and worshipped
   God."

   12-17. Saying Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving,
   and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever.
   Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, Who are these who
   are arrayedin white robes? And from where have they come? And I said
   unto him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, these are they who came out
   of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white
   in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the Throne of God,
   andserve Him day andnightin His temple: andHe who sits on the Throne
   shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst,
   anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the
   Lamb who is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them, and shall lead
   them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears
   from their eyes.
     __________________________________________________________________

Why Some Sinners Are Not Pardoned

   (No. 2705)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 16, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 30, 1881.

   "And why do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my
   iniquity?" Job 7:21.

   NO man should rest until he is sure that his sin is forgiven. It may be
   forgiven and he may be sure that it is forgiven--and he ought not to
   give rest to his eyes, nor slumber to his eyelids till he has been
   assured, with absolute certainty that his transgression is pardoned and
   that his iniquity is taken away. You, dear Friends, may be patient
   under suffering, but not patient under sin. You may ask for healing
   with complete resignation to the will of God as to whether He will
   grant it to you, but you should ask for pardon with importunity,
   feeling that you must have it. You may not be sure that it is God's
   will to deliver you from disease, but you may be quite certain that it
   is His will to hear you when you cry to Him to save you from sin. And
   if at your first crying unto Him, you are not saved, seek to know the
   reason why He is refusing to grant you the blessing you so much desire.
   It is quite legitimate to put this question to God again and again,
   "Why do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity?" We
   also ought to press this matter home upon our own heart and conscience,
   to see whether we cannot discover the reason why pardon is, for a
   while, withheld from us, for God never acts arbitrarily and without
   reason. And, depend upon it, if we diligently search by the light of
   the candle of the Lord, we shall be able to find an answer to this
   question of Job, "Why do You not pardon my transgression, and take away
   my iniquity?" Job's question may sometimes be asked by a child of God,
   but it may be more frequently asked by others who, as yet, are not
   brought consciously into the Lord's family.

   I. I shall first take our text as A QUESTION THAT MAY BE ASKED, AS IN
   JOB'S CASE, BY A TRUE CHILD OF God--"Why do You not pardon my
   transgression, and take away my iniquity?"

   Sometimes, beloved Friends, this question is asked under a
   misapprehension. Job was a great sufferer and although he knew that he
   was not as guilty as his troublesome friends tried to make out, yet he
   feared that possibly his great afflictions were the results of some sin
   and, therefore, he came before the Lord with this sorrowful enquiry,
   "Why do You continue to me all this pain and agony? If it is caused by
   sin, why do You not, first, pardon the sin, and then remove its
   effects?"

   Now I take it that it would have been a misapprehension on Job's part
   to suppose that his afflictions were the result of his sin. Mark you,
   Brothers and Sisters, we are, by nature, so full of sin that we may
   always believe that there is enough evil within us to cause us to
   suffer severe affliction if God dealt with us according to justice. But
   also remember that in Job's case, the Lord's objective in his
   afflictions and trials, was not to punish Job for his sin, but to
   display in the Patriarch, to His own honor and Glory, the wonders of
   His Grace by enabling Job, with great patience, to still hold on to God
   under the direst suffering and to triumph in it all. Job was not being
   punished--he was being honored. God was giving to him a name like that
   of the great ones of the earth. The Lord was lifting him up, promoting
   him, putting him into the front rank, making a great saint of him,
   causing him to become one of the fathers and patterns in the ancient
   Church of God! He was really doing for Job such extraordinarily good
   things that you or I, in looking back upon his whole history, might
   well say, "I would be quite content to take Job's afflictions if I
   might also have Job's Grace and Job's place in the Church of God." It
   may happen to you, Beloved, that you think that your present affliction
   is the result of some sin in you, yet it may be nothing of the kind.

   It may be that the Lord loves you in a very special manner because you
   are a fruit-bearing branch, and He is pruning you that you may bring
   forth more fruit. As Rutherford said to a dear lady, in his day, who
   had lost several of her children, "Your ladyship is so sweet to the
   Well-Beloved that He is jealous on your account, and is taking away
   from you all the objects of your earthly love that He may absorb the
   affection of your whole heart into Himself." It was the very sweetness
   of the godly woman's character that led her Lord to act as He did
   towards her, and I believe that there are some of the children of God
   who are now suffering simply because they are gracious. There are
   certain kinds of affliction that come only upon the more eminent
   members of the family of God--and if you are one of those who are thus
   honored, instead of saying to your Heavenly Father, "When will You
   pardon my sin?"--you might more properly say, "My Father, since You
   have pardoned my iniquity and adopted me into Your family, I cheerfully
   accept my portion of suffering, since in all this, You are not bringing
   to my mind the remembrance of any unforgiven sin, for I know that all
   my transgressions were numbered on the Scapegoat's head of old. Since
   You are not bringing before me any cause of quarrel between myself and
   You, for I am walking in the light as You are in the light, and I have
   sweet and blessed fellowship with You, therefore will I bow before You
   and lovingly kiss Your rod, accepting at Your hands whatever Your
   unerring decree appoints for me." It is a blessed thing, dear Friends,
   if you can get into this state of mind and heart. And it may happen
   that your offering of the prayer of the text may be founded upon a
   complete misapprehension of what the Lord is doing with you.

   Sometimes, also, a child of God uses this prayer under a very unusual
   sense of sin. You know that in looking at a landscape, you may so fix
   your gaze upon some one object that you do not observe the rest of the
   landscape. Its great beauties may not be seen by you because you have
   observed only one small part of it. Now, in like manner, before the
   observation of the Believer, there is a wide range of thought and
   feeling. If you fix your eyes upon your own sinfulness, as you may well
   do, it may be that you will not quite forget the greatness of Almighty
   Love, and the grandeur of the Atoning Sacrifice, but, yet, if you do
   not forget them, you do not think so much of them as you should, for
   you seem to make your own sin, in all its heinousness and aggravation,
   the central objective of your consideration! There are certain times in
   which you cannot help doing this--they come upon me, so I can speak
   from my own experience. I find that, sometimes, do what I will, the
   master thought in my mind concerns my own sinnership--my sinnership
   even since my conversion, my shortcomings and my wanderings from my
   gracious God--and even the sins of my holy things.

   Well, now, it is well to think of our sin in this way, but it is not
   well to think of it out of proportion to other things. When I have gone
   to a physician because I have been ill, I have, of course, thought of
   my disease. But have I not also thought of the remedy which he will
   prescribe for me, and of the many cases in which a disease similar to
   mine has yielded to such a remedy? So, will it not be wrong to fix my
   thoughts entirely upon one fact to the exclusion of other compensating
   facts? Yet, that is how many of us sometimes act, and then we cry to
   God, as did Job, "Why do You not pardon my transgression, and take away
   my iniquity?" when, indeed, it is already pardoned and taken away! If
   we try to look at it, there flows before us that sacred stream of our
   Savior's atoning blood which covers all our guilt, so that, great
   though it is, in the sight of God it does not exist, for the precious
   blood of Jesus has blotted it all out forever!

   There is another time when the Believer may, perhaps, utter the
   question of our text. That is, whenever he gets into trouble with his
   God. You know that after we are completely pardoned--as we are the
   moment we believe in Jesus--we are no longer regarded as criminals
   before God--we become His children. You know that it is possible for a
   man who has been brought before the court as a prisoner, to be
   pardoned. But suppose that after being forgiven, he should be adopted
   by him who was his judge, and taken into his family so as to become his
   child? Now, after doing that, you do not suppose that he will bring him
   up again before the judgment seat and try him, and put him in prison.
   No, but if he becomes the judge's son, I know what the judge will do
   with him--he will put him under the rules of his house, to which all
   the members of his family are expected to conform. Then, if he
   misbehaves as a son, there will not be that freeness of conversation
   and communion between himself and his father that there ought to be. At
   night the father may refuse to kiss the wayward and disobedient child.
   When his brethren are enjoying the father's smile, he may have a frown
   for his portion--not that the father has turned him out of his family,
   or made him to be any the less a child than he was--but there is a
   cloud between them because of his wrongdoing.

   I fear, my dear Friends, that some of you must have known, at times,
   what this experience means, for between you and your Heavenly
   Father--although you are safe enough and He will never cast you away
   from Him--there is a cloud.

   You are not walking in the Light of God, your heart is not right in the
   sight of God. I would earnestly urge you never to let this sad thing
   happen, or if it does ever happen, I beg you not to let such a
   sorrowful state of affairs last for even a day! Settle the quarrel with
   your God before you go to sleep. Get it put right, as I have seen a
   child do after he has done wrong. Perhaps he has been pouting and
   scowling and his father has had to speak very roughly to him. For a
   long while he has been too high-spirited to yield, but, at last, the
   little one has come and said, "Father, I was wrong, and I am sorry."
   And in that moment there was perfect peace between the two! The father
   said, "That is all I wanted you to say, my dear child. I loved you even
   while you were naughty, but I wanted you to feel and admit that you
   were doing wrong. And now that you have felt it, and acknowledged it,
   the trouble is all over. Come to my bosom, for you are as much loved as
   all the rest of the family." I can quite imagine that when any of you
   have been at cross purposes with God, He has refused, for a time, to
   give you the sense of His fatherly love in your heart. Then, I beseech
   you, go to Him, and I suggest that you cannot pray to Him more
   appropriately than in the words of the text, "Why do You not pardon my
   transgression, and take away my iniquity?" Or pray, as Job did, a
   little later, "Show me why You contend with me, for I wish to be at
   peace with You, and there can be no rest to my new-born spirit while
   there is any cause of quarrel between us.

   Thus far have I spoken to the children of God. Now I ask for your
   earnest prayers that I may be guided to speak wisely and powerfully to
   others.

   II. THE QUESTION IN OUR TEXT MAY BE ASKED BY SOME WHO ARE NOT
   CONSCIOUSLY GOD'S CHILDREN. "Why do You not pardon my transgression,
   and take away my iniquity?"

   And, first, I think that I hear somebody making this kind of enquiry,
   "Why does not God pardon my sin and have done with it? When I come to
   this place, I hear a great deal about atonement by blood, and
   reconciliation through the death of Christ. But why does not God just
   say to me, 'It is true that you have done wrong, but I forgive you, and
   there is the end of the matter'?" With the utmost reverence for the
   name and Character of God, I must say that such a course of action is
   impossible! God is infinitely just and holy. He is the Judge of all the
   earth and He must punish sin. You know, dear Friends, that there are
   times, even in the history of earthly kingdoms, when the rulers say, by
   their actions, if not in words, "There is sedition abroad, but we will
   let it go on. We do not want to seem severe, so we will not strike the
   rebels down." What is sure to be the consequence of such conduct? Why,
   the evil grows worse and worse--the rebellious men presume upon the
   liberty allowed them, and take still more liberty--and, unless the
   law-giver intends that his law shall be kicked about the street like a
   football, unless he means that the peace and safety of his law-abiding
   subjects should be absolutely destroyed, he is at last obliged to act!
   And so he says, "No, this state of affairs cannot be allowed to
   continue. I shall be cruel to others unless I draw the sword and make
   justice to be respected throughout my realm."

   I tell you, dear Friends, that the most awful thing in the universe
   would be a world full of sin and yet without a Hell for its punishment!
   The most dreadful condition for any people to be in is that of absolute
   anarchy, when every man does what he pleases, and law has become
   utterly contemptible. Now, if, after men had lived lives of ungodliness
   and sin, of which they had never repented, and from the guilt of which
   they had never been purged, God were just quietly to take them to
   Heaven, that would be the end of all moral government, and Heaven
   itself would not be a place that anybody would wish to go! If ungodly
   people went there in the same state as they are in here, Heaven would
   become a sort of antechamber of Hell, a respectable place of damnation!
   But that can never be the case. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth
   do right?" He has devised a wondrous plan by which He can pardon the
   guilty without to the slightest degree shaking the foundations of His
   Throne, or endangering His government. Will you be saved in that way,
   or not? If you reject God's way of salvation, you must be lost and the
   blame must lie at your own door! God will not permit anarchy in order
   that He may indulge your whims, or vacate the Throne of Heaven that He
   may save you according to your fancy. At the infinite expense of His
   heart's love--by the death of His own dear Son--He has provided a way
   of salvation! And if you reject that, you need not ask Job's question,
   for you know why He does not pardon your transgression and take away
   your iniquity--and upon your own head shall lie the blood of your
   immortal soul!

   Perhaps somebody else says "Well, then, if that is God's way of
   salvation, let us believe in Jesus Christ and let us have pardon at
   once. But you talk about the need of a new birth and about forsaking
   sin, and following after holiness, and you say that without holiness no
   man can see the Lord." Yes, I do say it, for God's Word says it! And I
   repeat that for God to give pardon, and then allow men to go on in sin
   just as they did before, would be a curse to them instead of a
   blessing! Why, if the dishonest man prospers in the world, is that a
   blessing to him? No, certainly not, for he only be-

   comes the more dishonest. If a man commits licentiousness and he
   escapes the consequences of it in this life, is that a blessing to him?
   No, for he becomes the more licentious--and if God did not punish men
   for their sin, but permitted them to be happy in the sin, it would be a
   greater curse to them than for Him to come and say to them, "For every
   transgression of My righteous Law, there shall be due punishment. And
   for all moral evil there shall also be physical evils upon those who
   commit it." I thank God that He does not permit sin to produce
   happiness! I bless Him that He puts punishment at the back of evil, for
   so it ought to be. The curse of sin is in the evil, itself, rather than
   in its punishment. And if it could become a happy thing for a man to be
   a sinner, then men would sin, and sin again, and sin yet more
   deeply--and this, God will not have.

   "Well," says another friend, "that is not my trouble. I am willing to
   be saved by the Atonement of Christ, and I am perfectly willing to be
   made to cease from sin, and to receive from God a new heart and a right
   spirit. Why, then, does He not pardon me and blot out my
   transgressions?" Well, it may be, first, because you have not confessed
   your wrongdoing. You remember that the Apostle John says, "If we
   confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." Do
   you ask, "To whom shall I confess my sins?" Shall you come to me with
   your confession? Oh no, no, no! I could not stand that! There is an old
   proverb about a thing being "as filthy as a priest's ear." I cannot
   imagine anything dirtier than that and I have no wish to be a partaker
   in the filthiness. Go to God and confess your sin to Him--pour out your
   heart's sad story in the ear of Him against whom you have offended! Say
   with David, "Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil
   in Your sight."

   Dear anxious Friend, if you say to me, "For months I have sought the
   Lord, but I cannot find Him, or get peace of conscience." I advise you
   to try the effect of this plan--shut yourself up in your room and make
   a detailed confession of your transgression. Perhaps confessing it in
   the bulk may have helped you to be hypocritical, so try and confess it
   in detail, especially dwelling upon those grosser sins which most
   provoke God and most defile the conscience, even as David prayed,
   "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God." That was his great crime--he
   had been the cause of the death of Uriah, so he confessed that he was
   guilty of blood and prayed to be delivered from it. In like manner,
   confess your sin, whatever it has been. I am persuaded that, often,
   confession to God would relieve the soul of its load of guilt. Just as
   when a man has a gathering tumor, and a wise physician lets in the
   lancet, and that which had gathered is removed, and the inflammation
   subsides, so often would it be with what the conscience has gathered
   if, by confession, the heart were lanced, and the accumulated evil
   dispersed. How can we expect God to give rest to our conscience if we
   will not confess our sins to Him?

   May it not be possible, also, dear Friends who cannot obtain pardon and
   peace, that you are still practicing some known sin? Now, your Heavenly
   Father means to give you mercy in a way that shall be for your
   permanent benefit. What are you doing that is wrong? I do not know you
   so intimately as to be able to tell what is amiss with you, but I have
   known a man who never could get peace with God because he had a quarrel
   with his brother and, as he would not forgive his brother, it was not
   reasonable that he should expect to receive forgiveness from God. There
   was another man who sought the Lord for a long while, but he never
   could get peace for this reason--he was a traveling draper and he had
   what was supposed to be a yard measure, but it was not full
   length--and, one day, during a sermon, he took up his short measure in
   the place of worship and just snapped it across his knee--and then he
   found peace with God! He gave up that which had been the means of his
   wrongdoing. He had sought for pardon in vain all the while that he had
   persevered in evil. But as soon as that was given up, the Lord
   whispered peace to his soul.

   Do any of you take "a drop too much" at home? Is that your besetting
   sin? I mean women as well as men when I ask that question! You smile at
   the suggestion, but it is no laughing matter, for it is only too true
   that many who are never suspected of such a thing, are guilty of
   drinking to excess. Now it may be that there will never be peace
   between God and your soul until that glass goes. It will have to go if
   God is to forgive your sin--so the sooner it goes, the better will it
   be for you. Perhaps, in your case, the sin is that you do not manage
   your families right. Are your children never corrected when they do
   wrong? Are they, in fact, allowed to grow up to be children of the
   devil? Do you expect God and you to be agreed while it, if so? Think
   what a quarrel God had with His servant, Eli, over that matter, and
   remember how that quarrel ended because Eli mildly said to his sons,
   "Why do you do such things?" but restrained them not when they made
   themselves vile.

   Look, dear Friends, God will not save us because of our works!
   Salvation is entirely by Grace, but then that Grace shows itself by
   leading the sinner upon whom it is bestowed to give up the sin in which
   he had formerly indulged. Which, then, will you have--your sin or your
   Savior? Do not try to hold sin with one hand and the Savior with the
   other, for they cannot both of them be yours. So choose which you will
   have. I pray that God may show you what is the sin which is keeping you
   from peace, and then grant you the Grace to give it up.

   "Well," you say, "I do not know that this is my case at all, for I
   really do, from my heart, endeavor to give up all sin, and I am
   sincerely seeking peace with God." Well, Friend, perhaps you have not
   found it because you have not been thoroughly earnest in seeking it.
   You seem to be in earnest while you are here on a Sunday night, but how
   earnest are you on Monday night? Perhaps you are fairly so, then,
   because you come to the Prayer Meeting, but how about Tuesday, and
   Wednesday, and the rest of the week? When a man really wants to have
   his soul saved, he should let everything else go until he gets that
   all-important matter settled. Yes, I will venture to say as much as
   that. Remember what the woman of Samaria did when she had received
   Christ's word at the well at Sychar? She had gone to the well for
   water, but look at her as she goes back to the city! Is there any water
   pot on her head? No! The woman left her water pot--she forgot what had
   been to her a necessary occupation when once she had been brought
   seriously to think about her soul and her Savior! I do not want you to
   forget that when you have found Christ, you can carry your water pot,
   and yet cleave to Christ, but, until you have really received Him by
   faith, I should like to see you so fully absorbed in the pursuit of the
   one thing necessary that everything else should be put into the second
   place, or even lower than that! And if you were to say, "Until I am
   saved, I will do absolutely nothing. I will get to my chamber and I
   will cry to God for mercy, and from that room I will never come until
   He blesses me," I would not charge you with fanaticism, nor would
   anybody else who knew the relative value of eternal things and things
   of time and sense! Why, Man, in order to save your coat, would you
   throw away your life? "No," you would say, "the coat is but a trifle
   compared with my life." Well, then, as your life is of more value than
   your coat, and as your soul is of more value than your body, and as the
   first thing you need is to get your sin forgiven that your soul may be
   saved--until that is done, everything else may well be let go! God give
   you such desperate earnestness that you must and will have the
   blessing! When you reach that resolve, you shall have it. When you
   cannot take a denial from God, you shall not have a denial.

   There is still one more thing that I will mention as a reason why some
   men do not find the Savior, and get their sins forgiven, and that is,
   because they do not get off the wrong ground on to the right ground. If
   you are ever to be pardoned, dear Friend, it must be entirely by an act
   of Divine, unmerited favor. Now perhaps you are trying to do something
   to recommend yourself to God. You would scorn with derision the
   doctrine of being saved by your own merits, but, still, you have a
   notion that there is somethingor other in you that is to recommend you
   to God in some measure or degree, and you still think that the ground
   of your forgiveness must lie, to some extent, with yourself. Well, now,
   you never can have forgiveness in that way! Salvation must be all of
   works, or else all of Grace. Are you willing to be saved as a guilty,
   Hell-deserving sinner--as one who does not deserve salvation, but, on
   the contrary, deserves to endure the wrath of God? Are you willing
   that, henceforth, it shall be said, "That man was freely forgiven all
   his trespasses, not for his own sake, but for Christ's sake alone?"

   That is good ground for you to stand upon! That is solid rock. But some
   men seem to get one foot upon the rock and they say, "Yes, salvation
   comes by Christ." Where is that other foot of yours, my Friend? Oh, he
   says that he has been baptized, or that he has been confirmed, or that
   he has, in some way or other, donesomething in which he can trust. Now,
   all such reliance as that is simply resting on sand--and however firmly
   your other foot may be planted on the rock, you will go down if this
   foot is on sand. You need good standing for both your feet, dear
   Friends--and see that you get it. Let this be your language--

   "You, O Christ, are all I need; More than all in You I find."

   Do not look anywhere else for anyone or anything that can save you, but
   look to Christ, and to Christ alone! Are you too proud to do that? You
   will have to humble yourself beneath the mighty hand of God--and the
   sooner you do so, the better will it be for you. "Oh, but I, I--I must
   surely do something!" Listen--

   "Till to Jesus' work you cling

   By a simple faith,

   'Doing'is a deadly thing,

   'Doing'ends in death! Cast your deadly 'doing' down, Down at Jesus'
   feet, Stand in Him, in Him alone, Gloriously complete!"

   This is the Gospel--"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be
   saved." You will never see up in Heaven a sign bearing the names
   ,"Christ, and Co." No, it is Christ, and Christ alone, who is the
   sinner's Savior! He claims this for Himself--"I am Alpha and Omega."
   That is, "I am A, and I am Z. I am the first letter of the alphabet,
   and I am the last letter, and I am every other letter from the first
   down to the last." Will you make Him to be so to you, dear Friend? Will
   you take Him to be your Savior now? "He that believes on the Son has
   everlasting life." A friend told us, at one of our Prayer Meetings,
   that "H-A-Sspells, "got it." "He that believes on the Son is a saved
   sinner, he has got that everlasting life that can never die and can
   never be taken away from him. Therefore, Beloved Friends, believe in
   Jesus and you, too, shall have this eternal life! You shall have
   pardon, you shall have peace, you shall have God, and you shall have
   Heaven, itself, to enjoy before long! God do so unto you, for His great
   mercy's sake in Christ Jesus! Amen and Amen.

   EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOB 7; JOHN 3:14-17.

   Job was sorely troubled by the cruel speeches of his friends and he
   answered them out of the bitterness of his soul. What we are first
   about to read is a part of his language under those circumstances.

   Job 7:1. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Are not his
   days also like the days of an hireling?\s there not a certain time for
   each one of us to live? Is there not an end to all the trouble and
   sorrow of this mortal state? "Woe is me," says Job, "will this sad
   condition of things never come to a close? Must it always be thus with
   me?"

   2. As a servant earnestly desires the shadow. When the day shall close,
   and he can go to his home.

   2, 3. And as an hireling looks for the reward ofhis work: so am Imade
   topossess months ofvanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me. If
   that is the case with any of you, dear Friends, you ought to be
   comforted by the thought that a better man than you are underwent just
   what you are enduring--and underwent it so as to glorify God by it.
   Remember what the Apostle James wrote, "Behold, we count them happy
   which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the
   end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."
   But if our case is not so bad as Job's was--if we are in good health
   and surrounded by God's mercy--let us be very grateful. Every morning
   that you wake after a refreshing night's rest, praise God for it, for
   it might have been far otherwise--you might have had wearisome nights
   through pain and suffering.

   4, 5. When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone
   and I am full of tossing to and fro unto the dawning of the day. My
   flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and
   become loathsome. Such was the dreadful disease under which this man of
   God labored, for the worst of pain may happen to the best of men.
   Sometimes God plows His best fields most, and why should He not do so?
   Do not men try to do most with that which will yield most? And so God
   may most chasten those who will best repay the strokes of His hand. It
   is no token of displeasure when God smites us with disease--it may be
   an evidence that we are branches of the vine that bring forth fruit, or
   else He would not have taken the trouble to prune us.

   6. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without
   hope. His spirits are sunk so low that he had not any hope left at
   all--at least, there was none apparent just then. O you poor tried
   children of God, I beseech you once again to see that you are only
   walking where others have gone before you! Mark their footprints and
   take heart!

   7, 8. O remember that my life is wind: my eyes shall no more see good.
   The eyes of Him that have seen me shall see me no more: Your eyes are
   upon me, and I am not As if God only looked at him and the very look
   withered him. Or as if there was only time for God to look at him, and
   then he disappeared as though he had been but a dream, an unsubstantial
   thing. It is good, my Brothers and Sisters, sometimes, to know what
   vanities we are. And if we complain that things around us are vanity,
   what are we ourselves but the shadows of a shade?

   9-12. As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away: so he that goes down
   to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his
   house, neither shall his place know him anymore. Therefore I will not
   refrain my mouth; I will

   speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of
   my soul. Am I a sea, or a whale, that You set a watch over me? Am I
   such a big thing, such a dangerous thing, that I ought to be watched
   like this, and perpetually hampered, and tethered, and kept within
   bounds? Ah, no! Job, you are neither a sea nor a whale, but something
   worse than either of them! So are we all--more false than the
   treacherous sea, harder to be tamed than the wildest of God's
   creatures. God does set a watch over us and well He may. But hear Job's
   complaint--

   13-15. When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my
   complaint; then You scare me with dreams, and terrify me through
   visions: so that my soul chooses strangling, and death rather than my
   life. Were you ever in this terrible place, dear Friend? Some of us
   have been there and we have used the very language of Job! And yet, for
   all that, we have been brought up out of the utmost depths of
   despondency into the topmost heights of joy. Therefore, be comforted,
   you poor prisoners. Through the bars and grating of your soul dungeon,
   we would sing unto you this song--the Lord who has brought us forth can
   bring you forth, also, for "the Lord looses the prisoners." The God of
   Job is yet alive, strong as ever for the deliverance of such as put
   their trust in Him.

   16, 17. I loathe it; I would not live always: let me alone; for my days
   are vanity. What is man, that You should magnify him? And that You
   should set Your heart upon him? Job seems to say, "I am too little for
   God to notice me; why does He make so much of me as to chasten me so
   sorely?"

   18, 19. And that You should visit him every ,morning, and try him every
   moment? How long wiil You not depart from me, nor let me alone till I
   swallow down my spittle? Blow followed blow in quick succession. Pain
   came fast upon the heels of pain till Job seems to have had no rest
   from his anguish. This is the mournful moaning of a man on a sickbed,
   worn out with long-continued grief. Do not judge it harshly. You may
   have to use such words yourself, one day, and if you ever do, then
   judge not yourself harshly, but say, "I am only now where that eminent
   servant of God, the Patriarch Job, once was, and the Lord who delivered
   him will also deliver me."

   20. Have I sinned? What have I done unto You, O You Preserver of men?
   We did not expect him to call God by that name, yet sorrow has a quick
   memory to recall anything by which it may be cheered. "You Preserver of
   men," says Job, "Have I sinned? What have I done to You?"

   20. Why have You set me as Your target? "Drawing Your bow, and
   directing all Your arrows against my poor heart. Have You no targets,
   that you must make meYour target and test Your holy archery upon me?"

   20. So that I am a burden to myself?Oh, what heavy words, "a burden to
   myself!"

   21. And why do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my
   iniquity? For now shall I sleep in the dust and You shall seek me in
   the morning, but I shall not be. Speaking after the manner of man, he
   seems to think that if God does not pardon him soon, the pardon will
   come too late, for if God comes in mercy, by-and-by, he will be dead
   and gone--and God may seek him, but he shall not be found! This is how
   men talk when they get a little off their head through the very
   extremity of grief. We, too, may perhaps talk in the same fashion, one
   day, so let us not condemn poor Job. Now let us read a few Verses in
   the 3rd Chapter of the Gospel according to John, that we may be
   comforted. If any of you are laboring under a sense of sin, I would
   take you straight away to sin's only cure.

   John 3:14, 15. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
   even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whoever believes in Him
   should not perish, but have eternal life. ' 'Whoever." Note that word,
   for it means you, and it means me. No matter though you are near to
   death's door, crushed and broken, bruised and mangled, look to the
   Crucified One and, looking, you shall find that there is eternal life
   for you! Though your soul has been ready to choose strangling rather
   than your life, yet there is a better life for you by trusting in
   Christ. Choose that and rest in Him. Say, from your heart, the last
   lines of the hymn we sang just now--

   "Jesus, to Your arms I fly; Save me, Lord, or else I die." 16, 17. For
   God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that
   whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
   For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that
   the world through Him might be saved. Now this, which is good teaching
   for those who have but lately come to Christ, or for those who are
   seeking to come to Him, is the very same teaching which will bring
   comfort to the most advanced and best instructed of the saints. How I
   love to continually begin with Christ over again as I began at the
   first! They say when a man is sick, it is a good thing to take him to
   his native place. And when a true Believer's soul gets faint and
   unbelieving, let

   him breathe the air of Calvary again! The learned Grotius, who had
   spent the most of his life in theological disputations--not always or
   even often on the right side--when he was dying said, "Read me
   something." And they read him the story of the publican and the
   Pharisee. He said, "And that poor publican I am. Thank God, that I am
   publican.' God be merciful to me, a sinner.'" That was the word with
   which the great scholar entered into Heaven--and that is the way in
   which you and I must come to God! May the Holy Spirit help us to come
   to Him thus! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Feeding on the Bread of Life

   (No. 2706)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 23, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   NOVEMBER 6, 1881.

   "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on Me hats
   everlasting life. I am that bread of life." John 6:47, 48.

   OBSERVE carefully the order in which our Lord puts the two blessings He
   mentions--first, life through believing on Him, and then food to
   sustain that life. First, "he that believes on Me has everlasting
   life," and next to that, "I am that bread of life." Life comes first
   and food follows afterwards. It is impossible for a dead man to feed,
   or to be fed-- only the living can eat and drink. I once went into the
   monastery of the Capuchins at Rome and there I saw certain of the
   departed brotherhood dressed in their regular habits, although they had
   been dead, some of them a hundred years, some fifty, and one gentleman,
   I think, had scarcely been dead more than a year or so. But there they
   sat, with their breviaries in their hands, just as if they had been
   alive! Yet I did not see any preparations for feeding them. It would
   have been as ridiculous to attempt to feed them as it was to keep them
   there at all!

   Now, when we preach the Gospel, unless you have spiritual life, you
   cannot feed upon it. And if you were to come to the Communion Table,
   unless you were truly alive unto God, you might eat the bread and drink
   the wine, but with real spiritual food, the body of Christ, and the
   blood of Christ, you could have nothing to do. We do not give food to
   people in order to make them live. That would be a useless experiment,
   but, because they are alive, they take food in order to sustain and
   nourish the life which is already in them. Always remember, dear
   Friends, that the best spiritual food in the world is useless to those
   who are spiritually dead. And one very essential part of the Gospel is
   that Truth of God which our Savior so plainly taught, "You must be born
   again." All attempts at feeding the soul are of no use until the new
   birth has been experienced! Even that precious, priceless bread of life
   cannot be assimilated unless the soul has been quickened by the Spirit
   of God. Judge, then, my Hearers, whether you are alive unto God, or
   not. Before you can rightly know the Truth, before you are qualified to
   learn its mysteries, pray that you may be made to live by faith in
   Jesus Christ--for before food comes life.

   But, next, after life there must be food, for, just as surely as there
   will be no use for the food without the life, so will there be no
   continuance of the life without the food. Men have played great pranks
   with themselves and have even experimented upon the possibility of
   living for 40 days without food--an experiment which I, for one, have
   no kind of wish to imitate! Neither would I recommend any of my hearers
   to attempt it, for the probability is that if one man should manage to
   survive his 40 days' fast, there will be 40 other men, who try to do
   the same, who will be in another world long before the end of that
   time! God meant us to eat if we wish to live. When He made men and
   women, He made the fruits of the earth on which they should feed. And
   afterwards He gave them the flesh of beasts that they might feed
   thereon, but they must be fed if they are to continue to exist.

   So is it with the soul--but the soul must be fed on spiritual meat.
   Souls cannot eat what bodies can eat. But, still, they must eat. All
   the qualities in a spiritual man, which are gracious, need food. Faith
   needs the Truth of God to believe. Love needs a revelation of love to
   keep it burning. Hope needs to be reminded of the things to be expected
   in the future, so that it may continue to hope. And every Grace within
   a spiritual man is clamorous for spiritual food that it may feed upon.
   If there are any of you who profess to be spiritual men and women, and
   yet you say that you can live without reading the Bible, without
   attending the House of Prayer, without any outward means of Grace, all
   I can say is that I

   do not want to try your system of living, for I should be starved by
   it, even if you are not! And I would not recommend any Christian to try
   to see how long his spirit can live without spiritual food. No, our
   Lord's order is, first, life--then food. And this implies that where
   there is life, there must be food. Those two things are very simple,
   yet many persons live as if they did not know them.

   Next, if you look at the text, you will see that there is
   everlastingness in the life. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
   believes on Me has everlasting life." Yet there is need of food all the
   same. The everlastingness of the life does not change the fact of its
   need of spiritual food, for here the two things are put side by
   side--"He that believes on Me has everlasting life. I am that bread of
   life." The life of the Believer is everlasting, yet it needs food to
   sustain it. Does any of you say, "God has saved me, the Holy Spirit has
   quickened me, and I shall never perish. Therefore I need not feed upon
   the Word, I need not be watchful, I need not be careful"? My dear
   Friend, you err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the analogy of faith.
   It is quite certain that those whom Christ has quickened by His Spirit
   shall never die, but it is just as certain that they would die if they
   did not feed upon Christ and sustain their life by that means! The two
   things are not contrary, the one to the other. I charge you, Beloved,
   to be as vigilant in the keeping of yourselves as if you were really
   your own keepers! Be as earnest that you slip not with your feet as if
   there were no promise that God would keep the feet of His saints. Be as
   diligent in prayer and holy living as if everything depended upon
   yourself. Yet forget not to fall back upon the grand Truth of God that,
   after all, your safety does not depend upon yourself, but it rests in
   the hands of Him who has undertaken to keep you from falling and to
   preserve you even to the end. Your new life is everlasting, yet you
   must feed it!

   Now think for a minute or two of the converse of that Truth. Because
   your new life must feed--which is clear from the text, where Christ
   says, "I am that bread of life"--do not, therefore, infer that your
   life is not everlasting. All the precepts of the Word of God which
   admonish us to persevere are consistent with the fact that the saints
   shall'persevere. All the exhortations to feed on spiritual food are
   quite consistent with the blessed fact that you shallso feed and that,
   so feeding, your souls shall live forever. Has not a man two eyes?
   Surely it is that he may see the whole of a truth and not merely one
   side of it. I believe that some people fall into great mischief because
   they shut one eye and will never open it-- and if anybody tries to
   point out the other side of the Truth of God, they cry, "Oh, he is not
   sound!" But, my dear Friend, for my part, I am always quite satisfied
   when I have the Scriptures at the back of my teaching. I do not care
   even the snap of a finger for what you may call unsound, or what
   anybody else may call unsound, so long as it is in accordance with the
   Word of God! And you may depend upon this fact, that paradoxes are not
   strange things in Scripture, but are rather the rule than the
   exception.

   Very often, those things which appear to contradict each other are only
   two sides of the same Truth of God, and he who would get at the Truth,
   itself, must look at them both, and follow them both. If you are
   Christ's sheep, you shall never perish, neither shall any pluck you out
   of His hands--yet it is to you that such a warning as this is
   addressed-- "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil
   heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." And it is to you
   that the injunction is given, "Labor not for the meat which perishes,
   but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life." And while
   laboring for it, bless God that you already have it, seeing that you
   have Christ in your possession, and He says, "I am that 'bread of
   life.'"

   Notice, Brothers and Sisters, how Jesus Christ, our Divine Lord and
   Master, is everything to His people. Our life, that is Christ--"He that
   believes on Me has everlasting life." Our food for that life--that also
   is Christ--"I am that bread of life." I have come even to love my own
   necessities, for they seem to be like pedestals whereon the image of
   Christ may stand! If I did not need Christ, how could He be my life? If
   I did not need food to sustain that life, how could He be the bread of
   life to me? The greater my necessities, the deeper is my sense of His
   fullness! The more I become dependent upon Him for everything, the more
   I see of His all-sufficiency. You know that if there were no great
   hollows and deep places on the face of the earth, there would be no
   room for the seas and oceans. And if there were no deep places in our
   soul's need, where could be the fullness, the manifested fullness, of
   the Lord Jesus Christ? Rejoice, then, my Brothers and Sisters, that
   Christ made you alive from the dead! And then raise another song of
   thanksgiving because He keeps you alive. Bless His name for grafting
   you into the vine. And then bless Him for every drop of sap as it comes
   flowing out of Him--the Stem into you--the branch. Christ is ALL!
   Christ is ALL! Christ is ALL and to His name be praise forever and
   ever!

   Perhaps someone asks, "How do we feed on Jesus Christ?" And there are
   some who say that we feed upon Christ in what is called, "the
   sacrament." I do not like that word, "sacrament," as applied to the
   ordinance of the Lord's Supper. Regardless, there is no mention in
   Scripture of such a thing as a "sacrament." It is an old heathenish
   word, applying to the oath which a soldier swore to be faithful to his
   commander. I like neither swearing nor sacraments, and I do not like
   either one of them anymore than the other, for both of them are
   contrary to the Word of God! Out of that word, "sacrament," a great
   mass of mischief has grown up--it is a bed of rottenness out of which
   all sorts of evil fungi have sprung. Let us keep clear of that, once
   and for all!

   Some men tell us, however, that in what they call, "the sacrament of
   holy communion," the communicants feed upon Christ. Listen. My text was
   spoken by Christ before the Lord's Supper had been instituted--a long
   while before He broke the bread and poured out the wine as a memorial
   of His death, He had uttered these remarkable words--"Verily, verily, I
   say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His
   blood, you have no life in you." But there was spiritual life in the
   Apostles, even then, was there not? Yet they had never eaten of what is
   called the "sacrament," for it was not instituted at that time! As
   there was true life in them, they must have eaten of Christ--and there
   being no Lord's Supper then instituted, it is clear that there is a way
   of eating of Christ's flesh and drinking of His blood, altogether apart
   from the communion!

   Now, having said so much by way of correcting a common error, I want
   you just as clearly to understand that the Lord's Supper, as afterwards
   instituted, was manifestly intended by Christ to be a picture, setting
   forth by outward and visible signs, the way of feeding upon Him. It is
   not actually feeding upon Christ, for that took place before there was
   any Lord's Supper, but it is an admirable picture of that feeding upon
   Christ and to all time it remains one of the choicest methods--one
   method only, mark you--one of the choicest methods by which
   spiritually-quickened souls are helped to feed upon Christ. We often
   feed upon Christ while hearing sermons. We feed upon Christ as we read
   good books. We feed upon Christ in the public prayers of the sanctuary,
   and in the secret communion in our own chamber. If we are as we should
   be, we are always feeding upon Christ! And part of the meaning of that
   petition, "Give us this day our daily bread," is, "Give us this day to
   feed upon Christ." Though we come to no Communion Table, much less
   approach an altar of sacrifice, we are spiritually and really fed upon
   Christ in other ways. Still, I say again that this communion service is
   a very choice way of feeding upon Christ. And I want to try to show
   you, by this picture, how it is that souls feed spiritually upon our
   Lord Jesus Christ.

   Baptism is a picture of how souls receive spiritual life. The Lord's
   Supper is a picture of how that new life is sustained. Both ordinances
   are only pictures, symbols, emblems--nothing more! Our immersion, by
   its symbolic representation of death, burial and rising again out of
   the water, sets forth how we live by dying to all but Christ, and rise
   again to live in Christ in newness of life. That is the beginning of
   the new life. And then comes the Lord's Supper as a picture of how the
   soul feeds upon the body and blood of Christ. Baptism is the door of
   the house and the Lord's Supper is a meal in the inner chamber for
   those who have been raised from the dead and quickened into life in
   Christ Jesus. Do not imagine--I do not suppose that I have a single
   hearer who thinks so--but do not imagine that there is any magic in
   Baptism, by which water makes men, women, or children, into children of
   God, heirs of Christ, and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven! And do
   not suppose that there is any magic about the bread and wine--wafers
   and wine and water I think some use--but do not think for a moment that
   there is any magic in them! They are merely pictures setting forth
   important Truths of God, for souls cannot eat bread and souls cannot
   drink "the fruit of the vine." What are these emblems and symbols here
   for? Only as helps to thought, reminders of certain great facts,
   memorials of wondrous deeds which are brought to our recollection, so
   that our memories--and through them our souls--may feed upon these
   great Truths of

   God!

   Now, after this unusually lengthy preface, which seemed to be necessary
   to the full understanding of our subject, I want to point out to you
   the picture, which the Lord's Supper sets before us, of our feeding
   upon the bread of life.

   I. And, first, WE FEED NOT WITHOUT A BLESSING. In coming to the
   Communion Table, the first thing we do is to give thanks--to ask a
   blessing--the blessing of God upon the sacred feast. Now, Soul, if you
   are really alive unto God by Jesus Christ, you cannot feed upon Christ
   without the Divine blessing. As you could not, at the first, come to
   Christ without the Father's blessing, so you cannot even now feed upon
   Christ without the Holy Spirit's Divine assistance. If I were to sit
   down and say, "I am going to feed upon Christ," and opened at the very
   sweetest chapter in the

   whole Bible, I might read it through and yet not be feeding upon Christ
   at all. If I were to say, "I will get to my knees, and in my chamber I
   will enter into fellowship with Christ, and spiritually eat His flesh,
   and drink His blood," I might stay on my knees till they ached, but,
   apart from the blessing of God, I should get no good out of the action.
   So, first, when we come to this Communion Table, we ask God to bless
   what we are about to do, for, unless He shall draw us, we shall not be
   able to run after Him. Unless He shall open our mouth, we shall not be
   fed with the bread of Heaven. I charge you, therefore, O beloved
   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, whose hearts are longing for communion
   with the Well-Beloved, ask your Heavenly Father, by the effectual
   working of His blessed Spirit, to visit you with power, and life, and
   blessing! When you open the Bible, let it be with this prayer upon your
   lip--"Quicken me, O Lord, according unto Your Word!" When you draw near
   to God in private devotion, let it be in complete dependence upon the
   Spirit of God. When you listen to sermons, when you come to the
   Communion Table, let it always be with a glance to Heaven for the
   blessing of the Lord to rest upon it all, for all is nothing unless God
   shall bless it to you.

   II. Secondly, WE FEED ON JESUS WHO DIED FOR US. The Blessing is asked.
   Now what follows at the Communion? Why, next, bread is taken, and
   broken. That bread is the emblem of the body of Christ. But what is
   that wine cup? It is the emblem of the blood of Christ. So, you see, we
   have flesh there without blood, and blood there, as it were, drained
   out of the flesh. What do the two emblems together make up? Why, death
   If we were to dip the bread in the wine, it would be no proper
   observance of the Lord's Supper--but these two emblems are separate,
   the one from the other--because they are intended to symbolize to us
   the death of Christ. Now, Brothers and Sisters, the food of your faith
   is to be found in the death of the Lord Jesus for you and, oh, what
   blessed food it is! Some of us know what it is to be bowed down in
   despondency almost to despair and I, for one, bear my testimony that
   under such circumstances, nothing revives me like a sight of my Master
   on the accursed tree! Unless He died for me, I, for one, am eternally
   lost. I can see no merits of my own which I dare present to God, for I
   am a mass of sin, and I should be a mass of misery, were it not for
   those dear wounds of His, and that bloody sweat, that Cross and
   passion!

   Think much of this great central Truth of the Atonement, for it is the
   food of your soul. The bread and the wine cannot spiritually feed
   you--all they can do is to help you to remember the sufferings and
   death of Jesus and, by remembering them, to show forth His death till
   He comes. It is in this way that your faith is nourished, your hope is
   nourished, your love is nourished, your whole soul is nourished in
   every gracious and holy way! Read the life of Christ as recorded by the
   four Evangelists, but feed most on the death of Christ. Study the
   example of Christ, yet that is not your food--let your food be His body
   broken for your sake, His blood poured out in grievous agony, even unto
   death, as Atonement for your sin. The Lord's Supper is a very beautiful
   and impressive method of instruction to us because, as there we have to
   feed upon emblems which set forth a cruel death, so our souls must
   feed, by contemplation, upon the real death of Christ, and all good
   things within us must be sustained by faith in that death!

   III. Now we will go a step further--WE FEED UPON CHRIST BY RECEIVING
   HIM SPIRITUALLY INTO US. We have looked at what is on the table. The
   next thing, in order to celebrate the Lord's Supper, is that we must
   eat, and we must drink. It would be no observance of the Supper if I
   were to break the bread and leave it on the table, or if the wine in
   the cup should stand there simply to be looked at. No, the bread must
   be eaten, the wine must be drunk. Learn, therefore, that if your soul
   is to be fed, you must take Christ into you--you must not merely think
   of Him as belonging to somebody else, but as your own Savior, whose
   death was in your place, who loved you and gave Himself for you. Make
   bold, by faith, to cry, as Thomas did, not only, "Lord and God," but,
   "My Lord, and my God." Say, "In this blood, which He shed, I wash away
   my sin. This body of His, which He gave to death, He gave up for me.
   And in His sufferings my heart confides because these sufferings were
   endured for me."

   It is palpable to everyone that there is no feeding of the body by just
   rubbing a loaf of bread outside of it. You have to break up the loaf
   and get it into yourself. And there is no feeding the spirit by merely
   believing the doctrines of the Word and knowing the facts of the
   Gospel--you must accept Him who is the very essence of the doctrines.
   You must receive Him to whom all the facts relate. You must, indeed, by
   faith take Jesus Christ into yourself! O Beloved, this is the way to
   feed on Christ! Your new life will be vigorous enough and strong enough
   when this is the case with you.

   IV. Further, WE FEED UPON CHRIST BY DELIBERATE THOUGHT. I remind you
   that in the eating and the

   drinking at the Lord's Supper, there is much deliberation to be
   manifested. It is not a helter-skelter rush, and a hurried feeding.
   There are two signs, two symbols, both of which very wonderfully
   represent Christ's suffering. I have often

   sketched for you the process by which we get our bread--it is very
   significant and instructive. The wheat is taken, and cast into the
   ground and buried. It is subject to frost and snow, and all manner of
   ills. It springs up. It grows. It ripens. Then comes the sickle and it
   is cut down. Being cut down, it is carried away upon the loaded wagon
   and thrown upon the threshing floor. Then it is beaten with the flail
   till each grain of wheat is separated from the straw. Then the wheat is
   taken and put into the mill, and in the mill it is ground to fine
   flour. Nor have its pangs and tortures ended. It is made into dough and
   kneaded. And then it must go into the oven to be baked. Through all
   sorts of painful processes it must go till it finishes up with being
   broken to pieces and with being ground between the teeth of the eater.
   In this way it becomes a most significant symbol of the sufferings of
   Christ. His life is, all through, a story of grief--"Surely He has
   borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows," and you and I are to think
   over that history of Christ with due deliberation and care as we ponder
   the symbolism of the broken bread.

   Then comes the cup. Here, the grape has been crushed in the winepress
   till its ruddiest juice has been poured forth, its very heart's blood
   being shed beneath the extreme pressure. This is another picture of
   Christ's suffering--of His suffering even unto death. So the one
   picture has two panels and many subdivisions, as if the Lord would say
   to us, "If you want to feed your soul upon Christ, you must think a
   great deal about Him. You must not merely say, by faith, 'Yes, Christ
   is my Savior.' That is well, so far as it goes. That Truth will give
   you life, but you must see who He was, and what He was, and what He
   did, and why He did it, and what He is doing now, and what He has yet
   to do. And so, by taking it in detail, you will feed your soul very
   wonderfully." Look at many half-starved Christians. Why you can see
   each rib, you may tell each bone in their spiritual anatomy. They have
   scarcely enough life to be able to sing in a whisper--

   "'Tis a point I long to know,

   Oft it causes anxious thought,

   Do I love the Lord, or no?

   Am IHis, or am Inot?'"

   Now, if they thought more of Christ--if they broke up the Truth about
   Him more than they do--if they looked more into His passion--if they
   studied His wondrous Person--if they relied upon His promises--if they
   rested in His work more in detail by contemplation, they would grow to
   be spiritual giants--they would be "strong in the Lord, and in the
   power of His might."

   Is there not much instructive teaching, then, in this Supper, as far as
   we have gone? But, I want you, dear Friends, to notice that everypoint
   about the Lord's Supper is full of gracious spiritual meaning.

   V. Next, WE FEED UPON CHRIST BY RECEIVING THE COVENANT. When the Lord
   Jesus Christ passed the

   cup to His disciples, He said to them, "This cup is the new testament
   (that is, Covenant,) in My blood, which is shed for you." Listen to the
   word, "Covenant, Covenant." Brothers and Sisters, are you very hungry?
   Do your souls want the richest food that God Himself can give you? I
   will tell you of a cupboard where there is locked up bread such as they
   never ate in the wilderness! It is better even than the manna. Take
   your Bible and go through its many chambers, and up and down the
   corridors of its wondrous teaching, and you will see, over one coffer
   that stands there, this word, in golden letters, "Covenant." That is
   the place where God specially meets with His people. "He has given meat
   unto them that fear Him: He will ever be mindful of His Covenant." The
   man who can fully understand the word, "Covenant," is a theologian!
   That is the key of all theology--the Covenant of Works by which we
   fell, and the Covenant of Grace by which we stand--Christ fulfilling
   the Covenant for us as our Surety and Representative, fulfilling it by
   the shedding of His blood, which is typified by the cup, and so leaving
   for us a Covenant wholly fulfilled on our side, which is Christ's side,
   and only to be fulfilled now by God! And what God has to fulfill is
   this promise of the Covenant--"A new heart also will I give you, and a
   new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart
   out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put
   My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you
   shall keep My judgments, and do them...And you shall be My people, and
   I will be your God."

   Ah, Brothers and Sisters! This is what we call "a feast of fat things,
   a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on
   the lees well refined." Some of our fellow Christians have very poor
   spiritual digestion--they cannot feed upon this sort of food. When they
   try to partake of it, they fancy that it is too rich for them, so they
   say, "It cannot be good food for souls." Yes, but there are some of us
   who, by reason of age and use, have had our senses exercised, and we
   have now grown old enough to digest the strong meat of the Gospel, and
   we are glad to get our teeth into it whenever we can! I like to go down
   to the Covenant storehouse and to lay hold of these blessed things! And
   I urge you,

   Brothers and Sisters, to do the same. If you really want to feed your
   soul, take care that you try to understand the Covenant, for the Lord
   Jesus gives you a hint that the richest wine is found there by saying,
   as He was passing the cup, "This cup is the New Covenant in My blood."

   VI. Yet again, WE FEED UPON CHRIST AS WE SIT AROUND HIS TABLE. To my
   mind there is something very beautiful and suggestive in the right
   posture for the observance of the Lord's Supper. What is that? Coming
   up here and kneeling as if there was something to worship? That is a
   relic of old Romanism that ought to be done away with by all
   Protestants! What is the proper way to observe this ordinance? Why,
   just sitting around the table on which the emblems are spread. Look at
   that remarkable picture of Leonardo de Vinci--a picture which I have
   seen hanging up in a Romish church, as you may see it in many Romish
   churches. It represents Christ and all His disciples sitting at a
   table, and that is the right posture for us. How did they at first eat
   it? They reclined--they lay along, in the easiest possible posture that
   they could take, sustaining themselves upon the left arm, and so
   feeding, one with his head on his neighbor's bosom. Now, translating
   the Oriental into the Western fashion, the nearest approach to that is
   to sit as much at your ease as you can--and the spiritual meaning of
   that posture is this--You are saved men and women. The life of God is
   in you, therefore, rest. "We who have believed do enter into rest." And
   whenever you want to feed on Christ, do not feed on Him in a hurry. Do
   not fidget. Do not worry. Do not stand with your loins girt, and with
   your staff in your hand, as the Israelites were to eat the Passover in
   Egypt. You are out of Egypt--you are past the wilderness, for we who
   have believed in Christ have entered Canaan--and are at rest.

   VII. Once more, WE FEED UPON CHRIST AS WE SIT TOGETHER TO OBSERVE THIS
   ORDINANCE. A very blessed way of feeding upon Christ is pictured by our
   sitting together around this Communion Table. One person could not
   celebrate the Lord's Supper, for a primary part of it is fellowship
   with others. "We being many are one bread, and one body." If you want
   to feed rightly on Christ, do not keep to yourself, and do not try to
   keep Christ to yourself. No, Brother, Christ Jesus is not Head over
   only you! He is the Head of the whole body, which is His Church. I
   believe that, sometimes, when you cannot pray alone, you would be
   helped if you would associate others with you in your supplications.
   There is a way of feeding upon Christ by getting others to come in and
   feed too. Mind that and let your communion with Jesus, while it should
   be alone full often, not be always alone, but lay hold upon your
   Savior, and take Him to your mother's house, and to the chamber of her
   that bore you, and there will He show you His great love. He may come
   to Peter or Magdalene alone, but He most of all delights, on the first
   day of the week, to stand in the midst of His assembled ones, and to
   say not merely to any one of them, but to them all, "Peace be unto
   you." Live in holy love with all who love Christ so shall you be helped
   to feed upon Him, remembering that we are made to sit together in the
   heavenly places in Christ Jesus our Lord.

   VIII. The last point is this--WE FEED NOT UPON CHRIST WITHOUT PRAISE.
   When we come to the close of the Lord's Supper, we always do what our
   Lord Jesus did. After supper, they sang a hymn. So the right way to
   close the celebration of the Supper is to sing a Psalm of praise. And,
   dear Friends, whenever you want to commune with Christ, take care that
   you praise as well as pray. Mingle thanksgiving with your
   supplications, for Jesus loves to hear the praises of His people. I am
   afraid we lose a great deal of communion with Christ because we do not
   give Him more praise. I heard a Brother say, the other day--and, oh,
   how greatly did I enjoy his conversation when he said it!--"There are
   some times, when I am alone with God, when I cannot pray. I do not feel
   as if, just then, I needed anything of Him. Then," he said, "I always
   sing, or in some way or other praise God. And I find communion with God
   in praise to be as profitable to my soul as communion with Him in
   prayer. And, oftentimes, before my praise is done, my prayer begins to
   spring up like a living well." Try that plan, Brothers and Sisters, for
   it may help you still more blessedly to feed upon Jesus Christ.

   I wish that all my congregation knew the sweetness of feeding upon
   Christ. Every man feeds on something or other. You see one man getting
   his Sunday newspaper--how he will feed on that! Another goes to
   frivolous amusements, and he feeds on them. Another man feeds upon his
   business, and upon the thought of his many cares! But all that is poor
   food--it is only ashes and husks. If you did but possess true spiritual
   life, you would know the deep necessity there is of feeding upon
   Christ. But you do not possess that life, you say. No, then do you know
   what will become of the dead? What will become of the dead? And after
   death comes corruption. The old Jews, in the times of the kings, took
   the corrupting bodies of the dead out into the valley of Hinnom--and
   there they kindled great fires, that the corrupting corpses might be
   burnt. And something like that, only far worse, will be the lot of
   everyone who is not quickened of the Spirit of

   God and made to live with Christ! You will go to the place "where their
   worm dies not." That is the place of corruption--"and the fire is not
   quenched." that is Tophet's flame. God save you from it! But there is
   no salvation from it except for those who have life through believing
   in Jesus--"He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and He
   that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God
   abides on Him." God save you, dear Friends, from that awful doom, for
   His dear Son's sake! Amen.

   HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"--282, 295, 942.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN6:41-65.

   Verse 41. The Jews then murmured at Him. That is, at the Christ.

   41, 42. Because He said, I am the bread which came down from Heaven.
   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?
   They did know His mother, but they made a mistake, which may have
   seemed a very slight one to them, when they said that they knew His
   father. Yet that is how nearly all great errors spring--from some
   slight and apparently trivial addition to the Truth of God. They did
   know Mary, but they did not know that Jehovah was the Father of the
   Christ.

   43, 44. Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among
   yourselves. 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 Note the unflinching
   boldness of Christ! He did not say to these people, "Well, you have
   some cause for murmuring and I will explain the matter to you." On the
   contrary, He faced them with the Doctrine of Sovereign Grace, and told
   them that He did not expect them to understand Him, for they could not
   do so except the Father, who had sent Him, should draw their hearts
   towards Him!

   45. 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. So, in fact, He said to them, "You have not been taught
   of God. The Father has never drawn you, otherwise you would have
   received Me." So does the brave Champion thrust the naked sword of the
   Truth of God into their very souls!

   46, 47. Not that any man has seen the Father, save He which is of God,
   He has seen the Father Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes
   on Me has everlasting life. Let me read those precious words again,
   catch at them, you timid and trembling ones--"Verily, verily, I say
   unto you, He that believes on Me has"--now, in present possession--
   "everlasting life."

   48, 49. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the
   wilderness, and are dead. He does not say, "Our fathers." He comes out,
   as it were, as much from the Jews as from the Gentile ungodly world,
   and He says, "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are
   dead."

   50, 51. This is the bread which comes down from Heaven, that a man may
   eat, and not die. I am the living bread. Bread that contains life
   within itself and is, therefore, most potent to sustain a life like
   itself--"I am the living bread."

   51, 52. Which came down from Heaven: if any man eat of this bread, He
   shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I
   willgive for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strivedamong
   themselves, saying, How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?\ wonder
   if they perceived that this declaration of Christ involved His death,
   for He did not speak of giving them His living body, but His "flesh."
   There are some who find their main comfort in the Incarnation of Christ
   and, certainly, that is a very comforting Truth of God. But, without
   the death of Christ, it affords no nourishment for the soul. Atonement,
   Atonement--there is the kernel of the whole matter! Christ must die and
   then He can give us His flesh to eat!

   53, 54. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
   Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you
   have no life in you. Whoso eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, has
   eternal life; and I will raise Him up at the last day. His soul shall
   live. His spirit shall never die. And though his body shall die, the
   force of the eternal life within the man shall quicken even his mortal
   body into an immortality like that of his spirit.

   55-60. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He
   that eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, dwells in Me, and I in Him. As
   the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that
   eats Me, even he shall

   live by Me. This is that bread which came down from Heaven: not as your
   fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eats of this bread shall
   live forever These things said He in the synagogue, as He taught in
   Capernaum. Many, therefore, of His disciples, when they had heard this,
   said, This is an hard saying; who can bear it? And a hard saying it
   really is until we are instructed by the Spirit of God to understand
   it! The Roman Catholic has made it into a gross and carnal saying,
   teaching men that they really, actually and corporeally, eat the flesh
   and drink the blood of Christ, which is horrible blasphemy, and nothing
   less! But they who are taught of God see the inward meaning of the
   Truth peeping up from behind the letter, and know what it is to receive
   into their hearts, though not into their bodies--into their thoughts,
   though not into their mouths--the very body and blood of Christ.

   61-63. When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He
   said unto them, Does this offend you? What and if you shall see the Son
   of Man ascend up where He was before? It is the Spirit that quickens.
   The Spirit in us gives spiritual meaning to the Word, and life to us
   also--"It is the Spirit that quickens;"--

   63. The flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they
   are spirit, and they are life. They are not carnal. They are not gross.
   They have in them an inner sense which is full of life and spirit.

   64, 65. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from
   the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray
   Him. And He said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto
   Me, except it were given unto Him of My Father. "No man"--no, not even
   an Apostle--not the one who ate bread with Christ and was His familiar
   friend--not even he could come without being drawn by God. And Judas
   did not come to Christ. In the sense in which our Lord used the word,
   Judas never really came to Him, but perished in his sin. The Father
   must draw us with Divine cords, or else to the Son we shall never come.
     __________________________________________________________________

An Antidote to Satan's Devices

   (No. 2707)

   INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 30, 1900.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A THURSDAY EVENING, DURING THE
   WINTER OF 1858.

   "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the
   LORRD God had made." Genesis 3:1.

   WE understand, of course, that this verse refers to "that old serpent,
   called the devil, and Satan." The Samaritan Version reads, instead of
   the word, "serpent," "deceiver," or "liar." If this is not the genuine
   reading, it nevertheless certainly declares a Truth of God. That old
   deceiver, of whom our Lord Jesus said to the Jews. "When he speaks a
   lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it," was
   "more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made."
   God has been pleased to give to many beasts subtlety--to some, subtlety
   and cunning combined with strength--in order that they may be the more
   destructive to certain classes of animals whose numbers require to be
   kept under. To others, devoid of very much strength, He has been
   pleased to give instincts of most marvelous wisdom for
   self-preservation and the destruction of their prey, and for the
   procuring of their food. But the subtlety of Satan far excels the wise
   instincts and subtlety of all the beasts of the field by far. In fact,
   to go further, man has, perhaps, far more cunning than any mere
   creature, although animal instinct sometimes seems as if it did outride
   human reason--but Satan has more of cunning within him than any other
   creature that the Lord God has made, man included.

   Satan has abundant craft and is able to overcome us for several
   reasons. I think it would be a sufficient reason that Satan should be
   cunning because he is malicious--for malice is, of all things, the most
   productive of cunning. When a man is determined on revenge, it is
   strange how cunning he is to discover opportunities to vent his spite.
   Let a man have enmity against another, and let that enmity thoroughly
   possess his soul, and pour venom, as it were, into his very blood, and
   he will become exceedingly crafty in the means he uses to annoy and
   injure his adversary! Now, nobody can be more full of malice against
   man than Satan is, as he proves every day--and that malice sharpens his
   inherent wisdom, so that he becomes exceedingly subtle.

   Besides, Satan is an angel, though a fallen one. We doubt not, from
   certain hints in Scripture, that he occupied a very high place in the
   hierarchy of angels before he fell. And we know that those mighty
   beings are endowed with vast intellectual powers, far surpassing any
   that has ever been given to beings of human mold. Therefore, we must
   not expect that a man, unaided from above, should ever be a match for
   an angel, especially an angel whose native intellect has been sharpened
   by a most spiteful malice against us.

   Again, Satan may well be cunning now--I may truthfully say, more
   cunning than he was in the days of Adam--for he has had long dealings
   with the human race. This was his first occasion of dealing with
   mankind, when he tempted Eve, but he was, even then, "more subtle than
   any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." Since then he has
   exercised all his diabolical thought and mighty powers to annoy and
   ruin men. There is not a saint whom he has not beset and not a sinner
   whom he has not misled. Together with his troops of evil spirits, he
   has been continually exercising a terrible control over the sons of
   men. He is, therefore, well skilled in all the arts of temptation.
   Never anatomist so well understood the human body as Satan does the
   human soul. He has not been "tempted in all points," but he has tempted
   others in all points. He has tried to assail our manhood from the crown
   of our head to the sole of our foot--and he has explored every outwork
   of our nature--and even the most secret caverns of our souls.

   He has climbed into the citadel of our heart and he has lived there. He
   has searched its inmost recesses and dived into its most profound
   depths. I suppose there is nothing of human nature that Satan cannot
   unravel and though, doubtless, he is the biggest fool that ever
   existed, as time continually proves, yet, beyond all doubt, he is the
   craftiest of fools, and I may add, that is no great paradox, for craft
   is always folly and is but another shape of departure from wisdom.

   And now, Brothers and Sisters, I shall, for a few minutes, first occupy
   your time by noticing the craft and subtlety of Satan and the modes in
   which he attacks our souls. And secondly, I shall give you a few words
   of admonition with regard to the wisdom that we must exercise against
   him and the only means that we can effectually use to prevent his
   subtlety from being the instrument of our destruction.

   I. Let us notice, in the first place, THE CRAFT AND SUBTLETY OF SATAN
   as we have discovered it in our own experience.

   And I may begin by observing that Satan discovers his craft and
   subtlety by the modes of his attack. There is a man who is calm, quiet
   and at ease. Satan does not attack that man with unbelief or
   distrustfulness--he attacks him in a more vulnerable point, than
   that--self-love, self-confidence, worldliness. These will be the
   weapons which Satan will use against him. There is another person who
   is noted for lowness of spirits and lack of mental vigor. It is not
   probable that Satan will endeavor to puff him up with pride, but
   examining him and discovering where his weak point is, he will tempt
   him to doubt his calling and endeavor to drive him to despair! There is
   another man of strong robust bodily health, having all his mental
   powers in full and vigorous exercise, enjoying the promises and
   delighting in the ways of God. Satan will possibly not attack him with
   unbelief because he feels that he has armor for that particular point,
   but he will attack him with pride, or with some temptation to lust. He
   will most thoroughly and carefully examine us--and if he shall find us
   to be like Achilles, vulnerable nowhere else but in our heel, then he
   will shoot his arrows at our heel.

   I believe that Satan has not often attacked a man in a place where he
   saw him to be strong. He generally looks well for the weak point, the
   besetting sin. "There," he says, "there will I strike the blow!" And
   God help us in the hour of battle and in the time of conflict! We have
   need to say, "God help us!" for, indeed, unless the Lord should help
   us, this crafty foe might easily find enough joints in our armor to
   soon send the deadly arrow into our souls so that we should fall down
   wounded before him. And yet I have noticed, strangely enough, that
   Satan does sometimes tempt men with the very thing which you might
   suppose would never come upon them. What do you imagine was John Knox's
   last temptation upon his dying bed? Perhaps there never was a man who
   more fully understood the great doctrine that "by Grace are you saved,"
   than John Knox did. He thundered it out from the pulpit and if you had
   questioned him upon the subject, he would have declared it to you
   boldly and bravely, denying with all his might the Popish doctrine of
   salvation through human merit. But, will you believe it, that old enemy
   of souls attacked John Knox with self-righteousness when he lay
   a-dying? He came to him, and said, "How bravely you have served your
   Master, John! You have never quailed before the face of man. You have
   faced kings and princes, and yet you have never trembled! Such a man as
   you are may walk into the Kingdom of Heaven on your own footing and
   wear your own garment at the wedding of the Most High!" And sharp and
   terrible was the struggle which John Knox had with the enemy of souls
   over that temptation.

   I can give you a similar instance from my own experience. I thought
   within myself that of all the beings in the world, I was the most free
   from care. It had never exercised my thoughts a moment, I think, to
   care for temporals--I had always had all I needed, and I seemed to have
   been removed beyond the reach of anxiety about such matters. And yet,
   strange to say, but a little while ago, a most frightful temptation
   overtook me, casting me into worldliness of care and thought-- and
   though I lay and groaned in agony, and wrestled with all my might
   against the temptation, it was long before I could overcome these
   distrustful thoughts with regard to God's Providence, when, I must
   confess, there was not the slightest reason, as far as I could see, why
   such thoughts should break in upon me! For that reason, and for many
   more, I hate the devil worse and worse every day, and I have vowed, if
   it is possible, by preaching the Word of God to seek to shake the very
   pillars of his kingdom! And I think all God's servants will feel that
   their enmity against the arch-enemy of souls increases every day
   because of the malevolent and strange attacks that he is continually
   making upon us.

   The modes of Satan's attack, then, as you will speedily learn, if you
   have not already done so, betray his subtlety. Ah, sons of men, while
   you are putting on your helmets, he is seeking to thrust his fiery
   sword into your heart! Or while you are looking well to your
   breastplate, he is lifting up his battle-ax to split your skull! And
   while you are seeing to both helmet and breastplate, he is seeking to
   trip up your feet. He is always watching to see where you are not
   looking--he is

   always on the alert when you are slumbering. Take heed to yourselves,
   therefore. "Put on the whole armor of God." "Be sober, be vigilant,
   because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about,
   seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith." And
   God help you to prevail over him!

   A second thing in which Satan betrays his cunning is the weapons which
   he will often use against us. Sometimes he will attack the child of God
   with the remembrance of a ribald song, or a licentious joke which he
   may have heard in the days of his carnal state. But far more frequently
   he will attack him with texts of Scripture! It is strange that it
   should be so, but it often is the case that when he shoots his arrow
   against a Christian, he wings it with God's own Word! That seemed to
   be, according to the poet, the very poignancy of grief, that the eagle,
   when the arrow was drinking up his heart's blood, saw that the feather
   that winged it to his bosom had been plucked from his own breast! And
   the Christian will often have a somewhat similar experience. "Ah," he
   will say, "here is a text that I love, taken from the Book that I
   prize, yet it is turned against me. A weapon out of God's own armory is
   made to be the instrument of death against my soul." Have you not found
   it so, dear Christian Friends? Have you not proved that, as Satan
   attacked Christ with an, "It is written," so also has he attacked you?
   And have you not learned to be on your guard against perversions of
   Sacred Scripture, and twisting of God's Word, lest they should lead you
   to destruction?

   At other times, Satan will use the weapon of our own experience. "Ah,"
   the devil will say, "on such-and-such a day, you sinned in
   such-and-such a way--how can you be a child of God?" At another time,
   he will say, "You are self-righteous, therefore you cannot be an heir
   of Heaven." Then, again, he will begin to rake up all the old stories
   that we have long forgotten of all our past unbelief, our past
   wandering, and so forth, and throw these in our teeth. He will say,
   "What? You, YOU a Christian? A pretty Christian you must be!" Or,
   possibly he will begin to tempt you after some such sort as this--"The
   other day you would not do such-and-such a thing in business--how much
   you lost by it! So-and-so is a Christian, but he did it. Your neighbor,
   across the street, is he not a deacon of a church, and did not he do
   it? Why may not you do the same? You would get on a great deal better
   if you would do it. So-and-so does it and he gets on, and is just as
   much respected as you are! Then why should you not act in the same
   way?" Thus the devil will attack you with weapons taken from your own
   experience, or from the church of which you are a member. Ah, be
   careful, for Satan knows how to choose his weapons! He is not coming
   out against you, if you are great giants, with a sling and a stone, but
   he comes armed to the teeth to cut you down. If he knows that you are
   so guarded by a coat of mail that the edge of his sword shall be turned
   by your armor, then he will attack you with deadly poison! And if he
   knows that you cannot be destroyed by that means, seeing that you have
   an antidote at hand, then he will seek to take you in a trap. And if
   you are wary, so that you cannot be overtaken, thus, then he will send
   fiery troubles upon you, or a crushing avalanche of woe so that he may
   subdue you. The weapons of his warfare, always evil--and often
   spiritual and unseen--are mighty against such weak creatures as we.

   Again, the craftiness of the devil is discovered in another thing--in
   the agents he employs. The devil does not do all his dirty work
   himself. He often employs others to do it for him. When Samson had to
   be overcome, and his Nazarite locks to be shorn away, Satan had a
   Delilah ready to tempt and lead him astray--he knew what was in
   Samson's heart, and where his weakness was and, therefore, he tempted
   him by means of the woman whom he loved. An old Divine says, "There's
   many a man that has had his head broken by his own rib"--and that is
   certainly true. Satan has sometimes set a man's own wife to cast him
   down to destruction, or he has used some dear friend as the instrument
   to work his ruin. Remember how David lamented over this evil--"For 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. We took sweet counsel together, and
   walked to the house of God in company."

   "Ah," says the devil, "you did not think I was going to set an enemy to
   speak evil of you, did you? Why, that would not hurt you! I know better
   than that how to choose my agents--I shall choose a man who is a friend
   or an acquaintance--he will come close to you and then stab you under
   the folds of your garments." If a minister is to be annoyed, Satan will
   choose a deacon to annoy him. He knows that he will not care so much
   about an attack from any other member of the church, so some deacon
   will lift himself up and domineer over him so that he shall have
   sleepless nights and anxious days. If it is a deacon that Satan wants
   to annoy, he will seek to set some member or brother-deacon against
   him--and if there is no other person that he cares for, it shall be his
   nearest and dearest friend who shall do the dastardly deed.

   The devil is always ready to take in his hand the net into which the
   fish is most likely to go and to spread the snare which is the most
   likely to catch the bird. I do not suspect, if you are a professor of
   long standing, that you will be tempted by a drunk. No, the devil will
   tempt you by a canting hypocrite. I do not imagine your enemy will come
   and attack and slander you--it will be your friend. Satan knows how to
   use and to disguise all his agents. "Ah," he says, "a wolf in sheep's
   clothing will be better for me than a wolf that looks like a wolf! And
   one in the church will play my game better and accomplish it more
   readily than one out of it." The choice of Satan's agents proves his
   craft and cleverness. It was a cunning thing that he should choose the
   serpent for the purpose of tempting Eve. Very likely Eve was fascinated
   by the appearance of the serpent. She probably admired its glossy hue,
   and we are led to believe that it was a far more noble creature, then,
   than it is now. Perhaps, then, it could erect itself upon its coils and
   she was very likely pleased and delighted with it. It may have been the
   familiar creature with which she played--I doubt not it was before the
   devil entered into it. You know how, often, the devil enters into each
   one of us. I know he has entered into me, many a time, when he has
   wanted a sharp word to be said against somebody. "Nobody can hurt that
   man, or grieve that man," says the devil, "as well as Mr. Spurgeon can!
   Why, he loves him as his own soul. That's the man," says the devil, "to
   give the unkindest cut of all and he shall give it." Then I am led,
   perhaps, to believe some wrong thing against some precious child of
   God, and afterwards to speak of it. And then I grieve to think that I
   should have been so foolish as to lend my heart and tongue to the
   devil! I can therefore warn each of you and especially myself, and all
   those who have much love bestowed upon them, to take heed lest they
   become instruments of Satan in grieving the hearts of God's people, and
   casting down those who have trouble enough to cast them down, without
   having any from us!

   And once again, Satan shows his cunning by the times in which he
   attacks us. I thought, when I lay sick, that if I could but get up from
   my bed, and be made strong, I would give the devil a most terrible
   thrashing because of the way he set upon me when I was sick. Coward!
   Why did he not wait till I was well? But I always find that if my
   spirits sink and I am in a low condition of heart, Satan specially
   chooses that time to attack me with unbelief. Let him come upon us when
   the promise of God is fresh in our memory, and when we aye enjoying a
   time of sweet outpouring of heart in prayer before God, and he will see
   how we will fight against him! But, no, he knows that, then, we would
   have the strength to resist him and, prevailing with God, we would be
   able to prevail over him, also. He will therefore come upon us when
   there is a cloud between ourselves and our God--when the body is
   depressed, and the spirits are weak--then he will tempt us and try to
   lead us to distrust God. At another time, he will tempt us to pride.
   Why does he not tempt us to pride when we are sick and depressed in
   spirit? "No," he says, "I cannot manage it then." He chooses the time
   when a man is well, when he is in full enjoyment of the promises, and
   enabled to serve his God with delight--then he will tempt him to pride.
   It is the timing of his attacks, the right ordering of his assaults,
   that makes Satan ten times more terrible an enemy than he would be
   otherwise--and that proves the depth of his craftiness. Verily, the old
   serpent is more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God
   has made.

   There is one thing about the powers of Hell that has always amazed me.
   The Church of Christ is always quarrelling--but did you ever hear that
   the devil and his confederates quarrel? There is a vast host of those
   fallen spirits, but how marvelously unanimous they always are! They are
   so united that if at any special moment the great black prince of Hell
   wishes to concentrate all the masses of his army at one particular
   point, it is done to the tick of the clock, and the temptation comes
   with its fullest force just when he sees it to be the most likely that
   he will prevail. Ah, if we had such unanimity as that in the Church of
   God, if we all moved at the guidance of the finger of Christ, if all
   the Church could, at this time, for instance, move in one great mass to
   the attack a certain evil, now that the time has come for the attack
   upon it, how much more easily might we prevail! But, alas, Satan
   exceeds us in subtlety, and the powers of Hell far exceed us in
   unanimity. This, however, is a great point in Satan's subtlety--that he
   chooses the times of his attacks so wisely.

   And yet once more, and I will have done with this point. Satan's
   subtlety in another thing is very great, that is, in his withdrawing.
   When I first joined the Christian Church, I never could make out a
   saying which I heard from an old man, that there was no temptation so
   bad as not being tempted--nor did I understand, then, what Rutherford
   meant when he said he liked a roaring devil a great deal better than a
   sleeping devil. I understand it now! And you who are God's children and
   who have been for some years in His ways, understand it also--

   "More the treacherous calm I dread Than tempests rolling over my head."

   There is such a state of heart as this--you want to feel, but you do
   not feel. If you could but doubt, you would think it a very great
   attainment. Yes, and even if you could know the blackness of despair,
   you would rather feel that than be as you are. "There," you say, "I
   have no doubts about my eternal condition! I think I can say, though I
   could not exactly speak with assurance, for I fear it would be
   presumption, yet I do trust I can say that I am an heir of Heaven. Yet
   that does not give me any joy. I can go about God's work and feel that
   I love it, yet I cannot feel it is God's work. I seem to have got into
   a round of duty, till I go on, on, on, like a blind horse that goes
   because it must go. I read the promise, but I see no particular
   sweetness in it--in fact, it does not seem as if I needed any promise.
   And even threats do not frighten me--there is no terror in them to me.
   I hear God's Word. I am perhaps stirred by what the minister says, but
   I do not feel impressed by his earnestness as I should. I feel that I
   could not live without prayer, and yet there is no unction in my soul.
   I dare not sin. I trust my life is outwardly blameless, still, what I
   have to mourn over is a lead heart, a lack of susceptibility to
   spiritual delight or spiritual song, a dead calm in my soul like that
   dreadful calm of which Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner' said--

   "'The very deep did rot, Alas, that ever this should be! Yes, slimy
   things did crawl with legs Upon the slimy sea.'"

   Now, dear Friend, do you know anything about your own state of heart
   just now? If so, that is the answer to the enigma, that not being
   tempted is worse than being tempted! Really, there have been times, in
   the past experience of my own soul, when I would have been obliged to
   the devil if he had come and stirred me up. I would have felt that God
   had employed him, against his wish, to do me lasting good, to wake me
   up to conflict. If the devil would but go into the Enchanted Ground and
   attack the pilgrims there, what a fine thing it would be for them! But,
   you will notice, John Bunyan did not put him there, for there was no
   business for him there. It was in the Valley of Humiliation that there
   was plenty of work cut out for Satan--but in the Enchanted Ground the
   pilgrims were all slumbering, like men asleep on the top of the mast.
   They were drunk with wine so that they could do nothing and, therefore,
   the devil knew he was not needed there--he just left them to sleep on!
   Madame Bubble and drowsiness would do all his work. But it was into the
   Valley of Humiliation that he went--and there he had his stern struggle
   with poor Christian. Brothers and Sisters, if you are passing through
   the land that is enchanted with drowsiness, indifference and slumber,
   you will understand the craftiness of the devil in sometimes staying
   out of our way.

   II. And now, in the second place, let us very briefly enquire, WHAT
   SHALL WE DO WITH THIS ENEMY? You

   and I feel that we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but we cannot
   enter it while we stand still. The City of Destruction is behind us and
   Death is pursuing us--we must press towards Heaven--but, in the way,
   there stands this "roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." What
   shall we do? He has great subtlety--how shall we overcome him? Shall we
   seek to be as subtle as he is? Ah, that would be an idle task! Indeed,
   it would be a sinful one. To seek to be crafty like the devil would be
   as wicked as it would be futile! What shall we do, then? Shall we
   attack him with wisdom? Alas, our wisdom is but folly. "Vain man would
   be wise," but at his very best estate he is but like a wild ass's colt.
   What, then, shall we do?

   The only way to repel Satan's subtlety is by acquiring true wisdom.
   Again I repeat it--man has none of that in himself. What then? Herein
   is true wisdom. If you would successfully wrestle with Satan, make the
   Holy Scriptures your daily resort. Out of this sacred magazine
   continually draw your armor and your ammunition. Lay hold upon the
   glorious Doctrines of God's Word--make them your daily meat and drink.
   So shall you be strong to resist the devil and you shall be joyful in
   discovering that he will flee from you. "Wherewithal shall a young man
   cleanse his way," and how shall a Christian guard himself against the
   enemy? "By taking heed thereto according to Your Word." Let us always
   fight Satan with an, "It is written"--for no weapon will ever tell upon
   the arch-enemy so well as Holy Scripture will! Attempt to fight Satan
   with the wooden sword of reason and he will easily overcome you! But
   use this Jerusalem blade of God's Word, by which he has been wounded
   many a time, and you will speedily overcome him!

   But, above all, if we would successfully resist Satan, we must look not
   merely to revealed wisdom, but to Incarnate Wisdom. O Beloved, here
   must be the chief place of resort for every tempted soul! We must flee
   to Him "who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
   sanctification, and redemption." He must teach us, He must guide us, He
   must be our All-in-All. We must keep close to Him. The sheep are never
   so safe from the wolf as when they are near the shepherd. We shall
   never be so secure from the arrows of Satan as when we have our head
   lying on the Savior's bosom.

   Believer, walk according to His example! Live daily in His fellowship,
   Trust always in His blood and in this way shall you be more than a
   conqueror even over the subtlety and craft of Satan himself! It must be
   a joy to the Christian to know that in the long run, the craft of Satan
   shall all be disappointed and all his evil designs against the saints
   shall prove of no effect. Are you not looking forward, Beloved, to the
   day when all your temptations shall be over and when you shall be in
   Heaven? And will you not then look down upon this arch-fiend with holy
   laughter and derision? I believe that the saints, when they think of
   the attacks of Satan, shall "rejoice with unspeakable joy" and, besides
   that, shall feel a contempt in their own souls for all the craft of
   Hell when they see how it has been disappointed.

   What has the devil been doing these thousands of years? Has he not been
   the unwilling servant of God and of His Church? He has always been
   seeking to destroy the living tree, but when he has been trying to root
   it up, it has only been like a gardener digging with his spade and
   loosening the earth to help the roots to spread themselves more! And
   when he has been with his axe seeking to lop the Lord's trees, and to
   mar their beauty, what has he been, after all, but a pruning knife in
   the hand of God to take away the branches that do not bear any fruit,
   and to purge those that do bear some, that they may bring forth more
   fruit? Once upon a time, you know, the Church of Christ was like a
   little brook--just a tiny stream--and it was flowing along in a little
   narrow dell. Just a few saints were gathered together at Jerusalem and
   the devil thought to himself, "Now I'll get a great stone and stop this
   brook from running." So he goes and gets this great stone and he dashes
   it down into the middle of the brook, thinking, of course, he would
   stop it from running any longer. But, instead of doing so, he scattered
   the drops all over the world--and each drop became the mother of a
   fresh fountain! You know what that stone was--it was persecution and
   the saints were scattered by it--but then, "they that were scattered
   abroad went everywhere preaching the Word," and so the Church was
   multiplied and the devil was defeated!

   Satan, I tell you to your face, you are the greatest fool that ever
   breathed, and I will prove it to you in the day when you and I shall
   stand as enemies--sworn enemies, as we are this day--at the great bar
   of God! And so, Christian, may you say unto him whenever he attacks
   you! Hear him not, but resist him steadfast in the faith and you shall
   prevail.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 PETER 1; 5:1-9.

   1 Peter 1:1, 2. Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers
   scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappado-cia, Asia, and Bithynia,
   elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
   sanctifcation of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood
   of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. So may it be
   to all of you who are gathered here! Grace first, and peace next, but
   may both Grace and peace be multiplied unto you! Much Grace, and much
   peace, may you have, Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus!

   3-5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
   according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively
   hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an
   inheritance incorruptible, and undefled, and that fades not away,
   reserved in Heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through
   faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Oh, what a
   blessed hope this is--that though we fall asleep, we shall surely wake
   again--and when we awake, it will be in the likeness of the great Head
   of the family and we ourselves shall be heirs of an inheritance in
   which there will be no sin and no corruption! That inheritance is kept
   for us and we are kept for it! So the double keeping makes it doubly
   sure. Happy are the people to whom these verses apply.

   6. Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be,
   you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. It is possible, in
   Christian experience, for a man to rejoice greatly and yet to be in
   heaviness. No man can explain this paradox, yet he understands it. "In
   heaviness through manifold trials," yet greatly rejoicing in the full
   conviction that they will soon be over and that then we shall enter
   into unutterable joy. Be of good courage, then, you who are now
   depressed, you who are in heaviness--"lift up your heads, for your
   redemption draws near." The fiery furnace is very hot, but the Son of
   Man is in it with you and, by His Grace, you shall come out of the
   furnace before long.

   7, 8. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of
   gold that perishes, though it is tried with fire, might be found unto
   praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: whom
   having not seen, you love. Ah, love can embrace Him whom the eyes
   cannot see and the hands cannot hold!

   8-10. In whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice
   with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your
   faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the
   Prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the
   Grace that should come unto you. I have heard of some divines who will
   never read and never study because they have such an abundant measure
   of the Spirit of God that they can talk any quantity of nonsense
   extemporaneously! But it was not so with the Prophets. They had very
   much of the Spirit of God, yet, for all that, they were most diligent
   students. They "enquired and searched diligently"--even those Prophets
   "who prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you." I have a very
   grave suspicion of that so-called "inspiration" which enables a man to
   preach without study! If there were such a thing, it would be a premium
   upon laziness--and I feel sure that the Spirit of God would never
   countenance such a thing as that.

   11. 12. Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who
   was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of
   Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed,
   that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things
   which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel
   unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven. The Prophets lived
   for us! They were Inspired for us! And the benefits of their holy lives
   and gracious words are for us upon whom the ends of the earth have
   come.

   12. Which things the angels desire to look into. They, as well as the
   Prophets, are deep students of the unsearchable mysteries of Christ.

   13. Therefore gird up the loins of your mind. Pull yourself together.
   Be not mentally and spiritually in disarray, but be ready for holy
   running or sacred wrestling--"Gird up the loins of your mind."

   13-17. Be sober, and hope to the end for the Grace that is to be
   brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient
   children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in
   your ignorance, but as He who has called you is holy, so be you holy in
   allmanner of conversation; because it is written, Be you holy; for Iam
   holy. Andifyou call on the Father, who without respect of persons
   judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning
   here in fear In holy fear--not in servile, slavish fear--but in a
   blessed state of sacred timidity and awe lest you should offend your
   God and Savior.

   18-25. Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with
   corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation
   received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of
   Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was
   foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in
   these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God who raised Him
   up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be
   in God. Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the Truth
   through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you
   love one another fervently with a pure heart: being born again, not of
   corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives
   andabides forever. For all flesh is as grass, andall the glory ofman as
   the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls
   away: but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the Word
   which by the Gospel is preached unto you.

   Peter 5:1. 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. Here again, as in the first
   Chapter, Peter links the sufferings of Christ with His Glory.

   2-9. 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. Likewise, you
   younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yes, all of you be subject
   one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resists the
   proud, and gives Grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
   under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time:
   casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you. Be sober, be
   vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks
   about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith,
   knowing that the same affictionsare accomplished in your brethren that
   are in the world.
     __________________________________________________________________

                                    Indexes
     __________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture Commentary

   Genesis

   [1]3:1

   Ruth

   [2]1:16

   Job

   [3]3:23   [4]7:21   [5]10:12-13   [6]11:16   [7]34:33

   Psalms

   [8]17:7   [9]68:28   [10]104:34   [11]111:5   [12]119:65-66
   [13]119:168   [14]145:11

   Isaiah

   [15]41:17   [16]44:20   [17]49:16   [18]49:20-21

   Jeremiah

   [19]1:11-12   [20]32:27   [21]33:3   [22]44:4

   Amos

   [23]3:3

   Matthew

   [24]3:7   [25]10:27

   Luke

   [26]9:32   [27]18:14   [28]19:6   [29]19:9

   John

   [30]6:47-48   [31]6:63   [32]9:35-38   [33]17:15   [34]21:17

   1 Corinthians

   [35]2:2   [36]6:9-11   [37]11:28   [38]12:31   [39]15:6   [40]15:8

   2 Corinthians

   [41]1:20   [42]7:10

   Colossians

   [43]3:16

   Hebrews

   [44]7:27   [45]10:9   [46]13:12

   1 Peter

   [47]1:12

   2 Peter

   [48]3:18

   1 John

   [49]3:16

   Revelation

   [50]1:18   [51]22:17
     __________________________________________________________________

            This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
               Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
                   generated on demand from ThML source.

References

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  27. file:///ccel/s/spurgeon/sermons46/cache/sermons46.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=18&scrV=14#xxxii-p0.1
  28. file:///ccel/s/spurgeon/sermons46/cache/sermons46.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=19&scrV=6#xlvi-p0.1
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