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        Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 52: 1906
   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
     __________________________________________________________________

"His Great Love"

   (No. 2968)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1905.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   AUGUST 15, 1875.

   "His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in
   sins." Ephesians 2:4,5.

   You notice, in this chapter, the remarkable change of subject which
   commences at the 4th verse. Paul had been giving a very sad description
   of what even the saints are by nature and of their conduct before
   conversion. And then, as if he was quite weary of writing upon that
   painful topic, he says, "But God"--and goes on to tell what God has
   done. What a relief it is to turn from ourselves and from our fellow
   men, to God! And I do not know when God, in His rich mercy, ever seems
   so lovely in our eyes as when we have just gazed upon our own abundant
   sins. The diamond shines all the more brilliantly when it has a
   suitable foil to set off its brightness--and man seems to act as a foil
   for the goodness and the mercy of God! Perhaps you remember that the
   Psalmist, when he had said in his haste, "All men are liars," turned
   abruptly from that theme and said, "What shall I render unto the Lord
   for all His benefits toward me?" It is as if he had said, "I will not
   have anything more to do with man. I find him to be only like a broken
   cistern that can hold no water-- but as for my God, He has never failed
   me and He never will--so, 'I will take the cup of salvation and call
   upon the name of the Lord.'"

   I want, at this time, to intertwine these two subjects--ourselves in
   our fall and God in His Grace--ourselves in our sin and God in His
   love--"His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in
   sins." I shall not need so much to preach as just to refresh your
   memories--to revive your recollections of the great tidings which the
   Lord, in His Grace, has done for you. I want you who know the Lord to
   remember what you were--and what God has done for you. Those two themes
   will bring out the greatness of His love, so they shall be our two
   objects for meditation. First, what we were. And secondly, what God did
   for us.

   I. First, then, WHAT WE WERE. The text says that "we were dead in
   sins."

   O Believer, whatever life of a spiritual kind you have in you, today,
   was given to you by God! It was not yours by nature. Before God looked
   upon you in love and pity and said unto you, "Live," you were dead!
   That is to say, as far as spiritual things are concerned, you were
   insensible--insensible alike to the bearers of Divine Wrath and to the
   melodies of Divine Love. You could even lie at the foot of Sinai and
   not shake with fright, although Moses did exceedingly fear and quake.
   And you could lie at the foot of the Cross and yet not be melted by the
   death-cries of Immanuel, although the earth did quake and the rocks
   were rent and the graves were opened at that doleful sound! Do you not
   remember, Beloved, when you passed through such a time as that? I
   do--when utter callousness and coldness of heart reigned supreme within
   us, when the world--painted harlot as she is--could attract us, but we
   were insensible to the inexpressible beauties of Him who is altogether
   lovely, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!

   And as we were insensible to spiritual things, being dead, so we were,
   at that time, without power to do anything. We were preached to, called
   and bid to come, but, as far as all goodness was concerned, we were
   like a corpse--unable to hear the sweetest music, or the crack of doom
   resounding overhead! Do you not remember, dear Friends, when it was so
   with you? You thought then that you could do something good in your own
   strength, but it was a dreadful failure when you attempted it! Your
   resolutions, when you got as far as resolving, all fell to the ground,
   for you were, in the emphatic words of Paul, "without strength." Yes,
   you were insensible and powerless.

   And, what is worse still, we were then without will or desire to come
   to God. We had no disposition to move towards the Lord, no aspirations
   after holiness, no longing after communion with our Creator. We loved
   the world and

   were content to fill our treasury with its paltry pelf. This seemed to
   be the only portion for which we cared. If we could have become rich
   and increased with goods, we would have said, "Soul, take your
   ease--there is nothing more for you to desire."

   That was our state by nature. We were dead. And did the Lord love us
   then, when there was nothing whatever in us to commend us to
   Him--nothing by which we could possibly rise into a condition that
   would be estimable in His sight? Did He love us then? Yes, He did--and
   there must have been surprising Grace in that "great love with which He
   loved us, even when we were dead in sins."

   While we were dead as to spiritual things, there was, alas, a life in
   us of another kind. If you read the chapter from which our text is
   taken, you will find that the dead people are described as walking.
   They were walking corpses--a strange commingling of metaphors, and yet
   most certainly true with regard to all ungodly men. They are dead to
   goodness, but, as for the evil within them, how full of life it is! The
   devil within them and the flesh within them were active and, as the
   corpse gives forth corruption and fills the tomb with putridity, so did
   our sin continually give forth evil emanations which must have been
   most nauseous to God! Yet, notwithstanding all this, "He loved us, even
   when we were dead in sins."

   Let me just mention some of the unlovely and unlovable things which God
   saw in us while we were in that dead state. One of the first was
   this--we were ungrateful. It is very difficult to continue to love
   ungrateful persons. If you seek to do them good and yet you receive no
   thanks from them--if you persevere in doing them good and yet, for all
   that, they are unkind to you--it is not in flesh and blood to continue
   to love them. Yet, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, what ingratitude
   to God was once in our hearts! What favors the Lord bestowed upon
   us--not merely daily bread and temporal blessings, but there were real
   spiritual gifts of His Grace presented to us--yet we turned our backs
   upon them all and, still worse, we turned our backs upon Him who gave
   them to us! How sad it is that many people live year after year without
   ever recognizing the God who gives them so many mercies and blessings!
   Perhaps, now and then, there is a "thank God" uttered in idleness or as
   a compliment--but there is no heart in it. The ingratitude of some of
   us was greater even than that of others, for we were born of godly
   parents, we were nurtured in the home of piety, we heard scarcely a
   sound in our infancy that was not mingled with the name of Jesus and
   yet, as we grew up, these very things we regarded as restraints! And
   sometimes we wished that we could do as other people's children did and
   half regretted that we had godly friends who watched so carefully over
   our conduct. The Lord might have said to us, "I have done so much for
   you, yet you exhibit no gratitude. I will, therefore, leave you and
   give these favors to others." But, in His great mercy, although we were
   so ungrateful, He did not act like that.

   What is even worse, we were complaining and murmuring. Do you not
   remember, in your unconverted state, my Friend, how scarcely anything
   seemed to please you? This thing happened quite contrary to your wishes
   and that was not at all to your liking--and the other was not according
   to your notion of what should be. The Prophet Jeremiah asked, "Why does
   a living man complain?" But we seemed to ask, "Why should we leave off
   complaining?" We murmured against the Lord notwithstanding the great
   mercies that He gave us. We rebelled against Him and waxed worse and
   worse. It is a difficult thing for us to love a murmurer. When you try
   to do a man good and he only grumbles at what you do for him, you are
   very apt to say, "Very well, I will take my favors where they will be
   better appreciated." But God did not act like that towards us--"His
   great love with which He loved us" was not to be turned away from us
   even by our murmuring and complaining!

   And all that while, dear Friends, we were trifling with spiritual
   things. Like those people mentioned in the parable who, when they were
   invited to the marriage feast, "made light of it," so did we. We were
   warned to escape from Hell, but it seemed too like an idle tale! We
   were bid to seek after Heaven, but we loved the things of this world
   too well to barter them for joys unseen and eternal. We were told that
   "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," and it seemed to be
   a story that we had heard so often that we called it "a platitude." We
   were earnestly entreated to lay hold on Christ and to find eternal life
   in Him, but we said, "Perhaps we will tomorrow," proving that we did
   not care about it, but would make God wait at our beck and call when it
   should be convenient for us! You know that if a man is in an ill state
   of health and you, as a doctor, go to help him, but he merely laughs at
   his illness and says that he does not care about it, you are very apt
   to say, "Then, why should I care? You are sick and I am anxious to heal
   you, but you say that you do not care to be healed. Very well, then, I
   will go to some other patient who will entreat me to use my best skills
   on

   his behalf and who will be grateful to me when I have used them." But
   the Lord did not act like that with us. Notwithstanding our trifling,
   He was in earnest. He meant to heal our soul-sickness and He did heal
   it! Determined to save us, He would not heed the rebuff of our
   carelessness and callousness, but still persevered in manifesting
   toward us that "great love with which He loved us, even when we were
   dead in sins."

   To make the deformity of our character still worse--we were all the
   while proud--as proud as Lucifer! We had not any righteousness of our
   own, yet we thought we had. We were far off from God by wicked works,
   yet we stood before Him like the Pharisee in the Temple and thanked Him
   that we were not as other men! We were quite content though we had
   nothing to be content with. We were "wretched, and miserable, and poor,
   and blind, and naked," yet we said that we were "rich, and increased
   with goods, and had need of nothing." As for shedding penitential
   tears, we left that work to those who had sinned more deeply than we
   had, for we imagined that we had kept all the Commandments from our
   youth up! Thus we despised the Savior because we exalted ourselves. We
   thought little of Christ because we thought much of ourselves. And so,
   in our pride, we dared to strut before the eternal Throne of God as if
   we were some great ones, though we were but worms of the dust! I think
   that it is one of the most difficult things in the world to love a
   proud man. You can love a man even though he has a thousand faults if
   he is not proud and boastful--but when he is very proud, human nature
   seems to start back from him. Yet God, in His "great love with which He
   loved us, even when we were dead in sins," loved us although we were
   proud and loved us out of that sinful state.

   If worse could be, there was something even worse than pride in us, for
   we were deceptive as well as proud. "No," says one, "surely you cannot
   truthfully lay that to our charge." Well, I have to confess that it was
   so with myself. I remember that when I was ill, I said that if God
   would only spare my life, I would live differently in the future. But
   my promise was not kept, though God did spare my life. Often, after
   hearing a stirring sermon, I sought a place where I could weep in
   secret and I said, "Now I will be decided for the Lord." But it was not
   so. Oh, how many times have we broken the promises and vows we made to
   the Lord! Child of God, before your conversion, how many vows and
   covenants you made--yet your goodness was like the morning cloud or the
   early dew which soon passes away. Who can love one who is not to be
   trusted? Yet, God, in "His great love with which He loved us, even when
   we were dead in sins," loved us while we so many times deceived Him!

   These things which I have mentioned have appertained to all the
   children of God, but there are some of them whose sins have been even
   greater than these. I ask every converted man here to look through his
   own biography. Some of you were, perhaps, converted while you were
   young and so were kept from the grosser sins into which others fall.
   But there were some who were allowed to go into drunkenness, or into
   uncleanness and all manner of iniquity. God has forgiven you, my
   Brothers and Sisters, and has washed all that evil away in the precious
   blood of Jesus, but you feel that you can never forgive yourself. I
   know that I am bringing some very unhappy memories before you, of which
   you say, "Would God that night had never been, or that day had never
   passed over my head!" The Lord grant that as you look back upon those
   sins of yours, you may feel deeply humbled and, at the same time, may
   be devoutly grateful to God for "His great love" with which He has
   loved you!

   There have been some who seem as if they had gone to the utmost
   extremity of sin--as if they dared and defied the Most High. And yet,
   notwithstanding their atrocious sins, Free Grace has won the day! There
   has seemed, in some cases, to be a stern struggle between sin and
   Grace, as if sin said, "I will provoke God till Grace shall leave Him,"
   but Grace has said, "Provoked as the Lord is, yet still will He stand
   to His purpose of mercy--He will not turn away from the decree of His
   love." Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I ask you to think this
   subject over in your own private meditations. There are some things
   that it would not be right to mention in any ear but the ear of God,
   for it certainly was a horrible pit out of which He took us, and miry
   clay, indeed, out of which He drew us--so we may well praise "His great
   love with which He loved us even when we were dead in sins."

   II. The second subject for our meditation is WHAT GOD DID FOR US "even
   when we were dead in sins."

   Well, first of all, He remained faithful to His choice of us. He had
   chosen His people before the earth was and He did not choose them in
   the dark. He knew right well what their nature would be and also the
   practice which would grow out of their nature--so that nothing that has
   happened has ever surprised the Lord concerning any one of His people.
   He was well aware beforehand of all their corruption and filthiness.
   So, when He saw them acting as I have described, He did

   not turn from His purpose to save them. Blessed be His name for this!
   It is one of the wonders of His Grace that God proves the greatness of
   His love.

   Then, next, as He did not repent of His choice, so neither did He
   repent of His redemption of His people. You will find it recorded in
   Scripture that "it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth,
   and it grieved Him at His heart," but you never read that He repented
   of Redemption! Nowhere in Scripture is there such a passage as this,
   "It grieved the Lord at His heart that He had given His Son to die for
   such unworthy ones." No, my Friends, He had bought us with a price
   beyond all calculation, even the heart's blood of His only-begotten
   Son, so that, although we went from sin to sin and, for a time resisted
   all the calls of the Gospel, He did not turn from His purpose of love
   and mercy, nor make His Atonement for us null and void.

   Then, further, in His great love for us, God would not let us die till
   He had brought us to Christ. We possibly passed through many perils and
   had many escapes. John Bunyan, you will remember, was to have stood as
   sentinel one night, but another soldier took his place, and was shot.
   John Bunyan did not know, at the time, why the exchange was made, but
   God had ordained that he should not die till he had been brought to
   Christ. So fool-hardy was he that on one occasion he plucked the sting
   out of a viper with his bare hand, yet he was unhurt, for God would not
   let him die while he was such a desperado! And what amazing escapes
   from shipwreck, from murder, from fever, from "accidents" in a thousand
   forms some men have had simply because God will not let them perish,
   for He means that they shall yet be brought as sheep into His fold! I
   told you, some time ago, that I once talked with a gentleman who was in
   the famous charge at Balaclava--and I felt moved to say to him, "Surely
   God had some designs of love toward you, or He would not have spared
   you when so many were being taken away." Well, in whatever way our
   lives have been spared, we ascribe it to the great love with which God
   loved us even when we were dead in sins.

   We see that great love also manifested in the way in which God
   restrained us from many sins. There have been times in our history
   when, if it had not been for a mysterious check that was put upon us,
   we would have sinned much worse than we ever did. Something of that
   kind happened in the case of the well-known Colonel Gardiner. He had
   made an appointment for the commission of a very gross sin, but the
   Lord had chosen him unto eternal life--so that night, which he intended
   to spend in sin--became the time of his conversion to God! And you know
   what a devout and earnest Christian he became. The Lord knows the right
   time to say to anyone, "Thus far shall you go, but no farther." He
   makes men's minds and hearts, like the sea, to know His will and to
   move or be still at His Divine command. Cannot some of you, my Brothers
   and Sisters, recollect the way in which God thus restrained you from
   going to an excess of riot?

   And, then, His great love was seen by the way in which He kept on
   calling us by His Grace. Some of us can scarcely tell when we were
   first bid to come to the Savior. A mother's tears and a father's
   prayers are, however, among the fondly-cherished memories of that early
   call. Do not some of you remember that loving Sunday school teacher and
   the earnestness with which she pleaded with you? And that godly
   minister and how he seemed to throw his whole soul into the work of
   entreating you to yield yourself to the Savior? Others of you cannot
   forget how with good books, letters, entreaties and persuasions from
   Christian friends, you have been followed as if the Lord had hunted you
   out of your sins by all the agencies that could possibly be used--yet
   you dodged, twisted and doubled this way and that way, trying to escape
   from your gracious Pursuer! You were like a bird that the fowler cannot
   take for a long while, or like a wandering sheep that the shepherd
   cannot find for many a day!

   But the Good Shepherd never gave up the search--He meant to find you
   and He did. He had determined to save you--and from that determination
   He would not be turned aside, do whatever you might! And, at last,
   there came the blessed day when He subdued you unto Himself! The
   weapons of your rebellion fell from your hands, for Christ had
   conquered you! And how did He do it? By "His great love"--His
   Omnipotent Grace. You were dead in sins when His Spirit came to work
   them upon you, but the Spirit came, in the name of the risen Savior,
   with such almighty force of Irresistible Love that you were carried
   captive--a willing captive--at the chariot wheels of your Divine
   Conqueror! Shall we ever forget that blessed time? We sing "Happy day!
   Happy day!" and well we may, for that conquest is the chief and
   foremost token of "His great love with which He loved us, even when we
   were dead in sins."

   I will not say more about this precious Truth of God, but I will use
   the few minutes still at my disposal in making a practical application
   of my subject.

   If, dear Friends, the Lord loved us with such great love even when we
   were dead in sins, do you think that He will ever leave us to perish?
   Have you indulged the notion that under your present trial, whatever it
   may be, you will be deserted by your God? My dear widowed Sister, do
   you fear that the Lord will forsake you now that your husband is dead?
   My friend over there--you who have had heavy losses in business--do you
   not believe that the Lord will help you through? Did He love you when
   you were dead in sins and is He going to desert you now? Do you think
   you will ever have to ask, with the Psalmist, "Is His mercy clean gone
   forever? Does His promise fail forevermore? Has God forgotten to be
   gracious? Has He in anger shut up His tender mercies?" If you do talk
   like that, then ask yourself why the Lord ever began His work of love
   upon you if He did not mean to finish it, or if He meant, after all, to
   cast you off? Do you think, if that was His intention, He would ever
   have begun with you? He knew all that would happen to you and all that
   you would do, so that nothing comes unexpectedly to Him! Known unto the
   Lord from the beginning, were all your trials and all your sins so
   that, as He still loved you, in the foresight of all that was to happen
   to you, do you think that He will now, or ever, cast you away from Him?
   You know that He will not!

   Again, if He so loved you even when you were dead in sins, will He deny
   you anything that is for His own Glory and for your own and other's
   good You have been praying, but you have feared that the mercy you
   asked would never come. Think for a moment--He that spared not His own
   Son, but delivered Him up for you centuries before you were born-- will
   He not freely give to you all that you ought to ask of Him now that you
   are alive unto Him? George Herbert speaks of the dew that falls upon
   the grass, although the grass cannot call for the dew--but you do call
   upon God to give you His Grace--so shall not His Grace come copiously
   to you as the dew falling when God sends it? Does He water the earth
   when its dumb mouth opens? Does He provide food for the "dumb driven
   cattle?" Then will He not attend to your cries and prayers when you
   call upon Him in the name of His well-beloved Son? If He loved you when
   you were a man of corruption, will He not answer your supplications,
   now that He has made you to be an heir of Heaven and formed you in the
   likeness of His Son? O, Beloved, be of good comfort and let no thought
   of despondency, or of unbelief ever cross your mind!

   Further, if the Lord loved you thus even when you were dead in sins,
   ought you not now love Him very much? Oh, the love of God! The Apostle
   does not say that God pitied us, though that is true. He does not say
   that the Lord had compassion upon us, though that is also true. But
   Paul speaks of "His great love." I can perfectly understand God's
   pitying me. I can perfectly understand God's having compassion on me.
   But I cannot comprehend God's lovingme--nor can you. Think what it
   means--He loves you! Sweet above all other things is love--a mother's
   love, a father's love, a husband's love, a wife's love--but all these
   are only faint images of the love of God! You know how greatly you are
   cheered by the earthly love of one who is dear to you--but Paul says
   that God loves you! He that made the heavens and the earth, before whom
   you are as an ant, has set His heart's affection upon you! He loves you
   so much that He has made great sacrifices for you. He is daily blessing
   you and He will not be in Heaven without you! So dear, so strong is His
   love to you--and it was so even when you were dead in sins! Oh, then,
   will you not love Him much in return for His "great love" to you? Is
   anything too hard for you to bear for His dear sake, or anything too
   difficult for you to do for Him who loved you so? Dear Lord, we give
   ourselvesto You--'tis all that we can do!

   Another reflection for you, my Christian Friend, is this. If God so
   loved you even when you were dead in sins, ought not you to love those
   who treat you badly?. There are many people in this world who seem as
   if they could not do anything but ugly things. They have not a generous
   spot in their nature. They are cross-grained, always quarrelling and he
   who would gladly live peaceably with them sometimes finds it very hard
   work. I know some gentle spirits that are deeply wounded by the hard
   and cruel things that are said or done to them by their relatives or
   companions. Well, dear Friends, if any of us are treated thus, let us
   love these cruel people! Let us cover their unkindness over with our
   love, for, if God loved us even when we were dead in sins--when He
   could not see anything in us to love--we also ought to love others for
   His sake! Even when we see a thousand faults in them, we must, say, "As
   God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us, so do we forgive you." It is a
   grand thing to be able to bury in eternal forgetfulness every unkind
   word or act that has ever caused us pain. If any of you have any
   thought of anger in your heart against anyone--if you have any feeling
   of resentment--if you have any recollection of injuries. If there is
   anythingthat vexes and grieves you, come and bury it all in the grave
   of Jesus--for if He loved you when you were dead in sins--it cannot be
   half so wonderful for you to love your poor fellow sinner whatever ill
   treatment you may have received at his hands!

   My last word is to the unconverted and it is a very sweet and precious
   word. Do you see, unconverted man, that you need never say, "I dare not
   come to God through Jesus Christ because then is nothing good in me"?
   You need never say that, for Paul speaks of "His great love with which
   He loved us, even when we were dead in sins." Now, if all His people
   were loved by Him when they were dead in sins, how can you think that
   God requires anything good in man as the cause or reason for His love?
   Of all the saints in Heaven it may be said that God loved them because
   He would do it, for, by nature, there was nothing more in them for God
   to love than there was in the very devils in Hell! And as to His saints
   on earth, if God loves them--and He does--it is simply because He will
   do it, for there was no goodness whatever in them by nature! God loves
   them in the Infinite Sovereignty of His great loving Nature. Well,
   then, poor Soul, why should not God love you? And since He bids you
   come to Him, however empty you may be of everything that is good, come
   to Him, and welcome! Let the text knock on the head, once and for all,
   all ideas of doinganything to win the love of God! And if you feel
   yourself to be the very worst, lowest and meanest of the human race, I
   rejoice that you feel that, for the Lord loves to look upon those who
   are self-emptied and who have nothing good of their own to plead before
   Him! These are the people who will value His love and upon such people
   as these it is that He bestows His love. "The whole have no need of a
   physician, but they that are sick." The hospital is for the man who is
   diseased, not for the one who is in health. And the Lord Jesus Christ
   has opened a Hospital for incurables--for those who cannot be cured by
   all the medicines of human morality and outward religion! Christ bids
   them come to Him that He may make them whole!

   I wish I had the power to speak of the love of God to the sinner in
   such a way that he would come to the Lord Jesus Christ, but I will try
   to put the brush very plainly and simply--and then I will close my
   discourse. My Hearer, whatever you may have been up to, to this
   moment--if you have been a despiser of God, an infidel, a
   blasphemer--if you have added sin to sin, if you have made yourself
   black as Hell with enormous transgressions--yet all this is no reason
   why God should not have chosen you and loved you! And all this is no
   reason why He should not now forgive you and accept you! No, He puts it
   thus in His Word--"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."

   Come then, you blackest of sinners--you who feel yourselves unfit to be
   found in a House of Prayer--you who, like the publican in the Temple,
   scarcely dare to lift up your eyes to Heaven--you condemned ones who
   fear that there is no hope for you--let me assure you that in you there
   is space for God's mercy to be displayed! There is elbowroom for His
   Grace to work! Come to Jesus just as you are! Accept the Atonement made
   by His own blood and be saved here and now, for He waits to be gracious
   and He has said, "Him that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out."

   I recollect the time, many years ago, when I would have given both my
   eyes to hear such Truth as I have preached tonight! It would not have
   mattered to me who had told it to me. If it had been a man of
   stammering tongue and faulty grammar, if he had but said to me,
   "Salvation is of God's Grace, not of your merit. It is of God's
   goodness, not of your holiness--you have nothing to do but to rest on
   what Christ has done, for God loves even you who are dead in sins"--if
   I had known that, I think I would have found peace with God long before
   I did. Does anyone say, "But I need to feeland I need to do, and I need
   to find out this, and that, and the other?" You need nothing of the
   kind, Sinner! Christ has done it all! To take any merit of your own to
   Christ would be worse than carrying coals to Newcastle! Come just as
   you are-- an empty-handed sinner, a bankrupt sinner, a starving sinner,
   you who are at the very gates of Hell, 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."

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM30.

   May the Holy Spirit who inspired the writer of this Psalm now lead us
   into its inner meaning! It is entitled, "A Psalm and Song at the
   dedication of the house of David." Or, rather, "A Psalm; a song of
   dedication for the House. By David." It was a song of faith, since
   David did not live to witness the dedication of the Temple for which he
   had planned in his heart and for which he had laid by in store. Though
   he knew that he would not be permitted by God to build it, he took
   delight in writing a Psalm which might be sung at the opening of the
   Temple. Thus it begins--

   Verse 1. I will extol You, O LORD; for You have liftedme up, andhave
   not made my foe to rejoice over me. "I will exalt You, for You have
   exalted me! I will lift up Your praise because You have lifted up my
   spirits. I will bless You, for You have blessed me." Our song of praise
   should be the echo of God's voice of love. "You have not made my foes
   to rejoice over me." You remember that this was one of the three things
   put to David as a chastisement for his great sin in numbering the
   people--"Will You flee three months before your enemies, while they
   pursue you?" He here praises the Lord that such calamity as that did
   not come upon him. "You have not made my foes to rejoice over me."
   Sorrows averted should be the occasion of grateful songs of
   thanksgiving!

   2. O LORD my God, I cried unto You, and You have healed me. The king
   and the people had been sorely smitten with sickness on account of his
   sin, but the Lord, in mercy, bade the destroying angel sheathe his
   sword when he "was by the threshing-place of Araunah the Jebusite"--the
   very place which afterwards became the site on which the Temple was
   built! It was well, therefore, at its opening, to praise the God who
   heals His people. We ought to praise the Lord more than we do for our
   recovery from sickness. Employ the physician if you will, but, when
   healing comes to you, magnify the Lord for it and ascribe the glory of
   it to His holy name!

   3. O LORD, You have brought up my soul from the grave: You have kept me
   alive, that Ishould not go down to the Pit. Here is a double mercy to
   sing of--not dead and not damned! Life spared is something for which to
   praise the Lord, but to have the soul saved from going down to the Pit
   is a cause of still greater thanksgiving! Oh praise the name of the
   Lord, you who love Him and trust in Him, for He has delivered you from
   going down into the Pit!

   4. Sing unto the LORD, Oyou saints of His, and give thanks at the
   remembrance of His holiness. David seems to say to the saints, "Do not
   let me sing alone, but all of you join in the chorus." He does not
   invite reprobates to praise the Lord, but He says, "Sing unto Jehovah.
   O you saintsof His." I think it is very wrong to have the praises of
   God sung in public by ungodly men and women, as they sometimes are. The
   singing should not be left to a godless choir. Oh, no-- "sing unto the
   Lord, all you saintsof His," for you, only, can sing sincerely unto
   Him.

   "Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness"--at the very memory of
   Him--at the remembrance of the whole of Him, for that is His holiness,
   His wholeness, the entire, perfect Character of God. O saints below,
   sing as they do in Heaven, for their song is "Holy, holy, holy, Lord
   God Almighty."

   5. For His anger endures but a moment Notice that the words, "endures
   but," are inserted by the translators and very properly so. But see how
   the passages reads if you leave them out--"For His anger a moment."
   That is long enough for Him to display it, for it is His strange
   work--and long enough for us to endure it--for it might crush us if it
   lasted longer!

   5. In His favor is life. Life came to Jerusalem, in David's day, as
   soon as God smiled upon it. And life comes to us as soon as we taste of
   His favor, even though we have been ready to die of despair.

   5. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. As the
   dews are appropriate to the night, so is weeping seemly for us when
   Jesus hides His face from us. The children of the bride-chamber may
   well mourn when the heavenly Bridegroom is taken from them, but it is
   only for a night. Morning will end our mourning. Our night-sorrow is
   for the night, but our joys are for a day that will know no evening.

   6. And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. It is a pity to
   say too much. Very few people fall into the opposite fault of saying
   too little. It is always a pity to be counting with certainty upon the
   future and presuming, because of the hopefulness of the present, that
   this state of things will last forever. David was not wise when he
   said, in his prosperity, "I shall never be moved."

   7. LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain to stand strong: You
   did hide Your face, and I was troubled. When God is at cross purposes
   with His people, they are troubled at once. There is no need for blows,
   no need for angry words--"You did hide Your face, and I was troubled."
   That is enough for a child of God--let him but miss the light of God's
   Countenance and it breaks him down at once.

   8. I cried to You, O LORD; and unto the LORD I made supplication. What
   should the child of God do when he is in trouble, but cry? And to whom
   should he cry but to his Father?

   9. What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the Pit? Shall
   the dust praise You? Shall it declare Your truth? So his prayer was an
   argument, and that is the very bone and sinew of prayer--to reason and
   argue with God. He seems to put it thus--"Lord, if I lose my soul, You
   will be a loser, too, for You will lose a singer out of Your choir, one
   who would be glad enough to praise You and whose very life it is to
   magnify You. Oh, do not cut me down! When I am dead, when I am lost,
   there can be no praise to You from me, so spare me, my gracious God!"

   10. Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be You my helper. What
   a handy prayer this is, a prayer to carry about with you wherever you
   go! "Lord, be You my Helper." That is a minister's prayer when he is
   going to preach. That is a Sunday school teacher's prayer when going to
   the class. Is not that a prayer for the sufferer when the pain upon him
   is very severe? "Lord, be You my Helper." Are you working for Him? Are
   you cast down in soul? This prayer will suit you--"Lord, be You my
   Helper."

   11. You have turned for me my mourning into dancing: You have put off
   my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness. What a transformation scene
   in answer to prayer! Notice that David does not say, "I hope that you
   have," but he puts it thus, "You have--You have." He is quite sure
   about it and, being sure of this great mercy, he gives God all the
   glory of it. What a wonderful change it is! Not merely from mourning
   into peace, but into delight--delight expressed by dancing! Not merely
   from sackcloth into ordinary dress, but from the sackcloth of sorrow to
   the satin of gladness! God does nothing by halves. He not only chases
   away the night and gives us twilight, but He goes on to gladden us with
   the full glory of noontide--and all this He does with a definite end
   and purpose!

   12. To the end that my glory. Or, "my tongue"--

   12. May sing praise to You, and not be silent. God ought to have praise
   from us. It is the quit-rent which we pay as tenants to the great Lord
   of All--let us not rob Him of His revenue. 12. O LORD my God, I will
   give thanks unto You forever.
     __________________________________________________________________

Angelic Protection in Appointed Ways

   (No. 2969)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   AUGUST 22, 1875.

   "For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your
   ways." Psalm 91:11.

   OUR subject this morning was the sprinkling of the blood of the paschal
   lamb upon the lintel and the two doorposts of the houses of the
   children of Israel and Egypt. As soon as that was done and the lamb had
   been eaten, they had to start upon their journey to Canaan. They knew
   that they had to go and they were prepared to go. They had their loins
   girt and each man had his staff in his hand and his sandals on his
   feet. After being prisoners so long, they were set free in order that
   they might become pilgrims to the land which the Lord their God had
   given to their fathers.

   We who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, are in a similar
   condition to theirs, for the Lord has redeemed us and we can sing the
   new song, "He has brought us up out of the house of bondage and with a
   high hand and an outstretched arm He has made us free." And now we are
   pilgrims and strangers in this world, for we are on our way to a better
   land than the earthly Canaan ever was--a land that flows with something
   richer than milk and honey and where there is an eternal and abounding
   portion appointed for each one of the redeemed! We are pressing on,
   through this great wilderness, towards the land into which the Lord
   will surely bring us in His own good time. Our text is a promise to
   pilgrims. It most appropriately follows the text of this morning--"The
   blood shall be to you for a token." You have set out upon the road to
   Heaven. You have entered the narrow way by Christ, who is the Gate at
   the head of the way, and now you are wondering how you will get on
   while you are on the road, and whether you will be proved in the right
   way so as to endure unto the end. This promise comes to you with much
   of real heart-cheer--"He shall give his angels charge over you, to keep
   you in all your ways."

   I. My first remark is rather by way of implication from the text than
   in direct exposition of it. It is this--THERE

   ARE SOME WAYS WHICH ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS PROMISE because they are
   not our ways and they are

   not God's ways. They are ways into which we may be tempted by
   Satan--and which we are to jealously avoid.

   You know how, when the devil professed to quote this text to our Lord,
   he left out the latter part of it, "to keep you in all your ways,"
   because it would not have suited his purpose to mention that proviso.
   We, however, will begin with the words which the devil omitted since
   the very fact of his omission of them seems to show how essential they
   are to a right understanding of the meaning of the text! O Christian,
   if you keep to the King's Highway, you will be safe! But there are
   byways and, alas, crooked lanes which you must not go down. If you do
   go there, you will go at your own risk. He who travels on the King's
   Highway is under the King's protection--but he who takes to byroads
   must protect himself--and the probability is that he will meet with
   robbers who will make him rue the day that he ever turned to the right
   hand or to the left!

   So first we must take care that we never go in the ways of presumption.
   This is what Satan would have had Christ do. "Cast Yourself down," he
   said, "for it is written, He shall give His angels charge over You, to
   keep You." This temptation to presumption is by no means an uncommon
   one. I have heard of it from the lips of men who were evidently not the
   children of God, or they would have resisted the temptation and not
   have yielded to it as they did. They have said, "Well, we are God's
   children, so we may do as we like. We are saved, therefore we may live
   as we please"--a dreadful inference from what, to other men, might be a
   precious Truth of God. O dear Friends, beware of tempting the devil to
   tempt you! Beware, too, of tempting the Lord, your God, as some do who
   venture a long way into evil company, or into doubtful paths under the
   mistaken notion that they are so prudent that they will not be
   overtaken as others might

   be--that they are so sage and withal so experienced that they may go
   where young people must not venture, and may do a great many things
   which less-instructed Christians had better not do. Where you think you
   are perfectly safe, there you are often most in danger! Horses
   frequently fall just at the bottom of the hill, when the driver thinks
   that it is unnecessary to rein them up any longer. When you are so
   foolish as to say, "Now I am out of the reach of temptation," you are
   in the very midst of temptation! And when you think you are not being
   tempted at all, you are being tempted the most by the very fancy that
   you are not being tempted!

   O beloved Friends, beware of presuming! Some have been so favored in
   the dispensations of Providence, so prosperous in everything they have
   undertaken, that they have thought they might speculate as far as ever
   they pleased and, at last--well, they've had very shady characters at
   the end of their lives. They have done once what they never ought to
   have done and, because it succeeded, they have been tempted to do it
   again and yet again. But, I pray you, Sirs, never gather from the
   success of a wrong action, that God is willing for you to repeat it!
   Rather say, "God was very gracious to me in not punishing me that time,
   but I will never run such a risk as that again." I do not believe that
   Jonah, after having been once thrown into the sea and been cast forth
   upon the shore by the whale, ever wanted to be flung into the sea
   again. He might not have felt certain about another whale coming along
   to carry him to land! If you have been miraculously delivered once from
   the great deep, do not put yourself into such a position again. If you
   do, you may find that the next great fish is a shark--not a whale--and,
   instead of being brought to land, you may be destroyed. In brief,
   beware of all presumptuous ways, for God has not promised to keep you
   there.

   And, Brothers and Sisters, you scarcely need to be told that you cannot
   expect to be preserved if you go into sinful ways. I trust that you
   watch against the more coarse and vulgar sins to which others are prone
   and that you will not be allowed to fall into them, but there is such a
   thing as falling little by little. Mind, I pray you, the little evils.
   A man never falls into the great, unclean sins of lust all at once--it
   is usually by a long series of little familiarities that he reaches
   that terrible end. He is indecorous first, indecent next and then, at
   last, criminal! Oh, keep back, keep back from the beginnings of evil!
   If you keep back at the very first, you will go no further. But if you
   slide just a little, you will find that this world is such a slippery
   place that you will surely fall, and fall frightfully, too. I trust
   that no Christian would practice dishonesty in his business, yet you
   know that it is very easy for one to do a wrong thing because it is
   "the custom of the trade." "They label this 100 yards, though it is
   only 90--but if I label it so, I will not sell it and in the next shop
   it will probably be marked 110--so I must label mine a little more than
   it is."

   Well, if you do, remember that you are a thief! Though it is the custom
   of the trade, you are a liar if you conform to it and you cannot expect
   God's blessing upon you in doing it! Do you think that in the Day of
   Judgment, God will say to men, "You are not guilty, for that deception
   was the custom of the trade"? By no means! What does the Lord care
   about the customs of your trade? Do right, at all costs. If you do
   wrong, you do it at your peril, for you have no promise from God that
   He will keep you in such a way as that. I need not enlarge upon this
   point because you know as much about such things as I do and,
   therefore, you can make the application to your own particular case.
   But, O Christian, do keep altogether clear of every evil way! May God's
   Grace preserve you from straying into Bypath Meadow!

   The man who professes to be a Christian must not expect God's angels to
   keep him if he goes in the way of worldliness. There are hundreds, and
   I fear thousands, of church members who say that they are the people of
   God, yet they appear to live entirely to this world. The great aim is
   moneymaking and personal aggrandizement--just as much as it is the aim
   of altogether ungodly men. The Kingdom of Christ, the needs of His
   Church, the needs of perishing souls, have a very slender place in
   their hearts--they live wholly for themselves--only they try to conceal
   it under the plea of providing for their families. "Seek you first the
   Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be
   added unto you," is a text from which we need to preach to professing
   Christians throughout London, and throughout the whole world.

   There is also the way of pride which many tread. They must be
   "respectable." They must move in "Society"--with a big "S"--and
   everything is ordered with a view to display. To be great, to be
   famous, to be esteemed, to keep up a high repute--it is for this that
   they live! And some grow very strong, in a Christian sort of way, in
   that line. They profess to have attained to a "higher life" than
   ordinary Christians ever reach. I am not at all anxious to get up
   there, for I do not believe there is any higher life in this world than
   the life of God which is given to everyone who believes on the Lord
   Jesus Christ! The highest life I aspire to is to live as Jesus Christ
   lived and to walk as He walked--and that is the lowest kind of

   life with which any Christian ought to be contented! When we get such
   fine feathers as these, they do not make us fine birds.

   There is also the way of willfulness which I have known some follow.
   Very grievous is it to see some whom we really think to be good men,
   shift their quarters apparently without any reason. They were doing
   very well, yet away they rush, for they cannot let well enough alone.
   Some Brothers seem to be afflicted with a kind of perpetual
   fidgetiness. They are rolling stones and gather no moss. They move from
   one position to another, not because there is any need for them to
   move, but just because they cannot stay still! They go away from their
   nest and away from their home--and very often act in direct opposition
   to the order of God's Providence! Oh, beware of that spirit of
   willfulness! We may get to be so very strong-headed that we may have to
   suffer there! It is often wise, as the old saying puts it, to take
   advice of our pillow. He who does not sleep upon a thing may have to
   weep upon it. Better look before you leap. Always follow the cloud of
   God's Providence--don't run before it, for if you run before it, you
   may find it hard work to get back again. Many have acted thus to their
   cost and, of course, have had no blessing resting upon them in doing
   so.

   One other way in which a Christian ought not to go is the way of
   erroneous doctrine. I know some professors who, as soon as a new heresy
   comes up, want to have taste of it. I confess that I never felt much
   temptation in that direction. I do not suppose if you went into a
   chemist's shop, you would say to him, "I have heard of somebody being
   killed at Norwood by taking such-and-such a poison--I would like a
   taste of it." You would not ask him to take down his big bottles and to
   give you a taste of all the deadly poisons he had in stock. "Oh, no!"
   You say, "we are in our right senses. We would not do such a foolish
   thing as that." Yet I know people who as soon as ever there is any
   teaching spoken of as being erroneous, say, "We must have a look at
   that. We must have a taste of that"--never satisfied except when they
   are tasting poison! There is a period in life when a Christian man
   should obey Paul's injunction to the Thessalonians, "Prove all
   things"--but let him get that done as quickly as he can and then let
   him get to the second part of the injunction-- "Hold fast that which is
   good." Never hold anything fast till you have proved it to be good--but
   do not be everlastingly proving it! Some things do not need
   anyproving--they bear upon their forefront their character. But others
   need to be proved, so, having proved the right things to be right, and
   the true things to be true, hold them fast and turn not aside from
   them!

   About every six weeks there is a new doctrine promulgated. Sometimes
   there is a new sect started. It is simply because there is somebody
   away up there in his study who is sorely troubled with bile or
   dyspepsia. He never went out to try to win a soul. He never did any
   practical work for Christ. But he edits a newspaper, or he writes for a
   magazine--and out of that wonderful brain of his, which is full of
   cobwebs, he excogitates a new doctrine! And as there are certain people
   who are always waiting for such novelties, straightway they run off
   with it and spread it wherever they can. These false-doctrine makers
   and their disciples are the curse of the age in which we live! I
   implore you, my Friend, to abide in the good old paths! What you know
   to be true, that hold fast! Forsake not your father's God and your
   mother's God. As for the Truths of God which God has taught you by His
   own Spirit, grapple them to you as with hooks of steel, for, if you go
   in the way of error, you cannot expect Divine protection!

   II. Now, secondly, THERE ARE WAYS IN WHICH SAFETY IS GUARANTEED. I
   shall only have time to mention them very briefly.

   There is, first, the way of humble faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
   know that way, Brothers and Sisters, so walk in it. Oh, to be nothing
   and to let Christ be everything--to confess our own guilt and to be
   clothed in His righteousness! Keep to that safe road, for it is the
   King's Highway of which it may be said, "No lion shall be there, nor
   any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there;
   but the redeemed shall walk there."

   There is, next, the way of obedience to Divine precepts. Do what God
   tells you, as God tells you and because God tells you, and no hurt can
   come to you. The Lord told Moses to take by the tail the serpent from
   which he fled. He did so and he was not bitten, but the serpent
   stiffened into a wonder-working rod! Obey the Lord in all things. Mind
   the jots and the tittles, for whoever will break one of the least of
   Christ's commandments "and shall teach men so, shall be called the
   least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them,
   the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven." Oh, to follow
   in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ, step by step, and to keep
   closely to His footprints! It is in such ways that angelic protection
   will be afforded to us.

   There is, also, the way of childlike trust in Providential guidance.
   Happy is that man who always waits upon God to know what he shall
   do--who asks the Lord to always guide him and who dares not lean upon
   his own understanding. Watch the Lord's Providential leadings. Wait for
   Divine guidance. It is far better to stand still than to run in the
   wrong road. Pause a while and pray for direction--and do not move until
   you hear the voice behind you saying, "This is the way; walk you in
   it." In such a road as that, angels will certainly guard you!

   There is, too, the way of strict principle and stern integrity.
   Travelling along that road will often involve a good many losses and
   crosses, much reproach and, sometimes it will even appear to destroy
   your usefulness. But I charge you--young men especially--never violate
   any principle which you profess to hold! I believe that it has been a
   lasting blessing to some whom I know, that they have scorned to trim
   their sails, even in the smallest degree, to please any living soul. Do
   the same. "Be just and fear not." Keep to a cause that is despised if
   you believe it is a right one and love it all the more because it is
   despised! Ask not what it will pay. Care not for the flatterer's smile.
   Pursue Truth even though she may go along very rough roads--she will
   always repay you in the long run. Cling to her and win her smile--then
   the frowns of the whole world need not cause you a moment's thought!
   The way of principle is the way of safety. God's angels will keep you
   if you keep to that road.

   And, dear Brothers and Sisters, I am quite sure that the way of
   consecrated service for God's Glory is another of these safe ways. It
   is well when a man says, "I choose my path by this rule--how can I best
   serve my God? Having judged whether them is any principle involved and
   having a fair choice between this and that, I say to myself, 'In which
   way can I hope to be the more useful? In what course of life can I best
   glorify God?'" That is your way to Heaven, Christian--the way in which
   your Master can get the most glory out of you! And if you walk in that
   way, you may depend upon it that you will be protected by His Sovereign
   Power!

   And once again, there is the way of separation from the world and close
   walking with God. No man ever suffered any real injury through keeping
   himself aloof from the ways of ungodly men and, on the other hand, no
   man ever failed to be a gainer by close and intimate fellowship with
   God. "Enoch walked with God" and he gained not only escape from the
   pangs of death, but also the testimony that "he pleased God." O
   Christian, could not more of us choose this blessed path and walk in it
   continually? If we did so, we "would have the fulfillment, in its
   deepest meaning, of the promise of our text, "He shall give His angels
   charge over you, to keep you in all your ways."

   III. But I must pass on to note briefly, in the third place, that THESE
   RIGHT WAYS WILL LEAD US INTO DIFFERING CIRCUMSTANCES.

   Sometimes the right way wiil lead us into very stony places, positions
   of great difficulty--yet here is the promise to meet that emergency,
   "They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against
   a stone." A way is none the less right because it is rough. Indeed,
   often it is all the more sure to be the right way because it is so
   displeasing to flesh and blood.

   Sometimes, also, the right way may be very terrible with temptation. If
   your path is so beset, do not, therefore, imagine that it is a wrong
   way, because the Psalmist goes on to say, "You shall tread upon the
   lion and adder." Lions and adders will come to you--temptations will
   threaten to devour you even while you are in the right road--but then,
   you are promised that as long as it is the right road that you are in,
   you shall get the victory over the lion and the adder. The temptation
   may be of so mysterious a character that you cannot understand it. It
   may be like a dragon, but, if so, here is your comfort, "the young lion
   and the dragon shall you trample underfoot."

   And remember, beloved Friends, that even if the road is not stony and
   if no lion attacks you, you will be kept from the perils of the smooth
   and easy roads. You will always need Divine and angelic keeping, for
   God would not have charged His angels to keep His people in all their
   ways if they did not need protection in all their ways! Some of you are
   just now prospering in business, but your way is not any safer than the
   way of the man who is losing his all. Indeed, yours may not be as safe
   as his! To you who are in robust health, I venture to say that your
   path is more perilous than the path of the man who is always ailing.
   And to all of you I say, pray for angelic keeping. Ask the Lord to
   guard you with His celestial hosts, or else, in any of your ways, be
   they rough or smooth, you will fall to your serious hurt.

   IV. Now we come to the fourth point which is this--WHILE WALKING IN ALL
   RIGHT WAYS, BELIEVERS

   ARE SECURE. "He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in
   all your ways."

   O Christian, if you have not violated your conscience. If you have not
   forsaken the path of communion with your God, think what high
   privileges are yours! First, God Himself concerns Himself about you. He
   charges His angels to take care of you. David, when his soldiers went
   to battle against his rebellious son, Absalom, specially charged their
   leaders to deal gently with the young man, Absalom, for his sake. But
   he charged them in vain. In a far higher sense God charges His angels
   to guard His saints--but He does not charge them in vain! This is not a
   mere general command. It is a sort of imperative personal charge that
   God lays upon His angels--"Take care of My children. They are on My
   road--the King's high road of rectitude. Watch over them and do not
   allow them to be hurt." So you have God personally charging His angels
   to take care of you!

   Next, you have mysterious agencies to protect you. "He shall give His
   angels charge over you." We speak of dragons, but we do not know much
   about them. And we do not know much about angels, but we feel sure that
   angels can overcome dragons, for they are more than a match for devils!
   And if mysterious temptations come to you, there shall also be
   mysterious defenders to thrust them back. You have more friends, poor
   Christian, than you know of. When you are fighting the battles of God,
   you may hear a rush of angels' wings at your side if you only have your
   ears Divinely opened. If all men forsake you, God can send His angels,
   though you see them not, to strengthen you in some secret manner that I
   cannot fully explain. "Behold, the mountain was full of horses and
   chariots of fire round about Elisha," the Prophet who dared to be true
   to his God and to serve Him faithfully. God would sooner empty Heaven
   of all the angelic host, cherubim and seraphim included, than allow any
   oneof His people who has walked in His ways, to suffer defeat. He
   charges all His angels to take care of His saints and to keep them in
   all right ways.

   And as angels are on our side, so are all things, visible and
   invisible. Why Believers, the very stones of the field are in league
   with you and the beasts of the field are at peace with you! Wherever
   you go, you have friends ready to help you. It is true that you have
   enemies among the wicked, but their weapons shall not prevail against
   you. And wherever there is a messenger of God--be it wind, or storm, or
   lightning, or hail--it is your friend! The very stars in their courses
   fight for you! The forces, terrific and tremendous, which at times
   shake the world, are only your Father's flaming swords unsheathed to
   protect you! If we are walking in the ways of God, we can truthfully
   sing--

   "The God that rules on high, And thunders when He pleases, That rides
   upon the stormy sky, And manages the seas-- This awful God is ours, Our
   Father and our love! He shall send down His heavenly powers To carry us
   above."

   Sing then, you saints of the Lord, for everything is on your side! "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."

   What a very sweet thought is suggested by the word, "you," in our text!
   It teaches us that each one of the saints is personally protected. "He
   shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways."
   God takes a personal interest in every traveler along the right road
   and charges His angels to keep them. Perhaps you say, "I do not read
   the text, Sir, as referring to me." Well, I think you should. When you
   read the precept, "You shall not steal," do you suppose that it refers
   to you? "Oh, yes!" you say, "I would not like to suggest that it did
   not mean me. I would not plead exemption from the precept." Well, then,
   my dear Brother, do not seek to be exempted from the promise! Just as
   you feel sure that the precept applies to you, so, as a child of God,
   feel sure that the promise applies to you--"He shall give His angels
   charge over you, to keep you in all your ways."

   This protection is perpetual as well as personal. God's angels are "to
   keep you in all your ways"--in your ups and your downs, in your
   advancement and your retiring--to keep you when you are asleep and when
   you are awake--to keep you when you are alone and when you are in
   company--to keep you if you have to preach and to keep you if you have
   to hear--to keep you if you have to serve and to keep you if you have
   to suffer. You always need keeping and you shall always have it, for
   the angels are charged "to keep you in all your ways"!

   And how beautiful it is to remember that all this keeping brings honor
   with it "He shall give His angels charge over you." Notice that--"He
   shall give His angels"--the very angels that wait upon God and see His
   face! The very angels that are the bodyguard of the Eternal! "He shall
   give His angels charge over you," "Mark you," says the Lord to Gabriel,
   or Michael, or whatever the angel's name may be, "I charge you to take
   special care of that poor girl, for she is a daughter of Mine. Take
   care of that poor man whom so many despise, for he is a prince of the
   blood imperial. He belongs to Me--he is an heir of God and joint-heir
   with Jesus Christ." Oh, what amazing dignity this promise puts upon the
   very least and lowliest of the followers of the Lamb!

   Note just one more point, that all these privileges come to us by Jesus
   Christ, for Christ is that mystic Ladder which Jacob saw, up-and-down
   whose wondrous rungs the angels came and went! The commerce between the
   saints and Heaven is kept up by way of the Person of the Lord Jesus
   Christ. Oh, what joy is this! If Christ is yours, angels are yours, and
   all the principalities and powers in the heavenly places will delight
   to take care of you!

   Now, if anyone here is going home to a lonely room, I should like you
   to feel that you are not going there alone. Father and mother are away
   in the country, perhaps, and some of you young people feel quite alone
   in London. But, if you are believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are
   not alone, for the Lord of all the holy angels is with you and an
   innumerable company of blessed spirits is round about you. Take comfort
   from this glorious Truth of God! God's mysterious angelic agency, which
   you see not and hear not, but which is most true and real, will form a
   cordon round you to protect you in the midst of the temptations of this
   great city! And if you are but faithful to Him and keep in His ways,
   nothing shall hurt you between here and Heaven! There may be many darts
   hurled at you, but the great shield of faith shall turn them all aside
   or quench them forever. You will have to encounter many temptations and
   trials, but you will be preserved amid them all. I heard a Primitive
   Methodist minister speaking last Friday night, make use of a very
   strong expression while describing what a man could do by faith. He
   said, "He can not only overcome a legion of devils, but he could kick
   his way through a lane of devils if he did but rest in God." I have had
   that idea in my mind ever since I heard him use that expression--and I
   am sure that it is true, for some of us have already had to do it.
   Those devils are great cowards. So when God once takes entire
   possession of a man, he need not fear even though all Hell were let
   loose upon him! One butcher is not afraid of a thousand sheep! And one
   man whom God makes strong, can put to route all the hosts of Hell--and
   he need not fear all the trials of life whatever they may be! "If God
   is for us, who can be against us?"

   In closing, there are two or three thoughts which I think are worth
   remembering. The first is this. Dear Brothers and Sisters, we see, from
   this text, that the lowest employment is consistent with the highest
   enjoyment. The angels are our nurses--"they shall bear you up in their
   hands," just as nurses hold up little children who are not able to
   stand by themselves. Those angels continually behold God's face and
   live in the perfect bliss of Heaven, yet they condescend to do such
   humble deeds as these. Dear Brother, be like the angels in this
   respect--teach an infant class in the Sunday school, yet keep your face
   bright with the Light of God's Countenance. Give away tracts, go and
   visit among the poor, look after fallen women, or do any other work for
   the Lord that needs to be done. Never mind what it is, but remember
   that the employment is all the more honorable because it appears to be
   so commonplace. Never was Christ grander, I think, than when He washed
   His disciples' feet. Certainly, never are we more like He than when we,
   also, are willing to wash their feet, or render any lowly service that
   they may need.

   The next thought is as angels watch over us, how cheerfully ought we to
   watch over one another! How gladly you who are older in the Divine
   life, ought to watch over the younger ones of the Lord's family! If God
   enables you to have any of the joy of angels over repenting sinners,
   mind that you take some of the care which angels exercise over those
   who walk in God's ways. What can I, the pastor of this huge church, and
   my brother and all the elders, do by way of watching over 5,000 of you?
   You must pastor yourselves to a large extent! Watch over one another.
   "Bear you one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
   Visit each other in their sickness. Seek to bring back to Christ and
   the church all the backsliders whom you can find. Labor for the good of
   one another, for, in only this way can our task be done-- and you shall
   be like the angels if you bear up the feeble ones in your hands lest
   they trip up and fall to their grievous hurt.

   Then next, how safe and happy we ought to feel when we know that God
   has charged the angels to take care of us! Do not be nervous, my dear
   Sister, the next time there is a little storm, or even a great storm.
   Do not be afraid, my dear Friend, when sickness comes into your house.
   Do not be alarmed, as perhaps you are, when you hear that there is
   fever

   next door to you. Remember the promise that precedes our text--"Because
   you have made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, your
   habitation; there shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague
   come near your dwelling." But suppose it should seem right to the Lord
   to let the plague come to you? And suppose you shall die of it? Well,
   you will the sooner be in Heaven! Therefore comfort one another with
   the reflection that all is well with you as long as you keep in the way
   of duty.

   And, lastly, how holy we ought to be with such holy beings watching
   over us If the angels are always hovering round you, mind what you are
   doing! Would you, my dear Friend, have spoken as you did when you were
   coming in at that door, yonder, if you had seen an angel standing by
   your side, listening to what you were saying? Oh, no, you are
   wonderfully decorous when there is somebody near whom you respect! How
   often your glib tongue is checked when there is some Christian man or
   woman whom you highly esteem within hearing! How many a thing is done
   that would not be done under the eyes of one whom you love! It is not
   only true that "a bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which
   has wings shall tell the matter," but it is also true that there are
   angels always watching over us. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that a
   woman in the public assembly ought to have her head covered because of
   the angels--a certain decorum was due because of the angels who were
   there. And I am sure that I may use the same argument concerning all
   our actions. Whether we are alone or in company, let us not sin because
   angels are always watching us. And, remember, the angels' Lord is also
   watching us!

   May He graciously keep us in His holy way. And if we are so kept, we
   shall be preserved from all evil while we are here and, at last, we
   shall see His face with joy and live with Him forever! I would to God
   that all who are now present were in that holy way. I remind you once
   more that the entrance to it is by a door that has the blood-mark upon
   the lintel and the two doorposts--"The blood shall be to you for a
   token." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved."

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM119:25-32.

   Verse 25. My soul cleaves unto the dust "It sticks to it as though it
   were glued to it. My soul cannot be lifted up, at least by myself, out
   of its sadness and its earthiness." The Psalmist was not one who could
   boast of perfection. He had to lament that the earth which was in him
   by nature made even his soul cleave to Mother Earth. He did not like
   it. He was not content that it should be so and, therefore, he breathed
   this prayer--

   25. Quicken You me according to Your word. "Lord, there is nothing but
   life that can bring me up out of the dust, for death lurks in the dust
   and the dust tends to death. Put life into me, Lord--Your life, the
   Divine life. You have promised to do this, therefore, do it, Lord,
   'according to Your word.'" That is a prayer which is always sure to
   succeed, for it is based upon the promise of God. Has the Lord promised
   anything? Then He will surely perform it! And you cannot use a better
   argument in prayer than to say to Him, "Do as You have said." Or, as
   the Psalmist puts it, "Quicken You me according to Your word."

   26. I have declared my ways, and You heard me. "I have made a full
   confession to You, my God. I have acknowledged my fault wherein I was
   wrong and I have thanked You for your Grace given to me in anything
   wherein I was right."

   26. Teach me Your statutes. "O Lord, let me not have such a sorry tale
   to tell again. If my copy of Your handwriting has been badly written,
   set it afresh for me, I pray You. 'Teach me Your statutes.'"

   27. Make me to understand the way of Your precepts. "Let me know, O
   Lord, what the way of Your precepts are. Get me into that way and then,
   oh help me to keep in it all my life!"

   27. So shall I talk of Your wondrous works. A man never talks rightly
   of God's works till he knows God's ways. And it is idle to talk of them
   if there is no doingat the back of the talking. So the Psalmist prays,
   "Make me to understand the way of Your precepts: so shall I talk of
   Your wondrous works." To preach and not practice is very bad preaching!
   But first to understand the way of the Lord, then to run in it--and
   then to speak of it--this is well!

   28. My soul melts for heaviness. The Hebrew word is, "drops." The
   Psalmist's soul was like water dripping from the eaves of a house in
   time of rain. There are two sorts of sorrow--the sorrow that rushes
   like a mighty torrent and the sorrow which is, perhaps, the worse of
   the two, which goes drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip--like the
   constant dripping which wears away stones--and which makes even the
   boldest heart to feel the attrition. "My soul melts, dissolves, drops,
   drips for heaviness."

   28. Strengthen You me. The Psalmist does not ask to have the trouble
   removed. He prays, "Help me to bear it." Whenever there is a thing that
   is hard, the right way to cut through it is to get something that is
   still harder. If God will give us an adequate supply of His Grace, hard
   times will not wear us away! So the Psalmist prays, "Strengthen You
   me,"

   28. According unto Your word. See how he clings to that expression,
   "according unto Your word"? He knows the power of that argument and,
   therefore, he uses it again and again!

   29. Remove from me the way of lying. "Do not let me fall into any
   untrue habits. Do not let me profess to have had an experience which I
   have never felt, or talk about holy things of which I know nothing
   experimentally. Keep me from everything that has any trace of falsehood
   in it."

   29. And grant me Your Law graciously. "For Your Law is truth, and when
   Your Grace brings Your Law home to my heart, all that is false will be
   banished from me."

   30. I have chosen the way of truth. Your judgments have Ilaid before
   me. "I have laid them before me as a man puts his model in front of him
   that he may work to it." It is well for us to have God's way and God's
   judgments always before our eyes, that we may be duly impressed and
   rightly guided by them.

   31. I have stuck unto Your testimonies. Just now the Psalmist said that
   his soul stuck to the earth, yet at the same time he was sticking to
   God's testimonies, for every good man is two men. There is a new-birth
   man who sticks to God's testimonies, and there is that old carnal
   nature in us which cleaves to the dust.

   31, 32. O Lord, put me not to shame. I willrun the way of Your
   commandments, when You shall enlarge my heart. That is, "When You shall
   give me liberty of heart, then I will run in the way of Your
   commandments. When the impediments are removed--when the sin which does
   so easily entangle me, is taken away, then will I run with delight in
   the way of Your commandments!
     __________________________________________________________________

God's Jewels

   (No. 2970)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And they shall be Mine, says the LORD of Hosts, in that day when I
   make up My jewels." Maalachi 3:17.

   THESE words were spoken in a very graceless age, when religion was
   peculiarly distasteful to men, when they scoffed at God's altar and
   said of His service, "What a weariness it is!" and scornfully asked,
   "What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance?" Yet even those
   dark nights were cheered by bright stars. Though the great
   congregations of God's House were but a mockery, yet there were smaller
   assemblies which God gazed upon with delight. Though the house of
   national worship was often deserted, there were secret conventicles of
   those who "feared the Lord" and who "spoke often, one to another," and
   our God, who regards quality more than quantity, had respect to these
   elect twos and threes! He "listened and heard" and He so approved of
   that which He heard that He took note of it and declared that He would
   publish it. "A book of remembrance was written before Him for them that
   feared the Lord and that thought upon His name." Yes, and He valued so
   much these hidden ones, "faithful among the faithless found," that He
   called them His "jewels."And He declared that in the great day when He
   should gather together His "segullah," His regalia--the peculiar
   treasure of kings--He would look upon these hidden ones as being more
   priceless than emeralds, rubies, or pearls! "They shall be Mine," He
   said, "in the day when I gather up My jewels into My casket to be there
   forever."

   We will try to work out this metaphor of jewels. Our first point shall
   be that God's people are compared to jewels. Our second, the making up
   of the jewels. And our third, theprivilege ofbeing foundamong them.

   I. THE LORD COMPARES HIS PEOPLE TO JEWELS.

   From the remotest antiquity, men have thought much of precious stones.
   Almost fabulous prices have been paid for them and there have been
   instances in which most bloody wars have been waged for the possession
   of a certain jewel renowned for its brilliance and size. Men hunt after
   gold, but the diamond they pursue with even greater eagerness. Five
   hundred men will work for a whole year in the diamond mines of Brazil
   when the entire produce of the year might be held in the hollow of your
   hand! And princes will give whole principalities, or barter the estates
   of half a nation in order to possess one peculiar brilliant of rare
   excellence. We wonder not, therefore, that the Lord, who elsewhere
   likens the precious sons of Zion to fine gold, should here compare them
   to jewels. However little they may be esteemed by men, the great
   Jewel-Valuer, the Lord Jesus Christ, esteems them as precious beyond
   all price! His life was as dear to Him as life is to us, and yet all
   that He had, even His life, did He give for His elect ones. He counted
   down the price of His jewels in drops of bloody sweat in the gloomy
   Garden of Gethsemane. His very heart was set astir, streaming with
   priceless blood in order that He might redeem His people. We may
   compare our Lord to that merchant seeking goodly pearls, who, when He
   had found the one pearl of His Church, for the joy thereof went and
   sold all that He had that He might make it His own!

   Our God sets great value upon those whom He calls His jewels, as we may
   gather not only from their costly redemption, but from the fact that
   all Providence is but a wheel upon which to polish and perfect them.
   Those stupendous wheels, which Ezekiel saw, were but a part of the
   machinery of the great Lapidary by which He cuts the facets of His true
   brilliants and makes His diamonds ready for His crown, for is it not
   written that "all things work together for good to them that love God,
   to them who are the called according to His purpose"? The Lord values
   His people very highly--not only the rich among them, not alone the
   most gracious among them--but the very least and most unworthy among
   Believers are Jehovah's jewels! To fear the Lord and think upon His
   name are very simple indications of piety, yet, if we only come up to
   the standard which these evidences indicate, we are dear to God. What
   though we may possess no

   singular gifts or eminent graces. What though our voice may never be
   heard among the crowds of populous cities, yet still, if we "think upon
   His name," and our hearts are set towards the Lord Jesus, we are
   precious to Him!

   Jewels well portray the Christian because they are extremely hard and
   durable. Most jewels will scratch glass. Some of them will cut it while
   they, themselves, will not be cut by the sharpest file. And many of
   them will be uninjured by the most potent acids. The Christian is such
   an one. He has within him a principle which is incorruptible, undefiled
   and destined to endure forever! In Pompeii and Herculaneum, diggers
   have discovered gems in an excellent state of preservation, while
   statuary and implements of iron have been destroyed. Jewels will last
   out the world's lifetime and glitter on as long as the sun shines! Rust
   does not corrupt them, nor does the moth devour them though the thief
   may break through and steal them. The Christian is born of an
   incorruptible Seed which lives and abides forever. The world has often
   tried to crush or destroy God's diamonds, but all the attempts of
   malicious fury have failed. All that enmity has ever accomplished has
   only been, in the hands of God, the means of displaying the
   preciousness and brilliance of His jewels! The sham Christian, who is
   but a paste gem, soon yields to trial--he evaporates into a little
   noxious gas of self-conceit--and it is all over with him. A little heat
   of persecution and the man-made Christian--where is he? But the genuine
   Christian, the true gem, the choice jewel of God will survive the fires
   of time and, when the fast dissolving Day shall arrive, he shall come
   forth from the furnace without a flaw!

   The jewel is prized for its luster. It is the brilliance of the gem
   which, in a great measure, is the evidence and test of its value. It is
   said that the colors of jewels are the brightest known and are the
   nearest approaches to the rays of the solar spectrum that have yet been
   discovered. Certainly there is no light like that which is reflected
   from the sincere Christian! The renewed heart catches the beams of the
   Sun of Righteousness and reflects them--not without some refraction,
   for we are mortal--but still, with much of glory, for we are immortal
   and God dwells in us! Look how the diamond flashes and sparkles! It is
   of the first water when, with certain other conditions, it is also
   without cloudiness and without spots. And oh, when a Christian is truly
   what a saint should be--what a luster, what a brilliance there is about
   him! He is like the Lord Jesus Christ, humble yet bold, teachable yet
   firm, gentle yet courageous! Like his Master, he goes about doing the
   will of Him that sent him. And though the wicked world may not love
   him, it cannot but perceive his brightness!

   Look at Richard Baxter, in Kidderminster--what a flashing diamond he
   was! He had some spots, no doubt, but his brightness was most
   surprising! Even swearers on the ale-bench could not but know that He
   was a Heaven-born spirit! We might quote honored names out of all
   Christian churches which would be at once discerned by you as God's
   flashing brilliants because there is about them so little of the
   cloudiness of Nature--and so much of the brightness of Grace that he
   must be blind, indeed, who does not admire them! Precious stones are
   the flowers of the mineral world, the blossoms of the mines, the roses
   and lilies of earth's caverns. Scarcely has the eye ever seen a more
   beautiful object than the breastplate of the high priest, studded with
   the 12 gems, each with its own separate ray melting into a harmony of
   splendor and, albeit that the trickeries of pomp have but little
   influence over men of sober minds, I scarcely believe that there exists
   a single person who is altogether impervious to the influence of a
   crown set with ruby, pearl, emerald and a bright array of other costly
   gems!

   There is a beauty, a Divine and superhuman beauty, about a Christian.
   He may be humbly clad and miserably housed. He may be poor and his name
   may never be mentioned among the great. But jewelers value a rare
   stone, none the less, because of its ill-setting. Beloved, nothing so
   delights God, next to the Person of His own dear Son, as the sight of
   one of those whom He has made like unto the Lord Jesus! Know you not
   that Christ's delights are with the sons of men and that the holiness,
   the patience, the devotion, the zeal, the love and the faith of His
   people are precious to Him? The whole creation affords no fairer sight
   to the Most High than an assembly of His sanctified people in whom He
   sees the beauty of His own Character reflected. May you and I have much
   of "the beauty of holiness" given to us by the Holy Spirit! May the
   Lord look upon us with Divine satisfaction because He sees in us the
   rays of the solar spectrum of His own ineffable perfection!

   Christians are comparable to jewels because of their rarity. There are
   not many precious stones in the world. Of the smaller sorts, there may
   be many, but of the rarer gems, there are so few that a little child
   might write them. Only six very large diamonds (called paragons) are
   known in the world and God's people are but few compared with the
   unregenerate multitude who are as the pebbles in the brook. The
   Christian belongs, like the ruby, the diamond and the emerald, to the
   choicest of created things. These stones are the aristocracy of
   minerals and Christians are the aristocracy of men. They are

   God's nobles. The roll of Battle Abbey--have you ever looked it
   through? Well, it is of little consequence. There is a better roll by
   far--and if your name is written there, it will be of infinitely more
   consequence to you! In Doomsday Book--is there a name there at all like
   yours? Never mind whether there is or not. There is a Doom's Day Book
   which will be of more value in the day of doom than Doomsday Book has
   ever been among the sons of men. Not many wise men after the flesh, not
   many great and noble have their names inscribed there--but all who are
   written in Heaven are, in another sense, wise, and great, and
   noble--for God has made them so through His own Grace. Not many are the
   gems which enrich the nations and not many are the saints who shine
   among men. The way to Heaven is narrow, and the Savior sorrowfully
   says, "Few there are that find it." There is a city where pearl,
   jasper, carbuncle and emerald are as common things. O fair Jerusalem,
   when shall these eyes behold your turrets and your pinnacles?

   It is worthy of observation, too, that a jewel is the production of
   God. Diamonds have been burned and other jewels have been resolved into
   their elements. But, after the most laborious attempts, no chemist has
   yet been able to make a diamond. Men can cut the Gordian Knot, but they
   cannot tie it again. Lives have been wasted in attempts to produce
   precious stones, but the discovery is still unmade--they are the secret
   productions of God's own skill--and chemists fail to tell how they were
   produced, even though they know their elements. So the world thinks it
   knows what a Christian is, but it cannot make one. All the wit in the
   world put together could not find out the secret of the Heaven-born
   life! And all the so-called "sacraments," vestments, priests, prayers,
   and paraphernalia of Popery cannot create a Christian! "Yes," says one,
   "we take a little water and we make an infant a member of Christ, a
   child of God, and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven." Sir, you make
   yourself a liar--and nothing better when you so speak--for it is
   neither in your power, nor in the power of any other man to regenerate
   a soul by any performance, either with or without water! You may never
   wash a flint long enough before you can wash it into a diamond. To make
   jewels for Christ's crown is God's work and God's work alone! We might
   preach until our tongues grew dumb and men's ears grew deaf, but not a
   living soul would ever receive Divine Grace by our talk alone--the
   Spirit must go with the Word of God, or it is so much wasted breath!
   The Lord alone can create a child of Grace! And a Christian is as much
   a miracle as was Lazarus where he rose from the tomb. It is as great a
   work of Deity to create a Believer as it is to create a world!

   It is worthy of remark, too, that jewels are of many kinds. Perhaps
   there is not a single ray in the spectrum which is not represented
   among them--from the purest white of the diamond, the red of the ruby,
   the bright green of the emerald, to the blue of the sapphire. So is it
   with God's people. They are not all alike and they never will be! All
   attempts at uniformity must fail and it is very proper that they
   should. We need not wish to be one in the sense of uniformity, but only
   in the sense of unity--not all one jewel, but many set in one crown. It
   little matters whether we shine with the sapphire's blue, or the
   emerald's green, or the ruby's red, or the diamond's white, so long as
   we are the Lord's in the day when He makes up His jewels!

   Jewels are of all sizes, yet they are all jewels. One is a Koh-I-Noor,
   a very mountain of light, but it is not any more a diamond because it
   is large, though it is more precious. The smallest dust of the diamond
   that comes from the lapidary's wheel is made of the same material as
   the richest jewel that sparkles in the monarch's crown and, even so,
   those Christians who have but little faith and little Grace, are still
   as much the Divine workmanship as the brightest and most precious in
   the believing family! And what is more, they shall be in the casket
   when the others are there, for it is said of them all, "They shall be
   Mine in that day when I make up My jewels."

   Once more, jewels are found all over the world. In the most frozen
   regions, on the tops of mountains and in the depths of mines, jewels
   have been discovered, but they are said to be most numerous in tropical
   regions. So, Christians are to be found everywhere. Blessed be the name
   of God, the Eskimos have sung the praises of Immanuel in the regions of
   eternal ice! And the children of the sun have learned to adore the Sun
   of Righteousness in the midst of the torrid zone! But in England, which
   is the tropical region of Divine Grace, the land where the Gospel is
   preached in our streets, we find the most of Believers, as also in a
   few other happy lands which, like our own fair island, lie upon the
   Equinoctial line of Gospel privilege, where the Grace of God has given
   the Gospel in its greatest purity!

   Wherever the jewels have been found, though they differ in some
   respects, yet they are all alike in others. Kings delight in them and
   are glad to use them as regal ornaments. So, wherever the Lord finds
   His precious ones, East or West, or North or South, He sees something
   in them in which they all agree, and He delights in them. Our Lord
   Jesus counts them to be His true ornaments with which He arrays Himself
   as a bridegroom adorns himself with ornaments, and as a bride decks
   herself with jewels. God delights in Christians, come from whatever
   part they may. Although they may be of many tongues and though the
   colors of their skins may vary, yet are they still very, very precious
   in His sight--and they shall be His in that day when He makes up His
   jewels!

   II. In the second place, let us consider THE MAKING UP OF THE JEWELS.

   We have not come to the day of the making up of the jewels, for some of
   them are at this hour hidden and undiscovered. There is no doubt that
   many precious stones will yet be found. Diamond hunters are, at this
   moment, looking for them in the caverns of the earth and washing the
   soil of the mines to find them. Many of the chosen of God are not yet
   manifested. The missionaries in heathen lands are toiling to discover
   them amid the mire of idolatry. My daily business and calling is that
   of a jewel hunter--and this pulpit is the place where I try to separate
   the precious from the vile. Sunday school teachers and other workers
   are also diamond hunters. They deal with gems far more precious than
   millions of gold and silver. Oh, that all Christians were seekers of
   souls, for there is much need of all hands and it is a work which well
   rewards the laborer. All the chosen are not yet saved. Blood-bought
   multitudes remain to be gathered in! Oh, for Grace to seek them
   diligently! Because of the absence of so many of the Lord's gems, the
   "making up" of the jewels has not yet taken place--but the time for
   that is hastening on!

   Many jewels are found, but they are not yet polished. They are precious
   gems, but it is only lately that they have been lifted up from the
   mine. When the diamond is first discovered, it glitters but little. You
   can see that it is a precious gem, but perhaps one half of it will have
   to be cut away before it sparkles with fullest splendor. The lapidary
   must torment it upon his wheel and many hundreds of pounds must be
   spent before perfection is reached. In some cases, thousands of pounds
   have been expended before the diamond has been brought to its full
   excellence. So it will be with many of the Lord's people--they are
   justified, but they are not completely sanctified. Corruption has to be
   subdued, ignorance removed, unbelief cut away, worldliness taken off
   before they can be set in the crown of the great King! For this also
   the King waits and His jewels are not "made up."

   Many of the Lord's gems are but partly polished. Indeed, there are none
   on earth yet perfect. This is not the land of perfection! Some persons
   dream of it--their pretensions are but a dream. We have heard some say
   that they were perfect, but they were not perfect in the virtue of
   humility, or they would not have boasted after so vain-glorious a
   fashion! The saints are still in the Lapidary's hands. The Master is
   taking off first one angle and then another, and rending away much
   which we have foolishly cherished--but through this cutting process we
   shall sparkle gloriously before long, so that those who knew us on
   earth will be amazed to see the difference in Heaven! Perhaps it will
   be part of the joy of Heaven to perceive our conquest over sin, to see
   how the Divine hand has shed a glory and beauty upon the poor dull
   stones of earth!

   The making up is delayed, too, because certain of the gems which have
   been partly polished are missing. "Oh," you say, "does the Lord ever
   lose any of His gems? "No, not forever, but for a time they may be
   missing. A certain blue diamond that was very greatly renowned was, by
   some means, lost at the time of the French Revolution and has never
   been heard of since. It is somewhere, however, and God knows where it
   is--and it is still a diamond. And so there are some of His people who
   go astray and we cannot tell where they are. But still, "the Lord knows
   them that are His" and, "the Son of Man is come to seek and to save
   that which was lost." Backslider, you were once a jewel in the
   church--you were put down in the book as a church member, but from the
   casket of the church, Satan stole you. Ah, but you did not belong to
   him and he cannot keep you! You have agreed to be his, but your
   agreement does not stand for anything. You did not belong to yourself
   and so you could not give yourself away. Christ has the first and only
   valid claim to you and will yet obtain His rights by the Omnipotence of
   His Grace. Because of these missing jewels, the long-suffering of God
   waits. But the day is coming--its axles are hot with speed--when
   sardius, topaz and carbuncle shall glisten in the same crown with
   emerald, sapphire and diamond, nor shall ligure, agate, amethyst,
   beryl, onyx, or jasper be lacking--they shall all be "set in gold in
   their enclosing."

   III. Upon THE HONORABLE PRIVILEGE of being numbered with the crown
   jewels of Jehovah, we will utter hardly more than a few sentences, and
   we will preface them with words of self-examination.

   "They shall be Mine." This does not include all men, but only "those
   that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name." Standing in the
   midst of this immense assembly and remembering that a very large
   proportion of my Hearers are professors of faith in Christ, I am happy
   to be in such a great jewel house! But when I reflect that it is a very
   easy

   thing, indeed, to imitate a jewel so that the counterfeit cannot be
   detected except by the most skillful jeweler, I feel solemnly impressed
   with the desire that none of you may be deceived! It is not very long
   ago that a lady possessed a sapphire supposed to be worth £10,000.
   Without informing her relatives, she sold it and procured an imitation
   of it so cleverly fashioned that when she died, it was valued by a
   jeweler in order that the probate duty might be paid upon it-- and the
   trustees of the estate actually paid probate duty upon it to our
   government on £10,000 for what was not really worth more than a few
   pence--for they imagined that it was the real sapphire.

   Now if in examining material jewels, men well skilled have been thus
   deceived, you will not wonder if, in connection with the jewels of mind
   and spirit, it is so difficult to detect an impostor! You may deceive
   the minister, the deacons and the church--no, you may easily deceive
   yourselvesand even pay the probate duty! You may be making sacrifices
   and discharging duties on account of true religion, as you think, but
   really for something which is not worth the name! Beloved in the Lord,
   be zealous for vital godliness! Hate hypocrisy, shun deception and
   watch against formality! I will make a pause and give you time, in a
   few minutes of silence, to pray that ancient and necessary prayer,
   "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and
   see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
   everlasting." All paste gems and all the glass imitations will surely
   be detected in the day which will burn as an oven! May we be found
   among the Lord's genuine jewels in that dread testing day!

   If we are the Lord's, then what privileges are ours! Then are we safe.
   If we really pass the scales at the last, there will be no more
   questioning, suspicions, beatings, weighing, or cutting. If the Great
   Valuer accepts us as being genuine, then we shall be secure forever!

   Nor is this all, Beloved. We shall also be honored. Remember where the
   jewels are to shine forever. Jesus Himself shall wear them as His glory
   and joy! Believers will be unrivalled illustrations of the Glory of
   Divine Grace throughout all ages. Can you see our glorious
   Well-Beloved? There He sits--adored of angels and admired of men! But
   what are the ornaments He wears? Worlds were too small to be signets
   upon His fingers and the zodiac too poor a thing to bind the sandals of
   His feet. But, oh, how bright He is, how glorious! And what are the
   jewels which display His beauty? They are souls redeemed by His death
   from going down into the Pit! Blood-washed sinners! Men and women who,
   but for Him, would have been tormented forever in the flames, but who
   now rejoice to sing, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our
   sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and
   His Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever." So
   then--once acknowledged to be Christ's, you are not only safe, but you
   will be in the closest communion with Christ throughout eternity! It is
   a bliss, the thought of which may well flash with vehement flame
   through your hearts even now, that you are, one day, to display the
   Glory of Immanuel that unto the principalities and powers in heavenly
   places shall be made known, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of
   God! You are to be His "gold rings set with the beryl." With you as His
   reward, His Person will be "as bright as ivory overlaid with
   sapphires." You are so dear to Him that He bought you with His own
   blood because you could not be "gotten for gold, neither could silver
   be weighed for the price thereof." Your redemption by His death proves
   that your soul could not be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the
   precious onyx or the sapphire! And when the ever-glorious God shall
   exhibit your sanctified spirit as an illustration of His glorious
   Character and work, no mention shall be made of coral or of pearls, for
   your worth will be above rubies! The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal
   you, nor shall the precious crystal be compared to you.

   But I hear a mournful voice crying, "All this is concerning the
   precious ones, but there is nothing for me. I was in hopes that there
   would have been something for a sinner like me." Well, what are you,
   then? Are you not a jewel? "No," you cry, "I am not a jewel. I am only
   a common stone. I am not worth the picking up--I am just one of the
   many pebbles on the shore of life--and the tide of death will soon wash
   me into the great ocean of eternity! I am not worthy of God's thoughts.
   I am not even worth His treading upon--I shall, with multitudes of
   others, be swallowed up in the great deep of wrath and never be heard
   of again!"

   Soul, did you never hear this text? "I say unto you that God is able of
   these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." What stones were they?
   They were ordinary loose stones in Jordan's bed. John was standing in
   the river baptizing and pointing to those worthless pebbles not worth
   picking up. He said, "God is able of these stones to raise up children
   unto Abraham." Even so, this night, God is able of these stones around
   me in this vast throng to make gems which shall be His treasure in the
   day when He makes up His jewels! You cannot thus exalt yourselves, nor
   can I do it for you, but there is a secret and mysterious process by
   which, by Divine art, the common stone is transmuted into the diamond!
   And though you are a stone black with sin, or blood-red with
   crime--though you are a flinty stone with jagged edges of
   blasphemy--though you are such a stone as Satan delights to throw at
   the Truth of God, yet God can transform you into a jewel! He can do it
   in an instant!

   Do you know how He can do it? There is a wondrous rod with which He
   works matchless transformations. That rod is the Cross! Jesus Christ
   suffered that sinners might not suffer! Jesus Christ died that sinners
   might not die, but that "whoever believes in Him should not perish, but
   have everlasting life"! Sinner though you are--if you come beneath the
   Cross and trustingly look up to God's dear Son, you shall be saved! And
   that salvation includes a complete change of nature by which you shall
   fear the Lord, think upon His name and mingle with those who speak
   often, one to another, with the certainty of being the Lord's when He
   makes up His jewels!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MALACHI 3; 4.

   Malachi 3:1. Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the
   way before Me. The name Malachi means "my messenger." The reference
   here is, of course, to John the Baptist who was to prepare the way of
   the Lord.

   1. And the lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple. Now,
   the Temple at Jerusalem is utterly destroyed, so how can the Jews still
   think the Lord, whom they profess to seek, will suddenly come to His
   Temple? He must have come there already--so we know He did--for there
   is not one stone of the Temple left standing upon another--"The Lord,
   whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple"

   1. Even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom you delight in: behold, He
   shall come, says the LORD of Hosts. Christ was the great Messenger of
   the Covenant, the Messenger of mercy. And the Lord's own people, even
   in that ancient time, delighted in anticipating the coming of the
   Christ of God, the anointed and appointed Messenger of the Lord of
   Hosts!

   2. But who may abide the day ofHis coming? And who shall stand when He
   appears?For He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap. All
   that only looked like religion, but was not real and genuine was purged
   away at His coming. He was like a refiner's fire, consuming the false
   pretensions of the Pharisees and the vain boastings of the Scribes.
   There is, in the religion of Jesus Christ, a power that is a great
   purgative and a great refiner!

   3. And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. Christ comes
   suddenly, but He comes to stay. "He shall sit." If He comes into our
   heart at this moment--and He may come there suddenly--He will come to
   stay there and He will sit there "as a refiner and purifier of silver."

   3. And He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and
   silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
   Those men called to holy service shall offer unto the Lord offerings in
   righteousness after He has cleansed and purified them. You cannot
   worship God rightly until you have been cleansed by Christ. Till then,
   you are like priests with defiled feet, unfit to come into the
   sanctuary of God. But when Christ has purified you, fail not to draw
   near to God and to present your thanks offering to Him.

   4, 5. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto
   the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will
   come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the
   sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and
   against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and
   the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and
   fear not Me, says the Lord of Hosts. See how hard taskmasters are put,
   by Divine Inspiration, with sorcerers, and adulterers, and false
   swearers? They do not think badly of themselves, but the Lord thinks
   badly of them! And His judgment is always just.

   6. For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not
   consumed. This is their comfort--even the Immutability of God is on the
   side of His people! He is just and always just! He hates sin and always
   hates sin! Yet that unchangeableness of His is always on the side of
   the people of His choice!

   7. Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from My
   ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return
   unto you, says the LORD of Hosts. You wanderers from God, take this
   invitation home to your hearts and act upon it! Arise and return unto
   your Father, for when you are yet a great way off, He will see you and
   will run to meet you, and have compassion upon you--"Return unto Me,
   and I will return unto you, says the Lord of Hosts."

   7. But you said, Wherein shall we return?God takes notice of what men
   say to Him after He has spoken to them. He will take notice of what you
   say when you go out of this House of Prayer. Erring men usually have
   something to say for themselves. The self-righteous can always invent
   some excuse, or ask some question, as they did here--"Wherein shall we

   return?"

   8. Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. They were always ready
   to deny or question a just accusation, instead of letting it operate
   upon their conscience, so they asked about this charge.

   8. But you say, Wherein have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings.
   They had kept back from God's service the money which was necessary for
   the carrying on of the worship of His house. We read, in Nehemiah
   13:10, that "the Levites and the singers that did the work, were fled,
   everyone, to his field," for they could not live at Jerusalem because
   "the portions of the Levites had not been given them"--their supply of
   provisions having been stopped through the meanness of the people who
   had thus robbed the Lord "in tithes and offerings."

   9. You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed Me, even this whole
   nation. They could not make out why they were so poor and why they
   could not get on! The real reason was that there was a curse resting
   upon all that they did because they had robbed God.

   10. Bringyou all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat
   in My house, andprove Me now herewith, says the LORD of Hosts, if I
   will not open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing
   that there shall not be room enough to receive it. They had kept
   themselves poor by their own meanness! If they had behaved rightly
   towards God, He would have enriched them with the bounties of His
   Providence. The very windows of Heaven would have been thrown open to
   give them abundance for all their needs.

   11. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not
   destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her
   fruit before the time in the field, says the LORD of Hosts. The locust
   and the caterpillar came up and ate their harvests--all because God was
   angry with them--and He alone could change their miserable
   circumstances.

   12. And all nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a
   delightsome land, says the LORD of Hosts. God is able, simply with a
   turn of His hand, or a glance of His eyes, to enrich or to impoverish.
   He gives in a thousand ways that we cannot control and He takes from us
   in as many ways which perhaps we cannot understand. It is always best
   to be right with God.

   13-15. Your words have been harsh against Me, says the LORD. Yetyou
   say, What have we spoken so much against You? You have said, It is vain
   to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance,
   and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of Hosts? And now we
   call the proud happy; yes, they that work wickedness are set up;yes,
   they that tempt God are even delivered. Those were indeed bad old times
   when the mass of the people looked only to their own temporal comfort!
   When they saw the wicked become rich, they wished that they were
   wicked, too, in order that they might be rich. They thought that it was
   of no use to serve God! But happily there was another set of people in
   the land, as there always is, more or less. God never leaves Himself
   without witnesses--and when the wicked are proudest, God's people are
   often boldest.

   16. Then. At that very time--

   16. They that feared the LORD spoke often, one to another. They could
   not bear to hear their God thus spoken of, so they went to one
   another's houses. They found one another out and talked to one another.

   16. And the Lord listened. He loves to listen to the holy talk of a
   holy people. "The Lord listened."

   16. And heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for
   them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon His name. That is a
   very precious expression. You cannot, perhaps, speak much for the Lord,
   yet you think the more about Him--and God remembers those who think
   upon His name. Yet, often, thinking leads to speaking and there ought
   to be no speaking without previous thought! God loves to listen to the
   thoughtful conversation of a loving people who stand true to Him in the
   midst of an ungodly crowd--and He thinks very highly of them.

   17. And they shall be Mine, says the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I
   make up Myjewels. "Others, who thought much of themselves, shall be
   thrown away like worthless pebbles, but these faithful ones shall be
   Mine in that day when I am putting My jewels into My crown, for they
   shall be precious in My sight."

   17. And I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.
   When the sword of the enemy is drawn from its sheath. When disease is
   putting down its myriads. When God's vengeance has laid hold upon the
   ungodly He will be a hiding place for His people and will care for them
   as a man would anxiously care, not only for his son, but for his only
   son, one who is obedient and faithful to his father--"his own son that
   serves him."

   18. Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the
   wicked. Not now, but then--by-and-by there shall be a distinguishing
   mark set upon all mankind! "Then shall you return, and discern between
   the righteous and the wicked."

   18. Between him that serves God and he that serves Him not

   Malachi 4:1, 2. For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven,
   and all the proud, yes, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and
   the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of Hosts, that it
   shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you. Here is the
   difference, "But unto you."

   2. That fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise. Not like a
   scorching and burning oven as the sun of the heavens is in the East,
   but He shall arise!

   2. With healing in His wings and you shall go forth, and grow up as
   calves of the stall All is right with those who are right with God!

   3-6. And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under
   the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the LORD
   ofHosts. Remember you the Law ofMoses My servant, which I commanded
   unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes andjudgments.
   Behold, I willsendyou Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great
   and dreadful day of the LORD: and He shall turn the heart of the
   fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their father,
   lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. The Old Testament ends
   with the mutterings of a curse, but the New Testament begins with a
   message of blessing concerning the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus
   Christ! What a mercy to come from under the Old Covenant unto the New!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Right Kind of Fear

   (No. 2971)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 2, 1876.

   "Happy is the mam who fears always." Proverbs 28:14.

   BUT did not John say that "fear has torment"? Then how can he be happy
   who has fear--and especially he who has it always?Did not John also say
   that "perfect love casts out fear"? How is it, then, that he is happy
   in whom love is not made perfect, if it true that the fear which John
   meant is left in it? Dear Friends, the explanation is that the word,
   "fear," is used in different senses--and both Solomon and John are
   right! Neither is there any conflict between their two statements.
   There is a fear which perfect love casts out because it has torment.
   That is the slavish fear which trembles before God as a criminal
   trembles before the judge--the fear which mistrusts, suspects and has
   no confidence in God-- the fear which, therefore, keeps us away from
   God, causes us to dread the thought of drawing near to Him and makes us
   say, like the fool to whom the Psalmist refers, "No God." Many of you
   know what this kind of fear is, for you once suffered from it--though I
   trust you are now delivered from it by faith in Christ Jesus and by the
   love which the Spirit of God has worked in your hearts.

   There is also another sort of fear which springs out of this slavish
   fear--and which is to be equally shunned, namely a fear which leads to
   the apprehension that something evil is about to happen. There are many
   persons who have so little faith in God that they fear that the trials
   which will sooner or later overtake them, will also overthrow them.
   They are afraid of a certain form of suffering that threatens
   them--they fear that they will not have patience enough to bear up
   under it. They feel sure that their spirit will sink in their sickness.
   Above all, they are dreadfully afraid to die. They have not yet
   believed that God will be with them when they pass through the Valley
   of Death and, because they cannot trust Him, they are all their
   lifetime subject to bondage! They cannot say that all things work
   together for good to them.And they often say, as poor old Jacob
   mistakenly said, "All these things are against me." And so they go on,
   fearing this and fearing that, and fearing the other, and their life is
   spent, to a great extent, in sorrow and sighing. May the Lord
   graciously deliver any of you who are in that condition!

   That is a kind of fear from which the true Believer is free. He knows
   that whatever happens, God will overrule it for the good of His chosen.
   "He shall not to afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting
   in the Lord." Resignation to the Divine will has made him feel that
   whatever the Lord wills is right--he does not seek to have his own
   will, but he is glad to make God's will his will--and so he is
   perfectly satisfied with all that comes. God save you, my Brothers and
   Sisters in Christ, from all fear of a slavish sort! Above all, no
   Christian ought to have any fear which would bring dishonor upon the
   truthfulness, the goodness, the Immutability, or the power of God. To
   doubt His promise--to suppose that He will not make it good--this is,
   indeed, a fear which has torment. To doubt God's faithfulness--to
   suppose that He can ever forget His children, that His mercy can be
   withdrawn from them, or that He will be favorable to them no more--this
   also is wrong. To doubt the perseverance of the saints, when God's Word
   has so plainly declared that He will keep their feet and will perfect
   the work which He has begun in them--indeed, to doubt anythingthat has
   the Inspired Scriptures to support it--and to tremble in any way when
   your trembling arises out of a suspicion that God may change, or cease
   to be faithful to His promises and faithful to His Son--all that kind
   of fearing is to be cast far from us!

   But, dear Friends, there is another fear that ought to be
   cultivated--the reverential fear which the holy angels feel when they
   worship God and behold His Glory--that gracious fear which makes them
   veil their faces with their wings as they adore the Majesty on high!
   There is also the loving fear which every true, right-hearted child has
   towards its

   father--a fear of grieving so tender a parent--a proper feeling of
   dread which makes it watch its every footstep, lest, in the slightest
   degree, it should deviate from the path of absolute obedience. May God
   graciously grant to us much of this kind of fear!

   Then there is a holy fear of ourselves which makes us shun the very
   thought of self-reliance--which weans us equally from
   self-righteousness and self-confidence--and which makes us feel that we
   shall surely fall unless the Lord shall continually hold us up and that
   we shall certainly die unless He shall sustain our spiritual life. This
   fear of our ourselves--the fear of sinning against God--is a fear which
   we ought always to cherish and, concerning which the text says, "Happy
   is the man who fears always."

   I have taken this topic for a special reason. You know that we have
   recently had a great deal of preaching of "Believe! Believe! Believe!"
   and I have very heartily joined in the evangelistic services which have
   been held. We have also had a great deal of singing about full
   assurance--and we have had a little chattering about perfection, or
   something wonderfully like it. As far as I can make it out and as I put
   all these things together, I cannot help being afraid that there will
   be a great growth of the mushrooms ofpresumption! With warm days and
   damp days, and with everything tending to make vegetation luxurious, we
   may expect to see an abundant crop of poisonous fungi growing
   up--noxious agarics, toadstools and I know not what besides! They will
   come up in a night, but they may not be destroyed in a night. And they
   will be a great nuisance and possibly worse than that. So I want to
   speak in such a way that we may all be led to do some sincere
   heart-searching and to commend to you the cherishing of an anxious fear
   lest, perhaps, all that glitters should not prove to be gold, and lest
   much of that which looks like wheat should, at the last, turn out to be
   tares.

   I. My first observation shall be that THERE IS, AFTER ALL, VERY GRAVE
   CAUSE FOR FEAR. Otherwise,

   Solomon would not have been inspired to write, "Happy is the man who
   fears always."

   There is cause for fear, dear Brothers and Sisters who love the Lord,
   because corruption still remains in us. In the best man or woman here,
   there is still the old flesh that lusts against the Spirit--that flesh
   which is in constant enmity to the Spirit and will never be reconciled
   to it. If that flesh keeps quiet for a time, it is there all the while,
   just as a lion is still a lion even when he is lying hidden in his den.
   He only needs some dark hour to come and he will rush forth from his
   den. So is it with the flesh which still lurks within us. When a man
   imagines that all his corruptions are gone, that is no proof that he is
   rid of them, but only that he does not really know his true condition,
   for, if God were but to lift the veil that covers his eyes and let him
   see the great deeps of sin that are in his nature, he would soon
   discover that he has grave cause for fear--and he would be driven to
   cry out to God, "Oh, keep me, I beseech You, or else I shall commit
   spiritual suicide! I must and shall become like the vilest of apostates
   unless Your Sovereign Grace shall hold me on my way."

   There is also cause for fear, my Brothers and Sisters, if you look
   around at the world in which we live. This vile world has not changed
   its character--it is no more a friend to Divine Grace than it was in
   the days of the early Christians. It was a difficult thing to be a
   Christian in the days of Diocletian and the other persecuting Roman
   emperors, but I sometimes think that it is an even more difficult thing
   to be a Christian now! To be a soldier under Hannibal and to fight
   bravely when crossing the Alps must have been a difficult task, but it
   was far more trying for the soldiers when they reached sunny Italy and
   their holiday amusements destroyed the discipline of the army. The
   Christian camp, at the present time, seems to be pitched in a sunny
   plain where all the surrounding influences bend to relax the sinews of
   the warriors--and to take away their strength. It is hard to keep to
   the narrow way when the broad road runs so near to it that sometimes
   they seem to be one! The time was when the broad road was so distinct
   from the narrow one that we could easily discern who was travelling to
   Heaven and who was going to Hell. But now the devil has engineered the
   broad road so very close up to the side of the narrow way that there
   are many people who manage to walk on both of them--they were never so
   pleased as when they could first take a little turn on the narrow road
   and then, afterwards, take another turn on the broad one.

   Let us never imitate Mr. Facing-Both-Ways, but let us walk only in the
   narrow way that leads unto life, whatever it may cost us to do so. You
   must be in a very singular position if you never have any temptations.
   Indeed, I should not be surprised to learn, if you live where you have
   no temptations, that you are undergoing a worse trial than temptation,
   itself, would be! In such a place as that you are very likely to get
   stagnant. The very pleasantness of the situation may put you off your
   guard and you will not live so near to God as you would have done if
   your surroundings had seemed to be more opposed to your growth in
   Grace. There is cause for fear, then, when all around us there is an
   enemy behind every

   bush, a temptation lurking in every joy and a devil hiding himself
   under every table--when, as old Francis Quarles used to say--

   "The close pursuer's busy hands do plant

   Snares in your substance; snares attend your need;

   Snares in your credit, snares in your disgrace;

   Snares in your high estate, snares in your base.

   Snares tuck your bed and snares surround your board;

   Snares watch your thoughts and snares attach your word.

   Snares in your quiet, snares in your commotion--

   Snares in your diet, snares in your devotion!

   Snares lurk in your resolves, snares in your doubt

   Snares lie within your heart and snares without.

   Snares are above your head, and snares beneath

   Snares in your sickness, snares are in your death." Besides that, dear
   Friends--in addition to having a store of dry tinder within our heart
   and showers of sparks falling near us--besides having a great heap of
   gunpowder within our nature and being constantly exposed to the fires
   that burn all around us--we must remember that there is such a thing as
   self-deception in the world. This is a great and a common danger. Do
   you not yourselves know some who have been self-deceived? I have had a
   wide experience in watching over the souls of others--and many persons
   have come under my notice who have thought themselves Christians--but I
   have often wondered how they could think so! I have seen that in their
   lives which has led me to feel sure--as sure as one man can feel
   concerning another--that the Grace of God could not be in them! Yet
   they have not had any doubt or suspicion concerning their Christianity.
   Now, Brothers and Sisters, do you not know some people like that? Well,
   then, is it not possible that the judgment which you have formed
   concerning them is the very same that others have formed concerning
   you? And perhaps that judgment is true.

   There have been great preachers who have been very eloquent men and God
   has even condescended to use them in His service, yet, afterwards it
   has been discovered that they were living in gross sin all the while
   that they were preaching holiness to others. If that has been the case
   with only one preacher, might it not also be the case with me? Have you
   never heard of church members who have come regularly to the Communion
   Table and been very prominent in the work of the church--and apparently
   leading the way in all good things yet, after all--they were rotten to
   the core? They had made a mistake altogether--unless they had willfully
   deceived others instead of themselves--in professing to be Christ's
   people at all. Well, then, if some have acted like that, may not you do
   the same? I do not wish to say anything unpleasant merely for the sake
   of making you feel uncomfortable, but I want you to remember that my
   text says, "Happy is the man who fears always."

   Sometimes to examine the foundation on which we are building for
   eternity, to look into the profession which we have made, to see
   whether it will stand the wear and tear of daily life and to judge
   whether it will be likely to endure the test of our dying day--and the
   still sterner test of the Day of Judgment--is a wise occupation for
   every one of us. The man who dares not have his ship examined is the
   man who knows that some of the timbers are rotten! And if you do not
   like being examined, you are the very men who ought to put yourself
   through that process without a moment's delay, obeying the injunctions
   of the Apostle, "Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith;
   prove yourselves. Know you not yourselves, how that Jesus Christ is in
   you, except you be reprobates?"

   There is also great cause for fear, because some Christians have been
   "saved, yet so as by fre" Oh, with what difficulty have some of God's
   ships entered the eternal harbor! They have lost their masts, the deck
   has been swept clear of everything, they have been well-near abandoned
   as derelict! And if it had not been that the eternal Grace of God had
   ensured the safety of the vessels, they would have drifted away to
   destruction and gone to the bottom of the sea. And what tugging there
   has been to get some souls into Heaven! Do you not know some of that
   sort? I saw one, not long ago. I had highly esteemed him at one time
   but, from what I learned afterwards, I saw how little cause there was
   in him for my esteem. He had professed to be a child of God, but he was
   weeping and wailing and asking whether there was any hope for him. As a
   contrast to such a sad case, I may say that I have stood by the
   bedsides of many others and have learned from them lessons that I can
   never forget--for they have told me something of the joys of Heaven by
   the very glances of their eyes and the wondrous words which have fallen
   from their lips--often more full of poetry than poetry itself! They
   have seemed to be Inspired and to be favored with visions of the
   hereafter as they have looked through the veil which had become so thin
   to them.

   But I have also seen some such as the one I mentioned just now, who
   have not lived near to God, who have neglected prayer, who have done
   but little service for Christ--and when they have come to die, they
   have been "saved, yet so as by fire." They have had to come, in their
   last moments, without any comfort or hope, without any joy in the Lord
   and cry, "What must we do to be saved?"--just as though they had never
   known the way of salvation, although they have been professors for
   years! Instead of having an abundant entrance into Heaven, they have
   just been saved and no more.

   Now, you and I do not want to have such an experience as that and,
   therefore, let us always fear lest we should get into such a state of
   heart that this should be our case. Let us fear lest we lose communion
   with God. Let us fear lest we misuse any Grace which the Holy Spirit
   has given to us. Let us fear lest we become fruitless and unprofitable.
   Let us fear lest we lose the light of Jehovah's Countenance. If we do
   so fear, we shall understand what Solomon meant when he wrote, "Blessed
   is the man who fears always."

   II. Now, secondly, I want to prove to you that THE MAN WHO DOES SO FEAR
   IS A HAPPY MAN. I will show you that by a few contrasts.

   The word, "happy," in our text may not exactly mean that the man enjoys
   happiness just now, but that he is really happy. He has the root of
   true happiness in him and he will have the fruit in due time. Now, here
   are two men. One of them says, "I am a child of God. I have had a very
   deep experience. I know all the Doctrines of Grace, blessed be God, and
   I feel that I am thoroughly confirmed in Christian habits. I may be
   tempted to sin, but I shall be able to resist the temptation." Take a
   good look at that man, so that you will know him when you see him
   again. With a formal prayer he leaves his bedroom in the morning and he
   goes forth to his business, perfectly satisfied with himself whatever
   may happen. Here is another man. He says, "I believe I am a child of
   God, for I have trusted in Jesus Christ as my Savior and I know that I
   am safe in His hands. But I dare not trust myself. I feel that unless
   He shall hold me up all through this day, I may, by my words, or my
   actions, bring dishonor upon His holy name and I tremble lest I should
   do so." Look at him kneeling down there by his bedside and hear how
   earnestly he pleads with God. His prayer is something like this, "O
   Lord, I am as helpless as a little child. Hold You me up, or I shall
   surely fall! I am like a lamb going out among wolves. O Lord, preserve
   me!" Now, which of the two do you regard as the really happy man? The
   happiness of the two men may, to a superficial observer, appear to be
   about equal, but which happiness would you prefer to have? I say--and I
   think most of you will agree with me--God save me from the so-called
   happiness which is careless and prayerless--and give me that holy fear
   which often drives me to my knees and makes me cry to God to keep me!

   Well, now, night has come on and the two men have reached their homes.
   Neither of them has fallen into any gross sin during the day. They have
   both been preserved from that evil. One of them retires to his bed
   after a few sentences of formal prayer, with no life or earnestness in
   it, and no expression of his gratitude to God. And he soon falls asleep
   in perfect contentment with himself. The other man looks carefully over
   all that has happened during the day, for he is afraid lest he may have
   sinned against God even unconsciously. And he takes notice of things
   which the other man does not think anything of and he says, "Lord, I
   fear that I erred there, and that I failed there. Forgive Your child
   and help me to do better in the future." Then he says, "I thank You,
   Lord, that You have kept me, by Your Grace, from being surprised by
   sudden temptation and You have enabled me to honor Your name, at least
   in some degree. I give all the glory for this to You and now, my Lord--

   "'Sprinkled afresh with pardoning blood, I lay me down to rest, In the
   embraces of my God, Or on my Savor's breast

   Now, which is the happy man of these two? I know which I should like to
   be--the man who is so fearful and so full of trembling that he wonders
   that he has not fallen--and who is sometimes almost afraid that he has
   and who, therefore, walks humbly before his God. Is he not infinitely
   to be preferred to the other man who thinks it is a matter of course
   that he shall always stand and who has no qualms of conscience about
   what he calls little faults? You may rest assured that the seeds of
   untold misery are already sown in that man's heart!

   Think of these two men under another aspect. Imagine that they are
   sailors out at sea. One of them is well aware that a certain course is
   very dangerous. Some captains have been able to take it and have made
   "a short cut" by doing so, and he decides that he will take that
   course. He can see that his vessel is bound to go near some very
   ugly-looking rocks and among a number of sharp ledges where many others
   have been wrecked. But he is a bold, daredevil sort of fellow--he
   believes that all will be right and he has no fear. But here is the
   other captain and he says, "My motto is to keep as far away from danger
   as I possibly can. I know that in fair weather that passage may be
   safe, but then I cannot reckon on fair weather. I may be caught in a
   fog and not know where I am. Or a terrible storm may come on and drive
   me where I do not wish to go. I shall, therefore, take the longer
   course which is also the safer course." Now, in which of these two
   vessels would you like to sail? And which of the two captains do you
   esteem to be that happy man? Of course you say the second one! We
   admire courage, but we do not admire foolhardiness--and the Christian
   who seeks to steer clear of temptation, who endeavors to be precise and
   exact in his mode of living so as not to go near to sin, but to avoid
   it--and keep away from it must be judged to be, in the best sense of
   the word, a happier man than the one who courts temptation and
   heedlessly rushes into a position of peril!

   Look at the difference between what these two men regard as happiness.
   The one who was not afraid said, "Why should I fear? Am I not getting
   to be an old-established Christian? Have I not resisted temptation for
   such a long while that I need not fear it now? I feel that I may do
   what young people may not do--it would too dangerous for them, but it
   will never hurt me." So he talked, but look at him now! He has become
   so fond of the drunkard's cup that he was seen reeling through the
   streets, or else he has been so enchanted by the lusts of the flesh
   that he has committed himself fatally. Or it may be that he was
   strongly tempted to make money very quickly--and quick money-making and
   honesty never go together except by a very extraordinary system of
   circumstances! But this man thought it would end all right and that he
   would make a great haul, so he asked the devil to help him throw the
   net in just that once--and now he has got into the clutches of the law,
   and his name--the name of a man who once made a profession of
   religion--is bracketed with that of other rogues and vagabonds!

   But now look at the timid man--the man who said, "I know that I shall
   never be intoxicated if I never take anything that is intoxicating. I
   know that I shall not be a thief if I never take anybody's money but my
   own. I know that if I never indulge even in indelicate expressions, if
   I never think of or look at anything that is impure, I shall not be
   likely to go in that evil way which I utterly abhor." That is the man
   who is both safe and happy! "The man who fears always." Some people
   call him a milksop and say that he has not spirit enough to do as
   others do--but just look at him. He can go in and out of the House of
   God as an honorable Christian, while the other one, of whom I have told
   you, is a moral wreck and his name is a by-word and a reproach! I can
   bear my testimony that I have seen high professors so act as to become
   a stench in our nostrils and, on the other hand, I have seen poor,
   timid girls who were half afraid they were hypocrites, and poor
   trembling men who used to come to me for comfort and counsel, lest they
   should be deceiving themselves. I have seen many of the latter class
   enter the Port of Glory like ships in full sail coming into the
   harbor--while those other vessels, with their painted hulls that seemed
   to tempt a shot from the enemy--have gone to the bottom and they have
   been lost to us, and lost to themselves!

   Now I will suppose that both these men whom I have been describing,
   have fallen into a certain sin. See what a difference there is between
   them now! The man who has not any fear says, "Well, yes, there is no
   doubt that I did wrong, but then"--and he begins telling all about the
   circumstances under which he says that he was "overtaken." He tries to
   make out that he was an innocent victim who was deceived by somebody
   else. Now listen to "the man who fears always." "Ah," he says, "I have
   sinned." And he hangs his head in shame and then adds, "I have no
   excuse to make and you cannot say anything to me that will be half so
   heavy and so hard as what I say to myself. God will forgive me, I have
   no doubt, for I have truly repented, but I can never forgive myself."
   The first man has dry eyes and a proud, defiant spirit. And it is very
   likely that, having committed that one great sin, he will go on and
   commit another--and yet another--and continually get harder and harder
   in his heart, yet all the while talk about being one of God's elect who
   will be saved at the last.

   Well now, that man is not a happy man. I pray that none of us may ever
   experience the wretchedness of having a seared conscience and get into
   a state of indifference in which we can trifle with sin and yet pretend
   to be the servants of God. But, oh, if we dofall into sin, may the Lord
   make us very tender about it! Let this be our prayer-- "Quick as the
   apple of an eye, O Lord, my conscience make! Wake my soul, when sin is
   near, And keep it still awake."

   Dear Brothers and sisters, may you, by God's Grace, be preserved from
   sin! But if sin should come upon you unawares, may your bones be broken
   by it and may you feel that your very heart is wounded because you have
   wounded your God! To repent of sin is one of the hallmarks of a
   Christian, but to have a hardened, untrembling heart is one of the sure
   marks of the reprobate who is far off from God!

   I might thus continue to show you, by a hundred contrasts, that the man
   who fears always is the really happy man. Suppose that we are fishing
   and that we have cast our lines into the water. There is one fish that
   is altogether afraid of our bait and of all our arrangements--and he
   swims as far as ever he can up or down the stream away from us. But
   here are some fish that are quite charmed with our worm. They say that
   they do not mean to swallow the hook, but we do not believe them. They
   say that they mean to get the worm off without letting the hook catch
   hold of them. They have very clever ways of sucking worms off hooks and
   they are going to show what they can do--and soon they are caught. But
   happy is the fish that fears the bait as well as the hook, and so keeps
   right away from both of them! When some of us were boys, we used to set
   traps for the sparrows and other birds in winter time and we would
   watch to see them go in to eat our crumbs inside the trap. Sometimes
   there would come a bird that had seen our arrangement before and had
   been almost caught in it and knew all about it. Well, as soon as ever
   he looked at it, he made up his mind that he would give our trap a very
   wide berth, so he flew away as far as he could. But there were some
   other birds that would come and look at the trap and even perch on
   it--and presently some of them would get into it. Of course they did
   not mean to be caught! They thought they knew the way to go just far
   enough into the trap to get those grains of wheat and then to fly
   out--but once in, they could not fly out.

   And sinners are just as foolish as those sparrows! Of course they do
   not mean to be caught! They will fly out of the trap all right when
   they have eaten the wheat! Yes, but I say, happy is the bird that fears
   always, and that keeps far off the trap--and unhappy is the bird that
   thinks it can go just so far into the trap, but fully intends to go no
   further. Oh, how many young men and young women have been ruined
   because they have gone just so far into sin, meaning to stop there! But
   they could not stop there--they began to slide and the ice carried them
   along where they never meant to go. The only safe plan is to keep off
   the ice altogether. If you do not take the first wrong step, dear
   Friend, you will not take the second! And if Divine Grace makes you
   fear and tremble before you begin to go down the hill, you are not
   likely to be found among those who have fallen to the bottom. Happy is
   the man, in this sense, who fears always.

   III. But I must pass on to notice, in the third place, that THE MAN WHO
   HAS THIS FEAR IN HIS HEART WILL DO WELL TO HAVE IT THERE
   CONTINUALLY--"Happy is the man who fears ALWAYS."

   Have this fear concerning your holy things. For instance, when you come
   up to God's House to worship, be afraid, as you are coming along, lest
   you should be only a lip-server and get no blessing. If you are afraid
   of that happening, it will not happen. And when you are sitting in your
   pew, say to yourself, "Now, it is possible for me to become a mere
   formalist in worship and I may be listening to the Word of God with my
   ears, yet not receiving it into my heart. I am sorely afraid lest it
   should be so." Brothers and Sisters, it will not be so if you are
   afraid that it will be! And when the service is over, say to yourself,
   "I am afraid that I did not worship God in spirit and in truth as I
   should have done. I fear that I did not praise Him, or pray to Him with
   my whole heart as I ought to have done. O Lord, pardon the iniquity of
   my holy things!"

   I do not think any man ever preached as he ought to have preached if he
   is satisfied with his own efforts. I sometimes feel thankful to God for
   the feeling of dissatisfaction that possesses me every time I preach. I
   often feel, as I am going home, that I should like to go back and try
   to do it so much better--I do not mean better in an oratorical way, but
   pressing the Truth of God home to men's hearts more earnestly and more
   simply. I think that in this sense it is right that we should fear
   always. Ah, my dear young Brother in the College, you are afraid that
   you will become cold-hearted, but you never will as long as you cherish
   such a fear as that! If you are afraid that you will, by-and-by, preach
   in a perfunctory, official manner, you will not fall into that bad
   habit if you live in dread of doing so. If you are afraid that you will
   not set a good example to your people, I believe that you will set them
   a good example. But if you ever feel, "Oh, I can preach and practice,
   too--I am all right," it may happen that God will rebuke your pride and
   let you see--and

   perhaps let your enemies see--what a poor fool you are! Blessed is the
   man who, in his holy things, fears always--the man who is afraid when
   he is alone on his knees, lest he should not pray rightly--the man who
   is afraid lest, either in public or in private, he should act the
   hypocrite before his God!

   And happy is the man who has this holy fear in his own house--the man
   who says, "I am afraid lest I should not act as a Christian father
   ought to act towards his children, or as a Christian husband should act
   towards his wife." Other members of the household may say, "I fear lest
   I should not be such a wife, or such a child, or such a servant, or
   such a master as I ought to be." These are the people who usually are
   what they should be--those who are afraid that they are not! Those who
   are the most anxious lest they should fail are generally those who do
   not fail.

   And I would like you also to be anxious in your business, for fear lest
   you should in any way take advantage of anybody--lest, in the measure,
   or in the weight, or in the price, or in the invoice, these should be
   any mistake which would unjustly benefit you. The man who is afraid of
   anything like that will be an honest tradesman, you may rest assured of
   that! As for the servant or the workman who is afraid that he will not
   give a fair day's work for a fair day's wage, and the employer who is
   afraid that he will not give his servant or workman as much as he ought
   to give him--I can only say that I wish we had many more of that sort
   of men than we already have, though I know a good many of that sort. If
   we are afraid of wronging one another and not loving our neighbor as
   ourselves, that is a healthy kind of fear-- and the more we have of it,
   the more happy we shall be!

   And if, perhaps, there should not seem to be in yourself any special
   cause for this fear just now--though "let him who thinks he stands take
   heed lest he fall"--then begin to be afraid for the church of which you
   are a member. This is a fear which is always resting heavily upon
   me--the fear lest we should lose our earnestness in prayer--lest we
   should not care as much as we ought for the souls of men--lest the
   members of our church should grow worldly--lest we should become cold
   and indifferent towards our dear Lord and Master. Never lose this
   wholesome kind of fear concerning this church and your fellow members,
   or concerning any other church with which you are connected.

   Then, have a solemn fear about your own children,lest, possibly, you
   should not have trained them up as you should have done, or should not
   have prayed for them as you should have done, or lest your own example
   should not have been such as they could safely follow. Be afraid for
   your children, as Job was for his. When they met together to feast, he
   "offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job
   said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their
   hearts." The man who is thus afraid that things may be wrong is the man
   who is most likely to keep everything right. Many a man who becomes a
   bankrupt is so largely because he does not examine his books. He says
   that he does not like looking into his books--they are very unpleasant
   literature to him--and he never sees to the details of his affairs
   himself. He leaves this to John, and that to Thomas, and the other to
   one clerk and something else to another. And then one day he wakes up
   to find that everything has gone to smash! Do not let it be so in your
   household, or in your temporal affairs, or in your spiritual concerns,
   but look into everything yourself and watch everything carefully, for,
   in this way, by fearing always, you will be both safe and happy in the
   hands of God.

   IV. Now, lastly, THERE ARE SOME WHO HAVE, INDEED, VERY GRAVE CAUSE TO
   FEAR.

   There are some of my Hearers at this service--I am glad that they are
   here--who, I am afraid, have cause to fear in a far deeper sense than
   that in which I have used my text. Some of you are not saved--you know
   you are not. You have never had your sins forgiven, you have never
   sought and found mercy through the atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
   God's only-begotten Son. And some of you are very ill--you were only
   just able to get here tonight. What? So ill as that, yet with no Savior
   to help you? Sick, well-near unto death, yet without a Savior? Likely
   to die soon, for you are consumptive, yet you have no Savior? Let me
   appeal to you, my dear Friend, is this wise? Can you afford to run such
   a terrible risk? Why, the healthy may die at any moment, but as for
   you, death is already at your door! So, surely you cannot afford to
   trifle with eternal things.

   And some of you are getting old, yet you are not saved. Sixty years of
   age, and not saved? Seventy, eighty, and not saved? What are you doing?
   A man told me, the other day, that he would not come to hear me again,
   for, he said, "The last time I came, you called me an old fool." Why
   was that? I asked. "Why," he replied, "you said that an old sinner was
   an old fool." So I said to him, "Are you an old sinner, then? Because
   if you are, you are an old fool!" And he could not deny it, for we are
   all fools till we are saved by Jesus Christ! A man must be a fool to
   run the risk of losing his immortal soul! I have heard that a man once
   went up to the top of the spire of Salisbury Cathedral and stood on his
   head. What do you think he was? "A fool," you say. Yes, so he was--yet
   he only risked his neck--but you are risking your soul's eternal
   welfare, risking the loss of Heaven and running a terrible risk of
   going to Hell forever! O Friend, is this wise? You know it is not and
   that I am only speaking the truth when I tell you that you are a
   fool--and one of the worst of fools!

   O Sirs, if you are not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are
   standing over the mouth of Hell, upon a single plank and that plank is
   rotten! You are hanging over the jaws of Perdition by a single hair and
   that hair is snapping! I looked down my well, this afternoon, as a man
   was going down it to do some necessary work, and I said to him, "Oh, do
   be careful! Pray be very careful!" I felt such dread upon me lest,
   possibly, the man should fall while he was going down that great depth
   into which I looked till it made me giddy--and I cannot bear to think
   of some of you, who are in far greater danger, for you are hanging over
   the mouth of Hell with only a rotten rope to hold to! Some of you may
   be in Hell within a week. I cannot guarantee that any one of you will
   live ten minutes longer. All the physicians in the world would not be
   able to guarantee to any one individual that he should live even for
   five minutes! You are always liable to death and in danger of the wrath
   to come. Therefore, escape for your lives, I entreat you!

   And meanwhile I would put you in fear about this matter, that, through
   this fear, you may be driven to the only place of safety, even to Jesus
   Christ, who was lifted up upon the Cross and now is exalted on high a
   Prince and a Savior! There is life in Him! There is life for you at
   this moment if you will only trust in Him! There is pardon for you now
   if you will only believe in Him!
     __________________________________________________________________

Forgiveness

   (No. 2972)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 25,1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE
   21, 1863.

   "But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared." Psalm
   130:4.

   How significant is that word, "but," in our text! It is as if you heard
   Justice clamoring, "Let the sinner die," and the fiends in Hell
   howling, "Cast him down into the fires," and Conscience shrieking, "Let
   him perish," and Nature, itself, groaning beneath his weight, the earth
   weary with carrying him, the sun tired with shining upon the traitor,
   the very air sick with finding breath for one who only spends it in
   disobedience to God! The man is about to be destroyed, to be swallowed
   up, when suddenly there comes this thrice-blessed, "but," which stops
   the reckless course of ruin, puts its strong hand, bearing a golden
   shield, between the sinner and destruction and pronounces these words,
   "But there is forgiveness with God, that He may be feared."

   Suppose the question had been left open--forgiveness or no forgiveness?
   We know that we have offended God, but suppose it had been left a moot
   point for us to find out, if possible, whether there was any
   forgiveness? Where could we find it? We might turn to the works of God
   in Nature, and say, "Well, He is good, who loads the trees with fruit
   and bids the fields yield so plenteous a harvest." But when we remember
   how His lightning sometimes strikes the oak and how His hurricanes
   swallow up whole navies in the deep, we shall be ready to say that He
   is terrible as well as tender--and we might be puzzled to know whether
   He would or would not forgive sin, more especially as we see all
   creatures die and no exception made to that rule. If we knew that death
   was a punishment for sin, we should be led to fear that there was no
   forgiveness to be had from the hand of God! But when we turn to this
   open page which God has so graciously written for our instruction, we
   are left in doubt no longer, for here we have it positively declared,
   "There is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared." Exclusively in
   the Bible is this Revelation made, but the words of my text are not
   exclusive. The page is but one among a thousand echoes from the Throne
   of God which proclaim His willingness to save sinners!

   In attempting to bring this great doctrine of the possibility of pardon
   before the mind of the sinner tonight, I shall handle it in two or
   three ways. First, I shall try toprove it is so, that he may be sure of
   the fact I shall then try to attract him to accept this doctrine by
   dwelling upon the pardon, itself, hoping that the Spirit of God may
   work with my words. And before I have done, I shall notice what will be
   the sure result of this pardon--whenever a man has been forgiven
   through the mercy of God, he is then enabled to fear the Lord and to
   worship Him in an able manner.

   I. By way of assurance, O MAN, THERE IS FORGIVENESS FOR YOUR SINS,
   WHATEVER THEY MAY HAVE BEEN! However sinful your life may have been up
   until now, there is forgiveness with God even for you! God's bare Word
   ought to be enough for you, but since the Spirit of God and your
   conscience have shown you something of your sins, and since you will be
   desponding and full of doubts, it will be well for me to give you
   something more than the bare Word of God to make you confident there is
   forgiveness with Him.

   Follow me, I pray you, back to the garden where your parents and mine
   first sinned. It was the greatest sin that was ever committed, with the
   exception of the murder of our Lord and Savior--the sin when Adam
   knowingly and wittingly rebelled against the one gentle command which
   his Master had given him as a sign of his obedience. This was the
   mother-sin from which all other sins have sprung--the well from which
   the great river of iniquity, which drowned the world, first streamed.
   What did the Lord say when this sin was committed? Did He lift His
   angry hand and smite the guilty pair at once? Did He visit our first
   parents with a curse that withered them and sent them down to their
   eternal portion in the Pit? He cursed, but it was the ground. He spoke
   in angry terms, but the serpent felt the weight thereof. As for man,

   though God pronounced a sentence upon him that we call a curse, but
   which has been transformed into a blessing, yet He gave that matchless
   promise which is the mother of all promises, "The Seed of the woman
   shall bruise the serpent's head." In that one single promise that God,
   Himself, would provide a Deliverer by whom the tempter would be
   destroyed and all his craft would be foiled, I see written as clearly
   as with a sunbeam that God meant to have mercy upon me! He would not
   talk about the Seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head if He had
   not intended something comforting for you and for me. The fact, I say,
   that though He did drive our first parents out of Eden, He did not
   drive them down to Hell--that though He did banish them from Paradise,
   He did not immediately consign them to the flames of His wrath--that He
   did, then and there, give them a bright promise which for many a
   hundred years was the only one that covered the thick darkness of the
   Fall--that fact alone should make you hope that there is forgiveness
   with God!

   But what, I pray you, do those many altars with lambs and bullocks
   smoking upon them mean--altars whose unhewn stones are dyed crimson
   with gore? Above all, what does that priestly man, wearing that jeweled
   breastplate, who comes forward in obedience to God and offers every
   morning and evening a lamb, mean? Or what does it mean that once in the
   year he produces a scapegoat which carries the sins of the people into
   the wilderness? What do those rivers of blood and those mounds of ashes
   from the altar mean, if God does not forgive sin? There can be no
   meaning whatever in all the long and gorgeous pageant of the Jewish
   religion unless it taught to every onlooker this great and solemn
   lesson--that though God is just and blood must be shed, yet God is
   gracious and accepts a substitute that the sinner may go free! By all
   those smoking altars, the blood of rams, lambs, goats and bullocks,
   believe, O Sinner, that God has found a Ransom and a Sacrifice and that
   He, therefore, can and will pardon sin!

   If you see these things dimly, here, you will see them more clearly in
   another fact. Do you not know, O man, that God has commanded you to
   repent? The times of former ignorance God winked at, but now He
   commands all men everywhere to repent. What for? Surely He would not
   command us to repent and then intend to punish us afterwards! It could
   not be possible that God would woo sinners to return to Him and yet not
   intend to forgive them! I cannot believe a theory so monstrous as that
   God would send His ministers and send His own Book--and earnestly and
   affectionately invite sinners to turn from their evil ways and repent
   of their sins--and yet intend, even if they did repent, to punish them
   on account of their iniquity! It cannot be!

   Do you not know, too, that God has commanded you to pray for
   forgiveness? What is the meaning of that prayer, "Forgive us our sins,
   as we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us"? Would Christ put
   these words into your mouth if there were no pardon? Would He teach you
   to ask for forgiveness if forgiveness were an impossibility? Does God
   mock men? Does He teach beggars to beg when He intends to refuse? Does
   He bring you down on your knees that He may see you mourn--and laugh at
   your despair? Does He intend to see you rolling in the dust, girt with
   sackcloth and ashes, that He may afterwards put His iron heel upon your
   neck and crush you to the lowest Hell? It is not possible! The God who
   commands you to repent is just and merciful to forgive you your
   sins--and He who has bid you seek His face has not said unto the seed
   of Jacob, "Seek you me in vain."

   Moreover, Sinner--and here we come to something still clearer--do you
   not know that Jesus died? Have you not heard the wondrous story how the
   Son of God came down from Heaven and was made in the likeness of sinful
   flesh? Do you not know that after 30 years of holy life, wherein He
   rendered perfect obedience to the Divine Law and made it honorable, He
   took upon Himself the guilt, the crimes, the iniquities of a multitude
   that no man can number, for He bore the sins of many, and now He makes
   intercession for the transgressors? See there, if you can dare to look
   amidst those moonlit olives where upon the ground there kneels a
   Man--no, more, there kneels Incarnate Deity--what does it mean that His
   head, His hair, His garments are saturated with blood? How came it
   that, on yonder ground, I see great clots of gore--where did they come
   from? Came they from His forehead? But what could have forced them from
   Him? What does yonder sight mean? I watch that Man dragged away and
   charged most infamously with crimes He never knew, tied to a pillar and
   there lashed with a Roman scourge until the white bones stand out like
   islands of ivory amidst a sea of coral-- and His whole back has become
   a stream of blood! What does it all mean?

   And yonder sight where He is stretched upon the transverse wood, where
   the nails have pierced His hands and feet, and where His life goes
   oozing from Him in anguish and extreme agony? What does that shriek of
   "Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani" mean? He is a just Man--does God punish
   the just? He is God's dear Son, and has done no ill--does God hate Him
   and punish Him for nothing? Does He pour wrath upon Him without a
   cause? You know how it was. The sin of

   man was imputed to Christ. The iniquity of His people was laid upon
   Him. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to
   his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." And
   here is the riddle solved--He dies that we may live--

   "He bore that we might never bear, His Father's righteous ire."

   Then there must be forgiveness! I cannot see a bleeding Savior without
   understanding that there must be pardon! Gethsemane, Gabbatha,
   Golgotha--three sacred words, three irresistible arguments by which it
   is proved beyond controversy that there is forgiveness even for the
   chief of sinners!

   But if this contents you not, O troubled Sinner, here is another fact
   for you to reflect upon--what multitudes have already been pardoned!
   Dare you look up yonder beyond the skies? Have you strength of eyesight
   enough to see that multitude clothed in white, who, today, are standing
   before the Throne of God? If there were no forgiveness, not one of them
   had been there! Were their robes always white? Listen to their
   answer--"We have washed our robes, and made them white in the blood of
   the Lamb, therefore are we before the Throne of God." FORGIVENESS
   brought them there! Not one redeemed soul would ever have seen the
   everlasting Glory unless it had been for the pardoning mercy of God--

   "Round the altar priests confess If their robes are white as snow,
   'Twas the Savior's righteousness, And His blood that made them so! Who
   were these? On earth they dwelt Sinners once of Adam's race-- Guilt,
   and fear, and suffering felt, But were saved by Sovereign Grace!" Here
   are scores and hundreds of us who bear witness that God has pardoned
   us! Whatever I may doubt, I dare not doubt my pardon in Christ Jesus.
   There are moments when one has to look well to one's evidences and come
   to Jesus Christ again--but this one thing I know--that Christ says, "He
   that believes on Me is not condemned." And I do believe on Him! If I
   have an existence, I know that I am trusting the Lord Jesus Christ! And
   if so, then I am pardoned. And oh, how sweet it is to know this! What
   peace it gives! I can look forward to living or to dying with equal
   delight now that I can say, "My sin is forgiven." You can say, as I
   often do, in these sweet words of Kent--

   "Now f-eed from sin, I walk at large, My Savior's blood my full
   discharge. At His dear feet my soul I lay, A sinner saved, and homage
   pay." Do you know what it is to be forgiven, young man? If you do not,
   you have not tasted the sweetest thing out of Heaven! Oh, it is such
   joy! Angels hardly have ever tasted a joy that exceeds the bliss of
   having sins put away. It yields a calm so deep, so profound, that it
   can only be called, "the peace of God which passes all understanding."

   I have thus tried to bring forward the great Truth of God that there is
   forgiveness with Him. And let me say, before I leave this point, that
   you will please remember that we have warrant in God's Word for saying
   that there is forgiveness for you. However great your sins may have
   been, with but one exception--there is the sin against the Holy Spirit
   which, if you have any tenderness left in your conscience, you have not
   committed--but, apart from that, "all manner of sin and blasphemy shall
   be forgiven unto men." I wish I could go round these galleries and to
   these pews, and find out where the aching hearts were. Perhaps I would
   find one who said, "O Sir, I never attended a place of worship for 20
   or 30 years-- can I be pardoned?" I would say, "Yes, there is
   forgiveness for you!" Another might say, "Why, I cursed God to His
   face! I have dared Him to damn my soul! Can I really be forgiven?" I
   will answer, in the words of the text, "There is forgiveness."

   And I might meet another who would say, "But I used to persecute my
   wife. I have ill-treated my children because they would serve God. Can
   I, a hardened wretch such as I am--can I be pardoned?" "There is
   forgiveness." And I might meet another who would say, "Years ago, I was
   a high professor, but I became entangled in the world and I have gone
   bad. Am I not cast out?" And I would say, "There is forgiveness." But
   there would be another who would say, "I cannot tell you what my crime
   is. Will you stoop down and let me whisper it in your ear?" And when I
   heard the awful words,

   which I must not tell again, I would still say, before you all, "There
   is forgiveness." And though it were murder or adultery--whatever it
   might have been and however frequently it might have been
   committed--though the woman were a harlot and the man a practiced
   thief, yet still we have the same Gospel for every creature--"There is
   forgiveness." And though you are 80 or 90 years of age, "There is
   forgiveness." Though you have sinned against light and knowledge,
   against mercy, against God and Christ, His dear Son, yet still--"there
   is forgiveness." You have come to the brink of the precipice--O God, I
   see it! You are just going over--one foot already rests upon nothing
   and you totter to your fall! O man, let me catch you in my arms and
   tell you that "there is forgiveness!" One more step and you may be
   where there is no forgiveness, but where the black and terrible pall of
   despair shall hang over your soul forever! And it shall be said of you,
   "There are no acts of pardon passed in that cold grave to which he has
   gone. He is lost! Lost! Lost forever!" II. And now, secondly, I SHALL
   RECOMMEND THIS GRACIOUS FORGIVENESS TO YOUR NOTICE. I commend it for
   its nature. It is a perfect pardon--every sin is blotted out at
   once--not a few sins, but every sin! Though they are innumerable, they
   are all gone, they are all gone at once! And it is eternalpardon--they
   are all gone forever! Once forgiven, they will never be laid to your
   charge again. They are like the Egyptians in the Red Sea--the depths
   have covered them, there is not one of them left--the pardon is
   complete in every respect. I heard one man say of his friend, the other
   day, when the two had disagreed and I had tried to make it right, "Yes,
   I forgive him, but." That is not how God puts it. He has no "buts" in
   His forgiveness. You sometimes say, "Yes, I forgive him, but I will
   never trust him again." Not so the Lord! You make a clean breast in
   confession and He will give you a clean breast by absolution. He will
   put all the sin you have committed so wholly away that they shall not
   be remembered against you any more forever! And this pardon is
   instantaneous. You know that it takes but a moment to receipt a bill
   when the debt is paid--and Jesus Christ has paid the debt of every
   Believer! And all that is to be done is for God to give you the
   receipt, to write in your heart the word, "JUSTIFIED"--and this He does
   in a moment! When I think of the nature of this pardon-- putting away
   all sin in a moment, and all the consequences of sin, I feel as if I
   wish we had a choir of angels here, that they might sing, "Glory to God
   in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men."

   Consider too, dear Friends, not only the pardon, itself, but the person
   to whom it is sent Remember that it is sent to you. Not to the fallen
   angels--they were greater than you but, when they fell, they fell
   without a hope of being restored to the favor of God. It is not sent to
   the damned in Hell. Oh, what would they not give for it? How would they
   stretch forward--how would they catch every word! Though they have been
   there but one moment, they know more of God's wrath than you and I do
   and oh, how they would prize the presentation of eternal life in Christ
   Jesus! It is not sent to them--it is sent to you. You know what you
   have been. You know something about the hardness of your heart and the
   sinfulness of your past life--yet God sends this message to you, "There
   is forgiveness."

   And I want you to remember who it is that sends the forgiveness. It is
   the God whom you have offended--that very God whom you may have cursed,
   whose Sabbath you have broken, whose Book you have despised, at whose
   ministers you have laughed and whose servants you have persecuted! Yet
   He says, even He, "There is forgiveness." And lest you should doubt it,
   He takes a solemn oath before you all--and God never swears unless
   there is need for it, and thus He swears-- "As I live, says the Lord
   God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked
   turn from his way and live." What more can we ask than this? Admire and
   be attracted by the pardon when you think of who it is that sends it!

   Consider, too, how it comes to you, and by what channel It comes
   through the wounds of your best Friend, through the sufferings of Him
   who gave His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that plucked
   off the hair. "He was despised and rejected of men; a Man of Sorrows,
   and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him.
   He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our
   griefs, and carried our sorrows." O Sinner! Will you not be only too
   glad to lay hold of that which comes to you through so Divine a channel
   which is marked with the heart's blood of One who is the Friend of sin
   even unto death?

   And, then, I pray you to remember that if you do not receive this
   forgiveness which is preached unto you, there is no other way under
   Heaven by which you can be saved. Enter by this door or stand shivering
   outside forever! Bow the knee and kiss the Son, or else He will break
   you in pieces with His rod, as men break potters' vessels. "Turn you,
   turn you from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?"
   But if you reject this pardon of God, you write your own death warrant
   and prepare the noose that is to be your souls' destruction!

   I would to God that I had such powers of persuasion that I might induce
   you to lay hold of this precious pardon that God presents to you. I
   know that my pleading is useless unless the Spirit of God shall be
   pleading, too. But many, many times in this House, while I have been
   talking about the full, rich Grace of God, some poor soul has felt that
   there was a message from God in it and I trust, I hope it may be so
   tonight! Remember that in the message of mercy, I am authorized to
   leave out no one--I am told to preach it to every creature under
   Heaven, and I do. There are no terms but just this-- that you will take
   what God freely gives you! Just as when men enlist for soldiers, the
   soldier does not give the sergeant anything, he takes the shilling. And
   the way in which your souls are saved is by taking what Christ freely
   offers to you, freely presents to you--the finished righteousness which
   He worked out in His life and death! You are to take, not to give! If
   there are terms, they are very simple. They are put so as to suit the
   dead in trespasses and sins! Christ comes to you just where you are.
   You have no power, no spiritual life, no goodness, no tenderness of
   heart--but Jesus, like the good Samaritan, comes just where you are and
   He cries in your ear, "Awake, you that sleep, and arise from the dead,
   and Christ shall give you light." He bids me say to you, though your
   hand is withered, "Stretch out your hand." Power shall go with the
   command and you shall be made whole!

   I remember the time when if anyone had tried to preach to me full and
   free forgiveness to be had for nothing, and to be had on the spot, I do
   believe I would have leaped almost out of my body to have heard it! I
   have heard, sometimes, of Methodists and Welshmen standing up to dance
   and I do not wonder at it, if they really do but get the full sense of
   this, that the big, black, foul villain of a sinner--the moment he
   trusts Jesus Christ--is forgiven, is a child of God and is accepted!
   Why, it sounds too good to be true! And it could not be true if it came
   only from me, for I am but a man and can only think and act as a man!
   But because it comes from the true God and it is just like Him, because
   it accords with His attributes of loving kindness and truth, therefore
   we know it is true. "I am God, and not man," He says, and He gives that
   as a reason for His mercy. Why, if His love were not as much superior
   to ours as the heavens are above His earth, there would never be mercy
   presented in any shape, much less in a shape like this! There is
   nothing asked of you, only that you will just be nothing and let Christ
   be everything--and take from Christ's hand that which He freely
   presents to you--pardon through His precious blood!

   III. Now, dear Friends, I cannot put this Truth of God more plainly
   than I have done, but I have the last part of the text just to comment
   a little upon--"There is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared."

   You see, the only men that ever fear God are those that are forgiven.
   Other men may pretend to do it, but they fail to do it. Why I believe
   that the religion of nine out of ten professing Christians is just
   this, "I go to church, or I go to chapel, regularly, and I then think I
   have done very well." That is what the men think, and the outside world
   believes that religion is this, "If a man is honest, and sober, and
   walks righteously, and so on, he goes to Heaven." But how

   startling must the sermon of this morning [See Sermon No. 515, Volume
   9--THE SINNER'S ADVOCATE] have been to some of these stuck-up Pharisees
   when we told them it was not the righteous who would go there, but the
   sinner! And that the Apostle John did not say, "If any man has done
   good works, he has an Advocate," but, "If any man sins, we have an
   Advocate with the Father." As Martin Luther gloried to put it, "Jesus
   Christ never died for our good works--they were not worth His dying
   for! He gave Himself for our sins, according to the Scriptures." What
   did our Savior, Himself, say, "I came not to call the righteous, but
   sinnersto repentance."

   The Lord never has any who really and acceptably fear Him but those who
   once were sinners and who are led as sinners to accept His pardon--and
   these are the people that fear Him. Do you want to find a warm-hearted
   woman who really loves Jesus Christ and who would break the alabaster
   box for His sake? You will find her in one who may be called "a woman
   who was a sinner." Do you want to find a man who would preach Christ's
   Word with tears running down his cheeks? You must go and find him among
   them who once were foul, of whom the Apostles said, "Such were some of
   you, but you are washed." When the Lord wanted a man to write the next
   best book in the world to the Bible--The Pilgrim's Progress--He did not
   go to Lambeth Palace for him, and He did not go to any of the fine
   streets of this city to pick up some moral person. There was a swearing
   tinker playing at "cat" on Sunday on Elstow-Green, and the Lord said,
   "That is the man." He laid hold of him, washed his heart, made him a
   new man in Christ Jesus--and John Bunyan, the master-dreamer, has given
   us that remarkable book! And when the Lord wanted a man who would stir
   up London from end to end by preaching in St. Mary Woolnoth, where
   should He find him? Why, among the ragamuffins who were conducting

   the slave trade on the coast of Africa among the sweepings and dregs of
   the universe! Almighty Grace picked up John Newton, changed his heart
   and made him one of His mightiest teachers!

   And when the Lord will bring out any that shall really fear Him and do
   anything great for His sake, it will be either from among those who
   have been outwardly great sinners, or else those who have been made in
   their conscience to feel the greatness of their guilt and thus have
   been fitted to deal with others. Oh, how many times I have blessed God
   for the five years of despair that I had to endure! No poor soul was
   ever more racked than I was, nor more hunted of the devil. For five
   years I was a victim to that black thought that God would never forgive
   me and I bless His name for it. I never could have preached to the
   chief of sinners if it had not been for that experience! If I had come
   freely from my mother's apron strings without any deep sense of sin,
   and had found Christ as many and many a young man does, readily and at
   once, I would never have liked to go down and run my hands in the mire
   to get at the foul and the vile. But now I look back upon those times
   of anguish--why, they were days when I thought I was worse than the
   devils in Hell! They were days when if anybody had asked me my
   character, though no one ever knew anything amiss of it, still I would
   have said, and felt it, too, that there did not breathe God's air a
   greater miscreant that more deserved to be in Hell than I did! I wrote
   bitter things against myself and if any had said, "Why, your life is
   moral," I would have said, "Yes, but my heart is a reeking dunghill,
   full of everything that is foul!" And I felt it, too, for though my
   lips never cursed God, yet my heart did with blasphemy so foul that I
   shudder when I think of it. When I was given up as prey to the devil,
   and it seemed as if there was a pandemonium within my heart, then
   indeed I knew what it was to be sorely broken in the place of darkness
   and to be like a ship driven out to sea with the mast gone over the
   side and every timber strained and the hold filling with water--and
   nothing but Omnipotence keeping it from going down into the lowest
   depths! Ah, then I knew that I needed a great Christ for great sinners!
   And I dare not ever preach a little Christ! And I dare not preach Him
   to little sinners either!

   Oh, how great your sin has been, my Hearers! But Jesus Christ is still
   greater! You have gone deeply into sin, but the arm of Mercy can reach
   you! You have wandered far, but the eyes of Love can see you and the
   voice of Love calls to you now, "Come, come, come and welcome, come and
   welcome!" Come just as you are and you will not be cast away, but be
   accepted in the Beloved! "There is forgiveness with You, that You may
   be feared," and none fear, and love, and bless, and praise God as much
   as those who know that there is forgiveness with Him!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 145.

   When you get to the 145th Psalm, you enter the Beulah Land of the
   Psalms. Henceforth the time of the singing of birds is come and you go
   from one Hallelujah to another! In the Hebrew, this is one of the
   alphabetical Psalms, but one letter (nun) is omitted, perhaps, as Dr.
   Bonar suggests, "we must be kept from putting stress on the mere form
   of the composition." Those ancient singers sang their way through the
   alphabet from A to Z, and it is also well for us to begin to praise the
   Lord while we are yet children, and to keep on praising Him till we get
   to the "Z" in the very hour of death, gasping His praises till we get
   into eternity--

   "My God, I'll prase You while I live,

   And praise You when I die!

   And praise You when I rise again,

   And to eternity!"

   Verses. 1-3. I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your
   name forever and ever Every day will I bless You, and I will praise
   Your name forever and ever Great is the LORD, and greatly to be
   praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. Such as the Lord is, such
   should His worship be. If He were a little God, He would deserve little
   praise, but the great God is "greatly to be praised." There is no fear
   of going to any excess in our praises--we will never laud Him too
   highly, however lofty our expressions may be.

   "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is
   unsearchable." David knew what it was to be searched by God and he
   prayed, "Search me, O God." But he could not search the greatness of
   his God. There, he was utterly lost--the utmost range of his faculties
   could not compass the greatness of Jehovah--"His greatness is
   unsearchable."

   4. One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare
   Your mighty acts. There is a hallowed tradition of praise. Each
   generation should hand out the praise of God as a precious legacy to
   the next one. Train up your sons and daughters to praise your God so
   that when your voice is silent in death, another voice like your own
   may continue the strain.

   5. I will speak of the glorious honor of Your majesty, and of Your
   wondrous works. "I will speak." What a powerful speaker David was! Note
   how he piles up his golden words. He is not content merely to talk of
   God's majesty, but he speaks of its "glorious honor." When he talked of
   God's works, he calls them "wondrous works."

   6. And men shall speak of the might of Your terrible acts. If they will
   not speak of anything else, they shall be obliged to speak with awe
   when the terrors of the Lord are abroad in the earth. If they were as
   dumb as fishes before, they shall begin to say to one another, with
   bated breath, when earthquakes, famines, war and pestilence are rife,
   "What a terrible God He is!"

   6. And I will declare Your greatness. While other men were talking,
   David did not say, "Now I can be quiet." When they did not speak, he
   did, and when they began to speak, he still added his quota of praise
   to Jehovah.

   7. They shall abundantly utter the memory of Your great goodness, and
   shall sing of Your righteousness. What a beautiful expression! "They
   shall abundantly utter." The original has in it the idea of bubbling
   up, boiling over, bursting out like a fountain! Men's hearts shall get
   to be so full of gratitude to God that they shall overflow with the
   memory of His great goodness! Then they shall sing. Singing is the
   language ofjubilant nature--"the mountains and the hills shall break
   forth before you into singing." Singing is the language of men when
   they wish to express their highest joys. The saints sing the high
   praises of their God. Singing is the language of the holy angels! Did
   they not, when they came to Bethlehem, sing concerning the newborn
   King? Singing is the language of Heaven and most marvelous of all,
   singing is the highest language that God ever uses! "He will rejoice
   over you with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over you with
   singing." Oh, for more holy singing!

   8. The LORD is gracious. That alone is enough to make us sinners sing,
   for we need Divine Grace and, "the Lord is gracious."

   8. And full of compassion. There is no "passion" in Him, but there is
   "compassion" in Him. What a mercy that is for us! He is full of
   compassion."

   8. Slow to anger, and of great mercy. Hear that, you great sinners and
   you saints who need great forbearance?

   9. The Lord is good to all Even to His enemies! Does not the dewdrop
   hang upon the thistle as well as upon the rose?

   9. And His tender mercies are over all His works. He cares for the worm
   in the sod and for the fish in the sea as well as for men upon the face
   of the earth.

   10. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord; and Your saints shall
   bless You. Their voices can reach a higher note and a loftier strain
   than God's works can ever reach. "Your saints shall bless You."

   11. They shall speak of the glory of Your Kingdom. For the saints love
   God as their King, and they rejoice to remember what the King's Son
   said to His disciples, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's
   good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." So well may they sing of it!

   11-13. And talk of Your power; to make known to the sons of men His
   mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His Kingdom. Your Kingdom is
   an everlasting Kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all
   generations. What is the use of preaching if it does not glorify God?
   What is the use of a tongue that does not speak or sing of the glory of
   God's Kingdom? Let one of God's bards have this as the theme of his
   song and he feels like a hind let loose, rejoicing in glorious liberty!

   14. The Lord upholds all that fall, and raises up as those that are
   bowed. Does not this seem to be an amazing change in the strain? The
   Lord is a King and His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom--yet what is
   He doing? Why, He is upholding, propping up those that are ready to
   fall and lifting up those that are crushed and oppressed! Earthly kings
   often glory in the terror of their power and the splendor of their
   majesty. What a condescending God is ours, whose Glory is a moral glory
   and whose chief delight consists in blessing the poor and needy! Let us
   bless His name for this. Are any of you ready to fall? Then praise Him
   for this glorious truth, "The Lord upholds all that fall"! Are any of
   you bowed

   down? Daughter of Abraham, have you been bowed down these many years?
   Oh, that you might be made straight this very hour! And you may be, for
   God can lift you up, for He "raises up all those that are bowed down."

   15, 16. The eyes of all wait upon You; and You give them their meat in
   due season. You open Your hands and satisfy the desire of every living
   thing. What a glorious God we have! How easily can He supply the needs
   of His people! He has but to open His hands and it is done! We need not
   be afraid to come to Him, as though our needs would be too great for
   Him to supply. The commissariat of the universe is superintended by
   this truly Universal Provider, who has but to open His hands to satisfy
   "the desire of every living thing."

   17. The LORD is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.
   This is a thing for which many modern divines do not praise God. The
   attribute of righteousness in the Character of God is expelled from a
   good deal of modern theology. But he who loves God rightly, loves the
   righteousness of God! I would not care to have salvation if it were
   unrighteous salvation. The righteousness of God gleams like a sharp
   two-edged sword and it is terrible to those who are at enmity against
   Him. But the true children of the Most High delight to see this sword
   of State carried in the front of the great King of kings! The seraphim
   cry, one to another, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts!" The
   redeemed in Glory sing, "Just and true are Your ways, You King of
   saints!" But the critical critics of the present day care nothing for
   these attributes of Jehovah.

   18. The LORD is near unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call
   upon Him in truth. If you read this Psalm through carefully, you will
   notice the great number of, "alls," with which the latter part of the
   Psalm is studded. And this is appropriate, for God is All-in-All, He is
   the One, the All, so let Him have all praise from all!

   19. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him: He also will hear
   their cry, and will save them. When you have respect to God's will, God
   will have respect to your will. When you fear Him you will have no one
   else to fear, and when you make His service your delight, He will make
   your needs His care.

   20. The LORD preserves all them that love Him: but all the wicked will
   He destroy. As in a state of sanitary perfection, everything that
   breeds pollutants and disease is banished--so must it be in God's great
   universe when He has completed His works--"all the wicked will He
   destroy."

   21. My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh
   bless His holy name forever and ever.
     __________________________________________________________________

Thought Condemned, Yet Commanded

   (No. 2973)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 6, 1876.

   "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall
   we drink? Or, What shall we wear? (For after all these things do the
   Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all
   these things. But seekyou first the Kingdom ofGod, and His
   righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew
   6:31-33.

   THESE are soothing words to read, but difficult words to put into
   practice. Had anyone except the Lord Jesus Christ uttered them, we
   might have quoted to him that ancient saying, "Physician, heal
   yourself," for we shall never find any other teacher who is, himself,
   absolutely free from care. But Jesus Christ not only gives us the
   purest possible precepts, but His own life is the best exposition of
   them. If ever you want to know what Christ means by His teaching, look
   at His life. You may rest assured that He never gave us a command which
   He was not, Himself, prepared to obey. Those of us who have put our
   trust in Christ are His servants and He, Himself, condescended to be a
   Servant for our sakes. Indeed, He is the real model Servant and the
   service which He requires of us, He, Himself, shows us how to perform.
   I do not intend, therefore, so much to expound the text by any words of
   my own, as to illustrate it by the life of Jesus Christ Himself. I
   think that it may be more profitable and certainly it will be more
   unusual, if I take these words of Christ and say to you, "If you would
   know their meaning, look at the life of Him whom you call Master and
   Lord. You can best understand His words by His works."

   I see in the text, first, a precept forbidding thought Secondly, a
   precept commanding thought And then, in the two precepts, if they are
   rightly kept, I see a frame of mind admirably fitted for all Believers
   in coming to the Communion Table.

   I. First, then, we have here A PRECEPT FORBIDDING THOUGHT--a precept
   which says, "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or,
   What shall we drink? Or, What shall we wear?" How are we to understand
   this precept?

   Certainly, we are not to understand it in the sense of the idler, who
   says, "God will provide and, therefore, there is no need for me to
   labor. God's Providence is my inheritance and, therefore, I may fold my
   arms and sit still." The man who talks and acts in that fashion will
   have thistles on his land, emptiness in his cupboard, rags on his back
   and ruin to his character--and all that will serve him right! Paul
   wrote to the Thessalonians, "This we commanded you, that if any would
   not work, neither should he eat." And it would, perhaps, be the best
   way of treating some men if they were never allowed to eat anything
   except what they had themselves earned. Of course, this rule would not
   apply in the case of those who are disabled by old age, or laid aside
   by sickness, but, in every other case, work is the lot of us all and it
   is a benefit to us all--and we ought never, under the pretense of
   piety, to endeavor to shirk it! You have heard, perhaps, of the very
   pious man who entered a monastery in order that he might spend all his
   time in devotion. So, when the time came for the brethren to go into
   the fields to work, he did not leave his cell--he was too spiritual to
   handle a hoe or a spade, so he continued in communion with angels. He
   was very much surprised, however, when the time came for the
   brotherhood to assemble in the refectory, that he was not called! And
   after waiting till the demands of hunger overcame the claims of his
   spiritual being, he went to the prior and asked why he had not been
   called to the meal. And he was informed that as he was so spiritual
   that he could not work, it was thought that he was probably so
   spiritual that he could not eat and, at any rate, the laws of the
   monastery did not permit him to eat until he had earned what he needed.
   There was much

   common sense in that reply and our Lord Jesus Christ was not one of
   your lackadaisical, goody-goody sort of people who have nothing at all
   to do! Point me to a single wasted hour in our Savior's whole life.
   Show me one instance in which He was a sluggard, if you can. There is
   His life record before you, written by four truthful men--put your
   finger, if you can, upon a single spot where He might be rightly
   accused of being sluggish. If he had been so, we might have had a
   warrant for interpreting this text according to the lazy man's version
   of it, but it is not so. His motto was always, "I must work the works
   of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night comes when no man can
   work."

   Neither did our Lord Jesus Christ intend to inculcate prodigality when
   he said, "Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?" and so on. This
   is what the young spendthrift does when he comes into possession of his
   estate. He gathers all he has with both hands. Take thoughts? Not he!
   As long as the gold will last, he will spend it without reckoning! All
   the proverbs of prudence he despises--he is too free-hearted and
   generous to think of them--and so, by his sinful extravagance, he
   speedily brings himself to poverty. Our Lord Jesus Christ never meant
   that and He never acted like that. With what singular economy did the
   Savior always behave! Generous to the last degree, He fed five thousand
   men, besides women and children, but, equally economical, He said to
   His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be
   lost." Jesus Christ would have us take care of what we have, for we are
   only stewards, and a steward must not waste his Lord's goods.
   Extravagance, waste--the allowing of anything to perish which ought to
   be used--is a wrong thing which cannot be too sternly condemned. And
   the Savior never intended, for a single moment, to justify any such
   action as that!

   Neither did our Lord forbid a certain amount of forethought. One kind
   of forethought He certainly did condemn when He said, "Take therefore
   no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the
   things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." But He,
   Himself--and as I have reminded you, He is His own Expositor and the
   key to His own teaching--often looked forward. For instance, with
   regard to Lazarus, who He might have gone to him at once, He stayed
   away a while, looking forward to the time when Lazarus would have been
   dead and buried four days as the proper period for displaying His
   resurrection power! And as for His own death, He looked forward to that
   from the very opening of His earthly ministry and long before. He had a
   baptism to be baptized with, and He was straitened until it was
   accomplished. He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, not
   merely once, but virtually all His life! He did think of His latter end
   and His whole life was a preparation for that great offering up of
   Himself as a Sacrifice for the sins of men. He did not, therefore,
   forbid us to look to the end of life and to the necessary preparation
   for that end. He did not forbid us to look towards ends and objectives
   which may require futurity to ripen them, for, if we did not do so, our
   life would be altogether confusion and certainly could not be
   well-directed!

   What, then, did the Savior mean when He said, "Take no thought, saying,
   What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, What shall we wear?" I
   think that He meant, first, "Do not let provision for your temporal
   needs be the chief end of your life, for this is what the heathen do.
   The heathen Gentiles live to eat, to drink and to clothe themselves."
   This is what the savage still does--give him "happy hunting grounds"
   where he can get sufficient food, and where the skins of beasts may
   cover him from the inclemency of the weather and you have given him all
   that he needs. Jesus says, "After all these things do the Gentiles
   seek." But you are not to make this search the sole end and aim of your
   life--you were created for something nobler and better than that. For
   such an objective as this, an ox or an ass may live, but not a
   Christian! It is utterly beneath the dignity of your immortal spirit,
   redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, to be living alone, or
   chiefly, for this reason. This is a matter which will require your
   careful thought--God has formed you of the dust of the ground and the
   appetites of animals are shared in by you--they crave and demand your
   attention--but not such attention as would lead you to make these minor
   matters the main business of your life! But, alas, how many men there
   are who are simply great consumers of bread, meat, wine and such like
   things--

   "Like brutes they live--like brutes they die." May God convert them, by
   His Grace, and so lift them up to something higher! As for all of you
   who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, scorn such business as
   satisfies the heathen savage!

   But the Savior must have meant more than that. When He said, "Take no
   thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink," He
   meant, as compared with the service of God, and the honor and glory of
   His name, which should be the great objective of your life--do not give
   any consideration to these other things. Christ elsewhere puts the
   matter thus, "He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates
   his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." He

   means that His disciple is to hate, or to love less, even his own
   life--to be prepared to consider that even that is a mere trifle if it
   should ever be a hindrance to the Glory of Christ. You remember how the
   Apostle Paul said to the Ephesian elders, "Neither count I my life dear
   unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the
   ministry which I received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of
   the Grace of God." Brethren, if it ever comes to this, that you must
   lose your business, your employment, your livelihood, or else do
   wrong--lose everything sooner than commit the smallest sin! And if it
   came to this, that you must lose your liberty and lie in a dungeon, or
   else deny the faith--accept the prison, but reject the opportunity of
   traitorously forsaking your Lord and Master! And if it came even to
   death, itself, remember how bravely the martyrs behaved when they
   refused to accept pardon at the price of recantation! They could die,
   but they could not deny their Lord! They could burn, but they could not
   turn and, therefore, they took no thought as to what they should eat or
   what they should drink, or whether they should live or die! They
   counted all such things as insignificant trifles to those who were
   seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness! And who will
   dare to say that they were unwise? If any should even hint that they
   were not wise, think of them, as they are now within yonder pearly
   portals, amid the white-robed hosts bearing the victor's palm--

   "Foremost of the sons of light, Nearest the eternal Throne of God!"
   These are they who, for Christ's sake and the Gospel's, took no thought
   of minor matters, but followed the Lamb where ever He led the way!

   Still further to open up the meaning of this injunction, let me remind
   you that this is just what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself did. You
   cannot say that Jesus Christ ever troubled His head about what He
   should eat, or what He should drink--His meat and His drink consisted
   in doing His Father's will! Even life itself was as nothing to Him, for
   He cheerfully laid it down for our sakes. When the devil offered Him
   all the kingdoms of the world, you know how He answered him. And when,
   afterwards, Peter began to rebuke Him for talking about dying, He
   seemed to think that He was in the same position as when He was with
   the devil in the wilderness, for He said to Peter, "Get you behind Me,
   Satan; for you savor not the things that are of God, but those that are
   of man." He counted nothing that He had as being worth preserving and,
   in this sense, taking no thought of anything, He surrendered all to God
   to be used for the good of His people!

   And, dear Friends, we shall further see the meaning of the text if we
   note that we are not to take such thought about eating, drinking and so
   on, as to make ourselves slaves to work and worry. I know some
   professing Christians who seem as if they needed to grasp the whole
   world. They already have plenty of business, yet they are craving for
   more. The days are not long enough for them--they would like to be up
   before the larks, or not to go to bed at all if they could do without
   sleep! They stretch out their arms like huge encompassing seas seeking
   to swallow all the shore. They have what ought to be enough--they have
   long had enough and a great deal more than enough for their needs--yet
   they have not enough, nor is it probable that they ever will have
   enough to satisfy their cravings unless the Grace of God should exert
   its gracious influence over their hearts! And see how worried they
   always are! I have seen a poor man with only a crust of dry bread to
   eat, yet he was perfectly happy. And I have seen a rich man with an
   abundance of wealth--and he was utterly miserable! The one could
   rejoice in God, though he had little of this world's goods. But the
   other could not rejoice notwithstanding all that he possessed!

   A Christian should not be one of those who are full of worry, those who
   rise up early, sit up late and eat the bread of carefulness and devote
   all their time to secular and secondary things, so that they have no
   leisure for private devotion, or for the service of God. God ought not
   to have the clippings and the odds and ends of life. He ought not to
   come in for the cheese-parings and the candle ends as He seems to do in
   some men's houses. But the chief part of our time, yes, all our time
   should, in some respects, be consecrated to Him. While it is right for
   you to be diligent in business, yet you should always let everything be
   done for God's Glory--and that cannot be the case if you become the
   slave of Mammon and if the signs of fretting and worrying are plainly
   visible upon your very face! Think for a moment--when did your Lord
   ever fret and worry about gold and silver? Did anyone ever see upon
   that blessed brow of His any cloud because of His lack of these things?
   Enough was given to Him for His daily maintenance and that, He
   entrusted to Judas, the treasurer of His little band of disciples. But
   He made no request for it, nor did He levy any tithe or tax for the
   support of Himself

   and His followers. Nor was He ever anxious about ways and means. He
   took all things calmly and quietly and He would have you do the same.

   And He meant too, dear Friends, that no Christian ought to be very
   anxious about anything. Henever was. I know some Christians and some of
   them are here now, who will not enjoy the service, or the Communion
   because they are so anxious about what is possibly going to happen.
   They say that they believe in Providence, but they really disbelieve in
   it. They say that they are trusting in God, but they do not truly trust
   Him. They know that they ought to cast all their care upon Him who
   cares for them, but they do not do anything of the kind! They continue
   to care for themselves and they are almost worn out with anxiety. Look
   even at the mother of our Lord when the supply of wine at the
   wedding-feast ran short--she was, apparently, all in a fret, so she
   went to Jesus and said, "They have no wine." But Jesus said to her,
   "Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come." His time
   would come in due course and then He would give them what they needed
   for that wedding feast. But until the right moment came, He remained
   calm and quiet. And that is how we should be, leaving everything in
   God's hands. Having done all that we can do by honest labor and earnest
   prayer, let us leave the rest with God, for He would not have His
   children cumbered with much serving, nor have them vexed with earthly
   cares.

   And, more than that, dear Friends, we ought never to take such thought
   as to get to murmuring, repining and complaining of our lot, as though
   it had not been fixed by Infinite Love and Wisdom! Some people wish
   that they were almost anything rather than what they are, albeit there
   are others who would be glad enough to be just what those very people
   are! You think, my Brother, that your cross is heavier to bear than
   mine? I would not, however, recommend you change with me, as I
   certainly would not change with you! If we could all lay our crosses
   down in this Tabernacle and each man could take another one's cross
   which he liked better than his own--within 24 hours we should all be
   back here crying for our own crosses to be given to us again--for each
   man's cross fits his shoulders better than anybody else's cross would
   fit them! Besides, we can have Grace given to us to endure the trial
   which God has sent us--but if we had a trial of our own choosing we
   could not expect that Divine Grace would be given to support us under
   that, so what would we do then? Never murmur, my Brothers and Sisters,
   until you find Christ murmuring. Read all the records of His life and
   see when He ever complained. Foxes had holes and the birds of the air
   had nests, but He had nowhere to lay His head. Yet He did not mention
   that fact in any spirit of complaining. He was a poor Man. His garment
   was like the common robe of the country. His food did not consist of
   delicacies and dainties, neither was His drink selected from the
   choicest liquids in the world. Yet He was a joyous man--"a Man of
   Sorrows" for our sakes, but, as far as He, Himself, was personally
   concerned, the noblest, the calmest and the happiest of mankind!

   And, Brothers and Sisters, we must never let thought about temporal
   things drive us to despair. Possibly, in this large audience, there is
   a man who says, "I have struggled very hard and everything seems to go
   against me--I am inclined to throw it all away." But, my Brother, when
   did your Lord throw away all His work, or throw anyof His work away? He
   never did! And if you will take to God that portion of your care which
   you ought not to attempt to carry, you will find that the part of the
   load which you ought to carry is not too heavy for your shoulders when
   the Lord strengthens you with His Grace! The wear and tear of life
   comes not out of the Providential trials which we have to endure, but
   out of the unbelieving cares and burdens which we make for ourselves!
   You can carry easily enough the load that God appoints for you, my
   Brothers and Sisters, but if you let the devil sit on the top of it in
   the form of your own anxieties, doubts and fears, then the burden will
   crush you to the earth! Imitate your blessed Lord and Master, and never
   despair, but hope on, hope always and even if God, Himself, should seem
   to forsake you, yet cry, "My God, my God," even as Jesus did when God
   had forsaken Him!

   I will only say one other thing upon this point, which is that we are
   not to think about temporal things so as to get into the habit of
   hoarding, as some do. They scarcely spend enough to provide for their
   own necessities. The poor ask nothing from them. And God's Church--I
   was about to say gets less than nothing--and I might truly say that
   though it appears to be impossible, for there are some who give a good
   deal less than nothing to the Lord's cause, for they occupy a place in
   the building where services are held which has been erected, and is
   still kept up by others at an expense which these misers never attempt
   to share--so that, as far as God's House is concerned, they absolutely
   take from that House instead of giving to it, albeit that they have
   superabundant substance of their own from which they ought to
   contribute to the work of the Lord! Saving is well, but the first thing
   that a man has to do is to see to the saving of his soul! And

   there are some who always look so much to the saving of their wealth
   that their soul stands very little chance of being saved! To get and to
   holdseems to be the great end-all and be-all of some men's being--but
   it can never be so with a true Christian. He, by Divine Grace, is like
   His Master, who, "though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor."
   His riches consisted in giving and, therefore, He was the richest man
   who ever lived, for He gave more than anyone else when He gave Himself
   that He might redeem His people!

   I have thus explained to you the thought that is forbidden. May God's
   Grace enable us to obey our Lord's injunction. And the secret--the only
   secret by which we can learn how to obey it is this--somebody must
   think and care for us and, as we are not to think and care for
   ourselves, we must cease all sinful caring by believing that our
   Heavenly Father cares for us! If Jesus cares for me, I may get rid of
   care about myself. And I urge all my dear Brothers and Sisters in
   Christ, by the wounds that were given Him for our sake, and by all the
   many tokens of His love that He has given to us, never to doubt that He
   cares for us in anything--in the little things as much as in the great
   ones, counting even the hairs of our head and bearing all our
   afflictions, according to that gracious Word of God, "In all their
   affliction He was afflicted." Cast your care, then, on Him, for so you
   may cease to care for yourselves!

   II. But now, secondly, we have in the text A PRECEPT COMMANDING
   THOUGHT--"Seek you first the

   Kingdom of God, and His righteousness."

   Call back your thoughts from the pursuit of the tidings of this life
   and when you have recalled them, send them forth in pursuit of the
   blessings of the life that is to come! What ought a Christian to care
   for? What did Christ care for? Christ's great care was for His Father's
   Glory. For this He lived and for this He died. There is no single
   action of His life that had not God's Glory as its end. O beloved
   Brothers and Sisters who are bought with the blood of Christ, we
   cannot, any of us, say this about our own lives! Yet we ought to be
   able to say it and we ought now to pray God's blessed Spirit to enable
   us to concentrate all our thoughts, powers and energies upon this one
   objective--that we might, in all things, glorify God! This is, as the
   Catechism says, "man's chief end"--especially the chief end of redeemed
   man--to do everything, whether he eats, or drinks, or whatever he does,
   to do all to the Glory of God--to make the most common acts of daily
   life, as well as the higher acts of service and devotion, subservient
   to God's Glory. God help you to attain to this ideal Christian life!

   Next to that, Christ's great care was to do the particular work which
   God had given Him to do. When He had been sitting by the well, talking
   to that poor woman of Samaria, His disciples wondered why He did not
   ask for meat. But He said to them, "My meat is to do the will of Him
   that sent Me, and to finish His work." He was completely absorbed in
   that one thing--the finishing of the work which God had given Him to
   do. And how early He began that work! What a bright example He has set
   before you young lads and lasses! When He was 12 years of ago, after He
   had been "in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both
   hearing them, and asking them questions," and Joseph and Mary had
   sorrowed because they could not find Him, He said to them, in answer to
   His mother's question of reproof, "Did you not know that I must be
   about My Father's business?" And He might have finished His life with
   the same enquiry. When wicked men led Him away to crucify Him and He
   willingly went as a sheep to the slaughter, He might have said, "I am
   still about My Father's business." He never sought to save Himself--He
   always served His Father who had sent Him. There were no by-ends with
   Christ. You never find Him seeking personal honor. On the contrary, He
   hid Himself away from men when they sought to thrust honor upon Him.
   You never find Him seeking personal pleasure--His life was a life of
   self-denial. You never find Him seeking riches. Among all the poor,
   there were none poorer than He was. But He always delighted to do what
   God had given Him to do!

   O Brothers and Sisters, if we were to live as He did, we would make our
   lives to be grand lives, and happy lives, too, albeit that we would
   probably multiply our sorrows, even as Christ did. Yet, as I have
   already reminded you, there was a deep happiness underneath the
   surface, in Christ's inmost soul, which abundantly recompensed Him for
   all the trials He had to endure. Let us labor to do as He did so that
   we shall be able to say, "This one thing I do--the one thing which God
   has given me to do." Short of this, let us never be content. I long to
   be able to say with the Apostle Paul, "For to me to live is Christ." I
   should like to be a thunderbolt, hurled from the right hand of God, and
   to go crashing through every obstacle till it had reached the mark at
   which God had aimed me! I pray that the love of Christ may thus
   constrain me, and drive me on towards the great objective of my
   being--the Glory of my God! So may it be with you too, dear Friends
   and, to that end, "gird up the loins of your mind," "lay aside every
   weight" and the clinging garments which would entangle you and impede
   you in running to the goal which lies before you--the finishing of the
   work which God has given you to do!

   What else did Christ care for? Well, I might truly say that He cared
   for nothing else. For these two things--to glorify God and to finish
   His work--comprehend His whole life. Yet, as a matter of detail, I may
   remind you that Christ lived to care for His people. He was free from
   care about Himself, yet full of care for His people. From the very
   first day when He had disciples around Him, till the hour in which He
   was taken up from them, He was always thinking about them. Read any one
   of the Gospels through, with this thought in your mind, and you will be
   struck with the tender care of Jesus Christ towards those who followed
   Him. There is Peter, for instance. Christ knows that Satan desires to
   have him, that he may sift him as wheat, but He means to be before the
   devil, so He says to Peter, "I have prayed for you, that your faith
   fail not." He did not say, "I will pray for you when you get into
   Satan's sieve" but, "I have prayed for you already. I have anticipated
   the temptation by My supplication for you." When Judas and the band of
   men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees came to arrest
   our Lord in Gethsemane, what did He say? "If, therefore, you seek Me,
   let these go their way." His only thought was about His disciples, not
   about Himself! Just as, after instituting the Last Supper, when He was
   going out to be betrayed and needed all the comfort, humbly speaking,
   that His disciples could give Him, He never asked them for comfort, but
   He began comforting them by saying to them, "Let not your heart be
   troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me! 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. 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." You see that all His care was for you, not for Himself!
   And, Brothers and Sisters, let us have something like this care for the
   Church of God! Let us be mindful of the Lord's people and let us watch
   for opportunities of doing good to others. If we hear of any who are
   seeking the Lord, let us try to guide them to Him. If we know any among
   our Brothers and Sisters who have backslidden, let us seek to be the
   means of restoring them. If any are sad at heart, let us endeavor to
   comfort them. Having given up all sinful cares, let the welfare of the
   people of God be our one and only care!

   And then, again, Christ had a care for those who had no care for Him.
   That is a beautiful simile which He used concerning guilty Jerusalem,
   "How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen
   gathers her chickens under her wings, but you would not!" That is a
   beautiful emblem of what Christianity should be. The mother bird seems
   utterly oblivious of herself altogether. If she can but spread her
   wings over those little chicks that nestle down close to her bosom, she
   will give away her own warmth for them and sacrifice her own life in
   their defense. Christ looked upon that city, which He knew would perish
   with an overwhelming destruction, but His big heart was palpitating in
   His bosom and He was longing to cover even those great sinners with His
   wings of love! He manifested His care for the sons of men very
   practically. When a crowd gathers to hear anyone preach, surely it is
   not the preacher's business to feed his congregation as well as teach
   them! Yet Jesus thought it was His duty to do so. They were hungry,
   weary and ready to faint--and the gracious Savior was concerned about
   them, though He had no care about Himself. And He especially cared for
   those poor pale-faced women and children who had come so far, and
   looked so weak. And He said to His disciples, "I have compassion on the
   multitude because they continue with Me now three days and have nothing
   to eat. And I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint on the
   way."

   And then, like a prince who makes a great feast, He fed them all with
   loaves and fishes! And, Christian men and women, if God enables you to
   get rid of care on your own account, you will begin to care for the
   poor and needy, and to care for sinners. Yes, and you will learn to
   love your neighbor as yourself. And when you meet with a case that
   needs your help, you will be careful in attending to it. And if you
   cannot tell whether it is a good case or not, you will be like Job, who
   said, "The cause which I knew not I searched out." That man is like
   Christ who lives, not for himself, but for others. It has been all too
   truly said that there are some people whose first care is for
   themselves, and whose second care is for themselves, and whose third
   care is for themselves, and whose fourth care is for themselves, and so
   on as many times as you like to repeat it! Possibly somewhere down in
   the millions, there is a little care for somebody else, but it is too
   low down ever to come to anything practical. I am afraid it is often so
   with some professing Christians! But let it not be so among you. The
   heathen care for themselves. The brute beasts care for themselves. But
   the Christian should care for others, with a view to the Glory of God.
   For this reason he should live, even as Jesus lived.

   III. Now, thirdly, IN THE SPIRIT OF THESE TWO PRECEPTS, IT WILL BE WELL
   FOR ALL CHRISTIANS TO COME TO THEIR LORD'S TABLE.

   Come first, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, without care about
   temporal things. Did you come in here heavily burdened, my Sister? Then
   you had forgotten that the Lord loved you and that He knew all about
   your needs. Now that I remind you of these facts, leave your burden in
   the pew where you are sitting--it will not bother anybody else--and
   come to the Table without it. "O Sir!" you say, "I have worked very
   hard all week." Then, my dear Sister, do not go on working or worrying
   today. "I have had a crushing burden to carry the last six months,"
   says a Brother. Then, my dear Brother, do not carry it any
   longer--there is no need that you should. The Jews, when they ate the
   Passover, stood with their loins girded and each man had his staff in
   his hand. They were allowed to carry a burden, for they were going on a
   long journey and they were thrust out in haste. So we read that "the
   people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs
   being bound up in their clothes, upon their shoulders." But the
   Christian, at the Lord's Table, does not stand. What ought to be our
   posture at the Communion Table? In Matthew 26:20, we read, "When the
   even was come, He sat down with the twelve." No doubt, according to the
   Oriental custom, they reclined in such a position that John even leaned
   his head upon the bosom of Christ. They sat, or reclined, perfectly at
   their ease, as if to remind us that when we believe in Jesus Christ, we
   enter into rest. What is the teaching of the emblems upon the
   Table--the bread and the wine? What do they mean? They are to remind us
   of the broken body of the Lord Jesus Christ and of His shed blood, of
   which we are, symbolically, to eat and to drink. Paul says, "He that
   spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He
   not, with Him, also freely give us all things?" What? Will He deny you
   bread for your body after He has given you Christ, the Bread of Heaven,
   for your soul? Will He deny you clothes for your body after He has
   clothed your soul with the robe of Christ's perfect righteousness? Will
   He deny you a sufficient store of earthly goods that you may get
   through this world when He has already given you a mansion in the skies
   and a crown of life that fades not? If we should forget our cares
   anywhere--surely we should do so at the Communion Table!

   Now, dear Friends, let me, ask--why do you still carry your caress Have
   they ever done you any good? Which one of you, who has been the most
   full of care, has ever put a sixpence into his pocket thereby? With all
   your fretting and worrying, have you ever obtained any comfort? It is
   sorry music that you make with your moaning over your anxieties! I am
   sure that you have never enjoyed the tune yourself, nor has anyone
   else. And as for you who have been the greatest money-grubbers, I can
   tell you that you will die poorer than you were when you were born!
   "No," you say "that cannot be, for naked came we into this world." But
   you will die poorer than that, for when you came into this world you
   had both soul and body--but when you go out of this world, you will
   have to leave your body behind, so that you will die poorer than you
   were born! You may save as much as you like and you may struggle, and
   wrestle, and fret, and fume, and worry, but it will come to that in the
   end! The man who will carry fifty staves, or a hundred, or who will not
   be satisfied till he gets many hundred staves and tries to travel along
   with all that bundle of sticks--well, he may do it if he likes, but if
   you will give me one good stout stick to walk with, I will be satisfied
   and I think that is the wise thing to do! He who has what he really
   needs and who is content, is the truly rich man!

   So, Brothers and Sisters, put aside all cares about temporal things as
   you come to the Table of your Lord. But come to His Table with your
   heart full of care about your God. Come with this care--that you may
   not come as a mere form! Or with this care--that you may truly discern
   the Lord's body! Or with this care--that, through the outward signs,
   you may behold your Lord and Master crucified for you! Come with this
   care--that you may really feed upon Christ after a spiritual fashion.
   And with this care--that, when you go away from the Table, you may not
   lose what you have gained here, but may show by your life that you have
   really been strengthened by feeding upon Jesus Christ! Concentrate all
   your thoughts into this one desire--

   "Nearer, my God, to You! Nearer to You"--

   and partake of the emblems of His body and His shed blood with this
   sole objective, that you may get nearer and yet nearer to Him and that
   you may afterwards live like He did. Come to the Communion in this
   spirit and God's blessing will surely reap upon you!

   Before I close my discourse, I have a few words to say to those of you
   who have no part nor lot in the matter of which I have been speaking. I
   am addressing many persons who are not Christians. They are full of
   care about the things of the

   world and, very likely some of them will say to me, "You might let us
   care about the things of the world, for we have nothing else to care
   for." Some persons say, "It is a dreadful thing that these unconverted
   people should have such-and-such amusements." So it is, but there is
   another aspect of the case. Whenever I see a pig in a sty and the
   farmer is going to give him some slop from the house, I say, "Let the
   creature have it. He likes it and it is the proper food for him." I do
   not envy him and if I were to see a man of my acquaintance go and drink
   the hog's food, I would be shocked, indeed! So, when I see a man who
   professes to be a Christian, taking delight in the pleasures of the
   world, I am shocked--but such things are suited to the poor creatures
   that like them. Only remember, my Friend, if you are going to be
   content with this world, you are thereby giving up Heaven and giving up
   the joys of eternity! And in taking the good things, as you call them,
   of sin, and the pleasures of the flesh, you take the devil and all his
   works--and all that involves your being cast away from the Presence of
   God forever!

   Oh, if you only knew your true condition, you who are without God, and
   without Christ, you would want to get away to your houses and to fall
   on your knees and cry unto the Lord to have mercy upon you! And if you
   were wise, you would not even wait till you reached your homes, but in
   this very place you would cry, "What must we do to be saved?" If your
   heart really utters that cry, let me give you the Scriptural answer,
   "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Trust that
   Savior whose teaching I have tried to explain. Trust Him who did more
   than teach, for He lived! Trust Him who did more than live, for He
   died! Trust Him who did more than die, for He rose again and ever lives
   at His Father's right hand on high! Trust Him and you shall be saved
   forever! The Lord bless you, for His dear Son's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Wafer of Honey

   (No. 2974)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1863.

   "My Grace is sufficient for you." 2 Corinthians 12:9.

   LET no Christian imagine that he will ever have immunity from trouble
   while he continues in the body. Should you be favored with visions and
   Revelations of the Lord, caught up to the third Heaven, admitted into
   Paradise and privileged to hear things which it were not lawful for a
   man to utter, conclude not that you have escaped the rod-- rather
   expect that such high privilege will need heavy affliction to balance
   it! If God has given you the great sail and the prosperous wind, He
   will also give you the heavy ballast to keep your keel deep in the
   stream. Do not expect, dear Brothers and Sisters, that because you have
   been strengthened in the faith, you will therefore be loosened from the
   burden of the flesh--neither because you may have been the means of
   strengthening others, that, therefore, trouble will be light for you.
   Even into your ship the deep waters may come. Think not that it is so
   water-tight that the billows will only dash against it. You may be
   called to feel heaviness--your faith may be all but staggered and your
   soul may have to cry out from the depths because of the slender
   strength you possess.

   The Lord has such ways of chastising His children as to make them feel.
   We think, some of us, after we have suffered a certain amount of
   trouble, that we have been so conditioned to it we shall no longer be
   moved as we used to be. The Apostle Paul had been beaten with rods,
   tossed about in shipwrecks, yet he had suffered hunger and thirst and
   nakedness till he felt that, if any man had a right to glory after the
   flesh, he had. Still, even he found that the Lord had a way of getting
   at his heart and making it smart. He had thorns in the flesh,
   messengers of Satan that did most effectually buffet him. We, too, must
   have trials--briars of a kind that shall come right home to us and
   touch us in our bones and in our flesh.

   Neither let us think, dear Friends, that even the privilege of the
   Mercy Seat will shield us from the rod. When chastened we run to
   prayer, but we shall not, therefore, escape the chastisement! Paul, an
   Apostle, prays. He who certainly must have understood "the effectual
   fervent prayer of a righteous man," beseeches the Lord three times, yet
   the thorn in the flesh was not blunted, much less removed! He still had
   to suffer as he had done before. Oh, how often we think we can use the
   Mercy Seat for our own lust! Is not prayer too sacred a thing for us to
   make a selfish use of it? When God gives us the key of His storehouse
   and bids us take what we will, shall we use even a single promise of
   His Word merely to pander to our own desires and to enable us to escape
   from enduring hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ? If we thus
   misuse prayer, we may be excused for it, but we shall not be accepted
   in it. Even Paul is non-suited when he asks ease for the flesh. He gets
   no release from trouble. He gets something better, however, for the
   Lord says to Him, "My Grace is sufficient for you; for My strength is
   made perfect in weakness." Thus, Beloved, we must reckon upon the
   adversities that are sure to befall us. "In the world you shall have
   tribulation." This is one of the Divine shalls and wills. The Lord will
   chasten those whom He loves and His children shall suffer--you can be
   sure of that. It is as sure as any other thing in the world, "You
   shallhave tribulation."

   I. To those who have proved the truth of this declaration, the text
   will be peculiarly sweet. THERE ARE CERTAIN SORE VEXATIONS OF SPIRIT
   FOR WHICH GRACE IS THE ONLY BALM. The Lord does not say, "My Providence
   shall protect you." Nothing of the kind--Divine Grace is the remedy in
   this case and, I take it, this was because the Apostle was suffering in
   the very core and center of his being. There are many trials, the grief
   of which may be fully

   relieved by ordinary Providences--but these that come and wound a man
   to the quick--require Grace as their only effectual balm.

   Past experience of Grace is of no availin such a case. It is
   presentGrace that is promised in the text and it is present Grace that
   is required. When we have sometimes been bowed down and walked in
   darkness, and seen no light, we have called to remembrance our song in
   the night and our spirit has made diligent search--but that very song
   has been turned into howling in the remembrance and all that we thought
   we felt, and thought we knew has vanished from before our eyes! I do
   not know how it has been with you, but there have been times with me
   when I could set no value upon my past experience. The devil has said
   it was all a delusion, my faith mere presumption, my hope mere
   excitement--and all my joys but the effusion of animal spirits. There
   will be a time when he will bid you look back and all the way will look
   like the Valley of the Shadow of Death. You cannot see one hopeful sign
   in it! And you turn over the books of experience and read them, and you
   think, "Well, my spot is not the spot of God's children, and my
   footprints do not seem to be at all like the footprints of the flock."
   I tell you, if you have ever done business in deep waters, you have
   found that anchors at home are of no use in a storm--and that the
   anchor which stood so well a year ago, if it is left at home on
   shore--is of no use to you now in the storm! It is present Grace,
   nothing but present Grace, that will do now! You have eaten all the
   cold meats and you have brought out from the cupboard every moldy crust
   you can find--and now your soul is reduced to the very last and faints
   within you. And now you must cry to your God in your trouble and get
   present Grace in this, your time of need!

   And if past experience is of no use, much less is past success.
   Somebody might have touched the Apostle on the shoulder and have said,
   "Paul, Paul, Paul! Why must you feel the buffetings of Satan? Did you
   not establish the Church at Corinth, and plant churches throughout all
   Asia Minor? Who has served his God as faithfully as you have? Have you
   not been on many journeys, in perils by waters, in perils of robbers,
   in perils by the sword, in watches and fasts? Have you not had the care
   of all the Churches? Has not your Master highly distinguished you and
   made you not a whit behind the very chief of the Apostles? What
   multitudes of spirits are now before the Throne of God that were born,
   under God, through your ministry! And what thousands are still on the
   road who call you their spiritual father and to whom you have been as a
   nursing mother in the faith!" If you had said this to the Apostle, he
   would have replied, "Yes, sometimes this might have comforted me. If it
   had been a question of my Apostleship, this would have been
   satisfactory. If the point in hand had been a question as to whether my
   ministry has been acknowledged of God, this would have been decisive.
   But I am touched in another place, now, and the wound is so deep, my
   sore is grievous. And my heart is so exceedingly heavy that no kindly
   thought of others, and no pleasant musings of my own bring me the
   slightest relief. O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me!" The Lord
   knows how to succor him and, therefore, He gave him that gracious
   assurance, "My Grace is sufficient for you."

   I think it is well, dear Friends, to remember the Lord's past goodness,
   but we must not live on that-- we must go and get fresh supplies from
   Heaven. Old manna, to this day, though it came from Heaven, will always
   breed worms and stink, if it is kept. There is no alteration in it from
   the days of Moses and it is the same at this moment. You must eat the
   manna as you get it and constantly go for more! The old manna will be
   of very little use to you. It is only on Sundays, when your soul is
   perfectly at rest and quiet--it is only at those sweet resting seasons,
   which the soul sometimes enjoys, that the remembrance of the past
   becomes very sweet. You must have daily present dispensations of manna
   from the Throne of God.

   In such a case as this, to which the Apostle was brought, we feel sure
   that the fact of his high office and eminent attainments of Gracewould
   not have been a sufficient consideration. Paul, who shall match you? So
   deep in knowledge and so ardent in zeal, you seem to have a seraph's
   spirit. So mighty in words and yet, so humble in your own esteem, you
   are surely a prince in Israel! Paul was not one of the young men, much
   less one of the babes in Grace. He says, "There are not many fathers,"
   though certainly he, himself, was worthy to be called a Patriarch. Yet
   that fact would not comfort him. And, Brothers and Sisters, you may
   come to such hard pinches that your growth in Grace and the flourishing
   of your virtues will not afford so much as a drop of comfort to
   you--you will have to go to the Eternal Fountain to drink, for even
   these marble cisterns will have been broken and will hold no water.

   Observe, further, Brothers and Sisters, that the Lord does not say, "
   The consolation of your brethren shall be sufficient for you.''" Oh,
   how sweet it is to be comforted by our fellow Christians! Let those who
   will, walk in isolation--

   give me sweet communion, for to tell one's trial to a true Brother in
   Christ is often to lighten the weight, as if half of it were removed!
   Sometimes it is to be wholly relieved, for the words of some wise men
   in our Israel are, indeed, as balm that brings speedy healing to the
   wound. But there are wounds which the stranger intermeddles not with,
   no, that even the dearest friend cannot touch! There are certain
   vexations of spirit and disquietudes of soul that mock human agency. I
   have had, sometimes, to converse with some members of the Church and I
   have never felt so much the littleness of my own power as when I have
   tried be comfort them and failed. I thought it was because I was but as
   a little child in experience and could not talk with them as a father
   in Israel might have done, whose years might have given him more
   wisdom. But I have found that even the fathers have failed and that
   years have not always sufficed to give sufficient knowledge to comfort
   the troubled conscience, or to remove the burden from the galled
   shoulder. No, there are cases that mock the ordinary practitioner and
   must be taken straight to the Great Physician, for the only thing that
   will survive the purpose is the Grace, the presentGrace of an
   all-sufficient God!

   I might prolong this catalog, but you who experimentally know the Truth
   of God will know from your own experience that there are trials and
   there are points in affliction where nothing can possibly console but
   the immediate outpouring and receiving of the Grace of God.

   II. And now, Beloved, in the second place, let me say that SUFFICIENT
   GRACE IS A SURE BALM--that even for the most acute disorder, the most
   chronic disease--"Grace" is"sufficient."

   Do you not perceive that it just meets the fear which trial excites?
   What is the Christian's fear when he is buffeted, tried and afflicted?
   I know him in his sober senses--he has a fear of sin. Listen to him. "I
   am afraid of being poor," says he, "not because I dislike poverty, but
   I am afraid of my faith, lest I should murmur against God. I am not
   afraid of suffering," he says, "if God sends it to me, I am willing to
   receive it. But I am afraid of my faith, lest the pangs should be too
   severe and I should doubt my God. I am not," he says, "afraid of
   slander or of persecution. I have learned to rejoice in this, for so am
   I made a member of the goodly fellowship of the martyrs--but I am
   afraid lest I should deny my Lord, or be ashamed of Him, or prove an
   apostate, after all. As I look forward to the temptations of the world,
   the suggestions of Satan and the corruptions of the flesh which shall
   yet assail me, I am not afraid of their coming if I can but be
   guaranteed that they shall not cause me to sin"--for the only real
   wound the Christian gets is when he has sinned! Sufferings are only
   scars, flesh wounds--sins are the real wounds! We are never trampled on
   by Satan, however low our spirits may sink. It is only when we give
   way--capitulate in very terror and begin to be afraid--that Satan is
   really victorious. The battle of sin is the battle in which Satan gains
   the victory! But suffering, shame, distress, peril, nakedness and sword
   are no triumphs to Satan, for, "in all these things we are more than
   conquerors through Him that loved us."

   You see then, Brothers and Sisters, that Grace meets the danger because
   it deals with sin. You are afraid that your patience will give out, so
   the Lord says, "My Grace shall operate upon your patience and make you
   endure." You think your faith will fail, so the Lord says, "My Grace
   gave you your faith and My Grace, like oil secretly applied to the fire
   by One standing behind the wall, shall keep your faith burning while
   the devil pours on his floods to quench it. It was My Grace that first
   taught you to love My great name so, when persecuted, My Grace shall
   make you love Me more. I have kept you from apostasy until now and, let
   what will come, My Grace, by which I guaranteed your final
   perseverance, shall be sufficient for you and you shall come out of all
   your trials and troubles like silver out of the furnace--not
   defiled--but cleansed and purified by the flames." You see then,
   Brothers and Sisters, that this assurance does actually touch the fear
   which the Christian may ever have before his eyes--no, it does not
   merely touch the fear, but it absolutely touches all the real danger!
   It is as though the Lord should say to one of His servants who was
   standing alone, while thousands of his enemies were shooting at him
   with their arrows, "They shall shoot at you, but I have covered you
   with armor from head to foot." Or it is as if you or I trembled at the
   thought of crossing the deep sea and the Lord had said, "The sea is
   deep, and you must cross it--but I will be by you and you shall go
   through it dry shod." Or it is as if He said, "The fire is hot and you
   must walk through the midst of it. Those glowing coals your feet must
   know, but I will so cover you by My power that the flames nor coals
   shall not hurt you--you shall walk through the fire and not so much as
   the smell of it shall pass upon you."

   What does it matter how much we suffer if we have Grace to endure it?
   Put a Believer where you will, if his Master gives him Grace, he is in
   the best place he can be for security! I have heard Brethren sometimes
   say, "Such a minister is in great danger! His position is lofty, his
   head will be turned." Ah, Brothers and Sisters, if he had had the
   keeping of his own head, it would have been turned long ago! And your
   head will turn even if you are on the ground if you have the keeping of
   it! But if God sets a man as high as the stars and if He kept him
   there, he would be able to sing, "You make my feet like hinds' feet,
   and make me to stand on high places." It is the Grace we have, not the
   position we occupy, that is the important matter! If a man had Grace
   enough, you might put him in the worst haunts of sin and he would be
   the better for being there!

   Now, do not think I say what I do not know. Solomon saw hyssops grow on
   walls and cedars on Lebanon. However, I have seen cedars grow on walls
   and hyssops on Lebanon! I have seen the smallest Christians in the best
   places and the best Christians in the worst positions. I have seen, in
   the midst of the haunts of the harlot, Grace shining in all the purity
   and chastity of lovely womanhood. And in the haunt of the thief and of
   the burglar, God has been pleased to have some choice saint, that, for
   honesty, integrity and holy living might have been worthy to have
   walked in a bishop's palace, or to have adorned the best Evangelical
   drawing room in England! Brethren, it is not the position that is the
   main thing! The best of men may grow in the worst places and some of
   the meekest of Believers may be found where there ought to have been
   the bravest. I will leave this point, therein, by repeating that
   whatever may be the trial of heart which a man may have to endure, this
   assurance just meets the case--"My Grace is sufficient for you."

   III. And, lastly, SHOULD NOT THE ASSURANCE THAT WE SHALL RECEIVE
   SUFFICIENT GRACE MAKE US EXCEEDINGLY GLAD?

   "My Grace is sufficient for you"--what then? "Most gladly, therefore,
   will I rather glory in my infirmities"--not only gladly, but, "most
   gladly." Nothing else will make you happy The Grace of God comes to
   meet your case and now how happy you should be! Think about the
   sureness of this fact, that sufficient Grace will be ours! My dear
   Brothers and Sisters, I am not careful about preachingtonight, I merely
   talk right on about some things that you know and can testify. It has
   been so, has it not, in your experience? If there is one saint here who
   has an accusation to make against his Lord, let him speak! He might
   well say to you, "Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? Which of you
   have I failed to succor? When have I violated My promise? You have been
   in the waters--were you drowned? You have passed through the fire--were
   you burned? What loss have you ever sustained by your troubles? Did I
   ever refuse to hear your cry when you called upon Me? When was it that,
   in the day of battle, I did not cover your head and that I left you as
   a prey to the destroyer?" My answer is--O Lord, You know all things and
   You know that Your servant's witness is--

   "When trouble, like a gloomy cloud, Has gathered thick and thundered
   loud, He near my soul has always stood, His loving kindness, oh, how
   good!" And is not that your case, my Brother, my Sister in the Lord? I
   am sure it is! Well then, this ought to make you glad. "My Grace is
   sufficient for you," says the Lord. Your past experience proves it.
   Gladly, therefore, rejoice that you have an opportunity yet again of
   testing and trying the good Word of the Lord!

   Again, is not God's Grace sufficient for you in your present
   emergency?. Have you had some trouble today? I suppose you have had
   quite enough, too, for I never did find a day yet that had not enough
   trouble in it, and sufficient for the day is the evil thereof--well,
   but have you not had sufficient Grace today? Do you feel dull, heavy
   and gloomy in God's House of Prayer? Well, but there is Grace to be had
   and, therefore, looking to Him before you go to bed, you may still have
   another day to sing of the sufficient Grace which was given in the
   necessary hour! "Oh, but," you say, "it is not now! I can trust God for
   today, but there are clouds looming before me and I fear to enter
   them." Well, my dear Friend, if He is faithful to you today, add that
   to the fact that He was faithful yesterday! Is He not the same
   yesterday, today and forever? And ought you not at once to rejoice in
   Him? Furthermore, ask your Father and He shall tell you to turn to the
   records of Inspiration and they shall teach you! Were the righteous
   ever forsaken? And when did the Lord cast off His chosen? They have
   certainly been in quite as deep waters as you have ever known--you have
   not yet been brought to lose all that you have, to lose every
   child--not yet do you sit among the ashes and scrape yourself with a
   potsherd as Job did. And can you say, to the fullest extent, "They that
   walked in the streets did condemn me"? Not yet have you drunk of that
   cup and been baptized with the baptism of Him who said, "My God, My
   God, why have You forsaken Me?"--

   "His way was much rougher and darker than yours"--

   and yet your Lord triumphed! And all His people, in all ages, and under
   every circumstance, have triumphed in Him! If you could find one child
   of God who has been left, and if you could find one instance in which
   God has been untrue to you, then it would be fair for you to be
   depressed in spirit--but until then, you should be most joyful!

   Remember also, Brothers and Sisters, that we would never know how
   sufficient Grace was if it were not for these troubles--therefore we
   ought to be glad of all the lessons that assure us how ample and
   sufficient this Grace is! I know not whether all soldiers love the
   thought of war, but there are many who plead for a campaign. How many
   an officer of low rank has said, "There is no promotion, no hope of
   rising, no honors unless we have to fight. If we could run to the
   cannon's mouth, there would be some hope that we might gain a
   promotion." Men get few medals to hang upon their breasts who never
   know the smell of gunpowder. The brave days, as men call them, of
   Nelson and Trafalgar, have gone by--and we thank God for it--but still
   we do not expect to see such brave old veterans, the offspring of this
   age, as they who are still to be found lingering in our hospitals--the
   relics of our old campaigns. No, Brothers and Sisters, we must have
   trials if we are to get on. Young men do not become midshipmen
   altogether through going to the school at Greenwich and climbing the
   mast on dry land--they must go out to sea and be on deck in the storm!
   And if we are to be among the worthies, we must have stood side by side
   with King David! We must have gone down into the pit to slay the lion,
   or have lifted up the spear against the eight hundred as Adino did.
   Conflicts bring experience and experience brings that growth in Grace
   which is not to be attained by any other means!

   Besides, Brothers and Sisters, how is God's Grace to be seen by other
   men in the world except by our trials Grace is given to keep us from
   sin, which is a great blessing. But what is the good of Grace except it
   is in the time when the trial comes? Certainly, the Grace that will not
   stand in the hour of temptation or affliction is a very spurious sort
   of Grace and we had better get rid of it, if we have it. When a godly
   woman's child dies, the infidel husband sees the mother's faith. When
   the ship goes down and is lost in the sea, the ungodly merchant
   understands the resignation of his fellow man. When pangs shows through
   our body and ghastly death appears in view, people see the patience of
   the dying Christian. Our infirmities become the black velvet on which
   the diamond of God's love glitters all the more brightly! Thank God I
   can suffer! Thank God I can be made the object of shame and contempt
   for, in this way, God shall be glorified! This shall be the wonder of
   many and to the praise of His own Grace--that so mean and so
   contemptible a thing was made the instrument of effecting His purpose!

   I will say no more except to commend this assurance to you and ask you
   to take it home and lay it on your tongue. It will be like a wafer made
   with honey. Mind you have it for your breakfast tomorrow morning and
   let it be your constant daily meal--live on it--"My Grace is sufficient
   for you." Let the word, "you," come home to your heart, as though God
   spoke it to youand as if He had never spoken it to anyone else!

   There are some of you to whom the text does not apply, except in this
   light--you have many sins--but if you trust Christ, His Grace is
   sufficient for you. You have been head over heels in the kennel of sin,
   but the power of His blood is sufficient to make you white. And even if
   you have become a very prince and peer in the dominions of evil, the
   Grace of Christ is sufficient to wash you whiter than the driven snow!
   May the Lord add His blessing on these feeble rambling remarks, for
   Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS 3:9-27; 5:6-11; 8:1-32.

   Romans 3:9. What then? Are we better than they?The first chapter of the
   Epistle to the Romans contains so horrible an account of the manners of
   the Gentiles, the heathen of Paul's day, that it is one of the most
   painful chapters in Scripture to read. Not long ago, one of our
   missionaries out in China was attacked concerning the Bible on this
   very ground. One of the learned men said to him, "This Bible of yours
   cannot be as ancient as you say that it is, for it is quite clear that
   the next chapter of the Epistle to the Nomads must have been written by
   somebody who had been in China and who had seen the habits and ways of
   the people here." So accurate is the Holy Spirit, who knew right well
   what the ways and manners and secret vices of the heathen were, and
   still are! But the Jews said, "Ah, but this is a description of the
   Gentiles." So Paul replies, "What then? Are we better than they?"

   9. 10. No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentile,
   that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous,
   no, not one. Then he selects passages out of different parts of
   Scripture to show what man is by nature.

   11-18. There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after
   God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become
   unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one. Their throat
   is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the
   poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and
   bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery
   are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is
   no fear of God before their eyes.These are all quotations from Old
   Testament Scriptures, from their own Psalmists and Prophets from whom
   Paul quotes to the Jews so that they might see what their own character
   was by nature.

   19. Now we know that what things soever the law says, it says to them
   who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the
   world may become guilty before God. The Law of God was given to the
   Jews and the descriptions which it gives must be descriptions of the
   Jews. "Therefore," says Paul, "as Gentile mouths have been already
   stopped by the descriptions of their vices, you also, the favored
   people of God, have your mouths stopped by the descriptions of
   yourselves taken from your own Prophets."

   20. Therefore by the deeds ofthe law there shallno flesh. Whether Jew
   or Gentile--

   20, 21. Be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of
   sin. But now. Since man is lost, since man is

   guilty--

   21-27. The righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being
   witnessed by the law and the Prophets: even the righteousness of God
   which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
   believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come
   short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His Grace through
   the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God has set forth to be a
   propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness
   for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God,
   to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be
   just, and the justifer of him which believes in Jesus. Where is
   boasting then?If salvation is given to the guilty and if all are
   guilty--if no one can claim exemption, and yet salvation is freely
   given--what then? Why, salvation must be purely by the Grace of God! So
   let Grace have all the honor. "Where is boasting then?"

   27. It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No: but by the law of faith.
   The law of works sometimes aids boasting, for a man rejoices and
   glories in what he has done. Yet the law of works ought to stop our
   boasting because we are guilty in God's sight. The law of faith stops
   our mouth because we are under obligation to God and do not dare to
   boast, seeing that we have nothing of good but what we have received
   from Him!

   Romans 5:6. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ
   died for the ungodly. What a wonderful sentence that is! Not, "Christ
   died for the saints, "not, "Christ died for righteous men," but, "when
   we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

   7-9. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yetperhaps for a
   goodman some would even dare to die. But God commends His love toward
   us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more
   then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath
   through Him. What an argument this is for the final safety of
   Believers! If Christ died for us when we were enemies, surely He will
   give us, now that He has died for us and made us His friends, His
   reconciled subject--"Much more then, being now justified by His blood,
   we shall be saved from wrath through Him."

   10. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
   of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
   There is a threefold argument here. We were enemies, yet God blessed us
   even then, so will He not bless us even more, now that we are
   reconciled to Him? When we were enemies, He reconciled us unto Himself.
   Having done that, will He not certainly save us? We were reconciled to
   God by the death of His Son--so much more shall we be saved by the life
   of the risen and glorified Jesus, which has almighty, irresistible
   power!

   11. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
   Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

   Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in
   Christ Jesus. Observe that Paul writes "There is therefore," for he is
   stating a Truth of God which is founded upon solid argument. "There is
   therefore now"-- at this very day, at this very moment--"no
   condemnation"--none of any sort--none that will lie in the Court of
   Conscience or in the Court of King's Bench above! "There is therefore
   now no condemnation to them who are in Christ

   Jesus." Our forefathers used to read this verse, "There is therefore
   now no damnation." One of the martyrs, being brought before a Popish
   bishop, heard the bishop say to him, "Dying in your heresy, you will be
   damned." "That I never shall be," answered the good man, "for there is
   therefore now no damnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.'" He had
   sought the very spirit of the text, for there is nothing that can
   condemn the man who is in Christ Jesus!

   1. Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. This is the
   distinctive mark of a man in Christ Jesus. He does not let the flesh
   govern him, but the Spirit. The spiritual nature has come to the front
   and the flesh must go to the back. The Spirit of the living God has
   entered into him and become the master-power of his life. He walks "not
   after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

   2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free
   from the law of sin and death. And nothing else can do that. Every man
   is, by nature, under bondage to that which Paul describes as "the law
   of sin and death." There is a law in our nature which is so powerful
   that even when we would do good, evil is present with us, and we cannot
   get away from that law except by introducing another, which is "the law
   of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." Dr. Chalmers has a remarkable
   sermon upon it--The Expulsive Power of a New Afection--and it is this
   new affection for Christ which is the accompaniment of the new life in
   Christ, which expels the old forces that used to hold us under bondage
   to sin and death.

   3. 4. For what the law could not 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 the righteousness of the law
   might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the
   Spirit. The Law of God never made anybody holy and it never will do so.
   The Law says to a man, "This is what you ought to do and you will be
   condemned if you do not do it." That is quite true, but the Law
   supplies no power to enable us to do this! It says to the lame man,
   "You must walk," and to the blind man, "You must see," but it does not
   enable them either to walk or to see! On the contrary, our nature is
   such that when the Law issues its commands, there is a tendency in us
   at once to disobeythem. There are some sins which we never would have
   thought of committing if we had not been commanded not to do them, so
   that the Law of God--not because of its own nature, but because of the
   wickedness of our nature, is weak and ineffectual for the producing of
   righteousness. But the Lord Jesus Christ has come, has lived and has
   died--died for us who are His people, and has put away our sins. Now we
   love Him! Now, being delivered from all condemnation, we love Him who
   has delivered us and this becomes the force by which we are inclined to
   holiness and led on further and further in a course, not merely of
   morality, but of holiness before God! What a blessed system this is,
   which saves the sinner from the love of sin, delivers a man from
   sinning, gives him a new nature and puts a right spirit within him!

   5. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
   Flesh cares for flesh. The man who is all body cares only for the body.
   The man whose mind is under subjection to his body, minds "the things
   of the flesh."

   5. But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Where
   the Holy Spirit is supreme. Where the spiritual world has become
   predominant over the heart and life. There, men live for something
   nobler than the worldly man's trinity, "What shall we eat, and what
   shall we drink, and how shall we be clothed?" The carnal life is only
   becoming to a beast, or a bird, or an insect. But when a man cares for
   his immortal spirit and lives for Divine and spiritual things, he has
   attained to the life that is life, indeed!

   6, 7. For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded
   is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for
   it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be. As long as
   a man lives only for this present evil world, lives for self, lives
   under the domination of the flesh, he cannot really know God, or truly
   serve Him. Such a mind as his "is not subject to the Law of God,
   neither indeed can be."

   8. So then they that are in the flesh. That is, those who are under its
   condemnation and power-- 8-10. Cannotplease God. But you are not in the
   flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in
   you. Now if any men have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
   And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the
   Spirit is life because of righteousness. So that although Christ dwells
   in a man, he must not reckon that he will be free from suffering, pain
   and sickness, for the body has not yet risen from the dead and does not
   yet feel the full effect of regeneration. The soul is risen from the
   dead by regeneration and it, therefore, "is life because of
   righteousness." The body will, in due time, also share in the power of
   Christ's Spirit. The day draws near when we "shall be delivered from
   the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of
   God."

   11, 12. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead
   dwells in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also
   quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you. Therefore,
   brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. We
   have got nothing good out of the flesh at present, for it is not yet
   "delivered from the bondage of corruption," though it is to be
   delivered.

   13. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die. For the flesh is to
   die.

   13. But if you, through the Spirit do mortify. Or, kill--

   13. The deeds of the body, you shall live. Shall a dying body, then, be
   my master? Shall the appetite for eating and drinking, or anything else
   that comes of the flesh, dominate my spirit? God forbid! Let death go
   to death--and the flesh is such. But the newly-given Spirit of God, the
   Spirit who has quickened us with immortal life shall rule and reign in
   us forevermore!

   14-21. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons
   of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,
   but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,
   Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are
   the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and
   joint-heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may
   also be glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of the
   present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall
   be revealed anew. For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for
   the manifestation of the Son of God. For the creature was made subject
   to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who has subjected the
   same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from
   the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of
   God. We are part and parcel of creation and we shall draw it along with
   us. There shall be new heavens and a new earth. The curse shall be
   taken from the garden, thorns and thistles shall no longer grow there,
   and there shall be no killing or devouring in all God's holy mountain.
   The galling yoke, which we have laid on the whole of creation by our
   sin, shall be taken off it by our Redeemer!

   22, 23. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain
   together until now. And not only they, but ourselves, also, which have
   the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
   ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body.
   We groan in unison with a groaning creation and we shall not, at
   present, get altogether rid of our aches, pains and sicknesses.

   24-32. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for
   what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we
   see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also
   helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we
   ought: but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groans
   which cannot be uttered. And He that searches the heart knows what is
   the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints
   according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together
   for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to
   His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
   conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
   many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called:
   and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them
   He also glorified. What shall we say, then, to these things? If God is
   for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but
   delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give
   us all things?
     __________________________________________________________________

Forgetting God

   (No. 2975)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY MORNING,
   SEPTEMBER 9, 1876.

   "Therefore have they forgotten Me." Hosea 13:6.

   Our text reminds us that God does take notice of what men do, or of
   what they do not do. Here He complains--and there is a kind of mournful
   plaintiveness about His words--"Therefore have they forgotten Me." It
   is not a matter of indifference to God whether men remember Him or not.
   It seemed to be a subject of surprise to David that God should think of
   man, for He wrote, "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your
   fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained, what is man,
   that You are mindful of him?" Yet God is mindful of man and it grieves
   Him that man is not mindful of Him! It would not disturb our minds if
   one tiny ant should forget or ignore us, yet we did not create it, and
   we have not the claims upon it that God has upon us. Yet, little though
   we are--and so insignificant that the ant, itself, is a great thing in
   comparison with us if we reckon what we are in comparison with God--it
   seems that He does want us to remember Him, to think of Him and to
   trust, love and serve Him. And when we do not, He is vexed and grieved.
   At least, speaking after the manner of men, we are taught to believe
   that it pains Him at His heart, so that He cries out by the mouth of
   His servant, the Prophet, "They have forgotten Me--their Maker, their
   best Friend and their greatest Helper."

   I am afraid, dear Friends, that the accusation in our text may be
   brought against a very large number of us. Certainly it can be laid to
   the charge of all those who have lived without thinking of God and who
   have never turned to Him with repentance and faith and who,
   consequently, are still strangers to Him. How many such people there
   are, God alone can accurately compute! The great mass of our fellow
   creatures would come under that category. But, worst of all, among the
   Lord's own people there are, alas, some against whom this accusation
   can be brought! They have forgotten their God--not absolutely, so as to
   be utterly and altogether like the thoughtless sinner--yet very sadly
   and grievously, so that God, Himself, complains of them, "They have
   forgotten Me." For, mark you, if God observes what ordinary men do,
   much more does He take notice of what His own people do! An unkind word
   from a stranger may have a very slight effect upon us, but if such a
   word should come from the lips of one whom we love it would cut us to
   the quick! We could put up with a thousand things from those who are
   mere acquaintances, but from a beloved child, or from the wife of our
   bosom--such a thing would be very hard to bear. Remember, O Christian,
   that ancient declaration, "The Lord your God is a jealous God." Because
   He loves us so much, He is in that very proportion, jealous, for the
   greatest jealousy grows out of limitless love. And the Lord our God who
   bought us with the heart's blood of His dear Son, counts us so dear to
   Him that a wandering thought in our mind becomes a crime against
   Him--and the giving up of any part of our heart to love of the world,
   or of self, or sin, or Satan, or any other of His rivals--becomes to
   Him a cause of grief and sadness. If there are any children of God
   here--and I fear there may be many--who have grown cold in heart and
   who have wandered from the Lord, I hope the text will come like a
   lament from Him who hung upon the Cross of Calvary, "Therefore have
   they forgotten Me. Therefore have they forgotten Me."

   I. I am going to call your attention, first, to THE TIME WHEN THIS SIN
   WAS COMMITTED. "Therefore," says the Lord, "have they forgotten Me."
   When was that? If we ascertain that, we shall also find out when we
   ought to be most upon our guard against falling into a similar sin.

   It appears, dear Friends, to have been when the Israelites had come out
   of the wilderness into Canaan--when they had escaped from troubles and
   had come into an easy condition, for so the context reads--"I did know
   you in the

   wilderness, in the land of great drought. According to their pasture,
   so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted;
   therefore have they forgotten Me." It is a very sorrowful fact that in
   this case the greater God's goodness was to His people, the less was
   their gratitude to Him--just in proportion as He was kind to them, they
   were cold to Him. These people had been delivered from excessive toil.
   In Egypt they had been a nation of slaves. And in the wilderness they
   had been for 40 years pilgrims with weary feet. They seldom tarried
   long in any place, but backwards and forwards across that "waste
   howling wilderness" they marched almost continuously. And concerning
   all that time, God says, "I did know you in the wilderness." He knew
   them, morning by morning, as the manna fell. He knew them when the
   quails came on swift wings to bring them flesh to eat. He knew them
   when the morning and evening lambs were offered in sacrifice for them,
   sinners as they were all the while they were in the wilderness, and He
   says, "I did know you then." So, Brothers and Sisters, it has happened
   to some men that when they have had hard times, long hours and stern
   labor, they have managed to be up in the morning early to get a quiet
   season of communion with God and, though they scarcely could have been
   thought capable of doing it, for they worked so hard, yet they could
   find leisure to teach a few children in the Sunday school, or to
   distribute tracts, or to speak a word for Christ at an open-air
   service! They had very hard bondage in their daily occupation, yet
   whenever there was a weeknight service, they always managed to get
   there. They were very apt out of sheer weariness because they had been
   toiling so hard during the day, to fall asleep when they sat down in
   the pew--still, they said that half a loaf was better than no
   bread--and they were glad to get a message from any of the Lord's
   servants in those trying days.

   But, dear Friends, you remember that in due time the children of Israel
   came to Canaan. Then there was no more marching to and fro in the
   wilderness for them! They found houses built ready for them to occupy
   and they could sit, every man, under his own vine and under his own fig
   tree--and then it was that the Lord said, "They were filled, and their
   heart was exalted, thereforehave they forgotten Me." It is just the
   same with the man who used to come to the House of God Sundays and
   weeknights, though he was sorely weary with his heavy work. He now has
   what men call, "an easy berth," and has very little to do, so, being no
   longer a poor galley slave tugging at the oar, you might have thought
   that he would have given more time to God's service and have become one
   of the most industrious Christians living! But instead he does not do
   as much, now, as he used to do with the little bits of time which his
   hard toil allowed him! Ah, Brothers, when you get into smooth and easy
   places, then is the time when you should be most anxious, lest of you,
   as of the Israelites, the Lord should have to say, "Therefore have they
   forgotten Me." I would gladly wish for every one of you that you may be
   able to earn your daily bread without any excessive labor. I would that
   every man who has to toil beyond due and reasonable hours, were
   delivered from such semi-slavery. Yet I know that there are many who
   make an ill use of any leisure that they get and some who are not
   nearly as fervent in the cause of God, now that they have leisure, as
   they used to be before they were so privileged!

   These Israelites, also, were now delivered from the pressure of urgent
   needs. At the very beginning of their wilderness journey, they had to
   go for three days without water. "And when they came to Marah, they
   could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter." They
   cried to Moses, "What shall we drink?" And he cried to the Lord and
   soon the bitter waters were made sweet. Before long, they had eaten up
   all that they had brought with them out of the land of Egypt--and they
   murmured, again, and then the Lord gave them a daily supply of
   manna--their bread dropped from the sky morning by morning! But now
   that they have got into Canaan, that have broad fields that are very
   fruitful, they reap abundant harvests, their barns are full to bursting
   and the hillsides are clad with vines, olive trees, fig trees and all
   manner of dainties! Instead of having to gather one day's food at a
   time, they have many months' supplies laid up in store. Some of them
   became very rich but, alas, it was of them that the Lord had to say,
   "According to their pasture, so were they filled...therefore have they
   forgotten Me." You surely have known or heard of men and women who have
   loved the Lord when in poverty--or, at least, who have seemed to do
   so--and who were very fervent and active while they had to look up to
   the Lord from day to day and pray, "Give us this day our daily bread."
   But, in the order of God's Providential dealings, they have been lifted
   up into another station in life. You would naturally have supposed that
   they would have loved the Lord more and have done more for His
   cause--and laid themselves out with a greater willingness for His
   service--but, instead of that, it has been the very reverse with them!
   When they were financially poor, they were spiritually rich--but now
   that they are financially rich, they are spiritually poor! As they have
   gone up temporally, they have gone down spiritually. Their barn has
   become full, but their heart has become empty! Their wine press has

   overflowed, but the joy of the Lord has departed from them. It is a
   sad, sad thing wherever this happens. Sadly, some of us know that it
   often happens. Let it not be so with any of you, Beloved.

   Then, again, these Israelites had become very self-indulgent They
   enjoyed themselves and lived only for pleasure. And they despised
   everybody who would not or could not do the same. Being "rich and
   increased with goods," they looked down upon those who were not rich
   and, worse than that, they began to forget their God. O my Brothers and
   Sisters, I have often looked upon them who have been in sore trouble
   and I have wished that, by some magic touch, I could lift the daughters
   of sorrow out of their sad state! But I have lived long enough to feel
   that if I could do it, I would deliberately stay my hand until I had
   consulted with Infinite Wisdom to know whether it would be for their
   good or not. If it were in my power to lift the cross from every
   Brother and every Sister's shoulders here and to give all of you your
   heart's desire, I would not do so, however much I might feel prompted
   to do it! As I often see how the plant that bloomed in the shade is
   burnt up in the sunshine--and how some natures have never yielded the
   sweetest perfume except in grief's sad dripping-well--when I perceive
   that some of God's saints never seem to honor Him when they are lifted
   up into high places--I feel that you and I had better be satisfied to
   let the Lord put His people wherever He pleases and keep them on "short
   commons," sometimes, and even chasten them every morning, as the
   Psalmist says was done to him. Perhaps some of them, if the Lord did
   not make them cry every morning, would make themselves cry twice as
   much before night--and if He did not afflict them, they would very soon
   bring far worse afflictions upon themselves by falling into some great
   sin.

   I think I know the reason why God does not trust some of us with the
   bright eyes and the elastic step which He bestows upon others. I think
   I can see why He does not give some of us more prominent positions in
   His Church and greater influence among the works for Him. I think I can
   tell why that Sister is lame and that Brother is blind--why that one
   hangs her harp upon the willows and that other toils amid continual
   poverty. It is because God will not risk all His ships on the roughest
   sea. He has constructed some of His vessels so that they can stand the
   storm--and these He sends away into the thick of the tempest--but His
   little ships He keeps nearer the shore. Some of His seamen see less of
   His wonders in the deep because they are not able to bear the sight as
   others can. I think it is so and, certainly, this is true-- that
   seasons of prosperity, of any sort, are seasons of great trial to
   Christians. According to our text, it was at the time of their
   prosperity that the Israelites forgot their God.

   II. Now, secondly, let me indicate THE PROGRESS OF THIS EVIL WHENEVER
   IT HAPPENS TO A MAN.

   It has happened that some men have lived all their lives forgetting
   God. It may be that some of you who are here at this service have never
   really thought of God--you have forgotten all about Him. A gentleman
   was walking down a country road one Sabbath morning and he met a man
   with a cartload of hay. He was asked by the man who was driving the
   cart whether he had seen two lads on in front. "Yes," said the
   gentleman, "I have, and I think they are the boys of a father with a
   short memory, are they not?" He said he did not know whether it was so
   or not, but they were his lads. "Well," said the gentleman, "I thought
   that you were their father and that you had a short memory, for you do
   not seem to have recollected that there is a text of Scripture which
   says, 'Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy.'" That short memory
   concerning the Sabbath affects a great many people concerning
   everything else that is good. Some of you, I fear, have such short
   memories that you have never even recollected the God who made you. You
   have eaten just as the cattle eat and you have drunk as they drink--but
   you have never blessed the Giver of the unnumbered mercies that you
   have received--any more than the cattle have done! Some of you go on
   from morning to night without any recognition of God. There are
   hundreds of men who might be compared--as Rowland Hill did once compare
   them--to hogs under an oak. "They eat the acorns," he said, "but they
   never look up and thank the oak." They live in this world and feed upon
   the bounties which God has provided for them, yet they have no thought
   of Him! It is His air that they breathe and it is by His power that
   they exhale the air--they could not exist for a single moment if it
   were not for Him--yet He is not in any of their thoughts! If God were
   blotted out of the universe--if such a thing could be, that He should
   no longer exist, but that they could still exist--they certainly would
   not be grieved. Possibly they would feel all the easier in their mind
   because there would be no judgment to come and no punishment for all
   their evil.

   Ah, my Friend, you must be in a very bad plight if you think you can
   get on better without God than with Him! If your boy were to say
   concerning you, "I wish I might never see my father again"--if that
   little child who eats at your table every day, whom you clothed but the
   other day with new garments--if he were to say, "I never want to speak
   to my father again--I wish he were dead!"--there must be something
   radically wrong in that child! His morals must be thoroughly bad. Even
   if nobody has ever found him out in deceiving or lying, I am sure, from
   that one fact, that he is a bad boy. Now, my Friend, even if I cannot
   point to any sinful act of yours, I am sure that there must be
   something very wrong with you if you have lived in this world all these
   years without thinking of God!

   If I am invited to go and stay with a friend in the country and I
   simply see his beautiful park and his fine gardens, and indoors I have
   all that I need in the way of refreshment during the day and a
   comfortable bed at night, but my host never puts in an appearance--and
   I do not know whether he is anywhere about the premises--I do not enjoy
   my visit. I came down to see him, so I cannot be content with seeing
   his park and his gardens, and so on. I say to the servants, "Where is
   your master? I came down here to pay a visit to him and I cannot find
   any pleasure here unless I see him." And, dear Friends, I feel just
   like that with regard to my God. When I look at this beautiful world
   which He has made--and it is a beautiful world, after all, let who will
   speak against it--I always feel that I need to see Him who made it.
   Even our lovely gardens which seem to me to be a thousand times more
   beautiful than all the vineyards of the Continent, would give me no
   pleasure in looking at them unless I could always realize that God is
   there. The sea itself--the wide and open sea-- what is it if there is
   no God to rule its waves and to speak in its storms? I must see traces
   of God in everything that happens! But some of you have lived all this
   while and God's cry concerning you--over hill and dale, up and down the
   street, in the house where you live, across the table at which you eat,
   and over the pillow on which you sleep--is, "They have forgotten Me. I
   have made them, kept them alive and blessed them in a thousand ways,
   yet they have forgotten Me!--Me, of whom they ought first to have
   thought, for it was essential with them that they should first have
   thought of Me--and through not thinking of Me, they have bred within
   themselves all manner of evil." O unconverted people, I wish you could
   put yourselves in God's place for a few minutes and just think how you
   would feel if others had treated you as you have treated Him! Let the
   sharp arrows of conviction stick fast in your conscience as you realize
   that you have acted in a mean, dastardly, ungenerous, ungrateful way
   towards your God--the tender, loving, gracious Creator, Preserver and
   Friend of men!

   But, now, turning to you Christian people, I want to ask of the
   progress of this evil in you. I will show you how it often works. When
   God prospers you in business, takes away sickness and removes causes of
   sorrow, it sometimes happens that the evil of forgetting God begins
   with an almost imperceptible alienation of heart from Him. You do not
   notice it. You would be very grieved if you did, but your heart begins
   to grow cold and the love to your Lord that once burned in your soul is
   not as fervent as it used to be. And this condition of spirit very
   speedily shows itself in increasing fondness for worldly things. To
   have riches may be a blessing to you, but for the riches to have
   youwill be a great curse to you. There are some who have abundance of
   temporal things given to them and they make a good use of them, so they
   may be thankful for them. But there are others who are carried away by
   these temporal things which thus become the source of all sorts of
   calamities. A man may have a fine house and a beautiful garden and he
   may be thankful for them-- so far, so good--but he may fall into the
   sin of making a Heaven of that house and garden--and so they will be
   the cause of sin. He may be wealthy and that will be a good thing if he
   uses his money rightly. But, by-and-by, he may begin to feel that the
   one thing worth living for is to have money--and that will be an evil.
   If you have acquired a certain amount of money and you feel that you
   are a person of importance simply because you have so much wealth, you
   are putting earthly things into the place which God alone should
   occupy. As old Master Brooks says, it is as when a husband, whose wife
   used to dote upon him, has given her rings, chains and other
   ornaments--and now that she has them, she dotes over them and forgets
   him! It is very sad when this is the case and it is often so with some
   who profess to be the Lord's. If we accept His gifts as tokens of love
   from Him and see Him in them, than they are helpful and not hurtful.
   But when we get to thinking of them, and not of Him, then they become
   mischievous to us.

   This is an evil which continually grows, for this man who is beginning
   to mind earthly things, keeps on indulging himself. He takes more of
   what he calls pleasure than he used to do and, indulging himself thus,
   he gets into a wrong state for prayer, for searching the Bible, for
   attending the means of Grace. And the more he enjoys this world, the
   less does he think of the next world. As the things that are seen eat
   like a canker into him, the things that are unseen seem to lose their
   power over him. If he still attends the place where he went before to
   hear the Gospel, he says that the minister does not preach as he used
   to do, and the singing is not as lively as it used to be. Other
   Christian people say that they cannot see any difference at all, but he
   can. You know, dear Friends, what is very often the difference between
   one dinner and another. It is not the fault of the cook--it is the need
   of an appetite. Here are some Brothers and Sisters who have lost

   their spiritual appetite. They cannot eat this and they cannot eat
   that, and they cannot eat the other. They have lost their appetite,
   that is the reason. "To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet,"
   says Solomon, but this man, who has prospered in the world and has had
   much enjoyment in it, is now beginning to lose all relish even for
   those very spiritual things that were once the delight of his soul! So
   he begins to drop off coming to the House of God and gradually
   declines, first a little in this way, and then in that. He has more
   money, now, than he used to have, so it takes him a longer time to
   count it. He has more business than he used to have and it takes more
   time to look after it. He cannot come to weeknight services and if, on
   the Lord's-Day, for appearance sake, he does not cease going to the
   place of prayer, he carries his ledger with him in his
   carriage--metaphorically, if not literally! There is many a man who
   comes into his pew with acres of land hanging to his boots. And there
   is many a woman who sits there in a fine new dress--not only the one
   she has on, but the other one that is to be made up on Monday!

   It is sad when worldly things then get into the soul and come right
   into God's House. Why, the preacher himself knows what it is to find a
   thousand distracting thoughts come to his mind while he is addressing
   you! And, therefore, he knows that they must come to your minds while
   you are listening to the Word of the Lord. Thus it happens that in one
   thing after another, the love of God and His Word withers--and the love
   of the world grows. By-and-by, family prayer gets pushed into a
   corner--very short and not very sweet. And private prayer hardly knows
   where to find a place for the sole of its feet. Private prayer, as
   there are none but yourselves to note its observance, is a very
   convenient place for retrenchment. You want to save time, as you have
   so much to do and, therefore, you snip off a piece here, and another
   piece there, and who but God is the wiser? You do not perceive any very
   great difference, for your conscience is getting seared. So, by
   degrees, a Christian who is declining in spiritual things, gives up
   private prayer--not altogether, perhaps, but the sweetness and the
   enjoyment of it depart as he trifles with it, instead of entering into
   the holy exercise with all his heart and soul.

   In some professing Christians, this declension goes still further. At
   last they give up all religious profession. I wonder whether there are
   any here who once declared and probably believed that he was a
   Christian, but who has now given up even the name of Christian? If so,
   my Friend, one of two things is true concerning you--either you never
   were converted at all, and so have been a mere professor, or else, if
   you ever were truly converted, you will have to come back. As surely as
   ever the Lord looked upon you with an eye of love, you must come back
   to Him, for, after He has once set His seal upon you, He cannot and
   will not let you go! Oh, that you would come back to Him now! You will
   have to come back, poor wandering sheep, for you belong to the Good
   Shepherd who will not lose one of His flock! Wayward as you are, He
   will have you with Him and if you will not come back to Him when He
   calls you, He has some rough dogs that will worry you back! But back
   from the paths of sin you must come--and I pray God that you may come
   back right speedily and so once more enjoy the blessings of peace with
   Him! I sometimes pass persons who used to sit in these pews and who
   were, I thought, ardent Christians. Even now some of them have respect
   for me, but I fear that they have none for my Master. If I get anywhere
   near them, they slink away, for fear I should speak to them. I wish
   they had as much anxiety about the grief they have caused my Lord as
   they have about any grief they may have caused me. May God grant,
   through His Sovereign Grace, that all of us who have professed to be
   His, may be preserved, lest--

   "When any turn from Zion's way (Alas, what numbers do!)"-- we also
   should turn away, as we shall certainly do unless His Grace shall hold
   us fast!

   III. Now, thirdly, and very briefly, a few words about THE PECULIAR
   EVIL OF THIS SAD CONDITION--

   "They have forgotten Me"

   It is so grossly ungratefulthat every Christian who realizes that he is
   apt to slide into such a condition should, at once bestir himself and
   watch against it. What? Shall I love the Lord less because He gives me
   more? Shall I set the gifts which His goodness bestows upon me, upon
   His Throne and let them be idols to deprive Him of my heart's love and
   worship? If I do this, surely I shall be worse than the brute beasts!
   God grant, dear Brothers and Sisters, that we may be ashamed of such a
   condition as this and flee from it!

   Remember that if any of us do begin to set our hearts upon the things
   of this world, whatever we gain, we must be losers. The man who has
   scarcely a rag to cover him, but who delights in God, may be the beau
   idealof a happy man. But the man who is robed in purple and who calls
   an empire his own--and who has forgotten his God--is to me the model

   of misery mocked by majesty! God save you from being able to delight
   yourselves in anything but your God! May He put so much bitterness into
   every other cup that you will be compelled to take the cup of salvation
   and, calling upon the name of the Lord, to drink only of that! You will
   be dreadful and eternal losers, whatever else you gain, if you lose the

   Lord!

   If you forget God, you who are indeed His children--and I am speaking
   only to such people just now--it is a terrible thing for you to be led
   into a condition in which you forget your Heavenly Father. If there
   were a wife who was very poor, but who, as long as she was poor, clung
   to her husband and found all her delight in his love, but who, when
   they became rich, no longer cared for him, it would be wretched riches
   that could burn away her heart from him who ought to possess it all! If
   I love my brother and find great comfort in fellowship with him, but I
   should suddenly get to be so great that I should not know my
   brother--what a miserable being I would be! Many a man does not know
   his own relations when he begins to get rich. He thinks he is somebody
   of importance, but really he is a big nobody--a very great and dreadful
   nobody! And when a man, just because God prospers him, does not know
   Jesus Christ, his great elder Brother, and gets to be ashamed of mixing
   with God's poor people who go to the little Ebenezer Chapel or of being
   seen with those poor commonplace sort of Christians who try to follow
   the Lamb where ever He goes--he is a poor, poor specimen of a man, much
   less of a Christian! God give us minds and hearts quickened by His
   Grace, that will enable us to live above all such meanness as that!

   A sad part of the wretchedness of this condition is that it involves so
   much trifling with God. If we have forgotten God, dear Brothers and
   Sisters, we have forgotten the many deliverances we have had in the
   days that are past. We have forgotten the wiping away of our tears of
   sorrow. Worse still, we have forgotten the precious blood of Jesus that
   spoke peace to our soul. And we have forgotten the Holy Spirit who came
   into our hearts and gave us joy and rest in Jesus Christ. And if we
   have forgotten God, we have forgotten His gracious promises which are
   yet to be fulfilled, and the glorious Covenant of His Grace, ordered in
   all things and sure, on which our hopes of Heaven are based! We have
   also forgotten His claims upon us--forgotten that we are His children,
   His beloved, His elect, His redeemed! We have forgotten all that and we
   are living in such a condition that we are trifling even with His
   threats! He has threatened that He will chasten us and we seem to make
   light of His threats and to defy His chastisements. We must have gotten
   into a state that is piteous and lamentable to the last degree if we
   can live from day to day in forgetfulness of God!

   IV. I will say no more about this sad decline, but finish my discourse
   by telling you HOW THIS EVIL CAN BE CURED.

   If any of us, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, are suffering from this
   dreadful decline, it is a good help towards its being cured when we see
   the mischief of it. When a man has this sad condition pointed out to
   him and the Spirit of God enables him to see it, that is a great help
   towards lifting him out of it. But I think that the best thing for us
   all to do is, just for the moment, to sink all differences and not ask
   any questions about whether we are saints or sinners--whether we ever
   did love the Lord, or whether we did not--and let us all go straight
   away to the Cross, just as if we had never gone there before. By
   nature, and by practice, too, we are all guilty and we all deserve to
   be cast into Hell--the best of us as well as the worst. So let us all
   go where the Savior carried the great load of sin upon Himself and bore
   the consequences that He might set us free from it forever. Let us look
   up to Him and, by faith, view the flowing of the blood from those many
   wounds that He received on our behalf. Let us look into that dear face
   of His--the image of matchless misery and majesty combined! Let us note
   the crown of thorns and the marks of ignominy and shame that cruel men
   put upon Him. Let us hear Him cry, "My God, My God, why have You
   forsaken Me?" And, as we see Him die, let us believe in Him again, or
   believe in Him for the first time.

   My Savior, my Redeemer, wherever I may have wandered, I come back to
   You. My soul believes in You, trusts You, hangs all her hopes for time
   and eternity upon You. Will You not speak peace and pardon to my guilty
   spirit? Ah, if you come to Him with such a confession and cry as this,
   you will get your love back. The best place to get it back is the place
   where it was born. It was born at the Cross and you will get it back if
   you go to the Cross, just as you went at first, and stand there, with
   this as your soul's confession of faith--

   "I the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me."

   I cannot say more except just this--if God is prospering you, keep very
   close to the Cross. Do you not see that if the richer you get and the
   more often you go to the Cross, it will be safe for you to be trusted
   with wealth? Take care to sanctify everything that God gives you by
   giving Him His proper portion and do not use your own portion till you
   have given Him His. Then, if you look at every blessing as coming to
   you by the way of the Cross, and say, "Jesus Christ has sent me this,
   for--

   "'There's never a gift His hand bestows But cost His heart a groan'"--

   if you receive everything as throughHim and then desire to use
   everything forHim, you may be as rich as the Rothschilds and yet you
   may be as gracious as the Apostle Paul! You might have all the world
   given you, and yet, for all that, it would not hurt you. If you had as
   much of God as you had of gold, God would see that the gold was safe in
   your hands. He would trust us with prosperity if He saw that all our
   prosperity only bound us more closely and more completely to the Cross
   of His dear Son. So, if any of you have forgotten Him, conclude this
   evening's service by coming to the Cross. And thus Father, Son and Holy
   Spirit shall get glory from you. May it be so, for Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HOSEA 13:1-9.

   Hosea was full of complaints against the people of God, for in his day
   they had very sadly wandered from the Lord. They had even forgotten
   Him. In Hosea's prophecy we have the plaintive voice of a loving God
   chiding His backsliding children.

   Hosea 13:1. When Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel,
   but when he offended in Baal, he died. A modest, humble, trembling
   heart is often by far the sounder heart, but when we begin to sin and
   to sin boastfully, and to wrap ourselves about with the robe of
   self-complacency, then is death very near to us! "When Ephraim spoke
   trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal,
   he died."

   2. And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of
   their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it
   the word of the craftsmen: they say of them, let the men that sacrifice
   kiss the calves. When Jeroboam became king of the new Kingdom of
   Israel--in order to prevent his subjects from going to Jerusalem to
   worship God in Solomon's temple--he started two shrines at Dan and
   Bethel and there he set up what Holy Scripture calls in derision,
   "calves." I suppose that his idea was to make images of a bull, the
   emblem of power, intending them to be the symbol of the Divine Being
   and that the people still intended to worship God, but to worship Him
   under the image of a bull. It is the same in Roman Catholicism to this
   day--the worship of God, the worship of Christ, by means of crucifixes,
   and emblems and symbols of various kinds. But when men once begin that
   kind of idolatry, there is no knowing where they will stop, for the
   worship of God through the medium of symbols soon grows into the
   worship of other gods, saints, "blessed virgins" and I know not what
   besides! They are pretty sure to be set up when once people begin to
   make use of outward and visible emblems of the Deity. So it was with
   these ancient Israelites. From worshipping the bull, which was meant to
   be a type of the Omnipotent God, they went on to the worshipping of
   "molten images of their silver and idols according to their own
   understanding." Brothers and Sisters, let us take warning from these
   idolaters and always keep to the simplicity of worship ordained by God
   in His Word. However comely and beautiful, or grand and imposing and,
   consequently, fascinating, any form of idolatry may be to some minds,
   let us utterly despise it if it is not according to the mind of God and
   the teaching of His Spirit as revealed in His Word.

   3. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew
   that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of
   the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. Those who will have
   gods of their own making shall have but a brief enjoyment of them. He
   who truly worships the Everlasting God shall have an everlasting
   blessing! But he who worships gods that he has made himself--mere
   objects of this mortal day--shall have but a short day of it. He shall
   be as the early dew which glistens brightly, but is soon gone--or as
   the morning cloud which is banished by the rising of the sun.

   4. 5. Yet I am the LORD your God from the land ofEgypt, and you shall
   know no god but Me: for there is no Savior beside Me. I did know you in
   the wilderness, in the land of great drought. The Israelites drew near
   to God when

   they needed bread and water in the wilderness. God says, "I did know
   you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought." And the Lord
   might say to His people nowadays, "I did know you when you were very
   sick, when you were very poor, when you were in great trouble. You
   sought Me then--how is it that you are trying to do without Me now?"

   6-8. According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled,
   and their heart was exalted, therefore have they forgotten Me.
   Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I
   observe them: I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her
   whelps, and will tear open the rib cage of their heart, and there will
   I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them. When men
   forget God they may expect that they will meet with some terrible
   judgments. And especially God's own people will find this to be the
   case with them if they forget the Lord. Our God is a very jealous God
   and when His children will set their hearts on other objects instead of
   upon Him, He will take care to embitter those objects of their
   affection to them--He will make their idols to be loathed by them. If
   God did not love us very much, He would think little of our faults, but
   just because He loves us so much, He cannot bear that any part of our
   heart's affection should go away from Him. So, if He sees that we deal
   unfaithfully with Him, He will make us realize that sin is an
   exceedingly evil and bitter thing. His anger against us will be like
   that of a bear that is robbed of her whelps, or of a lion or leopard
   leaping upon his prey.

   9. O Israel, you have destroyed yourself: but in Me is your help. "You
   have gone away from Me, but I will bring you back again. You have
   destroyed yourself by your sin, but I will restore you to My favor by
   My Grace. You may look within yourself for causes of repentance, but
   you must not look to yourself for the means of restoration. You must
   look to Me, your Savior and your God." So this verse teaches us "O
   Israel, you have destroyed yourself, but in Me is your

   help."
     __________________________________________________________________

Order Is Heaven's First Law

   (No. 2976)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk everyone in his
   path." Joel 2:8.

   THOSE who have been able to observe the marching of an army of locusts
   have been amazed beyond measure with the marvelous regularity of their
   advance. Agur, who must surely have seen them, says, "The locusts have
   no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands." The wonder is that
   creatures comparatively so insignificant in size, and so low down in
   the scale of intelligence, should maintain such more than martial
   order, both in their long flights and in their devouring marches. The
   ablest commanding officers would be at their wits' end if ordered to
   marshal a multitude numbering even a thousandth, or perhaps a millionth
   part of the countless hordes of these destructive marauders and yet, by
   instinct, the locust soldiery can and do keep rank better than the most
   veteran regiments of the line, as I can personally testify, from having
   seen miles of them in one of the Italian valleys. "They shall march
   everyone on his ways," says the Prophet, "and they shall not break
   their ranks: neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk everyone
   in his path."

   I. As I considered this remarkable fact in insect life, my meditations
   led me to note THE ORDER WHICH REIGNS, not only among locusts, but
   THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE OF GOD'S WORLD. And then I said within myself--
   After this fashion should there be order and arrangement in the
   Christian Church. God has trained His great insect army and among them
   order reigns, but this is no exception to the general rule, for all the
   hosts of God are marshaled in rank and file and are never left to be a
   disorganized mob of forces. From the most minute to the most
   magnificent, all creatures feel the sway of order and they well observe
   the laws imposed by their Creator!

   Look up to the heavens and observe the innumerable stars that glisten
   there so plenteously that numeration fails. Looked at through the
   telescope, stars are so abundant that the heavens appear to be covered
   with dust of gold and yet we have no record that one of these bodies
   has ever interfered with the orbit of its fellow sphere, or if such a
   catastrophe has ever been permitted, it has been part of the
   all-comprehending scheme. The majestic orbs move, each one in its own
   orbit, and all in perfect harmony. Even the aberrations, as we call
   them, are nothing but the result of regular law and the astronomer
   finds that he can calculate them with the greatest possible accuracy.
   There are no irregularities, discords, or failures among the
   constellations! And if to the student of the heavens such should appear
   to be the case, he has but more fully to master the universal law and
   he discovers, with astonishment, that every eccentricity is a necessary
   incident in a system grander than he had thought. Mere amateurs in
   astronomy talked of irregularities, but Newton and Kepler found a
   mathematical precision manifest in all. At no point need we be afraid
   that the universe will be thrown out of gear! If a man had placed
   innumerable wheels in a machine, there would be, in due time, a
   breakdown somewhere. Oil would be needed here, a cog would be broken
   there, a band would be snapped in this place, or a piston would be
   immovable there--but God's great machine of the universe, whose wheels
   are so high that the sublime Ezekiel, when he saw them, felt that they
   were terrible, has continued to revolve these many thousands, perhaps
   millions of years, and has never yet been stopped for cleaning or
   repair because God has impressed upon every atom of it the most docile
   spirit of submission--and His powerful hands are at work every instant
   amidst the machinery giving force to His laws.

   Nor is it so in the coarser inanimate forms of matter only, but the
   same law holds good with the whole animal creation. Not locusts alone,
   but the fish of the sea and the birds of the air all observe their
   Maker's bidding and both live and move according to rule and order, all
   forming portions of the perfect circle struck out by the Divine
   compasses. What a wonderful thing it is that mighty streams of fish
   should come, during certain seasons, from the North and swim near
   enough to our coasts to afford our citizens so large a portion of their
   daily food! If there is complaining in our

   streets, there need not be, for extended fisheries could supply all the
   inhabitants of Britain, even if they were multiplied a hundred times,
   and yet there would be no perceptible declining in the teeming
   population of all the sea, for God has so arranged it that there shall
   be most of those kinds which are most required for food. But what a
   marvel that at the fixed period, the unguided fish should migrate in
   such countless shoals and should return again, in due season, to their
   old abodes among the Arctic waves!

   Mark, too, how every tribe of animals is necessary to all the rest. So
   beautiful is the order of Nature that we cannot wantonly destroy a race
   of little birds without suffering from their removal. When the small
   birds were killed in France by the peasantry, who supposed that they
   ate the corn, the caterpillars came and devoured the crops. Man made a
   defect in an otherwise perfect circle--he took away one of the wheels
   which God had made and the machine did not work perfectly. But leave it
   alone and no jars or grindings will occur, for all animals know their
   time and place and fulfill the end of their being. You spoil the
   harmony of Nature's concert if even the sparrow's chirrup is unheard.
   The stork and the crane fly at God's bidding, the swallow and the
   martin know their pathway--the prowling beasts and ravenous birds, as
   well as the domestic cattle, all hold their own in Nature's
   arrangements. Like the bejeweled breastplate of the high priest, Nature
   is full of gems, each one in its setting--and the glory is marred if
   one is lacking. Be assured that the wild ass and coney, leviathan and
   behemoth, eagle and dove, gnat and lizard are all arranged for the
   highest good and are beautiful in their season. "Neither shall one
   thrust another; they shall walk everyone in his path."

   Rising a little higher, there is also order in the Providence of God.
   When you view the great world of human history, it looks like a skein
   of thread much twisted and tangled. When you study it, you see nations
   rise and fall, like boiling waves of a foaming sea. You read of
   horrible wars, wantonly commenced and wickedly continued. The human
   race seems to have destroyed its sons without a motive. Men rush upon
   each other with all the fury of fiends and tear each other like
   wolves--and yet they eat not that which they have killed! The history
   of mankind appears at first sight to argue the absence of God. We ask,
   "How is this? We expected to find, if God were in Providence, something
   more orderly and regular than we see here. Instead of a grand volume
   from a master-pen, we see words flung together without apparent
   connection. We expected to find a sublime poem, such as angels might
   love to read, but all this is confusion, void and
   unintelligible--strokes and dashes without meaning to us." Yes, my
   Brothers and Sisters, and so it is. But we are little children and do
   not yet understand God's hieroglyphics! We write in large text and have
   not the transcript of the celestial shorthand. Our limited field of
   vision only lets us see a brick or two of the great house--and
   straightway we begin to criticize the infinite Architect and His work.
   After all, supposing this world to have existed six thousand years,
   what is that? In God's sight, it is but as a day, or as yesterday when
   it has passed. We see but one thread of history, a raveling of life,
   and then we vainly fancy that we can form a fair judgment of the
   tapestry curiously fashioned by the finger of the Lord!

   Coming down from these great things to ourselves, depend upon it that
   all the events in our own little lives are marching straight on to a
   gracious consummation. You, child of God, sometimes say, "What can be
   the design of this cross? What can be meant by that bereavement? Why am
   I perplexed by this dilemma? Why is this difficulty piled like a
   barricade across my path? Well, you know not now, but you shall know
   hereafter! Meanwhile, settle it firmly in your faith that "all things
   work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
   called according to His purpose." Your affliction does not jostle your
   prosperity, but promotes it. Your losses do not cause your loss--they
   really increase your true riches! Onward still, laden with untold
   blessings, every event is marching for the righteous and for the humble
   spirit. God has His way in the whirlwind and the clouds are the dust of
   His feet. Only be patient and wait upon Him with childlike confidence
   and the day shall come when you shall wonder, and be astonished, that
   there should have been such order in your life when you thought it was
   all confusion--such love when you thought it unkindness, such
   gentleness when you thought it severity, such wisdom when you were
   wicked enough to impugn the rightness of your God! Brothers and
   Sisters, the events of our history march on as rightly as a victorious
   legion under a skillful Leader. Do not let us arraign the wisdom of
   that which happens to us, or fancy that we could order our affairs in
   better style. Our good and ill, our joy and grief, all keep their
   places. "Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk everyone in
   his path."

   II. But we must rise still higher. We have come from the world of
   matter to the world of living creatures and up to the world of
   intellectual beings--NOW LET US THINK OF GOD HIMSELF.

   We may say of all His attributes that "neither does one thrust another,
   but each one walks in his path." Let us be careful at any time in
   thinking of God, that we indulge not in reflections upon one attribute
   to the forgetting of the rest. Many Christians are much soured in their
   disposition by considering God only in the light of Sovereignty. Now,
   that He is a Sovereign, is a great, deep, mysterious, but also most
   blessed Truth of God, and we would defend Divine Sovereignty with all
   our might against all comers. But, at the same time, absolute
   Sovereignty is not the only attribute of God and those who keep their
   eyes fixed upon that, to the exclusion of all other qualities and
   prerogatives, get an ill-balanced idea of God--and very likely they
   fall into errors of doctrine and, still more likely, they become
   hardhearted towards their fellow men and forget that the Lord has no
   pleasure in the death of sinners, but desires rather that they should
   turn unto Him and live.

   On the other hand, many injure their minds very greatly by reflecting
   solely upon the one thought of God, that He is good. It is a blessed
   Truth that He isgood and benevolent, and full of compassion--and Holy
   Scripture tells us that "the Lord is good to all; and His tender
   mercies are over all His works." God forbid that we should seek to
   diminish the kindness of God, or think lightly of it, "for His mercy
   endures forever." Yet some look at that one emerald ray as though it
   were the whole of the spectrum! They gaze upon one star and regard it
   as the Pleiades, Orion, and Arcturus, all in one. And, alas, worse
   results follow, for they are tempted to think sin to be a mere trifle
   since they ignore the Justice and Sovereignty of God. They so exclude
   God's righteousness and vengeance from their minds so that when they
   hear of Hell, and of the wrath that will come upon the impenitent, they
   shudder with inward unbelief and try to doubt it--and, perhaps, manage
   to find texts of Scripture which look as if they helped them in their
   perverted and jaundiced view of the Most High! They think they are
   glorifying God, but they are really dishonoring Him, for God is no more
   altogether Mercy than He is altogether Sovereignty! And He is no more
   altogether Sovereignty than He is altogether Mercy. The fact is that
   every glory meets in God! All that is good, excellent and great may be
   found in Him in complete perfection. God would have you so to think of
   Him, for, in the Atonement, which is His grandest Revelation of
   Himself, He has been pleased to show you--

   "How Grace and Justice strangely join; Piercing His Son with sharpest
   smart, To make the choicest blessings yours."

   This leads me one step further to observe that the same order is
   perceptible in the Doctrines of the Word of God. Doctrines, which look
   as if they contradicted each other, are nevertheless fully agreed. It
   is the defect in our mental vision which makes separate Truths of God
   appear to cross each other's orbit, for it is certain that the Truths
   of Scripture do not thrust each other, but each one goes on in its own
   path. Perhaps the fiercest of fights has been waged over the great fact
   that salvation is of Grace and the equally certain fact that man is
   responsible to God under the Gospel, and that, if he perishes, his ruin
   lies at his own door--and is not to be charged upon God in any sense
   whatever. This has been the arena in which intellectual gladiators have
   fought with each other age after age. If they had stood side by side
   and fought the common enemy, they would have done good service, for I
   believe in my soul that they both hold some Truth and that either of
   them will hold error unless he will yield something to his rival. There
   are some who read the Bible and try to systematize it according to
   rigid logical creeds, but I dare not follow their method and I feel
   content to let people say, "How inconsistent he is with himself!" The
   only thing that would grieve me would be inconsistency with the Word of
   God! As far as I know this Book, I have endeavored, in my ministry, to
   preach to you not a part of the Truth of God, but the whole counsel of
   God--but I cannot harmonize it, nor am I anxious to do so. I am sure
   all Truth is harmonious and to my ear the harmony is clear enough--but
   I cannot give you a complete score of the music, or mark the harmonies
   on the gamut--I must leave the Chief Musician to do that.

   You have heard of the two travelers who met opposite the statue of
   Minerva and one of them remarked, "What a glorious golden shield
   Minerva has!" The other said, "No, it is bronze." They argued with one
   another. They drew their swords, they slew each other and, as they fell
   dying, they each looked up and the one who said the shield was made of
   bronze discovered that it had a golden side to it--and the other, who
   was so bold in affirming that it was gold--found that it also had a
   bronze side. The shield was made of two different metals and the
   combatants had not either of them seen both sides. It is just so with
   the Truth of God--it is many-sided and full of variety. Grand
   three-fold lines run through it--it is one yet three, like the Godhead!
   Perhaps you and I have only seen two of the lines--many persons refuse
   to see

   more than one--and there may be a third yet to be discovered, which
   shall reconcile the apparently antagonistic two, when our eye shall be
   clarified by the baptism in the last river and we shall ascend the Hill
   of the Lord to read the Truth of God in the light of the Celestial
   City!

   However, it is clear that salvation is altogether of Grace and equally
   clear that if any man perishes, it is not for lack of invitations on
   God's side--honest invitations to come to Christ. We hear our Master
   saying, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I
   will give you rest." Some friends are so afraid of that text that they
   generally quote it "weary and heavy laden," which is not the true
   reading--the laboringones are invited to Jesus! Many such invitations
   did Christ give, yet did He not also say, "No man can come to Me,
   except the Father which has sent Me draw him"? Amid the soft rain of
   tenderness we hear the thundering of those solemn Truths of God--"So
   then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that
   shows mercy." "Therefore has He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and
   whom He will, He hardens." As we listen to that thunder, we bow to the
   Sovereignty of God yet, amid the pauses, we hear the Master say,
   "Whoever will, let him take the water of life freely," and we also hear
   Him say, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come
   in, that My house may be filled." Let us believe both sets of Truths
   and not oppose ourselves to friends who hold either the one or the
   other, but seek to bring them to believe both--for as the Bible is
   true, they are, both of them, the Truths of the living God! Observation
   leads me to think that those persons who are willing to hold the whole
   of revealed Truth, are generally Christians of a more active spirit and
   more desirous for the conversion of souls than those who contract their
   minds and only hold some one or two great theological dogmas. If we
   will but lay aside our Chinese shoes and allow our feet to grow as they
   should, we shall find it far better walking on the road to Heaven--and
   we shall be more ready for any work which our Master may call us to do!

   III. Now we turn to THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.

   Dear Friends, you and I who have entered into the Kingdom of Grace and
   have received a life which the worldling cannot understand, (for the
   carnal mind knows nothing of the spiritual life), must remember that
   our thoughts, graces, and actions ought all to keep their proper
   position so that it may be said of them, "Neither shall one thrust
   another; they shall walk everyone in his path."

   As to our thoughts, we ought to endeavor, as God shall teach us by His
   Spirit, to keep our thoughts of God's Word in their due harmony. Some
   Brothers and Sisters, for instance, are altogether doctrinal in their
   inclinations. Doctrinal study is admirable--may God send us much of it!
   Yet doctrine is not all that we are taught in the Sacred Word. There
   are also duties and promises--why despise these? Then again, other
   professors of religion are altogether of a practical turn and, while
   they value James, they depreciate Paul. They do not like an expository
   sermon, they cannot endure it! But if you give them a precept, they
   rejoice greatly. They are quite right as far as they go. The Lord send
   us much more practical Christianity! But this is not all. There are
   others who are altogether experimental and some of these will hear no
   sermon unless it treats upon the corruption of the human heart, or upon
   the dark frames of the child of God. Others will have no experience but
   the bright side--you must always preach to them out of the Canticles,
   inditing the good matter concerning the sweet love of Christ towards
   His spouse.

   Now, each of these forms of preaching is good in its season, but he who
   would keep close to the Scriptures and preserve completeness in his
   thoughts must weigh well the doctrine and seek to get a clear view of
   the Covenant of Grace and the economy of salvation. He must study the
   precepts and ask the Holy Spirit to give him the fleshy heart upon
   which those precepts may be written as upon living tablets. And then he
   must watch his experience, mourning over inbred sin, but also rejoicing
   in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, through whose blood we have
   the victory.

   We must endeavor, as much as possible, to exercise our thoughts upon
   all the subjects which God has given us to think upon in His Word and
   has applied to our hearts by the workings of the Holy Spirit. Where
   this is done, we shall avoid one thought thrusting another, and each
   will go in its own path. I have heard of doctrinal preachers who hated
   the very sound of the word, "duty.'' I have also heard the practical
   Brother declare that he detested "election" while the experimental
   Brother has affirmed that the doctrinal preacher was merely "a
   dead-letter man." Oh, what naughty words for God's children to use to
   describe one another--bitter sentences which they only use because they
   know so little! Shame upon us that we say, "I am of Paul" and, "I am of
   Apollos" and, "I am of Cephas," for all these are ours to profit by if
   we are Christ's! Learn from the doctrinal, learn from the practical,
   learn from the experimental! Blend the whole together and let not one
   thrust another, but allow each to go straight on in its own path!

   The same should hold good in the graces which we cultivate. The Lord
   Jesus Christ is pleased to put, by His Holy Spirit, into the hearts of
   those whom He has saved, certain lovely and precious things, but it is
   not always easy to get these in due harmony. For instance, I know a
   Brother who is very faithful. He does not mind telling you of your
   faults, but then, he is not affectionate in spirit--and so he never
   warns you of your infirmities in a way that does you good. Now, if that
   Brother could get affection to balance his fidelity, what an admirable
   man he would make! I remember well another Brother who was all
   affection and nothing else. He was so affectionate as to be effeminate
   and I, poor rough creature as I am, could never bear the sight of him.
   He always reminded me of a pot of molasses and his office appeared to
   be the anointing of everybody he met. If he could but have mixed a
   little fidelity with his sweetness, he would have been a much better
   and stronger man. Secker says that Christianity ought, first, "to make
   a man more of a man and then, more than a man"--and so it would if we
   sought, by the power of the Spirit, to cultivate all the graces!

   The beauty of the human countenance does not consist exclusively in
   having bright eyes--no, the fine eyes help, but all the other features
   of the face must balance it. A man may have the finest possible
   forehead and yet he may be extremely ugly because his other features
   are out of proportion--so it is with character. Character must have all
   the graces, but all the graces in harmony. Take, for instance, the
   virtue of meekness. It is a lovely thing to be of a meek and quiet
   spirit, but then, my Brothers and Sisters, how could reforms ever be
   worked if all were so meek that they could not speak out against error?
   Where would you find your Luthers and your Calvins? Meekness must be
   balanced by the virtue which is its compensating quality, namely,
   courage. Affection must be strengthened by fidelity. A man must be
   patient under affliction, but he is not to be so patient as to be idle.
   He must couple energy with his patience, in order to manifest a
   practical faith. When we have each of these, we shall be what Paul and
   James call, "perfect." Then shall we have come to be "entire, needing
   nothing," having reached "the measure of the stature of the fullness of
   Christ." Christian men should be men-Christians. If your child should
   have a rapid growth in its arms, but not in its legs, or if its legs
   should lengthen, but not its arms, what a strange being it would be!
   What a monster! It is the growth of each limb in proportion that brings
   a man to perfection. So, my Brothers and Sisters, when our heads grow
   faster than our hearts, it is an ill sign-- yet how many know a great
   deal more than they feel, and criticize much more than they believe! It
   is also an evil thing when a man's tongue grows bigger than his
   head--when he has more to say than he knows or does--when, like Mr.
   Talkative, he can talk about the road to Heaven, but makes no progress
   on it!

   The same proportions and balancing should be found in our Christian
   duties. This is too large and difficult a subject to go fully into,
   now, but we will have a word or two about it. A man is not in his
   outward action a complete Christian because he is attentive to one
   duty, for God would have His people attend to all. It will sometimes be
   a question with you as to how much time should be given to private
   devotion, how much to family worship and how much to worship--and you
   may easily make great mistakes here. I recollect a Brother, a very
   excellent man, too, who was always at Prayer Meetings and public
   services, but, unfortunately, being always away from home, his family
   was so neglected that the sons grew up, one after another, to be the
   most precocious specimens of depravity that the parish could exhibit!
   We thought and we hinted as much to our Brother that if he would be at
   home, sometimes, to teach the children, whose mother was as neglectful
   of them as the father was--and so the mischief became doubled--he would
   be far more in the path of duty than in attending public services to
   the neglect of family piety. I only wish he had been able to see the
   propriety of our advice, for he has had to smart for his folly. It is
   not often that a man's private devotions obtrude in this way, but I
   know one professor who used to spend so long a period in private prayer
   that he neglected his business and also the assembling of himself with
   God's people. It was, indeed, an unusual vice, but it came to be quite
   a sin in his case. This last is a very unusual fault and one that I
   could almost excuse because it is so unusual--but I recommend far more
   strongly the careful thinking of how much time is due to God in the
   closet, how much at the family altar, how much at the Prayer Meeting
   and how much to the weeknight services--for we must give to each
   according to its due proportion.

   Again, the difficulty will often occur to you, my Brothers and Sisters,
   as to how much is due to diligence in business and how much to fervency
   in spirit. No one can draw the line for another. Each one must judge
   for himself, but this must be the law--"Neither shall one thrust
   another; they shall walk everyone in his path." There may be a season
   in which you may lawfully give all the hours of the day to business.
   Your business may require it and there are times with commercial men
   when to go to weekday services would be almost insanity--they must keep
   to their work, or else there will become a failure--and then the name
   of Christ will be evilly spoken of. There will be times, too, with
   workingmen, when if they were to insist upon coming to the Monday
   evening Prayer Meeting, or to the Thursday night lecture, they would be
   altogether out of the path of duty--there is a demand for labor just at
   some particular time and they must obey the call--and they are in the
   path of duty in so doing. I am afraid that there are not many who fail
   in that way, but crowds who err in the opposite direction. Some will
   keep the shop open so late that there is no time for family prayer!
   Others will confine their servants so strictly that they can never get
   out on weeknights to hear a sermon. It does not strike the employer's
   mind that some of the young people would perhaps like to be at the
   Prayer Meeting on Monday night, nor will the employer be there himself.
   Now, I cannot say to you, you must give so much time to God and so much
   to the business--you yourself must ask God the Holy Spirit to guide
   you! But remember, you must not let one thrust another. It is a good
   saying of an old Divine, "Never bring to God one duty stained with the
   blood of another." As much as lies in you, give to each distinct duty
   its due proportion.

   There is a still greater difficulty with regard to the arrangement of
   distinct duties when they are likely to run counter to one another.
   Here is a servant--his master expects him, after he has entered into an
   engagement with him, to do such-and-such unnecessary work on the
   Sabbath. The young man says, "No, I cannot do that. It is clearly
   unscriptural and I must obey God rather than man." But there are
   certain things which come somewhere between the necessary and the
   unnecessary--and the servant may properly enquire, "What is my duty?"
   You must settle it carefully within your own mind. Have you any sordid
   or selfish motive for deciding in any particular way? If so, be very
   cautious how you decide, but seek the Lord's Glory, and the Lord's
   Glory, alone, and say, "While I am, as a servant, to serve man, yet I
   am the Lord's free man and I must walk both as a servant and the Lord's
   free man, and not forget either."

   Sometimes the matter of the conduct of children towards parents has
   come under our notice. A harsh parent has said, "My children shall not
   carry out their religious convictions." In such cases we have had to
   occasionally recommend the child to wait until he has grown a little
   older. At other times, we have bid the child break through the parent's
   evil command, since we cannot hold that the parent can have any right
   to make his child disobey God. In the matter of the child's
   religion--when it is able to judge for itself--it is as free as its
   parents and has a right to choose for itself. And while the parent
   should seek intelligently to guide it, coercion must never be tried. If
   the parent is ungodly, the child is free from all obedience to wicked
   commands and must then act in obedience to a higher Parent, and to a
   greater Law, namely, the Law of God. The same happens, at times, with
   regard to the husband and the wife. Of course, a good wife continually
   wishes to do that which will please her husband and she is happy to be
   subservient to him as far as may be. But when it comes to a point of
   conscience and the two relations clash, the relations of the Heavenly
   Bridegroom and the earthly husband--it is not always easy to decide
   upon a fitting course of action. But we may at least be certain that we
   must not be actuated by selfishness, nor by a desire to avoid
   persecution, nor to please men--we must stand on the side of honesty to
   God, fealty to the King of kings and a regard for the Truth as it is in
   Jesus. Do try, if it is possible, and I believe it is possible in every
   case, to harmonize all your relationships, so that neither one of them
   shall thrust another, but each shall walk in its own path.

   IV. So, Brothers and Sisters, my concluding remark shall be that as
   this is to be true in the little commonwealth of the heart and the
   home--IT OUGHT TO ALSO BE TRUE OF THE CHURCH AT LARGE.

   It is a great blessing when the members of the church do not thrust one
   another, but everyone goes in his own path. There are different orders
   of workers and these must cooperate. Alas, workers in a Sunday school
   do not always agree with one another. Then, workers in Sunday schools
   are not always so fond of workers in Ragged schools as they might be
   and, perhaps, the workers in Ragged schools may sometimes look down
   with coldness upon the distributors of tracts. It should never be so.
   We are like the different members of the body and the eye must not say
   to the foot, "I have no need of you," neither must the hand say to the
   ear, "I have no need of you." Every man must work according to the gift
   of the Holy Spirit. When a man steps out of his proper office into
   another, he makes a great mistake, both for himself and for the Church
   at large--and when one Brother envies another and picks holes in his
   coat, and finds fault with his service, he needs to hear that Inspired
   question, "Who are you that judges another man's servant? To his own
   master he stands or falls." I pray all the bands of workers to maintain
   a holy unanimity, being of one accord, minding the same thing,
   provoking one another to nothing but love and good works, striving for
   nothing except that they together may promote the Glory of the Lord
   Jesus!

   And as it is true in any one church with regard to the laborers, so it
   should be also with regard to the different ranks and classes of
   Christians. The rich should never say, "We do not want so many poor in
   the church," neither should the poor man say, "Our minister favors the
   wealthy--there is more thought of the rich than there is of the poor."
   There is just as much fault on one side as there is on the other in
   these things. While we sometimes find the purse-proud man looking down
   on the poor, it quite as often happens that the poor man takes umbrage
   where there is no need for it and is much more wicked in his jealousies
   than the other in his purse-pride. Let it never be so among Christians,
   but let the Brother of high degree rejoice that he is exalted and the
   poor that he is brought low! We need both and cannot do without
   either--and having both in the church, neither should one thrust
   another, but each should go in his own path.

   So with the educated and the uneducated. I have been saddened,
   oftentimes, when I have heard a sneer against a Brother who cannot
   speak grammatically. The Brother who can speak grammatically, perhaps,
   does not try to speak at all--and yet he sneers at the other and says,
   "Well, really, I wonder that such fellows should preach! What is the
   good of them?" Now, until you have done better than he does, do not
   find fault with him! God uses him, so surely you ought not to despise
   him! The fact is, Brothers and Sisters, that the learned and educated
   minister is necessary and useful--we have no right to sneer at those
   who have gone through a College and earned a high degree of learning,
   for they are useful. But on the other hand, who among us hears of such
   men as Richard Weaver and Mr. Carter, and others who are laboring among
   the poor and dares to despise them? If I might have my choice, I should
   prefer to work with them rather than with the fine-spun gentlemen, but
   still, every man in his own order, each man after his own fashion--let
   the one take his position and the other take his position--and never
   say a jealous or an angry word of each other, neither let one thrust
   another, but each one go straight on in his own path.

   So it ought to be with all our churches. In this great city of London,
   there is no excuse for anything like jealousy among the various
   Christian churches. If we were to build as many places of worship as
   would reach, set side by side, from here to London Bridge, on both
   sides of the road and without a single house or shop in all the
   distance--and if we were to put Gospel preachers into them all, I
   believe they could all be filled without any of them being a hindrance
   to another--for the millions in this city are so enormous that there is
   no chance of our being jostled by one another! We are like fishermen in
   the deep sea. Because there are a hundred boats, they need not, any of
   them, come off the worse. If there were 50,000 boats, they could all be
   full where the fish are so abundant. Perhaps you say, "I hear Mr.
   So-and-So, and what a dear man he is!" Very likely he is, but so is
   somebody else. It would be a great pity if everybody could hear only
   one man. It would be a very sad thing if everybody wanted to come to
   the Tabernacle, for we cannot make it any bigger than it is--and it
   would be a very wretched thing if everybody wanted to go somewhere
   else, for then we should have an empty house! But now, each one
   listening according as his own spiritual taste may guide him, or as his
   spiritual appetite may dictate to him, we are formed into different
   communities which prosper individually, but which would glorify God
   much more if all disunion were cast aside and if we sought each other's
   good, profit and edification.

   And so, to conclude, it ought to be with the different denominations. I
   sometimes think that these will continue forever. They are of no hurt
   to the Church of God, but a great blessing, for some of them take up
   one point of the Truth of God which is neglected and others take up
   another--and so, between them all, the whole of the Truth of God is
   brought out! And it seems to me that the Church of Christ is even more
   one than if all the various sections were brought together into one
   grand ecclesiastical corporation, for this would, probably, feed some
   ambitious person's vanity and raise up another dynasty of priestcraft,
   like the old Babylon of Rome! Perhaps it is quite as well as it is, but
   let each body of Christians keep to its own work and not sneer at the
   work of others. Let all feel, "We have this to do, and we will do it in
   the name of God." Let each body of Christians try to correct its
   neighbor in its errors and mistakes, but let each work hand in hand and
   stand foot to foot in the common battle and the common service, for, O
   my Brothers and Sisters, the time will come when our little narrow
   jealousies will all melt away like the hoar frost when the sun arises!
   When the King shall come in His Glory, or we are carried to the other
   side of the stream of death and see beyond the curtain which parts us
   from the invisible world, we shall look with very different eyes upon
   some things which seem so important now! We shall then see that God has
   forbidden us to glory in anything but the Cross of Christ and that the
   one thing necessary, after all, to contend for was, "By Grace are you
   saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
   God."

   Now, may the Lord help us to go straight on in our own paths, not one
   thrusting another, but all working together for God. And if there are
   any among us who are not converted, let me remind them that they are
   out of order--and let me tell them what comes of that. When a man sets
   himself in opposition to God's Laws, they crush him as surely as he is
   there! Throw yourself from the Monument and the law of gravitation will
   not be suspended to save you. Even so, if you are out of order with
   God, there is no help for it--and your destruction is certain if you
   remain opposed to Him. Oh, that you may be led, by Divine Grace, to get
   into order with God--to be reconciled unto God by the death of His Son!
   He tells you the way to get into order. It is this--simply trust Jesus!
   That is the way to rectify all errors. He that believes on the Lord
   Jesus Christ shall be saved! May God bless us all with that salvation,
   for His name's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Plowing Rock

   (No. 2977)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 12, 1876.

   "Shall horses run upon the rocks? Will oneplow there with oxen?" Amos
   6:12.

   THESE two questions are evidently Oriental proverbial expressions.
   Proverbs have always been used by the wisest of men. Solomon not only
   spoke and wrote a great many, but he also made a considerable
   collection of those uttered by others. We find in the writings of such
   notable thinkers as Socrates, Pliny and Aristotle, an abundance of
   short, pithy sentences, many of which can be used as proverbs. Proverbs
   have great force in them, because they are condensed wisdom. They are
   generally most convincing--it is hardly ever possible to answer or
   controvert them. They carry truth home as an arrow has often been known
   to carry death to the person aimed at, for they strike, they stick,
   they penetrate, they wound. Our Lord Jesus very frequently made use of
   proverbs, nor was He singular in doing so. The Prophets of old
   constantly employed them and here, in our text, we see Amos--who, from
   his occupation as a herdsman and gatherer of sycamore fruit, was
   probably more familiar with their use than some others of the Prophets
   were--puts together two proverbs which were commonly used to signify
   that men do not, as a rule, continue to labor in vain and spend their
   strength for nothing. Wise men do not send their horses to run upon the
   rocks and they do not send their oxen to plow where all their toil
   would be wasted--"Shall horses run upon the rocks?" "Will one plow
   rocks with oxen?" The answer implied is, "Certainly not," and it means
   that if a thing cannot be done, or is not worth doing if it can, it
   will be well for us not to attempt to do it. Our text may have two
   bearings--first, upon men and, secondly, upon God.

   I. First, WITH REGARD TO MEN. They are not usually so foolish as to try
   to plow a rock, yet many are as foolish as that in moral and spiritual
   matters!

   I want to give you three or four illustrations of this fact. The first
   is that many persons have tried to find the way of safety and pleasure
   in the way of sin. Many a man has sought to get rich by injustice.
   Possibly he has succeeded to a certain extent, but, as a general rule,
   it is notorious that ill-gotten riches are generally ill-spent and
   bring a curse upon their possessors. Some have thought that if they
   indulged their passions, they would have great enjoyment. Although
   their fathers warned them that such a sin would be like
   self-destruction and would make their whole life sad, they have not
   believed it would be so and they have tried to plow this hard rock of
   sin and to find lasting pleasure therein. There are hundreds and
   thousands of men who are pursuing the way which is not good--and they
   know it is not good--yet they foolishly continue in it because they
   conceive it to be the path of pleasure, nor can you beat that false
   notion out of their heart, do what you may! On the contrary, they turn
   upon you and call you a "Puritan" because you object to their style of
   living. Possibly they revile you as a hypocrite because you point out
   the evils of the way in which they are walking. Yet if they would but
   think at all seriously, they must perceive that the way of sin cannot
   lead to happiness. It is absolutely inconceivable that God, who made
   the whole universe, should have arranged that the terminus of sin
   should be Heaven, or should have made the path of evil lead to joy and
   peace! The Judge of all the earth cannot have put a premium upon
   wickedness! In the long run, it will be proved that sin brings forth
   sorrow and that the path of right is the path of peace. Yet many will
   not see that it must be so and they continue, even to the bitter end of
   life, to plow that rock, breaking the plowshare, wearing out the ox,
   and themselves dying a death of miserable disappointment, which, if
   they had not been arrant fools, they would never have had to endure,
   for they would never have attempted so hopeless a task as that of
   trying to find any real pleasure in the ways of sin! As well might you
   sow the sea with salt and expect to reap from it a harvest of golden
   sheaves! As well might you scatter firebrands and expect to gather from
   them the cooling

   streams that flow from the mountain spring, as live in sin and expect
   to receive happiness as the result of doing so! Cease, O sons of
   men--such an act of madness as the plowing of this rock must always be!

   Others are attempting another equally absurd task. They are hoping to
   find real joy in pursuits which are laudable in themselves, but which
   are entirely of this world. Did you ever read the book called The
   Mirage of Life It is a book which is well worth everyone's reading. The
   author gives, in sets of pictures, the life of the man of pleasure, the
   life of the courtier, the life of the philosopher, the life of the
   statesman, the life of the warrior and so on with a very fair selection
   of facts from the lives of such men, with the objective of showing
   that, although each one of them was eminent in his own line of
   things--and apparently successful in that line--yet they all failed to
   find the precious jewel of solid satisfaction. Most of them lived in a
   sort of perpetual weariness and when, at last, they died, and their
   eyes were opened, they found that their pretty dreams had all vanished
   and that the reality, when they beheld it, was dreary indeed. There
   have been men--perhaps some of you have known them--who have had more
   wealth than you and I would care to count, yet they have thought
   themselves poor--and so they really were, for they were incapable of
   enjoying the riches which they had amassed! There have been men who
   have been crowned with laurel who have had all sorts of honors heaped
   upon them, yet, when a friend has wished them a happy new year, they
   have said, "Then it had need be a very different year from any that we
   have ever yet experienced." The high places of the world, like the
   mountaintops, are glassy with icy dangers and they are cold with
   discontent. Many try to clamber up to them--and a few reach the summit,
   but others perish in the crevasses. Yet those who reach the summit
   often envy those who are in the valley below, and those in the valley
   envy those on the heights, for, beneath yon moon, there is no
   contentment to be found in earthly things either in the peasant's hut
   or the monarch's palace! The man whose arm is not long enough to grasp
   that which lies in the land beyond the stars will have to live and die
   without attaining to perfect satisfaction. Man, it is not here below
   that God has placed that which you need! The bread for your souls must
   come from Heaven! That which can satisfy your immortal spirit must be
   Divine, like the Creator who made you! God alone can satisfy the
   cravings of your soul. Cease, then, to toil, and tug, and fret, and
   fume, and waste your time and strength in seeking happiness in these
   bubbles of earth. "Seek you first the Kingdom of God and His
   righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you"--insofar
   as you need them--but as for seeking them first, plow that rock no
   longer, for it will yield you no return for all your toil!

   Men of another sort are satisfied that the things of this world are not
   sufficient to render a man perfectly happy, so they have religious
   thoughts of a certain form. They believe that they are very good,
   excellent and they mean to make themselves still better and so to get
   perfect peace by feeling that they are what they ought to be, and have
   done what they ought to have done! I remember when I plowed that hard
   rock and entertained the hope of getting a very fine crop off it--but I
   woke, one morning, to discover that the rock would not yield even the
   moss or lichen of comfort to me--there was nothing on its surface that
   could bring me any contentment. Self-righteousness is a great cheat.
   The man who gets most comfort out of it simply gets that comfort
   because he is ignorant! If he knew himself and knew God's Law, and knew
   the demands of inflexible Justice, he would fling upon the nearest
   dunghill that self-righteousness of his which looks like fair white
   linen, but which really is, in God's sight, nothing but filthy rags! O
   Sinner, you cannot find your way to Heaven by your own works, for the
   only way to Heaven by works is to keep perfectly the Law of God--and
   you have already broken that Law! You must present this matchless vase,
   flawless and entire, at the gates of Glory if you would be saved by
   works--but you have already shattered it in a thousand pieces--how can
   you hope to mend it? That is impossible! The hope of salvation by a
   perfect life is over and you must, each one, feel that your life has
   already been imperfect.

   Some hope that they will get perfect peace by the way of ceremonies.
   Many people tell us that we are living in a very enlightened age, but I
   am inclined to think that Carlyle was uncommonly near the mark when he
   said that "the United Kingdom contains about thirty millions of people,
   mostly fools," for it does seem as if people, nowadays, are fools to a
   very large extent. For instance, a man says that if we will come and
   confess our sins to him, he can forgive us in the name of God--and that
   he can, by sprinkling a few drops of water upon a child, and uttering
   certain words, transform an heir of wrath into an inheritor of the
   Kingdom of Heaven! He also says that if we come to what he calls an
   altar, he will give us the very body and blood of Christ to eat and
   drink! Well, when I was young, I thought that anybody who talked like
   that ought to be served like the gypsies who were put in prison for
   taking sixpences from silly servants and pretending to tell their
   fortunes! And, in later years, I have been sometimes surprised that the
   law has not been put in motion against

   these gentlemen, for certainly the imposture which they seek to foist
   upon us is a far more terrible one than that of the fortune-telling
   gypsies! The so-called "priest" has no power to forgive sins, or to
   change the nature of the child he sprinkles, or to offer the sacrifice
   of the "mass." There is nothing more in him than there is in anybody
   else--and let him talk as loudly as he may, his pretensions are utterly
   vain and worthless! If you trust to him, the result to you will be the
   same as it has been to tens of thousands before you, for you will find
   that all the ceremonies which men have invented, yes, and all the rites
   that God Himself has given, cannot bring healing to a diseased soul, or
   hush the tumult of an awakened conscience, or bring the soul into a
   state of conscious reconciliation with the Most High! O Sirs, you may
   be sprinkled, and confirmed, and immersed, and go to the Communion
   Table, and do I know not what besides--yes, you may travel along seven
   thousand leagues of ceremonialism, but you will be just as uneasy at
   the end as you were at the beginning! That is not the way of peace,
   neither will God make it to be so! It is plowing a rock--and no harvest
   can possibly come of it.

   Some are trying the equally impossible task of being saved by Jesus
   Christ when they shall have prepared themselves for Him. In other
   words, they talk about being saved by Christ, but, in their heart of
   hearts, they do not think that Christ can save them till they have
   reached a certain standard of excellence. Now we know, from the
   Scriptures, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save His people
   from their sins and He will do it from first to last, or not at all. He
   will be the Alpha and the Omega--the A and the Z of salvation's
   alphabet, or else He will have nothing to do with it! Yet thousands of
   hearers of the Gospel are constantly saying, "We will believe in Jesus
   when we feel our sins more--when we feel more repentance--when we have
   done this and told that, and experienced the other." Ah, Sirs, this
   plan of bringing Christ in at the end of the work--after you have
   accomplished the first part of it yourselves--is a most foolish
   mistake, and a fatal one, too! It is like setting oxen to plow a rock.
   Let me ask you--Are you any better than you used to be? You have been
   trying, for a long while, to make yourselves ready for Christ--are you
   any more ready than you were at the first? Has it never struck you that
   Hart's lines are true?--

   "If you tarry till you're better, You will never come at all"?

   Thus I have shown you how the text can be applied with regard to men.

   II. Now, secondly, I want to show you how these Proverbs can be applied
   WITH REGARD TO GOD. "Shall horses run upon the rocks? Will one plow
   there with oxen?"

   God does not always continue to do that which, after a certain period,
   turns out to be unprofitable. Dear Friends, there are some of you--I
   pray God to grant that there may not be any of you of whom this will
   remain true--but it is at present true that there are some of you to
   whom the Gospel has come in vain. Up till now, so far as you are
   concerned, the Gospel plow has only gone across a rock--the Truth of
   God preached in your hearing has not gained an entrance into your
   heart. Oh, how many come and hear us preach merely that they may
   compare us with other preachers! They pass certain criticisms upon our
   mode, manner and matter. We do not know, and we do not care what they
   say, but the point that really concerns us is that we cannot get the
   Gospel plow into them--we cannot make them feel, and repent, and
   believe! A great master of the art of preaching once said, when his
   congregation complimented him on having delivered a fine discourse,
   "There is another sermon lost." He did not want his hearers to praise
   his discourse--he wanted them to feel the power of the Truth of God
   which he had preached to them! And so do we. But there are some hearers
   into whom we do not know how to get the Truth of God. We may put it,
   first in one way, and then in another way--sometimes pathetically and,
   at other times, we may make use of a little humor. We may denounce or
   allure, but we are equally foiled in whatever way we attempt to reach
   them. We cannot get the plow in where we want it to go and if ever the
   share does seem to make a little impression, it only produces a slight
   surface scratch. Some of you have had a good many of those scratches.
   You have thought, "When I get out of this place, I will go home and
   pray," but you have not done so. Or, if you have prayed, your
   seriousness has soon vanished and the impression made upon you in the
   service has expended itself in that prayer!

   What is worst of all, in some of you, God's dealing with you, in the
   preaching of the Gospel, has developed the hardness of your hearts. It
   has made others realize how hard they are and, truth to tell, it has
   really hardened them. Plowing does not harden rocks--but preaching does
   harden sinners if the Gospel does not reach their hearts and, of all
   hardhearted men, the hardest are those who have been hardened in the
   fire of the Gospel! If you want to find a heart that

   is as hard as steel, you must look for one that has passed through the
   furnace of Divine Love and has been made aware of the redemption that
   is in Christ Jesus, but has rejected the Truths of God that has been
   made known to it.

   This hardening of heart is not the fault of the plowshares which have
   been used and, with some of you, God has used a great many. There is a
   man here who used to be plowed by God when he was a child, and the
   plowshares employed then were his mother's tears. He cannot forget
   them! Even now, as I bring them to his memory, he feels as if he must
   weep as he did when he was a child. Ah, my Friend, that mother of yours
   is in Heaven, now, but if she could look down upon her son, and tears
   could be shed in Heaven, what cause she would have to weep over you!
   She prayed for you when you were nestling in her bosom and she took you
   to the House of God from your very early days. You can remember her
   very look when she used to speak to you about Jesus when you were quite
   a little child! And perhaps you remember her dying request that you
   would follow her to Heaven. But that plowshare--one of God's best--has
   never yet cut into your rocky heart and you still remain as hard as you
   ever were!

   Since that time God has tried you with the plowshare of personal
   sickness. You have not always been such a strong man as you are today.
   Time was when you lay very near the gates of death and you trembled at
   the prospect before you! Do you remember when the fever seized you, or
   when you thought the cholera had claimed you as its victim? You
   trembled then and you made many vows which all proved to be lies! And
   you even made a profession of repentance, but it was mere
   profession--and though you appeared, just for a little while, to be
   touched--and those who were around you, who had prayed for you, hoped
   that at last the plowshare had entered into you--they found that you
   rose up from that bed of sickness worse than you were before!

   Since then, God has used another sharp plowshare upon you--the
   conversion of some of those who are very near and dear to you. You were
   not at all pleased when your wife came home a converted woman, but you
   could not help feeling it. And when your sister wrote and told you that
   she was rejoicing in Christ as her Savior, you could not pour ridicule
   upon the letter and, as you read it, it brought tears to your eyes. You
   quickly wiped them away and said that you were not such a fool as to
   trouble about so absurd a matter, yet it was not easy for you to forget
   the emotion which the news had caused. Possibly your own dear child,
   whom you love very much, has made a profession of faith in the Lord
   Jesus Christ, yet you do not know anything, experimentally, about such
   faith as that. This is a very sharp plowshare and none can think
   lightly of it but those who are unaware of its operation. To have your
   relatives and friends converted and to be yourself left out of the
   happy circle of blessing ought to make you think seriously about this
   matter!

   Another plowshare has gone across your rocky heart from the fact that
   some of your old companions are dead. One was buried this week, was he
   not? You used to drink and smoke with him, but there will be no more
   pipes and beer on a Sunday night for you two! You know right well that
   he died without the fear of God in his heart and you also know that you
   are living in the same sad and perilous condition. It gave you quite a
   shock when someone said to you, "Old Tom is dead." You have also seen
   several of your business friends die. There was that clerk who was in
   the office with you a little while ago--he is gone and you have been
   called to occupy his place. Death has come awfully near you again and
   again. You have been like a soldier on the field of battle who saw the
   ranks on every side of him mown down, yet he still lived on. God's plow
   has been at work with you--He has been trying, by these striking
   Providential dealings, to touch your hard heart--but it has not yet
   yielded. Do you think that God means to keep on plowing you to no
   effect? If you do, you are wonderfully mistaken, for the oxen will not
   always plow upon this rock--and when it comes to this--that neither can
   love melt you, nor terrors subdue you--God will say, "Ephraim is joined
   to idols: let him alone." And when God says that, your doom will be
   sealed! May God grant that He may never have to say that concerning any
   whom I am now addressing!

   I have thus shown you that you have been like a piece of granite rock,
   untouched by all the different plowshares which have been tried upon
   you. There is another thought that you must not forget and that is, you
   have wearied the workers. I pity the poor oxen that have to plow a
   rock--they plod on and on and all their toil is wasted. The hardest
   form of labor is that which produces no result. I remember being in a
   military prison where they punish the men by making them carry cannon
   balls from one end of the yard to another, and bring them back again--a
   very senseless practice. The sergeant who accompanied me said, "When we
   let the men carry the balls from this end of the yard, to make them
   into a pyramid at the other end, there was some kind of amusement in
   the task, so the rule was made that the man must carry the ball from
   this end of the yard and bring it back again, and his toil seems to be
   so altogether fruitless that

   it becomes a double punishment to him." It is certainly a very great
   trial for a man to have to work for nothing and to feel that all he is
   doing will result in nothing. There are some of us who have had to do
   so with you unconverted folk. And sometimes some of us have been very
   harshly used--we oxen that have to plow such hard rock's as you are!

   The first part of my text asks, "Shall horses run upon the rock?" I
   remember going over a smooth, rocky place in the Alps which is called
   Hell-Place because it is so very slippery. Well, horses could not be
   expected to run over rocks like those, and it is not surprising that
   they sometimes trip! And if the preacher occasionally trips, it is
   little wonder when he has such rocks as those to go over. George
   Herbert says that the sins of hearers sometimes make the preacher trip,
   and so it is. There is often, in the hearer, that which makes the
   preacher speak amiss. I remember pleading one night here with all my
   soul, and I said, "If some of you who are listening to me, never mean
   to accept Christ as your Savior, do not continue to sit in this place
   and hear the Gospel, but go away and let somebody who will accept Him,
   occupy your seat." I did not think that one of my hearers would take me
   at my word, but there was one, over whom I have never ceased to lament,
   and for whom I still pray, who says that he will never come here again
   because he is one of those who will never receive Christ and, though he
   would still like to hear me preach, he will never occupy another
   person's place. It was a mistake on my part to say what I did, but I do
   not think I would have tripped like that if the rock had not been so
   hard and smooth!

   It is hard for a horse to have to run upon such a rock as that and it
   is hard for the oxen to keep on plowing there. I have had over 20 years
   of this kind of plowing upon some of you--and I have made nothing of
   you yet. Thank God, there are not many of your sort, but there is still
   a remnant left of the old Park-Streeters who were "almost persuaded"
   then, and they are still "almost persuaded." And I am "almost
   persuaded" that I shall never be able to do them any good. It seems to
   me that there is nothing which I can say that will ever reach their
   hearts, or else, surely, it would have reached them before now! I am
   always glad when I hear that some other preacher attracts them and that
   they are listening to him with interest, for, as long as they get
   saved, I do not mind how it is done. Still, it is hard lines for us to
   have to preach for 20 years to some of you and to have all that labor
   for nothing. If anybody could teach me how to preach better, I would
   gladly go to school, again, and learn how to get at some of your
   hearts. If they would teach me how to speak in such a vulgar style that
   I would lose my reputation, but be blessed to the saving of your souls,
   I would willingly fling my reputation to the winds! Or if I could learn
   the art of oratory, I would go and sit at the feet of Cicero or
   Demosthenes, if I could but get at your superfine hearts that need such
   fine words before they will be touched! But I fear that it is the
   oxen's fate to go on plowing, and plowing, and plowing--and to get
   weary with the labor, and yet to see no result of it all.

   One other thing that I want you to remember--you who remain unconverted
   after all this effort--and that is if the same labor which has been
   lost upon you, has been used elsewhere, it might have been profitable.
   Christ said, concerning Bethsaida and Chorazin, a very amazing thing
   which I do not fully understand, but which I absolutely believe--"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." It is
   a very extraordinary thing that God would send the Gospel to men who do
   not get any good out of it, and not send it to people who would have
   got good out of it! There are people, possibly, even in London,
   certainly, in other parts of the earth, who would have been converted
   if they had heard the Gospel as much as you have--yet you have heard it
   and have not been converted! That same digging about and fertilizing
   that would have made other trees bring forth much fruit, has been used
   in vain upon you, for you have brought forth no fruit. And you have
   stood there and occupied a plot of ground which a better tree might
   have occupied. You have cumbered the ground--do you think that God will
   always allow you to do that? Have you--who live in the country and have
   a large orchard--have you a tree that has borne no fruit for many
   years? I am sure that, if so, you mean to have it cut down before
   long--and God means to have some of you cut down--and that, it may be,
   before long! I tremble even as I speak to you thus, for I may be a
   Prophet foretelling the destruction of your soul! May God, in His
   infinite mercy, grant that you may repent before His axe of Judgment
   falls upon you!

   Any man in his senses, when he finds that the rock will not break,
   gives up plowing it. The ancient proverb says, "Will one plow there
   with oxen?" and God, though infinitely merciful, is equally wise. And
   if, after the use of means which are blessed elsewhere, any heart still
   remains hard, He may fairly say, "I have done with it. I give it up to
   its natural rockiness and so let it continue forever." That is the end
   of the matter and a terrible end it is! And I do not know anything more
   that I can say about it. I have preached the Gospel thousands of times
   and I have nothing to preach but the Gospel--but these people will not
   have it, so what more can I say to them? A man came to me the other day
   and asked me to pray for him. He was one to whom I had many times
   explained the Gospel and after I had again done so, he said to me,
   "Will you pray for me, Sir?" I said, "No, I will not." He asked, "Why
   not?" and I replied, "Do you want me to ask God to save you apart from
   the Gospel? I have told you the Gospel again and again--will you accept
   it? If you will not, I shall not ask God to save you. How can I do so?
   I cannot expect Him to save you if you will not have the Gospel. If you
   will have it, that will save you. If you will not have it, you will be
   lost and it is no use for me to pray for you."

   There I had to leave the matter so far as that man was concerned, but
   let me say this much to God's people--You see that we cannot do
   anything with this rock. The oxen are quite tired out with their
   useless labor, so let us pray to God to turn that rock into good soil.
   It needs a miracle to be worked and only God can work it. Let us unite
   our prayers and cry to God, "O Lord, You did change our rocky hearts
   into good soil, where the Good Seed could enter, germinate and grow.
   Change these rocks, we beseech You!" Here is the reason for our Prayer
   Meetings and for our private intercession. We can do nothing with these
   rocky hearts, so let us turn to God who can do everything! Then I may
   add that if you will pray God to change these rocky hearts, I will go
   on preaching to them! The weary ox will go on plowing again, hard as it
   has found the work for these 20 years and more. If you will pray, I
   will preach! If you pray God to make the rock brittle and break it up,
   I will plow it again, and I should not wonder if the plowshare gets
   into some of them at last, so that there may yet be a golden harvest to
   God's honor and Glory!

   Let me put the plow in one minute more. The greatest rock-breaking plow
   that I know of is the one that broke me up. If that will not do it, I
   do not know of any other that will. When Christ died upon the Cross,
   among other wonderful things that happened, we read that "the rocks
   rent, and the graves were opened." Ah, it was a dying Christ that rent
   the rocks! Sinner, listen once more to--

   "The old, old story Of Jesus and His love."

   You have offended and grieved your God and my God is just--and must
   punish you for your wrongdoing. But, in order that He may not punish
   you, He has taken upon Himself your nature and come into this world to
   suffer in the sinner's place and borne what was due to human sin in His
   own body on the Cross! Out of pure love to those who were His enemies,
   out of love to those hearts that are so hard that they will not love
   Him, out of love to those who have, perhaps, for 50 years rejected and
   despised Him--for love, for the sake of love, alone, He died upon the
   Cross, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." And
   now, if you will trust Him, you shall at once have the pardon of all
   your sins! If you will trust Him, you shall be--

   "To the great Father's bosom pressed,

   Once for all a child confessed!" You shall be cleansed in a moment and
   accepted and saved forever if you do trust the Incarnate, dying, risen,
   glorified Redeemer! God grant that this plowshare of the Cross may
   touch you! Law and terrors, I know full well, do not affect some men,
   but Almighty Love--will that not affect them? God grant that it may,
   and unto Him shall be glory forever and ever! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: AMOS 6:1-8; 7:1-6.

   Amos was a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. His words are
   rugged, but sometimes he rises to sublimity. His expressions are
   somewhat dark and not readily understood, but when we learn the meaning
   of them, we perceive that they are full of deep, earnest, solemn
   warning and instruction.

   Amos 6:1. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the
   mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the
   house of Israel came!It was a time of great sin and also of great
   judgment, yet there were some in Zion who were quite at ease under all
   that was happening. No sense of sin grieved them, no thought of coming
   judgment alarmed them. What did they care if the nation went to rack
   and ruin? What did it mean to them that God was angry with His people?
   They were atheists or, at least, they acted as if they were! Whatever
   might happen, they would run the

   risk of it. "Woe," says God, to all such people as these--and when the
   Lord says, "Woe," to anyone, it is indeed woe, for He never speaks thus
   without cause.

   2. Pass you unto Calneh, and see; and from there go you to Hamath the
   great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than
   these kingdoms? Or their border greater than your border? The Lord
   points to other cities which had been destroyed--to Calneh, and Hamath,
   and Gath which He had smitten because of the sin of the people who had
   lived there, and He says, "You that dwell at Jerusalem, and you that
   live at Samaria, do not imagine that you will escape the consequences
   of your sin. I was able to reach the inhabitants of these proud cities,
   despite their strong fortifications and their powerful armies--and I
   can also reach you." So, when we look back upon the judgments of God
   upon guilty men, we may conclude that no sinner has any right to think
   that he shall escape. The proudest and mightiest have been brought down
   by God and so will men who dare to resist the Most High continue to be
   humbled, even to the world's end.

   3. You that put far away the evil day. You who say, "There is time
   enough yet. Let us see a little more of life; why need we be in a hurry
   to seek salvation?" "You that put far away the evil day"--

   3. And cause the seat of violence to come near For, when men try to
   postpone thoughts about "the judgment" which is to follow "after
   death," they are generally the more eager to indulge in sin. They say,
   "There is time enough yet," because they want a longer period for yet
   greater indulgence in sinful ways. The Lord cries, "Woe," to all such
   people as these.

   4. That lie upon beds of ivory.They were men of wealth who spent their
   money upon all manner of luxuries while the poor of the land were
   perishing through need.

   4. And stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of
   the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall.It was, as I
   have said, a time of danger when war was at the gates, but the people
   were so careless that they lived as if peace were established forever
   and the enemy could never touch them! Their expenditure was at a high
   rate for self-indulgence and only for that.

   5. That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves
   instrument of music, like David. But not for the same purpose as David
   played and sang--his instruments of music were used for spiritual
   solace and the worship of God--but these people set their wits to work
   to find out how their music might inflame their lusts and be a vehicle
   for the expression of their lascivious desires.

   6. That drink wine in bowls. For seldom can a careless man crown the
   edifice of his sin without indulging in drunkenness! He must have the
   sensual delight that he finds in "the flowing bowl."

   6. And anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not
   grieved for the affliction of Joseph. It is not wrong for a person, to
   whom God has given much of the good things of this life, to enjoy them
   fitly and reasonably. The sin of these people consisted in the fact
   that when others were afflicted, they took that opportunity to indulge
   themselves in all the delights of the flesh. And when God's rod was
   being used for chastisement, they went on with their sinful mirth to
   show how little they cared about it. Probably I am addressing some who
   have, at this very moment, a sore sickness in the house. Or it may be
   that a beloved wife is scarcely cold in her grave, or a dear child has
   only just sobbed itself into its death-sleep--yet the survivors are
   running after amusements, pleasures and follies more wildly than ever,
   as if to hush the voice of conscience and to forget the strokes of
   God's rod! Oh, that this very solemn chapter might convey a warning
   message to them!

   7. Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive,
   and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.
   Whenever God does come forth to execute judgment upon the ungodly, He
   will first pick out those who have defied Him the most. Those who have
   the proudest spirit and the hardest heart shall be the first to feel
   the strokes of His rod.

   8. The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself, says the LORD, the God of Hosts,
   I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I
   deliver up the city with all that is therein.

   The next chapter shows that even when God was very angry with the
   wicked, there was still wonderful power in prayer.

   Amos 7:1-3. Thus has the lord God showed unto me; and, behold, He
   formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter
   growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowing. And
   it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of
   the land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech You: by whom
   shall Jacob arise? For he is small The Lord repented for this: it shall
   not be, says the LORD. In a vision, the Prophet saw the locusts or
   grasshoppers come to devour all the green things of the land--a very
   terrible visitation! If you have never seen it, you cannot realize how
   utterly bare everything is made after the visit of the locusts. The
   Prophet put up a vehement and earnest prayer. He cried, "O Lord God,
   forgive!" And no sooner was the intercession offered than the Lord
   said, "It shall not be." Thus the impending judgment was turned away.

   4-6. Thus has the Lord God showed unto me: and, behold, the Lord God
   called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat
   up a part. Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech You: by whom shall
   Jacob arise? For he is small. The Lord repented for this. This also
   shall not be, says the Lord God. This time the Prophet saw the fire
   devouring the land--perhaps the fire of war which casts its blazing
   brand upon peaceful dwellings. This fire, however, was something worse
   than that, for the very deep itself seemed to be licked up by tongues
   of flame and the Prophet, in hearty sympathy with the afflicted people,
   cried again as he had done before, and the answer came, "This also
   shall not be, says the Lord God." This ought to encourage you who are
   the King's remembrancers to make use of the position in which His Grace
   has placed you, and to cry earnestly to Him to turn away His wrathful
   hand and have pity upon sinners! God grant that many of us may have
   such an intercessory spirit as that of Amos the herdsman-Prophet!
     __________________________________________________________________

Power With God

   (No. 2978)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 8TH, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 16, 1876.

   "As a prince have you power with God." Genesis 32:28.

   MEN think a great deal of anyone who has power with royalty. If it were
   said, concerning somebody in this place, "That individual has very
   great power with the Queen," there are a great many of you who would
   turn at once to look at that person. He who has great power with an
   earthly prince is sure to have many flatterers around him who will pay
   him homage for the sake of the advantage which they hope to gain
   through his mediation. But, dear Friends, what a far greater honor it
   is to have power with the King of kings! Power with men may be an evil
   thing, but what blessing must come from power with God! How it ennobles
   the soul of the man who possesses it! This man, Jacob, who has power
   with God, is called Israel, a prince, for so he is--but princes have no
   such dignity as his unless they, too, have power with God, for he is "a
   prince of God."

   What a comprehensive blessing it must be to have power with God, for he
   who has power with God must have power with men! Creatures must submit
   where the Creator, Himself, has yielded. If you can have your way with
   the Master, you may depend upon it that you can have your way with His
   servants. The man who has power with God must be safe. "If God is for
   us, who can be against us?" No weapon that is formed against such a man
   can prosper and every tongue that rises against him in judgment, he can
   condemn, for, having power with God, he shall be able to plant his foot
   upon the neck of his adversaries and to reign over those who rebel
   against him. Such a man as that cannot be in need. If he has power with
   God, he will tell Him about his needs and they shall all be supplied.
   He will confess his sins and they will be forgiven. God will deal well
   with the man who has power with Him. There is such a wide range of
   blessing here that I must not stop to enlarge upon it. If you have
   power with God, you will see that this is a weapon which, like the
   flaming sword at the gate of the Garden of Eden, turns every way. Or I
   may say of it what David said of the sword of Goliath, "There is none
   like that; give it to me." Human language can never tell a thousandth
   part of the value of power with

   God!

   I. I want you to note, first, WHAT THIS POWER CANNOT BE. "Power with
   God."

   You scarcely need to be told that it cannot be anything like physical
   force in opposition to God. It is power with God, not power againstGod,
   that is mentioned in our text. No creature, however mighty, can have
   any power to stand in opposition to Omnipotence. Who are we that we
   should ever stand up to oppose the Most High? Let the twig contend with
   the fierce flame, or the wax with the burning heat, but let us not
   contend with God! If we did so, we should be like the moth in the
   candle--utterly consumed. The strongest and the proudest men must be
   but as stubble in the day of God's anger. In fact, to think of man
   having any power against God is sheer madness, for we have not any
   power at all apart from God. We only exist because He wills it. The
   breath in our nostrils is His gift, moment by moment. We should go back
   to the nothingness from which we sprang if He withdrew, for a single
   instant, His sustaining hand! Man has no power against God. O you
   foolish sinners who are resisting Him, give up the unequal battle! I
   charge you, before God, to count the cost of a contest with your Maker
   before you begin it! As well might a potsherd strive with him who molds
   it as for you, a creature, to strive with your Creator! He will break
   you in pieces, like a potter's vessels, in the day of His anger.
   Therefore, be wise and end the fight--and be at peace with Him!

   Neither can this "power with God" mean mental power. There are persons
   who seem to exalt their intellect even above God Himself! It is a fine
   thing to be gifted with powers of argument and to have a keen reasoning
   faculty. But, at

   the same time, to some people these are very dangerous possessions. I
   know certain individuals who say that they will never believe what they
   cannot understand. If they adhere to that determination, they will
   never believe in their own existence, for they certainly cannot
   understand that! They seek to overthrow the Word of God and the
   Doctrines of the Gospel with their subtle wit and profound thought, but
   it is sheer madness for human folly to contend with Divine Wisdom! It
   is insanity carried to the very highest point for even the wisest of
   men to think that their intellects are a match for the Omniscience of
   God, for, "the foolishness of God is wiser than men." Even the
   simplicity of the Gospel-- and it is very simple--and "the foolishness
   of preaching"--which, in some people's esteem, is utter foolishness,
   shall win the victory while those who imagine that they are wise shall
   be proved to be fools! Brothers and Sisters, let us never attempt to
   argue any case in opposition to God's will, for we cannot have any
   power with Him in that way. Let us always surrender our judgment to the
   teaching of His Word and conform our will to His will. If we ever think
   that a certain course is best, but it is evident, by the working of
   God's Providence, that He does not think so, let us not for a single
   moment hold a debate with Him, but let us say, as David did, "I was
   dumb, I opened not my mouth because You did it." If God does anything,
   that is enough for us! If God saysanything, that is enough for us!
   Instead of arguing and reasoning, "It is written," or "God has said
   it," is sufficient to settle any question that concerns a Christian!

   It is almost necessary, in these days of superstition, to say that
   neither can any man have any magical power with God,for, albeit that
   people nowadays would be ashamed to confess that they believed in
   magical arts, yet something very akin to it seems still to exist among
   mankind. They suppose that there is some efficacy in the mere
   repetition of certain words. I am sure they must think so, for they do
   not put their hearts into the words, but they are quite content if they
   have galloped through a collect, or some set form of prayer. Another
   supposition is that the prayer is all the better for being offered by a
   certain individual who is ordained to that particular work, so those
   who are sick send for an official to come and "pray for them"--I have
   often heard that expression, as though it was thought that this person,
   by reading a prayer out of a book, could, by a sort of magic, do the
   sick one good! O Sirs, mere words strung together--whether they are in
   Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin, or English--are of no use before God! It is
   the utterance of the heart that He hears, and you must never imagine
   that there is any excellence in a certain arrangement of letters and
   sounds, or that certain men, by the use of these words, can bring down
   blessings from above! Oh, no! Jacob had no abracadabra, no talisman, no
   magic, no charm, no enchantment--and God forbid that you and I should
   ever be such heathens as to believe that there is any power with God in
   any such things! God is not prevailed upon to grant His blessings by
   any such fooleries as these--He utterly abhors them!

   And, again, when we speak of having power with God, we must not suppose
   that any man can have any meritorious power with God. It has been
   thought by some people that a man can attain to a certain degree of
   merit, and then he will receive Heaven's blessings--if he offers a
   certain number of prayers, if he does this, or feels that, or suffers
   the other, then he will stand in high favor with God. Many are living
   under this delusion and, in their way, are trying to get power with God
   by what they are, or do, or suffer! They think they would get power
   with God if they were to feel sin more, or if they were to weep more,
   or if they were to repent more. It is always something that they are to
   do, or something they are to producein themselves which they are to
   bring before God so that, when He sees it, He will say, "Now I will
   have mercy upon you, and grant you the blessing you crave." O dear
   Friends, all this is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus
   Christ! There is far more power with God in the humble acknowledgment
   of sinfulness than in a boastful claim of cleanliness--much more power
   in pleading that Grace will forgive than in asking that Justice should
   reward--when we plead our emptiness and sin, we plead the truth--but
   when we talk about our goodness and meritorious doings, we plead a lie!
   And lies can never have any power in the Presence of the God of Truth.
   O Brothers and Sisters, let us forever shake off from us, as we would
   shake a viper from our hand, all ideas that by any goodness of ours,
   which even the Spirit of God might work in us, we should be able to
   deserve anything at God's hands and to claim as right anything from the
   Justice of our Maker!

   II. Now, secondly, let us inquire FROM WHERE THIS POWER PROCEEDS. If
   anyone asks, "How can a man have power with God?" The answer is, "Not
   because the power is in him, but he can have power with God by reason
   of something that is in God."

   First, God's people get power with Him from the very Character of God's
   Nature. You will soon see what I mean. Have you ever visited a family
   in the depths of poverty and found them with a few rags to sleep upon,
   with nothing

   whatever in the cupboard, with a child dying for lack of food, mother
   and father with pinched countenances who tell you that, for the last 48
   hours they have had nothing whatever to eat? And have you not felt that
   they have had power over you, so that you could not help them? I am
   certain that it has been so, if you have a tender heart, and are of a
   gracious, generous spirit. The power that they have over you does not
   arise from their riches, but quite the reverse--from their poverty.
   Their power over you does not lie in their being respectable and
   well-to-do--quite the opposite--their power over you lies in their
   being in abject distress. Their misery has power to excite your pity!
   Because you see them in such a sad state, you, being a man of
   compassionate spirit, are straightway moved to try to help them. There
   is many a spectacle of suffering and sorrow in this world that even a
   strong man cannot bear to look at, especially if he is unable to
   relieve those who are in distress. Now, if we, being evil, are so
   stirred by the sight of human misery, how much more is our heavenly
   Father, who is all goodness, tenderness, gentleness and love, moved to
   pity by the miseries of His children? Whenever you and I come to Him,
   it is wise for us to plead before Him our weakness, that He may pity it
   and make us strong--our poverty, that He may pity it, and enrich
   us--our dire necessity, that He may pity it and supply all our
   needs--our low estate, our sinking heart, our trembling spirit, our
   utter nothingness! In that way we shall have power with Him.

   If you have been accustomed to visit the poor, you know how those who
   have got to be "old stagers" at receiving charity, never put their best
   leg forward when they want to impress you with a due sense of their
   need. If they had a little of anything in the house, they would take
   care that you did not see it. If there has been any improvement in
   their circumstances since you last called upon them, you will have to
   fish a long while before you will find it out--but they are very adept
   at bringing forward the black side of their case because their power
   lies there with those who have generous hearts! And so, Brothers and
   Sisters, our power with God, when we come to Him as sinners, lies not
   in what we are, but in what God is! He is Love, He is full of pity, He
   is Tenderness, He is Gentleness. He wills not the death of a sinner,
   but delights to display His saving Mercy, to manifest the abundance of
   His Grace. The foundation of our power with God must always lie in the
   love and tenderness of God. He is susceptible of pity--yes, He is
   Tenderness itself. He is a God of Compassion and, therefore, it is that
   the poor, feeble sons of Adam have power with Him!

   But we get a further view of the source from where this power with God
   proceeds when we reach the next point, namely, God's promises. God has,
   in His Word, been pleased to say that He will do this and that and give
   this and that. He was quite free, once, to do whatever He pleased, but
   now that God has given us His promises, He is not free to break them
   and it would be inconsistent with His glorious attributes that He
   should do so. Neither will He ever be false to a single syllable that
   has gone forth out of His mouth. When God gave His promises, He did, as
   it were, put Himself in the power of those who know how to plead the
   promises. Every promise is so much strength given to the man who has
   faith in the promise, for he may, with it, overcome even the Omnipotent
   God Himself! Why, Brothers and Sisters, if your character is what it
   should be, and a person comes to you and says, "You promised to give me
   such-and-such a thing," has not the person who can say that, power over
   you to the full extent of your promise? If you are a true man, he has
   beaten you at once! If you say to him, "But when did I give you that
   promise? You may have misunderstood what I said," and he puts his hand
   in his pocket and brings out your promise in black and white, with your
   name signed to it, there is no getting away from that, is there? Now,
   that is just the way in which God gives us power with Him, for He has
   given us His promises in black and white! Here they are in the Book
   which we know to be His Book, His own Infallible Word! It is a blessed
   thing to be able to come before God on your knees and to put your
   finger on a promise in the Bible, and to say, "Lord, this is what You
   have promised that You will do. I beseech You to do it because You are
   the God of Truth. I know that You cannot lie, so I remind You of Your
   promise and plead with You to do as You have said." Do you not see what
   power you have with God when He has given you faith to lay hold upon
   Him, bringing His own gracious promise in your hand? There is a
   conquering power in faith, because faith pleads the promises of God!

   Thus, you see, there are two sources of power--God's Nature and God's
   promises.

   But the true child of God knows of other sources of power with God, so
   next, he pleads the relationships of Grace. God, in His infinite mercy,
   has been pleased to choose certain people to be His children. "You
   shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." There was no
   reason, in themselves, why they should be His sons and daughters, but
   His Sovereign Grace adopted them and His Spirit regenerated them. But
   the moment that God made any one of us His child, He did again--I speak
   with all reverence--give us power with Him and put Himself into our
   hands! Who among us does not know the power of a child over his father?
   There are some children who have too much power. There is a Greek story
   of the little boy who ruled all Athens because he ruled his mother and
   his mother ruled his father--and his father ruled the senate and the
   senate ruled Athens! And so, in that way, the little boy practically
   ruled the whole city! And I am afraid that there are some children who
   have a good deal too much power in that way. But our Heavenly Father,
   though He is too wise to indulge us in that way, is so good that He
   will not deny us any privilege that, by right, belongs to the position
   of a child. When your child appeals to you because there is something
   that he really needs, but which you have withheld from him, and he
   says, at last, "But, my dear father, will you not grant me this?" Or if
   you have chastened him and he says, "Father, stay your hand! Am I not
   your child?" you cannot resist his appeal. He has power with you--you
   know that he has! And what a wonderful power we have when we can truly
   say, "Abba! Father!" We shall have power with God in our times of
   greatest weakness if we can cry, "Abba! Father!"

   I can never forget a certain illness when I had been racked with pain
   and brought very low with heaviness of spirit through the nature of the
   complaint from which I was suffering. I felt driven almost to despair,
   one night, until I laid hold of God, in an agony of prayer, and pleaded
   with Him something like this, "If my child were in such anguish as I am
   in, I would listen to him and relieve him if I could. You are my
   Father, and I am Your child, then will You not treat me like a child?"
   Almost at the very moment when I presented that plea before God, my
   pain ceased and I fell into a sweet slumber, from which I woke up with,
   "Abba! Father!" on my lips and in my heart! I believe that this is an
   invincible plea, because, when God calls Himself our Father, He means
   it. There are some fathers in this world, who do not act at all as
   fathers should--shame upon them! But that will never be said of our
   Heavenly Father. He is a true Father and He has a heart of compassion
   towards His children. And He does not willingly afflict or grieve the
   children of men--and when we know how to appeal to His Fatherhood, we
   shall prevail with Him!

   Once more, dear Friends, the power that we have with God also springs
   from His past actions. Look at what He has done for His own people.
   First, He chose them. Well, then, as He chose them, He cannot cast them
   away because He is an Immutable God! As He has made His choice, He
   stands to it. Paul asks, "Has God cast away His people?" And he answers
   his own question, "God has not cast away His people which He foreknew."
   That is what He has never done! Then, in addition to choosing us, He
   has also redeemed us. And after He has redeemed us from destruction by
   the blood of His Son, can He allow us to be lost? Can He pay for us
   with such a price as that and yet neglect to keep us to the end? That
   cannot be! When He gave His Son as a Ransom for us, He did, indeed, put
   Himself into our hands, for, "He that spared not His own Son, but
   delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give
   us all things?" Do but know that God gave His Son for you, dear
   Friend--know that Jesus Christ is yours and the logic of your prayer is
   clear enough, and forcible enough, when you say, "What can You deny me,
   O my Father? You have given me Your Son, so, by His blood and wounds,
   by His life and death, and resurrection Glory, give my spirit the Grace
   it needs, since You have given me Jesus Christ."

   Do you not see, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, that every mercy
   which God has bestowed upon you gives you power over Him? "Therefore,
   sing with John Newton--

   "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 He has done so
   much for us, will He not do still more? Does not every blessing which
   is bestowed by God come to us with this message in its mouth, "There is
   more to follow," and may we not be quite sure that He who has blessed
   us now for 40 years, for fifty, sixty, seventy--and I see some who have
   numbered 80 years, and you have had God's blessing all the while--then,
   has He not, by all these years of favor and mercy, pledged and bound
   Himself to bless you even to the end? Assuredly it is so!

   III. Now, in the third place, notice HOW THIS POWER WITH GOD CAN BE
   EXERCISED BY CHRISTIANS. What shape does power with God take? Of course
   it takes the shape of prayer. Christians put forth the power they have
   with God when they draw near to Him to ask for blessings upon
   themselves and upon others, but it is not every man who prays who has
   power with God, or who knows how to use the power which really exists.
   Who are the people who really have power with God! I will tell you.

   First, this power is exercised by those who are deeply sensible of
   their own weakness. No man has power with God who thinks he is strong,
   except in the sense in which Paul wrote, "When I am weak, then am I
   strong." I have an idea, and I think that Scripture supported it, that
   Jacob wrestled very hard with the Angel, but that he never won the
   victory till the Angel touched the hollow of his thigh and caused the
   sinew to shrink. Then, when Jacob could not any longer stand--as he
   fell, he clutched the Angel with all his might as though he would also
   pull Him down if he must himself go down--and the weight of Jacob was
   all the greater because he could not stand. His very weakness was an
   element of his strength and that moment of weakness was the moment of
   his victory! Now, if you go to God feeling that you are partly full, He
   will not fill you, but will wait till you are quite empty before He
   will pour His blessing into you. He will not mix oil with water and,
   until He has emptied all the water out of the vessel, He will not begin
   to pour in His oil or His wine. When you feel that you have a little
   strength for prayer, I think it is very likely that you will not have
   power with God. But when it comes to this, that you cry out, "O God, I
   can do nothing--all my power is turned to utter weakness! I am driven
   to the lowest extremity," then, in the very desperation of your
   weakness, you will clutch the promise-making God and, as it were, drag
   down the angel and win the blessing, as Jacob did. It is your weakness
   that will do it, not your strength!

   Have you ever tried to go to God as a fully-sanctified man? I did so
   once. I had heard some of the "perfect" brethren, who are travelling to
   Heaven by the "high level" railway and I thought I would try their plan
   of praying. I went before the Lord as a consecrated and sanctified man.
   I knocked at the gate. I had been accustomed to gain admittance the
   first time I knocked, but this time I did not. I knocked again and kept
   on knocking, though I did not feel quite easy in my conscience about
   what I was doing. At last I clamored loudly to be let in and when they
   asked me who I was, I replied that I was a perfectly-consecrated and
   fully sanctified man--but they said that they did not know me! The fact
   was, they had never seen me in that character before. At last, when I
   felt that I must get in, and must have a hearing, I knocked again and
   when the keeper of the gate asked, "Who is there?" I answered, "I am
   Charles Spurgeon, a poor sinner who has no sanctification or perfection
   of his own to talk about, but who is trusting alone to Jesus Christ,
   the sinners' Savior." The gatekeeper said, "Oh, it is you, is it? Come
   in! We know you well enough, we have known you these many years!" And
   then I went in directly. I believe that is the best way of praying, and
   the way to win the day. It is when you have got on your fine feathers
   and top-knots that the Lord will not know you! When you have taken them
   all off and gone to Him as you went at the first, then you can say to
   Him--

   "Once a sinner near despair

   Sought your Mercy Seat by prayer.

   Mercy heard and set him free,

   Lord, that mercy came to me "-- "and I am that poor publican who dared
   not lift so much as his eyes towards Heaven, but smote upon his breast
   and cried, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner,' and he went home to his
   house justified rather than the Brother over there who talked so
   proudly about the higher life, but who went home without a blessing."
   Yes, my Brother, you are strong when you are weak, and you are perfect
   when you know that you are imperfect! And you are nearest to Heaven
   when you think you are farthest off. The less you esteem yourself, the
   higher is God's esteem of you.

   Again, in order to have power with God, we must have simple faith.
   Nobody who doubts can prevail with God. The promise is not to the
   waverer, for James says, "Let not that man think that he shall receive
   anything of the Lord," The man who gets the blessing is the one who
   fully believes in God's promise and who so believes in it that he acts
   upon it. I shall never forget the faith of a certain member of this
   Church, who is still living. About 18 or 19 years ago, I was very ill,
   indeed. Most people thought that I would die, but, one morning, very
   early, this good Brother came down to my house and asked to see my
   wife. It was just about daybreak and when she saw him, he said to her,
   "I have been all the night wrestling with God for your husband's life.
   We cannot afford to lose our Pastor and I feel sure that he is going to
   live, so I thought I would just walk here and tell you so," "Thank you,
   thank you," said my wife, "I am very grateful for your prayers and for
   your faith." It is not everybody who can pray to God like that! And we
   fail to obtain the blessings that we seek because we do not pray like
   that. But, dear Brothers and Sisters, if we were to believe God just as
   we believe our friends--if we were to give God as much trust as we give
   to our husbands and our wives--how strong in faith we would be! He
   deserves a thousand times more confidence than we can ever repose in
   the very best of our relatives or

   friends and if we have faith in His promises, we shall certainly
   overcome Him! If you trust Him, He cannot fail you. It is possible for
   even a good man to fail one who trusts him, but it is quite impossible
   for God to fail the soul that has relied upon Him!

   I am sure that if we ministers only believe God more and preach more in
   faith, He will honor us more. I fancy that if God were to give us
   Pentecostal blessings, it would be seen that many of us are by no means
   ready to receive them. Suppose there were 5,000 persons converted in
   one day here, most of the churches round here would say, "There is a
   shocking state of excitement aver at the Tabernacle. It is really
   dreadful!" The very "sound" Brethren would feel that we had gone off
   into Arminianism, or some other error and I expect that some of you
   would say, very dolefully, "Oh, dear! Dear! Dear! Dear! We do hope they
   will all stand." The first thought that would be excited in many
   Christian minds would be one of suspicion! I am sure that if we
   reported that anywhere in England, 3,000 were brought to know the Lord
   in one day, there is not one Christian in ten who would believe that
   such a thing was possible! And there is not one in a hundred who would
   think that it was true! And we ministers would be very much of the same
   mind. I was preaching in Bedford, and I prayed that God would bless the
   sermon and give me at least some few souls that afternoon. When I had
   done, there was an old Wesleyan Brother there who gave me a good
   scolding, which I richly deserved. He said to me, "I did not say,
   'Amen,' when you were asking for a few souls to be converted, for I
   thought you were limiting the Holy One of Israel! Why did you not pray
   with all your heart for allof them to be saved. I did," he added, "and
   that was why I did not say, 'Amen,' to your narrow prayer." It is often
   the case that we preachers do not honor God by believing that He will
   give great blessings and, therefore, He does not honor us by giving
   those great blessings! But if we maintained a closer adherence to the
   Truth of God and had a firmer confidence that God's Word shall never
   return unto Him void, He would do far greater things by us than He has
   ever yet done!

   To this sense of our own weakness and our full belief in God, we must
   add earnest attention to His Word. Brother, you cannot expect God to
   listen to you if you will not listen to Him. And when you ask of God,
   you must not imagine that He will give to you what you ask of Him if
   you do not give to Him what he asks of you. If a man loves to sin, his
   prayers cannot register with the God of Holiness. When God says to a
   man, "Such-and-such a thing is to be done," and the man says, "I will
   not do it," the next time he goes to God in prayer, it is very likely
   that the Lord will say to Him, "As you did not do as I wished, I shall
   not do as you wish." The toleration of any known sin deprives us of
   power with God--and the neglect of any known duty prevents a man from
   succeeding when he is on his knees. If you would prevail with God, you
   must have "a conscience void of offense." You must go before the Lord
   confessing your sins and saying, "O Lord, help me to do Your will in
   all things! I am perfectly willing to do so and I wish to be Your
   loyal, obedient servant in all things." If you do that, you will find
   that whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.

   In addition to all that I have said, the man who is to prevail with God
   must be a man who is terribly in earnest. What an earnest man Jacob was
   in that night of wrestling! What a grand utterance that was, "I will
   not let You go, except You bless me"! Cold prayers do, as it were, ask
   God notto listen to them. When you pray for anything, if you do not
   present your petition with earnestness and fervor, you cannot expect
   the Lord to hear you. Some people, when they pray, are like the little
   boys in the street who give runaway knocks at the door--and off they
   go! But the man who prays rightly gets a hold of the knocker on the
   Door of Mercy and he knocks, and knocks, and if there is no answer, he
   knocks again and again, and if there is not, then, an answer, he knocks
   again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and the longer he is
   kept waiting, the more loudly he knocks till, at last, you would think
   that he was going to carry the house by storm and make the doorposts
   jump out of their sockets, he knocks so hard! That is the kind of man
   who wins the day with God--the man who will not let the Lord go until
   He blesses him! The prayers of John Knox brought down upon Scotland
   such copious blessings because they were the prayers of a man whose
   heart was all on fire with sacred earnestness, and who prayed with his
   whole soul and spirit. Our Lord Jesus, Himself, said, "The Kingdom of
   Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force."

   To all these qualifications for power with God we must add holy
   importunity. Wrestling is not merely laying hold of a man and then
   letting him go. I wonder how Jacob did hold that Man who wrestled with
   him until the breaking of the day? I guarantee you that he had a tight
   grip on Him and I expect that, sometimes, it was especially leg-work,
   and then arm-work, and then loin-work, for, when men wrestle in real
   earnest, all their sinews, muscles, bones and limbs are

   brought into play. So it must have been with Jacob that night, and he
   kept on holding the Angel fast, and saying in his soul, if not with his
   lips--

   "With You all night I mean to stay, And wrestle till the break of
   day"--

   and, therefore, the blessing was given to him because he kept on
   struggling for it! There are some mercies which never will be bestowed
   except in answer to continued, importunate prayer. O Brother or Sister,
   if you know how to keep on pleading, you are the one who has power with
   God! You will be called Israel if you can spend the whole night in
   resolute, determined, humble, believing importunity! The blessing must
   come if you feel that you cannot do without it, because it is for God's
   Glory that it should be bestowed upon you!

   And, dear Friends, there is great power with God when, in importunate
   prayer, we at last come to tearful entreaty. In Hosea 12: 4, the
   Prophet tells us that Jacob "had power over the Angel, and prevailed;
   he wept, and made supplication unto Him." Moses does not tell us that
   in the Book of Genesis, but Hosea also had the Inspiration of the Holy
   Spirit, and he gives us this interesting item concerning Jacob's
   wrestling, that, "he wept." I think I see the Patriarch covered with
   sweat through his great exertions in wrestling, but, in addition, his
   heart is breaking within him and he is sighing and crying all the
   while--and the hot tears are falling on the Angel's hands and I think
   it was the tears that finally won the victory. You remember that when
   our Lord Jesus Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane, "He 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." And
   the man who knows how to weep, if not actually, yet with real spiritual
   tears--the man whose soul gets stirred up to a passionate agony of
   desire--is the man who has power with God! If we have any such members
   in this Church--and I believe that we have many who really do weep over
   the souls of sinners--they are the men and women who will bring down
   the blessing in answer to their prayers and tears! Brothers and
   Sisters, if you are in the habit of weeping over your unconverted
   children and, in your pleading with God for their salvation, are in the
   habit of weeping unless the blessing comes, you are sure to get the
   blessing sooner or later! You are the very strength of the Church! You
   are the lifeguards of the Church and God will be sure to give
   innumerable blessings in answer to those prayers and tears of yours!
   May we have many such Church members, for these are people who have
   power with God!

   IV. I close by briefly noticing TO WHAT USE THIS POWER MAY BE TURNED.

   Whenever this power with God is given, it will bring down many
   blessings upon the person who has it and it will also make him the
   means of great blessing to others. My time has almost gone, so I will
   only dwell on that second point.

   Abraham was a man who had power with God, but there was poor Lot living
   over in Sodom, just as a great many professed Christians are doing
   today. I hope they are God's people, but I cannot make them out. They
   like worldly amusements and they like worldly talk--they are like Lot
   in Sodom. I wonder how they can endure the foul atmosphere in which
   they live? I have often said that the Grace of God can live where I
   could not. There are some people with whom I should not like to live,
   yet I trust the Grace of God is in them. At least, I hope so, I must
   not judge them. But, dear Brethren, if ever that part of the Church
   which is like Lot in Sodom gets a blessing, it must be through you who
   are like Abraham and have power with God! Pray for your poor
   inconsistent Brothers and Sisters--entreat the Lord to prevent them
   from going any further into sin. Ask the Lord that they may not be
   destroyed with Sodom in the day of His vengeance, and the Lord will
   hear you, and bring Lot safely out of Sodom, though it may be that Lot
   will have to lose all that he has and lose his wife, too, before he
   will get out. You will get him out if you know how to pray for him.

   Moses was another man who had power with God. You remember that when
   the Israelites made the golden calf, the Lord said to Moses, "Let Me
   alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume
   them: and I will make of you a great nation." Was not that a wonderful
   opportunity for Moses? He was to be made into a great nation, and all
   the rest of the people were to be destroyed. But you recollect how
   Moses pleaded with the Lord and he did not plead is vain. The Lord said
   to him, "Let Me alone, that I may consume them," but it seems as though
   Moses stood up and grasped God's hand, in which He held His rod of
   vengeance, and at last the Lord said that He would pardon the nation
   and spare them in answer to the plea of Moses, the man who had power
   with God.

   And there was Aaron, too, when the plague broke out among the people
   who had murmured against him and Moses, and thousands were being struck
   dead. At the command of Moses, he took a censer and filled it with
   burning coals and incense--and ran into the midst of the congregation
   just where the death wave had come--"and he stood between the

   dead and the living; and the plague was stayed." Aaron, the high priest
   with his censer, had power with God. The Lord Jesus Christ, Aaron's
   great Antitype, is continually exercising this power on the behalf of
   His people, and He also helps some of His servants to do the same
   work--Martin Luther, to wit. How he seemed to stand with the censer of
   the Gospel between the living and the dead and, in other dark times and
   perilous ages, God has raised up many eminent servants to whom He has
   given that same censer of the Gospel which pours forth a sweet savor of
   Christ as they also swing it to and fro, standing between the living
   and the dead! Oh, that God would give power to many of you, dear
   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, in some such way as this! Recollect the
   power that the early Christians had with God to get Peter out of
   prison. If you have power with God, it is an engine which you may burn
   in all manner of ways for the blessing of your fellow Christians and of
   poor outcast sinners. Therefore I charge you to seek it! And when you
   get it, hold it fast and walk humbly before God that He may not take
   this power from you, but may you be strong in the Lord and in the power
   of His might, for Jesus' sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Our Banner

   (No. 2979)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1905.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1863.

   "You have given a banner to those who fear You, that it may be
   displayed because of the truth." Psalm 60:4.

   MOST writers upon this Psalm, after having referred the banner to the
   Kingdom of David, say that there is here a reference to the Messiah. We
   believe there is. Nor is that reference an obscure allusion. In the
   Lord Jesus we find the clue to the history and the solution of the
   prophecy. He is the banner--He is the ensign that is lifted up before
   the people. He is Jehovah-Nissi, "the Lord My Banner," whom it is our
   joy to follow and around whom it is our delight to rally. We shall not
   stay to prove--though we might readily do so--that the banner here
   intended is no other than the Lord Jesus Christ in the majesty of His
   Person--in the efficacy of His merit--in the completeness of His
   righteousness--in the success of His triumph--in the glory of His
   advent. If you read it with an eye to Him, you have the meaning at
   once-- "You has given Christ as a banner to those who fear You, to be
   displayed because of the truth." So let us consider our Lord Jesus
   Christ, first, as He is compared to a banner. Secondly, by whom Hie is
   given. Thirdly, to whom Hie is given. And fourthly, for what purpose.

   I. Let us consider OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST AS HE IS COMPARED TO A BANNER.

   The banner was far more useful, I suppose, in ancient, than it is in
   modern warfare. Times have changed and we are changed by them. Yet we
   still speak with reverence of the old flag. There is much meaning in
   the phrase, "the flag that's braved a thousand years the battle and the
   breeze." The soldier still waves the flag of his country and the sailor
   still looks with patriotic pride to the flag that has so long floated
   at England's masthead. Our metaphor, perhaps, rather points to ancient
   than present use.

   We should notice, first of all, that the banner was lifted up and
   displayed as the point of union. When a leader was about to gather
   troops for a war, he hoisted his banner and then every man rallied to
   the standard. The coming to the standard, the rallying round the
   banner, was the joining with the prince, the espousing of his cause. In
   the day of battle, when there was always a likelihood that the host
   would be put to flight, the valiant men all fought around the banner.
   Its defense was of the first and chief consequence. They might leave
   the baggage for a while--they might forsake the smaller flags of the
   divisions--but the great blood-red banner that with prayer had been
   consecrated--they must all gather round it, and there, if necessary,
   shed their heart's blood.

   Christ, my Brothers and Sisters, is the point of union for all the
   soldiers of the Cross! I know of no other place where all Christians
   can meet. We cannot all meet--I am sorry that we cannot--at the
   baptismal stream. There are some who will not be baptized--they still
   persist in the sin of putting drops of water in the place of the
   ordained flood and bringing infants where faith is required. We cannot
   all meet even around the table of the Eucharist--there are some who
   thrust aside their brethren because they do not see eye to eye with
   them. And even the Communion Table has sometimes become a field of
   battle. But all Christians can meet in the Person of Christ! All true
   hearts can meet in the work of Christ! This is a banner that we all
   love, if we are Christians, and far from it are those who are not. Here
   to Your Cross, O Jesus, do we come! The Churchman laden with his many
   forms and vestments. The Presbyterian with his stern Covenant, and his
   love of those who stained the heather with their blood. The Independent
   with his passion for liberty and the separateness of the free churches.
   The Methodist with his intricate forms of Church Government, sometimes
   forms of bondage, but still forms of power. The Baptist, remembering
   his ancient pedigree and the days in which his fathers were hounded
   even by Christians, themselves, and counted not worthy of that
   name--they all come to Christ!

   Various opinions divide them. They do not see eye to eye on many
   matters. Here and there they will have a skirmish for the old landmarks
   and rightly so, for we ought to be jealous, as Josiah was, to do that
   which is right in the sight of the Lord, and neither decline to the
   right hand nor to the left. But we rally to the Cross of Christ! And
   there all weapons of national warfare being cast aside, we meet as
   Brothers, fellow comrades in a blessed Evangelical Alliance who are
   prepared to suffer and to die for His dear sake! Forward then,
   Christians, to the point of union! In the crusade against the powers of
   darkness, with the salvation of sinners for my one undivided aim,
   little care I for anything but the lifting up of my Master's Gospel and
   the proclamation of the Word of mercy through His flowing blood!

   Again, the banner, in time of war, was the great guide-star, it was the
   direction to the soldier. You remember what special care they took, in
   the day of battle, that in case the standard-bearer should fall, there
   might still be some means of guiding the warriors.

   So, to this day, Christ is the great Guide of the Christian in the day
   of battle. There is no fear that Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
   today and forever, will ever fail. Fix your eyes upon Him, Christian,
   and if you would know the best way to fight, fight in His footsteps,
   imitate His every action, let your life be a copy of His life! You need
   never stop to ask for directions--the life of Christ is the Christian's
   model. You need not turn to your fellow Believer and ask, "Comrade,
   what are we to do now? The smoke of battle gathers and the cries are
   various. Which way shall I go?" The Apostle Paul has given us our
   directions--"Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
   looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the
   joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and
   is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God." Press forward, in
   Christ's footsteps, saying, "God has given You, my Savior, to be to me
   a banner because of the truth."

   In these two respects, as the central point for rallying, and as the
   direction to the warrior, Christ is our banner! And the banner, let it
   be remembered, is always the chief object of attack. The moment the
   adversary sees it, his objective is to strike there. If it is not the
   most vulnerable point, it will be at least the point where the
   adversary's power is most felt. Did they not of old aim their shots at
   the flagstaff so as to cut down the banner? Whenever the old Knights of
   the Red Cross fought the Saracens, they always endeavored to make their
   steel ring upon the helmet of the man whose hand held the standard of
   Mohammed! The fight was always fiercest around the standard. Sometimes,
   when the battle was over, the field would be strewn with legs, and
   arms, and mangled bodies, but, in one place there would be a heap where
   they were piled one upon another--a great mountain of flesh and armor,
   broken bones and smashed skulls--and one would ask, "What does this
   means? How came all this carnage is here? Why are they so trampled, one
   upon another, and in pools of human blood?" The answer would be, "'Twas
   there the standard-bearer stood, and first the adversary made a dash,
   and stole the banner, and then 50 knights vowed to redeem it, and they
   dashed against their foes and took it by storm. And then again, hand to
   hand, they fought with the banner between them, first in one hand and
   then in another, changing ownership each hour."

   So, dear Friends, Christ Jesus has always been the object of attack!
   You remember that when Divine Justice came forth against Christ on
   Calvary, it made five tears in the great Banner, and those five wounds,
   all glorious, are still in that Banner! Since that day, many a shot has
   sought to riddle it, but not one has been able to touch it! Borne
   aloft, first by one hand and then by another, the mighty God of Jacob
   being the strength of the standard-bearers, that Banner has bidden
   defiance to the leaguered hosts of the world, the flesh and the devil!
   And never has it been trailed in the mire, and never once carried in
   jeering triumph by the adversary! Blessed are the tears in the Banner,
   for they are the symbol of our victory! Those five wounds in the Person
   of the Savior are the gates of Heaven to us! But, thank God, there are
   no more wounds to be endured--the Person of our Lord is safe forever.
   "A bone of Him shall not be broken." His Gospel, too, is an unwounded
   Gospel and His mystical body is uninjured. Yes, the Gospel is unharmed
   after all the strife of ages. The infidel threatens to rend the Gospel
   to pieces, but it is as glorious as ever! Modern skepticism has sought
   to pull it thread from thread, but has not been able so much as to rend
   a fragment of it! Every now and then, fresh adversaries have found out
   some new methods of induction or declamation, attempting to prove the
   Gospel to be a lie, and Christ an impostor. Have they succeeded? No,
   verily, they have all had to fly from the field. The good old Banner of
   the Lord Omnipotent, even Christ Jesus, still stands exact above them
   all!

   And why should the banner be the object of attack but for this very
   reason, that it is the symbol of defiance As soon as ever the banner is
   lifted up, it is, as it were, flaunted in the face of the foe. It seems
   to say to him, "Do your worst, come

   on! We are not afraid of you--we defy you!" So, when Christ is
   preached, there is a defiance given to the enemies of the Lord. Every
   time a sermon is preached in the power of the Spirit, it is as though
   the shrill clarion woke up the fiends of Hell for such a sermon to say
   to them, "Christ is come forth again to deliver His lawful captives out
   of your power! The King of kings has come to take away your dominions,
   to wrest from you your stolen treasures, and to proclaim Himself your
   Master." There is a stern joy which the minister sometimes feels when
   he thinks of himself as the antagonist of the powers of Hell. Martin
   Luther seems to have felt it when he said, "Come, let us sing the 46th
   Psalm and let the devil do his worst!" That was lifting up the standard
   of the Cross! If you want to defy the devil, don't go about preaching
   philosophy! Don't sit down and write out fine sermons with long
   sentences, three quarters of a mile in length! Don't try and cull fine,
   smooth phrases that will sound sweetly in people's ears. The devil
   doesn't care a bit for this! But talk about Christ! Preach about the
   suffering of the Savior! Tell sinners that there is life in a look at
   Him and straightway the devil takes great offense.

   Look at many of the ministers in London! They preach in their pulpits
   from the first of January to the last of December--and nobody finds
   fault with them because they prophesy such smooth things. But let a man
   preach Christ! Let him exclaim about the power of Jesus to save and
   press home Gospel Truths with simplicity and boldness-- straightaway
   the fiends of darkness will be against him and, if they cannot bite,
   they will show that they can howl and bark! There is a symbol of
   defiance in the banner of the Cross--it is God's symbol of defiance,
   His gauntlet thrown down to the confederated powers of Darkness--a
   gauntlet which they dare not take up, for they know what tremendous
   power for good there is in the uplifting of the Cross of Christ! Wave,
   then, your banner, O you soldiers of the Cross! Each in your place and
   rank keep watch, but still wave your banner, for though the adversary
   shall be full of wrath, it is because he knows that his time is short
   when once the Cross of Christ is lifted up!

   We have not quite exhausted the metaphor yet. The banner was always a
   source of consolation to the wounded. There he lies, the good knight.
   Right well has he fought without fear and without reproach, but a
   chance arrow pierced the joints of his harness and his life is oozing
   out from the ghastly wound. There is no one there to unbuckle his
   helmet, or give him a draught of cool water. His frame is locked up in
   that hard case of steel and though he feels the pain, he cannot gain
   relief. He hears the mingled cries, the hoarse shouts of men that rush
   in fury against their fellows and he opens his eyes--as yet he has not
   fainted from his bleeding. Where, do you think, does he look? He turns
   himself round. What is he looking for? For friend? For comrades? No.
   Should they come to him, he would say, "Just lift me up and let me sit
   against that tree, but you go to the fight." Where is that restless eye
   searching and what is the object for which it is looking? Yes, he has
   it! And the face of the dying man is brightened. He sees the banner
   still waving and with his last breath he cries, "On! On! On!" and falls
   asleep content because the banner is safe. It has not been cast down.
   Though he has fallen, yet the banner is secure!

   Even so, every true soldier of the Cross rejoices in its triumph! We
   fall, but Christ does not! We die, but the cause prospers! As I have
   told you before, when my heart was most sad--as it never was before nor
   since--that sweet text, "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him, and
   given Him a name which is above every name," quite cheered my soul and
   set me again in peace and comfort. Is Jesus safe? Then it never matters
   what becomes of me! Is the banner all right? Does it wave on high? Then
   the adversary has not won the day! He has felled one and another, but
   he, himself, shall be broken in pieces, for the banner still shine in
   the sun!

   And, lastly, the banner is the emblem of victory. When the fighting is
   over and the soldier comes home, what does he bring? His blood-stained
   flag. And what is borne highest in the procession as it winds through
   the streets? It is the flag. They hang it in the church--high up there
   on the roof, where the incense smokes, and where the song of praise
   ascends-- there hangs the banner, honored and esteemed, borne in
   conflict and in danger. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ shall be our Banner
   in the last day and when all our foes shall be under our feet! A little
   while and He that will come shall come, and will not tarry. A little
   while, and we shall see--

   "Jehovah's banner furled, Sheathed His sword; He speaks! 'Tis done, And
   the kingdoms of this world Are the kingdoms of His Son."

   And then Jesus, high above us all, shall be exalted! And through the
   streets of the holy city, the acclamations shall ring, "Hosanna,
   Hosanna, blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord!"

   II. Let us turn to our second point for a few moments. It is this--Who
   gave us this Banner? BY WHOM WAS CHRIST GIVEN TO US?

   Soldiers often esteem the colors for the sake of the person who first
   bestowed them. You and I ought greatly to esteem our precious Christ
   for the sake of God who gave Him to us--"You have given a Banner to
   those who fear You." God gave us this Banner in old eternity. Christ
   was given by the eternal Father, from everlasting, before the earth
   was, to His elect people, to be the Messiah of God, the Savior of the
   world! He was given in the manger, when "the Word was made flesh, and
   dwelt among us." He was given upon the Cross when the Father bestowed
   every drop of His Son's blood, and every nerve of His body, and every
   power of His soul to bleed and die, "the Just for the unjust, that He
   might bring us to God." " You have given a banner."

   That Banner was given to each one of us in the day of our conversion.
   Christ became, from that time forth, our glory and our boast. And He is
   given to some of us, especially, when we are called to the ministry, or
   when the Holy Spirit's guidance puts us upon any extraordinary work for
   Christ. Then is the banner, in a direct and especial manner, committed
   to our care. There are some here who have had this Banner given to them
   to carry in the midst of the Sunday school. A dear Sister here has it.
   A beloved Brother has it to bear in the midst of many of this
   congregation. The young men of our College, of our Evening Classes, and
   many others of you, workers for Christ, have that Banner, that you may
   bear it in the streets, that you may lift up the name of Jesus in the
   causeways, and in the places of assembly. And, in a certain measure,
   all of you who love the Lord, have that Banner given to you, that in
   your various spheres of service you may talk of Jesus and lift up His
   holy name!

   Now, inasmuch as God Himself gives us this Banner, with what reverence
   should we look upon it, with what ardor should we cluster round it,
   with what zeal should we defend it, with what enthusiasm should we
   follow it, with what faith and confidence should we rush even into
   death, itself, for its defense!

   III. Thirdly, TO WHOM IS THIS BANNER GIVEN? The text says, "You have
   given a banner to those who fear

   You." Not to all men. God has a chosen people. These chosen people are
   known, in due time, by their outward character. That outward Divine
   Grace-worked character is this--they fear God, and they that fear God
   are the only persons who ought to carry this banner. Shall the banner
   be put into a drunkard's hands? Shall the great Truth of Christ be left
   to those who live in sin? Oh, it is a wretched thing when men come into
   the pulpit to preach who have never known and felt the power of the
   Gospel! Time was--but times are changed somewhat--when, in multitudes
   of our parish pulpits, men whose characters were unhallowed, preached
   to others what they never practiced themselves! To such, the banner
   ought not to be given! Men must fear God, or else they are not worthy
   to bear it.

   Moreover, none but these can bear it. What others bear is not the
   banner--it is but an imitation of it. It is not Christ they preach--it
   is a diluted thing that is not the Gospel of Jesus. They cannot
   proclaim it to others till they know it themselves! It is given to them
   that fear God because they will have courage to bear it. Fear is often
   the mother of courage. To fear God makes a man brave. To fear man is
   cowardly, I grant, but to fear God with humble awe and holy reverence
   is such a noble passion that I would we were more and more full
   thereof, blending, as it were, the fear of Isaac with the faith of
   Abraham! To fear God will make the weakest of us play the man, and the
   most cowardly of us become heroes for the Lord our God!

   Now, inasmuch as this banner is given to those that fear God, if you
   fear God, it is given to you. I do not know in what capacity you are to
   bear it, but I do know there is somewhere or other where you have to
   carry it. Mother, let the banner wave in your household! Merchant, let
   the banner be fixed upon your house of business. Let it be unfurled and
   fly at your masthead, O sailor! Bear the banner, O soldier, in your
   regiment! Yours is a stern duty, for, alas, the Christian soldier has a
   path of briar that few men have trod. God make you faithful and may you
   be honored as a good soldier of Jesus Christ! Some of you are poor and
   work hard in the midst of many artisans who fear not God. Take your
   banner with you and never be ashamed of your colors. You cannot be long
   in a workshop before your companions will pull their colors out. They
   will soon begin talking to you about their sinful pleasures, their
   amusements, perhaps their infidel principles. Take your banner out
   likewise. Tell them that it is a game two can play at--never allow a
   man to show his banner without also showing yours! Do not do it
   ostentatiously--do it humbly--but do it earnestly and sincerely.

   Remember that your banner is one that you never need be ashamed of--the
   best of men have fought under it! No, He who was God as well as Man has
   His own name written on it! Surely, then, you need not be ashamed to
   wave it anywhere and everywhere. You can think bravely--now be great in
   action as you have been in thought--

   "Presence of mind and courage in distress Are more than armies to
   procure success."

   IV. This is our last question, FOR WHAT PURPOSE WAS THIS BANNER GIVEN
   TO US?

   Our text is very explicit upon that point--it was given to us to be
   "displayed because of the truth." It is to be displayed. In order to
   display a banner, you must take it out of its case. Members of this
   congregation, Brothers and Sisters in the Church, I pray you study the
   Scriptures much. I would not have men attempt to preach unless they
   have some power. To go forth without some study would be like a man
   attempting to do execution with a gun that had much powder in it and no
   shot. Young men, save your spare hours to study the Bible. Steal them
   from your sleep if you cannot get them any other way. Sunday school
   teachers, be diligent in your preparations for your classes. Let your
   banner out of the case. It is of little service lifting it up in the
   midst of the ranks without its being unfurled. See that you know the
   holy art of unfurling it. Practice it! Study it! Be well acquainted
   with Him who is the wisdom of God and the power of God!

   And, after the flag is unfurled, it needs to be lifted up. So, in order
   to display Christ, you must lift Him up. Lift Him up with a clear
   voice, as one who has something to say which he would have men hear.
   Speak of Him boldly, as one who is not ashamed of His message. Speak
   affectionately, speak passionately, speak with your whole soul--let
   your whole heart be in every word you say, for this is to lift up the
   banner!

   But, besides lifting up the banner, you must carry it, for it is the
   business of the standard-bearer, not merely to hold it in one place,
   but to bear it here and there if the plan of battle shall change. So,
   bear Christ to the poor lodging houses, to the workhouses, to the
   prisons, if you can get admittance, to the back streets, to the dark
   slums, to the cellars, to the solitary attic, to the crowded rooms, to
   the highways and the byways! And you especially who are private
   Christians and not preachers, bear it from house to house! We had a
   complaint, the other day, that some of you had been going from house to
   house to try and talk to others about their souls. You had entrenched
   upon the parochial bounds of the authored gamekeeper! I pray you to
   entrench again! What is myparish? The whole world is my parish! Let the
   whole world be your parish likewise! What does it matter to us if the
   world is parceled out among men who probably do little or nothing? Let
   us do all we can! No man has any right to say to me, "Visit in
   such-and-such a district, not here--this is my ground." Who gave it to
   you? Who gave him lordship of the world, or any portion of it? "The
   earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." The earth is your field
   and no matter upon whose district, territory, or parish! Let me
   encourage you who love the Savior, you who have the pure Gospel, to go
   and spread it! Let nothing confine you, or limit your labors, except
   your strength and your time!

   Still, after all, if we carry the Gospel and lift up the banner, it
   will never be displayed unless there is wind to blow it. A banner would
   only hang like a dead flag upon the staff if there were no wind. We
   cannot produce the wind to expand the banner, but we can invoke
   heavenly aid. Prayer becomes a prophecy when we say, "Awake, O heavenly
   wind, and blow, and let this banner be displayed." The Holy Spirit is
   that gracious wind who shall make the Truth of God apparent in the
   hearts of those who hear it. Display the banner, talk of Christ, live
   Christ, proclaim Christ everywhere! He is given to you for this very
   purpose. Therefore, let not your light be hid under a bushel. "You are
   the light of the world." "Let your light so shine before men." Let the
   old flag be held up by firm hands. Go forth in new times, with new
   resolves, and may you have constant renewing as new opportunities open
   before you!

   Oh, but are there not some of you who could not bear this banner? Let
   me invite such to come and take shelter under it. My Master's banner,
   wherever it goes, gives liberty! Under the banner of old England, there
   never breathes a slave. They tread our country, they breathe our air
   and their shackles fall! Beneath the banner of Christ, no slave can
   live. Do but look up to Jesus, relying upon His suffering in your
   place, and bearing your sins in your place and forthwith you shall have
   acceptance in the Beloved! And the peace of God which passes all
   understanding shall keep your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. So
   may God enlist you beneath the banner, to His Glory! Amen.

   Genesis 32:1. And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
   What an encouragement the visit of these angels must have been to Jacob
   after the strife which he had had with Laban! But, dear Friends, angels
   often come to meet us, though we know it not. As in the old classic
   story, the poor man said, "This is a plain hut, but God has been here,"
   so we may say of every Christian's cottage, "Though it is poor, an
   angel has come here," for David says, "The Angel of the Lord encamps
   round about them that fear Him, and delivers them." As the angels of
   God met Jacob, I trust that if you have come here after some stern
   battle, trial and difficulty, you may find the angels of God meeting
   you here. They do come into the assemblies of the saints. Paul tells us
   that the woman ought to have her head covered in the assembly "because
   of the angels," that is, because they are there to see that all things
   are done decently and in order.

   2. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host: and he called
   the name of that place Mahanaim. He gave it a name to commemorate God's
   having sent the angels and called it, "two camps" or, "two hosts."

   3. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the
   land ofSeir, the country ofEdom. He is out of one trouble with
   Laban--now he is into another with Esau. Well did John Bunyan say--

   "A Christian man is seldom long at ease;

   When one trouble's gone, another does him seize."

   4. 5. And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall you speak unto my lord
   Esau, Your servant Jacob says thus, I have adjourned with Laban, and
   stayed there until now: and I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and
   menservants, and women servants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that
   I may find favor in your sight This is very respectful language, and
   rather submissive, too. But when a man knows that he has done wrong to
   another, he ought to be prepared to humble himself to the injured
   individual and, though it happened long ago, yet Jacob really had
   injured his brother Esau. So it was but right that in meeting him
   again, he should put himself into a humble position before him. There
   are some proud people who, when they know that they have done wrong,
   yet will not admit it. And it is very hard to end a quarrel when one
   will not yield and the other feels that he will not, either. But there
   is good hope of things going right when Jacob, who is the better of the
   two brothers, is also the humbler of the two.

   6, 7. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We went to your
   brother Esau, and also he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with
   him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. And well he might
   be, for an angry brother, with four hundred fierce followers, must mean
   mischief!

   7, 8. And he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks, and
   herds, and the camels, into two bands; and said, If Esau comes to the
   one company, and smites it, then the other company which is left shall
   escape. This is characteristic of Jacob. He was a man of plans and
   arrangements, a man of considerable craftiness which some people,
   nowadays, call, "prudence." He used means and he sometimes used them a
   little too much. Perhaps he did so in this case, but, at the same time,
   he was a man of faith and, therefore, he betook himself to prayer.

   9-12. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father
   Isaac, the Lord which said unto me, Return unto your country, and to
   your kindred, and I will deal well with you: I am not worthy of the
   least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which You have showed
   unto Your servant, for with my staff I passed over the Jordan, and now
   I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray You, from the hand of my
   brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and
   smite me, and the mother with the children. And You said, I will surely
   do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the seas which cannot be
   numbered for multitude. A prayer most humble, most direct in its
   petitions, and also full of faith. That was a grand argument for him to
   use--"You said, I will surely do you good." This is one of the
   mightiest pleas that we can urge in praying to God--"Do as You have
   said. Remember Your word unto Your servant, upon which You have caused
   me to hope." O Brothers and Sisters, if you can remind God of His own
   promise, you will win the day, for promised mercies are sure mercies--

   "As well might He His being quit, As break His promise, or forget."
   "Has He said, and shall He not do it?" Only for this will He be
   enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them, and we must take
   care that we call His promise to mind and plead it at the Mercy Seat.

   13-21. And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came
   to his hand a present for Esau his brother; two hundred she goats, and
   twenty he goats, two hundred ewe, and twenty rams, thirty milch camel
   with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten
   foals. And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove

   by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put
   a space between drove and drove. And he commanded the foremost, saying
   When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, saying, 'Whose are you?
   And where are you going? And whose are these before you? Then you shall
   say, They are your servant Jacob's; it is a present sent unto my lord
   Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us. And so commanded he the
   second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On
   this manner shall you speak unto Esau, when you find him. And say we
   moreover, Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will
   appease him with the present that goes before me and afterward I will
   see his face; perhaps he will accept me. So went the present over
   before him: and himself lodged that night in the company. If Jacob had
   been true to his faith in God, he would have dispensed with these very
   prudent preparations, for, after all, the faithfulness of God was
   Jacob's best defense! It was from God that his safety came--not from
   his own plotting, planning and scheming. There are some of you, dear
   Brothers and Sisters, who have minds that are naturally given to
   inventions, devices, plans and plots--and I believe that where this is
   the case, you have more to battle against than those have who are of an
   ample mind and who cast themselves more entirely upon the Lord. It is a
   blessed thing to be such a fool that you do not know anyone to trust in
   except your God. It is a sweet thing to be so weaned from your wisdom
   that you fall into the arms of God.

   Yet, if you do feel that it is right to make such plans as Jacob made,
   take care that you do what Jacob also did. Pray as well as plan and if
   your plans are numerous, let your prayers be all the more fervent, lest
   the natural tendency of your constitution should degenerate into
   reliance upon the arm of flesh and dependence upon your own wisdom,
   instead of absolute reliance upon God.

   22-24. And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two
   women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.
   And he took them and sent them over the brook, and sent over what he
   had. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a Man with him until
   the breaking of the day. It was the Man Christ Jesus putting on the
   form of Manhood before the time when He would actually be Incarnate!
   And the wrestling seems to have been more on His side than on Jacob's,
   for it is not said that Jacob wrestled, but that "there wrestled a Man
   with him." There was something that needed to be taken out of
   Jacob--his strength and his craftiness--and this Angel came to get it
   out of him. But, on the other hand, Jacob spied his opportunity and,
   finding the Angel wrestling with him, he in his turn began to wrestle
   with the angel.

   25. And when He saw that He prevailed not against him, He touched the
   hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint
   as he wrestled with Him. So that he was made painfully to realize his
   own weakness while he was putting forth all his strength!

   26. And He said, let Me go, for the day breaks. And he said, I will not
   let You go, except You bless me. Bravely said, O Jacob! And you sons of
   Jacob, learn to say the same! You may have what you will if you can
   speak thus to the Covenant Angel, "I will not let You go, except You
   bless me."

   27. 28. And He said unto him, what is your name? And he said Jacob. And
   He said, Your name shall be called no more Jacob. "The supplanter."

   28. But Israel. "A prince of God."

   28, 29. For as a prince have youpower with Godand with men, and have
   prevailed. And Jacob askedHim, andsaid, Tell me, I pray You, Your name.
   That has often been the request of God's people--they have wanted to
   know God's wondrous name. The Jews superstitiously believe that we have
   lost the sound of the name of Jehovah--that the name is altogether
   unpronounceable. We think not so, but certainly, no man knows the
   Nature of God, and understands Him but he to whom the Son shall reveal
   Him. Perhaps Jacob's request had somewhat of curiosity in it, so the
   Angel would not grant it.

   29. And He said, why is it that you ask after My name. And He blessed
   him there. He did not give him what he asked for, but He gave him
   something better and, in like manner, if the Lord does not open up a
   dark doctrine to you, but gives you a bright privilege, that will be
   better for you!

   30-32. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen
   God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over
   Peniel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore
   the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon
   the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because He touched the hollow
   of Jacob's thigh in the sinew which shrank.

   Psalm 119:33. Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes. The Psalmist
   is constantly talking about "the way." We have that expression in the
   27th verse, then in the 29th , the 30th and the 32nd -and now again we
   have it here--"Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes."

   33, 34. And I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I
   shall keep Your Law; yes, I shall observe it with my whole heart. That
   is not true or right understanding which permits us to go into sin.
   Those who are really wise in heart hate evil and love righteousness.

   35. Make me to go in the path. Or, way--

   35. Of Your commandment; for therein do I delight. "Make me to go." Not
   only show me the way, but make me to go, like a nurse does with a child
   when she puts her hands under its arms and strengthens its tottering
   footsteps. This is a very beautiful expression--"Make me to go." Lord,
   we are very weak. We are like little children. Make us to go in the
   path of Your commandments, for therein do we delight.

   36. Incline my heart unto Your testimonies, and not to covetousness.
   The heart must love something--it will either love that which is good,
   or that which is evil. "O Lord," the Psalmist seems to pray, "incline
   my heart in the right direction. Make it lean towards that which is
   good. Cause me to count Your Grace better than all the riches of the
   world."

   37. Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity. "Do not let me even look
   at it, for one may look at an ugly thing until the sense of its
   deformity gradually disappears and it becomes attractive. Lord, never
   let me so fix my eyes upon sin that, at last, I come to reckon it a
   desirable thing."

   37. And quicken You me in Your way. "A man who travels quickly has not
   time to stop and look at the things in the road. Lord, let me go so
   fast to Heaven that when the devil hangs his baubles in his shop
   window, I may not have time even to stop and look at them! Turn away my
   eyes from beholding vanity and quicken You me in Your way.'"

   38. Establish Your word unto Your servant, who is devoted to Your fear.
   That is, "Make Your word to me real and true. Put away my natural
   skepticism, my proneness to question, my tendency to doubt." "Establish
   Your word." "Make me to know how firm, how true, how real it is, for I
   would love it more and more. I do believe it, for I am devoted to Your
   fear, but I long to be still further established in the faith."

   39. Turn away my reproach which I fear. Are any of you fearing
   reproach? If so, you may well fear it, for you deserve it. Yet, even
   then, you may ask the Lord to turn it away from you.

   39, 40. For Your judgments are good. Behold, I have longed after Your
   precepts. Some people whom I know long after the promises, and others
   long after the doctrines. I hope that they will all get an equal
   longing for the precepts, for true Believers love the precepts as much
   as they love the promises or the doctrines. "Behold, I have longed
   after Your precepts."

   40. Quicken me in Your righteousness.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Lift for the Prostrate

   (No. 2980)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 19, 1875.

   "And he (that is, Jesus) came and took her by the hand, and lifted her
   up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them."
   Mark 1:31.

   PETER'S wife's mother was sick of a very terrible fever. It was no
   ordinary one, such as, we are told, is common in the district when she
   lived, but "Luke, the beloved physician," as Paul calls the Evangelist,
   tells us that "Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever." You
   know that it is the nature of fever to leave the patient prostrate even
   when the disease departs, but Jesus Christ not only intended to heal
   Peter's wife's mother and to heal her at once, but He also meant that
   she should be so completely cured that she should have no lingering
   prostration. Christ's cures are always perfect cures, not partial ones!
   He does not cause the fever to go and permit the prostration to
   remain--He takes away both the fever and the prostration!

   It is possible that the poor patient had almost given up all hope of
   recovery and, probably those who were around her would also have
   despaired if they had not had faith in the Great Physician, the Lord
   Jesus Christ. It was, therefore, for her encouragement and for theirs,
   also, that our Lord bent over the bed where the fevered woman lay, took
   her by the hand, thus cheering her by showing that He was not afraid to
   come into contact with her and then, gently lifted her up. And she,
   yielding to the kindly gesture, rose and sat up--no, not merely sat up,
   but left the bed, being so perfectly restored that she began at once to
   minister to them as the housewife whose duty it was to care for their
   comfort!

   I hope that there are many in this congregation whom Jesus Christ means
   to bless, who are, at present, in a state of utter prostration. They
   are so despondent that their spirits sink almost to the point of
   despair. They cannot believe that there is mercy for them--they have
   relinquished all hope of that. They did, at one time, have some measure
   of hope, but it is all gone. They are in the prostrate condition of
   Peter's mother-in-law and they need Christ to do for them the two
   things which He did for her. First, He came into contact with her and,
   secondly, He gently lifted her up and completely restored her. May He
   do the same for you!

   I. Our first concern, in looking after prostrate souls, is to tell them
   that JESUS CHRIST COMES INTO CONTACT WITH THEM.

   You think, my poor distressed Friend, that Jesus Christ will have
   nothing to do with you. You have read and heard about Him, but He seems
   to you to be a long way off and you cannot reach Him. Neither does it
   seem at all probable to you that He will ever come your way and look
   with pity upon you. Now, listen.

   In the first place, Jesus Christ has come into contact with you, for
   you are a member of the human race of which Jesus Christ also became a
   member by His Incarnation. Never forget that! While it is perfectly
   true that Christ "is over all, God blessed forever," yet it is equally
   true that He deigned to be born into this world as the Infant of an
   earthly mother, and that He condescended to live here under the same
   conditions as the rest of us--suffering the same weakness, sickness,
   sorrow and death as we do--for our sakes. Never think of Jesus, I pray
   you, as though He were only a spirit, at whose Presence you have cause
   to be alarmed! But think of Him as a man like yourselves, eating and
   drinking as others did-- not a recluse, shutting Himself away from
   sinners--but living as a Man among men, the perfect specimen of
   Manhood, the Man, Christ Jesus, for thus He has come near to you! You
   would not be afraid to speak to one of your fellow men-- then do not be
   afraid to speak to Jesus! Tell Him all the details of your case, for He
   was never a Man of a proud and haughty spirit. He was not one who said,
   "Stand by, for I am holier than you!" No, He was a man with a great
   heart of

   love. He was so full of attractiveness that even children came and
   clustered around His feet! And when His disciples would have driven
   them away, He said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and
   forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God." He never repelled
   even the very worst of mankind when they approached Him--He longed to
   gather them to Himself. He wept over the guilty city of Jerusalem and
   said, "How often would I have gathered your children together, even as
   a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not!" Come,
   then, distressed spirit, and see, in the very fact that Jesus is
   Immanuel, God With Us, that He has come near to you and laid His hand
   upon you!

   "Ah," you say, "I can comprehend that He has come near to men, but
   then, I am not merely a man, but a sinful man." Yes, and Jesus has come
   near to sinful menand His name is called Jesus because He is the Savior
   from sin! His work in this world was not to seek saints, but, "to seek
   and to save that which was lost." My Master's errand was not to the
   good, the excellent, the righteous, but to the evil, the unholy, the
   unrighteous! He said, "They that are whole have no need of the
   physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous,
   but sinners to repentance." If He did not come to save sinners, why did
   He comes as a Sacrifice? Sacrifice is only required where there is
   sin--an Atonement is only needed where there is guilt! Christ comes to
   you, a guilty sinner, and He lays His hand upon you, even as He laid it
   upon Peter's wife's mother when she was sick of that great fever!

   Do I hear you say, as in a whisper--as if you were afraid that anyone
   else might hear you, that you are not only a sinner, but a great
   sinner--that you have sinned beyond the ordinary guilt of the common
   mass of mankind--that there are some points in which the crimson of
   your guilt is of a deeper dye than that of any other man? My Friend,
   let me assure you that Jesus Christ came to save the chief of sinners.
   Do you see Him on the Cross, enduring those indescribable pangs of
   death? Can you hear His death cries and that soul-piercing shriek, "My
   God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" and still think that such a
   death as that was on behalf of little sinners' trifling offenses, mere
   peccadilloes or mistakes? Ah, no! the Son of God came to give His life
   a Ransom for many great sins and many great sinners! The grandeur of
   the Atonement of Christ is a proof that its objective was the removal
   of sin, however great that sin may be! The Son of God is Himself the
   Savior of sinners! There must, therefore, be a colossal greatness about
   sin to need the Son of God to remove it, and to need that the Son of
   God should diebefore the more than Herculean labor of putting sin away
   could be performed. But, having put away sin by the Sacrifice of
   Himself, He is now able to save even the greatest of sinners.

   That Jesus has come into contact with great sinners is very clear, or,
   as you read the record of His life, you see that His preaching was
   constantly aimed at just such characters. If you take a survey of His
   usual congregations, you wiil discover that they were largely made up
   of such characters. The Pharisees said, with contempt, but no doubt
   with truth, "This Man receives sinners and eats with them." Just at
   that very time, we have the record, "Then drew near unto Him all the
   publicans and sinners to hear Him." His preaching evidently attracted
   them and He never seems to have been surprised that it did, nor to have
   expressed His disgust that He should have drawn around Him such a low
   and degraded class of hearers! No, but on the contrary, He said that He
   was sent to seek lost sheep till He found them, and to welcome the
   wandering prodigal when He came back to His Father's house. Our Lord
   Jesus Christ, from the character of His congregation and the tone of
   His preaching, evidently came to this world on purpose to come into
   contact with the very worst of sinners! I want you to realize, dear
   Friend, that my Lord Jesus Christ is a Man, and that He is not a Man
   who has come to look for congenial companions who might be worthy to be
   numbered among His acquaintances--He has come to look after uncongenial
   men and women to whom He may bring the blessings of salvation! He has
   come not to be ministered unto, but to minister--not to receive, but to
   bestow blessings. His purpose in being here, in this world, is not to
   pick out, here and there, a noble and notable character, but to seek
   after souls that need His Grace and to come to them and bless and save
   them! So He has, in this respect, come near to you!

   Remember that commission of His, which He gave to His disciples a
   little while before He went back to Heaven-- "Go you into all the
   world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." On another occasion,
   after His Resurrection, He reminded them "that repentance and remission
   of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at
   Jerusalem." That is, beginning at the very place where the people lived
   who had crucified Him! "Begin where they live who have stained their
   hands with My blood. Begin with them and then go to every other
   creature in the whole world, and say to sinners in every part of the
   globe, 'Whoever believes on the Son of God has everlasting life." In
   giving that commission, our Lord Jesus Christ reached His hand across
   the centuries that He might touch you--and I have come

   here to obey His commission by preaching the Gospel to you, for you are
   included in the term, "every creature." So Jesus Christ comes into
   contact with you through the preaching of His Word at this very moment!

   There is one solemn thought that I should like you to think of. It is
   this--having entered this House of Prayer and having heard the Gospel,
   as you will have done before this service is over, the Lord Jesus
   Christ has so come into contact with you that you will never lose the
   impression of that contact, whether you are lost or saved. If you are
   lost, you will have the additional guilt of having rejected
   Him--neither can you ever clear yourself of that guilt, do what you
   may. Your ears have heard the Word of God so that if you do not receive
   it, you will be numbered among those to whom the Gospel came, but who
   judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life--like some of those to
   whom the Apostle Paul preached and, therefore--it shall condemn you.
   For, to everybody who hears the Gospel there is a savor in it--to some,
   it is a savor of death unto death--and to others a savor of life unto
   life. There is not a man, woman, or child who has understanding enough
   to know what we mean by preaching the Gospel, who will be able to go
   out of this House of Prayer without receiving some token of contact
   with the Lord Jesus Christ. Either His blood will be upon you to save
   you, or else there will be realized in you that dreadful curse which
   the Jews invoked upon themselves, "His blood be on us, and on our
   children," which abides upon them as a curse unto this day! You shall
   either be cleansed from guilt by the blood of Jesus, or else you shall
   be guilty of rejecting Him--and so putting yourselves in the same
   category as the Jews who rejected Him and who nailed Him to the
   accursed tree. One way or other, you can be sure of this, "The Kingdom
   of God is come unto you." It is a solemn fact to have to state this,
   but so it is. Jesus Christ has, in some way or other, put His hand upon
   you and He is now in contact with you.

   II. Leaving that point, however, I feel joy in passing on to the next
   one. When Jesus grasped the hand of Peter's wife's mother, HE THEN
   BEGAN TO GENTLY LIFT HER UP. She, willingly enough, responded to His
   touch and, by at once recommencing her household duties, proved that
   she was perfectly healed!

   Now, there are some poor, prostrate, desponding souls, who need
   somebody to give them a lift. And I would that the Lord, even while I
   am preaching, might take some of you by the hand and lift you up. My
   objective will be to mention a few things which may help to give you a
   lift. You need to be saved. You long to be saved, but you fear that you
   never will be, and it is that very fear which keeps you from being
   saved! If you could but hope, your hope would be realized--but you do
   not feel as if you dared even to hope! Now, give me your hand and let
   me try to give you a lift.

   First, remember that others who were very like what you now are, have
   been saved. Do you not know some people who used to be very much in the
   condition in which you are at the present moment? If you do not, then
   find out the nearest Christian friend among your acquaintances--tell
   him what you regard as the peculiarity of your condition--and I feel
   almost certain that he will say to you, "Why, that is not anything
   peculiar! That is just how I was before I found the Savior." If you do
   not find it so with the first Christian person whom you meet, you ought
   not to be surprised, because, of course, all Christians are not alike,
   but I feel sure that you will not have talked to many Christian people
   before you will find that what you consider to be very remarkable
   peculiarities in yourself will turn out to have been very common, for a
   great many other people have been in exactly the same state! I
   challenge you, who are very despondent, to see whether you cannot find
   some who once were as you now are, who have been saved--and when you do
   find them, the reasoning is very clear. If A is saved, and B is like A,
   then why should not B also be saved?

   "Ah," you say, "I have very few Christian acquaintances of whom I can
   make enquiry." Very well, then, I will give you another simple test.
   Take your Bible and look up the cases of conversion and see whether the
   saved ones were not very much like you now are. And if that should not
   satisfy you, turn to the various promises that the Lord Jesus has made
   to seeking sinners and see whether there is not one that is suited to
   such a sinner as you are. I think that you cannot go far in an honest
   examination of the promises of the Gospel without saying, "Well, now,
   it really does look as if I could squeeze in there. At any rate, I
   think that description exactly meets my case." I should not be
   surprised if you meet with some text, of which you will say, "Why, that
   looks as if it had been written entirely for me! It is such an accurate
   description of my forlorn condition." Well, then, if you find that
   Christ has invited such sinners as you are, and that according to the
   Inspired record, He has saved such as you are, why should not you also
   have hope? Have you been a thief? Remember that--

   "The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day.

   And there may you, though vile as he, Wash all your sins away!"

   Have you been a sinner in a more immodest sense? Remember that there
   was a woman who was "a sinner" in that very sense, who washed Christ's
   feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Have you
   been a swearer? I should think that Simon Peter had been a great
   swearer before he was converted, or else he would not have used oaths
   and curses so freely when he denied his Master! Yet, in spite of that
   old habit breaking out again, Simon Peter was not only saved, but he
   became one of the most useful servants of our Lord Jesus Christ! I
   might continue to mention all sorts of sinners and say to you, "Such a
   one as you now are has been saved, and has gone to Heaven--is not that
   a lift for you?" I pray the Lord to make it so! Others like you have
   been saved, so why should not you, also, be saved? Therefore, be of
   good courage, poor prostrate sinner!

   Let me give you another lift. Salvation is all of Divine Grace. That is
   to say, it is altogether of God's free favor. God does not save any man
   because there is anything in him that deserves salvation. The Lord
   saves whomever He wills to save! This is one of His grand prerogatives
   of which He is very firm. His own declaration is, "I will have mercy on
   whom I will have mercy; and I will have compassion on whom I will have
   compassion." And Paul's conclusion from that declaration is, "So then,
   it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that
   shows mercy." Well, now, if it is God's will to bestow His mercy upon
   sinners according to His own Sovereign Grace in Christ Jesus,
   irrespective of anything good in them, why should He not show mercy to
   you? You have been looking for some reason in yourself why He should
   show mercy to you, but you cannot find any such reason--and I can tell
   you that there never was any reason in sinners, themselves, why God
   should save them! He has always saved them for reasons known only to
   Himself which He has never revealed--and which He tells us He will not
   reveal. He asks, like the householder in the parable, "Is it not lawful
   for Me to do what I will with My own?" And so He will! No man has any
   right to salvation. We have all forfeited all claims of merit, so, when
   the Lord gives His mercy, He gives it wherever He pleases. Why, then,
   should He not give it to you as well as to anybody else?

   I may also remind you that faith in Jesus Christ always saves the
   soul--simply trusting Him, as we were singing just now--

   "Only trust Him! Only trust Him! Only trust Him now! He will save you!
   He will save you! He will save you now!"

   There have been a great many who have put this to the test and they
   have found that faith in Christ has saved them. There are some people,
   nowadays, who tell us that this is immoral doctrine--they say that we
   ought to preach up good works. We do preach up good works in the most
   forcible manner, for we say that faith in Jesus Christ prevents men
   from living in sin! We do not preach good works as a requirement of
   salvation. That would be as foolish as children who take flowers and
   stick them in the ground, and say, "Oh, what a beautiful garden we
   have!" We plant the seeds of the flowers, or the roots of the flowers
   of Grace, for faith in Jesus Christ is the seed and the root of
   virtue--and he that believes in Jesus Christ is saved, not merely from
   the punishment of sin, but from the sin itself--from the power of sin,
   from the habit of sin! If it is still said that this is immoral
   doctrine, let the thousands of men and women who have been saved from
   drunkenness, lasciviousness and profanity by simply believing in Jesus,
   rise up and enter their solemn protest against the wicked charge that
   there is anything immoral in this teaching! Immoral doctrine? Why, it
   has brought millions to Christ and millions to Heaven! If this Doctrine
   could truly be called immoral, then God, Himself, might be charged with
   being immoral, for this Gospel assuredly came from Him and it is
   nothing short of blasphemy to call it immoral! Hear this Gospel,
   Sinner! You have no good works and you will never have any until you
   repent of sin and trust the Lord Jesus Christ! If you try to have any,
   they will all break down because the motive at the back of those
   supposed good works will be this--you will do them in the hope of
   thereby saving yourself. What is that but sheer selfishness--dead
   selfishness, which cannot be acceptable with God? But, Sirs, if you
   will only trust the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall receive the immediate
   pardon of your sin and with that pardon will come heartfelt gratitude
   to Him who gives you the pardon! And with that gratitude will come
   intense hatred of everything that He hates, and fervent love of
   everything that He loves. And then you will do good works! But from
   what motive? Why, out of gratitude to Him--and not being the result of

   selfishness, they will really be good works, for they will be done with
   the view of pleasing God--not as a means of getting something for
   yourself.

   Every soul, then, that has believed in Jesus has found everlasting life
   and deliverance from sin. Very well, then, you also will find the same
   blessings if you now trust wholly in Him. They did "only trust Him"--do
   the same--"only trust Him now." They dropped into the arms of Christ,
   He caught them and holds them fast. Do the same--drop now into the arms
   of Christ who stands beneath you, ready to catch you--and you shall
   most certainly be saved! This is Christ's own declaration, "He that
   believes and is baptized shall be saved." The belief is to come first,
   and the baptism is to follow as the confession of the belief. Christ
   commanded His disciples to observe that order--"Go you, therefore, and
   teach (or, make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them, (those who
   are made disciples), into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
   of the Holy Spirit." This is what Christ Himself said. So, if you have
   believed in Him and have been baptized on profession of that faith, you
   are saved, just as myriads of others have been saved! I have thus tried
   to give you a further lift and I pray the Lord Jesus to take you by the
   hand and lift you up, you fevered and prostrate patients who cannot
   rise without His power being poured into you!

   Let me try to give you a lift in another way. I think I hear you say,
   "O Sir, I know the Gospel but, somehow, I cannot get hold of it. I know
   what praying means, but I cannot pray as I would. I know what repenting
   is, but I cannot repent as I would." Here is a text which will, I hope,
   give you a lift--"The Spirit also helps our infirmities." Can you not
   look up to Heaven and ask that blessed Spirit to help you? What, though
   your heart is hard as the nether millstone, the Spirit of God can make
   it soft in a moment! Though it seems impossible for you to believe in
   Jesus, the gracious Spirit is ready right now to enable you to believe
   in Him! If now you seem to be the very reverse of what you ought to be,
   the blessed Spirit can completely change your nature! He can open blind
   eyes and unstop deaf ears and take away the stony heart out of your
   flesh and give you a heart of flesh! I know that you cannot help
   yourself, but I also know that the Holy Spirit can help you, for
   nothing is impossible to Him! Come, heavenly Wind, and breathe upon
   these dry bones! Quicken them into life and activity so that where
   there was nothing but death, there may be a living army to serve the
   living Lord! And, blessed be His holy name, He will do it for, wherever
   there is a true, heart-felt prayer for His Presence, He is already
   present, dictating that prayer! No one really prays until the Holy
   Spirit teaches him how to pray! So, you who are like Peter's wife's
   mother, have we been able to lift you up yet? May the Lord's almighty
   hand be stretched out to you, for ours alone will be too weak to lift
   you up!

   Here is another lift for you. Notwithstanding all that I have said, you
   still think that you deserve to be lost and that you must be lost, for
   your being punished will show the Justice of God. That is true, as far
   as it goes, but let me tell you something else that is equally true.
   Your being saved will glorify the Mercy of God and "He delights in
   mercy." I recollect the time when I thought that if Jesus Christ saved
   me, it would be the biggest thing He ever did. I thought so then, and I
   do not know but that I think so now. And I feel sure that when I get to
   Heaven, I shall still have that idea. And if you, dear Friend, think
   the same concerning yourself, I expect you are about right! Jesus
   Christ, however, loves to do big things. He delights to show great
   mercy to great sinners and if there is one man here who seems not to
   have any good point about him, but whom everybody knows as being a
   renowned sinner--well, I pray the Lord to save you, my Friend, because
   then the devils in Hell will hear of it and they will be angry! And I
   like them to be angry for such a reason as that! And the wicked men
   with whom you have been accustomed to associate, will hear of it and
   they will say, "What? Old Jack a Christian? Harry turned Baptist? I
   never would have believed such a thing to be possible!" We like to have
   just such converts as these and my Lord likes to have them, too, for
   such victories of Sovereign Grace cause a great stir in the camp of the
   Philistines--and they begin to tremble, and cry, "Who will be the next
   to turn?" And so the Kingdom of Heaven grows, Satan's fame gets dimmed
   and the fame of Jesus of Nazareth grows brighter and brighter!

   "Ah," says one, "I never looked at it in that light, for, certainly, if
   Jesus Christ were to save me, it would be the biggest wonder on earth!"
   Then I think it is very likely that He willsave you, for He delights to
   do great wonders and to work mighty marvels! How do you think that a
   doctor gets to have great fame? There are some physicians in London who
   have so many patients waiting to see them that the poor sufferers have
   to wait hours before they can get in. How did those doctors get to be
   so celebrated? If I were to tell you they got all their fame through
   curing chapped hands, sore fingers and warts, you would say, "Nonsense!
   Nobody gets fame through doing such little things as that!" How did
   they get their honor, then? Oh, there was a poor man who was near
   death. He had been given up by several other doctors, but this one was
   enabled by God to heal him. Or there was a man whose leg was about to
   be amputated and this doctor said, "I will save that man's limb." Or
   there was a complicated case of internal disease and this doctor said,
   "I understand that case," and he cured it--and everybody talked about
   the wonderful cure--and now, everybody goes to that doctor! He became
   famous through curing bad cases--one really bad case brought him more
   credit than 50 minor maladies might have done. So is it with the Great
   Physician and you big sinners with such a complication of disorders
   that nobody but Christ can cure you! My Lord and Master has a wondrous
   way of healing those who appear to be incurable! And when He cures such
   cases as yours, Heaven and earth and Hell hear of it and it makes Him
   famous. So I would encourage you to hope that He will save even you,
   though you are as prostrate as Peter's wife's mother was before Christ
   took her by the hand and lifted her up. May my gracious Lord and Master
   help you to take encouragement from what He has done for others who
   were in as sad a state as you are now in!

   Though your case seems so hopeless to you, or, if you have any hope of
   recovery, you feel that it will take a long while, I want to remind you
   that Jesus Christ pardons sinners in an instant. A man is as black as
   midnight one moment, and as bright as noonday the next! Jesus Christ
   lifted up upon the Cross has such mighty power that if a man had all
   the sins of mankind resting upon him, yet, if he did but look to Christ
   by faith, his sins would all be gone in a moment! Did you ever see that
   wonderful sculpture which represents the Laocoon and his sons with the
   monstrous snakes twisted all about their limbs? Well, though you should
   be another Laocoon and sinful habits should be twisted all about you,
   so that it would be impossible for you to free yourself from them, yet,
   if you look to Jesus by faith, those monsters shall drop dead at your
   feet! Jesus Christ, the Seed of the woman, sets His foot upon the
   monster, Sin, and breaks its head. And if you believe in Jesus, that
   pierced foot of His shall crush the life out of your sins and you shall
   be delivered from their power. Oh, that you might have Grace to trust
   in Jesus for instantaneous pardon, instantaneous regeneration,
   instantaneous deliverance from nature's darkness into God's most
   marvelous light! If you are as prostrate as Peter's wife's mother was,
   you ought not to lie still any longer when Christ is ready to give you
   such a lift as that!

   But if you do, I bid you remember, poor desponding, despairing sinner,
   that He who has come to save such as you are is a Divine Savior. What a
   deathblow this ought to be to every doubt! You say that there is a
   difficulty in your case. Yes, there is always a difficulty where there
   is only finite power. There always will be difficulties where there are
   creatures with limited capacities. But here is the Creator--the Creator
   in human flesh--He who made the heavens and the earth has come down to
   live here as a Man and to die upon the Cross in order that He may save
   sinners! What difficulty can there be in the Presence of Omnipotence?
   Talk not of difficulty in the Presence of the almighty God! He has but
   to will anything and it is done--to speak and it stands fast forever!
   Jesus Christ, my Lord and Master, is able to save unto the uttermost
   all them that come unto God by Him, and He is able to save them with
   the greatest possible ease. What an easy thing it was for Christ to
   bless men, women and children when He was here upon earth! A poor woman
   came in the crowd and just touched the hem of His garment--she could
   not get near enough to touch Him--but she just touched the hem of His
   garment with her finger. There was contact between her and Christ
   through her finger and the hem of His garment and she was made whole
   that very instant! There were other cases in which Christ healed people
   who were miles away from Him at the time. "Go your way," He said to the
   nobleman, "your son lives." He had not been near him! He could work the
   miracle just as easily at a distance.

   O Sinner, nothing is impossible with God! If you are sick and near
   death, Jesus Christ is able to save you! If I saw you at the very gates
   of Hell--so long as you had not actually crossed the threshold--if I
   saw you trembling there and you said to me, "Can Jesus Christ save me
   now?" I would reply, "Yes, my Brother, look unto Him and He will take
   you from the gates of Hell to the gates of Heaven in a single moment!"
   He said when on earth, "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be
   forgiven unto men," and it is just as true today! "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."--

   "Only trust Him! Only trust him! Only trust Him now! He willsave you!
   He will save you! He willsave you now!"

   Oh, that He would bless this word to you! Christ is God as well as Man.
   He suffered on the Cross in the place of sinners, but He lives after
   the suffering has been accomplished! He lives as the Savior who is
   mighty to save and whoever will take Him as his or her own Savior shall
   find it to be so this very hour!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MARK 1:14-35.

   Verse 14. Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee,
   preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. When one servant of God is
   laid aside, it is a call to the rest to be the more earnest. So after
   John the Baptist was put into prison, "Jesus came into Galilee."
   Sometimes a loss may be a gain--and if the loss of John was the means
   of bringing out Jesus, certainly both the Church and the world were the
   gainers! "Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom
   of God."

   15. And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at
   hand: repent you, and believe the Gospel It is clear, from this
   passage, that our Lord exhorted men to repent and to believe the
   Gospel. There are some who profess to be His followers who will not
   allow us to do this. We may teach men, and warn them, they say, but we
   must not exhort them to repent and believe! Well, as the contention of
   these people is not in accordance with the Scriptures, we are content
   to follow the Scriptures and to do as Jesus did--so we shall say to
   sinners, "Repent you, and believe the Gospel."

   16-18. Now as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew,
   his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishermen. And
   Jesus said unto them; Come you after Me, and I will make you fishers of
   men. And straightway they forsook their nets and followed Him. The
   Gospel minister is like the fisherman with a net. I have sometimes
   heard the comparison drawn as though the Gospel fisherman had a hook
   and a line, which he has not. His business is not to entice a fish to
   swallow his bait but to cast the net all round him and lift him, by His
   Grace, out of the element in which he lies in sin, into the boat where
   Christ still sits, as He sat in the olden days in the boat on the sea
   of Galilee. To shut the sinner up to faith in Jesus Christ--that is the
   main work of the true Gospel fisherman!

   19, 20. And when He hadgone a little farther, He saw James, the son of
   Zebedee, and John, his brother, who also were in a ship mending their
   nets. And straightway He called them: and they left their father
   Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after Him. They
   never had cause to regret that they did! Whatever they left, they were
   abundantly rewarded. They had a rich reward here on earth--and they
   have a far richer reward in Heaven. Whatever a man gives up for Christ
   is a blessed investment which will, sooner or later, bring him good
   interest!

   21, 22. And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the Sabbath
   day He entered into the synagogue, and taught. And they were astonished
   at His doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not
   as the scribes. He did not do as the scribes did, who made a great
   parade of learning by quoting this Rabbi and the other. Jesus said,
   "Verily, verily, I say unto you." He spoke as one who felt that He had
   authority to speak in His own name, and in the name of God, His Father.
   This method of teaching quite astonished the Jews. I wish that those
   who now hear the Gospel might be astonished at it, and be astonished
   into the belief of it by the power with which it comes home to their
   consciences and hearts.

   23, 24. And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit;
   and he cried out, saying, Let us alone. How often that is still the cry
   of sinners, "Let us alone. Why do you not hold your own views and let
   us alone?" Yes, the devils and those whom they control, still say, "Let
   us alone." But it is a part of the Gospel to attack that which is not
   the Gospel--and it is as much the duty of the minister of the Gospel to
   denounce error as to proclaim the Truth of God. If we do so, the old
   cry will still be heard, "Let us alone. Let us alone!"

   24, 25. What have we to do with You, You Jesus of Nazareth? Are You
   come to destroy us?I know You who You are, the Holy One of God. And
   Jesus rebuked him. He did not want any testimony from the devil. When a
   man of ill character once praised Plato, the philosopher said, "What
   can I have done wrong that such a fellow as that speaks well of me?" So
   when the devil bore testimony to the Divinity of Christ, "Jesus rebuked
   him."

   25, 26. Saying, hold your peace, and come out of him. And when the
   unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out
   of him. For, if Satan must come out of a man, he will do him as much
   mischief as he can before he departs. His wrath is all the greater
   because his time is so short--

   "He worries whom he can't devour, With a malicious joy."

   27. And theey were all amazed, Insomuch that they questioned among
   themselves, saying, What thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For
   with authority commands He even the unclean spirits, and they do obey
   Him. It was the authority of His preaching which first astonished them.
   And then the authority with which He worked His miracle and subdued the
   world of demons. Blessed be God! Christ has not abdicated His
   authority! He is still the great Messenger of God, full of Divine
   authority to save men and to deliver them from the power of Satan.

   28-30. And immediately His fame spread abroad throughout all the region
   round about Galilee. And forthwith, when they were come out of the
   synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James
   and John. But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and soon they
   told Him of her. Christ was a house-to-house missionary, as well as an
   open-air preacher. There is much good to be done by those who know how
   to visit and to look after individual cases. There is great good to be
   done in that way--as well as by dealing with mankind in the bulk.

   31-35. And He came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and
   immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them. And at
   evening, when the sun set, they brought unto Him all that were
   diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city
   was gathered together at the door. And He healed many that were sick of
   divers diseases, and cast out many devils: and suffered not the devils
   to speak, because they knew Him. And in the morning, rising up a great
   while before day, He went out and departed into a solitary place, and
   there prayed. His hard day's work probably ran on far into the night.
   Yet, "a great while before day," He was up at the sacred work of
   supplication! The more work we have to do with men for God, the longer
   we ought to be at work with God for men. If you plead with men, you
   cannot hope to prevail unless you first plead with God. And, inasmuch
   as our Lord had great success the day before, it teaches us that the
   greatest success does not release us from the necessity of still
   waiting upon God. If God has given you much, my Brother, go with your
   basket and ask for more. Never stop prayer. Increase your spiritual
   hunger and God will increase the richness of the gifts He will bestow
   upon you!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Safeguards of Forgiveness

   (No. 2981)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   SEPTEMBER 23, 1875.

   "And David said unto Nathan, Ihave sinned against the LORD. And Nathan
   said unto David, The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not
   die. However..." 2 Samuel 12:13,14.

   "HOWEVER." There was a qualification to the pardon granted to David.
   There is no need for me to enter into any of the details of his
   enormous sin. To make any excuse for it would to be become a partner in
   it. It was without excuse and if David, himself, were here with us,
   there is no one present who would so bitterly condemn him as he would
   condemn himself. He would be provoked to the utmost indignation by any
   attempt to offer an apology for the great transgression into which he
   fell, surrounded, as it were, by so many circumstances which tended to
   make it even worse than it otherwise might have been.

   In reading this narrative, one cannot help being struck with the fact
   that when Nathan had brought home the sin to David--and the conscience
   of the monarch which had been sleeping for some months was awakened to
   a true sense of his guilt, pardon was at once granted to the sorrowing
   penitent. As soon as he said, "I have sinned against the Lord," the
   same Prophet who had, by God's Grace, brought him to conviction of sin,
   gave him the assurance of absolution--"The Lord also has put away your
   sin; you shall not die." Truly--

   "Wonders of Grace to God belong." The pardoning of great sin is
   amazing, but the pardoning of great sin so rapidly--the forgiveness
   immediately following the confession--is among the things to be set
   down as worthy of special gratitude in the heart and special praise
   with the lips. One fears, however, lest, by the preaching up of the
   abounding mercy of God in suddenly putting away great sin, some might
   be led to think lightly of sin. It has been often raised as an
   objection to the full proclamation of the Grace of God that it tends to
   make men think that the escape from sin is very easy and, consequently,
   causes them to imagine that sin, itself, is a less deadly thing than it
   really is. Now, I will not deny that Antinomianism is natural to the
   human heart and, as there have been men who have turned the Grace of
   God into licentiousness in the past, so there will be, in the future,
   men who will make out of God's mercy an argument in favor of their sin.
   Those who act thus are among the very worst of sinners, "whose
   damnation is just," as Paul wrote concerning those who said, "Let us do
   evil, that good may come." I have read that a spider will extract
   poison from the flower from which the bee extracts honey so, surely,
   from that very Truth of God from which a renewed heart extracts reasons
   for holiness, unregenerate men have been known to extract excuses for
   sin! If they do so, I can only say that they are "without excuse." Some
   have actually caused the precious blood of Jesus Christ, Himself, to be
   to them a savor of death unto death by using the Doctrine of the
   Atonement as an excuse for their transgressions! If they do so,
   however, it certainly is not the fault of the Truth of God, nor the
   fault of the Infinite wisdom and prudence of God, for He has, in many
   remarkable ways, taken care to put safeguards around His free mercy. He
   does forgive and He will forgive, blessed be His holy name--and however
   men may pervert His mercy, He will not cease to bestow that mercy upon
   sinners! He will still continue His loving kindness, yet He has put
   safeguards around the Doctrine of forgiveness--and of the safeguards I
   am now going to speak.

   And, first, I shall speak of the safeguards which were provided in
   David's case. And then, secondly, of those which are provided in our
   own case. This will lend us to notice, in the third place, God's grand
   aim with us and what other great endeavor should be in connection with
   that aim.

   I. First, then, let us notice THE SAFEGUARDS THAT WERE PUT AROUND
   DAVID'S CASE, lest David, or anyone else, should think that because sin
   was readily forgiven, it was in itself a little thing.

   For, notice, first, that David was made to see his sin in its true
   light before it was forgiven. Nathan did not go to him and say, "David,
   you have committed a much greater wrong than you have supposed. You
   have disgraced your character and you have brought dishonor upon the
   God you love--but you are forgiven." No, he uttered a parable which set
   David's own character before him as being of the very base and meanest
   kind. The description of the traveler who came to the rich man, who
   then went and took the one ewe lamb from the poor man with which to
   make a feast for the traveler, was well conceived. It was a trap in
   which David was cleverly caught and made to see himself, though he had
   not the slightest idea, at the moment, that he was seeing himself at
   all. But when Nathan said to him, "You are the man," he was made to
   feel that he was a mean wretch who deserved to be condemned to death.
   His indignation was awakened against himself and against his own
   actions--and thus the Lord took care that David should not receive
   pardon till he had realized the greatness of his sin! This would be a
   strong check to him in the future, keeping him from ever falling into
   that sin again.

   Moreover, he was made to condemn himself. Before Nathan said to David,
   "You shall not die," the king had pronounced sentence upon himself, for
   he had said, concerning the man described in the parable, "As the Lord
   lives, the man that has done this thing shall surely die," not knowing
   that it was himself whom he was condemning! But he pronounced his own
   sentence--and after that he was forgiven. Now, dear Friends, this is
   just what the Lord does with sinners before He pardons them! First, He
   makes them see their sin. Some of us remember well when that terrible
   spectacle haunted us day and night. We had long known that we had
   sinned, but we had no idea that sin was such a monstrous, horrible
   thing as we then saw it to be. We had read of strange monsters of the
   deep, hideous and terrible creatures, but when we saw sin, we beheld
   something more frightful and loathsome than our worst dreams had ever
   brought before our minds! Then we condemned ourselves. Well do I
   remember when I signed my own death warrant-- had the Lord then
   threatened to strike me dead upon the spot, I could not, even if He had
   given me leave to plead with Him--have urged any reason why He should
   not destroy me! I have a thousand times wondered that my soul was not
   sent to Hell! At night I have feared that I should be there before the
   morning light and, in the daytime, I have often trembled lest, before
   the night should come, I should find myself in Hell. Having thus
   condemned myself, then it was that God forgave me--and I do not believe
   that any sinner is ever forgiven until he consents, in his soul, to the
   Justice of God if he should never be forgiven. He must know that he is
   a sinner and that sin is an exceedingly evil and bitter thing, for
   which he deserves to be sent to Hell! And when he reaches that point,
   then pardon will come to him. O dear Brothers and Sister, do you not
   see what a blessed check this is upon that man? Now, when he receives
   forgiveness, he receives it as one who knows what that forgiveness
   covers, and who also knows the condemnation from which that pardon has
   delivered him!

   There was, in David's case, the further safeguard that he was made to
   feel the majesty of the Divine Word. When Nathan came to David as God's
   representative, he spoke to him a simple parable to which a child might
   listen with interest. But there was great majesty in it, for it
   unveiled the secrets of the guilty monarch's heart. It made him see
   himself as he appeared in the clear, translucent light of Heaven--and
   not as he might have represented himself in a more favorable light.
   Read the whole page and note how Nathan made the truth lash him to the
   quick--"Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I anointed you king over
   Israel and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul; and I gave you your
   master's house, and your master's wives into your bosom, and gave you
   the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I
   would moreover have given unto you such and such things. Why have you
   despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight. You have
   killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be
   your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
   Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house; because
   you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to
   be your wife."

   Nathan does not spare him! Every word is like a sharp sword piercing
   him to the heart. David is made to feel that the Word of God can search
   out his most secret things and make him see himself in his true
   character, disguise himself as he may! And then, when he had confessed
   his sin, the same stern Prophet who had spoken so severely, said to
   him, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die." Oh, how
   welcome that message must have been to David! How soft and sweet those
   sounds must have been to his ears after the harsher notes to which he
   had listened--just as we have sometimes heard the martial music that
   has thrilled and startled us and then there has come a soft strain of
   gentle music,

   or else a brief season of welcome silence by which our ears have been
   rested and refreshed. So was it when Nathan turned from condemnation to
   comfort and said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you
   shall not die." This would henceforth always be a check to David, for
   he would feel that if he sinned, that Word of God would again find him
   out-- that Word which had first stricken him to the dust by its
   severity--and then had won his heart's love by its tenderness.

   A fourth safeguard was this--David was made to see the greatness of his
   sin by the effect which it produced upon others. Nathan said to David,
   "By this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord
   to blaspheme." As you read some of his Psalms, you can see that David
   knew that the Lord's enemies did blaspheme because of his sin. The
   party that loved the Lord was strong at court just then and the king
   was the patron and head of that party--but there were men of Belial who
   were the ungodly party in the land. And when they caught the king,
   himself, tripping thus, I guarantee you that they talked of it at every
   street corner. It was a sad topic for the faithful ones to speak of and
   the saints of God, when they met together, must have wept, for they
   could make no excuse for the king's crime--and they must have felt that
   a very deadly stab had been given to the cause of truth and
   righteousness. David was made to realize all that and it must have
   helped to keep him from sinning again in such a fashion because he
   loved the cause of God, and the house of God, and the servants of
   God--and there had been a period, in his past life, when he would not
   have believed that it were possible for him to be the means of breaking
   down the walls of Zion! When he had been forgiven, his first anxiety
   was that God would undo the mischief which his sin had worked and,
   therefore, he prayed to the Lord, "Do good in Your good pleasure unto
   Zion: build You the walls of Jerusalem."

   In addition to these safeguards, there is that, "however," which I have
   included in our text. I call the serious attention of every
   carelessly-walking Christian here to that, "however." How many times my
   eyes have rested upon that word and it has chastened my sins, and
   driven me to my God! David was forgiven, but from that day the sword
   never departed from his house. God let him know that although he was
   pardoned, some of the results of his sin still remained. The guilt of
   it was gone, as Nathan said, "The Lord has put away your sin," but the
   evil effect of it was still manifest-- and that must be dealt with by
   the Lord's chastising rod. What a sad change came over David's life
   from this time! Recall the name of Tamar, Amnon and Absalom, and think
   how degraded his own family had become. Then, one and another rebelled
   against him--enemies within his kingdom and without sought to overthrow
   him and, after his sin in numbering the people, God's own angel was
   sent to smite the nation with a terrible pestilence. The earlier part
   of David's life was full of music and dancing--the latter part had far
   more of mourning and lamentation in it. After his great fall, he had to
   go softly all the rest of his days and his dying testimony, though full
   of faith, was marred by the regret, "although my house is not so with
   God."

   He was a man so highly favored of God and so much after God's own heart
   in many ways, that if he could have been without the rod, God would
   have spared him. If this sin of his could have been winked at and he
   could have been delivered from its consequences without chastisement,
   God would have delivered him. But it was not possible. God does not
   give such exemption as that to any of His children and He did not give
   it to David. That warm heart of His which in many respects was so
   excellent, was apt, from its very fervor of affection, to crave too
   much of the love of the creature. So David had to be chastised again
   and again. God did not afflict him willingly--He did it because it was
   for his good. This folly in the heart of His child could not be driven
   out by anything but the rod and, therefore, the rod he must have. He
   was a grand man, one in whom the Grace of God shone very conspicuously,
   but he was a man of like passions with ourselves and we have reason to
   thank God that he was--because his experience becomes all the more
   instructive to us from the fact that while it teaches us that God can
   and will forgive us if we repent of our great and gross sins, yet it
   also teaches us that sin is an evil and a bitter thing and that, though
   the guilt of it may be removed, the evil consequences of it will cling
   to us and be a subject of sorrow to us till God shall wipe away all
   tears from our eyes.

   II. Now, secondly, I want to point out to you THE SAFEGUARDS IN OUR OWN
   CASE. I cannot say that the

   safeguards are the same in every case because the experience of God's
   children vary considerably.

   In the case of some of us, when God's forgiveness came to us, we could
   not think lightly of sin, because, for a long time before we found
   mercy, we had been under a terrible sense of guilt. I am not speaking
   of all Christians, but there are some of us who were for weeks, or
   months, or even years, waiting in outer darkness before the Gate of
   Mercy was opened to us. I will not deny that it was our unbelief in
   Christ that kept us there, but, at the same time, I see how God, in His
   wise Providence, overruled even that to make us ever afterwards hate
   sin as burnt children dread the fire. Oh, what burns of that sort I
   had! They seemed as if they would never heal, the fire had gone so
   deep. I felt that I could sympathize with Job when he said, "My soul
   chooses strangling, and death rather than my life," for I feared that
   no mercy could ever come to me. I have blessed God a thousand times
   that I was so long in finding Christ because through that very
   experience I have been the better qualified to speak to others who are
   in a similar condition. John Bunyan was for years tossed about with
   inward tumults through a deep sense of sin. And when, at last, at the
   sight of the Cross, the great burden rolled off his back and
   disappeared in the sepulcher of Christ, he did not think sin a little
   thing! It had been such a dreadful burden to him for so many years that
   he ever afterwards abhorred it and adored the wondrous love which had
   forever delivered him from its power. With some persons there is a
   check which operates throughout the rest of their lives as the result
   of that long period of depression of spirit and despair of soul which
   preceded the hour of light and joy. God kept us out in the cold so long
   in order that, ever afterwards, we might know what it was like and not
   want to go outside again. He made us feel the aching of the hungry
   belly so that we might not again wander into the far country and long
   to feed from the sinner's trough. After our past experience there, our
   Father's arms about our neck became all the more precious to us and
   there was the less likelihood that we should ever go back to that state
   of sin and sorrow from which we had escaped!

   I say again that this is true only of some--it is not necessary for
   all, and it is only a few of God's servants who have passed through
   such an experience as that. But I think I may say that all who receive
   God's mercy have this safeguard, that for a greater or less period,
   they have been made to feel the death-swoon of sin. It may last but a
   few minutes, but, before Divine Mercy comes to the heart, there is
   usually a striking of the soul with the chill horror of despair and
   there is also a driving into the very marrow of the soul that sharp
   two-edged sword of God which kills all carnal confidence. In the case
   of persons who are suddenly brought into the life and light of full
   salvation, their sight of sin in its horror is but momentary. They hang
   over the precipice and feel as if they were gone, but, at that very
   instant, the Divine Hand is stretched out to remove them. The sentence
   of death must be passed upon all men because all have sinned--we have
   the sentence of death in ourselves, that we may learn not to trust in
   ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. That glimpse of the open
   jaws of Hell, though it is but for an instant--that sight of the
   descending axe of Divine Vengeance and of our own neck laid upon the
   block is enough to make us, even in a moment, pass through a process
   which divorces us forever from the love of sin, makes us feel that it
   is a deadly and damning thing and causes us to cry unto God to deliver
   us from it! That sense of sin is, I take it, a part of the safeguard
   which God provides for each forgiven man to prevent him from drawing
   inferences of licentiousness from God's abundant mercy to him.

   But there is a better safeguard than that. The fact that Jesus Christ
   is our Sacrifice and Savior ought to prevent us from ever going into
   sin again. You may have heard of the king who made a law that any
   person committing a certain crime in his country should have both his
   eyes plucked out. It happened that the very first criminal brought
   before him, under that law, was his own son whose guilt was clearly
   brought home to him. His father was the judge and there remained
   nothing for him to do but to pronounce upon his son the sentence that
   he should have both his eyes torn out. But, rigid as he was as a
   law-giver, such was the father's tenderness of heart that he bade the
   officer first pluck out one of his son's eyes and then take out one of
   his own. I should think that that father's empty eye socket would
   always remind his son of the crime which he had committed--and
   eventually prevent him from ever offending in that way again. Surely,
   that crime could never be pleasant to him after it had been so painful
   to his father! Believer, look at your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
   and say to Him, "What are these wounds in Your hands, dear Lord? What
   are those scars on Your feet, and what is that deep gash in Your side
   which leads to Your very heart?" "These," He says, "are the wounds
   caused by your sins, for I was wounded for your transgressions, I was
   bruised for your iniquities--the chastisement of your peace was upon
   Me, and with My stripes you are healed."

   O my Brothers and Sisters, the next time you are tempted to sin, let
   the open wounds of Jesus appeal to you and cause you to say, "I cannot
   crucify my Lord afresh and put Him to open shame by again sinning
   against Him." This will help to hold you back when the tempter draws
   near you. The "cords of a man" and the "bands of love" will draw you
   the other way much more forcibly and you will say, with Joseph, "How,
   then, can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" You may
   also say, "It is true that sin has not slain me, but it has slain my
   Substitute. It is true that sin has not cast me into Hell, yet it
   brought Hell upon my Substitute. It is true that the wrath of God
   passed by me, but it fell upon my Well-Beloved, the Bridegroom of my
   heart, who, in Infinite mercy, bore it all for my sake." The
   remembrance of this fact

   will be a most blessed safeguard to hold you back from sin--pardon is
   free to you, but it cost Him His all and, because of what it cost Him,
   you feel that you must not sin again.

   Remember also that great as the Grace of God is in pardoning sin, He
   gives, with pardon, other mercies which are equally great, namely,
   repentance and renewal of heart. Wherever the forgiveness of sin comes,
   there comes with it a turning from sin, a leaving of sin, a fresh view
   of sin, a different estimate of it. And the heart that once had sought
   its own pleasure, now seeks God's pleasure! And the man who formerly
   loved carnal delights is moved to long after heavenly delights from the
   very moment of his forgiveness. I speak advisedly when I say that the
   Doctrine of "believe and live" would be a very dangerous one if it were
   not accompanied by the Doctrine of regeneration. If God did not change
   the nature of the forgiven sinner, it would be a dangerous thing to
   give him free forgiveness--but when the two things go together, they
   counteract any evil which might have sprung out of either the one or
   the other by itself--and all good and no evil can come from them when
   they are preached in their due connection. "Believe and live," is true.
   But "You must be born again," is equally true. "Believe on the Lord
   Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved," is Apostolic Doctrine, but so is
   this, "Repent you, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be
   blotted out." Change of heart accompanies the forgiveness of sin--and
   wherever that change of heart is given, there springs up in the renewed
   soul a deep sense of gratitude to God. "How much I owe!" says the
   renewed man. "How graciously the love of God has been manifested in my
   case! What great sin He has forgiven! What enormous transgressions He
   has blotted out. Now I cannot help loving Him--oh, that I loved Him
   even more!" And this gratitude becomes in itself a very powerful means
   of checking the soul in any impulse that it has towards sin--and an
   equally forceful incentive in driving it onward towards righteousness,
   "for the love of Christ constrains us." It does constrain us! We do not
   say that it oughtto do so, as some do when they misquote the text. Its
   constraining power draws us onward and upward towards our Lord!

   These things put together, by the power of God's most blessed Spirit,
   lead the renewed man into a holy cautiousness and great watchfulness of
   soul. I wish I could say that I see as much of this spirit in all
   professors as I would like to see. But, alas, Brothers and Sisters, I
   do not! Sin, the very smallest sin--if there can be a small sin--is a
   great evil and we ought to be deeply and solemnly anxious that even the
   least deviation from the righteousness of God should not be found in
   us. If any of you were told serpents which had escaped from their den,
   were hiding somewhere in your house--perhaps near your bed, or in a
   cupboard or bookcase--I know that when you reached your house tonight,
   you would look very carefully on the doorstep and in the hall, to see
   whether there was a young viper there. You would turn up the doormats,
   in case there might be one concealed there! But you would not be
   satisfied until you had thoroughly searched the house from top to
   bottom, in order that those deadly snakes might all be captured and
   destroyed! This is just what you ought to do with yourselves, Brethren,
   for the snakes are there! In every part of your nature, these venomous
   creatures have been hatched and they have multiplied beyond all
   calculation. Sins of all shapes and sizes lurk within you! And if God's
   Grace does not keep you watchful--before you are aware, you may be
   painfully conscious of their deadly power!

   There is this fact that you must have often noticed--I feel sure that
   whether you are aware of the sin itself, or not, you will soon have to
   be aware of the consequences of it You cannot fall into any sin without
   losing, in some measure, the sweetness of your fellowship with God. I
   do not need to look out of my window in order to know that there are
   clouds across the sky. I can tell that the clouds have come, for the
   light is dim in the room where I am reading. So, I may not be conscious
   that I have fallen into sin, but the very dimness of the light of God's
   Presence becomes the indicator to my soul that it is so. Perhaps you
   have had a prosperous day in business and the friends you have met with
   have all been very kind and cheerful, and nothing has happened during
   the day to distress you. Yet when you get home, you feel heavy and
   dull, and you say to yourself, "Why is this?" It is simply that God has
   been causing you to see that the sweetness of the creature cannot make
   up for the lack of the Presence of the Creator. If God were to give you
   all earthly good and yet took His Presence from you--which He will do
   if sin is within you, and unrepented of--the loss of His Presence would
   be a greater loss than the loss of the whole world, or even of Heaven
   itself! If you are in the habit of walking with God-- and I trust that
   many of you are--you will take note of the least stain of sin. You
   have, perhaps, seen a handkerchief that looked perfectly white. But if
   there has been a snowfall and you have laid that handkerchief down upon
   the snow, you have seen its defilement in contrast with the whiteness
   of the snow! So, if you live near to God, you will have a very high
   standard of what you ought to be--and you will see a great deal more
   sin in yourself than you ever used to see. The fact of your living near
   to God will never lead you into presumption, nor cause you to think
   lightly of sin, but it will make what you used to call little things to
   assume hideous proportions and you will say to yourself, "What a sin it
   was that I, who have spoken face to face with God, should make that
   silly remark to my neighbor, a remark that could not minister
   edification to anybody--that I, who have had power with God in prayer,
   should be put out of temper by a poor silly maid, or be made to forget
   myself altogether by some trivial temptation which I ought to have been
   able to master, and could have mastered if I had given it the least
   thought!" You may rest quite certain that if God honors any man in
   public, He takes him aside privately and flogs him well, otherwise he
   would get elevated and proud, and God will not have that! He will not
   have Big-Self to serve Him--He will take him down from his high
   pinnacle and grind him to powder, so as to get all the pride out of
   him!"

   III. The last point, on which I can only speak briefly, is this. ALL
   THIS INDICATES WHAT GOD'S GREAT AIM IS AND WHAT OURS OUGHT TO BE.

   God's aim isnot merely to forgive us and to free us from the penalty of
   sin, but to take sin out of us and get rid of it altogether. The Lord
   might have forgiven David and yet not have used the rod upon him as He
   did. That child might not have died, but might have grown up to be
   David's comfort and joy. And Absalom might not have turned out such a
   scapegrace, but might have been his father's best helper. God might
   have arranged matters so, but He did not see fit to do it. He seems to
   say, "My dear child, David, I love you so well that, while I fully
   forgive you, I will take such measures with you as will effectually
   prevent you from ever falling into that sin again. I will so deal with
   you that should you ever have such a temptation as this again, your
   tendency to that sin shall be very decidedly checked." Long before his
   sin with Bathsheba, there were various indications as to David's
   special liability to temptation. That sin only threw out upon the
   surface the evil that was always within him! And now God, having made
   him see that the deadly cancer is there, begins to use the knife to cut
   it out of him. God's business with you, if you are His child, is to get
   rid of the sin that is within you-- to purge you not merely with blood
   and with hyssop, but with fire, till He has made your nature very
   different from what it now is.

   Our aim should be in conformity with God's aim, that is to seek to get
   rid of sin altogether. You have first to realize what your sin really
   is. It may be that, this day, you have lived a blameless life so far as
   it can be seen of men, but what about your thoughts? You have never
   committed adultery as David did, but how many adulteries have you
   committed in your heart? You were never actually a murderer--God forbid
   that you ever should be! But when your evil passions have risen, how
   many times have you been a murderer in the sight of God? We are not
   merely to imagine that if we bring our outward moral conduct into
   conformity with the will of God, we are all right--we are also to look
   within. Every thought of evil is sin! A photographer will tell you that
   the object presented to the camera leaves an impression upon it even
   though the exposure of the sensitive plate was only for the fraction of
   a moment. Notice, Brothers and Sisters, whenever sin is brought before
   your mind even in imagination, whether it is attractive to you or not.
   I hope that you catch yourself saying, "O my God, how is it that I can
   think of such a thing with any degree of tolerance?" You feel that you
   would not commit that sin--you would rather die than commit it--yet you
   are not as displeased as you ought to be at even the thought of it.
   Perhaps you almost wish that you might do this evil thing. If so, that
   shows which way your nature still gravitates--to the old nature which
   is so corrupt that it stinks! And when it stinks most in your nostrils,
   it is, perhaps, best for you, for then it drives you away from being
   proud of it and takes you to that dear Savior in whom alone your life
   can ever be found!

   Brothers and Sisters, in all your spiritual engagements, note how far
   your heart is really in them. Do not be content if you can say, "I went
   to the Tabernacle last Thursday night." Did you really worship there in
   spirit and in truth? Did you profit by the Word read and preached? Do
   not be satisfied if you can say, "I read a chapter in the Bible and
   offered prayer to God this morning." What is the use of all this if
   your heart was not in the exercise? "Rend your hearts, and not your
   garments," is a message which would sometimes be appropriate to you.
   What we have to look at is how near the soul gets to God, and how far
   it gains the mastery over sin. If it is a question of the forgiveness
   of our sin for the sake of Him who hung upon the Cross, blessed be His
   name, we have that and we have it perfectly in Him! If it is a question
   of our righteousness in the sight of God, so far as the imputation of
   Christ's righteousness is concerned, that also is ours, as everything
   else that is His is ours! But as to the cleansing of the heart, the
   purging of all secret places, the driving out of every lurking sin and
   the getting rid of every imagination and wish and desire that is
   contrary to God, this has to be battled for, through faith in Jesus
   Christ and by the power of the Eternal Spirit! And the complete victory
   has yet to be

   gained. We must still continue to cry with Paul, "Oh wretched man that
   I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" But with him
   we can also say, "Thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through
   our Lord Jesus Christ." We are not to shut our eyes and fancy that the
   war is over, that all our spiritual enemies are slain--but we are to
   press onward to the end! Perhaps, even at the very end, we may have a
   stern fight with fierce temptations, as John Knox and many others have
   had, but, in the name of the Lord, we will destroy them! In any case,
   we must not give way to sin. We dare not let sin have dominion over us.
   We must strive and struggle against it and we shall do so, for He who
   has pardoned us will also sanctify us. He who has delivered us from
   death by sin will also deliver us from the death ofsin and will present
   us to Himself "a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any
   such thing."

   Brothers and Sisters, do not let me, for a moment, take away from you
   the joy of perfect pardon which is already yours if you have believed
   in Jesus Christ. Your sins, which were many, are all forgiven. Let no
   doubt upon that point come into your mind! Poor troubled Sinner, do not
   be distressed as though you could not find immediate pardon through
   Jesus Christ, for you can. If you believe in Him, your sins are
   forgiven you for His sake. But I am sure that if you are in a right
   state of heart, you do not need to have pardon and yet be allowed to
   live in sin. You could not be content, even if the Lord were to forgive
   you all your sins, if He did not also change your nature and deliver
   you from the power of sin. That these two things are to be had in Jesus
   Christ, let us firmly believe--and for the realization of these two
   things, let us earnestly pray and thrive! And may God graciously give
   them to us all, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HOSEA 14.

   Verse 1. O Israel, return unto the LORD your God; for you have fallen
   by your iniquity. Come back, poor wanderer! My Brother or my Sister, if
   your heart has grown cold toward your Lord and Master, return to Him
   this very hour! This message comes from God, Himself, through His
   servant the Prophet, "O Israel, return unto the Lord your God; for you
   have fallen by your iniquity."

   2. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away
   all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves
   of our lips. As if He feared that we could not find suitable words to
   speak to Him, He puts the right words into our mouths! Our Heavenly
   Father is so anxious to bring back His children when they wander from
   Him that He actually makes the prayer with which they may come back to
   Him--"Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we
   render to You the praise which is Your due, which shall come from our
   hearts, and which our lips shall express." If there are any of you here
   who have grieved your Heavenly Father by growing cold at heart, I do
   trust that the spirit of God will sweetly draw you back to your old
   standing and to something higher and nearer to God than even that was!

   3. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will
   we say any more to the work of our hands, you are our gods. For in You
   the fatherless finds mercy. If you expect the Lord to smile upon you,
   you must have done with all your idols! You must put away all your
   false confidences and those other sinful things in which you have found
   even a little joy, and you must come back to your Father, throwing away
   those rivals which have been set up in your heart and asking Him to
   give you Grace to live henceforth for Him alone.

   4. I will heal their backsliding. "Nobody else can do it, but I can,
   and I will. I will not chide them anymore, I will not keep them at a
   distance from Me as unworthy to draw near to Me, but, 'I will heal
   their backslidings.'"

   4. I will love them freely. That is a grand sentence! God could not
   love us anyway else, for what price could you and I bring with which to
   purchase His love? And if His love were not free, it could never come
   to such unworthy ones as we are--"I will love them freely."

   4, 5. For My anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto
   Israel You know that in the East the dew is a great fertilizer, even
   more so than it is here. When a plot of ground is all browned by the
   hot sun, the dew makes it green and fruitful again. So God says, "I
   will be as the dew unto Israel."

   5. He shall grow as the lily. That is, upwards, bearing his flowers as
   near Heaven as he can--not groveling as he once did. He shall grow
   rapidly, as the daffodil lily does, which seems to start up, in the
   East, after a shower of rain and

   come to maturity at once! Lord, grant that we may bring forth lilies of
   Grace all of a sudden! May there be in us the beauty of holy Christian
   love which shall come all at once! "He shall grow as the lily."

   5. And cast forth his root as Lebanon. There will be rapid growth, but
   sure growth. The lily has frail beauty, but Lebanon has the permanent
   lasting cedar--and God can make the graces of His people to be as
   enduring as they are beautiful!

   6, 7. His branches shallspread, and his beauty shall be as the olive
   tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall
   return. His children, who were led into mischief by bad example, shall
   be drawn back again.

   7-9. They shallrevive as the corn, andgrow as the vine: the scent
   thereof shall be as the wine ofLebanon. Ephraim shall say, What have I
   to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am
   like a green fir tree. From Me is your fruit found. Who is wise, and he
   shall understand these things? Prudent, and he shall know them? For the
   ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them but the
   transgressors shall fall therein.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Memorable Hymn

   (No. 2982)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."
   Matthew 26:30.

   The occasion on which these words were spoken was the last meal of
   which Jesus partook in company with His disciples before He went from
   them to His shameful trial and His ignominious death. It was His
   farewell supper before a bitter parting--and yet they must sing. He was
   on the brink of that great depth of misery into which He was about to
   plunge--and yet He would have them sing "a hymn." It is amazing that HE
   sang and, in a second degree, it is remarkable that THEY sang. We will
   consider both these singular facts.

   I. Let us dwell a while on THE FACT THAT JESUS SANG AT SUCH A TIME AS
   THIS. What does He teach us by this?

   Does He not say to each of us, His followers, "My religion is one of
   happiness and joy. I, your Master, by My example, would instruct you to
   sing even when the last solemn hour is come and all the glooms of death
   are gathering around you. Here, at the table, I am your Singing-master
   and set you lessons in music, in which My dying voice shall lead you,
   notwithstanding all the griefs which overwhelm My heart! I will be to
   you the Chief Musician and the Sweet Singer of Israel." There was a
   time when it would have been natural and consistent with the
   solemnities of the occasion for the Savior to have bowed His head upon
   the table, bursting into a flood of tears. Or, if ever theirs was a
   season when He might have fittingly retired from all company and have
   bewailed His coming conflict in sighs and groans, it was just then. But
   no, that brave heart will sing "a hymn." Our glorious Jesus plays the
   man beyond all other men! Boldest of the sons of men, He quails not in
   the hour of battle, but tunes His voice to loftiest Psalmody. The
   genius of that Christianity of which Jesus is the Head and Founder, its
   object, spirit and design, are happiness and joy--and they who receive
   it are able to sing in the very jaws of death!

   This remark, however, is quite a secondary one to the next. Our Lord's
   complete fulfillment of the Law of God is even more worthy of our
   attention. It was customary, when the Passover was held, to sing, and
   this is the main reason why the Savior did so. During the Passover it
   was usual to sing the 113th and five following Psalms which were called
   the "Hallel." The first commences, you will observe, in our version,
   with, "Praise you the Lord!" or, "Hallelujah!" The 115th and the three
   following, were usually sung as the closing song of the Passover. Now,
   our Savior would not diminish the splendor of the great Jewish rite
   although it was the last time that He would celebrate it. No, there
   shall be the holy beauty and delight of Psalmody--none of it shall be
   stinted--the "Hallel" shall be full and complete!

   We may safely believe that the Savior sang through, or probably
   chanted, the whole of these six Psalms. And my heart tells me that
   there was no one at the table who sang more devoutly or more cheerfully
   than did our blessed Lord. There are some parts of the 118th Psalm,
   especially, which strike us as having sounded singularly grand as they
   flowed from His blessed lips. Note verses 22, 23, 24. Particularly
   observe those words near the end of the Psalm and imagine you hear the
   Lord, Himself, singing them--"God is the Lord, which has showed us
   light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.
   You are my God, and I will praise You: You are my God, I will exalt
   You. O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good: for His mercy endures
   forever."

   Because, then, it was the settled custom of Israel to recite or sing
   these Psalms, our Lord Jesus Christ did the same, for He would leave
   nothing unfinished. Just as when He went down into the waters of
   Baptism, He said, "Thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness," so
   He seemed to say, when sitting at the table, "Thus it becomes us to
   fulfill all righteousness. Therefore let us sing unto the Lord, as
   God's people in past ages have done." Beloved, let us view with

   holy wonder the strictness of the Savior's obedience to His Father's
   will! And let us endeavor to follow in His steps in all things, seeking
   to be obedient to the Lord's Word in the little matters as well as in
   the great ones.

   May we not venture to suggest another and deeper reason? Did not the
   singing of "a hymn" at the supper show the holy absorption of the
   Savior's soul in His Father's will If, Beloved, you knew that at, say,
   ten o'clock tonight, you would be led away to be mocked, despised and
   scourged--and that tomorrow's sun would see you falsely accused,
   hanging, a convicted criminal, to die upon a cross--do you think that
   you could sing tonight, after your last meal? I am sure you could not
   unless with more than earth-born courage and resignation your soul
   could say, "bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the
   altar." You would sing if your spirit were like the Savior's
   spirit--if, like He, you could exclaim, "Not as I will, but as You
   will." But if there should remain in you any selfishness, any desire to
   be spared the bitterness of death, you would not be able to chant the
   "Hallel" with the Master! Blessed Jesus, how wholly were You given up!
   How perfectly consecrated! So that, whereas other men sing when they
   are marching to their joys, You sang on Your way to death! Whereas
   other men lift up their cheerful voices when honor awaits them, You had
   a brave and holy sonnet on Your lips when shame, spitting and death
   were to be Your portion!

   This singing of the Savior also teaches us the whole-heartedness of the
   Master in the work which He was about to do. The patriot warrior sings
   as he hastens to battle to the strains of martial music He advances to
   meet the enemy and even thus the heart of our all-glorious Champion
   supplies Him with song even in the dreadful hour of His solitary agony!
   He views the battle, but He dreads it not--though in the contest His
   soul will be "exceedingly sorrowful even unto death." Before it He is
   like Job's warhorse, "He says among the trumpets, Ha, ha and He smells
   the battle afar off." He has a baptism to be baptized with and He is
   straitened until it is accomplished. The Master does not go forth to
   the agony in the garden with a cowed and trembling spirit, all bowed
   and crushed in the dust, but He advances to the conflict like a Man who
   has His full strength about Him--taken out to be a Victim, (if I may
   use such a figure), not as a worn-out ox that has long borne the yoke,
   but as the firstling of the bullock, in the fullness of His strength!
   He goes forth to the slaughter with His glorious undaunted spirit fast
   and firm within Him, glad to suffer for His people's sake and for His
   Father's Glory!--

   "For as at first Your all-pervading look Saw from your Father's bosom
   to the abyss, Measuring in calm presage The infinite descent.

   So to the end, though now of mortal pangs Made heir, and emptied of
   Your Glory a while, With unaverted eyes You meet all the storm."

   Let us, O fellow-heirs of salvation, learn to sing when our suffering
   time comes, when our season for stern labor approaches! Yes, let us
   pour forth a canticle of deep, mysterious melody of bliss when our
   dying hour is near at hand! Courage, Brothers and Sisters! The waters
   are chilly, but fear will not by any means diminish the terrors of the
   river! Courage, Brothers and Sisters! Death is solemn work, but playing
   the coward will not make it less so! Bring out the silver trumpet--let
   your lips remember the long-loved music--and let the notes be clear and
   shrill as you dip your feet in the Jordan! "Yes, though I walk through
   the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You are
   with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me."

   Dear Friends, let the remembrance of the melodies of that upper room go
   with you tomorrow into business! And if you expect a great trial and
   are afraid you will not be able to sing after it, then sing beforeit
   comes. Get your holy praise work done before affliction mars the tune!
   Fill the air with music while you can. While yet there is bread upon
   the table, sing, though famine may threaten. While yet the child runs
   laughing about the house, while yet the flush of health is in your own
   cheeks, while yet your goods are spared, while yet your heart is whole
   and sound, lift up your song of praise to the Most High God and let
   your Master, the singing Savior, be in this your goodly and comfortable
   example!

   II. We will now consider THE SINGING OF THE DISCIPLES. They united in
   the "Hallel"--like true Jews, they joined in the national song. Israel
   had good cause to sing at the Passover, for God had worked for His
   people what He had done for no other nation on the face of the earth!
   Every Hebrew must have felt his soul elevated and rejoiced on the

   Paschal night! He was "a citizen of no mean city," and the pedigree
   which he could look back upon was one compared with which kings and
   princes were but of yesterday.

   Remembering the fact commemorated by the Paschal Supper, Israel might
   well rejoice. They sang of their nation in bondage, trodden beneath the
   tyrannical foot of Pharaoh. They began the Psalm right sorrowfully, as
   they thought of the bricks made without straw and of the iron furnace.
   But the strain soon mounted from the deep bass and began to climb the
   scale as they sang of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lord
   appearing to Him in the burning bush. They remembered the mystic rod
   which became a serpent and which swallowed up the rods of the
   magicians. Their music told of the plagues and wonders which God had
   worked upon Zoan and of that dread night when the first-born of Egypt
   fell before the avenging sword of the angel of death, while they,
   themselves, feeding on the lamb which had been slain for them, and
   who's blood was sprinkled upon the lintel and upon the side posts of
   the door, had been graciously preserved. Then the song went up
   concerning the hour in which all Egypt was humbled at the feet of
   Jehovah, while as for His people, He led them forth like sheep, by the
   hand of Moses and Aaron, and they went by the way of the sea, even of
   the Red Sea. The strain rose still higher as they sang the song of
   Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb. Jubilantly they sang of the
   Red Sea and of the chariots of Pharaoh which went down into the midst
   thereof, and the depths covered them till there was not one of them
   left. It was a glorious chant, indeed, when they sang of Rahab cut in
   pieces and of the dragon wounded at the sea by the right hand of the
   Most High for the deliverance of the chosen people!

   But, Beloved, if I have said that Israel could so properly sing, what
   shall I say of those of us who are the Lord spiritually redeemed? We
   have been emancipated from a slavery worse than that of Egypt! "With a
   high hand and with an outstretched arm," has God delivered us! The
   blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God's Passover, has been sprinkled
   on our hearts and consciences. By faith we keep the Passover, for we
   have been saved--we have been brought out of Egypt--and though our sins
   did once oppose us, they have all been drowned in the Red Sea of the
   atoning blood of Jesus! "The depths have covered them. There is not one
   of them left." If the Jew could sing a "great Hallel," our "Hallel"
   ought to be more glowing still! And if every house in "Judaea's happy
   land" was full of music when the people ate the Paschal feast, tonight
   we have much more reason for filling every heart with sacred harmony
   while we feast upon Jesus Christ who was slain and has redeemed us to
   God by His blood!

   III. The time has now come for me to say HOW EARNESTLY I DESIRE YOU TO
   "SING A HYMN."

   I do not mean to ask you to use your voices, but let your hearts be
   brimming with the essence of praise. Whenever we repair to the Lord's
   Table, which represents to us the Passover, we ought not to come to it
   as to a funeral. Let us select solemn hymns, but not dirges. Let us
   sing softly, but none the less joyfully. This is no burial feast! These
   are not funeral cakes which lie upon this Table, and yonder fair white
   linen cloth is no winding sheet. "This is My body," said Jesus, but the
   body so represented was no corpse! We feed upon a living Christ! The
   blood set forth by yonder wine is the fresh life blood of our immortal
   King. We view not our Lord's body as clay-cold flesh, pierced with
   wounds, but as glorified at the right hand of the Father! We hold a
   happy festival when we break bread on the first day of the week. We
   come not here trembling like bondsmen, cringing before the Lord as
   wretched condemned serfs! They eat on their knees--we approach as
   freemen to our Lord's banquet, like His Apostles, to recline at length
   or sit at ease--not merely to eat bread which may belong to the most
   sorrowful, but to drink wine which belongs to men whose souls are glad.
   Let us recognize the rightness, yes, the dutyof cheerfulness at this
   commemorative supper and, therefore, let us sing a hymn!

   Being satisfied on this point, perhaps you ask, "What hymn shall we
   sing?''" Many sorts of hymns were sung in the olden time. Look down the
   list and you will scarcely find one which may not suit us now.

   One of the earliest of earthy things was the war-song. They sang of old
   a song to the conqueror, when he returned from the battle. "Saul has
   slain his thousands and David his ten thousands." Women took their
   timbrels and rejoiced in the day when the hero returned from the war.
   Even thus, of old, did the people of God extol Him for His mighty acts,
   singing aloud with the high-sounding cymbals--"Sing unto the Lord, for
   He has triumphed gloriously...The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is His
   name." My Brothers and Sisters, let us lift up a war song tonight! Why
   not? "Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?
   This that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the greatness of
   His strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." Come, let
   us praise our Emmanuel, as we see the head of our foe in His right
   hand! As we behold Him leading captivity captive, ascending up on high
   with trumpets' joyful sound, let us chant the song--let us shout the
   war-song-- "Io Triumphee" Behold, He comes, all glorious from the war!

   As we gather at this festive Table which reminds us both of His
   conflict and of His victory, let us salute Him with a Psalm of gladsome
   triumph which shall be but the prelude of the song we expect to sing
   when we get up--

   "Where all the angers meet"

   Another early form of song was the pastoral. When the shepherds sat
   down among the sheep, they tuned their pipes and warbled forth soft and
   sweet airs in harmony with rustic quietude. All around was calm and
   still. The sun was brightly shining and the birds were making melody
   among the leafy branches. Shall I seem fanciful if I say, "Let us unite
   in a pastoral tonight?" Sitting round the Table, why should we not
   sing, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie
   down in green pastures: He leads me beside the still waters"? If there
   is a place beneath the stars where we might feel perfectly at rest and
   ease, surely it is at the Table of the Lord! Here, then, let us sing to
   our great Shepherd a pastoral of delight. Let the bleating of sheep be
   in our ears as we remember the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for
   His flock!

   You need not to be reminded that the ancients were very fond of festive
   songs. When they assembled at their great festivals, led by their
   chosen minstrels, they sang right joyously, with boisterous mirth. Let
   those who will, speak to the praise of wine--my soul shall extol the
   precious blood of Jesus! Let who will, laud corn and oil, the rich
   produce of the harvest--my heart shall sing of the Bread which came
   down from Heaven, whereof, if a man eats, he shall never hunger! Do you
   speak of royal banquets and minstrelsy fit for a monarch's ears? Ours
   is a nobler festival and our song is sweeter by far! Here is room at
   this Table, tonight, for all earth's poetry and music, for this place
   deserves songs more lustrous with delight, more sparkling with gems of
   holy mirth than any of which the ancients could conceive!

   The love song we must not forget, for that is peculiarly the song of
   this evening. "Now will I sing unto my Well-Beloved a song." His love
   to us is an immortal theme and as our love, fanned by the breath of
   Heaven, bursts into a vehement flame! We may sing, yes, and we
   willsigamong the lilies, a song of love!

   In the Old Testament, we find many Psalms called by the title, "A Song
   of Degrees." This "Song of Degrees" is supposed by me to have been sung
   as the people ascended the Temple steps, or made pilgrimages to the
   holy place. The strain often changes--sometimes it is dolorous, but
   soon it is gladsome. At one season the notes are long drawn out and
   heavy. At another, they are cheerful and jubilant. We will sing a "Song
   of Degrees" tonight. We will mourn that we pierced the Lord and we will
   rejoice in pardon bought with blood! Our strain must vary as we talk of
   sin, feeling its bitterness and lamenting it--and then of pardon,
   rejoicing in its glorious fullness!

   David wrote a considerable number of Psalms which he entitled
   "Maschil," which may be called in English, "instructive Psalms." Where,
   Beloved, can we find richer instruction than at the Table of our Lord?
   He who understands the mystery of Incarnation and of Substitution is a
   master in Scriptural theology. There is more teaching in the Savior's
   body and in the Savior's blood than in all the world! O you who wish to
   learn the way to comfort and how to tread the royal road to heavenly
   wisdom, come to the Cross and see the Savior suffer and pour out His
   heart's blood for human sin!

   Some of David's Psalms are called, "Mchtam," which means "golden
   Psalm." Surely we must sing one of these! Our Psalms must be golden
   when we sing of the Head of the Church who is as much fine gold. More
   precious than silver or gold is the inestimable price which He has paid
   for our ransom! Yes, you sons of harmony, bring your most melodious
   anthems here and let your Savior have your golden Psalms!

   Certain Psalms in the Old Testament are entitled, "UponShoshannim,"
   that is, "Upon the lilies." O you virgin souls, whose hearts have been
   washed in blood and have been made white and pure, bring forth your
   instruments of song--

   "Here, then, your music bring, Strike aloud each cheerful string!"

   Let your hearts, when they are in their best state, when they are
   purest and most cleansed from earthly dross, give to Jesus their glory
   and their excellence!

   Then there are other Psalms which are dedicated "To the sons of Korah."
   If the guess is right, the reason why we get the title, "To the sons of
   Korah"--"a song of loves" must be this--when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
   were swallowed up, the sons of Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up,
   too--but the sons of Korah perished not. Why they were not destroyed,
   we cannot tell. Perhaps it was that Sovereign Grace spared those whom
   Justice might have doomed and "the sons of Korah" were ever after made
   the sweet singers of the sanctuary. And whenever there was a special
   "song of loves,"

   it was always dedicated to them. Ah, we will have one of those songs of
   love tonight, around the Table, for we, too, are saved by
   distinguishing Grace. We will sing of the heavenly Lover and the many
   waters which could not quench His love!

   We have not half exhausted the list, but it is clear that sitting at
   the Lord's Table, we shall have no lack of suitable psalmody. Perhaps
   no one hymn will quite meet the sentiments of all and, while we would
   not write a hymn for you, we would pray the Holy Spirit to now write
   the spirit of praise upon your hearts, that sitting here, you may
   "after supper" sing "a hymn."

   IV. For one or two minutes let us ask, WHAT SHALL THE TUNE BE?

   It must be a strange one, for if we are to sing "a hymn tonight, around
   the Table, the tune most have all the parts of music. Yonder Believer
   is heavy of heart through manifold sorrows, bereavements and watching
   by the sick. He loves his Lord and would gladly praise Him, but his
   soul refuses to use her wings. Brother, we will have a tune in which
   you can join--and you shall lead the bass. You shall sing of your
   fellowship with your Beloved in His sufferings--how He, too, lost a
   friend. How He spent whole nights in sleeplessness. How His soul was
   exceedingly sorrowful. But the tune must not be all bass, or it would
   not suit all of us tonight, for some can reach the highest note. We
   have seen the Lord and our spirit has rejoiced in God our Savior. We
   want to lift the chorus high, yes, there are some here who are at times
   so full of joy that they will need special music written for them!
   "Whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I
   cannot tell," said Paul, and so have others said since, when Christ has
   been with them! Ah, then they have been obliged to mount to the highest
   notes, to the very loftiest range of song!

   Remember, Beloved, that the same Savior who will accept the joyful
   shouts of the strong, will also receive the plaintive notes of the weak
   and weeping. You little ones, you babes in Grace, may cry, "Hosanna,"
   and the King will not silence you. And you strong men, with all your
   power of faith, may shout, "Hallelujah!" and your notes shall be
   accepted, too.

   Come, then, let us have a tune in which we can all unite, but ah, we
   cannot make one which will suit the dead--the dead, I mean, "in
   trespasses and sins"--and there are some such here. Oh, may God open
   their mouths and unloose their tongues! But as for those of us who are
   alive unto God, let us, as we come to the Table, all contribute our own
   share of the music and so make up a song of blended harmony, with many
   parts--one great united song of praise to Jesus our

   Lord!

   We should not choose a tune for the Communion Table which is not very
   soft. These are no boisterous themes with which we have to deal when we
   tarry here. A bleeding Savior, robed in a vesture dyed with blood--this
   is a theme which you must treat with loving gentleness, for everything
   that is coarse is out of place. While the tune is soft, it must also be
   sweet. Silence, you doubts! Be dumb, you fears! Be hushed, you cares!
   Why do you come here? My music must be sweet and soft when I sing of
   Him. But oh, it must also be strong! There must be a full swell in my
   praise. Draw out the stops, and let the organ swell the diapason! In
   fullness let its roll of thundering harmony go up to Heaven! Let every
   note be sounded at its loudest. "Praise you Him upon the cymbals, upon
   the high-sounding cymbals; upon the harp with a solemn sound." Let the
   music be soft, sweet and strong.

   Alas, you complain that your soul is out of tune. Then ask the Master
   to tune the heart-strings. Those "Selahs" which we find so often in the
   Psalms are supposed by many scholars to mean, "Put the harp-strings in
   tune." Truly we require many "Selahs," for our hearts are constantly
   unstrung. Oh, that tonight the Master would enable each one of us to
   offer that tuneful prayer which we so often sing--

   "Teach me some melodious sonnet,

   Sung by flaming tongues above!

   Frame the mount--oh, fix me on it,

   Mount of God's unchanging love!"

   V. We close by enquiring, WHO SHALL SING THIS HYMN?

   Sitting around the Father's board, we will raise a joyful song, but who
   shall do it? "I will," says one. "And we will," say others. What is the
   reason why so many are willing to join? The reason is to be found in
   the theme we were singing just now--

   "When He's the subject of the song, Who can refuse to sing?"

   What? A Christian silent when others are praising His Master? No! He
   must join in the song. Satan tries to make God's people dumb, but he
   cannot, for the Lord has not a tongue-tied child in all His family!
   They can all speak and they can all cry, even if they cannot all
   sing--but I think there are times when they can all sing--yes, they
   must, for you know the promise, "Then shall the tongue of the dumb
   sing." Surely, when Jesus leads the tune, if there should be any silent
   ones in the Lord's family, they must begin to praise the name of the
   Lord! After Giant Despair's head had been cut off, Christians and Mr.
   Greatheart and all the rest of them brought out the best of the
   provisions and made a feast. And Mr. Bunyan says that after they had
   feasted, they danced. In the dance there was one remarkable dancer,
   namely, Mr. Ready-to-Halt. Now, Mr. Ready-to-Halt usually went upon
   crutches, but for once he laid them aside. "And," says Bunyan, "I
   guarantee you he footed it well!" This is quaintly showing us that the
   very sorrowful ones, the Ready-to-Halts, when they see Giant Despair's
   head cut off--when they see death, Hell, and sin led in triumphant
   captivity at the wheels of Christ's victorious chariot--I say they feel
   that even theymust for once indulge in a song of gladness! So, when I
   put the question tonight, "Who will sing?" I trust that Ready-to-Halt
   will promise, "I will!"

   You have not much comfort at home, perhaps. By very hard work you earn
   that little. Sunday is to you a day of true rest, for you are worked
   very cruelly all the week. Those cheeks of yours, poor girl, are
   getting very pale and who knows but what Hood's pathetic line may be
   true of you?--

   "Stitch, stitch, stitch

   In poverty, hunger, and dirt.

   Sewing at once, with a double thread,

   A shroud as well as a shirt."

   But, my Sister, you may surely rejoice tonight in spite of all this!
   There may be little on earth, but there is much in Heaven. There may be
   but small comfort for you here apart from Christ but oh when, by faith,
   you mount into His Glory, your soul is glad! You shall be as rich as
   the richest tonight if the Holy Spirit shall but bring you to the Table
   and enable you to feed upon your Lord and Master! Perhaps you have come
   here tonight when you ought not to have done so. The physician would
   have told you to stay in your bed, but you persisted in coming up to
   the House where the Lord has so often met with you. I trust that we
   shall hear your voice in the song. There appears to have been, in
   David's day, many things to silence the praise of God, but David was
   one who would sing. I like that expression of his where the devil seems
   to come up and put his hand on his mouth and say, "Be quiet!" "No,"
   said David, "I will sing!" Again the devil tries to quiet him, but
   David is not to be silenced, for three times he puts it, "I will sing,
   yes, I will sing praises unto the Lord!" May the Lord make you resolve,
   this night, that you will praise the Lord Jesus with all your heart!

   Alas, there are many of you here whom I cannot invite to this feast of
   song and who could not truly come if you were invited. Your sins are
   not forgiven. Your souls are not saved. You have not trusted Christ.
   You are still in Nature's darkness, still in the gall of bitterness and
   in the bonds of iniquity! Must it always be so? Will you destroy
   yourselves? Have you made a league with death and a covenant with Hell?
   Mercy lingers! Long-suffering continues! Jesus waits! Remember that He
   hung upon the Cross for sinners such as you are and that if you believe
   in Him, now, you shall be saved! One act of faith and all the sin you
   have committed is blotted out. A single glance of faith's eye to the
   wounds of the Messiah and your load of iniquity is rolled into the
   depths of the sea--and you are forgiven in a moment!

   "Oh," says one, "would God I could believe!" Poor Soul, may God help
   you to believe now! God took upon Himself our flesh. Christ was born
   among men and suffered on account of human guilt, being made to suffer
   "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." Christ was
   punished in the place of every man and woman who will believe on Him.
   If you believe on Him, He was punished for you--and you will never be
   punished! Your debts are paid, your sins are forgiven. God cannot
   punish you, for He has punished Christ instead of you--and He will
   never punish twice for one offense. To believe is to trust. If you will
   now trust your soul entirely with Him, you are saved, for He loved you
   and gave Himself for you.

   When you know this and feel it to be true, then come to the Lord's
   Table and join with us, when, AFTER SUPPER WE SING OUR HYMN--

   "'It is finished!'--Oh what pleasure, Do these charming words afford!
   Heavenly blessings without measure Flow to us from Christ the Lord--

   'It is finished!'

   Saints, the dying words record. Tune your harps anew, you seraphs, Join
   to sing the pleasing theme! All on earth, and all in Heaven, Join to
   praise Immanuel's name! Hallelujah!

   Glory to the bleeding Lamb!"

   HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"--421, 439, 300.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 26:20-30; 1 CORINTHIANS 11:20-26.

   Matthew 26:20. Now when the evening was come, He sat down with the
   twelve. Why so many people celebrate the Lord's Supper in the morning,
   I cannot imagine, unless it is that they desire to do everything
   contrary to their Lord's command and example! "When the evening was
   come, He sat down with the twelve." I do not think there is any binding
   ordinance making the evening the only time for the observance of this
   ordinance--but to make the morning the only time is certainly not
   according to the Word of God!

   21, 22. And as they did eat, He said, Verily I say unto you, that one
   of you shall betray Me. And they were exceedingly sorrowful There was
   enough to make them sorrowful in the fact that their Lord had just told
   them that one of the 12 who were His bodyguard, His closest companions,
   His nearest and dearest friends, would betray Him. "They were
   exceedingly sorrowful."

   22, And began everyone of them to say unto Him, Lord, is it I It shows
   a beautiful trait in their character that they did not suspect one
   another and, least of all, I suppose, they did not suspect Judas, but
   each one asked, "Lord, is it I?" It is an admirable way of hearing a
   sermon to take it home to yourself, especially if there is a rebuke or
   a caution in it.

   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. The doom of the wicked
   is something far worse than non-existence, or Christ would not have
   said, concerning Judas Iscariot, "It had been good for that man if he
   had never been born." This is especially true of all those who, having
   for a while consorted with Christ, afterwards deny it and betray Him. O
   Brothers and Sisters, may all of us be kept from this terrible sin! May
   none of us ever betray our Master after all the fellowship we have had
   with Him! It would be better to die for Him than to deny Him--and it
   would be better never to have been born than to have been in intimate
   association with Him and then to have betrayed Him.

   25. Then Judas, which betrayed Him, answered and said, Master, is it I?
   He said unto him, You have said. "It is even so." With a sorrowful
   gesture, He made it plain to His sad little circle of friends and
   followers that He knew all that was going to happen and that Judas was
   the man who was going to turn traitor.

   26. And as they were eating. As they were eating the Passover. The one
   ordinance gradually melted into the other-- "As they were eating."

   26, 27. Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to
   the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is My body. And He took the
   cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink you all of it.
   "Each one of you, My disciples, take a draught of this cup."

   28. For this is My blood ofthe new covenant, which is shed for many for
   the remission ofsins. They had had gross sin brought prominently to
   their minds. They had had a personal reminder of their own liability to
   sin and now they were to have a personal pledge concerning the pardon
   of sin--"For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for
   many for the remission of sin."

   29. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit ofthe
   vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's
   Kingdom. Taking, as it were, the great Nazarite vow to never taste of
   the fruit of the vine "until that

   day." He will keep His tryst with us, my Brothers and Sisters; and we
   shall drink the new vine of His Father's Kingdom with Him by-and-by.
   But until then, He waits.

   30. And when theey had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of
   Olives.

   1 Corinthians 16:20. When you come together, therefore, into one place,
   this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. Merely meeting together, each
   person bringing his or her own portion of bread and wine, and each one
   eating the provided portion, was notcelebrating the Lord's Supper.

   21. For in eating, everyone takes before others his own supper: and one
   is hungry, and another is drunk. Bad as some professing Christians are
   even now, they are not as bad as these Corinthians were! One was
   hungry, and another was drunk because they had turned the holy feast
   into a kind of banquet of a most disorderly sort! There was nothing in
   their conduct to indicate true Christian fellowship. The very meaning
   of the ordinance was lost in the fact that each one was feasting
   himself without fear.

   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 The Lord's Supper is
   not to be made an opportunity for eating and drinking in disorderly
   self-enjoyment. It is a hallowed and holy institution, setting forth
   the fellowship of true Believers with one another, and with the Lord
   Jesus Christ. Paul was an Apostle, yet he had not been present at the
   institution of the Lord's Supper, so He had a special Revelation given
   to him concerning the way in which this ordinance is to be observed.

   23. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto
   you. That is the right kind of teaching which a man first receives from
   God, and then delivers to the people! Nothing is of authority in the
   Christian ministry unless we can say of it, "I have received of the
   Lord that which also I delivered unto you."

   23. That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed took
   bread. What a sad interest is given to the Lord's Supper by the fact
   that it was instituted "the same night in which He was betrayed." Never
   forget that! God grant that none of us may betray our Lord this night,
   or any other night! It would be the darkest night in our life should it
   ever be so. "The Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed
   took bread."

   24, 25. 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 also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying,
   This cup is the new testament ' 'The New Covenant."

   26, 26. In My blood: this do you as often 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.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Wonderful Transformation

   (No. 2983)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 12,1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 3, 1875.

   "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy." John 16:20.

   You all know that at that time, our Lord was speaking of His death
   which would cause the deepest grief to His own people, while the
   ungodly world would rejoice and laugh them to scorn. So He bade them
   look beyond the immediate present into the future and believe that,
   ultimately, the cause of their sorrow would become a fountain of
   perpetual joy to them. It is always well to look a little ahead.
   Instead of deploring the dark clouds, let us anticipate the fruits and
   the flowers that will follow the descent of the needed showers. We
   might be always wretched if we lived only in the present, for our
   brightest time is yet to come. We are now, as Believers in the Lord
   Jesus Christ, only in the twilight of our day-- the high noon shall
   come to us by-and-by.

   But although our Savior's words, just then, related immediately to His
   death, He was such a wonderful speaker that everything He said had a
   wider meaning in it than one might at first imagine. Even the leaves of
   the Tree of Life are for the healing of the nations--and even those
   words of Christ which have a direct application to a special occasion
   have a further wondrous power about them--and may be used on other
   occasions as well as upon the one when they were first uttered. I think
   I may fairly say that our Lord did not merely mean that just when He
   died, His children would have sorrow, but that we may take His words as
   a prophecy that all who truly follow Him will have their seasons of
   darkness and gloom. Our Lord Jesus Christ has nowhere promised to His
   people immunity from trial. On the contrary, He said to His disciples,
   "In the world you shall have tribulation." I cannot imagine a better
   promise for the wheat than that it shall be threshed--and that is the
   promise that is made to us if we are the Lord's wheat--and not the
   enemy's tares, "You shall have the threshing which shall fit you for
   the heavenly garner." You need not mourn, Beloved, that it is to be so.
   If you do, it will make no difference, for your Lord has declared that
   "in the world you shall have tribulation." Rest quite sure of that. If
   you could ask those Believers who are now in Heaven, they would tell
   you that they came through great tribulation--many of them not only
   washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, but they sealed their
   faithfulness to Him with their own blood!

   Our Lord meant His disciples to feel the sorrow that was to come upon
   them, for He said to them, "You shall weep and lament," and He did not
   express any blame upon them for doing so. I would not have any of you
   imaging that there is any virtue in stoicism. I once heard a woman who
   wished to show the wonders worked in her by the Grace of God, say that
   when her baby was taken from her, she was so resigned to the Divine
   will that she did not even shed a tear! But I do not believe that it
   ever was the Divine will that mothers should lose their babies without
   shedding tears over them. I thank God that I did not have a mother who
   could have acted like that. And I believe that as Jesus, Himself, wept,
   there can be no virtue in our saying that we do not weep. God means you
   to feel the rod, my Brother, my Sister. He intends you to sometimes
   weep and lament, as Peter says, "if need be, you are in heaviness
   through manifold temptations." It is not merely the temptation or trial
   for which there is a necessity, but that we should be in heaviness is
   also a necessary part of our earthly discipline. Unfelt trial is no
   trial! Certainly it would be an unsanctified trial. Christ never meant
   Christians to be stoics. There is a wide and grave distinction between
   a gracious acquiescence in the Divine will and a callous steeling of
   your heart to bear anything that happens without any feeling whatever.
   "You shall be sorrowful," says our Lord to His disciples, and "you
   shall weep and lament." It is through the weeping and the lamenting,
   oftentimes, that the very kernel of the blessing comes to us!

   Our Savior mentions one aggravation of our grief which some of us have
   often felt--"the world shall rejoice." That is the old story. David
   found his own trials all the harder to bear when he saw the prosperity
   of the wicked. He had been plagued all the day long and chastened every
   morning--he could have endured that if he had not seen that the ungodly
   had more than heart could wish! He found himself, sometimes, even
   troubled with the fear of death, but as for the wicked, he said, "There
   are no bonds in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not
   in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men." It
   makes our bitterness all the more bitter when the saints of God are
   afflicted and the enemies of God are made to dwell in ease. I daresay
   when you were a boy, you may have fallen and hurt yourself--and while
   you were smarting from your bruises, the other lads who were around
   you, were laughing at you! The pain was all the sharper because of
   their laughing. And the righteous are wounded to the quick when they
   see the ungodly prospering--prospering, apparently, by their
   ungodliness. And when these ungodly persons point the finger of scorn
   at them and ask, "Where is your God now? Is this the result of serving
   Him?" When this is your lot, remember that your Savior told His
   disciples that it would be so--and He has told you the same. While you
   are sorrowing, you shall hear their shouts of revelry. You shall be up
   in your own room weeping and you shall hear the sound of their merry
   feet in the dizzy dance. The very contrast between their circumstances
   and your own will make you feel your grief more. Well, if this is to be
   our lot, we must not count it a strange thing when it comes, but we may
   hear our Master say to us, "I told you that it would be so." When it
   happens to any of you, Beloved, you must say, "This is even as Jesus
   Christ said it would be."

   His first disciples, if they ventured out into the streets of Jerusalem
   after their Savior's crucifixion, and while He was lying in the tomb of
   Joseph, must have found it very trying to hear the jests and jeers of
   those who had put the Nazarene to death. "There is an end of Him now,"
   they said. "His imposture is exposed and His disciples--poor, foolish
   fanatics--will soon come to their senses and the whole thing will
   collapse." Just so. That was what Jesus said would happen, "you shall
   weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice."

   Now, what was the Savior's cure for all this? It was the fact that this
   trial was to last only for a little while--for a very little while. In
   the case of His first disciples, it was only to last for a few days and
   then it would to over, for they would hear the joyful announcement,
   "The Lord is risen, indeed, and has appeared to Simon." So is it to be
   with you and with me, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ. Our sorrows
   are all, like ourselves, mortal. There are no immortal sorrows for
   immortal saints! They come, but, blessed be God, they also go like
   birds of the air--they fly over our heads but they cannot make their
   abode in our souls. We suffer today, but we shall rejoice tomorrow!
   "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." But as
   for yonder laughing sinner, what weeping and wailing will be his
   portion unless he repents and weeps in penitence over his many sins!
   The prosperity of the wicked is like a thin layer of ice on which they
   always stand in peril. In a moment they may be brought down to
   destruction! And the place that knew them will know them no more
   forever. Our weeping is soon to end, but their weeping will never end.
   Our joy will be forever, but their joy will speedily come to an end.
   Look a little ahead, Christian pilgrims, for you will soon have passed
   through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and have come into the land
   where even the shadow of death shall never fall across your pathway
   again!

   In speaking those comforting words to His disciples, our Savior made
   use of this memorable sentence, "Your sorrow shall to turned into joy."
   As I read the whole passage, I pondered over those words and tried to
   find out their meaning. Perhaps you think, as you glance at them, that
   they mean that the man who was sorrowful would be joyous. That is part
   of their meaning, but they mean a great deal more than that. They mean,
   literally and actually, your sorrow, itself, shall be turned into
   joy--not the sorrow to be taken away and joy to be put in its
   place--but the very sorrow which now grieves you, shall be turned into
   joy! This is a very wonderful transformation and only the God who works
   great marvels could possibly accomplish it--could, somehow, not only
   take away the bitterness and give sweetness in its place, but turn the
   bitterness, itself, into sweetness!

   That is to be the subject of our present meditation and I am glad to
   have, in the communion at which many of us will presently unite in the
   highest act of Christian fellowship, an apt illustration of my theme.
   You know that the Supper of the Lord is not at all a funereal
   gathering, but it is a sacred festival at which we sit at our ease,
   restfully enjoying ourselves as at a banquet. But what are the
   provisions for this feast and what do they represent? That bread, that
   wine-- what do they mean? They represent, my dear Friends,
   sorrow--sorrow even unto death! The bread, separate from the

   wine, represents the flesh of Christ separate from His blood, and so
   they set forth death. The broken bread represents the flesh of Christ
   bruised, marred, suffering, full of anguish. The wine represents
   Christ's blood poured out upon the Cross amidst agony which only ended
   with His death. Yet these emblems of sorrow and suffering furnish us
   with our great feast of love! This is, indeed, joy arising out of
   sorrow! The festival is itself the ordained memorial of the greatest
   grief that was ever endured on earth. Here, then, as you gather around
   this Table, you shall see, in the outward signs and emblems, that
   sorrow is turned into joy!

   I. If you will keep that picture in your mind's eye, it will help me to
   bring out the meaning of the text. And our first point will be
   this--OUR SORROW AS TO OUR BLESSED LORD IS NOW TURNED INTO JOY. The
   very things that make us grieve concerning Him are the things which
   make us rejoice concerning Him!

   And, first, this comes to pass when we look upon Him as tempted, tried
   and tested in a thousand ways. We see Him no sooner rising from the
   waters of Baptism than He is led into the desert to be tempted by the
   devil. And we grieve to think that, for our sakes, it was necessary
   that He should there bear the brunt of a fierce duel with the Prince of
   Darkness. We see Him afterwards, all His life, tempted, tried and
   tested this way and that--sometimes by a scribe or a Pharisee,
   sometimes by a Sadducee. All sorts of temptations were brought to bear
   upon Him, for He "was in all points tempted like as we are." But, oh,
   how thankful we are to know that He was thus tempted, for those very
   temptations helped to prove the sinlessness of His Character! How could
   we know what there was in a man who was never tested and tried? But our
   Lord was tested at every point--and at no point did He fall. It is
   established, beyond all question, that He is the Lamb of God without
   blemish and without spot. You cannot tell what a man's strength of
   character is unless he is tried. There must be something to develop the
   excellence that lies hidden in his nature. And we ought to rejoice and
   bless God that our Savior was passed, like silver, through the furnace
   seven times and, like gold, was tried again and again in the crucible
   in the hottest part of the furnace yet there was found no dross in Him,
   but only the pure, precious metal without a particle of alloy! Therein
   do we greatly rejoice! He "was in all points tempted like as we are,
   yet without sin." He was tempted by Satan and contradicted by sinners,
   yet He was found faultless to the end and, thus, our joy arises out of
   that which otherwise would have made us mourn!

   Further, dear Brothers and Sisters, remember that the griefs and trials
   of our Lord not only manifested His sinless Character, but they made
   Him fit for that priestly office which He has undertaken on our behalf.
   The Captain of our salvation was made "perfect through sufferings." It
   was necessary that He who would really be a Benefactor to men should
   know them thoroughly and understand them. How can He sympathize with
   them in their sorrows unless He has, at least to some extent, felt as
   they do? So, our merciful and faithful High Priest is one who can be
   "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," seeing that He was
   tempted and tried even as we are. I think that had I been alive at the
   time, I would have spared my Lord many of His griefs had it been in my
   power--and many of you will say the same. He would never have needed to
   say, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of
   Man has not where to lay His head," for you would gladly have given Him
   the best room in your house! Ah, but then the poor would have missed
   that gracious Word of God which, I have no doubt, has often comforted
   them when they have been houseless and forlorn! You would not have
   allowed Him, if you could have helped it, to be weary, and worn, and
   hungry, and thirsty. You would have liberally supplied all His needs to
   the utmost of your power. But then He would not have been so fully in
   sympathy as He now is with those who have to endure the direst straits
   of poverty, seeing that He has passed through a similar experience to
   theirs. What joy it is to a sorrowing soul to know that Jesus has gone
   that way long before!

   I had a great grief that struck me down to the very dust, but I looked
   up and saw that face that was marred more than any other. And I rose to
   my feet in hope and joyful confidence and I said, "Are You, my Lord,
   here where I am? Have you suffered thus, and did you endure far more
   than I can ever know of grief and brokenness of heart? Then, Savior, I
   rejoice and bless Your holy name!" I know that you, Beloved, must often
   have grieved over your Savior's suffering, though you have been, at the
   same time, glad to remember that He passed through it all--because He
   thus became such a matchless Comforter, "who can have compassion on the
   ignorant, and on them that are out of the way" because of the very
   experience through which He passed--"for in that He Himself has
   suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted."

   The meaning of the text comes out even more clearly when we think of
   the sorrows to which our Lord had been referring, which ended in His
   death Oh, the griefs of Jesus when He laid down His life for His sheep!
   Have you not

   sometimes said, or at least thought, that the ransom price was too
   costly for such insignificant creatures as we are? Think of the agony
   and bloody sweat, the scourging, the spitting, the shame, the hounding
   through the streets, the piercing of the hands and feet, the mockery,
   the vinegar, the gall, the "Eloi Eloi, lama Sabachthani?" and all the
   other horrors and terrors that gathered around the Cross! We wish that
   this might never have happened and yet the fact that they did happen
   brings to us unspeakable bliss! It is our greatest joy to know that
   Jesus bled and died upon the tree! How else could our sins be put away?
   How else could we, who are God's enemies, be reconciled and brought
   near to Him? How else could Heaven be made secure for us? We might,
   from one aspect of Christ's sufferings, chant a mournful miserereat the
   foot of the Cross, but before we have done more than just commence the
   sad strain, we perceive the blessed results that come to the children
   of men through Christ's death--so we lay down our instruments of
   mourning and take up the harp and the trumpet--and sound forth glad
   notes of rejoicing and thanksgiving!

   Our sorrow about Christ's death is also turned into joy because not
   only do we derive the greatest possible benefit from it, but Jesus
   Himself, by His death, achieved such wonders. That precious body of
   His, that fair lily all stained with crimson lines where flowed His
   heart's blood must have been a piteous sight for anyone to see. I
   wonder how any artist could ever paint the taking down of Christ from
   the Cross, or the robing Him for the sepulcher? They were sorrowful
   sights for art to spend itself upon. Jesus, the final Conqueror, lies
   in the grave! The cerements of the tomb are wrapped about Him who once
   wore the purple of the universe! But we have scarcely time to sorrow
   over these facts before we recollect that the death of Christ was the
   death of sin! The death of Christ was the overthrow of Satan! The death
   of Christ was the death of death! And out of His very tomb we hear that
   pealing trumpet note, "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." I am glad that He fought with Satan in the Garden and
   vanquished Him. I am glad that He fought with sin upon the Cross and
   destroyed it. I am glad that He fought with grim death in that dark
   hour and that He seized him by the throat and held him captive. I am
   glad that He ever entered the gloomy sepulcher, for He rifled it of all
   its terrors for all His loved ones, tore its iron bars away and set His
   people free! So you see, it is all gladness, even as He said to His
   disciples, "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy."

   And whatever else there may be of sorrow that came out of Christ's
   Cross, we may all be glad of it, for now Christ Himself is the more
   glorious because of it It is true that nothing could add to His Glory
   as God, but seeing that He assumed our Nature and became Man as well as
   God, He added to His Glory by all the shame He bore! There is not a
   reproach that pierced His heart which did not make Him more beautiful!
   There is not a line of sorrow that furrowed His face which did not make
   Him more lovely--that marred Countenance is more to be admired by us
   than all the comeliness of earthly beauty! He was always superlatively
   beautiful. His beauty was such as might well hold the angels spellbound
   as they looked upon Him! The sun and moon and stars were dim compared
   with the brightness of His eyes. Heaven and earth could not find His
   equal and if all Heaven had been sold, it could not have purchased this
   precious Pearl! Yet the setting of the pearl has made Christ appear
   even brighter than before--the setting of His Humanity, the setting of
   His sufferings, His pangs, His shameful death has made His beauty shine
   out the more resplendent! The plant that sprang from Jesse's root is
   now the plant of renown! He who was despised at Nazareth is glorified
   in Paradise and the more glorified because, between Nazareth and
   Paradise, He was "despised and rejected of men, a Man of Sorrows and
   acquainted with grief." Blessed Savior, we rejoice that You have gained
   by all Your sorrows, for therefore has God highly exalted You, and
   given You a name which is above every name!

   II. But, now, secondly, and very briefly, I want to remind you that THE
   SORROW OF THE WHOLE CHURCH

   HAS ALSO BEEN TURNED INTO JOY.

   In speaking of the sorrows of the persecuted Church of Christ, I will
   not compare them to the sorrows of her Lord. But if anything could have
   been comparable to the suffering of the Bridegroom, it would have been
   the suffering of the bride. Think of the early ages of the Church of
   God under the Roman persecutions. Think of the Church of Christ among
   the Vaudois of the Alps, or in England during the Marian persecution.
   Our blood runs cold as we read of what the saints of God have suffered!
   I have often put up Foxe's Book of Martyrs upon the shelf and thought
   that I could not read it any more--it is such a terribly true account
   of what human nature can bear when faith in Christ sustains it. Yet,
   Brothers and Sisters, we are not sorry that the martyrs suffered as
   they did. Or if we are, that very sorrow is turned into joy at the
   remembrance of how Christ has been glorified through the sufferings of
   His saints! Even our poor humanity looks more

   comely when we recall what it endured for Christ's sake. When I think
   of the honor of being a martyr for the Truth of God, I confess that I
   would sooner be a martyr than be the angel Gabriel, for I think it
   would be far better to have gone to Heaven from one of Smithfield's
   stakes than to have been always in Heaven. What honor it has brought to
   Christ that poor, feeble men could love Him so that they could bleed
   and die for Him! Yes, and women, too, like that brave Anne Askew, who,
   after they had racked her till they had put every bone out of joint,
   was still courageous enough to argue on behalf of her dear Lord! When
   they thought that her womanly weakness would make her give way, she
   seemed stronger than any man might have been as she said to her
   persecutors--

   "I am not she that lyst

   My anker to let fall

   For every dryslynge myst;

   My shippe's substancyal"--

   and so defied them to do their worst! The Church of God may well
   rejoice as she thinks of the noble army of martyrs who praise the Lord
   on high for, among the sweetest notes that ascend even in Heaven, are
   the songs that come from the white-robed throng who shed their blood
   rather than deny their Lord!

   The Church of Christ has also passed through a fierce fire of
   opposition, as well as of persecution. Heresy after heresy has raged.
   Men have arisen who have denied this, and that, and the other Doctrines
   taught in the Scriptures. And every time these oppositions have come,
   certain feeble folk in the Church have been greatly alarmed but, in
   looking back upon them all up to the present, I think that they are
   causes for joy rather than sorrow! Whenever what is supposed to be a
   new heresy comes up, I say to myself, "Ah, I know you! I remember
   reading about you. There was an old pair of shoes, worn by heresy many
   hundreds of years ago which were thrown on a dunghill--and you have
   picked them up and refurbished them a little, and brought them forth as
   if they had been new." I bless the Lord that at this moment there
   scarcely remains anyDoctrine to be defended for the first time, for
   they have all been fought over so fiercely in years gone by that there
   is hardly any point that our noble forefathers did not defend! And they
   did their work so well that we can frequently use their weapons for the
   defense of the Truth today. Who would wish to have kept the Word of God
   from going through this furnace of opposition? It is like silver seven
   times purified in a furnace of earth. Philosophers have tried you, O
   precious Book, but you were not found wanting! Atheists have tried you!
   Sneering skeptics have tried you! They have all passed you through the
   fire, but not even the smell of fire is upon you to this day! And
   therein do we rejoice, yes, and will rejoice! And the day will come
   when the present errors and opposition will only be recorded on the
   pages of history as things for our successors to rejoice over just as
   we now rejoice over the past victories of the Truth of

   God!

   And once again, dear Friends, not only is it so with the persecutions
   and oppositions of the Church of Christ, but the Church's difficulties
   have also become themes of rejoicing. As I look abroad upon the world
   at the present time, it does seem an impossible thing that the nations
   of the earth should ever be converted to Christ. It is impossible so
   far as man alone is concerned, yet God has commanded the Christian
   Church to evangelize the world! Someone complains that the Church is
   too feeble and its adherents too few to accomplish such a task as this.
   The fewer the fighters, the greater their share of glory when the
   victory is won! In order to overcome indifference, idolatry, atheism,
   Mohammedanism and Popery, the battle must be a very stern one, but who
   wants Christ's followers to fight only little battles? My Brothers and
   Sisters, let us thank God that our foes are so numerous! It matters not
   how many there may be of them--there are only the more to be destroyed!
   What said David concerning his adversaries? "They compassed me about;
   yes, they compassed me about; but in the name of the Lord I will
   destroy them." When the Last Great Day shall come and Jehovah's banner
   shall be finally furled because the Book of the Wars of the Lord shall
   have reached its last page, it will be a grand thing to tell the story
   of the whole campaign! Then it will be known to all that the fight for
   the faith was not a mere skirmish against a few feeble folk, nor was it
   a brief battle which began and ended in an hour--but it was a
   tremendous conflict "against principalities, against powers, against
   the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
   in high places." They gather, they gather, my Brothers and Sisters,
   thick as the clouds in the day of tempest, but, out of Heaven Jehovah,
   Himself, will thunder and give battle and scatter them--and they shall
   fly before Him like the chaff before the wind!

   III. Now, lastly, to come down from those high themes to minor matters,
   OUR OWN PERSONAL SORROW

   SHALL BE TURNED INTO JOY.

   When I think of the sorrows of Christ and the sorrows of His Church as
   a whole, I say to myself, "What pin pricks are our griefs compared with
   the great gash in the Savior's side, and the many scars that adorn His
   Church today!" But, dear Friends, whatever our sorrows may be, they
   will be turned into joy. Sometimes we witness this wonderful
   transformation. Poor old Jacob sorrowed greatly when he thought that he
   had lost his favorite son, Joseph. "An evil beast has devoured him," he
   said. "Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces." And he wrung his hands
   and wept bitterly for many a day over his lost Joseph. Then came the
   famine and the poor old man was dreadfully alarmed concerning his large
   family. He must send some of his sons into Egypt to buy corn, and when
   he sends them there, they do not all come back, for Simeon is detained
   as a hostage--and the lord of the land says that they shall not see his
   face again unless they bring Benjamin with them--Benjamin, the dear and
   only remaining child of the beloved Rachel! Jacob cannot bear the
   thought of parting with him, so he says to his sons, "You have bereaved
   me of my children; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and you will take
   Benjamin away: all these things are against me." Poor old soul, what a
   mistake he made! Why, everything was as much for him as it could
   possibly be! There was his dear Joseph, down in Egypt, next to Pharaoh
   on the throne and ready to provide for his poor old father and all the
   family during the time of famine! Then there was the famine to make him
   send down to Egypt and find out where Joseph was, so that he might go
   and see his face again, and confess that the Lord had dealt graciously
   with him. You dear children of God who get to fretting and are troubled
   should carry out Cowper's good advice--

   "Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

   But trust Him for His Grace--

   Behind a frowning Providence

   He hides a smiling face!"

   You have quite enough to cry over without fretting concerning things
   that, some day, you will rejoice over! The Lord will put your tears
   into His bottle and when He shows them to you, by-and-by, I think you
   will say, "How foolish I was ever to shed them, because the very thing
   I wept over was really a cause for rejoicing if I could but have seen a
   little way ahead." It is so sometimes, in Providence, as you will find
   over and over again between here and Heaven!

   Our sorrows, dear Friends, are turned into joy in many different ways.
   For instance, there are some of us who are such naughty children that
   we never seem to come close to our Heavenly Father unless some sorrow
   drives us to Him. We ought to be more with Him in days of sunshine, if
   it were possible, than in days of storm, but it is not always so. It is
   said that there are some dogs which, the more you whip them, the more
   they love you. I should not like to try that plan even on a dog, but I
   fear that some of us are very much like dogs in that respect, if the
   saying is true. When we have a great trouble, or get a sharp cut, we
   seem to wake up and say, "Lord, we forgot You when all was going
   smoothly. We wandered from You, then, but now we must come back to
   You." And there is a special softness of heart and mellowness of spirit
   which we often get through being tried and troubled. And when that is
   the case, you and I have great cause to rejoice in our sorrows, if they
   draw us nearer to God and bring us to a clear and more careful walk
   with Him. If they draw us away from worldliness, self-sufficiency and
   self-complacency, our sorrows, if we are wise men and women, will be
   immediately turned into joy!

   Again, there is no doubt that, to many, sorrow is a great means of
   opening the eyes to the preciousness of the promises of God. I believe
   that there are some of God's promises of which we shall never get to
   know the meaning until we have been placed in the circumstances for
   which those promises were written. Certain objects in Nature can only
   be seen from certain points of view. And there are precious things in
   the Covenant of Grace that can only be perceived from the deep places
   of trouble. Well, then, if your trouble brings you into a position
   where you can understand more of the loving kindness of the Lord, you
   may be very thankful that you were ever put there and may thus find
   your sorrow turned into joy.

   Again, sorrow often gives us further fellowship with Christ There are
   times when we can say, "Now, Lord, we can sympathize with You better
   than we ever did before, for we have felt somewhat as You did in Your
   agony here below." We have sometimes felt as though that prophecy had
   been fulfilled to us, "You shall indeed drink of My cup, and be
   baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with." For instance, if
   friends forsake you--if he that eats bread with you lifts up his heel
   against you, you can say, "Now, Lord, I know a little better what Your
   feeling was when Judas so basely

   betrayed You." You cannot so fully comprehend the griefs of Christ
   unless, in your humble measure, you have to pass through a somewhat
   similar experience. But when you perceive that you can sympathize more
   with Christ because of your own sorrow, then, for certain, your sorrow
   is turned into joy.

   Sorrow also gives us fellowship with our Lord in another way--when we
   feel as if Christ and we had become partners in one trouble. Here is a
   cross and I have to carry one end of it. But I look around and see that
   my Lord is carrying the heavier end of it--and then it is a very sweet
   sorrow to carry the cross in partnership with Christ! Rutherford says,
   in one of his letters, "When Christ's dear child is carrying a burden,
   it often happens that Christ says, 'Halves, My love,' and carries half
   of it for him." It is indeed sweet when it is so. If there is a ring of
   fire on your finger and that ring means that you are married to Christ,
   you may well be willing to wear it, whatever suffering it may cause
   you. Those were blessed bolts that fastened you to the Cross even
   though they were bolts of iron that went right through your flesh, for
   they kept you the more closely to your Lord! Our motto must be,
   "Anywhere with Jesus, nowhere without Jesus." Anywhere with Jesus! Yes,
   even in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace! When we have the Son of God with us,
   the glowing coals cannot hurt us--they become a bed of roses to us when
   He is there! Where Jesus is, our sorrow is turned into joy.

   I must not fail to remind you that there is a time coming when "the
   sorrows of death" will get hold upon us and I want you, Brothers and
   Sisters, to understand that unless the Lord shall come first, we shall
   not escape the sorrow of dying, but it will be turned into joy. It has
   been my great joy to see many Christians in their last moments an earth
   and I am sure that the merriest people I have ever seen have been dying
   saints! I have been to wedding feasts. I have seen the joy of young
   people in their youth. I have seen the joy of the merchant when he has
   made a prosperous venture and I have, myself, experienced joys of
   various kinds, but I have never seen any joy that I have so envied as
   that which has sparkled in the eyes of departing Believers! There rises
   up before me now a vision of the two eyes of a poor consumptive
   girl--oh, how bright they were! I heard that she must soon die, so I
   went to try to comfort her. To comfort her? Oh, dear, she needed no
   comforting from me! Every now and then she would burst forth into a
   verse of sacred song and when she stopped, she would tell me how
   precious Jesus was to her, what love visits He had already paid her,
   and how soon she expected to be with Him forever! There was not, in all
   the palaces of Europe, or in all the mansions of the wealthy, or in all
   the ballrooms of the happy, such a merry and joyous spirit as I saw
   shining through the bright eyes of that poor consumptive girl who had
   very little here below, but who had so much laid up for her in Heaven
   that it did not matter what she had here!

   Yes, Beloved, your sorrow will be turned into joy! Many of you will not
   even know that you are dying--you will shut your eyes on earth and open
   them in Heaven! Some of you may be dreading death, for there is still a
   measure of unbelief remaining in you, but also in your case, death will
   be swallowed up in victory! Just as when some people have to take
   medicine which is very bitter, it is put into some sweet liquid and
   they drink it down without tasting the bitterness, so will it be with
   all of us who are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ when we have to
   drink our last potion. In a few more days, or weeks, or months, or
   years--it does not matter which, for it will be a very short time at
   the longest--all of us who love the Lord will be with Him where He
   is--to behold His Glory and to share it with Him forever! Have any of
   you any sorrows that you still wish to talk about? Some of you are very
   poor and others of you are very much tried and troubled in many ways,
   but, my dear Friends, when you and I get up there--and we shall do so
   before long--I think you will have the best of it! If there is any
   truth in that line--

   "The deeper their sorrows, the louder they'll sing"-- the more sorrows
   you have had, the more will you sing! Nobody enjoys wealth like a man
   who has been poor. Nobody enjoys health like a man who has been sick. I
   think that the most pleasant days I ever spend are they that follow a
   long illness when I, at last, begin to creep outside and drink in the
   sweet fresh air again. And, oh, what joy it will be to you poor ones
   and you sick ones and you tried ones to get into the land where all is
   plentiful, where all is peaceful, where all is gladsome, where all is
   holy! You will be there soon--some of you will be there very soon. Dr.
   Watts says that--

   "There, on a green and flowery mount,

   Our weary souls shall sit.

   And with transporting joys recount

   The labors of our feet."

   That is to say, the very sorrows that we pass through in our earthly
   pilgrimage will constitute topics for joyful conversations in Heaven. I
   do not doubt that it will be so.

   In Heaven we shall be as glad of our troubles as of our mercies!
   Perhaps it will appear to us, then, that God never loved us so much as
   when He chastened and tried us. When we get home to Glory, we shall be
   like children who have grown up, who, sometimes say to a wise parent,
   "Father, I have forgotten about the holidays you gave me. I have
   forgotten about the pocket money you gave me. I have forgotten about a
   great many sweet things that I very much liked when I was a child, but
   I have never forgotten that whipping which you gave me when I did
   wrong, for it saved me from turning altogether aside. Dear Father, I
   know you did not like to do it, but I am very grateful to you for it
   now--more grateful for that whipping than for all the sponge cakes and
   sweetmeats that you gave me." And, in like manner, when we get home to
   Heaven, I have no doubt that we shall feel and perhaps say, "Lord, we
   are grateful to You for everything, but most of all for our sorrows. We
   see that had You left us unchastised, we would never have been what we
   now are and, thus, our sorrows are turned into joy."

   As for you who are not Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, I want you
   to ponder most solemnly these few words and carry them home with you.
   If you remain ass you are, your joys will be turned into sorrows. God
   grant that they may not be, for Jesus Christ's sake Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Silly Dove

   (No. 2984)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1863.

   "Ephraim is like a silly dove without heart." Hosea 7:11.

   THE race of Ephraim is not extinct. Men are to this very day very much
   like what they were in the days of the Prophets. The same rebukes are
   still suitable, as well as the same comforts. As man has altered very
   little, if at all, in his outward bodily conformation, so has he not
   varied in the inner constitution--he is much the same today as he was
   in the time of Hosea. In this congregation, in the midst of the city of
   London, we have too large a company of those who are "like a silly dove
   without heart."

   To proceed at once with the text, I want you to notice four things.
   First--a saintly similitude. Secondly--a secret distinction. Thirdly--a
   severe description. And lastly, a serious consideration.

   I. Here we have A SAINTLY SIMILITUDE--"Ephraim is like a dove!"

   The people are not compared here to the eagle that soars aloft and
   scents its prey from afar, nor to the vulture which delights to gorge
   itself with carrion. They are not likened to any foul and unclean bird
   which was put aside under the Law of God, but the very figure which is
   constantly chosen to set forth the beauty of holiness, to describe the
   Believer, and to picture the whole Church--no, that very emblem by
   which we set forth Him who is Holiness, itself, God the Holy
   Spirit--that same comparison to a dove is here used to describe those
   who were without heart. "Ephraim is like a dove"--it is a saintly
   similitude.

   Let me remind you that in all congregations there are those who are
   like doves, but not Christ's doves, who never build their nests in the
   clefts of the rock, in the bosom of the Savior. They are like
   doves--you can never tell them from genuine Believers and, like doves,
   they are perfectly harmless. They do no mischief to others in all their
   lives. Track them, if you will, you will never find them in the
   alehouse. They sing not the song of the drunkard. No man ever lost
   anything in business by them. Men may have their pockets picked in the
   streets, but never by them. Persons may go staggering home under a
   wound, but that wound never comes from their hands--there is no
   uncleanness in their heart and no slander on their tongue--they are
   amiable, admirable. We might almost hold them up for examples of
   propriety. Alas, alas, that we have only to look withinto find that
   they are not what they seem!

   Moreover, being like doves for harmlessness, they are also like them
   for loving good company. We find not the dove flying with a host of
   eagles, but it consorts with its own kind. Some of you are never
   happier than when you are either in the Tabernacle or else in some of
   the classes formed by various members of the congregation. You also
   find such a pleasant excitement in the Prayer Meeting that you are not
   absent from it except when you are prevented by business. You love
   being where God's people go--their hymns are sweet to your ears. In
   their prayers you find some sort of comfort and in the ministry of the
   Word you take delight. You fly like a cloud and like doves to their
   windows, and it is a joy to us to see you do it. And yet it may be that
   although you know how to congregate like doves, you are simply "like a
   silly dove without heart."

   Moreover, these persons are still more like the dove in that they have
   the same meekness, apparently, as distinguishes the dove. They hear as
   God's people hear and sit as His people sit. They are not skeptics.
   They never object to the exposition of the Doctrines to which they
   listen. They pick no holes in the preacher's coat--they have no
   particular fault to find either with the style or the matter of his
   discourse. They decorously frequent the House of God and behave
   themselves in a seemly manner when there. No, more than that, they seem
   with meekness to receive the Word, though

   they do not receive it as engrafted into their own hearts. They even
   receive it with joy when the Seed is scattered on them, but having no
   root in themselves, the good Seed comes to nothing. O my dear Hearers,
   it is a great subject for thanksgiving that so many of you are ready
   and willing to listen to the Word with deep and profound respect! But I
   do beseech you to remember that you may, in this, be like the dove, and
   yet, after all, you may be taken in the same net and destroyed with the
   same destruction as that which fell upon the Ephraimites who were "like
   a silly dove without heart!"

   The dove, you know, is a clean feeder, and so we have many who get as
   far as that. They know the distinction between the precious and the
   vile--they will not feed on Law--they can only live on Grace. They have
   come to know the Doctrines of the Gospel and they feed on them--upon
   pure corn, well winnowed. You have only to bring in a little free will
   and straightway they know the chaff from the wheat and refuse to
   receive it! They cast it away as refuse metal which is of no value to
   them. But, while they have an orthodox head, they have a heterodox
   heart--while they know the Truth of God and feel it, yet it is still
   not the right kind of feeling--they have never so received it as to
   incorporate it into their very being. They have accepted it with the
   same sort of belief and in somewhat the same manner as Simon did in
   Samaria. But, after a while, when trouble and persecution shall come,
   and waxes too hot, they will turn aside.

   But I have to add yet further that there are some of these persons who
   are like doves in another respect still more singular--as a dove is
   molested by all sorts of birds of prey, s o these persons do, for a
   time, share the lot which befalls the people of God! Why, there are
   some who for the mere coming to the House of God, get nicknamed,
   "saints." They are not saints, but they have to bear the scoffing which
   is given to saints. And I know some who have turned out to be great
   sinners, who have, for a time, put up with much scoffing and rebuke for
   the sake of Christ! When pointed at in the street, it has been part of
   the manliness of their character to acknowledge that they did frequent
   such a place of worship. Though their soul has never been stricken by
   the Divine Word, yet it has become so sweet in their ears that they are
   willing to bear some degree of reproach for the sake of it! I should
   not like to be compelled to say precisely wherein the saint is to be
   distinguished by outward signs, for really, the counterfeits nowadays
   are so much like the genuine that it needs the Wisdom of the Infallible
   God, Himself, to discern between the one and the other! We can have
   false faith, false repentance, false hope and false good works. We have
   all sorts of things--paint, varnish, tinsel--and we may so grain that a
   skillful eye will scarcely know whether it is the genuine wood or the
   artist's skill. There are many ways of preparing metals and sometimes
   the alloy seems to have in it, for some purpose, qualities which the
   unalloyed metal lacks. O Lord, the great Searcher of hearts, do search
   us lest we should have applied to us saintly names and pass the saintly
   reputation and character--and hold saintly offices--and after all be
   cast away with the rubbish over the wall and left to be consumed
   forever and ever! But, enough on that point.

   II. I have now to call your attention to A SECRET DISTINCTION--"Ephraim
   is like a dove without heart."

   This implies a lack of understanding. The dove knows but little and
   experience scarcely teaches it anything. We may almost spread the snare
   in the flight of that bird and yet it will fly to it, it is so silly.
   It does not seem to possess, at least to the outward eye, the wits and
   sense of some others of the feathered tribe. It has little or no
   understanding. And oh, how many there are who are, spiritually, like
   the dove! They have no real knowledge of the Truth of God! They rest in
   the letter and think that is enough. I solemnly believe that there are
   those who have not the shadow of an idea of the meaning of the words
   which they hear every Sabbath in a form of prayer! They repeat those
   prayers without any appreciation of the sense of them. They would
   probably not notice if the words were put in any other way. Doubtless
   they would get as much good out of them if they were thrown together in
   wild disorder, as they do out of the beautiful and magnificent array in
   which they are marshaled! Many who come and hear the most simple
   Truths, go away and say, "It is a riddle to us. We cannot understand
   how people can sit and listen to that." Either they condemn the
   preacher's words as trite or else as fanatical--they cannot understand
   them.

   You may fetch a clodhopper and set before him the masterpiece of an
   eminent old painter and tell him, "That picture is worth sixty thousand
   pounds." He looks, opens his mouth, starts again and says he can't make
   anything of it. He can't see where the money could go. He'd sooner have
   carts, and horses, and pigs, and cows, and sheep. Well, now, to some
   extent we might almost sympathize with him, but the high-art critics
   despise the man at once for having no soul above his clod. And it is
   just the same in spiritual things! Exhibit the glories of the Person of
   Christ and the matchless wisdom of the plan of salvation--that man can
   see nothing in it. "It is, no doubt, a very good and very proper
   thing." He will attend to it and so on--and then he goes to church and
   thinks he is pious, sits in his seat and goes through the routine--

   and then supposes he is reconciled to God! Oh, how many such silly
   doves we have fluttering in and out of our places of worship! As a
   quaint old preacher said, there were scarcely seats enough for the
   saints on account of the number of simpletons that came to listen!

   But, again, they were silly doves without heart, because, lacking an
   understanding heart, they also lacked a decided heart. Sometimes,
   however, the dove would be slandered if we should use her as a metaphor
   in this respect. Have you not seen the dove when, from afar, with her
   quick eyes she has seen her cot, fly straight away, over miles of sea
   and land, straight to her beloved home? There, she could not be used as
   a metaphor of the ungodly--but of a child of Jesus who thus flies to
   Him over the wild waves of sin. But, perhaps, you have seen the dove as
   first she rises in the air and then flies round and round. She
   deliberates in order to find out which is the right direction and, when
   she has made up her mind, away she flies straight as an arrow to the
   goal. But, while she is fluttering about, she is an apt emblem of some
   men. They are undecided whether for God or Baal. They halt, to use
   Elijah's figure, between two opinions. "How long halt you between two
   opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow
   him." On Sundays, they go to church, but on Mondays, they put off their
   religious habits--the weather is too rough, or something else prevents
   them from going to the Prayer Meeting. On Sunday, they say--

   "My willing soul would stay

   In such a frame as this,

   And sit and sing herself away

   To everlasting bliss"--

   but, on Monday or Tuesday, the sound of the wheels in the street and
   the noise of them that buy and sell put the music of Jerusalem out of
   their ears and they would gladly go back to the world again! Ah, they
   are silly doves without understanding and without decision!

   No, there are some who may be said to have a sort of decision for a
   time, but they are like the dove in that they are without resolution.
   The doves seeks to fly in one direction. Somebody claps his hands and
   she changes in a moment. Or else he sprinkles a handful of barley on
   the ground and, though she was flying yonder, she is over here again!
   How many persons there are of that kind, setting their faces to Zion,
   intending to join the church--perhaps they have seen the elders and the
   pastor and been accepted--but, after a little time, they say, "Well,
   they did not know all about it. There are more frightful things than
   they dreamt of in it!" Like Pliable, they would go to Heaven, but they
   get into the Slough of Despond and there is strange stuff there that
   gets into the ears and mouth--and so they get out on the side nearest
   home and tell Christian he may have the brave country all to himself,
   for they don't like the miry places on the way. Or, it may be that some
   old companion comes up from the country and he will treat them to some
   place of amusement. Or, perhaps, it may be that there is a prospect of
   gain to be got in some branch of business that is not quite as honest
   as it might be. But does not the money count as well? Isn't it as good
   to spend? Will not other men think it worth twenty shillings to the
   pound, however it may have been gained? These people who seemed so true
   and warm-hearted are like the silly dove without resolution--and fly
   away again to their old haunts and become just what they used to be.

   So likewise there are many, like a dove, without bold hearts. They
   never turn upon a persecutor. They never stood in the gap with Mr.
   Valiant-for-Truth, holding the sword in their hand. They cannot open
   their mouth to speak for Jesus, but they run away when they ought to
   stand out like a lion against their foes. They never give a reason for
   the hope that is in them. We have plenty of Baptist churches educating
   cowards by the score! They never come out before the whole church--that
   would be too trying for their nerves! They are never expected to come
   out boldly on the Lord's side. Too often, Baptism is administered
   somewhere in a corner, when as few as possible are present and, in that
   way, where we ought to have lion-like men, we breed those who hide
   their principles and are ready to amalgamate with any sect of people so
   long as they can but bear the name of Christians! I would to God, dear
   Friends, we had bolder men for our Lord and Master! Be as full of love
   as you can, but take care that you mix iron with your constitution!
   Silly are the doves that have no bold heart for God. The day will come
   when only the bold heart shall win, for the fearful and unbelieving are
   to have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone!

   Too many, also, there are like a silly dove, in that they have a
   powerless heart If you visit a great factory where there is a large
   engine, you will notice that the amount of power used in the factory is
   proportionate to the capacity of the steam-engine. If that should work
   but feebly, then the wheels cannot revolve beyond a proportionate
   rate--and every

   part soon discovers that there is some lack of motive force. Now, man's
   heart is the great steam-engine of his whole being--and if he has a
   heart that palpitates with swift strokes, it will put his whole nature
   in motion and that man will be mighty for his Lord and Master! But if
   he has a little, insignificant heart that never did glow, and never did
   burn, and never did know anything about the warmth, life, heat, power
   and benediction of God's Love, then his will fritter away his time,
   knowing the right and doing the wrong, loving in some sort the thing
   that is beautiful, but still following that which is deformed, giving
   his name to God and giving what little strength he has to the other
   side! Brothers and Sisters, I would to God there were not so many in
   all our communities that have but a pigeon's heart, or a dove's heart,
   or no heart at all!

   The root of the master lies here--these Ephraimites have not renewed
   hearts and so they fail. Verily, verily, it is true to this hour, as in
   Jesus' day, "except a man be born-again, he cannot see the Kingdom of
   God." Many strive to see it in their own way, but, until the effectual
   Grace of God comes down to turn their hearts from the great and
   extraordinary confidence which their proud flesh has in their own
   works, they never will see, they never can see, the Kingdom of God! How
   many like Ephraim, then, have the heart altogether wrong because it is
   not renewed? Therefore it has none of those qualifications which tend
   to make the man what he should be.

   III. With great brevity, we notice, in the third place, A SEVERE
   DESCRIPTION--"Ephraim is like a sillydove."

   It is a fine word, that word, "silly." Hardly do I know another that is
   so eminently descriptive. There may be some sort of dignity in being a
   fool--but to be silly--to attract no attention except ridicule--is so
   utterly contemptible that I do not know how a more sarcastic epithet
   could be applied!

   "Ephraim is like a silly dove without heart." And why silly? Why, it is
   silly, of course, to profess to be a dove at all, unless a dove at
   heart!Silly of you to enslave yourselves with the customs of a country
   of which you are not a citizen--to bind yourselves with the rules of a
   family of which you are not a member! We find men, when they go to
   another country, if there is a conscription there, only too willing to
   plead their own nationality in order to escape it! And yet we have
   persons who will serve in the Christian conscription, who give as God's
   people give and outwardly do what God's people do--and yet they are not
   of the godly nation, but are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel! Is
   not this silly--to take the irksome toil and not to get the joy and the
   benefit of it? You are silly to go and work in the vineyard, though you
   have never eaten of the clusters, and never can unless your heart is
   right in the sight of God.

   Isn't it silly, then, to profess to be a dove at all, and yet not to be
   a dove? Isn't it silly, again, to think you can pass muster when your
   heart is wrong--to fancy that if you go with the crowd, you shall enter
   Heaven without being seen? Do you think to deceive Omniscience? Do you
   think Infallible Wisdom will not discern you? Do you think to enter
   Heaven while your soul is estranged from God? Then, indeed, you are
   worse than a fool! You are "silly" to think such a thing! How can you
   thus hope to deceive your God? What is more silly than to play fast and
   loose in this way--first, to sing the song of Zion, and then the song
   of lasciviousness! There is something dignified even in the devil,
   himself--there is something awful about the grandeur of his wickedness
   because he is consistent in it! But there is nothing of that
   consistency in you because you are here and there, everywhere and
   nowhere--everything by turns, and nothing long.

   Some of you are so silly as to hasten your own condemnation. You know
   that to be without God and without Christ will ruin you, and yet you do
   that which keeps you from going to Christ! You hug the sins that
   prevent your laying hold on Him and still dandle upon your knee the
   lusts which you know will shut the gates of Heaven against you! Like
   Ephraim, you are silly enough to trust in that which will be your ruin.
   Some of you rest upon good works, or hope to be saved by good feelings.
   The two powers which had oppressed Ephraim--Egypt and Assyria--were
   still the powers in which he trusted. Do not imitate his folly by
   trusting to that which will ruin you!

   You are silly, again, because when there is so much danger, you do not
   fly to the place of shelter. O silly dove, when the hawk is abroad, not
   to seek the clefts of the rock to hide yourself! And how silly are some
   of you! Day after day, year after year, Satan is hawking after you! The
   great fowler is seeking your destruction, but the wounds of Christ are
   open to you and the invitation of the Gospel is freely given to
   you--and yet, you are so silly that though you know better, you prefer
   the pleasures of the day to the joys of eternity! Yet I know not that
   you do prefer them, only somehow or other you are too silly to prove
   your preference and go on, like a child that is playing on the hole of
   the cockatrice, making mirth over your damnation--too silly to make up
   your minds to choose either Heaven or Hell! I know there are some such
   people in this house--would God that the arrow might find out the right
   persons, but, too often, these doves are so silly,

   in another respect, that they will not let the appeal of the Gospel
   come home to them. They say, "it cannot be for me, for I go to Mr. A's
   or Mr. B's class! It cannot be for me, for I go to the Prayer Meeting,
   I contribute to the College and every good work!" Yet all the while it
   means just you who act upon your own whims, but not for God, who give
   God anything but your heart, who are ready to make a sacrifice of all,
   except that you refuse that which He asks of you! "My son, give Me your
   heart." It was considered to be a sign of great calamity when the Roman
   prophet slew a bull and found no heart--and it is the worst of all
   calamities when a man has no heart to give to God! "This people draws
   near unto Me with their mouth, and honors Me with their lips; but their
   heart is far from Me," is one of the complaints against Israel of old,
   and one of the sins which made the Prophets weep and caused Jerusalem
   to be plowed like a field.

   IV. I close with just a few words upon the fourth point, and that is, A
   SERIOUS CONSIDERATION. There are one or two things I would say
   solemnly, softly and hopefully. Oh, that they may stick in the memory
   and the conscience of many of you!

   Those of you, my Hearers, who have been long sitting in this
   Tabernacle--some of you ever since it was built and before then in
   other places under our ministry--yet are just the same as you used to
   be, ought to recollect how sadly we look on those who are not saved. It
   is no rare thing to find the attendant of the sanctuary an unbeliever.
   It is a common thing to find the child of converted parents, the lad
   educated at the Sunday school, the man who has always had a seat in
   God's House, still having no hope and without God in the world. Think
   of that! Be not deceived--the Gospel will harden such people as you
   are! Speaking after the manner of men, (for with God, all things are
   possible, and a Sovereign God does as He wills), it does seem less and
   less probable that you ever should be called by Grace after you have
   sat and listened to the Word so long. The voice that once startled you
   now soothes you! The manner that once attracted the eyes, and sometimes
   seemed to touch the heart, fails to do either! And the very Truths of
   God that once went over your heads like a crash of thunder has so
   little force in them now that you even sleep under the sound of them!
   Think of that, you who are like a silly dove without heart!

   Remember, too, that some of the vilest sinners that have ever livedhave
   been manufactured out of this raw material Some of the worst men were
   once, apparently, meek-hearted hearers of the Word, but they sat under
   the preaching of the Gospel till they grew ripe enough to deny God and
   curse Him. The unsanctified hearing of the Gospel has sometimes
   produced more gigantic specimens of sin than the deaf ear of the adder.
   Beware, my Hearer! I know that you will say with Hazael, "Is your
   servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" Yes, there is dog
   and devil enough in you unless you have been changed by Grace, to do
   that thing and 20 other things that you have never dreamt of yet! Think
   what multitudes of souls in Hell there are like you--silly doves
   without hearts! Many of the population of that place of wailing once
   heard the Gospel, heard it with gladness and appeared to receive it for
   a time--but they had no root, and so the impression withered away. They
   never had been called effectually by Grace and never had been renewed
   in heart, although they had all the outward semblance of holiness1 They
   are gone! Even now, your soul may listen to their groans and moans, the
   lesson of all which would be, "Make your calling and election sure, and
   be not satisfied with the name to live while you are dead."

   May the Spirit of the living God stir you up to this, for, if not, I
   have one more consideration to urge upon you. Remember how soon you may
   be in Hell And they who go there, if they have been such as you are, go
   there with a vengeance. To go from under the shadow of the pulpit to
   the Pit is terrible. To go from the Communion Cup, to drink the cup of
   devils--from the song of saints to the weeping, and wailing, and
   gnashing of teeth of lost souls--from all the hallowed joys of God's
   Sabbath, of God's House and of His Word, down to the unutterable infamy
   of spirits that have no love of God, but curse Him day and night--my
   Hearers, that may be your lot within an hour, a week, a year! It
   matters not what the period may be, for if it ever is your lot, the
   time past shall seem to have been but the twinkling of an eye for its
   joy, though it may appear to you to have been ages for the awful
   responsibility which the day of mercy will have entailed upon you.
   Repent and be baptized, everyone of you!" As Peter said, so say I! If
   you have not as yet received Christ, lay hold on eternal life and oh,
   that the Spirit of the living God, while I preach the Word generally,
   may apply it particularly, finding out His own chosen and gathering
   them out of the ruins of the Fall, that they may be jewels in the crown
   of the Redeemer! The Lord make us doves, but God forbid that we should
   be "silly doves without heart."

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:

   www.spurgeongems.org

   PSALM 88:10-61; 1 PETER 4:1-13.

   The story of how the children of Israel behaved themselves towards
   their gracious God.

   Psalm 88:10-16. They kept not the Covenant of God and refused to walk
   in His law; and forgot His works, and His wonders that He had showed
   them. Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers, in the
   land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea, and caused
   them to pass through, and He made the waters to stand as a heap. In the
   daytime also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light
   of fire. He clave the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as
   out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of the Rock, and
   caused waters to run down like rivers. In such a scene of miracles,
   surrounded by such prodigies of goodness, what did they do?

   17. And they sinned yet more against Him byprovoking the most High in
   the wilderness. What a fierce fire must sin be that it is even fed by
   the rivers of God's goodness and burns by means of that which ought to
   have quenched every spark of it! Yet there is such a fire as that
   raging in our hearts and even God's mercies will make us more sinful
   unless His abounding Grace comes with them to teach us how to use them
   rightly.

   18. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
   Not for their needs, but "for their lust." It is a dreadful thing when
   prayer, itself, is prostituted and the Mercy Seat becomes a place for
   the expression of sinful desires which ought never to have been in our
   hearts. It was so, however, with these children of Israel.

   19. Yes, they spoke against God. As you read that "they spoke against
   God," you naturally suppose that they uttered some blasphemy, or some
   denial of His Deity. Listen and learn!

   19. They said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness That is
   speaking against Him--to speak unbelievingly-- to speak in a
   questioning way concerning His power. I am afraid that there are very
   few of us who can plead innocence on this score.

   20. Behold, He smote the Rock, that the waters gushed out, and the
   streams overflowed; can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for
   His people These things, which they lusted after, they also turned into
   subjects for unbelief. And they even misused the miracle which they
   dared not deny.

   21. 22. Therefore the LORD heard this, and was angry: so a fire was
   kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel Because
   they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation. This was
   the provoking sin. The Lord would not endure such wanton and wicked
   unbelief as this. After He had turned the rocks into rivers, could He
   not turn the stones into bread, and the dust of the desert into flesh
   if He chose to do so?

   23-32. Though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the
   doors of Heaven, and had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had
   given them of the corn of Heaven. Man did eat angels' food: He sent
   them meat to the full. He caused an east wind to blow in the Heaven:
   and by His power He brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also
   upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea: and
   He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their
   habitations. So they did eat, and were well filed: for He gave them
   their own desire; they were not estranged from their lust. But while
   their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them,
   and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel
   For all this they still sinned. Mercy failed to move them, and judgment
   failed too. The right hand of God's gifts and the left hand of His
   chastisement were equally ignored.

   32-34. And believed not for His wondrous works. Therefore their days
   did He consume in vanity, and their years in trouble. When He slew
   them, then they sought Him: and they returned and inquired early after
   God. Perhaps some of them fought Him even while they were dying and the
   remnant that survived trembled and, "returned and inquired early

   after God."

   35, 36. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God
   their redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth, and
   they lied unto Him with their tongues. Oh, this is terrible! One would
   have thought that they would have been sincere when they were broken
   down with sorrow, but it was not so. And I fear that the kind of
   religion which has to be whipped into us is never good for much. It
   must have in it the element of spontaneity if it is to be sincere. It
   was not so with these people.

   37-41. For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they
   steadfast in His Covenant. But He, being full of compassion, forgave
   their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yes, many a time He turned His
   anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath. For He remembered that
   they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and comes not again. How
   often did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the
   desert! Yes, they turned back and tempted God, and

   limited the Holy One of Israel In their unbelieving imagination, they
   circumscribed His power. They thought that He could do something, but
   not everything. They believed Him one day and doubted Him the next.

   42-45. They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He delivered them
   from the enemy. How He had worked His signs in Egypt, and His wonders
   in the field of Zoan: and had turned their rivers into blood; and their
   floods, that they could not drink. He sent divers sorts of flies among
   them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. All these
   judgments fell upon their enemies, but they failed to remember them.

   46-56. He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their
   labor unto the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their
   sycamore trees with frost. He gave up the cattle also to the hail, and
   their flocks to hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the fierceness of
   His anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels
   among them. He made a way to His anger; He spared not their soul from
   death, but gave their life over to the pestilence, and smote all the
   first-born in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of
   Ham: but made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in
   the wilderness like flock. And He led them on safely, so that they
   feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And He brought them
   to the border of His sanctuary, even to this mountain, which His right
   hand had purchased. He cast out the heathen also before them, and
   divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to
   dwell in their tents. Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God,
   and kept not His testimonies. Oh, these terrible "yets"! Though God was
   faithful to the end and kept His Covenant, and brought them into the
   land which He swore to their fathers that He would give them, yet they
   tempted and provoked the Most High God, and kept not His testimonies."

   57-61. But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they
   were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked Him to anger
   with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven
   images. When God heard this, He was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel:
   so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed
   among men; and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory
   into the enemy's hand.

   1 Peter 4:1. Forasmuch then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh,
   arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for He that has suffered in
   the flesh has ceased from sin. Brethren, we have a Savior who suffered
   for us. As the Head was, such must the members expect to be. Let us,
   then, be resolutely determined that, suffer as we may, we will never
   turn aside from our Lord, for, inasmuch as we suffered in Him, yes, and
   died in Him, we ought to reckon that we are henceforth dead to sin and
   that we have ceased from it, and can no longer be drawn into it. "He
   that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin."

   2. That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to
   the lusts of men, but to the will of God. The doctrine of Substitution
   is the strongest possible argument for holiness. You lived in sin once,
   but Christ died for your sin, so you must reckon that, in Him, you died
   to sin, seeing that He died in your place. And the argument is that,
   henceforth, your life is to be a life in Him, a life of holiness, to
   the praise and glory of God.

   3. For the timepast of our life may suffice us to have worked the will
   of the Gentiles. Suffice? O Brothers and Sisters, let it do much more
   than that! Let it make us cry, "Would God that we had never worked the
   will of the Gentiles at all!" Some young people foolishly say that they
   must have a little space in which they can "see life." Ah, those of you
   who have been converted in later years regret that you ever saw what
   men call, "life," which is but the alias for corruption and death! "For
   the time past of our life may suffice us to have worked the will of the
   Gentiles."

   3, 4. When we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excesses of wine,
   revellings, banquets and abominable idolatries. Wherein they think it
   strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking
   evil of you. What a strange world this world is! It speaks evil of men
   because they will not do evil! Yet it has always been so. The men, "of
   whom the world was not worthy," have been the very people of whom
   worldlings have said, "Away with such fellows from the earth! It is not
   fit that they should live." The world's verdict concerning Christians
   is of little value.

   5, 6. Who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick
   and the dead. For this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that
   are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but
   live according to God in the spirit. This is a very difficult passage
   to expound, but I suppose the meaning is that the Gospel was preached
   to those departed saints who had been called to die for Christ's sake
   and that it was preached to them for this very reason, that while they
   were judged by wicked men, and were by them condemned to die, they
   still live a far more glorious life than they lived here, because they
   were thus enabled, by their martyr death, to consummate their
   consecration to God.

   7, 8. But the end of all things is at hand; be you therefore sober, and
   watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among
   yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. It covers
   them sometimes by not seeing them, for, where there is much love, we
   are blind to many faults which, otherwise we might see. We do not
   exercise the sharpness of criticism which malice would be sure to
   exercise. Besides that, when love applies herself to prayer, and when,
   in addition to prayer, she kindly gives admonition to a beloved friend,
   it often happens that true Christian love does really prevent a
   multitude of sins. The Apostle does not mean that by loving another
   person I shall cover my own sin; nor does he mean that the exercise of
   charity, in the common acceptation of that word, can cover my sin! But
   if I have much love to others, I may be the instrument, in the hand of
   God, for covering many of their sins in one or other of the senses I
   have mentioned.

   9, 10. Use hospitality, one to another, without grudging. As every man
   has received a gift, even so minister the same, one to another, as good
   stewards of the manifold Grace of God. Whatever "the gift" is, whether
   it be money, or talent, or Divine Grace, "even so minister the same,
   one to another, as good stewards of the manifold Grace of God." God
   gives much to you that you may give it to others--it is only meant to
   run through you as through a pipe. You are a steward and if a steward
   should receive his lord's goods, and keep them for himself, he would be
   an unfaithful steward. Child of God, see to it that you faithfully
   discharge your responsibility as one of the "good stewards of the
   manifold Grace of God."

   11-13. If any man speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any
   man ministers, let him do it as of the ability which God gives: that
   God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be
   praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Beloved, think it not
   strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some
   strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice, inasmuch as you are
   partakers of Christ's sufferings; that when His glory shall be
   revealed, you may be glad, also, with exceeding joy. If you do not
   share in Christ's humiliation, how can you expect to share in His
   exaltation? But if worldlings begin to rebuke and reproach you, take it
   for granted that they can discern something of Christ in you. Dogs do
   not usually bark at those who live in the same village with them--it is
   only at strangers that they bark. And when ribald tongues are lifted up
   against you, you have reason to hope that you are a stranger and a
   foreigner to the citizens of this world, for they love their own, as
   our Savior reminded His disciples, "If you were of the world, the world
   would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have
   chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you"
     __________________________________________________________________

Messages to Sinners and Saints

   (No. 2985)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 10, 1875.

   "For thus says the Lord GOOD, the Holy One ofIsrael, In returning and
   rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your
   strength. But you would not." Isaiah 30:15.

   THIS message related to the invasion of the land of Judah by
   Sennacherib. The approach of the enormous hosts of the Assyrian king
   put almost the whole nation into a state of great alarm. They wanted to
   make an immediate alliance with the king of Egypt and to ask that
   mighty monarch to send his forces to drive back the army of
   Sennacherib. But Isaiah the Prophet was sent to warn them of the folly
   and sin of such an alliance and to tell them that their strength was to
   sit still. They were to confide alone in the Most High and not to look
   for any other helper, but to cast themselves upon the faithfulness of
   the God who had never failed them. If they did so, they would suffer no
   harm--but just in proportion as they turned away from the unseen
   Jehovah and began to rely upon an army of flesh--they would be sure to
   find trouble.

   We might have supposed that these people would have gladly accepted the
   very cheering message. Surely it was a good thing for them not to have
   to go to war with the Assyrians and not to need to despoil themselves
   and their Temple in order to send gold to the king of Egypt, but simply
   to rest in God who had promised to be a wall of fire round about them
   and the Glory in the midst of them. But, Brothers and Sisters, faith is
   an exotic in any heart where it is made to flourish--it does not grow
   there by nature--it must be planted by Grace. We are, all of us,
   idolaters by nature. We need something to look at in our worship even
   though God has forbidden it to us in the strongest terms. And as to our
   life, we are always pining for the arm of flesh, needing to rely upon
   something tangible and visible. We cannot, except as God's Grace
   enables us to do so, cast ourselves absolutely upon the unseen and
   trust ourselves to a God whose way we cannot trace! Yet, when His
   gracious Spirit teaches us this sacred art, it is well with us. The
   soul is elevated above gross materialism, above selfishness and
   self-confidence, above fear, alarm and trepidation--and brought into a
   condition of strength, power and peace. This is what the text tells
   us--that in returning and rest we shall be saved, and in quietness and
   confidence shall be our strength! As it was with God's ancient people
   in the days of Sennacherib, so is it with us. This principle holds good
   all along--the faith that relies upon God will bring to us both
   salvation and strength.

   I purpose to take my text out of its context and to address two
   different classes of hearers, using one of the sentences of my text as
   a message concerning the salvation of sinners. And using another
   sentence as a message concerning the strength of saints.

   I. First, then, here is A MESSAGE CONCERNING THE SALVATION OF
   SINNERS--"In returning and rest shall you be saved."

   Dealing, first, with the matter of returning to God, let me ask you a
   few questions. Have you played the prodigal? Have you got far away from
   your father's house. Have your joyous days all ended? Is your money all
   spent? Is your strength all but gone? Have your so-called "friends"
   forsaken you? Are you brought very low? Is there a mighty famine in the
   land and have you begun to be in need? There is but one thing for you
   to do--and that is to return. There is nothing more required of you
   than that you should return to God and rest in Him. Returning, however,
   is your first business. I would that you would say, as the prodigal in
   his hunger said, "I will arise and go to my father." You will never get
   right till you get back to God. You cannot do without the God who made
   you. You may try to do so as much as you will, but a creature apart
   from the Creator is nothing but vanity, a man apart from his Maker is
   in utter misery!

   You never will rest--it is impossible that you should do so--till you
   rest on the Rock of Ages, you will be continually tossed about and
   disquieted until you come there.

   Possibly you say to me, "But how am I to return? How can I come back to
   God?" There is a way made for you. He has filled up the valleys and cut
   down the mountains! Christ is the way of approach to the Father and the
   only way, for no man comes to the Father but by Him. And along that way
   innumerable pilgrims have traveled and they have reached God through
   Jesus Christ. Behold before you the ladder which Jacob saw in his
   dream--the foot rests just where you are, but its top reaches to the
   Covenant God in Heaven! It is by the way of the Person, work and merits
   of the Incarnate Son of God that you must climb into His Father's
   bosom! By the way of His shameful Cross, by the way of His death and
   burial, and Resurrection, you must come back to God. Again I remind you
   that this is the only way! There is no other entrance to Heaven and to
   the heart of God!

   "I know that," says one, "yet I still feel as if I could not return."
   Why not? "My sin lies heavy upon me. I would that I could shake it off
   and then return." Ah, my Friend, that is not the way to return to God!
   If you were to come back to God having somehow got rid of your sin by
   your own efforts, you would come self-righteously and boastfully--but
   the right way to get back to Him is the way the prodigal took when the
   first words he uttered were these, "Father, I have sinned against
   Heaven, and in your slight, and am no more worthy to be called your
   son." Come back to God with a full confession of your sin! Whisper into
   His august but condescending ear the sad story of the many
   transgressions of the days that are past--sins against His Law, sins
   against His Gospel, sins against the Light of God, sins of ignorance,
   sins against Him, against His Son and sins against His Spirit. Come
   back to God, laden with guilt, full of woe and confess all before Him,
   through Jesus Christ, His Son--and forgiveness shall be yours, for it
   is written in His Word, "He that covers his sins shall not prosper: but
   whoso confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy."

   "Yes," says one, "but that is my difficulty, for I observe that I am to
   forsake my sin as well as to confess it." It is truly so, my Hearer. If
   you will come back to God through Jesus Christ, who is the only way to
   the Father, He will enable you to forsake your sin. Before our Savior's
   birth, the angel said to Joseph, "You shall call His name, Jesus: for
   He shall save His people from their sins." The salvation which Jesus
   gives is salvation from unbelief, salvation from a seared conscience,
   salvation from pride, from lust, from malice, from envy, from evil of
   every kind! Which of your sins do you wish to keep? Is there one so
   fair that you have the desire to spare it? Come, Brother, let us take
   these sins of yours, one by one, and let us ask the Lord to lend us the
   sword of Divine Justice that we may slay them and hang them up before
   the Lord, for they are accursed things! Be not tender of heart
   concerning any one of them, even though, like another Agag, it comes to
   you delicately and says, "Surely the bitterness of death is past." Put
   the sword to the throat of every sin! Though each one should be like a
   prince, yet slay it and hang it up upon the Cross. There stands the
   gallows whereon they hanged your Lord, so hang up the traitor sins
   there and let them all die. I think I hear you say, with good Dr.

   Watts--

   "'Twas for my sins my dearest

   Lord hung on the cursed tree,

   And groaned away a dying life

   For thee, my Soul, for thee!

   Oh, how I hate those lusts of nine

   That crucified my God!

   Those sins that pierced and nailed His flesh

   Fast to the fatal wood!

   Yes, my Redeemer, they shall die--

   My heart has so decreed!

   Nor will I spare the guilty things

   That made my Savior bleed."

   Remember that if you do not kill them, they will kill you! Returning to
   God includes turning from sin. Do you think that the prodigal, when he
   came back to his father, brought his dice in one hand and some other
   implement of sin in the other? He may come foul with the filth of the
   wine. He may come wretched through hunger and famine. But he must leave
   his riotous living, his wine-cup, his debauchery in the far
   country--these cannot be tolerated in his father's house!

   Neither can he receive the kiss of forgiveness till he has said,
   "Father, I have sinned." And the fact that he stands before his father,
   separated from his former sins, proves that he has forsaken them!

   "Well," says one, "I have yet another difficulty. I have confessed my
   sin to God and I have resolved, by His Grace, to forsake it. But how
   can I get rid of the guilt of my past sin?" I will tell that directly,
   but, for the present, my text says, "Return." In returning to God you
   shall be saved and you may return to Him, now, by simply trusting Him.
   Come, Man, the cause of all your sin is that you do not trust Him! If
   you did trust Him, you would obey Him and you would prove that
   happiness comes through obedience to Him! You did not believe that this
   was true and, therefore, you have gone away into disobedience under the
   mistaken notion that you could find greater happiness. But even now, if
   you will believe, all things are possible unto you if you will do God
   the bare justice of believing that in this quarrel between you and Him,
   He is right and you are wrong! If you will capitulate to Him, yielding
   up your weapons of rebellion and say, "'Tis all ended, good Lord. I do
   believe that You are just, and true, and gracious. I know not how You
   can be just and yet pardon me, but, anyhow, I come to You and I rest
   myself upon You--I dare not be Your adversary any longer. Should You
   give me Heaven, itself, I could not be content with it unless I were
   reconciled to You, my God, my Creator, my Preserver, my Father, my
   All-in-All. My heart longs to come to You. I cannot rest till I am with
   You. I seek You with my whole soul." There lies the way of salvation!
   No, dear Heart, if what I have been saying for you is really true, your
   salvation is already assured, for he who longs after God is no more
   God's adversary! God's Grace has already been operating upon you and it
   is even now drawing you to Him--or else those ardent pangs of strong
   desire would never possess your soul.

   Now turning to the second half of this portion of my text, let me speak
   of resting in the Lord, as well as returning to Him, for His
   declaration is, "In returning and rest shall you be saved." What you
   need, in returning to God, is to rest in Him. Here is the answer to the
   question which we asked just now concerning your sin. "Listen," says
   God, "do not let your past sin keep you back from Me, for I laid My sin
   upon the shoulders of My Son. I allowed Him to be scourged as though He
   had been the guilty one. I gave Him up to the executioners as though He
   had been a malefactor. I even drew My own sword from its scabbard and
   smote My well-beloved Son with it. While He was bearing your sin, I
   left Him alone till He cried, in His anguish, 'My God, My God, why have
   You forsaken Me?' I gave Him up to endure the bitter pangs of death
   that He might bear the wrath that was due to you. Now, then, as He has
   borne the punishment for all your sin, come unto Me and rest in Me.

   My dear Hearers, I shall be very unhappy if while I am preaching to
   you, some of you are not following me and doing just what I am urging
   you to do. I am hoping that while I am speaking many of you are
   returning to your God, drawn by the gracious influence of the Holy
   Spirit. If you are returning to Him and are still troubled by the
   remembrance of your past sin, rest in what He has done on behalf ofjust
   such sinners as you are! He has set forth Christ to be a Propitiation
   for sin. Therefore, rest in Him. Say, however timidly you may utter the
   words, "I do trust alone to the atoning Sacrifice of Jesus, and for all
   my guilt I rest my soul on Him." This is how you will be saved--not by
   your works, not by your weeping, not even by your praying, but by thus
   resting on the Lord! It is true that you willwork and you will'weep.
   And you will pray and holy deeds will, I trust, be abundant in your
   life. But, in order to be saved you have simply to come to Jesus and to
   rest on Him! Can you not do that? If you cannot, I will tell you why.
   It is not because you are too weak, but because you are too strong! It
   is strength that keeps a man from resting! It is weariness that makes
   him recline. The more faint and feeble he is, the more readily does he
   lean upon another. It is your strength that will destroy you--it is
   your supposed goodness that will ruin you--it is your own works that
   will be your destruction! Come now, and lean wholly and alone upon that
   almighty Savior whose heart was pierced for you, and then it shall be
   well with you! After you are saved, you will labor for the Lord with a
   mighty God-given force, but just now, return to the Lord and rest in
   Him, for "in returning and rest shall you be saved."

   "Yes, but my present state is so bad," says one, "I am not so much
   troubled over my past sin, because I believe that God has forgiven
   it--but I grieve over my present hardness of heart and distance from
   God." Come along, my Brother, come speak to the Lord, for your heart
   will never get any softer through staying away from Him! How many
   hundreds of times have I said from the pulpit that if you cannot come
   to Christ with a broken heart, come to Him fra broken heart! If you
   cannot come as you should, come anyway that you can, in order that you
   may be taught to come as you ought! It is quite true that your
   condition is bad, but then Christ "came not to call the righteous, but
   sinners to repentance." Those open sores and bleeding wounds of yours
   only prove that you need the care and skill of a wise physician. Do not
   stay away from Him till you are cured, but come to Him to be cured, and
   come to Him now! And when you do come to Jesus, just leave your
   case--past, present and future--in His hands. Rest on Him! Say, "I
   believe that as He is able to forgive my past sin, so is He able to
   remove my present hardness of heart--to take away the heart of stone
   out of my flesh and to give me a heart of flesh."

   "It is the future that troubles me," says another. "I am anxious to
   return to the Lord and to rest in Him, but I am afraid that I shall sin
   in days to come. I cannot feel sure that I shall not go back to my old
   life, even if I try to leave it." It is a good thing, my Friend, when
   you realize that you can no longer trust in yourself--and that is the
   very reason why you should put your trust in One who can never fail
   you! Therefore, come to the Lord Jesus Christ and rest in Him
   concerning the future, as well as the past and the present. Did you
   never hear those words that Paul wrote to Timothy, "I know whom I have
   believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have
   committed unto Him against that day?" This is what you have to do,
   then--commit yourself to Christ for all the future, with all its
   temptation and its trials, its sorrows and its sins--and rest there.

   Here is salvation for the past, the present and the future! Here is
   complete salvation, and the way to get it is to return to God and rest
   in Him! Oh, that the Holy Spirit would graciously lead many of you to
   do this! I feel that I must keep on preaching the Gospel to you very
   simply. God forbid that I should ever try to bring before you any other
   theme, or even seek for goodly words in which to tell forth that theme!
   No, I feel that I must keep on telling you--

   "The old, old story of Jesus and His love." After this morning's
   service, I looked upon the corpse of a beloved friend who was with us a
   little while ago, who died yesterday afternoon. As I knelt by his bed,
   with his mourning wife and brother, I could not help feeling that there
   was a loud call to me, from those silent lips, to keep on preaching
   Christ and nothing else but Christ as long as I live! My friend, who
   has been thus suddenly called Home, was in the very prime of life and
   his death has quite stunned me. As I gazed at him, I could hardly
   believe that his lips were really silent and that his eyes would never
   be opened any more in this world. If this summons had come for any of
   you who have not believed in Jesus, it would have been a still more
   bitter sorrow for us to know that you were dead in trespasses and sins
   when you were taken from us--and so must perish forever and ever. Now,
   Soul, will you have Christ as your Savior, or will you not have Him? If
   this were a thing which required hard tugging and toiling, it would be
   well worth the effort. But when the Gospel message is simply, "Believe
   and live," and when Christ is willing, if you will only trust Him, to
   give you a force with which you shall be able to shape a new and nobler
   life--a Divine Power by which you shall rise superior to sin and be, in
   His good time, made like unto Himself, will you refuse these great
   blessings? Will you despise the heavenly banquet and stay outside and
   starve? Then, if so, your blood will be upon your own head! But may
   God, in His Infinite mercy, prevent you from that which would be
   spiritual suicide and save you, by His Grace--and He shall have the
   praise for it world without end.

   I have read of a great man who was once taken around the French
   galleys. He was an ambassador from a foreign country and the French
   king wished to do him honor, so he told him that when he went to the
   galleys, he might set free any one of the convicts whom he pleased. So
   the ambassador took the following method of finding out to whom he
   would give this free pardon. He began by asking the first man, "How
   came you here?" The man said that he had done wrong, but that he had
   been entirely led into it by other people and they were to blame more
   than he was. So the ambassador went on to another man, who said that he
   was perfectly innocent. He had never committed any crime at all, but he
   had been condemned through perjured witnesses and so on. The ambassador
   found quite a number of "innocent" men of that sort, but, at last, he
   came to a man who frankly confessed that he deserved to be there. What
   had he done? Well, he had committed such crimes that he was ashamed to
   mention them. But, in answer to many questions, he did mention them and
   he said, "I very richly deserve all that I have to suffer here, and I
   think myself happy that I was not condemned to die, for I well deserved
   it." "Well," said the ambassador, "you are evidently too bad a fellow
   to be here with all these 'innocent' men, so I shall give you a free
   pardon." He had the right to give it to whomever he pleased and he made
   his choice in that way. And when the Lord, who has the right to give
   pardon to whom He pleases, gives it to anybody, if there is any choice,
   it generally is given to the man who feels that he does not deserve it,
   but admits that he deserves the wrath of God. "Ah," says the Lord, "you
   are the man who shall receive the free pardon which you admit that you
   do not deserve."

   II. Now I want, for a little while, to speak to God's people and to
   give them THE MESSAGE OF THE TEXT TO THE CHILDREN OF GOD--"In quietness
   and in confidence shall be your strength." O Beloved, what a blessed
   message is this!

   This is true concerning all the trials and troubles of this mortal
   life--"In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength! I will
   suppose that you are passing through some business trouble. There are
   many tremors in the commercial world just now. Perhaps they are causing
   some of you to shake and tremble. But if so, be not too easily carried
   away by secondary matters--be not either excited or depressed by them.
   Sit loosely by all worldly things, but take a firm grip of the unseen
   God! You will get no good by fretting, worrying and hurrying. Be calm
   and quiet, for all will yet be well with you if you are the Lord's
   children! Perhaps your trial takes the form of personal sickness. If
   so, nothing can be better for you than quietness and confidence. The
   doctor will tell you that you will make a good patient if he can keep
   your mind quiet and restful. All the worrying in the world will not
   make you well, though worrying will help to keep you ill. You will be
   ill just as long as God appoints, but if anything could help to heal
   you, it would be quietness and confidence of heart. Have you lost a
   friend? Is there a great sorrow at home? Have you, in the cemetery,
   some loved one lying in a newly-made grave? Well, my Brother, or my
   Sister, you cannot bring the dear one back and you ought not to wish to
   do so! It is wise to submit to the inevitable. It is gracious to bow to
   the will of your ever-gracious God. You cannot do anything that will be
   so helpful to your own sorrowing spirit as to exercise quietness and
   confidence. It will, indeed, be your strength.

   Have you what I think is a sorrow fully equal to that of bereavement?
   Have you a loved one who daily suffers? Have you one who seems, week
   after week, to be lying upon the brink of the grave? Is that the kind
   of living cross that you have to carry? Well, Brother, it is no use
   fretting over it and it can do you no good to rebel against it. Let us
   not only submit to the will of the Lord, but let us ask Him to grant us
   Grace to acquiesce in it, for in quietness and in confidence shall be
   our strength. We often want to do too much and we often really dotoo
   much--and so we spoil everything! We fret and we worry, but nothing
   good ever comes of all our fretting and worrying. But if we would learn
   to wait upon the Lord, we would renew our strength--we would mount up
   with wings as eagles! We would run and not be weary! We would walk and
   not faint. I am addressing God's tried children just now and whatever
   their condition may be, I press the message of the text upon their most
   earnest consideration.

   Fretting is weakening. Whoever gathered an atom of strength by fretting
   and fuming, plotting and planning, or doing this and that in haste and
   confusion? You must have noticed, in reading the Book of Genesis, what
   a great descent there was from Abraham to Jacob. What a grand man
   Abraham was! He was every inch a king--no, kings were but dwarfs in
   comparison with the Patriarch who was so great because He believed God!
   But look at Jacob--a pettifogging, bargaining man, constantly cheating
   or being cheated! Jacob might be regarded by some people as by far the
   better man of business--such a keen, shrewd man. Yes, he was a cunning
   man and very crafty, but Abraham had that kind of wisdom which is
   better than craft and cunning! He was so trustful that he never thought
   of chaffering and bargaining with his God as Jacob did. Quiet majesty
   is the characteristic of the man of faith, just as unquiet weakness is
   the characteristic of the unbeliever. May God make you strong, Brothers
   and Sisters in Christ, by taking from you the fret and the worry in
   which you have too long indulged--and by giving to you the quietness
   and confidence which shall be your strength for the future!

   Moreover, fretting and worrying distract us, but quietness and
   confidence help us in many an emergency. I have known a merchant who
   was losing money, feel very agitated and restless. The perspiration was
   upon his brow and if he had gone on much longer in that fashion, he
   would have lost a great deal more money. But I have known that same man
   pull up in an instant, slip aside into some quiet corner, breathe a
   brief, earnest prayer to God and then go back to his post feeling "I am
   ready for any of you"--cool, calm, quiet. While he was forgetting his
   God, he was distracted, and all about him were his masters, but when he
   had told the Lord about his troubles, he came back, not self-reliant,
   but God-reliant, which is a very different thing and a much better
   thing! There he was, cool, calm, with all his wits about him, ready to
   meet those who, a little while before, would have been more than a
   match for him. Trust in God, Beloved, for faith in Him will keep your
   vision clear and your judgment sound. Trust in God and then, in the day
   of stern conflict, there shall be no man's arms that shall be as strong
   as yours. "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength."

   Besides, this quietness and confidence often prevent us from wasting
   our strength in efforts which might end in failure. Oh, the fussy
   efforts many of us have made! I know that I have and I will make the
   confession. I have had various matters to put right and I have tried,
   and tried, and tried, but all my trying has only made them get worse
   and worse. They are like our good Sister's thread that was in a tangle,
   the other day, and she was in such haste to get it disentangled that
   she got it into a mass of knots that nobody in this world could untie!
   But another time when there was a tangle, she just took it calmly and
   quietly--and slipped this thread through here--and that thread through
   there and it was all unsnarled very speedily! Her quietness helped her
   to see the way out of the difficulty! But we are often in such a hurry
   to get things done that it takes us three times as long to undo the
   mischief that we worked in our haste as it would have taken us if we
   had, in the first place, asked God to help us to do the thing properly!

   I know that the Grace of God is needed to bring us into this state of
   quietness and confidence, but, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, when you
   are brought into it, I pray you to keep in it and to walk so close to
   God as never to lose the consciousness of it. I always admire the
   spirit which is characteristic of the Society of Friends. As a general
   rule, the spirit of the Quaker is calm, quiet, deliberate. That kind of
   spirit is not absolutely perfect. I can see something that is lacking
   from it. Still, that sort of spirit is a long way ahead of that which
   is manifested by some of my friends whom I might easily name. I wish
   that we all had more of that spirit--calm, quiet, self-possessed or,
   rather, God-possessed. I believe that is the best spirit for preachers
   to have. We can do most by way of moving others when we ourselves are
   firmly fixed upon a solid base. You need not fluster yourself, young
   man, in the way that you often do. You will not save souls by stamping
   your foot, thumping your Bible and shouting at the top of your voice.
   From the very bottom of your heart, in an earnest Spirit, tell your
   hearers something that is worth their hearing and pray God to put His
   blessing upon it! You will find, even in preaching, that in confidence
   and quietness shall be your strength. Thunder is not lightning and you
   may make a great noise and yet not do much good. But if you calmly, yet
   earnestly, proclaim the Truth of God, and with sober sense press it
   upon men's consciences, you may reasonably hope that God will send a
   blessing upon your message.

   I believe that the rule laid down in our text applies not only to the
   trials and troubles of life, but that it holds good with regard to many
   other matters. "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength"
   when you are involved in discussion and meet with opposition. Some of
   us are often obliged to bring forth arguments in favor of what we
   believe to be the Truth of God--and there is one thing at which I
   always aim when I take part in a discussion--and that is to never let
   my opponent cause me to lose my temper. I know that in proportion as I
   get excited and angry, I am losing strength. I must seek to overcome my
   adversary by the power of the Truth of God, but, let him say what he
   will, I must not let him make me feel annoyed. For if he does, then to
   that extent he has conquered me. You may make this a rule in all your
   conversations with the ungodly. If you are a Christian woman and your
   husband is unconverted, when he speaks to you in angry tones, do not
   answer him in the same style, but remember that "in quietness and in
   confidence shall be your strength." If sometimes his words seem to
   stagger you and you fear that you will fall, clutch at this precious
   Truth--lay hold of Christ, rely upon the almighty Grace of God--but do
   not reply. Be quiet. You know the old proverb about "a still tongue." I
   will turn it around, for I am not sure that "a still tongue makes a
   wise head," but I am quite sure that a wise head makes a still tongue,
   especially in family masters! You Christian wives and Christian
   husbands may do a heap of mischief if, as you think, you get angry for
   Christ's sake. It will be far better if, for Christ's sake, you bear
   quietly and calmly all that you have to endure! You should also do this
   for the sake of the one who vexes you, for how do you know, O wife, but
   that you may be the means of saving your unbelieving husband, and that
   you, O husband, may be the means of bringing to Christ your unbelieving
   wife by Christian quietness like that which Christ Himself manifested
   when He was upon the earth?

   There is a woman here--I do not know just where she is, but she is
   here--and her husband has complained to me that she not only comes here
   twice on the Sabbath, but that she is also here at all the weeknight
   services, neglecting her husband and family and home duties as no
   Christian woman ought to do. "Oh," says someone, "I wonder who that
   woman is?" Well, there may be more than one to whom that description
   applies, and if the cap fits you, I hope you will wear it. But I beg
   you not to let your Christianity become a needless cause of offense to
   others. Do try to so adapt your mode of life to those who are around
   you that no unconverted person shall be able to truly say, "My life is
   made utterly miserable because my wife is a Christian," or, "because my
   husband is a Christian." Try to make your husband twice as happy as he
   would be with an unconverted partner and then, after a while, he will
   be obliged to say, "My wife is a strange

   woman to be so fond of going to listen to preaching, but, bless her,
   she does make our home a happy one! Nobody else would ever look after
   the children as she does." If you are a Christian husband, you may win
   your wife. If you are a Christian father, you may win your child. Or if
   you are a Christian child, you may win your father by that quietness
   and consistency of behavior which shall tell in the long run. "In
   quietness and in confidence"--not by bitterness of speech, not by
   "nagging" and wrangling--but "in quietness and in confidence shall be
   your strength."

   Lastly, in all Christian labor, and in all Christian conflict,
   quietness and confidence will be our strength. When we go forth seeking
   to win souls for the Lord Jesus Christ, let us not go as if we were
   poachers creeping on the sly on somebody else's ground to steal his
   game. No, my Friends, "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness
   thereof," and when God calls us to go anywhere for Him, let us not go
   as if we were trespassers, for every part of the earth belongs to
   Christ! When you go to that lodging house to preach or speak to the
   residents, do not go as if you had to ask leave to live, but deliver
   your message courageously, as becomes a man who is sent to be an
   ambassador for Christ! As for that ungodly man whom you heard swear the
   other day, speak to him when a notable opportunity presents itself--not
   intrusively, but modestly, yet not slavishly as though you begged his
   pardon for talking to him in God's name. We must take high ground
   here--we who love the Lord and whom He sends forth on His missions of
   mercy--as He does send forth everyone of us who has heard the Gospel
   call, for He has said, "Let Him that hears say, Come." Go then, and say
   to the people, "Come to Jesus" and, being sent to them by Christ, who
   is Lord of All, do not approach them on bended knee!

   Many years ago, the Emperor of China insisted that all ambassadors who
   approached his majesty should crouch on the ground before him. One of
   our admirers happened to have a little business with him which would
   require a few gunboats in order to settle it. And when he had an
   interview with the Emperor, he told him that an Englishman would not
   crouch down before him. So, when you go into the world--you young men,
   especially--do not go sneaking into the shop as though you were ashamed
   of your religion. If anybody has cause to be ashamed, it is the man who
   has not any religion! Make him feel that it is so, or, at any rate, do
   not let him make you feel that you have any reason to be ashamed that
   you are a Christian! If you were the son of a lord, I do not suppose
   that you would be anxious to conceal your pedigree and afraid to have
   it known. So, if you are a child of God, do not wish to conceal that
   blessed fact. You need not be ostentatious in displaying your religion,
   but, at the same time, do not be slavishly afraid to confess that
   Christ is your Lord and Savior! Speak out for God with a holy boldness,
   yet with due humility of spirit giving to Him all the glory for the
   Grace which He has bestowed upon you!

   Life's labor will soon be over and life's warfare, too. In due season
   we shall die unless our Lord shall first return. The appointed hour for
   each of us is drawing near--what shall we do then? Why, then, Beloved,
   trusting in Jesus, quietness and confidence will still be our strength!
   We shall not send our friends running to fetch a "priest" to perform
   some mysterious ceremony over us. Christ is all we need and as we have
   Him, we can die any day with perfect serenity! I love to see a
   Christian die a calm serene death. The idea of Bengel, the expositor,
   the author of "The Gnomon," concerning death, always strikes me as
   being very beautiful. He said, "I do not think there ought to be any
   scare-making about death. We ought to so live and to so die daily, that
   when death comes, it will be only a part of life--not a flourish of
   trumpets at the finish, but just a natural closing of the whole scene."
   He also said, "I should like to die just as I might retire from this
   room when, being engaged with company, a message is brought to me
   saying that I am needed and I go out quietly and say nothing about
   it--and my friends presently discover that I have gone." That was
   precisely how he died. Finishing the proof sheets of the last page that
   he wrote of his exposition, he was suddenly gone from earth and present
   with the Lord whom he loved. Oh, blessed way of dying!

   I have often told you what my dear old grandfather said, not long
   before he died. My uncle James began quoting to him that hymn by Dr.
   Watts--

   "Firm as the earth Your Gospel stands, My Lord, my hope, my trust"

   "Ah, James!" he said, "that verse won't do for me now, for the earth is
   not firm at all! I find it slipping away from beneath my feet. And now
   that I am about to depart and to meet my God, I need something firmer
   than the earth to rest upon. Yes, James," he added, "I like the good
   old doctor better when he says--

   "Firm as His Throne His promise stands,

   And He can well secure

   What I've committed to His hands, Till the decisive hour."

   "That is it, James," he said, "there you have Divine Sovereignty and
   Sovereign Grace! That kind of doctrine will do to rest your soul upon,
   my son, both in life and in death." Calmly uttering such words as
   those, full of restful confidence in the faithful, Immutable God he had
   so long served, he closed his eyes and went Home, like a laboring man
   does when his day's work is done--just as you and I, Beloved, will soon
   go home. I do not know how long we may remain here--some of you may go
   very soon, and so may I--it does not much matter when we do go so long
   as we are ready. When I said, the other day, "So-and-So has gone Home,"
   a dear old friend said to me, "Where could he go better?" Ah, just so!
   Where could he go better than go Home to his father and his God? Well,
   I trust that in those last days we shall neither fret, nor worry, nor
   trouble, nor question, nor doubt, nor fear--but in quietness and
   confidence shall be our strength! The Lord grant that it may be so, for
   Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

One Aspect of Christ's Death

   (No. 2986)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER
   14, 1875.

   "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
   his friends." John 15:13.

   I FELT, today, after a very weary and, in some respects, a very
   sorrowful week, as if I could not preach tonight--or that if I did
   stand up to speak, it must be upon some very easy and simple theme and,
   at the same time, it must be some great subject which would give me
   plenty of sea-room. I think the text I have read to you fulfills both
   these conditions. And, although I shall not attempt to sail across it,
   or to fathom it, for that would be impossible, yet, at any rate, there
   will be no fear that I shall run aground, or need to exercise great
   skill in threading my way through a tortuous channel, where, perhaps,
   one might be on the rock or the sandbank before he was aware of his
   danger. If there is anything about which Christians are sure--and
   concerning which they can speak with confidence, surely it is the love
   of Christ! And though that is one of the simplest things in the world,
   yet it is also the very sweetest. Whenever you spread the table for any
   meal, you are pretty sure to put bread and salt upon it. And whenever
   we preach, if we preach as we should, we are sure to have something of
   the savor of the love of Christ in our preaching. I have heard that in
   a certain country, the way in which a stranger is welcomed is by giving
   him just bread and salt--nothing more. That is what I am about to do.
   We will have bread and salt on the table--the essential things, the
   common things--but, blessed be God, with a fullness of nourishment and
   a savor of tastefulness in them which those who are taught of God will
   be able to relish!

   The death of Jesus Christ may be viewed in many aspects, but we,
   Brothers and Sisters, have learned to see very clearly the
   substitutionary character of it. It is our delight to believe that
   Christ laid down His life for the sake of His friends, thereby
   rendering complete satisfaction to offended Justice, presenting Himself
   as a vicarious Sacrifice in their place, that they might be reconciled
   to God and might be "accepted in the Beloved." We are quite sure about
   this Truth of God. We do not gather it from this particular verse which
   I have selected for my text, but from the whole run and tenor of
   Scripture, but especially from such a passage as this, "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."

   This Doctrine of Redemption tallies with the types of the old Jewish
   dispensation and corresponds with the prophetic descriptions of the
   promised Messiah, especially those wonderful chapters in Isaiah and
   Ezekiel in which His Character is so accurately foretold. This view of
   Christ dying as the great substitutionary Sacrifice for sinners cannot
   be dispensed with for a single moment--it seems to us to be the very
   essence of the Gospel. Cloudiness with regard to this great central
   Truth of God involves mistiness concerning everything else. And the
   poet was quite right when he wrote--

   "You cannot be right in the rest Unless you think rightly of Him." If
   you have any question about that great Truth, you will have your brain
   more or less muddled concerning every other Doctrine in the Word of
   God. And I would take this Doctrine just as I would the Doctrine of
   Justification by Faith, as being the test of a standing or falling
   church, and of a God-sent ministry!

   Yet, Brothers and Sisters, there are other aspects of the death of
   Christ beside the one I have mentioned and a Christian's eyes should
   see both the greater objects and also the smaller ones. I am always
   glad that a painter does not merely give us the foreground of his
   picture, but gives us the background, too--and even when his painting
   is a portrait and he desires to have all our attention fixed upon the
   portrait--yet he does not neglect the little accessories of the

   picture. They may be unimportant, but if they are properly painted,
   they will not distract attention from the main subject of the picture,
   but will rather help to point to it. Now, the death of Christ was the
   greatest possible display of the love of God to men. Never forget that
   it was not merely Infinite Justice that blazed forth from the Cross,
   but also Infinite Affection! Indeed, the Cross displayed all the
   attributes of God and they can still be plainly perceived by those
   whose eyes have been Divinely opened. God revealed Himself there,
   through the dying Savior, in a very wonderful way. If I may use such an
   image--and I think I may--through the smoked glass of the humanity of
   Christ, the Deity of God in all its fullness can be better seen by us
   than if we could, with our naked eyes, gaze upon the excessive
   brightness of that Glory. Indeed, blindness would follow upon a vision
   of absolute Deity--if such a vision were even possible. To dwell long
   upon the Doctrine of the Trinity, and to vex your mind with the various
   theories of that mysterious subject which men have imagined, is the
   sure road to Socinianism or some other heresy! But, to see God veiled
   in human flesh and especially to see Him revealed in the Person of the
   dying Mediator, is to see God in the only way in which He canto seen by
   mortal men! We do, not, therefore, for a moment forget that Christ's
   death was the greatest possible display of God's love to men.

   It was, doubtless, also necessary to complete the perfect example of
   our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He would have set before us a grand
   example of self-denial and disinterested love, even if He had not died
   for us, for it was no little thing that He should make Himself of no
   reputation and take upon Himself the form of a Servant and be made in
   the likeness of men and humble Himself as He did. Still, becoming
   "obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross," was the crown of
   His life. It was because He endured the Cross, despising the shame,
   that Paul wrote to the Hebrews, "Consider Him that endured such
   contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint
   in your minds." We also may remember that we "have not yet resisted
   unto blood, striving against sin," but Christ has done this and more
   than this! He knows what it is to be made perfect through sufferings. I
   have no doubt that they speak the truth who say that the death of
   Christ was the climax of His example, but I am going to call your
   attention to another aspect of His death, namely, as a display of His
   own love to His own people--"Greater love has no man than this, that a
   man lay down his life for his friends." This is, I believe, what Christ
   meant--that His love to His friends was to be most clearly made
   manifest by His dying for them!

   There is no need, with such a subject as this, for the use of grand
   periods and eloquent language, even if I ever indulged in that kind of
   thing. But I shall just give utterance to a few simple Truths of God
   which you already know, trying to stir up your pure minds by way of
   remembrance. And, first, let us contemplate the love of Christ
   resplendent in the act of death, l aying down His life for His friends.
   Secondly, let us see that love enhanced by a consideration of the
   friends for whom He laid down His life. And then, thirdly, let us see
   the love of Christ reflected and reproduced by His friends. This,
   however, will have to be done outside this place--I can only make the
   rough outline of the picture which is to be drawn by all of you who are
   the friends of Christ. My text reminds us of one of the strongest
   reasons why we should love one another even as Christ has loved
   us--"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life
   for his friends."

   I. Let us, then, first SEE CHRIST'S LOVE RESPLENDENT IN THE LAYING DOWN
   OF HIS LIFE FOR HIS

   PEOPLE.

   When He says, "Greater love has no man than this," He seems to me to
   imply that there are manifestations of His love which are not as great
   as this. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ to His people is always
   great. I may truly say that it is always greater than any other love. I
   might even say that it is always in the superlative degree--the
   greatest love there ever was, or is, or can be! Yet there are displays
   of that love which can be rightly described as great, greater,
   greatest. Our Lord had already displayed His love to His people in the
   great and the greater forms of it--now He was about to display it in
   the highest and greatest of all ways.

   It was great love that made Him come to this earth and be Incarnate
   here. Have you ever thought of the greatness of the love of Christ in
   being a Child, a Youth, a Man and of His love in being willing to live
   in obscurity and retirement as the Son of Mary for 30 years? Wondrous
   love was there in that arrangement by which He was able, from His own
   experience, to sympathize with retiring Christians and with young
   Believers whose duties do not cause them to be conspicuous in the
   world. The thought of God in the carpenter's shop at Nazareth is to me
   very wonderful. As Moses took off his shoes at the sight of God in the
   burning bush, we may well manifest our awe and reverence as we see the
   Son

   of God, the express image of His Father's Person, in the midst of the
   implements used by the village carpenter! That was truly great love.

   Then, when the time arrived for Him to come forth from His obscurity,
   He showed great love to His friends in calling them to Him one by one.
   His mind was altogether unique. He had the tenderness of a woman, yet
   He was to the highest degree, manly. Indeed, all the attributes of a
   perfect man and a perfect woman appear to have been blessedly blessed
   in His perfect Humanity. We might have supposed that He would have
   looked for companions somewhat like Himself, though I know not where He
   could have found them, but He seems to me to have looked for those
   whom, in a wondrous way, He could make to be like Himself rather than
   for those who were already like Himself! So He finds some
   fishermen--very rough fellows to be associated with the gentle Jesus!
   He finds a tax-gatherer--commercial, grasping-- a strange companion for
   Him who cared not one farthing for gold or silver! The Apostles, as a
   whole, were a motley crew. Speaking after the manner of men, one could
   almost account for Jesus choosing John and there are some points in
   Peter that are very lovable, yet, as a band of men called to such
   exceptional service, they were rough and coarse! We might have thought
   that Christ would have looked for more refinement in those who were to
   be His daily companions for three years--and had He been thinking only
   of Himself, He might have sought others than He did seek. Certainly,
   Brothers and Sisters, in my own case, I have often felt that I could
   adopt the language of Faber, which we sang just now--

   "Howmany hearts You might have had More innocent than mine! How many
   souls more worthy far Of that pure touch of Thine! Ah, Grace! Into
   unlikeliest heart It is your boast to come-- The glory of your light to
   find In darkest spots a home."

   So Jesus Christ showed His love to His friends in the very act of
   calling them to be His friends. And He also showed His love in fitting
   them for the position to which He had called them. He laid Himself out
   to teach them, to train them, to build up their characters upon a firm
   foundation and to infuse into their minds right principles and noble
   sentiments so that they could be fully qualified to be the servants of
   the churches and the glory of Christ--vessels to be used no longer for
   merely worldly purposes, but to be meet for the Master's use! With what
   singular wisdom He trained them! With what patience He bore with them!
   Had they had any other master, they would, many a time, have been
   liable to be discharged for their stupidity, but He simply said, "Have
   I been so long a time with you, and yet have you not known Me, Philip?"

   This was a proof of great love on His part, yet He seems to me to have
   shown even greater love when, towards the end of His life, He bade
   these friends of His sit and eat and drink with Him at His Table and
   expressed His desire that His friends should continue, in all later
   ages, thus to remember Him. Then, after the Supper, He rose from the
   table, laid aside His outer garment, took a towel and girded
   Himself--poured water into a basin and washed His disciples' feet! Oh,
   this was great love indeed!

   Still, our text talks about a greater display of Christ's love than
   this, so we conclude that while to choose and call, to instruct and
   edify, to entertain and refresh was proof of very great love on
   Christ's part--to die for His friends was evidence of still greater
   love. There are, in this world, many persons who will lay themselves
   out to help their fellow creatures to resist temptation and to struggle
   out of the ways of vice into the path of virtue and who would, with
   heroic self-denial, bring themselves well-near to the grave's mouth to
   accomplish these ends--but they will not lay down their lives for their
   fellows. If they did, it would be the greatest thing they could
   possibly do for them, for the text is true, "Greater love has no man
   than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

   But our Lord was willing to die for His friends. Some people might lay
   down their lives for their friends, but it would be quite unwillingly
   that they would do so. They might make the supreme sacrifice under the
   force of some strong compelling passion, yet they would escape if they
   could. But look at our blessed Lord and Master! When the time came for
   Him to go out of this world unto His Father, He did not make the
   slightest effort to escape from death. Judas knew

   the place where He was in the habit of going for private meditation and
   prayer--and to that very place our Master went, as He had often gone
   before, although He knew that He would meet the traitor there. When the
   officers and men from the chief priests and Pharisees came there with
   lanterns and torches and weapons, a word from Him made them fall to the
   ground! He could, therefore, in an instant, have driven them all out of
   the garden and have escaped from them. But He did not do so. He could
   never have been delivered up to be put to death, either by Jews or by
   Romans, if He had not been perfectly willing to die! From the time when
   they took Him to Annas to the moment when they nailed Him to the Cross,
   one solitary wish on His part would have scattered all His foes and He
   could have gone wherever He pleased--but He would not express such a
   wish, or even cherish it. Admire the wonderful reticence of Christ!
   That He did not speak in His own defense, was marvelous, but, that He
   did not even wish to escape, or think of escaping, is still more
   amazing, for a thought would have been sufficient to have procured His
   release! How wonderfully Omnipotence held in check Omnipotence! How
   majestic does that almighty attribute appear when it proved its power
   over itself by not using the power which it manifestly possesses!

   More than that, remember that our Lord Jesus Christ was under no sort
   of necessity to die. When a man lays down his life for his friend--and
   how seldom has that been done--he only anticipates the debt of Nature
   which, in any case, he has to pay before long. If you were to die for
   me, or I were to die for you, tomorrow, we would, both of us, only do a
   little earlier what we must both ultimately do! Death will, before
   long, claim everyone of us, and to the sepulcher we must all descend
   unless our Lord should speedily come. But He possessed inherent
   immortality! No sentence of death was written across His brow--He could
   live on forever even when He was in the grave--corruption could have no
   dominion over Him. He could say, with an emphasis that the Psalmist
   could not use, "You will not leave My soul in Hell; neither will You
   suffer your Holy One to see corruption." So Jesus Christ's laying down
   of His life for His friends was beyond anything that could ever happen
   in any other man's life, a voluntary act and, consequently, a more
   wonderful display of love than could ever be given in any other case.
   "Greater love has no man than this."

   We must also remember that our Lord Jesus Christ had been accustomed,
   for many years, to contemplate the laying low of His life before He
   actually did so. No, I must not speak of years--doubtless from
   eternityHe had foreseen that terrible time when He would have to do
   battle on His people's behalf, with all the powers of Darkness. He had
   looked forward to that hour with the strong glance of the eyes that
   could weep for sorrow, but could not grow dim with fear. And, often,
   when He was here below, He seemed to long for the time when He could
   make the master-sacrifice of His life. He said, "I have a baptism to be
   baptized with and how am I straitened till it is accomplished!" His
   face was set, not merely once, but in very deed always, steadfastly to
   go unto Jerusalem, knowing well all that would befall Him there. Now,
   what man is there who could look death in the face, for the sake of his
   friend, year after year, and even contemplate it with ardent desire? We
   might, in an outburst of strong affection, in a moment of unusual
   excitement, be willing to leap into the gulf of death in order to
   rescue a sinking friend, but as for the quiet resolution that could
   calmly think it all over and weigh every circumstance--and ponder over
   every detail and then deliberately give oneself up to death--where
   could you find such a spirit as that? It is only to be seen in Him who
   has given the grandest display of love that was ever manifested on
   earth or even in Heaven--and whose death was the grandest manifestation
   of that love!

   Let me also further remind you that our Lord Jesus Christ did actually
   die for His friends. He was not merely willing to do so and long
   contemplated dying, but He didreally die and He died under
   circumstances that rendered the laying down of His life for His friends
   the more remarkable! He died for them, yet they had all forsaken Him in
   the hour of His greatest need, after having fallen asleep and left Him
   to endure in utter loneliness the agony of bloody sweat. When He was
   arraigned before His enemies, Peter, the boldest man in His little band
   of disciples, was so cowed with fear that he denied, with oaths and
   curses, that he even knewHim! These "friends" of His were quite
   unworthy of His love, yet He died for them. Do men generally die for
   such "friends" as they proved themselves to be? No, but they have often
   cried with Job, "Miserable comforters are you all." Yet Christ died for
   His friends though they forsook Him when He most needed their sympathy
   and support.

   And He had to die for them under a criminal charge. I believe that
   there are many of us who would not be nearly as much startled by death
   as by a criminal accusation. When I have seen some good man whom I have
   highly esteemed, charged falsely, as I think, with high misdemeanors, I
   have felt that I would sooner die than be guilty of the crime of which
   he has been accused. But here is our gracious Lord and Master willingly
   giving Himself up to death although He is

   innocent of the crime's laid to His charge--sedition against the State
   and blasphemy against God. It is a felon's death that He must die--not
   merely a death like that of a felon, but the death of a felon, for the
   verdict of one tribunal after another is that He is worthy of
   death--and the popular voice applauds the verdict, and cries, "Let Him
   be crucified!" O You blessed Son of God, were You thus numbered with
   the transgressors? Yes, He was. And this was the greatest manifestation
   of His love.

   Let us not forget, too, that Christ's death was attended by cruelties
   of the grossest sort. I will not harrow up your feelings with any
   description of that terrible flagellation which He received at the
   hands of the Roman lictors. Yes, Christ did suffer intensely in many
   ways, as the Prophet Isaiah had foretold that He would--"He was wounded
   for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the
   chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are
   healed." All the sufferings of Christ's--physical, mental, and
   spiritual--which were attendant upon His death, are to be regarded by
   us with awestruck and grateful emotions, for they help to make up the
   perfection of His wondrous work of laying down His life for His
   friends!

   Remember, too, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, as I have already
   reminded you, that Christ, although He was absolutely innocent, did die
   as the Substitute for sinners. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "For He
   (that is, God) has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we
   might be made the righteousness of God in Him." And to the Galatians He
   wrote, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a
   curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a
   tree." To a pure mind, contact with sin in any form is truly horrible.
   I can imagine the Savior being willing to suffer and even being willing
   to die--but His holy Nature must have revolted at the thought that He
   must stand in the sinner's place, that He must be reckoned as the
   sinner, that against Him the sword of Divine Justice must be drawn and
   that in His heart it must find a sheath! The great terror of Christ's
   death upon the Cross must have been that it was the penalty for
   sin--the execution of the righteous judgment of God against
   unrighteousness and iniquity! None of us can even guess--perhaps the
   lost souls in Hell cannot tell--what it must have been for Christ to
   have come thus under the wrath of God because of the sins of His
   people. When we have been deeply convinced of sin, we may have had some
   slight conception of what it was, but our most vivid imagination must
   have been dim and feeble compared with the terrible reality!

   Above all else, let us remember that our Savior died forsaken of His
   God. Even the martyrs were not obliged to do that. They stood at the
   stake and clapped their hands--they even sang songs of triumph amidst
   the fury of the flames! But Jesus had to cry, "My God, My God, why have
   You forsaken Me?" That is the pitiful wail of a broken heart and a
   sinking spirit. It does not surprise us that "the earth did quake and
   the rocks split"--it would have been a greater wonder if they had not
   been stirred at the sound of such grief as His! O Beloved, greater love
   has no man than this, that he will even dare to die forsaken of his
   God! I thank God that we are not asked to do this! But Jesus did it for
   us, His friends. Oh, what amazing love is His! There is much more that
   might be said upon this stupendous theme, but I must ask the Holy
   Spirit to lead you into the mystery of those unknown deeps of suffering
   by which Christ manifested His love to His friends.

   II. Now, secondly, I want to show you that THE LOVE OF CHRIST, IN
   LAYING DOWN HIS LIFE, WAS GREATLY ENHANCED BY THE CHARACTER OF THOSE
   FOR WHOM HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE, namely,

   "His friends."

   Let it never be forgotten by us that this sacred title is one which our
   Lord Himself gave to His disciples--"I have called you friends." If we
   are His disciples, we are also His friends. Our original title would
   have been enemies, for that is what we were--but He has transformed us
   into His friends, for, "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God
   by the death of His Son." The text would not be true if you were to put
   the emphasis in the wrong place. "Greater love has no man than this,
   that a man lay down his life for his friends," for Christ manifested
   greater love than that in laying down His life for His enemies. It is
   indeed surprising that He should have laid down His life for those who
   were His enemies and who are only His friends because He has made them
   so. You scorned Him, you despised Him, you crucified Him, your sins
   were the nails and the spear that pierced His hands, feet and side--yet
   He died for you! He was the sandalwood tree, and yours was the hand
   that held the axe that wounded Him, yet He perfumed the axe, and also
   the hand that wielded it--and healed that hand of all its
   leprosies--yes, healed your whole being of whatever disease it had.
   Thank God for love like that!

   Then, putting aside the fact that we were once His enemies, think of
   the greatness of His love is laying down His life for such
   insignificant people as we are. I have heard the argument used by
   unbelievers that it is not feasible--considering the immense size of
   the universe and the inconceivable number of starry worlds in it, that
   this little inconsiderable speck of a globe, which, in proportion to
   the rest of the universe, is as a single atom of dust to the entire
   chain of the Alps--to think that Christ should come to redeem the
   inhabitants of such a poor little world as this is and that if He came
   to the earth at all, many of the poorest and meanest of the people
   would be the peculiar objects of His choice! Well, it is marvelous! It
   is a marvelous instance of the condescension of Christ--and while it
   may stagger the faith of some, it certainly inflames the love of
   others! We feel that if He condescends to choose us, our love shall
   rise to the utmost heights that it can reach--and we will bless and
   magnify the name of the Lord in that, while He took not up angels, He
   took up the seed of Abraham! While He left the fallen angels to perish
   without hope, He has come to save us, the fallen sons of Adam, and has
   laid down His life for us!

   There is, however, a Truth of God that is even more significant and
   instructive than that. It is not merely true that we were once Christ's
   enemies and that we were also utterly insignificant and unworthy of His
   notice, but it is amazing that He should lay down His life for such
   unworthy friends, even as friends, as we are. There are some professing
   Christians who can speak of themselves in terms of admiration, but,
   from my inmost heart I loathe such speeches more and more every day
   that I live. Those who talk in such boastful fashion must be
   constituted very differently from me. While they are congratulating
   themselves upon all the good things that they find within themselves, I
   have to lie humbly at the foot of Christ's Cross and marvel that I am
   saved at all, for I know that I am saved. I have to wonder that I do
   not believe Christ more and equally wonder that I am privileged to
   believe in Him at all--to wonder that I do not love Him more, and
   equally to wonder that I love Him at all--to wonder that I am not
   holier and equally to wonder that I have any desire to be holy at all
   considering what a polluted, debased, depraved nature I find still
   within my soul notwithstanding all that Divine Grace has done in me! If
   God were ever to allow the fountains of the great deeps of depravity to
   break up in the best man that lives, he would make as bad a devil as
   Satan, himself, is. I care nothing for what these boasters say
   concerning their own perfections--I feel sure that they do not know
   themselves, or they could not talk as they often do! There is tinder
   enough in the saint who is nearest to Heaven to kindle another Hell if
   God should but permit a spark to fall upon it. In the very best of men,
   there is an infernal and well-near infinite depth of depravity! Some
   Christians never seem to find this out. I almost wish that they might
   not do so, for it is a painful discovery for anyone to make--but it has
   the beneficial effect of making us cease from trusting in ourselves and
   causing us to glory only in the Lord.

   Why should Christ ever have loved us? Why should He ever have loved us?
   When at His Table, we often have wandering thoughts. Even in our faith
   we often find a mixture of unbelief. Even when we love Him, we grieve
   that we do not love Him more. Even when we are closest to Him in
   communion, we have to smite our breast and mourn that we do not enjoy
   the nearness we might have, and ought to have, for, after being so
   greatly loved by Christ, we ought to be sinless! Under such obligations
   to Christ as we have, we ought to be wholly sanctified--spirit, soul,
   and body--and never have a wandering thought or an unholy desire. But
   that we are not what we ought to be is very clear. And the wonder is
   that Jesus Christ should ever have laid down His life for such
   miserable "friends" as we have proven ourselves to be! Beauty, you
   know, will often win affection against a man's better judgment, for
   there is something about it which is so attractive that it overcomes
   him. But Christ's love to us was not won by any beauty that He saw in
   us. When He says to us as the Bridegroom in the Song of Solomon says to
   His bride, "Turn away your eyes from Me, for they have overcome Me."
   And when He says, "You are all fair, My love; there is no spot in you,"
   I think He must see Himself mirrored in us and that this is why He
   loves us, for certainly there is nothing lovable in us but what He has
   bestowed upon us by His Grace! I do not know what you, Beloved, say
   concerning this theme upon which I have been speaking, but I think you
   will agree with me when I say that, to me, the superlative point of the
   love of Christ is that He laid down His life for me, unworthy as I have
   been even since I have been His friend!

   III. I must speak very briefly upon the last point which is that THIS
   GREAT LOVE OF CHRIST IS TO BE

   REFLECTED AND REPRODUCED BY HIS FRIENDS.

   Christ is the sun in our heavens and His Church is the moon. Why does
   the sun shine upon the moon? For the moon's sake? Yes, in part, but
   also for the sake of the earth, which would be dark at night if the
   moon did not reflect the light it

   receives from the sun. Brother, Sister, the light of Christ's love has
   fallen upon you, not only that it may benefit you, but also that you
   may reflect it.

   First, reflect it upon Christ. He has loved you, so love Him in return!
   It is a blessed thing, sometimes, to do nothing but love Christ for a
   while. It is well, at least now and then, for us not to think so much
   of what we are going to do for Christ as of what He did for us and what
   He is to us. If I ever try to secure a quiet half-hour's meditation
   upon His love to me, somebody is pretty sure to come and knock at the
   door. But if I can keep the door-knocker still, and get alone with my
   Lord and only think about His love to me--not trying to elaborate any
   theories, or to understand any doctrines, but just sitting down with
   the view of loving Him who gave Himself for me--I tell you, Sirs, that
   this thought is positively inebriating to the soul! It not merely
   refreshes, quickens, consoles, but it absolutely overcomes us with
   intense delight till we feel as though we could only fall upon our face
   and worship the Lamb who was slain for us! At such times we have to
   make our expressive silence mean His praise, for our soul is so full of
   His love that we cannot possibly express it. That is the first thing
   for Christians to do--as Christ is shining upon you with His
   love--shine back upon Him with your love!

   Then, next, He said to His disciples, "This is My commandment, That you
   love one another, as I loved you." As you have received the light of
   Christ's love, pass it on to your fellow Christians. Do you want to
   know where to find Christ? He is dwelling in His people and especially
   in His poor people, in His suffering people, in His tried people! So,
   when your heart is full of love to your Lord, let some of the light of
   it shine upon them. Perhaps this is a dark time with them and a kind
   word from you, or a kind action, will be like the light of the moon to
   them in the middle of the night, and will cause them great gladness.
   The moon cannot shine as brightly as the sun does, and you cannot love
   as much as Christ does-- but you can be like the moon and shine with
   borrowed light--you can reflect upon others the light of the love which
   Christ has shed upon your own soul.

   And when you have done that, remember that your light will be even more
   needed in the dark world of the ungodly. "Christ died for the ungodly,"
   and that is what you were once! O Beloved, I pray you, love the sons of
   men! Somebody has asked, "How are we to convert sinners?" That is not
   our work. It is only the Spirit of God who can do that. But what we can
   do is this, we can love sinners to Christ. That is the way in which God
   says that He worked--"I drew them with words of a man, with bands of
   love." I will give you this message as a text for you to preach upon
   practically all your life--Love sinners to Christ! Love the enmity out
   of them if they hate the Gospel. Love the prejudice out of them if they
   cannot bear to hear it preached. Love them out of their vices! Love
   them up from their degradation, for love is of God, and God is Love and
   God dwells in love. That which is in Him and comes from Him, is the
   best thing in the world to draw people to Him! So use no other cords
   but the cords of a man, and no bands but the bands of love. When you
   really love souls, it is amazing how wise you will be in dealing with
   them.

   I have never heard that anybody has opened a school for teaching young
   mothers how to manage their first babies, but, somehow or other, when
   love is in the mother's heart, she finds out the proper way to care for
   her baby. And better than any College training for the home or the
   foreign field of service for the Savior is it to get your heart full of
   love to your Lord. Then you will know how to do His work--it will come
   to you by a sort of sacred instinct. You will know when you are to tell
   them of the terrors of the Law, and when to speak of the loveliness of
   Christ, and just how to deal with them under all manner of
   circumstances. The love of Christ will teach you how to do this if it
   is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit which is given unto
   you.

   Oh, that all men knew, by happy personal experience, what the love of
   Jesus is! I have not said much to you unconverted people who are
   present, but I have often thought that when we are preaching about
   Christ, even if we do not say much directly to you, the subject itself
   speaks to you. It is like spreading a dinner where there are hungry
   people near. You have only to say to such persons, "You are welcome to
   all there is on the table," and there is no need of a sermon, or any
   eloquence. Their mouths begin to water while you are laying the cloth
   and the sight of the provisions makes them begin to eat as soon as you
   say, "Come along." What big slices they take! Well, poor starving
   souls, here is the great Gospel feast--may your mouths water for a
   taste of it! All I have to say is--

   "Come and welcome, sinner, come." Come and taste the great love of God
   which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. May His gracious Spirit bring you,
   for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

   8 One Aspect of Christ's Death Sermon #2986
     __________________________________________________________________

The "Beau Ideal" of Life

   (No. 2987)

   A SERMON ESPECIALLY TO YOUNG MIEN, PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 17, 1875.

   "O satisfy us earl/ with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad
   all our days." Psalm 90:14.

   MOSES saw, with deep regret, that the great host which came out of
   Egypt would have to die in the wilderness. Every day there were many
   funerals, for a vast multitude of men, women and children had to be
   buried in the wilderness. And tears of sorrow and sympathy must
   continually have stood in the eyes of the great leader of the children
   of Israel. After speaking about their days being passed away in God's
   wrath, Moses offered a prayer which, under the circumstances, was most
   natural and most wise. It was in substance this--"Lord, if we must die
   in this desert. If this whole generation (except Caleb and Joshua) must
   pass away in the wilderness, then, at any rate, give us the fullness of
   Your favor now, that we may spend all our remaining days--whether they
   are to be few or many--in gladness and rejoicing." Now, seeing that we,
   also, are all passing away and that whether young or old, we, too, must
   be carried to the grave unless the Lord should first return, this seems
   to me to be a very wise prayer for us to put up--"Lord, satisfy us with
   Your mercy now, that we may waste no more of our life in sinful
   dissatisfaction, but that from this hour to the last moment of our
   life, we may be filled with Your favor, and may rejoice and be glad all
   our days.

   I. Just for a minute or two, I want, in the first place, to show you
   that Moses has here set before us THE "BEAU IDEAL" OF LIFE.

   If one could have just such a life as he desired, could he desire
   anything better than to be satisfied early with God's favor? Would it
   not be a very delightful thing if the whole of his life could be spent
   exactly as it ought to be and could be spent in the enjoyment of the
   highest degree of happiness of which we are capable? "O satisfy us," is
   the prayer of the text--"O satisfy us early with Your mercy." If the
   young man--instead of seeking after something which he will still
   continue to seek after if he is spared to reach the prime of life--and
   will still seek after even when he grows gray, could get that which
   would content him at once. If he could get something which would
   immediately fill his soul and make it run over with thankfulness and
   joy--would it not be a great blessing to him, especially if he could
   get it, as Moses says, "early"--soon--in the very beginning of his
   life? Many men, even good men, have wasted the early morning of their
   days. And some have had the painful experience of looking back, in the
   afternoon of life, upon the best part of their day and even the
   noontide, all gone--and there has been for them only the evening and,
   sometimes, only a very short evening to spend in complete satisfaction
   and real joy. It is a pity that so many Christian's lives should, for
   all practical purposes, be influential at the end of their stay on
   earth--that as far as their influence upon others is concerned, they
   should be merely like the candle-ends that we put upon the
   save-alls--but the whole candle has never been consumed in giving light
   in the sanctuary of God. It is a thing to be desired beyond measure
   that from the first to the last of life, God's blessing should rest
   upon us and that we should enjoy peace and happiness without any
   intermingling of the distress which is caused by sin. This, as I have
   said, seems to me to be the beau ideal of life--and I think that all
   Christians, at least, will agree with me.

   It is a poor way of building a house to have a flaw in the foundation,
   for, however carefully we may build the superstructure, we can never
   make a satisfactory building because of the flaw down below. It is poor
   weaving on the part of the man at the loom, when he has a flaw at the
   beginning of his work--however carefully he may weave the latter
   portion of it, he will always know that he cannot get that old flaw
   out--that the piece of cloth will never be perfect. In

   contrast to this kind of building and weaving, it would be a blessed
   thing to have such Grace and such wisdom given that the very first
   course of the foundation of the house of life should be well and truly
   laid, and that the whole building should be to the praise and glory of
   God! And it would be equally blessed that the very first throws of the
   shuttle of the web of life should be in accordance with the right rules
   for weaving, so that the whole piece of cloth might be pronounced
   perfect after its kind. I think this is the meaning of the prayer of
   the text, "O satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and
   be glad all our days."

   II. Secondly, as we judge this satisfaction to be the beau ideal of
   life, let us consider HOW SOME PEOPLE HAVE SOUGHT TO ATTAIN IT.

   I do not hesitate to say that the first part of the text is the cry of
   all men--

   "O satisfy us, satisfy us, satisfy us!" But there is a kind of
   horse-leech in every man's soul that is not easily satisfied. It is
   like death, the grave and the sea. Whatever may be cast into the mouth
   of death, it is as hungry as it was before! And the sepulcher is never
   satisfied and, throw what you will into the sea, it is always ready to
   receive more. So is it with the hearts of men. "O satisfy us," is the
   world's cry as the heathens shout to their idol gods and as the priests
   of Baal cried to their lifeless image. "O satisfy us," is the world's
   cry today, for man's hunger is insatiable, though he disdains the only
   food which would satisfy his cravings. "O satisfy us," is the cry which
   is heard in every quarter of the globe--alas, not ascending to Heaven,
   as it should, but going out to the things of time and sense! Still do
   men seek satisfaction in that which Solomon calls "vanity of vanities."

   Wise young men pray, in the words of the text, "O satisfy us early.''"
   They want to get that which is to be the source of their joy, not when
   they can no longer enjoy it, but now, so they cry, "satisfy us early."
   They do not ask for God's mercy merely as a sort of pension for their
   old age, but they want to have it now. At any rate, I know that I did,
   for I wished to obtain whatever of gladness and joy could be had even
   in my youthful days. There is nothing wrong in desiring to be happy.
   There is nothing wrong in offering the prayer, "O satisfy us early," so
   long as that prayer is completed in the way in which my text completes
   it--"O satisfy us early with Your mercy."

   Many have tried to satisfy themselves by gaining money. This is a
   pursuit in which a man may lawfully engage if it is not the chief
   objective of his life, as so many make it. They believed that they
   would be satisfied when they had acquired a certain amount, but they
   were not. I might confidently ask every man of wealth, now in this
   world, whether he was satisfied when he reached the amount which he had
   himself fixed as the limit of his desire? Did he not then feel that he
   must have more than that amount? Of course he did! So he set before him
   another sum and he said that when he had accumulated thatamount, he
   would be content. But was he? Is not the desire for wealth a thing
   which grows with that it feeds upon, so that the more a man has, the
   more he wants? There never did live and there never could live, a man
   whose entire nature could be satisfied with his worldly possessions.
   You know that we call the man who delights in hoarding up riches--a
   miser. Why do we call him by that name unless it is because he is truly
   miserable? The very name for the man who is engrossed with avarice
   signifies unhappiness--and when you need to describe somebody who is
   both aged and wretched, you say, "He is like an old miser." Yes, so he
   is. Men may amass as much wealth as they will, but if, with the money,
   they have not acquired something better than the best metal that ever
   came from the mint or the mine, they will still go on crying, "O
   satisfy us! O satisfy us!" The Indians of South America believed that
   the Spaniards' god was made of gold and well they might when they saw
   the strangers' devotion to their idol! They once poured molten gold
   down a Spaniard's throat, saying, "You have thirsted for it, now you
   shall have enough of it." But if a man could eat gold, drink gold,
   sleep with gold, walk with gold and be robed in gold, yet, still, what
   is there in that metal which could satisfy the cravings of the highest
   part of man's nature--that mysterious spiritual thing which is called
   the soul? No, there is no solid satisfaction for the soul in all the
   wealth in the world!

   Others have despised this gross pursuit and they have said that
   satisfaction is to be found in fame. We, all of us, like respect,
   esteem, honor. It is false for any man to say that he does not like
   praise, for he does. And if anyone is pleased at being told that he
   does not like flattery, he is there being more highly flattered than at
   any other time of his life--and he is enjoying the sensation! Some men,
   to gain honors and distinction in various ways, have made complete
   slaves of themselves. They have supposed that if they could but get the
   honors--perhaps the honor of a degree at the university, or the honor
   of a certain rank in the profession of the law, or even in the church,
   they would be satisfied. But no man was

   ever yet satisfied with honors. They are but as a puff of wind which
   can never fill an immortal soul. If you read the histories of those
   statesman who have risen to the greatest heights of fame, you will, as
   a rule, find that the most famous man in the kingdom is generally the
   greatest slave. He has, from the very weight of his honors, the heavier
   burden of responsibility to bear. As "uneasy lies the head that wears a
   crown," so, in its degree, uneasy lies the head that wears the laurel
   or the crown. There is no contentment to be found in fame, as those
   have proved who have won the most of it. There was a time when the
   flattery of two or three poor people in a village would have satisfied
   them, but now the plaudits of a whole nation seem as nothing to
   them--and when the whole world is ringing with their renown, they sit
   down in despondency, wring their hands in misery, and cry, with
   Solomon, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity."

   Others have said, "But surely there is something solid and satisfying
   in learning." Well, there is more to be said for this than for either
   of the other two things that I have mentioned and, as far as I am
   concerned, I would sooner seek satisfaction in my library than in the
   marble halls of the wealthy or in the courts of kings! To study, to
   read, to make discoveries, to furnish the brain, to enrich the
   mind--there is something worth doing in all this, yet Solomon, who
   carried out this idea as far as it could be carried out in his day,
   recorded his very emphatic verdict concerning it, "Much study is a
   weariness of the flesh." "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity," is very
   apt to also be your utterance with regard to study, for you always have
   the dreary thought that even if you could know more than all other men
   in the world, when your turn came to sleep in the grave, there would be
   no difference between you and the peasant of whom Wordsworth wrote--

   "A primrose by a river's brim A yellow primrose was to him, And it was
   nothing more."

   If the peasant rises no higher than that, however learned any of us may
   be, we have only risen a little above him for a time--and in the common
   dust we, too, shall sleep with him! If there were no eternal futures,
   what would all the joys of earthly knowledge be worth to us?

   Others seek satisfaction in pleasure. I may be addressing some young
   man who says, "I do not care for wealth. I shall never trouble myself
   to hoard it. On the contrary, I love to spendit! I do not want to use a
   rake--give me a shovel and I will soon scatter all my father's
   substance!" There are some men who are very proficient in scattering
   what others have gathered with great diligence. These people say
   concerning study, "Let us get out of these crowded rooms into the pure,
   fresh air! We mean to go in for pleasure and to enjoy ourselves while
   we can." This looks, at first sight, as if it were a prudent thing to
   do and, certainly, there is a deal more sense in enjoying ourselves in
   a rational fashion than there can be in pinching and starving ourselves
   in order to hoard up money for heirs who will ridicule if they do not
   actually curse those who have provided so bountifully for them!
   Remember what Solomon says about others who seek what they call
   pleasure--"Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has
   babbling? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? They
   who tarry long at the wine; they who go to seek mixed wine." There is
   no satisfaction there! The merriest man who ever lived--the man who
   drained the wine-cup of mirth even to its dregs--has dashed it to the
   ground in his fierce indignation and cursed the day in which he tried
   to find satisfaction there! Look at those who have gone to the house of
   the strange woman and see what comes of their sinful sojourning
   there--even if it is only for a little while. Does not dissipation
   bring disease and decay upon nature sooner than necessary? There is no
   satisfaction there, young man! So, if you want to really enjoy
   yourself, there is a nobler and a surer way of doing so. The way of
   so-called "pleasure" is a delusion and a snare, and the end thereof is
   sorrow, suffering and woe! Alas, that so many should continue to walk
   in a way which has such a sad end!

   When a man plays the fool, let him do it for something that is worth
   having. Some time ago, when we were looking for a place for Messrs.
   Moody and Sankey to preach and sing, two of our Brothers went to see
   whether a certain building could be rented and, while they were waiting
   there, a man came up to them and presented his card--"Mr. So-and-So,
   clown." He thought our Brothers had gone to engage the place for some
   amusements! They told him that they had come to engage it for religious
   services and one of them said to him, "What a pity it is that you
   should play the fool for money!" I think the clown made a very sensible
   remark in reply, for he said, "You had better go and talk to those who
   play the fool and make nothing by it, for there issome sense in playing
   the fool for money." To play the fool and make nothing by it, is a very
   mild description of the folly of which I have been speaking! But how
   many play the fool and lose

   money by it?What is it that clothes so many people in rags? What is it
   that makes so many have red eyes, trembling limbs and even delirium
   tremens What is that but playing the fool and losing by it? And what
   will it be when such a man comes to die--a man who has lived without
   God, without Christ and who will be without hope in his death? That
   will be playing the fool with a vengeance! And the Truth of God will
   come home to him that the eternal ruin of his soul is the cost of his
   folly!

   If you were to realize what this kind of "pleasure" means, you would
   have nothing to do with it! When Mount Vesuvius suddenly began pouring
   forth its lava upon Pompeii, most of the inhabitants were assembled in
   the amphitheatre. I have seen the ruins of the place where they were
   gathered. I do not know what spectacle was on at the time, but however
   interesting it may have been, there was not a man, or woman, or child
   who did not run as fast as they could to wherever they hoped they might
   find a place of refuge! A few persons remained in their habitations, or
   were unable to escape--and there they are to this day. Some of their
   bodies have been lately discovered in the very positions in which they
   were overtaken by the eruption. If men were wise, the merriest play
   that ever was acted upon the face of the earth, the richest golden
   gains that ever lay before a merchant, the choicest pleasures that ever
   tempted the human heart would never induce them to tarry till they were
   forever lost--but they would be up and away and never rest till they
   had escaped from the wrath to come!

   Some seem to have no real objective in life. I think I hear someone
   say, "Well, I have cared for none of those things that you have
   mentioned." Where then, my Friend, have you tried to find satisfaction?
   "Oh, I have not troubled my head about that! I just plod along from day
   to day, working hard to earn my daily bread. I do not know that I have
   any ambition in this world except to pay my way, have enough to eat and
   to drink, and clothes to put on, and bring up my children as well as I
   can." Rest assured, my Friend, that I do not despise you for having
   such desires. At the same time, I do think that it is a pity for an
   immortal soul not to have some aim and objective higher and brighter
   than that, for it is pretty nearly the objective of a mill-horse that
   goes round and round in its daily course and never aims at anything
   higher. Your objective is very much like that of a swallow, or a
   sparrow which builds its nest, and lays its eggs and hatches them, and
   sees its young flying off on their own account. Your ambition might be
   suitable for a dog, or a horse, or a cat, but it is not worthy of
   you--a being of a higher order! When I look at you and remember that
   you were made in the image of God, I think that, surely, there must be
   something worth living for--something nobler than this poor ambition of
   yours! I ask you honestly to say whether you have found satisfaction
   there--and I am fully persuaded that you have not.

   There are some who argue that the Gospel cannot bless them. I
   frequently hear this kind of talk from poor working people. One says,
   "Well, Sir, if I were well-to-do, then I think I ought to be a
   Christian, but religion is not for the poor." That is in direct
   opposition to the declaration of Christ, Himself, that "the poor have
   the Gospel preached to them." And to the Inspired question, "Has not
   God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith?" Yet many people will
   have it that the Gospel is not for them because they are so poor!

   I have also heard some say that they are so ignorant that they cannot
   be saved. One says, "I cannot read," and another says, "I can read, but
   I cannot understand what I read in the Bible. And when I go to hear a
   sermon, I cannot make out what is meant by it." They make out that they
   are almost idiots with regard to spiritual matters, yet, on any other
   subject, they would stick up for themselves and try to prove that they
   are almost philosophers! Yet their plea that ignorance prevents them
   from being saved is directly contrary to Scripture, for the Apostle
   Paul, Inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote to the Corinthians, "For you
   see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
   not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God has chosen the
   foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen
   the foolish 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."

   Then, again, others say that they are too busy to be saved! At least
   that is the practical meaning of their excuse. One says, "Now, do not
   bother me about religion, for I really have not time to think about
   such things as that. See, I have to be up early in the morning and to
   work hard till late at night." Another says, "My business cares are so
   numerous that I cannot get away from the counting-house to go to a
   Prayer Meeting." Ah, dear Friends, but how many people who have not
   been able to find time to pray, have had to find time to die? And how
   very frequently do we see that the very people

   who say that they have not had time to think about the things of God,
   have found plenty of time for indulgence in vice and sinful pleasures!
   That excuse, like the others I have mentioned, will not avail any of
   those who make it. There is time enough for the most hard-worked man to
   lift his eyes to Heaven and to cry, "O Lord, for Jesus Christ's sake,
   accept me, for I come to You trusting in His atoning Sacrifice!" With
   many, the excuse is only an excuse, for they do not want Christ and
   they do not believe that there is anything for them in Christ and,
   therefore, they make these vain excuses.

   I have known some even to say that they are too sinful to come to
   Christ--other people may be saved, but they could never be--they have
   gone too far into sin and they are too much involved in sin. They are
   so old and they have so many friends and connections on the side of
   evil. Perhaps they are in a business that is not honest and they are so
   interlaced with bad men that they cannot get out of it. So they
   say--and they will say anything so as to hide that which is really at
   the bottom of their hearts--which is that they do not want Jesus Christ
   to save them. They would rather that He should leave them alone to go
   quietly on their own way, even though that way will inevitably lead
   them to everlasting destruction!

   III. Now, in closing my discourse, I want to tell you WHERE REAL
   SATISFACTION CAN BE FOUND. It came in answer to the prayer of the text.
   "O satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad
   all our days."

   Let me try and teach you, as plainly as I can, the way to find solid
   satisfaction. Friend, you are young and life is before you. You would
   gladly make it a whole life, altogether happy. Begin, then, by
   realizing that there is need for you to seek satisfaction from God. If
   you were an animal, you could be easily satisfied. Sheep and oxen are
   perfectly satisfied if you turn them into a field where there is plenty
   of grass. They never stand and cry, "O satisfy us," but they eat as
   much as they need and then they are perfectly content. But you, though
   placed in a world of wondrous beauty and though, as a man, you are made
   capable of great happiness, have not obtained it! So you may as well
   begin your search for it by the confession that you are a fallen
   creature. You have lost the peerless jewel of innocence. Your first
   father, Adam, lost it as your representative and you have also lost it
   on your own account. If you had not lost it, you would not need to pray
   to God, "O satisfy us early with Your mercy," for you would already be
   satisfied! Adam was satisfied as long as he kept from sinning against
   God--and you, also, would be satisfied if there were no sin in you. Let
   this confession be made by each one of you, "Lord, I am unsatisfied
   because I am unholy. I have not attained to satisfaction because I have
   not attained to perfection."

   Then, remember that if you are ever to get satisfaction, you will have
   to get it from God--and it must come from Him as the gift of His mercy.
   The text says, "O satisfy us early with Your mercy." God has so made us
   that we cannot get on without Him. It is both a blessing and a curse
   that it is so--it is a blessing that we cannot be satisfied without
   God, for that necessity helps to draw us to Him--but it is a curse if
   we continue to try to be satisfied without Him. As the planet needs the
   sun, so man needs his God. As the eye is nothing without light, so your
   spirit is nothing without God. You must have God! Yet, up till now,
   some of you have not even thought of Him. Getting what you needed here
   below has occupied all your attention! But as for God, perhaps you have
   not thought of Him, or if you have thought of Him, you have only done
   so to wish that there were no God. The thought of God has been a
   troublesome subject to you--you wish you could dismiss it altogether
   from your mind. But, my Friend, if you are ever to get satisfaction,
   this state of things must be altered! You must recognize that, as a
   creature, you must be at peace with your Creator. I do not ask you to
   take my word for this assertion, but I do urge you to search the
   Scriptures to see whether it is not so. There you will learn that until
   the quarrel between you and God is ended--until you submit to God and
   are at peace with Him--your soul cannot find rest any more than Noah's
   dove could find rest as she flew over the wild waste of waters and
   discovered no place for the sole of her feet to rest.

   Do not forget that you cannot come back to God unless God shall display
   His mercy to you! If you appeal to Divine Justice, you will find that
   it must punish you, for, young as you are, you have broken God's holy
   Law. You have committed sins which have provoked the Lord to anger and
   jealousy--and before you can be reconciled to Him and have His love
   shed abroad in your heart, these sins of yours must be forgiven. They
   can be forgiven, for God delights in mercy! They can be forgiven now,
   for He waits to be gracious. They can be forgiven without money and
   without price, for He freely pardons all those who put their trust in
   Jesus Christ, His Son!

   But suppose your past sins were all forgiven? You could not, even then,
   get satisfaction because there would still be in you a natural tendency
   to sin. You can, all of you, sin without being taught to do it. There
   is no need to found an institution for the purpose of teaching the
   practice of vice, or to employ agents to excite men to commit crime--he
   natural bias of the human heart is in that direction! Now, as long as
   you love sin and your heart has a bias towards evil, God and you cannot
   walk together. Thousands of years ago He asked the question, "Can two
   walk together except they are agreed?" It is necessary, therefore, that
   there should be a complete change in your nature, for it can never be
   content as it is. Whatever God might give it, even if He were to give
   it Heaven, itself--your nature would never be satisfied while it
   remained as it now is. Your nature is diseased and must be
   healed--otherwise it will be with you as it would be with a sick man if
   you piled up his room with gold, or heaped up learned volumes all
   around him and bade him study them! They would not take away his
   pains--it is the disease, itself, that needs to be cured.

   So is it with the malady of your spirit. You must be make right with
   God or, as Christ Himself put it, you must be born-again. Now, if you
   could be made a new creature with a will perfectly conformed to God's
   will, with a heart that loved what God loved and hated what God hated,
   with a spirit within you as pure as God, Himself, is, with a mind which
   sought only after purity and abhorred everything that was evil, and if,
   in addition to that, all your past sins could be forgiven, would not
   that be a grand and a blessed thing? There is many a man who has lived
   a life of crime and shame, who, when he sees a little curly-headed boy
   kneel down to say his prayers at his mother's knees, remembers when he
   did the same and wishes that he could be put into a mill and be ground
   young again. That is the kind of thing that would give you
   satisfaction--and that is just what Jesus Christ came to do for those
   who believe in Him, for He has come into the world to "save His people
   from their sins." That is, not merely to save them from being punished
   for sin, but to deliver them from the sin itself! He can give you, my
   Friends, a new heart and a right spirit. He says, "Behold, I make all
   things new," and those who believe in Him are made new creatures in
   Christ Jesus!

   "Oh," says one, "I wish I were a new creature in Christ." Why should
   you not be? He that believes in Jesus has the witness of the Spirit
   within his heart and this is a sure sign that he is a new creature in
   Christ Jesus, for the first result of regeneration is true saving
   faith! So, if you trust in Jesus, that is a positive proof that you are
   born-again. Then see what will come of this great change. You will
   begin your new life with a new nature, a nature that loves God and
   hates evil--a nature that longs for conformity with the will of God!
   You will begin your new career "accepted in the Beloved," with a life
   within you that can never die and with a pardon granted to you that can
   never be reversed! You shall be so completely saved that you shall
   never return to the old follies and sins in which you formerly lived
   because you will not be saved because somebody has persuaded you to
   live in a different fashion, but because you have been made altogether
   a new creature!

   "What?" asks someone, "Shall I be perfect when this change comes?" No,
   there is a nature in you which will still remain and with which you
   will have to fight and wrestle. But the new life, which Christ will
   give you, will enable you to overcome it. "Well," says one, "I do not
   see how that is to bring me satisfaction." But it will! This is a great
   mystery, but it is a great Truth of God. Possibly you are dissatisfied
   because you cannot bring the contents of your pocket up to the height
   of your wishes. But if you bring your wishes down to the level of the
   contents of your pocket, you will be satisfied with what you now have!
   You cannot get all that you want, but suppose that your wants are
   reduced to your actual needs? How will it be, then? You cannot, at
   present, expect to have all that your heart desires, but suppose your
   heart is renewed by Grace so that you do not desire what God does not
   see fit to give you--will not that be the way for you to obtain
   satisfaction? If the mountain cannot come to Mahomet, Mahomet had
   better go to the mountain! And if we cannot change our outward
   circumstances, we had better be content with such things as we have.

   We have been born into a world where there is much sin and much sorrow,
   where no man can have all that he wishes--and it is a grand thing when
   our wishes get changed, our desires get altered and we become
   altogether different from what we used to be! This is the path that
   leads to satisfaction! Some people seem to think that if they had what
   I have, they would be perfectly content. But I am quite certain that if
   they had it, they would be utterly dissatisfied with my portion! Yet I
   am perfectly satisfied with it--not perfectly satisfied with myself,
   for that I never shall be while I am down here--but I am perfectly
   satisfied with what God does for me and with me. That satisfaction is
   what every Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has a right to enjoy! And
   when he lives as a Believer should live, he doesenjoy it, and he can
   sing with good Mr. Watts--

   "I would not change my blest estate For all that earth calls good or
   great!

   And while my faith can keep her hold, I envy not the sinner's gold."

   The garden of such a man as I am just now describing is a very little
   one, but he walks in his rich neighbor's park and he thanks God that it
   does not belong to him, for he has not the trouble and expense of
   keeping it in order, yet he can probably enjoy it quite as much as its
   owner can! He goes to the top of a hill and he knows that all he can
   see is in a certain king's dominions, but he is glad that he is not the
   king, for he does not want the trouble of ruling a kingdom! He thanks
   God for the beauties of Nature which are all his--he knows that the
   mountains and the valleys, the sea and the sky are all his because they
   are his Father's, so he may enjoy them to the fullest. He thanks God
   that he does not need to put the sun into his pocket, nor to keep the
   moon in a cupboard all to himself--all things in the world are his as
   much as he needs them, but he rejoices to know that his fellow
   creatures may also enjoy them as much as he does.

   He is brought, by the Grace of God, into such a state of mind that the
   joy of others is his joy, and that the sorrow of others is his sorrow.
   And he would not wish to forego this enlargement and expansion of his
   mind. The Grace of God has put him into such a condition of heart and
   soul that, on the land or on the sea, on a bed of sickness or walking
   about with the elasticity of health, he says, "It is all right, for my
   Father has ordained it all. He gives or He takes away. He kills or He
   makes alive and as He does it, all is well and I am perfectly satisfied
   with it--and as long as I live, I will bless His holy name." Now, that
   is the truly happy man and this is the only way to be really happy!
   Trust in Jesus, rest wholly upon Him and He will renew your spirit and
   change your heart--and with that change of heart He will give you
   capacities for happiness which you never can have in any other way!

   My dear young Friends, I want to speak these last few words especially
   to you. If my older friends here are not yet converted, I pray that
   they may soon be saved and I thank God that we have seen many such
   saved. No old man or old woman has any need or reason to despair! I
   have seen people of 70 and 80 years of age--and more than
   that--converted to Christ. He does not limit His Grace to any age. If
   you were 5,000 years old, I would be bound to preach the same Gospel to
   you as if you were a little child--whatever your age, believe on the
   Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved! But, at the same time, we
   cannot make you old people begin life again. We cannot take you back to
   the years of youth. Possibly you wish that we could! But as for you
   young people, we long for you to be satisfied early with God's mercy,
   that you may rejoice and be glad all your days! Are you fifteen, or 16
   years of age? There was a time, I daresay, when you thought your
   brother was wonderfully old because he had got into his teens--but you
   do not feel very old, do you? But you think you will have reached a
   great age when you get to be forty! Perhaps, then, you will think that
   it is the people of sixty, or seventy, or eighty, or 90 years of age
   who are getting old, and not you! But let me assure you that now, now,
   NOW is your time!

   I would not, God knows, deceive you about this matter for all the
   wealth there is in the world. I have known the Lord, blessed be His
   name, since I was 15 years of age, and there has never been a moment
   since then, in which I have regretted putting my trust in Him. A great
   many times I have mourned that I did not trust Him sooner and that I
   have not trusted Him better--but never once have I wished to go back to
   my former condition and leave my dear Lord and Master! You know that we
   sometimes hear servants speak well of their master before other
   people's faces--when they think their master will hear of it. But when
   they get together, a lot of them around the fire, no telling what they
   say about their master, then! But when you gather around the fire, or
   when you meet with any of my particular friends, ask them whether they
   ever heard me say a word, in public or in private, against my Master!
   On the contrary, I love to tell everybody how kind and good He has been
   to me--and to my most intimate friends I delight to relate all that I
   know about Him. I can tell you one thing, if a man serves a master who
   treats him badly, he will not be likely to bring his boy to that place
   of business--but it is my greatest delight to see my two boys serving
   my dear Lord and Master! If He had been a bad Master to me, I would
   have said to them, "Now, boys, do not, either of you, make the mistake
   that I have made in serving the Lord Jesus Christ as I have done." Oh,
   no, they have never heard me talk like that! They know how I rejoiced
   when I found them believing in Jesus Christ and afterwards beginning to
   do what they could in His service! Young people, your godly mothers and
   fathers would not be anxious to make you miserable. You have no idea
   that they want you to be wretched and sad, have you? No, but it is
   because they have found such supreme delight in the service of God that
   they want you to find your delight in it, too! I have gone up and down
   this country and traveled a good deal in other countries, too, and I
   think I may say, without exaggeration, that I have talked with many
   thousands of Christians

   and I have heard some strange things from some of them--but, up to this
   moment, I have never met with any Christians who have said to me, "We
   are all mistaken, after all. There is no solid satisfaction to be found
   in Jesus Christ."

   I have seen some of these Christians at the time when men's hearts
   speak out, if ever they do! I have seen them die. I have visited the
   dear consumptive girl in her last hours and I have been with the
   gray-headed saint who has passed his fourscore years, when the time
   came for him to die! It has been my lot to stand by many death beds and
   I can honestly say that if I wanted to enjoy the most intense pleasure
   that is possible on earth, I would seek out some dying saint that I
   might witness his rapturous joy and hear his gladsome and cheering
   testimony to his Lord and Savior! A man usually speaks the truth when
   he comes face to face with death and eternity is opening before him.
   Most men put off their masquerading, then, and appear in their true
   colors. And it is then that Christians speak best concerning Christ!
   And often the loudest songs and the sweetest praise that they have ever
   given to Him, they lay at His feet, then, just before they go away from
   earth to go to be with Him forever!

   Dear young Friends, the way of the highest happiness is the way of
   absolute trust in Jesus, giving yourself up to the renewing of the Holy
   Spirit that you may become new creatures in Christ Jesus! May God, in
   His Infinite mercy, grant that this great work of Grace may be worked
   in every unsaved soul in this assembly before you leave this building!
   And it will be if you simply rely upon the finished work of the Lord
   Jesus Christ, who will then take you by the hand and make all things
   new to you. God grant it, for His dear Son's sake! Amen.

   --Adapted from The C. HI. Spurgeon Collection, Version 1.0, Ages
   Software, 1.800.297.4307

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

Great Pardon for Great Sin

   (No. 2988)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1862.

   "For Your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great."
   Psalm 25:11.

   THIS striking prayer is hemmed in, as it were, between two promises. It
   looks like a fossil embedded in a mass of stone! What is the meaning of
   it being here? Why is it put in such a peculiar position? The Psalmist
   is both praising and preaching--how is it that he turns to praying?
   Beloved, I think it was to teach us that prayer is never out of place.
   When the Apostle Paul was writing the most doctrinal of his Epistles,
   he sometimes paused in the midst of them to offer a supplication, as
   when he said, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our
   Lord Jesus Christ." When engaged in any holy duties, you may even
   refrain from praise for a moment in order to present a prayer to God.
   Nor would it be amiss for us, sometimes, to break the thread of a
   sermon, that the people might pause and join with the preacher in
   asking God's blessing upon the message of mercy and upon all who hear
   it. Certainly, my dear Friends, you will never find any time
   inopportune for prayer if your heart is true and your faith in full
   force.

   The Mohammedans have their fixed hours for prayer and when they hear
   the signal from the minaret of the mosque, wherever they may be--in the
   street or in the market place--they bow their heads to Allah and repeat
   their form of prayer. Without their boastful showiness, you may "pray
   everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting." We need
   not be confined to special seasons when a summons is given, but, at all
   times and in every place, we may "continue in prayer, and watch in the
   same with thanksgiving." When your hands are measuring out your goods,
   when they are pushing the plane, or driving the nail--when you are
   driving the plow, or threshing the corn--if you are speeding along the
   iron way, or walking among the cornfields, your heart may have
   fellowship with Him--

   "Who is within no walls confined, But habits the humble mind"-- who
   counts all places holy where men are holy, and all spots suitable
   places for prayer when the heart is in a prayerful frame! My Soul, wait
   upon God in your daily calling and think not that you can ever approach
   Him at an unseasonable hour, or lift up your cry to Him when He is
   otherwise engaged, so that He cannot attend to your petition!

   Were it necessary to my present purpose to explain the connection of
   this prayer with the scope of the Psalm, it would not be difficult. The
   promise that the Psalmist had just recited is, "unto such as keep His
   Covenant." It was the besetting sin of Israel to break the Covenant. Do
   you not see that the condition here mentioned would shut the door of
   hope to many? The greatness of the promise often stirs up our deepest
   anxieties, lest any of us should seem to come short of it. Depend upon
   it, Brothers and Sisters, that the prayer for pardon which is never
   unfitting at any time, can never be more fitting than when our hearts
   are lifted up with the loftiest apprehension of God's Covenant!

   My principal aim tonight, however, is to bring my Hearers and myself,
   all of us, to feel with David that our iniquity is great. When I have
   done this, I shall very briefly try to show how the very greatness of
   our iniquity may become a plea with God--"Pardon my iniquity, for it is
   great." And I shall close with some earnest entreaties to those who
   have never sought pardon for sin, to seek it now.

   I. Well then, first, DAVID DECLARED THAT HIS INIQUITY WAS GREAT.

   The word used in the original conveys the idea of quantity as well as
   of quality. Not simply was his sin great in its atrocity, but there was
   very much of it! Any one sin was great, but it was not merely one, but
   ten thousand times ten thousand in multitude! His sin was as great in
   its bulk as it was black in its heinousness. Now, I do not know,
   although

   David had one very terrible fall, that any humble-minded person here
   would consider himself to be superior to David. He was a man after
   God's own heart and, notwithstanding the great blot upon this sun, we
   would not hesitate to say he is a sun for all that. For David presents
   a character so admirable, so all but matchless in the harmony of the
   different Graces that we think he certainly approaches very near to his
   great Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly, if David felt his iniquity
   to be great, it would be very foul presumption in any of us to think
   ours to be little! At any rate, we must come out, one by one, and say,
   "I reckon myself to be a better man than David was," or else we ought
   to subscribe heartily with our hand to the Truth of God that if David's
   was great, our iniquity must be great, too!

   But leaving David out of the question--not comparing ourselves with
   others--we will draw some few pictures by which the greatness of our
   iniquity may be seen. Our sin is great when we consider against Whom it
   is committed. In an army, if a soldier strikes his comrade, it is, of
   course, a misdemeanor. But if he should strike some petty officer, it
   is considered to be a more grievous offense. And if he should strike
   the commander-in-chief, it would become so great a crime that I know
   not what penalty short of death might be awarded to it! Now, in the
   world of morals, as God sees it, there is much difference in sin when
   we consider the difference in the person against whom it is committed.
   You and I think the worst sin is the one that hurts usthe most!

   We have heard, I daresay, the story of the lawyer who was waited upon
   by a farmer, who asked him what would be the penalty for a man whose
   horse was always going into his neighbor's field and eating his corn.
   He had warned him several times and told him it was the result of his
   broken fence which he ought to have mended. The lawyer said, "Of
   course, there would be a considerable fine, no doubt." "Well, Sir," the
   farmer said, "it is yourhorse that has done this." "Oh," said our
   friend the solicitor, "that is quite a different question. I did not
   know it was myhorse before I gave my opinion." So it is, generally,
   with regard to anything that is done amiss--if it hurts you, or if it
   hurts me--we feel very indignant about it. But if it only offends the
   Majesty of Heaven, we make light of it! What fools we are! If it shall
   offend such puny, insignificant creatures as we are, there is something
   seriously wrong in it--but if the Divine Majesty is insulted, we pass
   it by as though it were a mere trifle!

   There really is a difference in the sin according to the person against
   whom it is committed. I will put it thus. A man has just now been
   striking another--striking him with an intent to do him harm. "That is
   bad," you say. "Yes, but it was his own father that he struck." "Yes,"
   now you say, "that is far worse for him to have injured the man whom he
   ought to have loved and honored."

   So, since God is our Creator, any attack that is made upon His
   government, any willful violation of His Law is aggravated by the fact
   that we owe Him such unfounded allegiance! "It is He that has made us,
   and not we ourselves! We are His people and the sheep of His pasture."
   Sinners, did you ever think of this? You have offended Him who made
   you, in whose hands your breath is and under whose control are all your
   ways. When you have used profane words, it has been against the High
   and Lofty One, against Jehovah, who rides upon the sky and launches
   abroad His thunderbolts and shakes Heaven and earth with His terrible
   voice! Against Him, before whom the holy angels veil their faces, and
   humbly bow themselves, unworthy to lick the dust of His feet--it is
   against God that you have offended! Sinner, you think this is a little
   matter, but I tell you that it is the fact that makes your iniquity
   great!

   Yet further, sin derives some degree of its sinfulness from the fact
   that it is at once against a most just and equitable Law.We sometimes
   read in the newspapers that persons are severely punished for offenses
   against the game laws of our country. Well, I suppose it is a very
   wicked thing to shoot another person's hares and pheasants and
   partridges. Were I a preserver of game, I daresay I would consider the
   offense of the tenant farmer who shot a bird that was feeding on his
   corn, to be very aggravated. As I am not, I do not particularly see its
   flagrant character. No doubt it is wrong, though it looks to me more
   like a misdemeanor than a felony. When a law is proved to be harsh and
   severe, there will always be some mitigation in our judgment of the
   culpability of breaking it. If we consider such-and-such a law hard and
   tyrannical, not suited to the times and out of keeping with the age,
   then we say, when a person breaks it, "Well, he had better not have
   done it--it is an offense against statute law and he ought not to have
   committed it." Still, we do not think it to be so black as when the
   offense is against a just, equitable, proper and righteous law which
   harmonizes with strict, unvarying equity. Now, such is the Law of God.

   What can be more fitting than the law of the Ten Commandments?
   Infidelity itself has burned pale before those Ten Commandments. We
   have heard of men who have attempted to improve the Law of God by a new
   commandment and

   have found themselves unable to do it, for they perceived it to be so
   complete that it embraced all forms of criminality. Those who have
   abhorred other parts of Scripture have said, as they read the ten
   precepts, "These are just and righteous." They are, indeed, the
   fundamental stones of natural morality! They are such as even Nature,
   itself, would approve to be right and proper for the government of the
   world. Well then, Sirs, if you have broken these good commandments. If
   you have run your head against these holy, just, and righteous
   precepts, your iniquity is great! If you could turn to any Law of God,
   and say, "This is harsh, this is tyrannical," there might be some
   excuse for you--but those commandments were made for your good! If you
   keep them, they will bring you their own reward. If you break them,
   they will bring their own penalty into your body, mind and heart. Why,
   then, have you been so foolish as to violate them? Assuredly, in so
   doing, your iniquity has become heavy as a millstone and if it is about
   your neck when you come to die, it will sink you in the floods forever!

   But, dear Friends, we ought, each of us, to remember that our sin is
   all the greater because it has been committed by us,for sometimes an
   offense is all the worse because of the person who has committed it.
   When the noble Caesar saw Brutus stab him, he said, "And you, Brutus!"
   There was force in his dying words, for Brutus had been his dear
   friend, one who owed no little to him and, surely, the Lord might say
   to us, when we sin, "And you, too. And you! You whom I have fed day by
   day. You who are clothed by My charity and nourished by My bounty! You,
   living in this fair province of the universe which is called the world,
   this beautiful fair round green earth! You--partakers of such
   innumerable favors--you sin against Me?" Ah, Christians, you who are
   Heaven's favorites, you who are allowed to enter into the Lord's
   cabinet councils and to understand the secrets of His Covenant, you who
   are Christ's own spouse, the bride of the Prince of Heaven--your sin is
   all the blacker because of that light of His Countenance in which it
   has been your privilege to walk!

   But to hurry on, as I throw off these hints to be worked out in your
   own minds rather than to be dwelt upon in my discourse, let me remind
   you again that our sin is certainly very great because of the amount of
   it. Innumerable times have we transgressed. It is not as though we had
   done wrong onceand then washed our hands of it. Who can count his
   errors? What man can tell the number of the small dust of his
   transgressions? As for the drops of dew twinkling in the morning light,
   as for the drops of the ocean making that vast flood, as for the stars
   of Heaven and the sand of the seashore--the incalculable number of all
   these sinks into insignificance when compared with the infinite host of
   our transgressions against You, O God of Heaven and earth! This very
   day, have there not been more sins than moments, more transgressions
   than heartbeats, more offenses than pulses? God only knows the total of
   the sins of man! Only His Infinite mind can reckon the iniquity that
   crops forth from the polluted soil and wells up from the deep spring of
   depravity that is hidden in the very core of our corrupt nature! Count
   your sins if you can, O you children of God, and then fall on your
   knees, bow your heads, cover your faces and say, "Our iniquity is
   indeed great."

   Nor is this all. We ought also to remember that we have sinned and
   offended without any provocation. When a poor wretch, pinched with
   hunger, snatches a loaf from a bake shop and eats it ravenously in the
   street, what magistrate could forbear to treat him leniently? But when
   a rascal does a wanton mischief without cause, or commits a willful
   robbery without conscience, what defense can he set up? With such utter
   defiance of law and order, we have patience and we say, "Let the full
   punishment fall upon his guilty head." And that is what you and I have
   done--we have sinned for sinning's sake. When we spent our money in
   sin, it was for that which is not bread, and our labor of iniquity was
   for that which did not profit us. You and I have not been gainers by
   all that we have done amiss. There may have been times when you had the
   excuse of getting something by sin, but not always. For instance, what
   excuse is there for swearing? Lust may plead a pleasure, wine may ease
   a pain, avarice has an eye to gain, but the cheap swearer, from his
   open sluice, lets his soul run out in sorry curses, losing all the
   patience he possesses for the mere sake of venting forth black and ugly
   words that have no meaning. This is infamous! What if I say it is
   infernal to sin for the mere sake of sinning? We heard of one, the
   other day, who said, when reproved for cursing, that he would continue
   to swear--yes, if he had an angel on each shoulder, he would still go
   on cursing! There seem to be some of this sort who, for the mere sake
   of dabbling in the mire, will do it and, in truth, we have all, in our
   time, sinned in open defiance of the Almighty and, therefore, our
   iniquity is heavy.

   Sons of men, I put it to you, as one of yourselves and, therefore,
   willing to be your advocate--but I must rather take up the cause of Him
   against whom we have offended--what has He ever done to us that we
   should hate Him? He has

   made us, fed us, clothed us--for which of these good works do we forget
   Him? He has sent His Son to redeem His people--is this a cause why we
   should despise Him? He follows us day after day with invitations of
   mercy, stirs up our consciences, hedges up the road to Hell as though
   He would not let us perish--for which of these things do we requite Him
   with evil? What has the Most High done to provoke you? Has He ever done
   you a displeasure? In what respect has He thwarted you except for your
   good? What pleasure that is a real pleasure has He denied you? Is His
   yoke heavy? Is His burden intolerable? Are His Commandments like the
   whips of Solomon, or His Laws like the scorpion of Rehoboam? Has He
   made His little finger thicker than the wires of human law? Do you not
   know that men, in superstition, will make laws ten times harder than
   God's Laws ever were--and will keep them? It cannot, therefore, be that
   God has thus offended you. O why then, sons of men, do we despise our
   God? What can there be so good in sin that we will have it and God's
   anger with it? What can there be so sweet in Hell that we choose it and
   despise the glories of Heaven? Verily, in this arrant folly, this
   flagrant malice, this frantic madness, our iniquity is indeed great!

   Yet further, what if I should say that we have gone on in sin after we
   have, some of us, known and felt the evil of it? I speak advisedly when
   I appeal to almost all of you now present and ask--must not your
   iniquity be great because it was not done in ignorance? Many here were
   nursed in the lap of godliness. Your sins, therefore, are 10 times
   heavier than other men's! The lamp of the sanctuary lit some of us to
   our cradles. The hush of lullaby had the name of Jesus mingled with it.
   Perhaps the first song we learned to sing was concerning the children's
   best Friend. The first book that we began to read contained His sweet
   name and many were the times when we were pressed by godly ones to
   think of Jesus and to give our young hearts to Him. But we put bitter
   for sweet and sweet for bitter, darkness for light and light for
   darkness--and knowing the good from the evil, we did willfully choose
   to do that which is wrong. Ah, for this thing, when we have sinned
   against light and knowledge, does not our transgression become greater
   than that of the people of Tyre and Sidon who perished in their sin?

   And then, when we had learned by experience, as well as by education,
   that sin was bitter, we still went on in it. There is a young man
   yonder who went astray once and smarted for it--and he thought he would
   never be such a fool again. But it has happened to him according to the
   true proverb, "The dog is turned to his own vomit again and the sow
   that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." Some men seem only to
   get out of one ditch to roll into another! There are plenty of persons
   who, when they put their fingers in the fire and burn them, run and get
   them bound up and healed, only to go to the next fire and thrust in,
   not their finger, this time, but their arms up to their elbows! Take
   care that one of these days, Man, you do not have your body and soul
   consumed in that fire which can never be quenched! How foolish some are
   who have been in the spendthrift line! After they have emptied their
   pockets and found themselves beggars, they have gone to their friends
   who used to take a glass with them--such jolly companions, such dear
   friends as they used to be--but they do not know them now. "Oh, no!"
   they say, and give them the cold shoulder, now that their clothes begin
   to look a little out at elbows. I have seen these people get employment
   again and throw themselves out of it by their ill character. I have
   seen them get a respectable situation perhaps two or three times and
   then go and ruin themselves all over again--and still expect their
   friends to set them up once more--set them up on purpose that they may
   have the pleasure of tumbling down! When men do this so many times,
   certainly their iniquity becomes heavy.

   I have put the case strongly concerning one or two delinquents. They
   are, however, only representatives of us all, for when we have smarted
   for an offense, we have committed it again. Burnt children are afraid
   of the fire, but burnt sinners are not--they will go to the fire again,
   like the moth which gets to the candle, singes her wings and flies off
   a little--but she must go again and if you lift her out of the melted
   grease around the light, she will fly back again the first opportunity
   she gets, as if she thought it her ambition and her life's best glory
   to be consumed in the fire! Iniquity is indeed great when it is
   committed against experience! Men deliberately run upon the pikes of
   damnation--they destroy their own souls by a sort of spiritual suicide!

   At times, men's offenses to their fellow men lose some of their
   guiltiness by an apology. Why, sometimes, when we have been aggrieved
   by some little offense and a proper apology has been promptly made, we
   could have wished we had never taken notice of it, for we did not like
   to see the good man so sorry about it. We freely forgave him, and felt
   as if we did not need him even to feel that he had done wrong because
   he took it too much to heart, so we passed over the offense because of
   the repentance. But how great is the guilt of that man who, having
   sinned, refuses to repent? And is not this exactly the case of many
   here present--sinning from your cradles, but never repenting?
   Repentance is hidden from your

   eyes--you go on from bad to worse, from dark to deeper stains. The
   Ethiopian has not changed his skin, nor the leopard his spots. You have
   sought no physician for your healing. You have let the deadly gangrene
   grow yet more putrid, until the whole head is sick and the whole heart
   faint. Careless Sinner, I would that I could play the part of Mr. John
   Bunyan's Captain Boanerges and his ensign, Mr. Thunder, and run up the
   black colors before your eyes, bearing as the escutcheon the flaming
   thunderbolts of God's Justice! You who will not repent must incur the
   fierce wrath of God. Lo, He has bent His bow and made it ready! He has
   fitted His arrow to the string--He takes aim at you tonight! The arrow
   shall soon fly and reach your heart! Oh, that you had Grace given you
   to repent! O Spirit of God, break the man's heart! Take hold of Your
   great hammer with which You do cleave mountains and dash that heart in
   pieces, that the sinner may cry out, "Pardon my iniquity, for it is
   great."

   With some men, their iniquity becomes all the greater because they have
   sinned against promises which they have made, vows which have been
   registeredin Heaven and covenants which they have signed with the Most
   High. You know who I mean. You were ill with the fever some few years
   ago--you were given up! You turned your face to the wall and you
   remember how, in the bitterness of your soul, you cried, "O God, if you
   will but spare me, mine shall be another and a better life for the
   future!" You were spared, but your life has been worse, rather than
   better. You remember, too, when the cholera was abroad and there were
   many falling on the right hand and on the left--you were terrified and
   alarmed-- and you sought God after a sort and told Him that if He would
   but spare your life, that life would be spent in His service. What have
   you been doing since then? It is true that you sometimes go to the
   House of God, but it is only in the evening when you have made your
   money in the morning! You do not mind giving God the tail end of
   Sunday! The first two or three weeks after you got better, the shutters
   were up, there was no rioting, no swearing, no loose conversation. Your
   neighbors said, "What has come over the fellow? He is quite a different
   man." Yes, you had another heart for the time, but not a newheart--and
   now you are as reckless as ever. Do you think God has forgotten your
   promises? Do you think that registered covenant of yours has been
   blotted out? No, Sinner, no! It stands fast against you to make your
   guilt more infamous and your transgressions more heavy. Take heed! Take
   heed! Take heed! When God shall hold it up against you, at the last
   tremendous day, you will read your doom in that broken promise--in that
   lie which has been uttered against the God of Grace and goodness!

   Most of us, at some time or other, have sinned thus against resolutions
   and promises and, consequently, our iniquities are heavy. O dear
   Friends, I have a task too hard for me in such a subject as this! When
   I talk of the glories of the love of Christ, I feel at home. When I
   speak of the matchless Grace of the Everlasting Covenant, my heart is
   well at ease. But to prove man's sin heavy is a task too hard for me!
   Not that it is hard in itself. The evidence is clear, but to procure a
   conviction is the difficulty. The jury is not impartial. Your
   conscience is like an unjust judge. Oh, how hard it is to make any man
   believe himself to be so bad as the Word of God says he is! None but
   the Spirit of God can make a man call himself a sinner and mean it.
   Nothing but the Irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit can ever
   bring a man as low as the Word of God would have him lie. If you can
   feel, in your soul, tonight, that your iniquity is great, that it
   deserves God's wrath, displeasure and punishment--if you can pray from
   your very heart, "O Lord, pardon You my iniquity, for it is great"--I
   shall have hope of you that the first sparks of the Divine Light have
   fallen into your soul, never to be quenched, but to blaze out in the
   brightness of salvation forever!

   II. I shall now turn, very briefly, to the second part of my
   subject--to show how THERE IS A PLEA IN THE VERY GREATNESS OF OUR SIN.

   Is not this a very strange text? Look at it again. One needs to read it
   over 20 times. Is it really so written, "Pardon my iniquity, for it is
   great!" Can you believe your own eyes? Imagine a prisoner at the Old
   Bailey pleading with the judge that he would kindly let him off because
   he was such a great offender! We would think that it would be a very
   legitimate reason why he should not be pardoned. The pith, however, of
   the whole text lies in those words which we sometimes forget to quote,
   "For Your name's sake." That alters it. It is now an argument--it was
   not before. "For Your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it
   is great."

   Let me show you that there is a plea here. If salvation were by merit,
   then, supposing all men to have fallen and none of them to have any
   merit, yet it would be a rule that the man who was the least offender
   should have the first turn at being saved. If the choice of God
   depended in any way upon man's condition, we would naturally expect
   that the man who had the least sin would be forgiven first, for,
   putting all on an equal basis in all other respects, the choice, if
   made at all, with reference to the man, would naturally be the choice
   of the man who had committed the least iniquity. But, dear Friends,
   please remember that in the Covenant of Christ and the way of
   salvation, the choice is made upon reverse principles--not according to
   man's merit, but according to God's Glory. The aim, end, and objective
   of God in salvation is to glorify His own Character! Therefore, if His
   choice may be said to be guided by any principles which we can at all
   understand, that choice would be guided to select those who would the
   most magnify His Grace and glorify His own name. Well now, if God would
   do that great work of pardoning sin in such a way as to glorify His own
   name, the most fitting persons to be saved are the biggest sinners!

   Let me put it thus. Here is a number of persons and they are all sick.
   And here is a physician who intends to get a name for himself. He is
   full of benevolence and kindness, but, at the same time, one part of
   his objective is to get a name. Now, you will perceive that in the
   selection of his patients, he will not pick out a man who has a sore
   finger, for it will never tell very much to his credit that he healed a
   man who had a sore finger. But there will be, perhaps, a few cases
   among the sick of a very extraordinary sort. Some of them will have an
   affliction, a disease quite unknown to the faculty. Medicines have been
   tried, but their cases have been so stubborn that the best doctors have
   given them up as hopeless. Now, the physician says, "These are the
   cases that I will select." Granting that he is able to cure whomever he
   wills, you can see that if the objective is his own glory, he would
   rather take those in which there is the most room for the display of
   the healing art than those who have the least sickness and might be the
   most readily cured.

   Yet again. Suppose a man means to have a character for generosity.
   There are a number of debtors assembled and he is determined to
   discharge their liabilities. There is a man who owes sixpence and
   another who owes a pound. Well now, if he pays their debts, he will
   never have much credit for liberality there! But another man comes in
   who is head over heels in debt. What is the sum he owes? Fifty thousand
   pounds? Let us say a hundred thousand pounds! Let us say half a
   million! Well, now, here is the opportunity for the liberal man to
   display his liberality because here there is room for it! So is it in
   Divine Grace. You, proud Pharisee, come to God and say, "Lord, I thank
   You that I am not as other men." And He replies, "Then there is no room
   in you for My Grace to work." But yonder poor publican dares not lift
   so much as his eyes towards Heaven, but smites upon his breast and
   cries, "God be merciful to me, a sinner!" "There is a case for Me,"
   says Sovereign Mercy--and the pardon comes to the poor sinful publican!

   Mark, when I speak of sinners, I do not mean merely those who have been
   great sinners, or those who have been, in comparison with others,
   little sinners, but I mean those who feel themselvesto be great
   sinners. I say the more we feel our guilt, the more fit we are for
   mercy. The more broken down we are with hopelessness on account of our
   own lost estate, the more room there is for the triumphs of Christ's
   Grace. Now, there is many a moral man here tonight who never offended
   against the laws of his land, or the laws of outward propriety, yet he
   feels himself to be as black as Hell. Well then, there is room in him
   for Grace to glorify itself! We have noticed that men of the worst
   character are often the most self-righteous. There is many a Pharisee
   whose morals would not pass muster though he vaunts his piety as a
   harlot flaunts her broidery and many a scamp who would be a disgrace to
   the meanest society if his character were known, brazens it out as
   though he never had offended against a single Law of God. Again, I say
   you who feel that you are the very chief of sinners! You who groan and
   mourn on account of sin, be not silenced at the Mercy Seat because of
   the greatness of your guilt! But rather, with the inimitable skill of
   the Syrophenician woman, turn the very desperateness of your case into
   a reason why the Lord should save you!

   Now tonight, upon your knees, wrestle with the God of Mercy, and say,
   "Pardon me, for my transgression is great. And my Hell will be great.
   But if You will save me, Your honor will be great! If You will redeem
   me, the power of Your blood will be great! If You will give me a new
   heart, the transforming power of Your Spirit will be great! O God, save
   me! God be merciful to me, a sinner!" This is, as Luther says, to cut
   off the devil's head with his own sword. When the devil says to you,
   "You are a sinner," say to him, "I am, and Christ died to save
   sinners." And when he says, "But you are a big sinner, you are a
   Jerusalem sinner, a bigger sinner than any other," say to him, "Yes,
   that is true, but Jesus said 'that repentance and remission of sins
   should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at
   Jerusalem.'"

   I have tried, and I am trying, to preach a wide Gospel. I do not like
   to have a net with such big meshes that the fish get through. I think I
   may catch you all if the Lord wills. If the vilest are not shut out,
   then you are not shut out, Friends. And if you believe in Christ with
   all your heart, you shall be saved! But oh, what if you should say, "I
   care not for forgiveness. I do not want pardon, I will not seek it! I
   will not have it--I love my sins--I love myself"? O Sinner,

   then, by that deathbed of yours where you shall see your dreadful sins
   in another light. By that resurrection of yours where you shall see
   eternity to be no trifle. By that doom of yours. By the last dread
   thunders. By the awful sentence, "Depart, you cursed," of the Judge, I
   beseech you, do me but this one favor! Acknowledge that you had an
   invitation tonight and that it was affectionately pressed upon you. I
   have told you, in God's name, that your sin is not a trifle with
   God--that it is not a matter to be laughed at or to be whistled over. I
   have told you that the greatness of your sin need not shut you out.
   What is needed is that the Spirit of God should teach you these things
   in your heart. But do remember, if your ears refuse these Truths of
   God, and if you reject them, we are a sweet savor unto Christ as well
   in them that perish as in them that are saved! But woe unto you--woe
   unto you, who, with the Gospel ringing in your ears, go down to Hell!"
   Verily, verily, I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom
   and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment, than for you! May God save you,
   for Jesus' sake! Amen!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS 10:1-15.

   Verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israelis
   that they might be saved. Let this be our "heart's desire and prayer to
   God for Israel." Sorrows upon sorrows have come to the Lord's ancient
   people even down to this day--and they have been scattered and peeled,
   and rent and torn in almost every land. Who does not pity their griefs
   and woes? Let it be our heart's desire and daily prayer for Israel that
   they may be saved through faith in the Messiah whom they have so long
   rejected.

   2. For I bear them record that they have a zeal for God but not
   according to knowledge. In Paul's day, they were most diligent in the
   observance of every form of outward devotion--and many of them
   sincerely desired to be right with God. But they did not know how to
   attain the desired end.

   3. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to
   establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
   the righteousness of God. Perhaps I am addressing some who are very
   anxious to be right with God. They are by no means hypocrites, but are
   really awakened to a sense of their danger, yet they cannot get peace
   of mind. And the reason is that, like the Israelites, they are "going
   about to establish their own righteousness." "Going about"--that is to
   say, struggling, striving, searching, worrying themselves to get a
   righteousness of their own which they will never obtain--and being
   ignorant of "the righteousness of God" which is completed in Christ and
   which is freely bestowed upon all who believe in Him. Alas, they "have
   not submitted themselves unto this righteousness of God" and there is a
   kind of hidden meaning in the Apostle's expression. They are so proud
   that they will not submit to be saved by the righteousness of another,
   even though that other is the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself. Yet this is
   the main point--the submission of our proud will to the righteousness
   of God.

   4. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone that
   believes. Christ is the ultimatum of the Law of God and when we go to
   the Law, accepted and protected by Him, we present to the Law all that
   it can possibly demand of us. Christ has fulfilled the Law on behalf of
   all who believe in Him, so that its curse is abolished for all of us
   who approach it through Christ.

   5-9. For Moses describes the righteousness which is of the Law, that
   the man which does those things shall live by them. But the
   righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in your
   heart, Who shall ascendinto Heaven; (that is, to bring Christ down from
   above) or, Who shall descend into the deep (that is, to bring up Christ
   again from the dead). But what does it say? The word is near you, even
   in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we
   preach; that if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and
   shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you
   shall be saved. "The righteousness which is of faith" is quite another
   thing from the righteousness which is of the Law of God. It is not a
   thing of doing, and living by doing, but of trusting, and living
   forever by trusting. What are you doing--you who would gladly clamber
   up to the stars, or you who would plunge into the abyss? There is
   nothing for you to do! There is nothing for you to feel! There is
   nothing for you to be in order that God may accept you! But, just as
   you are, if you will receive Christ into your heart and confess Him
   with your mouth, you shall be saved! Oh, this glorious way of the
   salvation of sinners--so simple, yet so safe--so plain, yet so
   sublime--

   for me to lay aside my own righteousness and just take the
   righteousness of Christ and be covered with it from head to foot! I may
   well be willing to lay aside myown righteousness, for it is a mass of
   filthy rags, fit only to be burned!

   10-14. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the
   mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says,
   whoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed. For there is no
   difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is
   rich unto all that call upon Him. For whoever shall call upon the name
   of the Lord shall be saved. How, then, shall they call on Him in whom
   they have not believed?How can there be true prayer where there is no
   faith? How shall I truly pray to God if I do not really believe in Him?
   "For he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a
   rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

   14. And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? We
   must know what it is that we are to believe--and knowing it we shall be
   helped by the Holy Spirit to believe it.

   14. And how shall they hear without a preacher? If the Word of the Lord
   does not get to a man either by the living voice, or by the printing
   press, which often takes the preacher's place, how is he to believe it?
   You see here what I have often called "the whole machinery of
   salvation." First comes the preacher proclaiming the Gospel. Then comes
   the sinner listening to it. Then comes the hearer believingit and, in
   consequence, calling upon the name of the Lord as one who is saved with
   His everlasting salvation!

   15. And how shall they preach, except they are sent Here is the great
   engine at the back of all the machinery--God sending the preacher--God
   blessing the Word--God working faith in the heart of them that hear it!

   15. As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach
   the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
     __________________________________________________________________

Near the Kingdom, or in It?

   (No. 2989)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 24, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 24, 1875.

   "You are not fair from the Kingdom of God." Mark 12:34.

   IN certain respects, all men are alike--alike fallen and alike needing
   the Savior. Hence we have not 20 gospels, but only one--and we have not
   the Gospel graduated to scale to suit different classes of society, or
   different conditions of morality. We have the same Christ to set before
   sinners of every sort as their only hope--and the same message to
   proclaim to everyone of them, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you
   shall be saved."

   At the same time, we would make a very great mistake if we dealt with
   everybody in precisely the same way, for all human beings are not
   exactly alike and our Savior, Himself, drew distinctions concerning
   those who came to Him while He was upon the earth. He uttered very
   strong language to some of the scribes, but He used a very different
   tone in addressing the particular scribe to whom He said, "You are not
   far from the Kingdom of God."

   There is no doubt that there are some sinners who are very far from the
   Kingdom of God--by their wicked works, they have gone away even further
   than they were by nature. They have added to the original sin which was
   theirs by birth, all the corruptions which have come of evil habits
   and, with their backs to the Light of God, they have gone further and
   further into the darkness of the night of sin. There are others, who
   through the restraining Grace of God, have never done this. They are
   fallen creatures, it is true, but still, there are many beautiful
   points in their character. Indeed, they are so amiable that even Jesus,
   when looking upon one such young man, loved him, though He had to say
   even to him--"One thing you lack." The lack of that one thing was
   fatal! Still, Christ recognized the good that there was in him and I
   feel sure that He would have His ministers and all who try to bring
   souls to Him, act in the same way. Besides, a point is gained with a
   man if you frankly recognize whatever there is about him that is
   satisfactory--and he will be the more likely to listen to you when you
   point out his defects and show him wherein his character still falls
   short of what it ought to be. Fully believing that I have many in this
   congregation who are "not far from the Kingdom of God," I shall speak
   especially to them, or, rather, I pray that the Holy Spirit will speak
   to them through me, for it is HE who speaks with power to the heart and
   conscience!

   I shall first describe the condition in which this man was. Then,
   secondly, point out its dangers. And, thirdly, note its encouragements.

   I. First, then, let me DESCRIBE THE CONDITION IN WHICH THIS MAN WAS.
   "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."

   Christ spoke thus to him and, as He was able to read the man's heart,
   he could tell, with absolute accuracy, the condition in which the man
   was. And He is able to read all our hearts at this moment. Looking down
   from the Throne of Glory, He knows, dear Friend, exactly what your
   position is in relation to His Kingdom--how far you have come and how
   far short you still fall. Trusting in His unerring knowledge, I pray
   Him to send His Spirit, that the Word of God spoken may meet your
   particular case, and so come home to you that you may perceive that
   God, Himself, is speaking to you and calling you to come into the
   Kingdom towards which you have come so near.

   Let us first look at this scribe's case and see why it was that he was
   so near to the Kingdom. I think the first hopeful sign about him was
   that he had evidently been and was a man of candid spirit He was not so
   prejudiced as most of the other scribes were. His mind and heart were
   open to conviction. When he read the ancient Scriptures, he did not
   read them with his eyes shut, or gazing through colored Rabbinical
   spectacles as so many of the scribes read them. He went to

   them desiring to know the Truth of God that was in them and, when he
   saw the Truth, he did not rebel against it, but yielded himself to it.
   It is evident that he had been a candid student of the Law of God, for
   he had arrived at the conclusion that its greatest commandment was love
   to God and to one's neighbor, whereas I have no doubt that many of his
   fellow scribes had given the first place to matters that were purely
   ceremonial--something to do with circumcision, perhaps, or with the
   eating of unleavened bread--matters that were important enough in their
   proper sphere, yet not to be regarded as the weightiest things in the
   Law. But this man had read with an evident determination to know the
   Truth and so far, he had found it out.

   He showed his candor, not only by his diligent search for the Truth,
   but also by being a candid controversialist. He had heard the questions
   which had been put to Christ and he had noted how wisely Christ had
   answered them. And he had also noticed that not one of the questioners
   had had the courtesy to say that Christ had answered them well. They
   were so ashamed of themselves for putting the questions to Him, that
   they had evidently retired into the background. But this man, as soon
   as he received the answer to his enquiry, seemed to recognize the
   wisdom of the great Teacher and he expressed the opinion that Christ
   had answered him wisely. I do not know how he could have put it better
   than he did when he said, "Well, Master, you have said the truth." You
   know that when men are arguing, and their blood is hot, it very often
   happens that the one disputant will not admit that the other has spoken
   the truth. Though he is quite sure that it is so, he will not
   acknowledge it--and it is an evidence of a really candid spirit when,
   in the midst of a debate, a man confesses that his opponent has got the
   better of him. It shows that he is not merely fighting for the victory,
   but is seeking the truth. And there is always something hopeful about a
   man of that sort. My dear Friend, I do not know where you are, nor what
   your particular opinions may be, but if you are firmly resolved to
   follow truth wherever she may lead you, I think I may say to you, as
   Christ said to this scribe, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."
   Do not be self-confident, nor rely too much upon your own judgment, but
   let your mind lie open to conviction. Above all, let it be open to the
   heavenly Light of God! And if you do, I shall have hope concerning you,
   notwithstanding a thousand mistakes that you may make. An honest seeker
   after the Truth of God will not be long before Truth finds him and he
   finds Truth!

   Another favorable point in this scribe's character was that he
   evidently had some degree of spiritual perception-- not much, perhaps,
   but still, as things went, a good deal for that time. He had found out,
   through reading the Law of God, that God attached more importance to
   matters of moral practice than to mere matters of ceremony, and much
   more importance to that which concerned the heart than so many outward
   actions. "To love the Lord with all one's heart, and soul, and
   strength, and to love one's neighbor as one's self," said this scribe,
   "is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." He had
   advanced further than many a Romanist has, for the Romanist would
   hardly say as much as he did. "The outward ceremonies of the church are
   so exceedingly important," he would say, "that, I could not put
   anything else before them." But this man had been taught to feel that
   real heart-work and true love to God were more important than all the
   ceremonies of the Law, even though they were ordained by God, Himself
   He had advanced further than some of our very doctrinal friends, to
   whom orthodoxy seems to be both the first thing and the last thing,
   though, as you very well know, what they call orthodoxy is simply their
   own doxy! But if people only hold that doxy, that is about all they
   care for--all the rest is a very secondary matter to them. This scribe,
   however, had advanced further than that and he would, doubtless, have
   said that to love God with the whole of one's heart was more important
   than believing all the dogmas that were ever formulated by all the
   doctors of divinity in the world!

   This scribe had also advanced further than the mere moralist, who
   teaches that if you do what you think is right, that is all you need
   trouble yourselves about. But this scribe expressly spoke of loving the
   Lord "with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all
   the soul, and with all the strength." He could see that the entire man
   must be given up to love God, for, if he were not, all the outward
   profession of living according to the letter of the Law would not
   suffice. Now, dear Friend, if you have been enabled to break through
   your former attachment to mere external ceremonies--if you have fully
   comprehended that true religion is not a matter of mere externals--you
   are "not far from the Kingdom of God." You are one of those who are
   learning that "God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship
   Him in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him."
   I hope He is seeking you and that, before long, you will not only be
   nearthe Kingdom, but actually in it! It is a grand thing when a man is
   brought so far as to be able, from deep inward conviction, to say with
   Dr. Watts--

   "Not all the outward forms of earth,

   Nor rites that God has given,

   Nor will of man, nor blood, nor birth,

   Can raise a soul to Heaven."

   If we are to be saved there must be the regenerating work of the Holy
   Spirit within the soul to make it spiritual and capable of spiritual
   worship! And he who really knows this is "not far from the Kingdom of
   God."

   Another admirable point in this scribe's character was that he
   evidently had a considerable knowledge of the Law. To know the Law of
   the Lord is the next thing to knowing the Gospel. It is not everybody
   who understands this Truth of God, but it really is so. Old Robby
   Flockhart, an evangelist who used to preach in the streets of
   Edinburgh, sometimes said to his hearers, "I will preach the Law of God
   to you tonight, and nothing but the Law of God, for it is the sharp
   needle without which I cannot get the silken thread of the Gospel into
   your hearts." And he spoke the truth. Paul wrote to the Galatians, "The
   law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ." When the Law
   condemns a man, he flies to Christ to seek forgiveness--but until he
   has received the sentence of the Law in his own soul, he will never fly
   to Jesus Christ and His atoning Sacrifice to be set free from sin. If
   the Law is rightly used, it drives the sinner to the Savior--and there
   was hope concerning this scribe because he evidently knew the
   requirements of the Law of God. He did not sum that up in a mere
   outward morality, but he knew that the Law was spiritual and that it
   made demands upon man of a spiritual character. It would not have taken
   anyone long, I should think, to convince that man that he had fallen
   short of those demands. And when he had been thus convinced, he was
   well on the way to seeing the preciousness of the Atonement that could
   meet the demands of that broken Law of God--so that his knowledge of
   the requirements of the Law helped him to be "not far from the Kingdom
   of God."

   Once again, thisscribe was evidently teachable.He was in such a frame
   of mind that he was willing to hear what the great Teacher had to say.
   I do not think he came to Christ as a quibbler. He probably came to
   test Christ, but not to quibble with Him after he had tested Him and,
   having tested Him, he was willing to learn more of Him. It is a hopeful
   sign when we are willing to sit on the children's seat, remembering our
   Lord's words to His disciples, "Except you be converted and become as
   little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." Some
   people are much too big to go through Heaven's gate. They are so wise,
   in their own estimation, that they are not willing to be taught even by
   Infinite Wisdom. Their judgment is so accurate, their intelligence is
   so clear, that they will not submit to be instructed by Him who is the
   very Wisdom of God. They think that they have within themselves the
   power to draw an Infallible distinction between right and wrong,
   between the Truth of God and error--and they will not allow even the
   Almighty to dictate to them, and to be the Arbiter of their lives. Ah,
   Brothers and Sisters, this is a sad state for anyone to be in! But it
   is a hopeful sign when we are teachable. If you are so, you are "not
   far from the Kingdom of God."

   Now I will leave this scribe, in order that I may take notice of some
   others who are "not far from the Kingdom of God." There are many
   persons who, from their youth up, have always had a great horror of
   that which is wrong. And they have felt--not to perfection, but to a
   considerable extent--a delight in that which is true and good. They do
   not feel themselves to be true or good, but they wish they were. Their
   first associations in life were with godly people and they have always
   loved godly things. They do not find family prayer to be irksome or, if
   they do, they realize how wrong they are for being in such a state of
   mind. They would be very sorry if the ordinances of religion were
   neglected in the place where they live. The Sabbath is a delight to
   them and they love to go up to God's House. They hardly know why they
   feel thus, for they are afraid they have no part nor lot in the matter,
   but still, they like to go there--if there is anything good to be
   heard, they wish to have a share in it. If anybody speaks against good
   things, or good men, they are very grieved. Horror takes hold of them
   if they ever hear God's name blasphemed. They have had, from their very
   childhood, a bias in the direction of that which is right--but it is
   natural rather than spiritual. They are not, as yet, distinctly out and
   out for Christ--they have not believed in Him as their Savior, they
   have not yielded themselves up completely to Him. I am persuaded that
   we have large numbers of young people who are very accurately described
   by that expression, "not far from the Kingdom." Of course, I am
   speaking of their best side and I am well aware that there is another
   side to their character--but there is still much about them that is
   hopeful.

   I know some who are even nearer to the Kingdom than those whom I have
   been describing, for they are under a very deep sense of their
   sinfulness. Not one of them would ever be so foolish and so wicked as
   to say, "God, I thank You that I am not as other men are." Often, while
   they are sitting here listening to a sermon that is full of comfort,
   they feel that

   they are not entitled to have it for themselves. Oh, how they wish they
   could believe and that they were really saved! One thing they do
   realize--that is, they are lost, and ruined, and undone. This fact has
   caused them much sorrow of heart, but they are not yet sufficiently
   awake to make the desperate effort which decides the matter. Realizing
   that they are condemned, they cannot feel at ease and, sometimes,
   floods of tears flow down from their eyes because of their
   transgressions. Ah, my dear Friend, if that is your condition, you are,
   truly, "not far from the Kingdom of God."

   There are others who are in this further hopeful condition, that they
   are very attentive hearers of the Word. They come to the House of
   Prayer on purpose that they may hear the Gospel and, after a fashion,
   they pray that the Gospel may be a blessing to them. I like preaching
   to people of that sort! One might wish to preach all day and all night
   if one could only have throngs of such hearers--everyone of whom would
   be praying, "O my God, bless me! O my God, save me!" I remember that
   when I was in this condition, I used to pray all through a sermon, "O
   Lord, meet with me, meet with me tonight!" And, my dear Friend, you are
   "not far from the Kingdom" if that is how you are now praying.

   I know some who have advanced still further, for they have kept on
   praying wherever they have been, though they themselves hardly know
   whether they have been praying rightly. You know, dear Friend, that you
   went home last Sabbath and fell on your knees, and cried, "Lord, save
   me!" And, during the past week, you have got away alone as often as you
   could that you might have a little time of prayer. Even when you have
   been at work--you do not know whether others have noticed it or
   not--there has been the heaving of a sigh or the upward glancing of the
   eyes. Sometimes you have almost wished that you had never been born,
   for you have had the dreadful fear that you might never find the
   Savior! At other times, you have had a little hope that perhaps you
   might and, at any rate, you are a true seeker--and I believe you are
   "not far from the Kingdom."

   Besides that, I should not wonder if you read the Scriptures very
   earnestly to try to find out how you can obtain eternal life. And you
   also study good books with the same view--those very books which you
   once thought so dull and even horrible! You read them now at every
   spare moment that you can get. You would rather read them than the most
   fascinating romantic novel that was ever written, for you are earnestly
   seeking eternal life. You certainly are "not far from the Kingdom of
   God."

   II. Now, secondly, I want you to NOTICE THE PECULIAR DANGER OF YOUR
   CONDITION if you are "not far from the Kingdom."

   The great danger of it is that though you are not far from the Kingdom,
   you are not in it. A man was in a sinking ship. He almost leaped into
   the lifeboat, but just missed it and was drowned. The manslayer was
   fighting for his life and the avenger of blood was close behind him. He
   had almost reached the City of Refuge, but he was overtaken by his
   adversary just outside the gate--and so was slain. Almost saved is
   altogether lost! There are many in Hell who once were almost saved, but
   who are now altogether damned. Think of that, you who are not far from
   the Kingdom. It is being in the Kingdom that saves the soul, not being
   nearthe Kingdom. If you are just upon the border, yet if you have not
   actually entered, you are not secure. Those five foolish virgins were
   almost in the banqueting hall--there was only the thickness of a door
   between them and the wedding feast--but they only heard the awful
   sentence, "Too late! Too late! You cannot enter now." Your great danger
   is that you will get to be content with being nearthe Kingdom, although
   not actually in it. I have known some people remain in that perilous
   position for months and years till, at last, it got to be their chronic
   condition and they made no effort to take the decisive step. They
   appeared to be in a very hopeful state, yet I fear that, by-and-by, we
   shall have to give them up as utterly hopeless. Oh, these hopelessly
   hopeful people--what can we do with them? They are, for a time,
   hopeful, yet never more than hopeful and, at last, we have to admit
   that their apparent goodness is only superficial and that all the hopes
   they raised within us are delusive. They mock us and we also fear that
   they mock God!

   We are also very much afraid that you who are "not far from the
   Kingdom," may get into your heads the notion that there is something
   good in you and that there being something good in you, it will help to
   save you. If so, you will be really further away from the Kingdom than
   if you were liberally far off! I know of nothing that will more
   effectually keep you out of the Kingdom of God than the notion that you
   are good enough to stay out--the idea that, surely, God will not
   condemn such excellent persons as you are! And, besides, you are so
   near that you can slip in any day. If you get that notion into your
   head, I am afraid you will never slip in, but that you will perish in
   your present lost condition. Oh, may God graciously deliver all of you
   from such fatal self-righteousness!

   I should like to point out to you one thing and that is this--how very
   terrible it would be if you should be lost after having been so near to
   the Kingdom of God The manslayer is overtaken by the avenger of blood
   and falls a mangled corpse upon the very threshold of the City of
   Refuge--does not that seem truly dreadful? One step more and he would
   have been safe! But he could not make that step, so he was slain. I
   always feel mortified if I got to a railway station just as the train,
   which I want to catch, moves from the station. If it had gone ten
   minutes earlier, I would not have minded missing it so much--but to be
   so near as to see it go seems to aggravate my disappointment and,
   certainly, it will be the greatest aggravation of all to you if you are
   lost after having been so very near to the Kingdom of God! I can almost
   imagine other souls that are lost speaking to you in that tone of
   tension which Isaiah applied to the king of Babylon, "Hell from beneath
   is moved for you to meet you at my coming...They shall go and say unto
   you, Have you also become weak as we? Have you become like us? How are
   you fallen!" What horror must have seized the guilty tyrant when he
   came into the midst of those whom he had oppressed and crushed! And if
   some of you who have been so near to the Kingdom, are lost, I can
   imagine the swearer in Hell saying to you, "Ah, you rebuked me for my
   oaths, but where are you now?" And another will say, "You used to help
   reclaim drunks, but where are you now? You were one of those who used
   to sit in the Tabernacle and listen to sermons. I never went there, but
   you did--and how much the better are you for going?"

   And some of them will say, "Oh, if we had only had your opportunities,
   if we had but heard the Gospel as you heard it! If we had been placed
   under the holy, hallowed influences which surrounded you, surely we
   would not have acted so foolishly as you have done!" I need not draw
   any fancy pictures of what may happen, for you know what our Lord Jesus
   Christ said to those who heard Him and yet repented not--"I say unto
   you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the Day
   of Judgment, than for you." If you have heard the Gospel and the
   Kingdom of God has come near unto you, and you have come near unto it,
   and yet, through lack of the decided act of faith in Jesus Christ, you
   perish in your sin, your doom will be more terrible even than that of
   Tyre and Sidon, or Sodom and Gomorrah--

   "So near to the Kingdom! Yet what do you lack?

   So near to the Kingdom! What keeps you back?

   Denounce every idol, though dear it may be,

   And come to the Savior now pleading with thee!

   So near, that you hear the songs that resound

   From those who believing, a pardon have found!

   So near, yet unwilling to give up your sin

   When Jesus is waiting to welcome you in!

   To die with no hope! Have you counted the cost?--

   To die out of Christ andyour soul to be lost?

   So near to the Kingdom! Oh come, we implore!

   While Jesus is pleading, come enter the door!" III. I will not say more
   upon that sad part of my subject. I feel far more at home in trying to
   speak, for only a minute or two, on the last point, namely, THE
   ENCOURAGEMENT OF THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
   May God, in His Infinite mercy, grant that you may enter the Kingdom
   this very night! May He not allow another morning's sun to rise from
   the East and look upon you as unconverted men or women!

   For, first, think how much God has already done for you. You might have
   been born in one of the back slums of London, or you might even have
   been born as Hottentots or a cannibal islander! Perhaps upon that
   matter of your birth depends the fact that you are sitting in this
   House of Prayer and are not in the gin palace, the prison, or in Hell
   itself! It may be simply the dispensation of Divine Providence that has
   made this difference between you and the very worst of men. Be very
   thankful to God for what He has already done for you--for this vantage
   ground on which His Providence and the kind instructions of Christian
   parents and friends have placed you.

   And, next, as He has done so much for you, should not this encourage
   you to ask Him for still more If He has, by His Grace, brought you so
   near to the Kingdom, would it not be wise for you to say to Him, "My
   God, You have done much for me. Will You not now give me that which
   will make all this end in my salvation? Will You not give me a new
   heart and a right spirit? Will You not give me the new birth which will
   enable me to believe in Jesus Christ this very night, so that I may
   pass from death unto life?" Do you not think that the message of the
   Gospel should very much commend itself to you? You are a candid hearer,
   if I understand you rightly, and you have some love to good things.

   Now, was there ever a more Divine message than this? God has sent His
   Son, Jesus Christ, into this world. He took upon Himself the sin of
   guilty man. He suffered in the place of the guilty and He bids us now
   proclaim this Gospel of free, Sovereign Grace, that "whoever believes
   in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Christ has endured
   the full penalty of sin. Jesus has bowed His back to carry the
   intolerable burden of human guilt and He hascarried it and cast it into
   the depths of the sea, where it shall never be found, to be again laid
   by the charge of any soul that believes in Him. You are not asked to do
   anything, you are not even asked to feelanything--you are simply asked
   to trust yourself in the hands of the Incarnate God. Was anything ever
   simpler, more full of Grace, more full of compassion to your lost and
   helpless condition? It is all put into this simple message, "Look unto
   Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth." This is the message
   from Christ in the highest heavens! "Look, look, look," is all He bids
   you do--simply look unto Him, Trust in Him, depend upon Him! Surely you
   cannot desire anything that is more worthy of God than this Gospel of
   His Grace which we proclaim unto you in His name!

   Well, my dear Friend, you have come near to the Kingdom, but is it not
   very clear to you that you need something more than you can find in
   yourself?You have come as far as you can, yet, as far as that is
   compared with where others are, how little it really is! I said that
   you had begun to pray, but what sort of prayer is yours? I said that
   you were an attentive hearer of the Word--so you are--yet how small a
   thing will take you off from the pursuit of the blessed realities of
   Grace! You know that although you are somewhat softened, your heart is
   still hard. There is still much unbelief in your soul, though there is
   a gleam of what looks like faith now and then. In fact, to put the
   matter very plainly, you are in such a condition that you will be in
   Hell unless the mercy of God shall prevent it, for you are certainly
   not yet saved! Do you know that it is so? Do you really feel this?
   Then, can you not, (may God help you to do it), by one desperate effort
   of faith, throw yourself at the feet of Jesus and say to Him, "Never
   will I go from You, O You blessed Savior, till You pronounce me clean!
   I now put out the tip of my finger, feeble and weak as my faith is, and
   I touch You. If You can save a sinner, Jesus, save me! I trust You to
   do so!" Friend, you are saved! That simple touch of the finger has
   brought virtue out of Christ unto you and He has bid you go in peace!

   I remember how it seemed to me, when I was under conviction of sin--as
   though Christ stood before me with a sharp sword in each of His hands!
   And I felt, "I can but be lost. I will fling myself into His arms
   notwithstanding those swords." And so I did, by a desperate plunge. I
   felt, "I have done with all attempts at self-salvation! Christ is my
   only Savior. I see that He finished my salvation on the accursed tree.
   I depend upon Him, I lean on Him with all my weight and all my might.
   Guilty and black and vile--and foul as I am by nature--I wash in the
   fountain filled with His precious blood and am clean every whit, even
   in the sight of the Most High God!" Oh, that you, dear Friend, would do
   the same! I believe that you are doing it, that God is helping you to
   do it. I feel sure that He is and that you are letting go all your
   foolish confidence, all trust in your own prayer, or even in your own
   faith, or your own anything! And you are going to trust yourself to the
   Lord Jesus Christ, whether you sink or swim!

   Faith is very much like learning to swim. I have often thought that I
   could easily swim, but I never could induce myself to take the last toe
   off the ground--and there is no swimming till one does that. You must
   trust yourself wholly to the water. So must you trust yourself to
   Jesus. But you are afraid to take that last toe off the ground--you
   cannot give up just a little confidence in yourself. Oh, for the
   glorious plunge of faith! You fear that you will drown, but you will
   not, for you will swim. The everlasting love of Jesus will buoy up the
   biggest sinner out of Hell if he will but rest himself upon the
   finished work of Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be the
   Propitiation for the sins of man! Only trust Him and He will save you!
   May God give you the Grace to trust Him, and He shall have all the
   glory. Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MARK 12:12-44.

   Verse 12. And they sought to lay hold on Him, but feared thepeople: for
   they knew that He had spoken the parable against them: and they left
   Him, and went their way. Christ's enemies could not injure Him, then,
   partly because the people heard Him gladly, and were ready to protect
   Him, but still more because the appointed time for His suffering and
   death had not fully come.

   13, 14. And they sent unto Him certain of the Pharisees and of the
   Herodians to catch Him in His words. And when they were come, they said
   unto Him, Master, we know that You are true, and care for no man: for
   You regard not the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth
   They meant "to catch Him in His words," if they could, so they baited
   their trap with flattery. Whenever a man begins to flatter you, be on
   your guard against him. If he tries to commence a conversation with you
   by uttering words of excessive admiration, depend upon it that he
   admires something that you have got more than he admires you! And,
   therefore, be on the watch against him. Our Savior must, in His heart,
   have utterly despised men who were so foolish as to imagine that they
   could entrap Him by their flattering words. After that preface, they
   asked the questions which they thought would impale Him upon the horns
   of a dilemma--

   14, 15. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Shall we give,
   or shall we not give?. They knew very well that if Christ said, "Do not
   give tribute to Caesar," the Romans would have taken him up and
   imprisoned him for preaching sedition, but, on the other hand, if He
   said, "Pay tribute to Caesar," the Jews would have said that He was
   their enemy, and not a true patriot, or else He would not have admitted
   that the chosen people were bound to pay taxes to their Roman
   conquerors.

   15-17. But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt you
   Me? Bring Me a penny, that I may see it And they brought it And He said
   unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto
   Him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the
   things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And
   they marvelled at Him. He had answered them with matchless wisdom
   without committing Himself in either way!

   18-23. Then came unto Him the Sadducees, which say there is no
   resurrection, and they asked Him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us,
   If a man's brother dies and leaves his wife behind him, and leaves no
   children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto
   his brother Now there were seven brothers and the first took a wife,
   and dying, left no seed. And the second took her, and died, neither
   left he any seed: and the third likewise. And the seven had her, and
   left no seed. Last of all the woman died also. In the resurrection,
   therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them, for
   the seven had her to wife. No doubt they thought that they had
   completely entangled Him that time! How could He answer such a
   difficult question as that? But, you see, they had based their enquiry
   upon the erroneous supposition that things are to be in another state
   as they are here--so Jesus was able at once to answer them as
   effectively as He had just answered the Pharisees and Herodians.

   24-27. And Jesus, answering said unto them, Do you not therefore, err,
   because you know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God? For when
   they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in
   marriage; but are as the angels which are in Heaven. And as touching
   the dead, that they rise: have you not read in the book of Moses, how
   in the bush God spoke unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and
   the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead,
   but the God of the living; you therefore do greatly err. His answer
   carried the war into the enemies' camp! They professed to believe in
   Moses, yet they denied the existence of spirits and the fact of the
   resurrection. But Jesus Christ proved to a demonstration that God
   cannot be the God of the dead! If, therefore, He is the God of Abraham,
   Isaac, and Jacob--Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still alive! And if He
   is your God, and my God, dear Friends, we need not fear extinction--we
   will live, and we will live forever!

   28-34. And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning
   together, and perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him,
   Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered Him, The
   first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel The Lord our God is
   one Lord: and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
   with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength:
   this is the first commandment And the second is like, namely this, You
   shall love your neighbor as yourself There is none other commandment
   greater than these. And the scribe said unto Him, Well, Master, You
   have said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but
   He; and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding,
   and with all the soul and with all the strength, and to love his
   neighbor as himself is more than all whole burnt offerings and
   sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, He said
   unto him, You are not far from the Kingdom of God. And no man after
   that dared asked Him any question.He had so decidedly put all His
   questioners to the rout that no other man had the audacity to court
   defeat at His hands! The Infallible Wisdom of Christ had put all His
   accusers and tempters to flight.

   35, 36. And Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the Temple, How
   say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? For David himself said
   by the Holy Spirit.

   In Psalm 110:1--

   36, 37. The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make
   Your enemies Your footstool David therefore himself calls Him Lord; and
   from where is He then his sod? They could not answer that riddle, but
   we can. We know that Jesus is both David's son and David's Lord--a man
   like ourselves, of the great human race, yet, "very God of very God,"
   blessed be His holy name!

   37-40. And the common people heard Him gladly. And He said unto them in
   His doctrine, Beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing,
   and love salutations in the marketplace, and the chief seats in the
   synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: which devour widows'
   houses, and for a presence make long prayers: these shall receive
   greater damnation. We often hear foolish people say "You must always
   preach in love and not say anything against anybody! Jesus did not
   denounce anybody." Oh, dear! Then what about this denunciation of the
   scribes? Were Jesus here today, He would not be the soft-shelled
   creature that some people want us to be! He had a backbone and a
   conscience-- and a very heavy right hand--and He brought that hand down
   like a sledgehammer upon cant and hypocrisy and error! And if we would
   be like Christ, we must be manly, bold and outspoken! They tell us this
   in order that we may easily glide through the world and that all men
   may speak well of us. But so did their fathers to the false
   prophets--and do you suppose that we who preach God's Word are going to
   keep back any part of our testimony because it will bring us into ill
   repute with the ungodly? God forbid! We live for something higher and
   nobler than being fed upon the breath of evil men! If there is error in
   high places, if there is vice anywhere, it is the duty of the minister
   of Christ, in His Master's name, to attack it with all his might! Here
   we find our Lord and Master plainly declaring that the scribes, the
   great masters of the Law of God, were a set of pretentious hypocrites
   who robbed even the widow and the fatherless and who would, in due
   time, "receive greater damnation." Even so must the Truth of God still
   be spoken, whoever may be offended by it!

   41, 42. And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the
   people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in
   much. And there came a certain poor widow. Doubly poor, because she was
   not only a widow, but in poverty--"a certain poor widow."

   42-44. And she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And He called
   unto Him His disciples, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that
   this poor widow has cast more in than all they which have cast into the
   treasury: for all they did cast in of their abundance. Christ measures
   what we really give by what we have left--by the proportion which what
   we give bears to what we possess--"For all they did cast in of their
   abundance."

   44. But she of her need did cast in all that she had, even all her
   living. So she gave more than any or all the others did!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Believer Not An Orphan

   (No. 2990)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." John 14:18.

   You will notice that the margin reads, "I will not leave you orphans: I
   will come to you." In the absence of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
   disciples were like children deprived of their parents. During the
   three years in which He had been with them, He had solved all their
   difficulties, borne all their burdens and supplied all their needs.
   Whenever a case was too hard or too heavy for them, they took it to
   Him. When their enemies well near overcame them, Jesus came to the
   rescue and turned the tide of battle. They were all happy and safe
   enough while the Master was with them. He walked in their midst like a
   father amid a large family of children, making all the household glad.
   But now He was about to be taken from them by an ignominious death and
   they might well feel that they would be like little children deprived
   of their natural and beloved Protector. Our Savior knew the fear that
   was in their hearts and before they could express it, He removed it by
   saying "You shall not be left alone in this wild and desert world.
   Though I must be absent from you in the flesh, yet I will be present
   with you in a more efficacious manner. I will come to you spiritually
   and you shall derive from My spiritual Presence even more good than you
   could have had from My bodily Presence, had I still continued in your
   midst."

   I. First, here is AN EVIL AVERTED.

   Without their Lord, Believers would, apart from the Holy Spirit, be
   like other orphans--unhappy and desolate. Give them what you might,
   their loss could not have been recompensed. No number of lamps can make
   up for the sun's absence--blaze as they may, it is still night. No
   circle of friends can supply to a bereaved woman the loss of her
   husband--without him she is still a widow. Even thus, without Jesus, it
   is inevitable that the saints should be as orphans. But Jesus has
   promised in the text that we shall not be so-- He declares the only
   thing that can remove the trial shall be ours--"I will come to you."

   Now remember that an orphan is one whoseparents are dead. This, in
   itself, is a great sorrow, if there were no other. The dear father, so
   well-beloved, was suddenly smitten down with sickness. They watched him
   with anxiety. They nursed him with sedulous care, but he expired. The
   loving eyes are closed in darkness for them. Those active hands will no
   longer toil for the family. That heart and brain will no longer feel
   and think for them. Beneath the green grass the father sleeps. And
   every time the child surveys that hallowed hillock, his heart swells
   with grief. Beloved, we are not orphans in that sense, for our Lord
   Jesus is not dead! It is true that He died, for one of the soldiers
   with a spear pierced His side and forthwith came out blood and water--a
   sure evidence that the pericardium had been pierced and that the
   fountain of life had been broken up. He died, that is certain, but He
   now is not dead! Go not to the grave to seek Him. Angel voices say, "He
   is not here, for He is risen." He could not be held by the bands of
   death. We do not worship a dead Christ, nor do we even think of Him now
   as a corpse. That picture on the wall which the Romanists paint and
   worship, represents Christ as dead, but oh, it is so good to think of
   Christ as living, remaining in an existence real and true, none the
   less living because He died, but all the more truly full of life
   because He has passed through the portals of the grave and is now
   reigning forever! See then, dear Friends, the bitter root of the
   orphan's sorrow is gone from us, for our Jesus is not dead! No
   mausoleum enshrines His ashes, no pyramid embalms His body, no monument
   records the place of His permanent sepulcher!

   The orphan has a sharp sorrow springing out of the death of his
   parents, namely, that he is left alone. He cannot now make appeals to
   the wisdom of the parent who could direct him. He cannot run, as once
   he did, when he was weary, to

   climb the parental knee. He cannot lean his aching head upon the
   parental bosom. "Father," he may say, but no voice gives an answer.
   "Mother," he may cry, but that fond title which would awaken the mother
   if she slept, cannot awaken her from the bed of death! The child is
   alone, alone as to those two hearts which were its best companions. The
   parent and lover are gone! The little ones know what it is to be
   deserted and forsaken. But we are not so--we are not orphans. It is
   true that Jesus is not here in body, but His spiritual Presence is
   quite as blessed as His bodily Presence would have been. No, it is
   better, for supposing Jesus Christ to be here in Person, you could not
   all come and touch the hem of His garment--not all at once, at any
   rate. There might be thousands waiting all the world over to speak with
   Him, but how could they all reach Him if He were merely here in body?
   You might all be wanting to tell Him something, but, in the body He
   could only receive some one or two of you at a time.

   But in spirit, there is no need for you to stir from the pew, no need
   to say a word--Jesus hears your thoughts talk and attends to all your
   needs at the same moment! There is no need for us to press to get at
   Him because the throng is great, for He is as near to me as He is to
   you, and as near to you as to saints in America, or the islands of the
   Southern Sea. He is everywhere present and all His beloved may talk
   with Him! You can tell Him, at this moment, the sorrows which you dare
   not open up to anyone else. You will feel that in declaring them to
   Him, you have not breathed them to the air, but that a real Person has
   heard you. One as real as though you could grip His hand and could see
   the loving flash of His eyes and mark the sympathetic change of His
   Countenance.

   Is it not so with you, you children of a living Savior? You know it is!
   You have a Friend that sticks closer than a brother! You have a near
   and dear One who, in the dead of the night is in the chamber, and in
   the heat and burden of the day is in the field of labor. You are not
   orphans--the "Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting
   Father, The Prince of Peace" is with you--your Lord is here and, as one
   whom his mother comforts, so Jesus comforts you!

   The orphan, too, has lost the kind hands which always took care that
   food and raiment should beprovided, that the table should be well
   stored, and that the house should be kept in comfort. Poor feeble one,
   who will provide for his needs? His father is dead, his mother is
   gone--who will take care of the little wanderer now! But it is not so
   with us! Jesus has not left us orphans. His care for His people is no
   less, now, than it was when He sat at the table with Mary, and Martha
   and Lazarus, whom "Jesus loved." Instead of the provisions being less,
   they are even greater, for since the Holy Spirit has been given to us,
   we have richer fare and are more indulged with spiritual comforts than
   Believers were before the bodily Presence of the Master had departed!
   Do your souls hunger tonight? Jesus gives you the bread of Heaven! Do
   you thirst tonight!? The waters from the Rock cease not to flow--

   "Come, make your needs, your burdens known." You have but to make known
   your needs to have them all supplied! Christ waits to be gracious in
   the midst of this assembly. He is here with His golden hands, opening
   those hands to supply the needs of every living soul. "Oh," says one,
   "I am poor and needy." Go on with the quotation. "Yet the Lord thinks
   upon me." "Ah," says another, "I have besought the Lord thrice to tear
   away a thorn in the flesh from me." Remember what He said to Paul? "My
   Grace is sufficient for you." You are not left without the strength you
   need. The Lord is still your Shepherd. He will provide for you till He
   leads you through death's dark valley and brings you to the shining
   pastures upon the hilltops of Glory! You are not destitute? You need
   not beg an asylum from an ungodly world by bowing to its demands, or
   trusting its vain promises--for Jesus will never leave you, nor forsake
   you!

   The orphan, too, is left without the instruction which is most suitable
   for a child. We may say what we will, but there is none so fit to form
   a child's character as the parent. It is a very sad loss for a child to
   have lost either father or mother in its early days, for the most
   skillful preceptor, though he may do much--by the blessing of God, very
   much--is but a stop-gap, and but half makes up for the original
   ordinance of Providence that the parent's love should fashion the
   child's mind. But, dear Friends, we are not orphans! We who believe in
   Jesus are not left without an education. Jesus is not here, Himself, it
   is true. I daresay some of you wish you could come on Lord's-Days and
   listen to Him! Would it not be sweet to look up to this pulpit and see
   the Crucified One, and to hear Him preach? Ah, so you think, but the
   Apostle says, "Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now
   henceforth know we Him no more."

   It is most for your profit that you should receive the Spirit of Truth,
   not through the golden vessel of Christ in His actual Presence here,
   but through the poor earthen vessels of humble servants of God like
   ourselves. At any rate, whether

   we speak, or an angel from Heaven, the speaker matters not--it is the
   Spirit of God, alone, that is the power of the Word and makes that Word
   become vital and quickening to you. You now have the Spirit of God. The
   Holy Spirit is so given that there is not a Truth of God which you may
   not understand. You may be led into the deepest mystery by His
   teaching. You may be made to know and to comprehend those knotty points
   in the Word of God which have hitherto puzzled you. You have but humbly
   to look up to Jesus and His Spirit will still teach you. I tell you,
   though you are poor and ignorant, and perhaps can scarcely read a word
   in the Bible--for all that, you may be better instructed in the things
   of God than doctors of divinity if you go to the Holy Spirit and are
   taught of Him! Those who go only to books and to the letter and are
   taught of men, may be fools in the sight of God, but those who go to
   Jesus and sit at His feet, and ask to be taught of His Spirit, shall be
   wise unto salvation! Blessed be God, there are not a few among us of
   this sort. We are not left orphans--we still have an Instructor with
   us!

   There is one point in which the orphan is often sorrowfully reminded of
   his orphanhood, namely, in lacking a defender. It is so natural in a
   little child, when some big boys bully him, to cry, "I'll tell my
   father!" How often did we use to say so, and how often have we heard
   from the little ones since, "I'll tell Mother!" Sometimes, the not
   being able to do this is a much severer loss than we can guess. Unkind
   and cruel men have snatched away from orphans the little which a
   father's love had left behind and, in the court of law, there has been
   no defender to protect the orphan's goods. Had the father been there,
   the child would have had its rights, scarcely would any have dared to
   infringe them. But, in the absence of the father, the orphan is eaten
   up like bread and the wicked of the earth devour his estate. In this
   sense, the saints are not orphans. The devil would rob us of our
   heritage if he could, but there is an Advocate with the Father who
   pleads for us. Satan would snatch from us every promise and tear from
   us all the comforts of the Covenant, but we are not orphans. And when
   he brings a suit-at-law against us and thinks that we are the only
   defendants in the case, he is mistaken, for we have an Advocate on
   high! Christ comes in and pleads, as the sinner's Friend, for us--and
   when He pleads at the Bar of Justice, there is no fear but that His
   plea will be of effect, and our inheritance shall be safe! He has not
   left us orphans.

   Now I want, without saying many words, to get you who love the Master
   to feel what a very precious thought this is, that you are not alone in
   this world--that if you have no earthly friends, if you have none to
   whom you can take your cares, if you are quite lonely so far as outward
   friends are concerned--yet Jesus is with you, is really with you,
   practically with you, able to help you and ready to do so! You have a
   good and kind Protector close at hand at this present moment, for
   Christ has said it, "I will not leave you orphans."

   II. Secondly, there is A CONSOLATION PROVIDED. The remedy by which the
   evil is averted is this--our Lord Jesus said, "I will come to you."

   What does this mean? Does it not mean, from the context, "I will come
   to you by My Spirit?" Beloved, we must not confuse the Persons of the
   Godhead. The Holy Spirit is not the Son of God. Jesus, the Son of God,
   is not the Holy Spirit. They are two distinct Persons of the one
   Godhead. But there is such a wonderful unity and the blessed Spirit
   acts so marvelously as the Vicar of Christ, that it is quite correct to
   say that when the Spirit comes, Jesus comes, too. And, "I will come to
   you," means--"I, by My Spirit, who shall take My place and represent
   Me, I will come to be with you." See then, Christian, you have the Holy
   Spirit in you and with you to be the Representative of Christ! Christ
   is with you now, not in Person, but by His Representative--an
   efficient, almighty, Divine, everlasting Representative who stands for
   Christ and is as Christ to you in His Presence in your souls.

   Because you thus have Christ by His Spirit, you cannot be orphans, for
   the Spirit of God is always with you! It is a delightful Truth of God
   that the Spirit of God always dwells in Believers--not sometimes, but
   always. He is not always active in Believers and He may be grieved
   until His sensible Presence is altogether withdrawn, but His secret
   Presence is always there. At no single moment is the Spirit of God
   wholly gone from a Believer. The Believer would die spiritually if this
   could happen, but that cannot be, for Jesus has said, "Because I live,
   you shall live also." Even when the Believer sins, the Holy Spirit does
   not utterly depart from him, but is still in him to make him smart for
   the sin into which he has fallen. The Believer's prayers prove that the
   Holy Spirit is still within him. "Take not your Holy Spirit from me,"
   was the prayer of a saint who had fallen very foully, but in whom the
   Spirit of God still kept His residence, notwithstanding all the
   foulness of David's guilt and sin!

   But, Beloved, in addition to this, Jesus Christ, by His Spirit, makes
   visits to His people of a peculiar kind. The Holy Spirit becomes
   wonderfully active and potent at certain times of refreshing. We are
   then especially and joyfully sensible of His Divine Power. His
   influence streams through every chamber of our nature and floods our
   dark soul with His glorious rays as the sun shining in its strength.
   Oh, how delightful this is! Sometimes we have felt this at the Lord's
   Table. My soul pants to sit with you at that Table because I remember
   many a happy time when the emblems of bread and wine have assisted my
   faith and kindled the passions of my soul into a heavenly flame! I am
   equally sure that at the Prayer Meeting, under the preaching of the
   Word, in private meditation and in searching the Scriptures, we can say
   that Jesus Christ has come to us. What? Have you no hill Mizar to
   remember--

   "No Tabor-visits to recount

   When with Him in the holy mount?" Oh, yes! Some of these blessed
   seasons have left their impression upon our memories so that the
   remembrance of those blessed seasons when Jesus Christ manifested
   Himself unto us as He does not unto the world will mingle among our
   dying thoughts! Oh, to be wrapped in that crimson vest, closely pressed
   to His open side! Oh, to put our finger into the print of the nails and
   to thrust our hand into His side! We know what this means by past
   experience.

   And now, gathering up the few thoughts I have uttered, let me remind
   you, dear Friends, that every word of the text is instructive--"I will
   not leave you orphans: I will come to you." Observe the, "I," there
   twice over. "I will not leave you orphans--father and mother may, but I
   will not. Friends once beloved may turn stony-hearted, but I will not.
   Judas may play the traitor and Ahithophel may betray his David, but I
   will not leave you comfortless. You have had many disappointments,
   great heart-breaking sorrows, but I have never caused you any. I--the
   faithful and true Witness, the Immutable, the unchangeable Jesus, the
   same yesterday, today and forever--I will not leave you comfortless: I
   will come to you." Catch at that word, "I," and let your souls say,
   "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. If You had
   said, 'I will send an angel to you,' it would have been a great mercy,
   but what do You say, 'I will come unto you'? If You had bid some of my
   Brothers and Sisters come and speak a word of comfort to me, I would
   have been thankful--but You have put it thus in the first person, 'I
   will come unto you.' O my Lord, what shall I say, what shall I do but
   feel a hungering and a thirsting after You which nothing shall satisfy
   till You shall fulfill Your own Word, 'I will not leave you
   comfortless: I will come to you'?"

   And then notice the persons to whom it is addressed, "I will not leave
   you comfortless: you, Peter, who will deny Me. You, Thomas, who will
   doubt Me: I will not leave you comfortless." O you who are so little in
   Israel that you sometimes think it is a pity that your name is in the
   church book at all because you feel yourselves to be so worthless, so
   unworthy, He will not leave you comfortless, not even you! "O Lord,"
   you say, "if You would look after the rest of Your sheep, I would bless
   You for Your tenderness to them, but I--I deserve to be left! If I were
   forsaken of You, I could not blame You, for I have played the harlot
   against Your love, but yet You say, 'I will not leave you.'" Heir of
   Heaven, do not lose your part in this promise! I pray you say, "Lord,
   come unto me and though You refresh all my Brothers and Sisters, yet,
   Lord, refresh me with some of the droppings of Your love! O Lord, fill
   the cup for me! My thirsty spirit pants for it--

   "'I thirst, I faint, I die to prove

   The greatness of redeeming love,

   The love of Christ to me.'

   Now, Lord, fulfill Your word to Your unworthy handmaid, as I stand,
   like Hannah, in Your Presence. Come unto me, Your servant, unworthy to
   lift so much as my eyes toward Heaven, and only daring to say, 'God be
   merciful to me, a sinner.' Fulfill Your promise even to me, 'I will not
   leave you comfortless: I will come to you.'" Take whichever of the
   words you will and they each one sparkle and flash after this fashion!

   Observe, too, the richness and sufficiency of the text--"I will not
   leave you comfortless: I will come to you." Jesus does not promise, "I
   will send you sanctifying Grace, or sustaining mercy, or precious
   mercy," but He promises you the only thing that will prevent your being
   orphans, "I will come to you." Ah, Lord! Your Grace is sweet, but You
   are better! The vine is good, but the clusters are better! It is well
   enough to have a gift from Your hands, but oh, to touch the hand
   itself! It is well enough to hear the words of Your lips, but to kiss
   those lips, as the spouse did in the Song, this is still better! You
   know, if there is an orphan child, you cannot prevent its continuing an
   orphan. You may feel great kindness towards it, supply its needs and do
   all you possibly can for it, but it is still an orphan. It must get its
   father and its mother back, or else it will still be an orphan. So, our
   blessed Lord, knowing this, does not say, "I will do this and that for
   you," but, "I will come to you."

   Do you not see, dear Friends, that there is not only all you can need,
   but all you think you need wrapped up in a sentence, "I will come to
   you"? "It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell," so
   that when Christ comes, in Him "all fullness" comes! "In Him dwells all
   the fullness of the Godhead bodily," so that when Jesus comes, the very
   Godhead comes to the Believer!--

   "'All my capacious powers can wish In You do they richly meet'--

   and if You shall come to me, it is better than all the gifts of Your
   Covenant. If I get You, I get all, and more than all, at once."
   Observe, then, the language and the sufficiency of the promise.

   But I want you to notice, further, the continued freshness and force of
   the promise. Somebody here owes another person 50 pounds, and he gives
   him a note of hand, "I promise to pay you 50 pounds." Very well. The
   man calls with that note of hand tomorrow and gets 50 pounds. And what
   is the good of the note of hand now? Why, it is of no further value, it
   is discharged! How would you like to have a note of hand which would
   always stand good? That would be a right royal present. "I promise to
   pay evermore, and this bond, though paid a thousand times, shall still
   hold good." Who would not like to have a bond of that sort? Yet this is
   the promise which Christ gives you! "I will not leave you orphans: I
   will come to you." The first time a sinner looks to Christ, Christ
   comes to him. And what then? Why, the next minute it is still, "I will
   come to you." But here is one who has known Christ for 50 years and he
   has had this promise fulfilled a thousand times a year! Is it not done
   with? Oh, no! There it stands, just as fresh as when Jesus first spoke
   it, "I will come to you." Then we will treat our Lord in His own
   fashion and take Him at His word! We will go to Him as often as we can,
   for we shall never weary Him--and when He has kept His promise most,
   then is it that we will go to Him and ask Him to still keep it! And
   after ten thousand proofs of the truth of it, we will only have a
   greater hungering and thirsting to get it fulfilled again! This is fit
   provision for life and for death, "I will come to you." In the last
   moment, when your pulse beats faintly and you are just about to pass
   the curtain and enter into the invisible world, you may have this upon
   your lips, and say to your Lord, "My Master, fulfill to me the word on
   which You have caused me to hope, 'I will not leave you comfortless: I
   will come to you.'"

   Let me remind you that the text is at this moment validand for this I
   delight in it. "I will not leave you comfortless." That means now, "I
   will not leave you comfortless now." Are you comfortless at this hour?
   It is your own fault. Jesus Christ does not leave you so, nor make you
   so. There are rich and precious things in this promise, "I will not
   leave you comfortless: I will come to you, I will come to you now." It
   may be a very dull time with you and you are pining to come nearer to
   Christ. Very well, then, plead the promise before the Lord! Plead the
   promise as you sit where you are-- "Lord, You have said that You will
   come unto me; come unto me tonight."

   There are many reasons, Believer, why you should plead thus. You want
   Him. You need Him. You require Him. Therefore plead the promise and
   expect its fulfillment! And oh, when He comes, what a joy it is! He is
   as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber with his garments fragrant
   with aloes and cassia! How well the oil of joy will perfume your heart!
   How soon will your sackcloth be put away and the garments of gladness
   adorn you! With what joy of heart will your heavy soul begin to sing
   when Jesus Christ shall whisper that you are His and that He is yours!
   Come, my Beloved, do not tarry! Be like a roe or a young hart upon the
   mountains of separation and prove to me Your promise is true, "I will
   not leave you orphans: I will come to you."

   And now, dear Friends, in conclusion, let me remind you that there are
   many who have no share in the text. What can I say to such? From my
   soul I pity you who do not know what the love of Christ means. Oh, if
   you could but tell the joy of God's people, you would not rest an hour
   without it! Remember that if you sincerely desire to find Christ, He is
   to be found in the way of faith. Trust Him and He is yours! Depend upon
   the merit of His Sacrifice--cast yourselves entirely upon that and you
   are saved--and Christ is yours!

   God grant that we may all break bread in the Kingdom above, feast with
   Jesus and share His Glory! We are expecting His second coming. He is
   coming personally and gloriously. This is the brightest hope of His
   people. This will be the fullness of their redemption, the time of
   their resurrection. Anticipate it, Beloved, and may God make your souls
   to sing for joy!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:

   www.spurgeongems.org

   The Believe Not an Orphan JOHN 15.

   Many of you know the words of this chapter by heart. You could repeat
   them without a mistake. May the savor of them abide in your hearts even
   as the letter of them abides in your memory!

   Verse 1. I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. We thank
   You, O Savior, for this blessed answer to the often-repeated question,
   "Which is the true Church?" Are you one with Christ? Then are you a
   part of the true vine. If we have a real, vital, personal, saving
   connection with Christ, to whatever section of the visible Church we
   may belong, we are part of "the true vine." And we are told, in the
   next sentence, who is the great Caretaker of the Church. Some of us are
   much occupied in Christ's service and there is a tendency with all of
   us to get like Martha--"cumbered" in serving for Him. We are apt to
   fancy that the burden of all the churches lies upon our shoulders, but,
   Beloved, this is a great mistake. Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and
   My Father is the vinedresser." He will take the utmost possible care of
   it, for it is very dear to Him. There is not a branch in that vine
   which the Father does not love with Infinite affection and, as for the
   majestic stem, even Jesus, He loves Him beyond measure.

   2. Every branch in Me that bears not fruit He takes away. This
   operation is always going on. God is continually taking away from the
   Church, in some way or other, non-fruit-bearers. We know that these do
   not truly belong to Christ, for fruit must come from vital union to
   Him. But it is a trial to the Church to have non-fruit-bearing
   branches. These are taken away, sometimes by death, sometimes by
   judgment, sometimes by the open discovery of their secret sin-- the
   culmination of their backslides in overt acts of transgression. "Every
   branch in Me that bears not fruit He takes away." But side by side with
   this action another process is constantly going on.

   2. And every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring
   forth more fruit. Is this, then, dear Friend, one reason why you are
   being chastened--because you are a fruit-bearing branch? If you bore no
   fruit, you would be left unpruned because the knife would do its
   sterner work upon you by taking you altogether away. If you really do
   bring forth fruit to God, you must expect to have trial, trouble,
   affliction--and that full often.

   3. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
   That was a "word" which had sorely grieved them and cut them to the
   quick, so that the Savior had to say to them, more than once, "Let not
   your heart be troubled." (See the 1st, and the 27th , verses of the
   preceding chapter). They had felt the sharp edge of the pruning-knife,
   so Jesus said to them, "Now you are clean (purged or pruned) through
   the word which I have spoken unto you."

   4. Abide in Me, and I in you. The main thing is not restless activity,
   running here and there, and doing this and that, and the other
   thing--it is abiding in Christ, persevering, constantly cleaving to
   Christ by virtue of a vital union with Him--"Abide in Me, and I in
   you."

   4. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abides in the
   vine; no more can you, except you abide in Me. You may hurry, and
   flurry and worry, but you will lose by it. Keep close to Christ. Never
   let your heart be dissociated from intimate communion with Him. So
   shall you bring forth fruit, but no way else.

   5, 6. I am the vine, you are the branches: he that abides in Me, and I
   in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without Me you can do
   nothing. If a man abides not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and
   is withered: and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they
   are burned. The vine is of use for nothing but fruit-bearing and if it
   does not bear fruit, it is good for nothing except to be burned. In the
   social economy of life, a man may be of some use however bad he may be,
   but a man who is in the nominal Church of Christ and yet does not bring
   forth fruit unto God, is of no use whatever! There is nothing to the
   done with him but to gather him up with the sere autumn leaves and the
   decaying stalks of vegetation, to be burned in the corner outside the
   wall. How trying is the smoke that comes from such a burning as that!
   We pastors sometimes get it into our eyes and it fills them with bitter
   tears. I know of nothing that is more grievous to us than this putting
   out of the unworthy, this casting the fruitless vine branches into the
   fire that they may be burned.

   7. You abide in Me, and My words abide in you. You see that doctrinal
   vitality is necessary to true union to Christ. Some, in these days,
   talk about a spiritual attachment to the Person of Christ, while they
   shoot their envenomed darts against the dogmas of Christ. But that will
   not do. "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you"--My words of
   doctrine, precept, or promise--"then"--

   your fruit should remain." Let us accept all God's Words as He has
   given them to us and keep up the due proportion of the whole. Note that
   Christ is not speaking here of spasmodic piety, the religion that can
   only be kept up by popular preaching, great meetings, much excitement
   and all that sort of thing--but of the religion of principle that bears
   its clusters to-morrow as well as today, and even months and years
   hence! The religion that bears its fruit every month and the leaf
   whereof does not wither! May we be such branches in the true vine that
   our fruit shall thus remain.

   16. That whatever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give
   it to you. For, where the fruit remains, power in prayer will remain.
   If we are constantly living unto God, we shall find ourselves
   privileged to have the ear of God and when we pray to Him, He will
   grant us the desire of our hearts.

   17. These things I command you, that you love one another. Our Lord
   repeated the command, for He knew how prone even His disciples would be
   to disobey it.

   18. If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated
   you. It is no new thing for the ungodly to hate the godly, so let us
   not be surprised if that is our portion.

   19. 20. If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but
   because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
   world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said
   unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have
   persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My
   saying, they will keep yours also. It ought to be quite sufficient for
   the servant if he is treated as his Lord was--what higher honor than
   that could he wish to have?

   21. But all these things will they do unto you for My name's sake,
   because they know not Him that sent Me. They professed to know God and
   some of them even thought that they were rendering acceptable service
   to God when they rejected His Son, whom He had sent to them!

   22-24. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin:
   but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hates Me hates My
   Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no other man
   did, they had not had sin: but now they have both seen and hated both
   Me and My Father. Our Lord did not mean that they would have been
   sinless if He had not come to them, but that His coming and their
   rejection of Him had enormously increased and intensified their
   sinfulness.

   25. But this came to pass that the Word might be fulfilled that is
   written in their Law, They hated Me without a cause.They fulfilled what
   had been written long before, even as they afterwards did when they put
   Christ to death.

   26, 27. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from
   the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the Father,
   He shall testify of Me: and you also shall bear witness, because you
   have been with Me from the beginning. The witness of the Spirit of
   Truth still continues and Christ's disciples are still privileged to be
   co-witnesses, even with the Holy Spirit, Himself. Let us take care to
   avail ourselves of this privilege whenever we can.
     __________________________________________________________________

What We Have, and Are to Have

   (No. 2991)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER
   28, 1876.

   "Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, our Father, who has loved
   us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
   Grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and
   work." 2 Thessalonians 2:16,17

   EVERY man who is engaged in a good work desires that it may be lasting.
   "Establish You the work of our hands upon us; yes, the work of our
   hands establish You it," was not only a very appropriate prayer from
   the mouth of Moses, who had led the children of Israel through the
   wilderness, but it is also a very appropriate prayer to be presented by
   every minister of Jesus Christ. We desire to build that which will
   endure the fire of the great testing day--not wood, hay and stubble,
   but gold, silver and precious stones.

   The Apostle Paul, like all true servants of Christ, was very anxious
   about those who had been converted and formed into churches by him. He
   desired that all the professed converts should be real converts and
   that the members of the churches in the various countries where the
   Gospel had been preached might be well trained and instructed--and
   might know the Truth of God and be firmly rooted in it. It somewhat
   saddened him that the Christians at Thessalonica had been disturbed by
   a rumor about the speedy coming of Christ. He was grieved that they had
   been troubled concerning this matter and he was still more sorry that
   they had not men among them able to guide them at such a crisis, for
   they were like children carried away by novelties. The Apostle wanted
   them to be firmly established in the faith, to know the Truth of God
   and to have it abiding in their hearts so that they would be able to
   stand fast in the evil day, whatever error might be raging round about
   them.

   I think, Brothers and Sisters, that the prayer of the Apostle is very
   suitable for this present period. We have rejoiced to see a large
   number of persons coming out as professed followers of Christ, but what
   is needed is that they should be so enlisted in the army of Christ that
   they will remain faithful even unto death. We do not want our work to
   be shallow and superficial--we want it to be like that "city which has
   foundations, whose builder and maker is God." It is heartbreaking
   service to sow the good Seed of the Kingdom upon the rocky ground, for
   it springs up so rapidly simply because it has no depth of earth and
   then, when the burning heat of the sun shines upon it, it withers away
   because it has neither moisture nor root. It would be far better to
   have half a dozen souls really brought to Jesus Christ and enduring to
   the end, than to have half a dozen thousand blazing away with a false
   profession for a time--and then returning like the dog to his vomit, or
   like the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Our Lord's
   own declaration is, "He that endures to the end shall be saved." It is
   that endurance, that holding out to the end, which is the point to
   which we would direct all our endeavors on behalf of our hearers and
   our converts--and the point about which we would most earnestly pray to
   our God.

   Because these Thessalonians had been somewhat fluttered and disturbed,
   the Apostle was distressed concerning them and he, therefore, exhorted
   them to steadfastness. "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the
   traditions which you have been taught, whether by word, or our
   Epistle." But after exhorting them to stand fast, he did not feel that
   this was sufficient. So he stopped writing, laid down his pen, fell on
   his knees and prayed to God to make them stand fast. And when we
   realize how feeble our utmost exertions are, we may well join fervent
   prayer to them! And when we remember that the flesh is so weak and that
   even when men resolve to stand fast, their feet are very soon caused to
   slip, we may well cry to the great Holder-Up of His saints to keep them
   from falling, or even from stumbling. The preacher's work is only

   half done when he has exhorted his hearers to stand fast--he must then
   fall upon his knees and pray for them. And you who teach others in the
   Sunday school and elsewhere, must remember that whatever you exhort
   your scholars to do, you should always pray to God to lead them to do
   it. This is a blessed compound of preaching and praying--it makes a
   rich amalgam of Christian ministry when there is, first, the testimony
   of the Truth of God to men and next, the pleading with God on the
   behalf of men. Regard, then, our text as the Apostle's prayer for the
   Thessalonians, and for all of us who believe in Jesus, that we may
   stand tall, in this evil day, and that, having done all, we may still
   stand steadfast whoever and whatever may oppose.

   Paul's prayer is instructive, for it directs our attention to two
   things. First, to what we have already--"Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
   and God, our Father, who has loved us, and has given us everlasting
   consolation and good hope through Grace." And then it tells us what we
   are to have, what is the natural result of what we already
   have--"Comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and
   work."

   I. First, then, Brothers and Sisters, we are to consider WHAT WE
   ALREADY HAVE.

   The Apostle mentions, first, the source of all our blessings and then
   the streams. "Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, our Father."
   There is the source of all our blessings and, to my mind, it is
   exceedingly suggestive to notice that word, "our," put in twice in the
   early part of the text. Paul does not write, "Now the Lord Jesus Christ
   Himself, and God, our Father." But it is, "OurLord Jesus Christ
   Himself, and God, our Father."

   The source of our present comfort and of our future perseverance is the
   fact that Jesus Christ is ours. Look at Him now with the adoring eyes
   of your reverent contemplation, in His glorious Deity and His perfect
   Manhood. Look at Him in the manger. Behold Him on the Cross. Regard His
   perfect life and His redeeming death. Behold Him in His Resurrection,
   His triumphant Ascension and His perpetual intercession. And look
   forward to His promised return from Heaven. Beloved Believer, He is
   yours--all yours. In all those positions and conditions He has given
   Himself to you and to me, and we may together say, "OurLord Jesus
   Christ!" Oh, how precious is this Truth of God to our soul! Being
   Divine, He is Omnipotent and that almighty power He wields for us!
   Being Divine, He is Omniscient and those sleepless eyes of His are
   always on the watch for us! Being Divine, He is Immutable and that
   eternal love of His which knows no shadow of a change, is fixed upon
   us! All His attributes and Himself, also, He places at our disposal--so
   let each one of us gratefully respond, "You are my portion, says my
   soul." Enlarge your thoughts concerning the Lord Jesus! Think most
   highly of Him! Extol Him with your heart and with your tongue! But
   remember that when you have reached the utmost heights that you can
   attain in your estimation of Him, He is yours, altogether yours, and
   you can say with Paul, " OurLord Jesus Christ Himself--

   "Our Lord is risen from the dead

   Our Jesus is gone up on high!

   The powers of Hell are captives led--

   Dragged to the portals of the sky.

   There His triumphal chariot waits

   And angels chant the solemn lay--

   Lift up your heads, you heavenly gates!

   You everlasting dove, give way!'" And then the Apostle adds, "And God,
   our Father." We sometimes tremble at the thought of God our Father, as
   well we may. How could we ever approach Him were it not for God in
   human flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ? But when we have once really
   trusted in Christ, it is an easy matter for us to look by faith to God
   and to rejoice in Him! And, with the deepest reverence of soul, let us
   know that God--the ever-blessed God--the terrible God--the Omnipotent
   God who shakes both Heaven and earth with His voice, who touches the
   hills and they smoke--this God is ourGod! And all His attributes of
   power, as well as those which we usually consider to be more full of
   Grace, are exerted on our behalf! I do not know anything that is more
   comforting in times of trouble than this great Truth. I met, yesterday,
   a gentleman who told me that he was converted some 30 years ago,
   through the instrumentality of a great-uncle of mine with whom he lived
   as an apprentice. He said, "There was a terrible thunderstorms and the
   old gentleman was sitting by the fireside and we youngsters were
   afraid. The flashes of lightning were so vivid and the thunder pealed
   out so terribly, but," he added, "the old gentleman rose from the
   fireside, went to the window, and as he looked out, he began to sing--

   'The God that rules on high

   And thunders when He pleases, That rides upon the stormy sky, And
   manages the seas--

   This awful God is ours, Our Father and our love! He shall send down His
   heavenly powers To carry us above.'"

   The gentleman said to me, "I never forgot the impression I then
   received of that good man's quietude of mind, and of the evident
   delight which he took in that display of the Divine Omnipotence. There
   seemed to him a sweetness in the eloquence of his Father's voice,
   though it made every timber in the old house shake."

   Yes, Brothers and Sisters, the Apostle brings these things to our minds
   so that we may realize that in having "our Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
   and God, ourFather," we have on our side those who will be true to us
   forever and, therefore, we ought to continue to be comforted in heart
   and established in every good word and work. If you had trusted only to
   a dead Savior, you might well go and weep over His tomb--if you had
   such gods as the heathen have, then might all consolation be withheld
   from you. But with an almighty Savior who always lives to make
   intercession for you and with an Omnipotent and Omniscient Father who
   always lives to watch over you as His dear children, you must not so
   much as think of being disquieted in spirit, nor even dream of being
   moved from the firm foundation of your faith and hope, and love!

   While still thinking of this source of our consolation, it will help us
   if we notice, next, that the Apostle specially mentions the Person of
   Christ. "Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself" Why did he put in that word,
   "Himself," just there? It would have sounded all right if he had
   written, "Now our Lord Jesus Christ, and God, our Father, who has loved
   us." Ah, but he wanted to call our very particular attention to the
   real Personality of our Lord Jesus Christ and to make us feel that, in
   Him--not merely in what He does and what He bestows, but in "Himself is
   the source of our comfort! "Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself" O
   Brothers and Sisters, is there any surer source of joy to a Christian
   than Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God? John writes, "The Word was made
   flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
   only-begotten of the Father, full of Grace and truth." And from the
   inspired Word I know that God has taken Humanity into union with
   Divinity, and that He who stands at the right hand of God, even the
   Father, is the Son of Mary, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh! Why,
   there is comfort in the knowledge that He is there as the
   Representative Man who has taken redeemed human nature right up to the
   Throne of God--picked up human nature as it lay, all bruised and
   mangled, outside the gate of the earthly Paradise--and taken it up into
   the heavenly Paradise from which it can never be expelled!

   There must be thoughts of love to man in the heart of God since His
   only-begotten and well-beloved Son is a Man! When you think of your
   Savior, you are not to think exclusively of Him as God, but also to
   think of Him as Man, for He was born into this world and lived in it.
   He ate and drank, and slept and walked as we do--and He also died as we
   do! And in His Humanity, as well as in His Divinity, He has gone into
   Glory. Leaving out, for the moment, what He has done for us, we may
   well rejoice in what He is, Himself, as Immanuel, God With Us! Here is
   music in the very sound of that sweet name--and there is the very
   essence of music in "our Lord Jesus Christ Himself."

   But look at His Person, not merely as Man, but as the God-Man who has
   offered a complete Atonement for His people's guilt. Up yonder,
   enthroned in Glory, is your Savior, not merely as Man, but as the
   Mediator between God and men, who has completed His great Sacrifice,
   accomplished all His Father's purposes and fulfilled His Father's will
   so that He could truly say, "It is finished." Look at Him, by faith, as
   the glorified Man--glorified because, having descended into the grave
   bearing His people's sin, He came up out of the grave without sin. He
   "was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our
   justification." And His Resurrection was the proof that He had--

   "To the utmost farthing paid Whatever His people owed."

   Surely it should bring the sweetest consolation to you to think of
   Jesus Christ as the Representative of His people, gone up into Glory
   and soon to come to this earth again to reign "before His ancients
   gloriously," when the bodies of all His saints shall be fashioned like
   unto His glorious body, and so shall be "forever with the Lord."
   Brothers and Sisters, may

   "our Lord Jesus Christ Himself manifest Himself unto you with those
   dear upraised hands of His, with the scars still visible! And as you
   gaze upon Him, may you realize that He is giving to you "everlasting
   consolation and good hope through Grace" and, therefore, may your
   hearts be comforted and may you be established in every good word and
   work! How can you be moved from your steadfastness so long as you can
   see Him? How can you ever depart from Him who has won your affection
   and holds your soul fast with cords of a man, and bands of love? Surely
   you must cling to Him forever and ever! I feel that I must say with the
   poet--

   "A very wretch, Lord!I should prove,

   Had I no love for Thee--

   Rather than not my Savior love,

   Oh, may I cease to be!"

   The Apostle, however, does not let us forget that in union with our
   dear Redeemer, at one with Him in every purpose of Divine Grace, is
   "God, our Father, who has loved us." And he bids us think not so much
   of His Person which we cannot comprehend, as of His love. So, Beloved,
   let us try to view God our Father in the attitude of loving us. Truly,
   this is a boundless and unfathomable sea! We can neither fly across it,
   nor dive into its depths. Remember, Believer, that the Lord loved you
   long before the foundation of the world. You are so insignificant in
   the scale of being that if He had quite forgotten you, you might not
   have wondered. And yet, before the mountains were created, or He had
   kindled the morning star, in the glass of His decrees He beheld you and
   even then He loved you! Recollect how Jeremiah was inspired to write,
   "The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yes, I have loved you
   with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
   you." Dwell on that wondrous Truth of God, that God has loved you with
   an everlasting love. Suck the honey of consolation out of that glorious
   fact! Surely if your faith is at all in exercise, you will find much
   sacred sweetness there.

   God loved us, as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "even when we were dead
   in sins." God loved you when you resisted His Spirit. He loved you when
   you despised His Son. He loved you out of the horrible pit and the miry
   clay. He loved you into a state of Grace and so loved you into loving
   Him. And He has loved you ever since with a constant love though He has
   sometimes chastened you for your profit--for His love is wise and
   discriminating. He has never deserted you and His love for you has been
   constant and true. He has often been grieved with you when you have
   sinned against Him, for His love is a holy love which cannot endure
   iniquity--yet He has forgiven you, for His love is a gracious love! He
   has always loved you and is loving you at this moment. Surely this fact
   ought both to comfort the Believer's heart and to hold it fast! And
   this is what the Apostle was aiming at when he wrote our text. What can
   bind a Christian to his God so well as a sense of Divine Love? If it is
   but shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit, you will not be
   tempted away from your Heavenly Father's house, neither will you be
   weary of your Heavenly Father's work, nor tired of your Heavenly
   Father's words. That which comes to us perfumed with love is always
   sweet and precious, so let us rejoice to remember "God, our Father, who
   has loved us."

   And, Beloved, do not forget that having once loved you, He will always
   love you. When this great world has passed away and, like a dream, has
   vanished into nothingness, you will still live because Jesus will still
   live--and you will still be loved by "God, our Father," because Jesus
   will still be loved by Him. As you are in Him, you shall be forever in
   Him and forever be the object of the Father's love. These are simple
   matters to speak of, but they are sublime Truths of God to live upon.
   Bread is a common thing, but a hungry man thinks it very precious. O
   you hungry children of God, cut large slices from the loaf that is set
   before you, now, and gratefully feed upon it! Here is "our Lord Jesus
   Christ Himself," in His complex Person as God and Man, as a fountain of
   comfort to His people and He is "God, our Father," in His everlasting
   love to us, as the same fountain under another aspect.

   Then the Apostle, having pointed out to us the Divine Source of all our
   blessings, bids us survey the streams which flow from that Source--"who
   has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope
   through Grace." Beloved, the consolation which God gives to us is not
   temporary, but eternal! Such consolation is worth having and when we
   get it, we may well rejoice over it.

   What are the consolations which God gives to His people? I need not
   mention all the forms of consolation, for, to meet each separate case
   of distress, there is a special message of comfort--and every promise
   that God gives you is part of the everlasting consolation with which He
   has enriched all His chosen people. The potent "shalls" and "wills" of
   Jehovah stand fast like His Throne and can never be changed. Has He
   given you a promise and shall He not fulfill it? Yes, and

   fulfill it again, and again, and again, as long as you shall need to
   have it fulfilled, for His promises are inexhaustible and full of
   manifold riches of blessedness to the believing soul! God's promise of
   consolation is based upon the "Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all
   things, and sure." God has entered into a Covenant with Christ on the
   behalf of all His people. And from the provisions of that Covenant He
   will never depart, for He has "confirmed it by an oath: that by two
   Immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might
   have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon
   the hope set before us."--

   "His oath, His Covenant, and His blood, Support me in the sinking
   flood. When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and
   stay-- On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking
   sand."

   Pardoned sin is, to my mind, one phase of the "everlasting consolation"
   which God has given us, for, be it known unto you that God does not
   forgive your sin today and then lay it to your charge again tomorrow.
   Little children give presents and them want to have them back
   again--and fickle men often play fast and loose with one another. But
   when God forgives, He forgives forever, "for the gifts and calling of
   God are without repentance." That is to say, He never changes His mind
   and takes back the gift which He has bestowed. Have you received
   absolution from the lips of your God? Then your sins shall never again
   rise up against you in judgment, for they have been cast into the
   depths of the sea! "In those days, and in that time, says the Lord, the
   iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And
   the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon them,
   whom I reserve."

   What "everlasting consolation" there is, also, in the great Doctrine of
   Adoption! We become the children of God when we are born-again. "And if
   children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." A
   man's child is always his child and God's child is always His child. A
   man cannot "unchild" his own son or daughter! And if you are a child of
   God, you shall be a child of God throughout eternity! The life that God
   has put into you is not transient! As Jesus said concerning His sheep,
   "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither
   shall any pluck them out of My hand." What rich consolation there is
   for you in this blessed Truth of God! The very life which becomes yours
   by your adoption into the family of God is an everlasting life--it
   must, therefore, yield you "everlasting consolation."

   Time would fail me to remind you of all the various forms of
   consolation which the Spirit of God applies to the heart of the
   Believer--and every phase of it is everlasting! Therefore, Brothers and
   Sisters, let us not be moved away from the hope of the Gospel. Let us
   not cast away our confidence, "which has great recompense of reward."
   Let us not be disturbed or disquieted--let not our hearts be troubled.
   If we have everlasting consolation, let our joy also be perpetual.

   And then the Apostle, still further to comfort our hearts and establish
   us in every good word and work, tells us that God has given us "good
   hope through Grace." You know what that good hope is--the hope that He
   will preserve us unto the end--the hope that we shall be raised from
   the dead in God's good time--the hope that we shall be accepted in the
   day of Christ's appearing--the hope that we shall be with Him where He
   is and shall behold His Glory and share it with Him forever and ever!
   This is a good hope because it has a good basis to rest upon. God has
   given this hope to all who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. And as God
   is true, the hope is a good hope. A hope that is founded upon a lie is
   a vain hope, but a hope that is founded upon a promise of God is a good
   hope. It is a good hope because it is a hope of good things--so good,
   my dear Friend, that you cannot find anything to match them in the
   whole world. It may well be called a good hope, for it is the hope of
   perfection, the hope of being transformed into the image of Christ, the
   hope of everlasting delight. It is the best of all hopes and we cannot
   say more of it than that. It is a good hope because of its operation on
   the heart. "Every man that has this hope in him, purifies himself, even
   as Christ is pure." For the man who has a good hope through Divine
   Grace longs to be purged from sin, to be waiting and watching for his
   Lord's appearing and to have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of
   God!

   Now, Brothers and Sisters, since so much of what God has given to you
   is at present the subject of hope, do you not see how bound you are to
   remain in the posture of waiting and hoping--and to be neither
   discouraged, nor yet to turn deserters? May the Lord "comfort your
   hearts, and establish you in every good word and work," because you are
   saved by hope and the realization of that hope is not visible at
   present, for, if you saw it, you would not continue to hope for it.

   You are expecting greater things than you have ever realized! It is
   better than before, for your faces are toward the rising sun. We were
   told, some time ago, by a philosopher, that our nation had been
   shooting Niagara and taking a leap in the dark. Well, that may be, or
   may not be, but this I know, Believers in Christ are not descending
   Niagara, for they are ascending! And their leap, whenever they leap, is
   not into the dark, but into the Light of God--a Light that is brighter,
   and brighter still! Our progress is away from evil up to good, from
   good to better, and from the better to the best of all--an infinite
   progression, by the Divine impulse of the Grace of God--for it is by
   Grace! "Good hope through Grace." We do not get this good hope through
   nature, or through our own free will--we get it through Divine Grace.
   Grace has given us what we have already received and Grace also gives
   us the hope of what we have not yet received. Grace lets us see the
   things that are ours at present and Grace enables us to realize the
   things that shall be ours in the future!

   I hope you understand what the Apostle meant in setting all this before
   you. If I had the tongues of men and of angels, I could not tell you
   the heights, deaths, lengths and breadths of these gracious words. Let
   me read them to you again--"Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God,
   our Father, who has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation
   and good hope through Grace." That is what we already have!

   II. Now I want to clinch the nail by speaking of WHAT WE ARE TO HAVE as
   the result of what we already have. Paul prayed for the Thessalonians,
   first, that the Lord would comfort their hearts and, Brothers and
   Sisters in Christ, may the Lord comfort your hearts! God does not wish
   you to be sad. A certain Persian king would allow no one to wait upon
   him if he had a sad countenance. It is not so with our Lord, for He
   looks with a tender eye upon those who are heavy of heart and He does
   not forbid them to come into His Presence. At the same time--

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

   If you have everlasting consolation, my dear Sister, what reason have
   you for such constant fretting? If you have a good hope through Grace,
   my dear Brother, why did you say, the other day, that you were tempted
   almost to give up all hope? May the Lord comfort your hearts! Perhaps
   you think it is a small thing for the Lord's people to be comforted,
   but God does not think so. He said to His servants, the Prophets,
   "Comfort you, comfort you My people, says your God." It was not one
   alone whom He told to do this, but He said, "Comfort you My people," as
   though He summoned all His servants and said to them, "Whatever you do
   in denouncing sinners and in stirring up My people to work for Me,
   never forget this part of your duty--'Comfort you, comfort you My
   people, says your God. Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem.'" Our Lord
   Jesus Christ did not think that it was a small thing for His people to
   be happy, for, on the very night in which He went forth to His passion,
   among the last words that He uttered were those blessed ones which have
   cheered millions of mourners--"Let not your heart be troubled: you
   believe in God, believe also in Me."

   The normal condition of a child of God--I mean, his healthy
   condition--is one of repose, rest, comfort and delight. Certainly, the
   Lord has given special promises to those who reach this state of
   mind--such as this, "Delight yourself also in the Lord; and He shall
   give you the desires of your heart." He means, then, to give great
   things to those who honor Him by trusting Him so that they cease to be
   troubled and are comforted, whatever happens. What ails you, daughter
   of sorrow? Are you poor? So was your Lord! Yet I never read that He
   complained at what His Father willed. Why should you complain of the
   dispensations of Providence? Are you sick, my dear Brother or Sister?
   You will not be the first child of God who has pined away into Heaven
   if that should be your lot. Perhaps the Lord means thus gradually and
   gently to take down your earthly tabernacle, but, if so, remember what
   Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "We know that if our earthly house of
   this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not
   made with hands, eternal in the heavens." "Ah," you say, "but it is one
   who is very dear to me who is dying." Yes, but when the Lord lent you
   your husband, or your wife, or your child, He did not tell you that any
   of them would live forever! Be thankful that you have had these loans
   so long. After all, they are not really yours and if the Lord takes
   back what He lent to you for a while, why should you be so cast down?
   "I have lost all," cries one. Have you lost your God? "No." Then you
   have not lost your all. May the Lord comfort your heart, my dear
   Friends, because if you are unhappy, you dishonor your God by your
   doubts and fears, and you often hinder those who would enter into the
   Kingdom. They see your sad face and they say, "Christ's yoke must be a
   heavy one, and His burden must be intolerable! Look at the face of that
   Christian man or woman." I would rather that they should say to you,
   "we would gladly go with you, for there is a brightness about your

   face that we would like to have. We perceive that your Master is a good
   Master and that He cheers and comforts your hearts."

   I believe that thoroughly happy Christians--those who really enjoy the
   things of God--are also among the most stable Christians. I think that
   is why Paul was guided to put the truth as it is in our text. You
   cannot get a man to give up that which is his daily delight. I never
   wonder when I hear of some professors giving up Christianity, for they
   have never experienced the joy of it--it was only a burden to them.
   When a poor fellow has a load on his back that does not belong to him
   and does not yield him any comfort, but only galls his shoulders, you
   are not surprised if he gets to one of those rests for porters in the
   city, he lays down his load and walks away and forgets it--and is very
   glad to forget it! But if it were his own property, his own
   treasure--you would not find him forgetting it, or going away and
   leaving it behind! The thing out of which you get the most joy will, in
   the long run, be the dearest thing to you! And if you continually
   rejoice in the Lord, your joy will greatly help you in resisting the
   many temptations to skepticism and superstition to which others will
   yield. You will stand fast in the Lord because you will be held there
   by the golden rivets ofjoy which God has given you in communion with
   Himself!

   Then the Apostle adds, "and establish you in every good word and work."
   He wants God's people to be established in every good word. I suppose
   he mean that he would have us firmly fixed in our belief of the
   Doctrines of the Gospel and, Beloved, you may very well say that you
   will keep to them till somebody shows you something better, just as I
   have read that when the people of the State of Massachusetts wanted a
   set of laws, and they had not time to make them just then, they passed
   a resolution that they would be governed by the Laws of God until they
   had time to make better ones. We may believe the Doctrines revealed in
   the Word of God until we find better ones--and that we shall never do!
   Have those Doctrines converted you? Then, be established in them! Does
   your experience confirm the truth of them? Then, cling to them! It is
   one of the characteristics of the Doctrines of the Gospel that the
   older a man gets, the more he loves them. I always find that the older
   saints become more Calvinistic as they ripen in age--that is to say,
   they get to believe more and more that salvation is all of Grace. And
   whereas at first they might have had some rather loose idea concerning
   free will and the power of the creature, the lapse of years and fuller
   experiences gradually blow all that kind of chaff away. Old saints get
   what is called "a sweet tooth." They love the sweet things of the
   Covenant. They like their meat to have a rich savor. I am not old yet,
   but I confess that I get more and more fond of the sweet things of the
   Gospel of Grace and cannot endure the novelties that are so current and
   so exceedingly popular nowadays. Oh, no! Tell me of my Father's eternal
   love, tell me of my Savior's precious blood, tell me of the Spirit's
   sacred indwelling and my heart is glad! But tell me anything short of
   this and my soul is not fed. I pray that you, Brothers and Sisters, who
   are members of this Christian Church, may know what you know and hold
   fast to it. May you drive your roots down into the rich soil of the
   Infallible Truths of God! May you not be as leaves of the forest,
   driven here and there by the winds because there is no life in you, but
   may you be "like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings
   forth its fruit in its season," whose "leaf also shall not wither." God
   make you to be thus "established in every good word."

   The Apostle would also have those to whom He wrote established in every
   good work. Sometimes an attack of this kind is made upon us--"It is no
   use trying to teach the Gospel to children. We cannot suppose that they
   can understand its deep mysteries." I heard that said only the other
   day. Well, I can say that we have tried it and we have found that
   whether you choose to call them great mysteries or not, children do
   understand the Gospel and seem, sometimes, to comprehend it better than
   their fathers do just because they are so childlike! This qualification
   for entering the Kingdom of Heaven is not fully-developed manhood, but
   rather that we should become as little children. And unless we do
   become childlike, we cannot enter the Kingdom. Dear Friend, do not be
   turned aside from your work by anything that is said concerning it. If
   people say that it is no use to go down to the lodging houses and talk
   to the poorest of the poor, be established in doing it because your
   Master did it and because the everlasting consolation which comes to
   you through the Grace of God makes you feel that to the most unworthy
   are the fittest objects for the Gospel of Jesus. Since you received
   consolation from God's mercy, you may well be established in the belief
   that there is consolation in the mercy of God for the vilest of the
   vile!

   Do not be turned aside from any part of your work, and especially from
   the blessed work of prayer. Some people tell us that prayer is useless,
   but what do they know about it? They have never tried it! But those of
   us who have tried and proved it, and who still practice it from day to
   day, know that prayer is heard. We may send a telegraphic message, yet
   it may never get where we want it to go. We may mail a letter, yet it
   may never reach its proper destination. But when we pray, we are sure
   that we are heard, for we have distinct answers to our petitions and
   our heart is filled with delight as we recollect the hundreds and
   thousands of times in which the right hand of the Lord has been
   stretched out to help us when we have cried unto Him in our time of
   need! Be established in every form of good work, you who are part of
   the Lord's great army, meeting here for drill and for battle with the
   forces of evil. I beseech you, Brothers and Sisters, let not your
   hearts grow faint, and do not so much as think of retreating in the day
   of conflict. Lo, our victorious Leader, "our Lord Jesus Christ
   Himself," is coming! Therefore let everyone of us play the man for our
   coming King. The fight will not be long and woe be to the man who turns
   his back in the day of battle--but blessed shall he be who is found
   faithful even unto death. I speak thus to you, Beloved, though I am
   fully persuaded that He who has begun the good work in you will perfect
   it until the day of Jesus Christ.

   I wish that my sermon had a great deal more to do with some of you than
   it has, for I fear that there are many here to whom I have not been
   speaking. Therefore, my closing message shall be to the unsaved. My
   dear Friend, I cannot bid you be steadfast, and I cannot talk to you of
   everlasting consolation, for you have not yet believed in Jesus Christ
   to the saving of your soul. There is an awful text of Scripture which
   at present applies to you. The Apostle Paul, a cool-headed and
   warm-hearted man who loved sinners, once wrote this--"If any man love
   not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha." That is,
   accursed at the coming of Christ! O my dear Friend, that is what you
   will be if you love not our Lord Jesus Christ! And that is what you
   ought to be and what the warm-hearted lover of his race, who also loves
   his God, feels must be and ought to be your doom if you love not the
   Lord Jesus Christ. Think of that and I pray that the Holy Spirit may
   lead you first to trust in Jesus, and then to love Him, and so you
   shall be saved and shall bless Him forever!--

   "You sinners, seek His Grace, Whose wrath you cannot bear! Fly to the
   shelter of His Cross And find salvation there."
     __________________________________________________________________

God's Writing Upon Man's Heart

   (No. 2992)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1864.

   "I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts."
   Jeremiah 31:33.

   THIS is not the language of the Old Covenant, but of the New Covenant.
   The prospects of life held out in the Law have all dissolved into a
   ministration of death as the penalty of disobedience. Its voice might
   have once captivated hearts that knew not their own weakness. How did
   it speak? "Do this, and live; keep My commandments, and you shall
   receive in return for your obedience singular blessings upon earth and
   rest in Heaven." But that Old Covenant, since the Fall, no man has
   kept, or can keep. Surely if any persons could have kept it, those to
   whom it was originally given were the most likely to do so. They were a
   separated people. They were removed into the wilderness, far from evil
   associations. They were miraculously fed out of the granaries of
   Heaven. They received their drink in an equally marvelous manner out of
   the smitten Rock. They had God, Himself, in the midst of them. They had
   His pillar of cloud to cover them by day and His pillar of fire to lead
   them by night. In all their difficulties they could appeal to Moses. If
   there had been an inadvertence or mistake, they could turn to Aaron and
   he, by the offering of the appointed sacrifice, could set them right
   again. They were placed where they had not the trials and the
   temptations of the rest of mankind. They were so cut off and separated
   that I may well compare them to--

   "A garden walled around,

   Chosen and made peculiar ground." And yet, even in that favored soil,
   which was so well tilled and so well kept by God, it was utterly
   impossible that perfect holiness could grow and, therefore, the Law of
   God was broken. Even the seed of Israel, circumcised and blessed with
   covenants and promises--and having the immediate Presence of God in
   their sanctuary could not keep the Law--a clear lesson to us that "by
   the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified." You cannot
   perfectly obey God! You cannot work out a righteousness of your own!
   You cannot do that which God commands you to do. Look to the flames
   which Moses saw--and sink, and tremble, and despair if you wish to be
   saved by your own works!

   Now that Old Covenant has passed away with regard to the Lord's people.
   As many of us as have believed in Christ Jesus are now under a New
   Covenant which is of quite a different kind. It does not say, "Do this,
   and live." It says, on God's part, "I will give you a new heart; I will
   forgive your sins; I will bless you with My Presence. I will make you
   holy. I will keep you holy. I will preserve you in My ways; I will
   bring you to Myself at the last." And all this is vouchsafed without
   any conditions that render the fulfillment precarious, for whatever
   conditions there were, devolved not upon the sinner, but upon the
   sinner's Substitute--as though God had said, "I will do this if My
   only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, will give His blood for the remission
   of your sins and work out a perfect righteousness for your acceptance."
   That has been done and now, as far as you and I are concerned, the
   Covenant of Grace is one of promise, pure promise, nothing but promise!
   And all that we have to do, as poor, guilty, helpless, needy souls, is
   to sit down at the feet of our gracious God and receive from Him these
   wondrous blessings which the Covenant has secured to all the faithful--

   "Firm as the lasting hills,

   This Covenant shall endure,

   Whose potent shalls and wills

   Make every blessing sure!

   When ruin shakes all nature's frame,

   Its jots and tittles stand the same.

   Here when your feet shall fall,

   Believer, you shall see

   Grace to restore your soul,

   And pardon full and free!

   You with delight shall God behold

   Sheep restored to Zion's fold.

   And when through Jordan's flood

   Your God shall bid you go,

   His arm shall you defend,

   And vanquish every foe!

   And in this Covenant you shall view

   Sufficient strength to bear you through." One of the blessings of this
   New Covenant is heart-writing--"I will put My Law in their minds, and
   write it on their hearts." It is of that I am going to talk tonight.
   And instead of having different heads to the sermon, I will just offer
   a few observations, which have, I think, a very intimate connection
   with this point of writing upon the fleshy tablets of the heart.

   My first observation is that WITH THE TABLETS OF STONE, CHRISTIANS HAVE
   NOTHING WHATEVER TO DO.

   Do not be staggered or astonished at this remark. I know that there are
   certain places of worship where these two tablets of the Law stand
   right over the Communion Table, but they have no business there, for we
   can never have any communion with God upon the footing of the Law. If
   there must be anything there. If there must be any symbol at all there,
   then the Roman Catholic is right when he puts there the Cross, or a
   picture of the crucifixion. We put away all symbols lest they should
   become a source of idolatry. But, if there must be anything over the
   Communion Table, the Cross is the proper thing--not the two tablets of
   the Law, for, on the footing of the Law, God never had communion with
   man--and He never can have, since man has fallen. With the two tablets
   of the Law as they are written upon the stone, the Christian has
   nothing whatever to do.

   You know me too well to suspect me of being an Antinomian, yet I will
   not try to detract from the force of the expression which the Holy
   Spirit has taught us, "You are not under the Law, but under Grace." All
   the Ten Commandments the Christian loves. They are his rule of life and
   he decides to keep every single word that God has ever commanded to the
   sons of men. But, as they stand on those tablets of hard, cold rock, I
   have nothing whatever to do with them! Moses dashed them from his hands
   in holy rage and, surely, as I see their cracked fragments there, I can
   only say that I have done precisely what Moses did--and have broken
   those tablets to pieces, too! Even Moses could not carry these tablets
   in his hands without breaking them, nor can I do any better than he
   did. God rules His people, not by Law, but by love. They do not walk in
   holiness because they must, but because they wish to do so. The rule
   which governs them is not, "Do this, and live; do that, and perish,"
   but this--"I have loved you with an everlasting love; what will you do
   for Me?" To quote two good lines of old Master Quarles, which just give
   me the sense I want to convey to you--

   "Leave you the stony tablets for your Savior's part. Keep you the law
   that's written in your heart." As for the Laws written on the stone
   tablets, Christ has kept them and fulfilled them! Therefore they have
   lost their force to crush you. The tablet on your heart is your rule,
   your guidance and your law. See to it that you be not disobedient to
   the Revelation of "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

   There are many of my hearers, tonight, who are always dealing with the
   tablets of the Law. You are trying to get to Heaven by what you can do.
   O my dear Friend, you cannot keep the Law--why do you try to do it? It
   is too high, too heavenly, too broad, too spiritual for you. It affects
   you in your imaginations, your thoughts, your words, your actions. Why,
   you break it every moment! You have broken it since you have been in
   this House of God. Think not, then, to do an impossibility! And even if
   you could keep it in the future, it would do you no good, for you have
   already broken it and to try to preserve what you have already broken
   is most absurd! If you had an alabaster box in your hand, and you had
   broken it to slivers, however careful you might be of the broken
   fragments, you could not put them together again. You

   have most effectually cut the throat of all your hopes of ever being
   saved by the Law of God! O Man, why do you try to do this when Christ
   has kept the Law for all who trust Him? Do you think that Christ would
   have come all the way from Heaven to keep the Law for you if you could
   keep it for yourself? If you could be your own Savior, what need was
   there for Him to be stretched upon the Cross and to bleed, and agonize,
   and die? Does Christ do that which is not necessary? O proud soul,
   proud soul to think to do what only a Savior can accomplish! Come now
   and leave your doings--for all your righteousnesses are but as filthy
   rags! Come now and leave your virtues and all your boasted deeds, and
   look away to where He hangs who has woven a garment without seam from
   the top throughout and has dyed it in the crimson of His own blood! Put
   this on and you wear Heaven's court-dress, and you shall one day stand
   among the peers of Paradise! But without this, you are naked, poor and
   miserable! I counsel you, therefore, to buy of Him fair raiment--the
   fine linen which is the righteousness of the saints!

   With the Law as engraved on stone, then, the Believer has nothing to
   do--his business is with the Law as written with the Spirit of the
   living God upon his heart!

   My next observation is that THE OLD HEART IS NOT FIT FOR GOD TO WRITE
   HIS LAW UPON.

   Somebody said once that the human heart, in infancy at least, was like
   a piece of white paper, and that there might be anything written on it
   which we pleased. Little did that person know--little had he even
   guessed the truth concerning a human heart--for the heart is blotted,
   blurred, blacked, smeared, smudged, fouled, stained through and through
   even at the very beginning! Everyone can say with David, "Behold, I was
   shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." There is no
   such thing as a white surface upon the natural heart--and God never
   tried to write a sentence on the natural heart yet--and He never will
   because He knows right well that that heart is not a fit place for His
   holy Law to be written. If it should be possible for Him to put it upon
   that black heart, I think He would not do it, for it is an impure thing
   and God will never write His perfect Law upon an imperfect parchment
   like a depraved heart. It is too vile, too abominable for God to touch.
   All that can be done with the old, natural, human heart, is for God to
   mortify it, to pierce it through and through with the spear which
   pierced the side of Christ! "Death to the old Adam! Death to the old
   Adam!" is the cry of the Gospel. But as for modifying him, it never
   tries to do it, for the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor can the
   leopard change its spots. The old nature is looked upon as hopeless and
   is given up to die--and the sooner it dies, the better for you and for
   me! God will not write His Law upon it, for it is foul, and blotted,
   and too abominable for Him to touch.

   Equally impossible is it for God to write upon the old heart because it
   is stony. He did write once on stone and the tablets were broken--He
   will not write on stone a second time. The first tablets of stone were
   broken and, as to the second tablets of stone, I know not where they
   are, they are lost--as if the very thought of goodness had been lost to
   man by nature. And if God should write upon a stony heart, this would
   be the result--that the heart with the Law written upon it must soon be
   broken and destroyed. What? Shall He write on such an unstable,
   treacherous, deceitful thing as an unrenewed heart? As well might you
   write upon the sand! Or, still worse, go write your name upon the
   treacherous billow and expect to find it handed down to fame! But God
   writes not on water. He will not take His great pen into His hand to
   write on such a medium as the heart which "is deceitful above all
   things, and desperately wicked." "You must be born-again." God's
   promise is, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I
   put within you." "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right
   spirit within me." Let that prayer be breathed by you as you realize
   the unfitness of the old heart for God to write upon!

   The old heart, then, being put out of the question, there is a new
   heart produced by the Holy Spirit. Transcending the greatest wonders in
   Nature is this bestowment of a new heart! You know, dear Friends, that
   a tree, if it has had some of its branches cut off, may grow new
   branches and there are some crustaceous animals which, when they lose a
   claw or a foot, grow fresh ones--but you never heard of an animal
   losing its heart and then having a new one! The thing is impossible in
   Nature, but this wonder of wonders God works in us! He gives a new core
   to our very being, a fresh life-fountain to the whole of our existence!

   Well, when this new heart comes unto us, it must have something written
   on it. A heart with nothing on it would be too preposterous for
   imagination. Look at all God's works--they all have something written
   on them. Even the black brow of tempest has God's name of terror
   written upon it in letters of lightning. Do not the thunders roll like
   drums in the march of the God of Armies? Is not the Eternal, Himself,
   mirrored in tempest upon the bosom of the stormy sea? Even the fields,
   whether they are white with winter's snows or golden with autumn's
   crown of glory, still bear the impression, either of Divine Power or of
   Divine Love. God has written the whole world over--there is not a slab
   in the great palace of creation which is left unsculptured. Everywhere
   there are great hieroglyphs which skillful men and initiated spirits
   love to read. And shall there be nothing on the heart, when God has
   taken the trouble to make it twice over, when He has made that heart
   new? If there were nothing on the heart, it would be no heart! A heart
   without something in it is just a dull, dead vacuum and not a fit heart
   for such a creature as man. What was the new heart made for--to what
   end and to what purpose--if it were not to bear some Divine
   inscription? The devil would soon attempt to write on it if God did not
   write. Is it not the very best way to keep a man from filling a bushel
   with chaff, to first fill it full of wheat? So, for God to write on the
   new heart--is not this the safest method to keep that heart pure for
   Himself, so that no word of the language of Hell shall be written
   there? If that heart were left empty, what would happen? Is it not
   written concerning the man's house that was swept and garnished, that
   the evil spirit came back to it? Why? Because it was empty! If there
   had been a tenant in it--if the armed strong man had kept the
   house--the old tenant could not have gone back. And so, when God has
   thoroughly written out this whole of His Law upon the tablet of a
   sanctified heart, there will be no possibility that sin shall ever be
   written there! I know it is an incorruptible seed that cannot sin,
   because it is born of God, but that very thing which makes it an
   incorruptible seed--the very life that is in it--makes it swell, and
   grow, and germinate. As the heart is God's heart, and a renewed heart,
   there must be God's writing upon it. God does not send books into the
   world which are but blank paper. He does not produce as His Epistles
   that are to be known and read of all men, mere empty sheets! No, there
   must be upon the new heart some of the handwriting of God!

   Pray the Lord to give you new heart, poor Soul. Or if you have it
   already, ask Him to write upon it now. Say, in the words of that
   verse--

   "There shall His sacred Spirit dwell, And deep engrave His Law-- And
   every motion of our souls To swift obedience draw."

   NEXT, IS NOT THE NEW HEART THE VERY BEST PLACE IN WHICH TO WRITE THE
   LAW OF THE

   LORD?

   I cannot conceive of a better place to put it than in the new heart. A
   certain minister, preaching from the text, "Your Word have I hid in my
   heart, that I might not sin against You," had three heads to his
   sermon. First the best thing, "Your Word." Secondly, "in the best
   place--"have I hid in my heart." Thirdly, for the best of
   purposes--"that I might not sin against You." That is as a well-divided
   sermon! The heart is the best place, because, you know it is in his
   heart that a man carries his jewels. When Little-Faith was met down
   Dead Man's Lane by those three villains, they robbed him of most of his
   spending money, but they did not steal his jewels. The reason was
   because he carried them in the casket of his heart. Some men wear their
   religion as men wear their hats--where it can be snatched by a thief,
   or be blown away by the winds of temptation, or be laid aside to suit
   their own convenience when they get into the devil's drawing room. But
   the true Christian carries his religion in his heart. And as his heart
   is always safe in the very center of his being, so is his religion.
   Fair weather or foul weather, good company or bad company--it is all
   the same. In closing markets or the winning market--whether men cry,
   "Hallelujah" and, "Hosanna"--or whether they cry, "Crucify Him, crucify
   Him!" the man is still the same because he has his principles in his
   heart, which is the best place for God's Law.

   Putting the Law of the Lord into the heart signifies that it is put
   where it will be loved and where it will control the whole man. If you
   can put a thing into a man's heart, you have put it at the very center
   of his being. We have heard of a certain shepherd who had a flock of
   sheep in a meadow. A stream of water that ran through the meadow was
   very foul and muddy, so the shepherd dug some new channels. But after
   he had dug them, the water was still not very clear. He cleared out the
   channels again and again, but still, after a little while, the water
   was again impure. It was better than it had been before, when flowing
   through the muddy channel, but still it was not such as he wished it to
   be. At last, someone said to him, "Why do you not clear the water up
   upon the hill? There is a mass of mud and filth there and the water
   comes down the hillside laden with all this impurity. Purify it there,
   purify it near the fountainhead." So, when man gets purified at the
   fountain--when he gets the Law of the Lord in his heart--then it is
   that he is sure to be all right as to the streams of his actions. You
   cannot put the Law of God, then, in a better place than in the heart,
   because there it

   will be preserved--and there it will influence the entire man. Lord,
   grant to me and to mine, that we may have Your Law thus safely locked
   up in the golden casket of a renewed heart.

   Still, it must be admitted that IT IS VERY HARD TO WRITE ON HEARTS.
   That same old poet whom I quoted just now, Quarles--pictures God as
   saying--

   "What I indite 'Tis I alone can write

   And write in books that I Myself have made.

   'Tis not an easy trade

   To read or write in hearts.

   They that are skillful in all other arts

   When they take this in hand

   Are at a stand."

   It is not easy to read hearts and it is still harder work to write on
   hearts. We can sometimes write on people's heads-- that is
   comparatively easy. You may get a thing into the intellect. you may get
   it into the brains by sheer dunning and argument--but to get things
   into the heart is not so very easy--

   "He that's convinced against his will Is of the same opinion still"--
   and, though convinced, he still goes on in the same path, pursuing the
   thing which he knows to be his own worst enemy. There are no slaves
   like those who serve their enemies and those are the greatest slaves
   who are slaves to their own soul-destroying lusts. It is not an easy
   thing to write on hearts. When there are many conversions, certain
   simpletons are apt to think that there is something in the preacher to
   account for them. Suppose someone had gone to that ancient battlefield
   and had picked up the stone with which David smote Goliath's head, and
   said, "Well, it must be a very wonderful stone that could have killed a
   giant"? And then, after turning it round, and looking at it a little
   while, he would say that it was very much like any other smooth stone
   that might be put in a sling. And very likely he would throw it down in
   contempt and think nothing of it.

   Well, that is how some people do with God's ministers. They first say,
   "Well, there are so many conversions. The preacher must be a very
   wonderful man." And then they find him wonderfully like any other
   common-place talker and so they think nothing of him. Ah, simpleton! Do
   you not know that it is not the stone, but the sling, and not even the
   sling, but the God who directs the stone to the giant's brow? And so it
   is not the man, but the man's Master--and it is the Spirit of God that
   makes the Word effectual. But what would you think if that stone should
   talk thus, "Oh, what a fine stone am I! I killed you, Goliath! What a
   fine stone am I! The daughters of Jerusalem ought to rejoice over me in
   the dance, and they ought to 'sound the loud timbrel' and say, 'Glory
   be unto you', O Stone, for you have smitten the giant's brow"? What
   would the Angel of Wisdom say but, "O foolish pebble of the brook! Son
   of the dirt and of the dark and miry sea! There is nothing in you any
   more than in your fellow stones that slept with you in the flowing
   crystal! Had David picked any other stone, the work would have been
   done just as well and, inasmuch as he chose you, boast not of yourself
   as though there were anything in you."

   Beloved, when you and I are privileged to do anything for Christ, let
   us remember that we are only like the poor stone out of the brook--that
   there is nothing in it--and that unto God must be all the glory. This
   writing upon hearts is hard work. I confess that I never could--and I
   never expect to be able to write God's holy Law on a human heart. No,
   Beloved, the heart is locked up too tightly for us to get at it. But
   God has the key and He opens it as a man would do his own writing desk.
   And He knows how to open the sheets, one after another, and begin to
   write with His own pen the blessed Commandments of His new and perfect
   Law. Jesus is the great Writer, for Jesus knows hearts! He is Divine
   and Omniscient and, therefore, He knows hearts. And He is a Man--every
   pang that rends the heart has rent His heart. He had a pierced heart
   and there was a terrible writing upon His heart when the spear wrote
   there this great word-- "WRATH"--"the wrath of God on account of sin."
   He knows what heart-writing means. Deep on His heart are inscribed His
   people's names. He understands heart-writing and He can do for His
   disciples what has been done in Him. He has such a gentle hand, such
   loving fingers, such a great heart to move that hand, that He is the
   great Heart-Writer and there is none that can match Him in writing upon
   human hearts!

   Further, WHEN GOD WRITES UPON THE HEART, HE WRITES BY HIS HOLY SPIRIT
   AND USES HIS

   WORD AS THE PEN.

   There are several pens that God uses and one is His Written Word. This
   is a gold pen with a diamond point. It is marvelous how God can
   sometimes write on the heart with a text of Scripture, a promise, a
   threat, a word of doctrine, of exhortation, or of rebuke. When He
   writes with that diamond pen, there is never any mistake, never any
   scratching or catching in the paper--all is well written!

   Then He sometimes writes on human hearts by His ministers. Mr. John
   Berridge once preached a sermon upon a different text from mine, but I
   may quote from his sermon. He says that ministers are like pens. There
   are some University ministers, he says, and they try to make them the
   same as people make steel pens nowadays--they make them by the gross!
   And though they have their excellences and many of them are highly
   educated men, yet they also have their deficiencies. John Berridge
   compared himself to an old goose quill. He said that he could not make
   such fine lady-like upstrokes as the University steel pens could, but
   he thought that God often made heavier down-strokes on the heart by him
   than He ever did by the University gentlemen. And that is the case with
   some of us. We have to be nibbled several times before we are fit to
   write with at all--and when we do write, we sometimes make a sorry
   blotch of it--yet the Lord does help us, rough and ready as we are, to
   make some heavy down-strokes on the sinner's conscience. And if this is
   done, it is a reason for thankfulness and we will bless the Lord for
   it! Pens, however, must sometimes be sharpened--and so ministers must
   sometimes feel the sharp knife of affliction so as to make them more
   fit to preach God's Word.

   Need I remind you, Beloved, that a pen cannot write of itself? Just
   take that pen and lay it down on the paper. Can that pen write,
   "Paradise Lost?" Why, it cannot even stir! It cannot write a single
   letter of the alphabet, much less can it write a poem! And so is it
   with the minister--he can write no Truths of God in the sinner's heart
   and conscience unless his Master holds him in His hands--but when the
   Master begins to write, oh, then, how well it is done, and how the
   white paper of the new heart receives the Divine handwriting and it
   remains indelibly there!

   Neither would it be any use for writing even if it were the best pen in
   the world--without ink. And the analogy in this case is with the Holy
   Spirit. The minister must be dipped in this ink. He must have the Holy
   Spirit with him, or else it is no matter what he may be--he may be a
   goose-quill, or he may be the polished steel. He may have been
   well-sharpened, he may have written much in his time, but he can write
   nothing without the ink. Mr. Joseph Irons used to pray, as he went to
   his pulpit, "Oh, for an unction from on high! Oh, for an unction from
   on high!" And I think this may be the preacher's prayer whenever he
   goes to preach, "Oh, for an unction from on high! Oh, for much of this
   Divine ink--much of the Holy Spirit!"

   Surely we may praise and bless the Lord whenever we see His Law written
   upon a human heart because it is God's Law, because it is God who wrote
   it and because it is the Spirit of God who is the Agent, through the
   Word, by whom that writing is put there! Let us join in hearty
   thanksgiving to Father, Son and Spirit, the Covenant-keeping God who
   writes His Law in our hearts!

   And it may be well to make a special note of this fact--IT IS GOD'S LAW
   WHICH IS WRITTEN UPON THE NEW HEART.

   I do not think it is the Law as it stands in the letter, either in
   Exodus or in Deuteronomy, but it is the spirit of the Law that is
   written upon the Christian's heart. With regard to the Law as a letter,
   we may say, "The letter kills." It is the spirit, the essence of the
   Law, which the Christian is to mind and which is written on his heart.
   Under the old Law, the Jew was often put to much inconvenience. For
   instance, the Law of the Sabbath, as it then stood, was, "In it you
   shall do no manner of work." Now, some Christians read it in that way
   even to this day--but when the Savior was on earth, His disciples
   rubbed the ears of corn together in the fields and ate thereof, on the
   Sabbath. The Pharisees complained of this, but the Savior replied to
   them that "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."
   The Sabbath was never meant to be a fixed and tight bond to crush us
   and make us feel like slaves during the time it lasted. It was made for
   our use, to be devoted to the best and highest of purposes. The
   Pharisees would never have healed anybody on the Sabbath--that, they
   thought, was dreadfully wicked! But Jesus Christ hallowed the Sabbath
   by acts of mercy. And now He gives to the Christian a day of rest, not,
   indeed, such a day of rest as it was to the Jew, but He gives us this
   that we may perform works of mercy, works of piety and works for
   necessary uses. These we do perform and when we do, there are some who
   cry out that such-and-such a Christian is not a Sabbatarian! No, and
   the Christian has no need to be! His

   Law of the Sabbath is not the old Law, as he finds it in Deuteronomy or
   Exodus, but the Law of the Sabbath as he finds it according to
   Christ--which is this--that the day is a day of rest and holy pleasure.
   A day in which we are to serve God with all our might and any kind of
   work which is wholly God's work--and in which we can serve God--is a
   work which we are permitted--no, which we are enjoined to perform!

   So it is with all the Law. The Christian does not go back to the Law of
   Moses and say, "I feel very angry. I should like to know whether I may
   kill my brother." No, he has the Law of God in his heart and he does
   not want to kill anybody. He knows that he that is angry with his
   brother is a murderer, so he turns around and says, "I forgive you. I
   forgive you freely." Sometimes persons come and ask us questions which
   involve some degree of lust, but a Christian has the Law of God in his
   heart and he does not want to know whether this and that may be
   permitted as a sin of the flesh, but he remembers that, "whoever looks
   on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in
   his heart" and so he spurns the sin. The Law written on his heart is
   enough for him and he delights in the Law of God after the inward plan,
   without needing to go to the letter, the killing letter--and reading in
   that the condemnation of offenses rather than the promptings of holy
   motives! The Law of God is perfect! Let us say nothing against it. But
   it is not so glorious as the Law which Christ has brought in and which
   He exhibited in His own Person. The glory of the Law was great, but the
   glory of Christ's Gospel is far greater! Remember, Christian, that
   there is to be written on your heart the whole of God's Law, but it is
   the spiritof that Law--not the letter of it--which is to be written
   there. And what that spirit is, you know, for our great Teacher
   epitomized it in one word, and that one word is "LOVE." Love that
   furnishes the impulse while it prescribes the duty.

   The man who has God's Law written in his heart will go right without a
   book--he will go right without having somebody at his elbow to nudge
   him. And why will he go right? Why does the steam engine go? Because it
   has steam within it and the proper machinery--so it must go. You do not
   see 20 horses dragging a steam engine along, do you? There are some
   folks who want to make laws to make other people good. That is not the
   way in which Scripture goes to work. Scripture just alters the man's
   heart, puts new machinery in him and the heavenly steam--and then he
   cannot help going right! You are not to have a Law with 20 policemen
   behind it to drag a man to do right--that is not the thing to do. The
   man must be renewed by Divine Grace and made a new creature in Christ
   Jesus--and then, by the force and strength of that new nature, the Law
   being written in his heart--he hates that which is evil and cleaves to
   that which is good. Some people cannot understand this. They know that
   they will not, themselves, do what is right unless they are flogged to
   it--while they do what is wrong at every opportunity from an evil bias.
   But the Christian is different! He has been born-again and now he would
   need flogging to do evil! And even then he would not do it. But he
   needs no driving to that which is good, for the ways of God are his
   pleasure and the pleasures of sin he hates. May we all in this sense
   have the Law written on our hearts! And what will that Law be? Why,
   this word, "LOVE." Love is the Law of the Gospel! "You shall love the
   Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
   your strength; and your neighbor as yourself." This is the Law of the
   Christian, and this is the Law which is written on his heart! This is
   the sum and substance, the distilled essence of all the Ten
   Commandants. You may forget those Ten Commandments, O Believer, if you
   will but remember this new Law which is written on your heart, "Love,
   love, love!"

   Last of all, THE WRITING PRESERVES THE HEART AND THE HEART PRESERVES
   THE WRITING.

   Some of us who have a large correspondence sometimes have a grand
   burning. There are a lot of letters on my table, very possibly written
   by some of you, which will never get answered. But if people will write
   ten times as many as anybody can answer, they must not expect to get
   replies. Still, there they are, and sometimes there comes to be a
   general blaze--and while we are burning the letters up, every now and
   then we say, "Ah, I'll keep that!" Why? Well, it is in the handwriting
   of somebody we loved, but who is now dead. And we say, "Yes, I'll keep
   that. Just put that away in one of the pigeon-holes and there let it
   lie among the interesting letters." So, when God comes at last to look
   at all the writing of the universe, there will be a general
   burning--but He will come to one heart, and He will say, "Yes, keep
   that, that has my Law written on it--and wherever I see my Law, I see
   my dear Son's handwriting. He Himself died upon the Cross that this
   heart should not be burned. I will keep that." If you have God's Law
   written on your hearts, it will preserve you.

   So, too, the heart preserves the writing. The Pharaohs have written
   wonderful inscriptions in Egypt upon their stone tombs, yet some of
   these have become defaced through the lapse of years--

   "Time hats a mighty tooth, And bites the granite through."

   But when a thing is written upon an immortal heart, no time can change
   it! The heart that had God's Law written on it years ago, still has it
   written there in the last expiring moments, as the Believer talks with
   his God upon his dying bed. The flesh has been committed to the grave,
   but the handwriting is not gone, for the heart on which it was written
   has soared aloft, and now it is before the eternal Throne of God! And
   when the sun has grown dim with age and the moon has waned never to wax
   again, and the stars have quenched their tiny lamps, when--

   "The great globe itself,

   Yes, all which it inherits, shall dissolve

   And like this insubstantial pageant faded

   Leave not a rack behind"--

   just as a moment's foam dissolves into the wave that bears it and is
   lost forever--when all the universe that God has made, except the
   Heaven which is to exist forever, shall have passed away, then the
   handwriting of God upon that heart will be as clear and as legible as
   it is now! Yes, and if you can fly on seraph's wings far, far away,
   till time seems a spot too small to be discerned by the keenest eye. If
   you have sped on till God has made and destroyed as many worlds as
   there are grains of sand by the seashore. Till He has piled up and
   dashed to pieces, again, as many mighty universes as there are drops in
   the ocean--changeless even then--the imperishable writing of the Divine
   hand shall still glitter on the immortal, eternal hearts that God has
   made and quickened--that they might be the pillars on which He might
   write the memorial of His love and holiness! Oh, that my heart might
   have His writing on it! Brothers and Sisters, I pray that it may be the
   case with you and with all of us!

   But, remember, the old heart must be broken--and the place to get a new
   heart is at the foot of the Cross. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
   and you shall be saved." "Whoever believes in Him shall not be
   ashamed." He that trusts in Jesus builds upon a rock! He builds for
   eternity and his happiness shall be secure.

   The Lord send you away with His own blessing for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

"That King Ahaz"

   (No. 2993)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH
   8, 1863.

   "And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the
   LORD: this is that king Ahaz." 2 Chronicles 28:22.

   IT is absolutely certain, dear Friends, that whatever our personal
   characters may be, we shall have to know, by practical experience, the
   meaning of the word, "trouble." Saint or sinner, "man is born unto
   trouble, as the sparks fly upward." The road to Heaven is rough and the
   path to Hell is not always smooth. There are some tribulations which
   belong especially to the people of God, yet it is also true that "many
   sorrows shall be to the wicked." If a man, trying to escape from
   sorrow, should take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost
   parts of the sea, he would find that sorrow was even there upon the
   sea! Should he go to the frozen regions of the North, he would find
   sorrow there, for there have some of the fondest human hopes been
   wrecked. Let him journey to the sultry South and trouble shall pursue
   him there, for plagues, fevers and disease haunt that region and the
   gates of death are near. Until we mount to Heaven, we shall never be
   able to escape from sorrow and sighing--only there shall we obtain joy
   and gladness, when our somber companions shall have fled away forever.

   Since, dear Friends, the stream of sorrow is here, and we cannot make
   it flow in any other direction, what shall we do with it? Let us try to
   put it to profitable uses! Let us lift up our heart in prayer to God
   that all our sorrows may be sanctified--that, with all other things,
   they may work together for our lasting good--and that we, who are the
   children of God, may be perfected in the image of Christ according to
   the Divine Purpose. Let us remember, however, that sorrow will not of
   itself be beneficial to us. It is possible to endure afflictions on
   earth and afterwards to endure eternal damnation in Hell. Sinners may
   go from beds of languishing to beds of flame, from toil and poverty
   here, to torment and all despair hereafter. There is nothing at all in
   sorrow that can burn out sin--there is no power in human suffering to
   remove the wrath of God!

   I. I shall commence my discourse with this very simple remark--IN THEIR
   TIMES OF DISTRESS, GOD'S PEOPLE HAVE OFTEN FOUND VERY GREAT PROFIT.

   Suffering is one of the things which is written in the Covenant of
   Grace as a blessing. The rod was promised to us when we became the
   children of God and we cannot escape it. And I think the poet Cowper
   was right when he said that "the trueborn child of God" would not
   escape it if he might. The distress of Believers, when it is sanctified
   to them, loosens their hold upon this world. Trials cut the ropes which
   fasten our souls to earthly things and so enable us to mount. They file
   the chains which, as on the eagle's foot, will not let her spread her
   wings and soar upward toward the sun. Trouble, like a sharp spade, digs
   up the earth that is about our roots and then we bring forth more
   fruit. Were it not for the thorns in our nest, we would be so content
   with its soft lining that we would sit in it till we died. But the
   sharp thorns prick our breasts and then we turn our eyes aloft and
   learn to try our wings, ready for the time when they shall have fully
   grown and we shall mount to joys above!

   Afflictions, also, are often to the benefit of Believers in leading
   them to search for sin. Our trials should be search warrants, sent to
   us from God that we may search and find out the secret evil that is
   within us--the offense that we have hidden, the lie that is in our
   right hand. You know, Beloved, that it is not an easy thing to bring us
   to self-examination. We are afraid of it--we are too apt to take things
   as they seem to be, without testing and trying them to see what they
   really are. But when the consolations of God grow small with us, then
   we say, "Is there any secret sin within us?" A rough wind blows through
   the forest and the rotten branches creak, and are torn from the oak,
   where otherwise they

   would have become a nest for all sorts of destructive insects and a
   center of decay for the whole tree. So, our afflictions often drive
   away some besetting sins, some darling propensities which otherwise we
   might have carried in our bosom till they had done us grievous damage.

   Do you not also know, dear Friends, how trials give new life to prayefi
   Do we ever pray as well as when we feel the pricks of our Father's
   sword? He never wounds us so severely as to kill us, but He does,
   sometimes, just gently probe us to wake us up from our lethargy. Oh,
   what fervent prayers we offer when in the furnace! And I may add, oh,
   what grateful songs we sing when we come out! There is more life, I
   think, in one's piety in times of sorrow than at any other season. I do
   not wish to be laid aside from pulpit labor, but I must confess that I
   have often felt unusual spiritual power when coming up to preach to you
   after a season of sickness. And there have been times when I have heard
   some of you say, "Our minister speaks more sweetly, now, than he did
   before he was laid aside." Yes, the olives must go into the press if
   the oil is to be squeezed out of them--and the grapes must be trod upon
   with loving feet before the wine flows forth from them. The file must
   be used upon us to bring out the true quality of the metal. There is no
   hope that we shall ever be made into much fine gold unless we are often
   put into the crucible--and unless that crucible is put into the midst
   of the glowing coals! So I say that we get much good from our trials.

   Have you not also found, dear Friends, that trials make your faith grow
   stronger We who are but striplings in the Lord's army, enlist very
   readily. We put the colors in our cap and we think that we are going to
   do great things--to stir up the Church and to rout the world, the flesh
   and the devil! But we soon find that we have to be drilled by the black
   sergeant, Affliction, and afterwards we have to march out to the battle
   of the warrior, "with confused noise and garments rolled in blood."
   And, by-and-by, after many a conflict, we become hardened veterans and
   we who might have turned our backs before, if it had not been for
   trial, become bold as lions for the Lord our God! Brothers and Sisters,
   there is no teaching, no ministry, even of the best-taught servant of
   God, that can do you such good as sanctified experience! You must learn
   for yourselves--under that blessed schoolmaster, Mr. Affliction--you
   must study the sacred science of Divinity! It is good to go to his
   school, for the lessons to be learned there are so beneficial. One of
   his scholars wrote, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have
   I kept Your Word."

   We also get our sweetest comforts in the time of trouble. Do not
   mothers often give their children, in their seasons of sickness, tokens
   of love that they never give them when in health? I know that there are
   kisses of Jesus' lips for His tried children that He gives not to those
   who are without trial. "He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and
   carry them in His bosom." Then I would love to be a lamb, to ride so
   near to His heart--"and shall gently lead those that are with young,"
   and it is well for us, sometimes, to fake those pains and weaknesses
   that we may have more of the gentle leadings of the tender Shepherd! I
   think it was Rutherford who said that when Christ put him down in the
   cellar of affliction, he knew that He kept His wine there, and he
   groped about until he found the bottles--and then he drank and was
   revived! Ah, there is rich wine of comfort in the lowest cellars of
   affliction when Christ puts us down there! Even the joys of Heaven will
   be all the sweeter because of our experiences of trial here, where we
   often sing--

   "Sweet affliction Thus to bring my Savior near." Christ is
   superlatively sweet to us and the next sweetest thing in all the world
   is Christ's dear Cross. He is, Himself, most precious, but next to the
   kisses of His lips are the blows--the love pats--of His pierced hands!

   II. Now I advance another step and remind you that VERY OFTEN, THROUGH
   THE GRACE OF GOD,

   UNGODLY PERSONS HAVE HAD REASON TO BLESS THE LORD FOR THEIR
   AFFLICTIONS.

   Not infrequently have I heard a story of this kind from a man who has
   passed the prime of life, whose garments bear evidence, though he still
   looks respectable, that he is one who has seen many sorrows and
   trials--and who carries on his brow the marks of the plowshare of
   grief. He has come to unite in fellowship with the Church and he begins
   telling the story of his conversion, which is something like this--"I
   was once a flourishing tradesman. I had a large business and was a
   wealthy man, but, alas, I was foolish. Worse than that, I was wicked. I
   misspent my time, I delighted in the ways of sin and became a
   profligate. My companions thought me generous and I did not wish to be
   less than they thought me to be, so I wasted my substance in riotous
   living. My business suffered and, at last, there came a crash. All I
   had went where all must go when a man squanders his time and money as I
   squandered mine. I became poor. I had not previously known what it was
   to eat the bread of dependence, but I did eat it for a few months.
   Friends assisted me for a time, but they grew

   tired of doing so and I was cast off by the world. And I felt, when any
   looked coldly upon me, that I deserved it. I have been a fool, Sir, I
   know that I have. But it was then, one cold, pitiless night, when there
   was only one place where I could find shelter for my head--that place
   was the pauper's last refuge--it was then that I thought upon my ways
   and lifted my eyes to Heaven and breathed the prayer, "God be merciful
   to me, a sinner." The man has told me that he blesses God for his
   poverty, for that was the means of bringing him to Christ! And since he
   has come to know the Lord, he has thought it a thousand mercies that he
   was thus brought very low, for if he had not been, his proud spirit
   would never have been broken and he would never have been humbled
   before the Lord.

   And some of you, my Sisters, know that you have told me and the Church
   your story. You were happy mothers in your households, but you feared
   not the Lord. You had your children around you and you and your husband
   took what you called, "your pleasure," on the Sabbath, for you had no
   fear of God before your eyes. But, by-and-by, one of your little ones
   was taken ill. You watched, with anxious care, the pale cheek as it
   grew still paler--and grim Death took your darling from you. Again his
   shaft flew and a second one was taken--and your soul was melted because
   of heaviness. There is one here who had four children taken away in
   succession, till, at last, the mother's agonized soul, bereaved of all
   earthly comfort, could go to no one else but Christ--and when she went
   to Him, she found in Him what was better than 10 sons--His love, His
   pardon, His acceptance, His free gift of eternal life!

   Ah, Brothers and Sisters, there have been many who have thus, by a
   series of bereavements, through the sanctifying influence of the Holy
   Spirit, been brought to know the Lord! I need not stay to mention
   instances of which I am constantly hearing. I believe that the black
   angel of distress has brought as many to Christ as the bright angel of
   tender mercy. In fact, if you look well at the black angel, as I have
   called him, you will see that he is not black, but exceedingly bright,
   for there is a gracious ministry in those loving sorrows! There is an
   angelic kindness in those loving cruelties (as some term them) by which
   God sometimes bring hardened sinners to Himself!

   III. But now I come to the main point of my discourse which is that
   although distress is often blessed to God's people, and is frequently
   sanctified to the conversion of sinners, our text is a notable proof
   that THERE IS NOTHING

   IN TRIAL, ITSELF, WHICH WILL NECESSARILY SOFTEN THE HEART AND MAKE A
   MAN REPENT. "In the

   time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord: this is
   that king Ahaz."

   If further proof were needed that trouble, affliction, sickness and
   familiarity with death necessarily softened the heart, then those
   people who have most to do with these things would have the most tender
   hearts--but it is not so. Think of the man who has to deal with the
   dead. Where will you find anywhere, as a class, a more hardened set of
   men than undertakers often are? I know that anyone who is well
   acquainted with them, must have observed how they joke over a corpse
   and make mirth over the death of their fellow creatures, regarding a
   fever rather as a blessing which brings them employment than as a
   calamity which takes away the husband from the wife, or the parent from
   the children. I do not speak without my book in this case, and it is
   very much the same with other people. I think I said, one day, that if
   a man or a woman were not converted before they became pew-openers at a
   church or a chapel, it was probable that they never would be
   converted--and I am still of the same opinion. I once said that I
   thought even reporters of sermons, if they did not know the Lord before
   they undertook that work, would very likely fail to get any good out of
   the sermon and, therefore, it is always a great joy to me when I know
   that those who have any share in the preparation of my sermons with a
   view to their publication have realized the power of the Truth of God
   in their own hearts so that, even while engaged in the mechanical
   operations connected with reporting and printing the sermons, their
   souls drink in something of the sweetness of the Truth which is
   afterwards to be read by others.

   Probably, however, the truth of the text will be best illustrated by a
   Scriptural instance. Look at Pharaoh. Was any man ever more troubled
   than he was? All the power of land, and water, and sky united to plague
   him! It seemed as if all the frogs in the world had made Egypt their
   rendezvous--and the locusts, and the lice, and the flies, and cattle
   diseases, and boils, and the hail, and the thick darkness--and though
   all these plagues came upon Pharaoh, he still hardened his heart and
   would not let the people go! Affliction did not soften him. On the
   contrary, it hardened him. And the case of Ahaz is another instance of
   the same evil spirit, for the more trials came to him, the more did he
   trespass against the Lord. The children of Israel, too, though they
   were smitten many times, yet revolted again and again. They were hunted
   about by marauders and delivered up to their enemies. Their crops were
   devoured of locusts. Famine and pestilence came

   upon them, but, for all that, they turned not unto the Lord, but
   hardened their hearts against Him and were a stiff-necked generation,
   even as they are unto this day!

   However, I need not go on beating round the bush, for, if further
   proofs that sorrow does not necessarily soften are needed, there are
   plenty of such proofs here at this moment. There is that sailor over
   yonder. He knows that he is a great deal worse than he was three or
   four years ago. He had more pricks of conscience then, than he has now,
   yet it is not many months since he escaped from shipwreck. He thought
   the angry deep must surely swallow him up, so he cried unto God in his
   time of trouble, and said, "Save me, O God, for the waters have come in
   unto my soul!" God spared his life, but the trial he then endured had
   no beneficial effect upon him and, as I have said, he is a worse man,
   now, than he was years ago! Then there is that man yonder--whose
   business has been going down. What effect has that had upon him? He is
   growing harder and harder and is even cursing God for what he calls his
   bad luck! In trying to improve his position, he is only plunging deeper
   into the mire and he will be head over heels in the morass, presently,
   unless the almighty Grace of God shall deliver him! But the man is not
   softened in spirit by all that he has had to endure. That which would
   have softened him had he been as wax, has hardened him because his
   nature is like clay. May God yet have mercy on him, for I plainly
   perceive that his briars, by themselves, will be of no use to him!

   And you, too, who have come creeping out to this service--you have been
   so ill that hospital after hospital has turned you away as incurable.
   The doctors say that nothing more can be done for you, so you have come
   limping in here, though you can scarcely keep your seat for
   weariness--you are very ill and weak--yet your unhumbled spirit is as
   proud as though your ribs were made of iron and your heart were strong
   as steel! If you should be chastened any more, you would only revolt
   more and more. You have already been smitten until your whole head is
   sick and your whole heart is faint--from the crown of your head to the
   soles of your feet there is no soundness in you, for you have become,
   as the result of God's chastisements, a mass of wounds, bruises and
   putrefying sores! Yet still is sin as strongly entrenched within your
   soul as ever it was! What more shall the Lord do to you? Shall He give
   you up as hopeless? Shall He make you as Admah? Shall He set you as
   Zeboim? Shall He say concerning you, "He is joined unto his idols; let
   him alone"? What else remains to be done for you where all this
   affliction and trial will not break your heart?

   I might go on pointing out you who are like king Ahaz, for my Master
   knows all about you and He knows how to direct my tongue so that I
   shall describe you. I feel a great yearning of heart, the throes of
   strong convulsions in my soul over some of you who are here! I know
   that I have a special message from God for some whom I am now
   addressing. Who and where they are, the Lord knows. I do not, but I
   pray that my message may now be accepted by them. As the Lord my God
   lives, before whom I stand, if you turn not at His rebuke, O Soul--if
   this last affliction shall not humble you, He will dash you in pieces
   like a potter's vessel and break you with a rod of iron! "Turn you,
   turn you, for why will you die?" Why will you draw destruction down
   upon your own head? Why will you stain your garments with your own
   blood? Why will you dash yourself to pieces upon the bosses of
   Jehovah's buckler? Why will you run upon the edge of His sword? Why
   will you leap into the fires of Hell? Why will you ruin your soul
   forever? Pause, I entreat you! A brother's love bids you pause! You who
   are like "that king Ahaz" who, in the time of his distress, trespassed
   yet more against the Lord, I pray you to stop and consider, lest, at
   your next step, your feet should hang over the awful darkness of the
   Pit and your soul be hurled into the eternal depths!

   I have thus, I hope, come somewhat near the mark at which I am aiming.
   And I am getting to speak right home to those who have had afflictions
   and trials, but are growing worse, rather than better, notwithstanding
   all that has happened to them. I will turn from them to speak to some
   of you who have the notion that you will repent and believe in Christ
   some day, but you will not repent and believe in Christ just yet. You
   have not made up your minds that you will go to Hell--oh, no, you mean
   to be saved, one of these days! You have not decided when it shall be,
   but still, you do mean it to happen one of these days! Your secret
   thought is that one of these days you will be obedient to the heavenly
   vision. You talk to yourselves in some such fashion as this, "I shall
   be laid aside one day. Perhaps it may not be until I grow old and when
   I am ill--then I shall have time to turn the matter over calmly and
   quietly. I have heard my friends say concerning some who had lived very
   bad lives, that they hoped it was all right with them at the last and,
   therefore, may I not hope that it will be all right with me?"

   Friend, I want to give you a warning word! Perhaps my meeting you here
   and talking especially to you for a little while may be the means of
   your eternal salvation! What makes you imagine that a time of sickness
   is a suitable time for

   repentance? Do you not think that you will have quite enough to do to
   bear your bodily pains without having to think of the state of your
   soul? When your head is aching, you cannot properly attend even to your
   earthly business--so how can you hope to attend to your soul's business
   when your head and your heart will both be aching? You find that your
   worldly concerns need a healthy mind and body to conduct them
   properly--so do you think that when the mind is becoming weak through
   senile decay and physical infirmity--that then will be a fitting time
   to think of these momentous and eternal realities?

   In many diseases I believe that repentance and faith are scarcely
   possible, for some of them bring such a lethargy of spirit that the
   mind is hardly able to act at all. There are, doubtless, many persons
   who are alive but who, for all practical purposes, are dead long before
   they actually die. You know, too, how often the very thought of death
   is so harassing to an unbeliever that he can hardly think of sin. A
   murderer may repent that he has been brought to the gallows, yet not
   repent of the murder that brought him there--just as, on their
   deathbed, many repent of Hell, but not of sin! I fear that often the
   sense of the wrath to come gets to be so vivid and so real that sin
   hardly comes into the reckoning--and remember, Friend, that it is not
   repentance of Hell that will save you, but repentance of SIN--not
   repentance of the punishment, but repentance of the evil deed itself--a
   sincere hatred of the very pleasure which sin would bring! O Sirs, take
   my word for it--and I think that if there were physicians here, they
   would certify that I am speaking the truth when I say that there are
   other things to do on your deathbed than to talk of "making your peace
   with God." I am uttering a solemn Truth of God, but it is one that must
   be spoken! There may have been some few persons who have been saved on
   a deathbed, but my own conviction is that they have been very, very,
   very, very, very few! We only read in Scripture of one who was saved at
   the last--the dying thief on the Cross--and it has been well said that
   there was one so that none might despair--but only one that none might
   presume! I do not know that there ever was another besides the dying
   thief who was called by Grace at the eleventh hour! I repeat that I do
   not know. I do not say that there have not been any--I hope there have
   been many--but I do not know it. I have no revelation concerning it.
   There is nothing in this blessed Book about it. Only this I know--there
   was one--and therefore I hope there have been more. But since I only
   know of that one, I would warn you not to put any confidence in a
   repentance that may possibly come at the last. You may be saved on your
   deathbed, but I think there is every probability that you who have
   loved sin so long, will hug it to the last! I do not see any reason why
   you would suddenly turn your backs on your former course. If there is
   any such reason, let it operate upon you now. Surely it would have as
   much force upon your conscience at this moment--while you are capable
   of weighing the whole matter calmly and deliberately--as it will have
   when you are tossing on your bed and your judgment has lost a great
   part, if not all of its former vigor! May God bring you to Christ now!
   But do not, I pray you, be dreaming about a deathbed on which you may
   never lie, or of a repentance which you may never experience!

   There was a man who was an awful swearer and whenever anybody spoke to
   him about his not being saved, he used to say, "Oh, well, when my turn
   comes to die, I shall just say, 'Lord, have mercy upon me,' and that
   will be enough." It happened that one dark night, when going home on
   horseback, drunk, his horse leaped the railing of a high bridge and
   horse and rider fell right into the water. And the last word that the
   man was heard to utter was an oath--so beyond all doubt he plunged into
   a hopeless eternity! It is quite possible that you will never have the
   opportunity to breathe a dying prayer, or if you could have such an
   opportunity, it is quite possible that you would have no inclination to
   utter it. Remember that "now is the accepted time; behold, now is the
   day of salvation." May God, in His Sovereign Mercy, turn you to Himself
   now!

   Now I come back to you who have had many trials, but who have not been
   bettered by them. My Friend over yonder, you do not often hear a
   minister preach the Word of God and, therefore, now that I have you
   here, let me deal very plainly and faithfully with you. Why do you
   think that your trials were sent to you? I have shown you that distress
   often has been blessed to others. Now, supposing you have had an
   experience which has been blessed to others, but it has been no
   blessing to you--what is the inference? If a man takes a piece of
   quartz in which he thinks there is some gold, and puts it through the
   usual processes for extracting gold--and when he has done that, sees
   that there is no likelihood of finding gold in it, what is he likely to
   do with it? Why, I think, before long, when he has tried all the plans
   he can think of, he will throw it away and have nothing more to do with
   it! And is it not likely that God will soon throw you away as utterly
   worthless? Did you not say, the other night, that you wished God would
   leave you alone? You would not have come in to this service if you had
   thought that I should speak so pointedly and personally to you, would
   you? You would like to see every church, and chapel, and mission-hall
   destroyed--you would like to have no Sundays, and no religious people,
   because they plague you--they get in your way, they stick pins in your
   pillow, they will not leave you alone to sleep the sleep of death!

   But do you not see that the fact that you want to be left alone is,
   itself, a proof of your reprobate mind? God is beginning to leave you
   alone, I am afraid, inasmuch as you are wishing to be left alone. I am
   afraid that awful curse will come upon you and, possibly, it will come
   upon you soon. Should your present condition continue much longer, I
   can tell you what will happen to you--you will become an avowed
   atheist. You will even deny the existence of God! You may even become
   an open blasphemer, or you may become unconscious of any spiritual
   emotion. Your conscience will never prick you and you will go on
   sinning with a high hand until you come to die. Perhaps, even then, no
   alarm or terror will disturb your false peace of mind. Even when you
   dip your feet in the chilly stream of the River of Death, you will be
   self-deceived to the last. But oh, Sir, what a change will come over
   you when you once get into the world of eternal realities! When, at
   last, you realize that you are a lost soul and that you have forever to
   anticipate the wrath to come, what will you do then? O Man, how will
   the blood boil in your veins and your nerves become burning tracks for
   the wheels of pain to travel on! God help you! God save you! Only He
   can do this, for I see the dread forecast of the flames of Hell in you
   when you begin to ask God to leave you alone in your sin!

   "Well," says one, "like that king Ahaz, I have transgressed yet more
   and more against the Lord notwithstanding all my distress. But God, who
   knows all things, knows that I would be saved if I could. While you
   were singing that hymn just now, I thought I would act upon it. I said
   in my heart--

   "'Ican but perish if I go.

   I am resolved to try

   For if I stay away I know,

   I must forever die.

   Dear Friend, give me your hand! I feel that I may rejoice over you, for
   if God the Holy Spirit has put it into your heart to say, "I am
   resolved to try," or, better still, "I am resolved to trust Jesus
   Christ as my Savior--though He slays me, I will trust in Him"--depend
   upon it, He will not slay you! He would not do so even if you were the
   blackest of sinners--one who had sinned till you had become the vilest
   of all offenders! Jesus casts out none who come to Him by faith. Do, I
   pray you, now say in your soul, "God helping me, I will now come to
   Him--and who can tell whether there may not be a harp in Heaven even
   for me, and a crown of glory for me? I trust that I may yet stand with
   all the blood-washed host before the Throne of God above and join in
   singing the everlasting song of praise to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
   And even here on earth, I may be among the children of God, I may be
   forgiven, I may be saved, I may be accepted in the Beloved." If you
   talk thus, and mean all that you say, I say unto you, not only that
   this may be the case with you, but that it may be the case with you
   this very hour--

   "Oh, believe the promise true, God to you His Son has given!"

   A loving Father waits with outstretched arms to welcome the returning
   prodigal to His heart. Jesus waits by the fountain filled with His
   precious blood to wash you from all your sinful stains. The Holy Spirit
   is working in you even now--'tis He who bids you come! Let not Satan
   persuade you that it is too late for you to come to Jesus--it is never
   too late while the Messenger of Mercy continues to speak to you! Let
   not the devil convince you that you are too sinful to be saved--often
   the greatest sinners are the first to be saved! If the devil tells you
   that you are an extraordinary sinner, tell him that Christ is such an
   extraordinary Savior that He can save all sorts of sinners, ordinary
   and extraordinary, too! Say not in your heart that you cannot be saved,
   for, high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are God's
   thoughts above your thoughts and His ways above your ways! My poor
   Friend, if you feel your need of a Savior, join with me and with all
   the people of God here in singing this verse! Sing it from your heart
   and the great transaction's done--

   "Nothing in my hands I bring:

   Simply to Your Cross I cling!

   Naked, come to You for dress--

   Helpless, look to You for Grace!

   Foul, I to the Fountain fly--

   Wash me, Savior, or I die!"

   HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"--509, 473, 514.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2 THESSALONIANS 1; 2:1-4.

   [This Exposition belongs to Sermon No. 2991, Volume 52--WHAT WE HAVE,
   AND ARE TO HAVE--but there was not space available for it there.]

   2 Thessalonians 1:1, 2. Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the
   church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
   Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
   Christ. All nations have their special forms of salutation and this is
   the Christian's greeting to his fellow Christians--"Grace unto you, and
   peace." How much there is in this prayer! "Grace"--the free favor of
   God, the active energy of the Divine Power. And,
   "peace"--reconciliation to God, peace of conscience, peace with all
   men! My Brothers and Sisters, what better things could I desire for
   you, and what better things could you wish for your best beloved
   friends than these, "Grace unto you, and peace from God our Father and
   the Lord Jesus Christ"?

   3. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren. We do not feel
   this bond as much as we ought. We often feel ourselves bound to grumble
   and complain, but I question whether we think enough about being bound
   to praise God. And if we do not thank God as we ought for ourselves, it
   is little marvel if we are very slack in the duty of thanking Him for
   others. Herein, then, let us imitate this devout Apostle and let us
   consider ourselves bound to always thank God for our Brothers and
   Sisters in Christ.

   3-7. As it is meet, because that your faith grows exceedingly, and the
   charity of everyone of you all toward each other abounds; so that we
   ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and
   faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure; which
   is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be
   counted worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which you also suffer: seeing
   it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that
   trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us. You will perhaps
   say that this command is more easily given than carried out. And yet,
   my Brothers and Sisters, the Grace of God always enables us to perform
   what the precept of God commands! You who are troubled rest with us. If
   you can get even a partial glimpse of the Glory that is to follow your
   trouble. If you can see Christ suffering with you and realize your
   union with Him. If the blessed Spirit who pledges Himself to be with
   all the Lord's people, shall be with you, you will find it not hard
   thing thus to rest. "You who are troubled rest with us."

   7. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty
   angels. This rest, then, it seems, is to be given to us mainly when
   Christ shall come with His mighty angels.

   8, 9. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
   that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished
   with everlasting destruction from the Presence of the Lord, and from
   the glory of His power. I wonder what those persons who say that it is
   not the duty of men to believe the Gospel, make of this passage? Paul
   writes that those who "obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
   shall be punished with everlasting destruction." Then, clearly, the
   Gospel demands and commands man's obedience, and those who will not
   believe it shall be punished, not only for their other sins, but for
   this as their chief and damning fault--that they will not believe on
   the Lord Jesus Christ as set before them in the Gospel of His Grace.

   10. When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired
   in all them that believe. Which passage means, I suppose, that as
   Christ will be admired in His own Person, so His Glory, reflected in
   all His children, will be a subject of admiration to the whole
   intelligent universe. The saints of God shall be so pure, so
   bright--such trophies of the Redeemer's power to save--that He shall be
   admired in them! We know that in God's great temple of the universe,
   everything does speak of His Glory and so, in the great spiritual
   temple of His Church, every separate saint shall show forth the Glory
   of Christ!

   10, 11. (Because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
   Therefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you
   worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the goodpleasure ofHis
   goodness, and the word of faith with power. Ministers should be much in
   prayer for their people. When John Welsh's wife found him on the ground
   with his eyes red with weeping--and she found that he had been there
   supplicating by the hour together--she asked him what ailed him and he
   replied, "Woman, I have three thousand souls to care for, and I know
   not how they all prosper; therefore must I wrestle with God for them
   all." Oh, that we felt more the weight of our ministry! It is, perhaps,
   the great fault of this age that so many who preach, yet preach with so
   little earnestness and are not sufficiently alive to the value of
   immortal souls! Oh, that the Holy Spirit would make our ministry to be
   "the burden of the Lord" upon us!

   12. That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and
   you in Him, according to the Grace of our God and the Lord Jesus
   Christ.

   2 Thessalonians 2:1, 2. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of
   our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that you
   be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by
   word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
   In his former Epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul had written as if he
   expected Christ to come immediately. And the people seem to have taken
   his words so literally as to have lived in expectation of Christ's
   advent and, perhaps, to have exhibited some degree of fear concerning
   it. He now calms their minds by telling them that Christ would not come
   until certain events had happened. The history of the world was not
   complete. The harvest of the Church was not ripe--neither had the sin
   of man and especially the "man of sin" become fully developed.

   3, 4. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come,
   except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin is
   revealed, the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all
   that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in
   the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. If this "man of sin"
   is not the Pope of Rome, we cannot tell who is the antichrist!
   Certainly, if this description were put in the Hue-and-Cry, and we were
   police officers, we should at once arrest the Pope as the man whose
   character agreed with the warrant in our hands! What does he call
   himself? "Vicar of Christ on earth." What does he do but set himself up
   to be adored and worshipped as though he were Divine, making himself
   out to be the fountain and channel of all Grace? Beloved, this "man of
   sin" has been revealed! Now we may look for the coming of the Son of
   Man--but the day and the hour when He shall come, no man knows. No, and
   not even the angels of God!
     __________________________________________________________________

Jude's Doxology

   (No. 2994)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   NOVEMBER 7, 1875.

   "Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you
   faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the
   only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
   both now and forever. Amen." Jude 1:24,25.

   PAUL'S writings abound in doxologies. You will find them in different
   forms scattered throughout all his Epistles. But he is not the only
   Apostle who thus pauses to magnify the name of God. Here is "Judas, not
   Iscariot," but the true-hearted Jude who has been writing an Epistle
   which seems all ablaze with lightning, it burns so terribly against
   certain orders of sinners. Almost every word that Jude writes seems to
   have the roll of thunder in it--he appears to be more like the Haggai
   of the Old Testament than the Jude of the New. Yet he cannot close his
   short Epistle until he has included some ascription of praise to God!

   Learn from this, dear Friends, that the sin of man, if we are ever
   called to denounce it, should drive us to adore the goodness and glory
   of God. Sin defiles the world, so after you have done your best to
   sweep it out, resolve that, inasmuch as man has dishonored the name of
   God, you will seek to magnify that name. It is true that you cannot
   actually redress the wrong that has been done, but, at any rate, if the
   stream of sin has been increased, you may increase the stream of loyal
   and reverent praise! Take care that you do. Jude is not satisfied with
   having rebuked the sons of men for their sin, so he turns round to
   glorify his God!

   Observe that these doxologies, wherever we meet with them, are not all
   exactly the same. They are presented to the same God and offered in the
   same spirit, but there are reasons given for the doxology in the one
   case which are not given

   in the other. Our morning text [Sermon No. 1266, Volume 21--PAUL'S
   DOXOLOGY] told us of what God is able to do and so does this. They both
   begin with praising God's ability, but while Paul spoke about the
   greatness of that ability in what it could do for us, Jude speaks of
   the greatness of that ability in preserving us from falling and
   perfecting us so that we may be presented faultless before the Presence
   of the Glory of God. Let us, in an adoring frame of mind, think over
   this sublime subject. I. First, LET US ADORE HIM WHO CAN KEEP US FROM
   FALLING.

   I now address myself, of course, only to God's own people. When shall
   we ever see a congregation in which it will be needless to make such a
   remark as that? I cannot call upon some of you to adore God for keeping
   you from falling, for, alas, you have not yet learned to stand upright!
   God's Grace has never yet been accepted by you. You are not on the Rock
   of Ages--you have not yet set out upon the heavenly pilgrimage. It is a
   wretched state for you to be in--in which you cannot worship Him whom
   angels worship. It is a sad state of heart for any man to be in! To be
   excluded--self-excluded--from the general acclamations of joy in the
   Presence of God--because you feel no such joy and cannot, therefore,
   unite in such acclamations!

   But to the people of God, I have to say this. Dear Brothers and
   Sisters, we need keeping, therefore let us adore Him who can keep us!
   As saved souls, we need keeping from final apostasy. "Oh," says one, "I
   thought you taught us that those who are once saved shall never finally
   apostatize." I do believe that doctrine and delight to preach it--yet
   it is true that the saved ones would apostatize--everyone of them--if
   the Lord did not keep them! There is no stability in any Christian,
   considered in himself. It is the Grace of God within him that enables
   him to stand. I believe than the soul of man is immortal, yet not in
   and of itself, but only by the immortality which God bestows upon it
   from His essential

   immortality. So is it with the new life that is within us. It shall
   never perish, but it is only eternal because God continues to keep it
   alive. Your final perseverance is not the result of anything in
   yourself, but the result of the Grace which God continues to give you
   and of His eternal purpose which first chose you and of His almighty
   power which still keeps you alive. Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, the
   brightest saints on earth would fall into the lowest Hell if God did
   not keep them from falling! Therefore, praise Him, O you stars that
   shine in the Church's sky, for you would go out with a noxious smell,
   as lamps do for lack of oil, did not the Lord keep your heavenly flame
   burning! Glory be unto the Preserver of His Church who keeps His loved
   ones even to the end!

   But there are other ways of falling beside falling finally and fatally.
   Alas, Brothers and Sisters, we are all liable to fall into errors of
   doctrine. The best-taught man, apart from Divine Guidance, is capable
   of becoming the greatest fool possible! There is a strange weakness
   which sometimes comes over noble spirits and which makes them
   infatuated with an erroneous novelty, though they fancy they have
   discovered some great Truth of God. Men of enquiring and receptive
   minds are often decoyed from the old paths--the good old ways--and
   while they think they are pursuing the Truth, they are being led into
   damnable error! He only is kept, as to his thoughts and doctrinal
   views, whom God keeps, for there are errors that would, if it were
   possible, deceive even the very elect! And there are men and women
   going about in this world with smooth tongues and plausible arguments,
   who carry honeyed words upon their lips, though drawn swords are
   concealed behind their backs! Blessed are they who are preserved from
   these wolves in sheep's clothing! Lord, You alone can preserve us from
   the pernicious errors of the times, for You are "the only wise God, our
   Savior."

   And, dear Friends, we need keeping from an evil spirit. I do not know
   whom I should prefer--to see one of my dear Christian Brother fall into
   doctrinal error, or into an un-Christian spirit. I would prefer
   neither, for I think this is a safe rule--of two evils, choose neither!
   It is sad to hear some people talk as if they, alone, are right, and
   all other Christians are wrong. If there is anything which is the very
   essence and soul of Christianity, it is brotherly love--but brotherly
   love seems to be altogether forgotten by these people. And other
   Christians who, in the judgment of sobriety, are as earnest and as
   true-hearted and as useful as themselves, are set down as belonging to
   a kind of Babylonian system--I hardly know what they do not call it,
   but they give it all sorts of bad names--and this is thought to be a
   high style of Christianity! God grant that the man may be forgiven who
   thought it to be a worthy purpose of his life to found a sect, whose
   distinguishing characteristic should be that it would have no communion
   with any other Christians! The mischief that man has done is utterly
   incalculable! And I can only pray that in the Providence of God, some
   part of it may die with him.

   O Brothers and Sisters, I charge you, whatever mistakes you make, not
   to make a mistake about this one thing-- that even if you have all
   knowledge, and have not charity, it profits you nothing! Even if you
   could get a perfect creed and knew that your modes of worship were
   absolutely Apostolic, yet if you also imbibed this idea that you could
   not worship with any other Christians and that they were altogether
   outside your camp, your error would be far worse than all other errors
   put together--for to be wrong in heart is even worse than to be wrong
   in head! I would have you true to God's Truth, but, above all, I would
   have you true to God's Love! My Brother, I think you are mistaken about
   this matter or that, but do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, I
   love you. I have no doubt that I, also, am mistaken about some things,
   but do not, therefore, withdraw your hand and say that you cannot have
   fellowship with me! I have fellowship with my Father who is in Heaven
   and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and with His blessed Spirit. And I
   think that it ill becomes you, if you call yourself a son of that same
   God, to refuse to have fellowship with me when I have fellowship with
   Him! God save you from this evil spirit, but you may readily enough
   fall into it unless the Lord shall keep you. Your very zeal for the
   Truth of God may drive you into a forgetfulness of Christian love! And
   if it does, it will be a sad pity. O Lord, keep us from falling in this
   way!

   But there are falls of another sort which may happen to the brightest
   Christian. I mean, falls into outward sin. As you read Jude's Epistle
   through, you will see what apostates some professors became and you
   will be led to cry, "Lord, keep me from falling!" And if you were the
   pastor of a large church like mine, you would see enough to convince
   you that traitors like Judas are not all dead--that amidst the
   faithful, the unfaithful are still found--that there are bad fish to be
   thrown away, as well as good fish to be kept. And every time we execute
   an act of discipline--every time we have to bemoan the fall of one who
   looked like a Brother--we may thank God that we have been kept--and may
   sing this doxology, "Unto Him who is able to keep us from falling, be
   glory and power forever."

   And, dear Friends, there is a way of falling, out of which people are
   not so often recovered as when they fall into overt sin. I mean,
   falling into negligence as to natural or Christian duties. I have known
   professors who have been very lax at home--children who were not
   obedient to their parents--husbands who did not love their wives as
   they ought-- wives who were quite at home at this meeting and that, but
   very negligent of their domestic duties. And, mark you, where that is
   the case, it is a thing to mourn over, for the Christian ought to be
   absolutely reliable in everything he has to do! I would not give
   twopence for your religion if you are a tradesman--but not fair in your
   dealings! I do not care if you can sing like David, or preach like
   Paul--if you cannot measure a yard of material with the proper number
   of inches, or if your scales do not weigh rightly, or your general mode
   of business is not straight and true--you had better make no profession
   of religion! The separation at what is called, "religious," from the,
   "secular," is one of the greatest possible mistakes. There is no such
   thing as a religion of Sundays, and of chapels and churches. At least
   though there is such a thing, it is not worth having. The religion of
   Christ is a religion for seven days in the week--a religion for every
   place and for every act! And it teaches men, whether they eat, or
   drink, or whatever they do, to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus
   Christ and to the glory of God! I pray that you may be kept from
   falling away from that religion, and that you may be kept up to the
   mark in serving the Lord in all things and attending diligently to the
   little commonplace matters of daily life.

   And you know, dear Friends, there is another sort of falling--that is
   when the heart gets gradually cold, when the Christian wanders away
   little by little--when the life become more or less inconsistent with
   the profession. Oh, how many professors get into this state! They are
   like people who are not as well as they used to be. They do not know
   when they began to feel worse--it was months ago and every day they
   have got weaker--till now you can see their bones, though once they
   were full of flesh. Now they discover that whereas once they could have
   walked ten miles without fatigue, half a mile or less wearies them!
   Their appetite, too, has gradually gone. They scarcely know how. Ah,
   these are the sick folk with whom the physician has more trouble than
   he has with those who are suddenly seized by some well-known disease!
   And that gradual decline of spiritual health which does not come all at
   once, but, little by little, is one of the most perilous of evils and
   we have need to continually cry, "Lord, keep us from this!" And to
   praise His name that He is able so to keep us!

   Thus I have shown you that we need keeping and, Brothers and Sisters,
   none but the Lord can keep us. No man can keep himself. Without God's
   Grace, he will surely fail! And no place can keep us. Some people think
   that if they could get into such-and-such a family, they could keep
   from sin, but they are mistaken. In every position which man occupies,
   he will find temptation. We have heard of the hermit who hoped to get
   rid of all sin by living in a cave. He took with him his little brown
   loaf and his jug of water, but he had hardly entered the cave before he
   upset his jug and spilt the water. It was a long way to the well and he
   got so angry with himself for what he had done that he soon discovered
   that the devil could get into a cave as quickly as he could! So he
   thought he might as well go back and face the trials of ordinary
   society. There is a story which they tell in Scotland of a family who
   were thriftless and, therefore, did not succeed. But they thought it
   was one of the "brownies" that kept them from getting on, so they
   decided to "flit." They put all their things into a cart, but just as
   they were about to start, they heard a noise that made them cry out,
   "The brownie is in the churn!" So, wherever the churn went, the
   brownies would go too. And you may remove wherever you like and think,
   "If I get into such a position, I shall escape from temptation, but you
   will find that "the brownie is still in the churn," and he will follow
   you wherever you may go! You cannot be kept from falling by choosing
   another situation. You had better stay where you are, Brother, and
   fight the devil there, for perhaps the next place that you select as
   the scene of combat may not be as suitable as the one you have now.
   "Ah," says one, "I wish I could get to--

   A lodge in some vast wilderness,

   Some boundless contiguity of shade

   Where rumor of oppression and deceit,

   Of unsuccessful or successful war,

   Might never reach me again.'" Yes, yes. But that is not the way to
   conquer sin, is it? Suppose the battle of Waterloo is just beginning
   and here is a soldier who wants to win a victory. So he runs away--gets
   off to Brussels and hides himself in a cellar! Is he likely to be

   numbered among the heroes of the day? No, Brothers and Sisters, and if
   there is any sin to be overcome in this world, there is no credit to
   the man who says, "I'm going to hide somewhere out of the world." No,
   no, my Brother, accept the lot that God has provided for you! Take your
   place in the ranks of His soldiers and whatever temptation comes, look
   up to Him who is able to keep you from falling--but do not dream of
   running away, for that is the way to fall--that is being defeated
   before the battle begins! Nobody but God can keep you. You may join
   whatever church you like. You may wear a hat with a broad brim and say
   "thou" and "thee." You may meet with those who break bread and preach
   nothing but the Gospel of the Grace of God. You may dwell among the
   best people who ever lived, but you will still be tempted! Neither
   place nor people, neither manners nor customs can keep you from
   falling--God alone can do it!

   But here is the mercy, God can do it. Notice how Jude's doxology puts
   it--"To the only wise God our Savior." It is because He, alone, is wise
   that He, alone, is able to keep us from falling. He does it by teaching
   us the Truth, by warning us against secret sin and by His Providential
   leading. Sometimes He keeps temptation from us. At other times He
   allows a temptation to come to us that, by overcoming it, we may be the
   stronger to meet another one. Oftentimes He delivers us from temptation
   by letting affliction come upon us. Many a man has been kept from
   falling into sin by being stretched upon a bed of sickness. Had it not
   been for the loss of the eye, he would have looked upon vanity. Had it
   not been for that broken bone, he would have run in the ways of
   ungodliness. We little know how much preservation from falling we owe
   to our losses and crosses! The story of Sir James Thornhill painting
   the inside of the cupola of St. Paul's is probably well known to you.
   When he had finished one of the compartments, he was stepping backward
   that he might get a full view of it and so went almost to the edge of
   the scaffolding--and would have fallen over if he had taken another
   step--but a friend, who saw his danger, wisely seized one of his
   brushes and rubbed some paint over his picture. The artist, in his
   rage, rushed forward to save his painting and so saved his own life! We
   have all pictured life--what a fairy picture we made of it! And as we
   admired it, we walked further and yet further away from God and
   safety--and got nearer and nearer to perilous temptation! But when
   trial came and ruined the picture we had painted and then, though
   scarcely knowing why, we came forward and were saved, God had kept us
   from falling by the trouble He had sent to us!

   God has often kept us from falling by a bitter sense of our past sin.
   We have not dared to go near the fire again for our former burns have
   scarcely healed. I have also noticed, in my own case, that when the
   desire for sin has come with force, the opportunity for sin has not
   been present--and when the opportunity of evil has been present, then,
   by God's Grace, the desire has been absent. It is wonderful how God
   prevents these two things from meeting and so keeps His people from
   falling.

   Above all, it is by the Divine Spirit that God bears us up as upon
   eagle's wings. The Spirit teaches us to hate sin and to love
   righteousness--and so we are daily kept from falling.

   Brothers and Sisters, join with me in adoring the Lord that He will
   keep us to the end. Have we committed our souls into the hands of
   Jesus? Then our souls are safe forever! Are we trusting to Him to keep
   us till the day of His appearing? If so, He will keep us--not one sheep
   or lamb out of His flock shall by any possibility be destroyed by the
   wolf, or the bear, or the roaring lion of Hell! They shall all be His
   in the day when they pass again under the hands of Him that counts
   them!

   II. NOW, SECONDLY, LET US ADORE HIM BECAUSE HE WILL, AT THE LAST,
   PRESENT US

   "FAULTLESS BEFORE THE PRESENCE OF HIS GLORY WITH EXCEEDING JOY."

   There will come a day, Brothers and Sisters, when we shall either be
   presented in the courts of God as His courtiers, or else be driven from
   His Judgment Seat as rebels against His authority. We look forward with
   the confident expectation that we shall be presented as the friends of
   Christ, unto God, even the Father and that is, indeed, a cause for
   adoring gratitude!

   Do you notice how Jude puts it? "To present you faultless." There shall
   be none in Heaven but those who are faultless. There shall by no means
   enter into those holy courts anything that defiles. Heaven is perfectly
   pure and if you and I are ever to get there, we must be pure as the
   driven snow. No taint of sin must be upon us, or else we cannot stand
   among the courtiers of God. His flaming Throne would shoot forth
   columns of devouring fire upon any guilty soul that dared to stand in
   the courts of the Most High, if such a standing were possible! But we
   are impure--impure as to our acts and, worst of all, impure as to our
   very nature! How, then, can we hope to ever stand there? Yet, dear
   Brothers and Sisters, our confidence is that we shall. Why?

   Is it not because Christ is able to present us faultless there? Come,
   Christian, think for a minute how faultless Christ has made you so far
   as your past sin is concerned. The moment you believed in Him, you were
   so completely washed in His precious blood that not a spot of sin
   remained upon you. Try to realize that whatever your past life has
   been, if you now believe in Jesus Christ, you are cleansed from all
   iniquity by virtue of His atoning Sacrifice and you are covered by a
   spotless robe of righteousness by virtue of His blessed life of perfect
   purity and obedience to His Father's will. You are now without fault,
   as far as your past sin is concerned, for He has cast it all into the
   depths of the sea--but you feel that you are not without fault as to
   your nature.

   "Oh," you say, "I feel everything that is evil rising at times within
   me." But all that evil is under sentence of death. Christ nailed it to
   His Cross. Crucifixion is a lingering and very painful death--and the
   culprit struggles before he breathes his last. But your sins have had
   their deathblow. When Christ was nailed to the Cross, your sins were
   nailed there, too, and they shall never come down again. Die they must,
   even as He died. It will be a blessed hour when sin shall at last give
   up the ghost--when there shall be not even the tendency to sin within
   our nature! Then shall we be presented faultless before the Throne of
   God!

   "Can that ever be?" asks one. Well may you ask that question, Brother.
   Can it ever be that we shall not be tempted by one foul lust, nor be
   disturbed by one unbridled passion, nor feel the emotions of envy or of
   pride again? Yes, it shall surely be! Christ has secured this blessing
   for you. His name is Jesus, Savior, "for He shall save His people from
   their sins." He must and will do this for all who trust Him. Rejoice
   that He will do this, for no one but God can do it. It must be "the
   only wise God our Savior" who can accomplish this--and accomplish it He
   will! Does your faith enable you to picture yourself as standing
   faultless before the Throne of God? Well then, give to the Lord the
   glory which is due unto Him for such a wondrous act of Grace as that!

   This is how you are to be presented by Christ in Glory. There is a
   great stir in a family when a daughter is to be presented at court and
   a great deal is thought of it. But one day you and I who have believed
   in Jesus, shall be presented to the Father. What radiant beauty shall
   we then wear when God, Himself, shall look upon us and declare us to be
   without fault--when there shall be no cause for sorrow remaining and,
   therefore, we shall be presented with exceeding joy! It shall be so, my
   Brother! It shall be so, my Sister! Therefore do not doubt it. How soon
   it shall be, we cannot tell-- possibly, tomorrow. Perhaps before the
   sun rises again you and I may be presented by Christ "before the
   Presence of His glory with exceeding joy." We cannot tell when it will
   be, but we shall be there in His good time. We shall be perfect! We
   shall be "accepted in the Beloved" and, therefore, "unto Him be glory
   and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."

   III. That is the note with which I have to close my discourse. LET US,
   BECAUSE OF THESE TWO GREAT

   BLESSINGS OF FINAL PRESERVATION AND PRESENTATION BEFORE HIS GLORY,
   OFFER UNTO THE LORD OUR HIGHEST ASCRIPTIONS OF PRAISE.

   Jude says, "Both now and forever." Well, we will attend to the
   "forever" as eternity rolls on, but let us attend to the praise of God
   "now"--at this moment! "To the only wise God our Savior be glory and
   majesty, dominion and power" now! Come, Brothers and Sisters, think of
   what you owe to Him who has kept you to this day--and will not let you
   go! Think of where you might have been and think, I may say, of where
   you used to be in your unregenerate state. Yet you are not there
   now--but here you are, without self-righteousness, made to differ from
   your fellow men entirely through the Grace of God! You have been kept
   perhaps 20 years, 30 years, 40 years--possibly 50 years! Well, unto Him
   be the glory! Give Him the glory even now!

   How can you do it? Well, feel it in your hearts! Speak of it to your
   neighbors! Talk of it to your children! Tell everybody you meet what a
   good and blessed and faithful God He is, and so give Him glory now. And
   be happy and cheerful. You cannot glorify God better than by a calm,
   quiet, happy life. Let the world know that you serve a good Master. If
   you are in trouble, do not let anyone see that the trouble touches your
   spirit--no, more, do not let it trouble your spirit. Rest in God--take
   evil as well as good from His hands and keep on praising Him. You do
   not know how much good you may do and how greatly you may glorify God
   if you praise Him in your dark times. Worldlings do not care much about
   our Psalm-singing unless they see us in pain and sorrow and observe
   that we praise God then. I like, and the world likes, a religion that
   will wash--a religion that will stand many showers and much rough
   usage. Some

   Christians' joy disappears in the wear and tear of life--it cannot
   endure the world's rough handling. Let it not be so with us, Beloved,
   but let us praise, bless and magnify the name of the Lord as long as we
   have any being!

   I know that in speaking thus, I am only addressing a part of my
   congregation. I wish that every man and woman here were now praising
   the Lord--and I am sure that you could not have a better occupation to
   all eternity. Remember that if you do not praise God, it is impossible
   for you ever to enter Heaven, for that is the chief occupation of
   Heaven! And also remember that praise from your lips, until those lips
   are divinely cleansed, would be like a jewel in a swine's snout, a
   thing altogether out of place! For you, dear unsaved Hearer, the first
   thing is not praise, but prayer--no, not even prayer first, but faith
   "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." And then,
   in faith, pray the prayer which God accepts. But you must first believe
   in Jesus. "And what does believing in Jesus mean?" you ask. It means
   this--your sin deserves punishment, for God, who is just, must punish
   sin. But His Son came into the world to suffer in the place of those
   who trust Him. And now, God can be just and yet the Justifier of every
   soul that believes in Jesus! In the Person of His Son, God hangs upon a
   tree and dies a felon's death--will you believe in the merit of that
   death and in the love of God who spared not His own Son in order that
   He might spare us? Can you trust Jesus as your God and Savior? Will you
   do it now? Then you are saved!

   The first moment of thus trusting God is the beginning of a new life--a
   life which will drive out the old death of sin. The moment that you
   thus trust your God, you will be placed upon a new footing with regard
   to Him--your whole aspect towards God will be changed. Repentance will
   take such possession of your spirit that you will be actuated by new
   motives and swayed by new desires! In fact, you will be a new man in
   Christ Jesus. This is being saved--saved from the love of sin, saved
   from returning to sin, saved from falling and so completely saved that
   Christ shall one day present you "faultless before the Presence of His
   glory with exceeding joy." May God do this for everyone of you, my
   Hearers, according to the riches of His Grace! It is my heart's last,
   best and strongest desire that everyone of you may be saved. May we all
   meet in Heaven, before the Throne of God, never more to be parted!

   While I am away, listen with all earnestness to other heralds of the
   Cross, and pray the Lord to bless their messages to your salvation, if
   mine have not been so blest. I pray that by some instrumentality, you
   may all be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JUDE.

   Verse 1. Jude. That is to say Judas, not Iscariot.

   1. The servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James. He does not say,
   "and brother of our Lord," for we know that James and Judas were, both
   of them, among the Lord's kinsman according to the flesh. But now,
   after the flesh, knows he Christ no more, but is content and happy to
   be known as "the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James."

   1. To them that are sanctified by God the Father. For the decree of
   election, the setting apart of the chosen is usually ascribed unto God
   the Father.

   1. And preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. We have here a very
   blessed description of the whole work of our salvation--set apart by
   the Father, joined unto Christ and preserved in Him--and then, in due
   time, called out by the Spirit of God.

   2. Mercy unto you, and peace, and love be multiplied. Christian letters
   should be full of love and good will. The Christian dispensation
   breathes beneficence--it is full of benediction! "Mercy unto you, and
   peace, and love, be multiplied." May the Divine Trinity give you a
   trinity of blessings!

   3. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common
   salvation, it was necessary for me to write unto you and exhort you
   that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered
   unto the saints. In the sense of being once and for all given to the
   saints, the faith of Christians is not a variable quantity. It is not a
   thing which changes from day to day, as some seem to suppose, vainly
   imagining that fresh light is bestowed upon each new generation. No,
   the Truth of God was delivered once and for all, it was stereotyped,
   fixed--and it is for us to hold it fast as God has given it to us.

   4. For there are certain men crept in unawares. They did not boldly
   avow their heresy when they came in--they would not have been allowed
   to enter if they had done so--but they sneaked in, they climbed into
   the pulpit, professing to be preachers of the Gospel when they knew,
   all along, that they intended to undermine it. Basest of all men are
   those who act thus! "There are certain men crept in unawares."

   4. Who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Proscribed by
   God as traitors long ago! Those who have not the courage of their
   convictions probably have no convictions at all, but seek to undermine
   the faith which they profess to hold.

   4. Ungodly men, turning the Grace of our God into lasciviousness, and
   denying the only Lord God, and Our Lord Jesus Christ. Antinomians,
   "turning the Grace of our God into lasciviousness," falsely declaring
   that the Law has no binding force upon the Christian's life and saying
   that we may do evil that good may come--and Socinians, "denying the
   only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."

   5. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this,
   how that the Lord, having saved thepeople out of the land of Egypt,
   afterward destroyed them that believed not. If we have no real faith,
   we may appear to go a long way towards Heaven--but we shall not enter
   the heavenly Canaan.

   6. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own
   habitation, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto
   the judgment of the great day. See, then, the need of stability, the
   need of abiding in the faith and abiding in the practice of it, lest we
   should turn out to be like the Israelites, who, though they came out of
   Egypt, left their carcasses in the wilderness, or like the angels, who,
   though they once stood in God's Presence in Glory, have fallen to the
   deeps of the abyss because of their apostasy!

   7. 8. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like
   manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange
   flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal
   fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise
   dominion and speak evil of dignitaries. They cast off all restraint;
   they claim to have liberty to do whatever they like--and when reproved,
   they utter railing words against those who honestly rebuke them!

   9. Yet Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil when he
   disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a railing
   accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you. To what does this refer? I
   am sure I do not know. I cannot think it refers to anything recorded in
   the Old Testament, but to some fact, known to Jude, who here speaks by
   Revelation and records it. We believe it and learn from it that when an
   archangel disputes with the devil, he does not use hard words even
   against him, for hard words are an evidence of the weakness of the
   cause which they are used to support! Hard arguments softly put, are
   the really effective weapons, but it takes some of us a long time to
   learn this and generally, in our younger days, we wear away our own
   strength by the violence with which we use it.

   10. But these speak evil of those things which they know not but what
   they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt
   themselves. It is a horrible thing when a man's sin goes the full
   length of his knowledge and he sins up to the degree of his
   possibilities!

   11. 12. Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran
   greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the
   gainsaying of Korah. These are spots. "These are spoilers," so it may
   be rendered.

   12. In your feasts of charity. They spoil your love feasts at the
   Communion Table. They mar your fellowship when you gather together for
   worship.

   12. When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Some of
   the best Christians who come to the Lord's Table, come there in great
   fear and trembling. And I have known some who have had an undoubted
   right to be there, half afraid to come. Yet those very persons who have
   a holy fear lest they should come amiss, are those who really ought to
   come. "Feeding themselves without fear" is the mark of those who are
   further off from God.

   12. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds. They believe
   according to what is said to them by the last man who speaks to
   them--they are easily persuaded to this doctrine, and to that, and the
   other.

   12. Trees whose fruit withers, without fruit. They seem to be bearing
   fruit, but it drops off before it ripens.

   12, 13. Twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea.
   They have nothing to say for Christ, yet they must say something, so
   they are "raging waves of the sea."

   13. Foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved
   the thickness of darkness forever These are the false professors of
   religion, the members of the church for whom there are seats reserved
   in Hell! This is a dreadful thought--"to whom is reserved the blackness
   of darkness forever"--not for the heathen, not for the open refusers of
   the Gospel, but for such as creep into the churches unawares, teach
   false doctrine, live unholy lives!

   14, 15. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these,
   saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to
   execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among
   them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and
   of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against
   Him. How Jude knew that Enoch said that, I cannot tell--it is another
   instance of Divine Inspiration.

   16. These are murmurers, complainers. You know the sort of people
   alluded to here, nothing ever satisfies them. They are discontented
   even with the Gospel. The bread of Heaven must be cut into three pieces
   and served on dainty napkins, or else they cannot eat it! And very soon
   their soul loathes even this light bread. There is no way by which a
   Christian can serve God so as to please them. They will pick holes in
   every preacher's coat and if the great High Priest, Himself, were here,
   they would find fault with the color of the stones of His breastplate!

   16-19. Walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks great
   swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of
   advantage. But, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before of
   the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there
   should be mockers in the last time who should talk after their own
   ungodly lusts. These are they who separate themselves, sensual, having
   not the Spirit. People who must, if they make a profession of religion
   at all, be continually breaking up churches and holding themselves
   aloof from others, having no fellowship with anybody but those who can
   say "shibboleth" as plainly as they can, and sound the "h" pretty
   loudly.

   20-22. But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy
   faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God,
   looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And
   of some have compassion, making a difference. Some of those professors
   who are not living consistently with their profession, in whom you can
   see signs and tokens of sin, yet there may be some trace of repentance,
   some reason to hope that they will forsake the evil when they see it to
   be evil--"have compassion" upon them.

   23. And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating
   even the garment spotted by the flesh. When you have to deal with
   unclean professors, there must be an abhorrence and detestation of
   their sin even when there is great gentleness towards the sinner. We
   must never be such believers in the repentance of the guilty as to be
   willing to wink at sin, for sin is a great evil in any case and
   repentance cannot wipe it away. And though it behooves us to be tender
   to the sinner, we must never be tender to the sin. How beautifully this
   short and sad Epistle ends! Having described the many who, after making
   a profession, yet turn aside, Jude bursts out with this jubilant
   doxology!

   24, 25. Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to
   present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding
   joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion
   and power, both now and ever. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Very Singular

   (No. 2995)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "He...put his household in order, and hanged himself." 2 Samuel 17:23.

   AHITHOPHEL was a man of keen perception and those who consulted him
   followed his advice with as much confidence as if he had been an oracle
   from Heaven. He was a great master of diplomacy, versed in the arts of
   cunning-- far-seeing, cautious, deep. He was for years the friend and
   counselor of David. But thinking it judicious to be on the popular
   side, he left his old master that he might, like many other courtiers,
   worship the rising sun and hold an eminent position under Absalom.
   This, to use diplomatic language, was not only a crime, but a mistake.
   Absalom was not the man to follow the warnings of wisdom and Ahithophel
   found himself supplanted by another counselor. And whereas he was so
   incensed that he left Absalom, hurried home, arranged his personal
   affairs and hanged himself in sheer vexation.

   His case teaches us that the greatest worldly wisdom will not preserve
   a man from the utmost folly. Here was a man worthy to be called the
   Nestor of debate, who yet had not wit enough to keep his neck from the
   fatal noose! Many a man, supremely wise for a time, fails in the long
   run. The renowned monarch, shrewd for the hour, has before long proved
   his whole system to be a fatal mistake. Instances there are, near to
   hand, where a brilliant career has ended in shame--a life of wealth
   closed in poverty--an empire collapsed in ruin. The wisdom which
   contemplates only this life fails even in its own sphere. Its tricks
   are too shallow, its devices too temporary and the whole comes down
   with a crash when least expected to fall! What sad cases have we seen
   of men who have been wise in policy, who have utterly failed from lack
   of principle! For lack of the spirit of honor and truth to establish
   them, they have built palaces of ice which have melted before they were
   complete. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." The wisdom
   which comes from above is the only wisdom--the secular is folly until
   the sacred blends its golden stream therewith!

   I desire to call your attention to the text on account of its very
   remarkable character. "He put his house in order, and hangedhimself"To
   put his house in order showed that he was a prudent man. To hang
   himself proved that he was a fool. Herein is a strange mixture of
   discretion and desperation, mind and madness. Shall a man have wisdom
   enough to arrange his worldly affairs with care and yet shall be so
   hapless as to take his own life afterwards? As Bishop Hall pithily
   says, "Could it be possible that he should be careful to order his
   house who regarded not to order his impetuous passions? That he should
   care for his house who cared not for either body or soul?" Strange
   incongruity--he makes his will and then, because he cannot have his
   will, he wills to die! 'Tis another proof that madness is in the hearts
   of the sons of men! Marvel not at this one display of folly, for I
   shall have to show you that the case of Ahithophel is, in the spirit of
   it, almost universal. And as I shall describe sundry similar
   individuals, many of you will perceive that I speak of you. Thousands
   set their houses in order, but destroy their souls! They look well to
   their flocks and their herds, but not to their hearts' best interests.
   They gather broken shells with continuous industry, but they throw away
   priceless diamonds. They exercise forethought, prudence,
   care--everywhere but where they are most required. They save their
   money, but squander their happiness. They are guardians of their
   estates, but suicides of their souls. This folly takes many forms, but
   it is seen on all hands, and the sight should make the Christian weep
   over the madness of his follow men. May the series of portraits which
   will now pass before us, while they hold the mirror up to Nature, also
   point us in the way of Grace!

   See before you, then, the portrait of AN ATTENTIVE SERVANT