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        Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 53: 1907
   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
     __________________________________________________________________

Good Cheer From Grace Received

   (No. 3020)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1906.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE. NEWINGTON.

   "And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve
   years, came behind Him, and touched the hem of His garment: for she
   said within herself, If Imay but touch His garment, I shall be whole.
   But Jesus turned Him about, and when He saw her, He said, Daughter, be
   of good comfort; your faith has made you whole. And the woman was made
   whole from that hour." Matthew 9:20-22.

   "But as He went the people thronged Him. And a woman having an issue
   ofblood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians,
   neither could be healed ofany, came behind Him, and touched the border
   of His garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus
   said, Who touched Me? When all denied, Peter and they that were Him
   said, Master, the multitude throng You and press You, and You say, Who
   touched Me? And Jesus said, Somebody has touched Me: for I perceive
   that virtue is gone out of Me. And when the woman saw that she was not
   hid, she came

   trembling, and falling down before Him, she declared unto Him before
   all the people for what cause she had touched Him, and how she was
   healed immediately. And He said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort:
   your faith has made you whole: go in peace."

   Luke 8:42-48

   [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon this Miracle, published in the
   Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, are as follows--No. 1809, Volume 30--
   MAY I?; No. 2018, Volume 34--CURED AT LAST and No. 2019, Volume 34--SHE
   WAS NOT HID.]

   THE words of good cheer which our Savior spoke to this woman were not
   given to her while she was coming to Him, for that would have been
   premature. She had not avowed her desire to be healed. She had uttered
   no prayer. She had actually as yet sought nothing at the Savior's hands
   and, therefore, she had not reached the stage at which comfort is
   fitting. She does not appear to have required comfort in taking her
   first step--she was resolved upon that and she took it without fail. It
   is one of the most unwise things under Heaven to comfort people who do
   not require it. When we are dealing with enquirers, our love may bring
   them loss if we offer them words of cheer when they need admonition or
   rebuke. Any comfort which keeps a soul short of Christ is dangerous. A
   sinner's main business is to get to Jesus, to exercise personal faith
   in the personal Savior--and we have no right to a gleam of comfort
   until we have heartily and honestly trusted in Christ. If
   encouragements to believe are used as a sort of halfway house to rest
   in before actually believing, they are mischievously used and may ruin
   our souls!

   This afflicted woman did not require to be cheered so soon, for she had
   such confidence in Christ and such a resolve to put her confidence to
   the test, that difficulties could not hinder her, nor crowds keep her
   back. The Savior was in the press--she joined the throng and with a
   holy boldness mixed with a sacred modesty she came behind Him, only
   wishing to touch His garment, or even the fringe of it--feeling
   persuaded that if she did but come into contact with the Lord, no
   matter how, she would be healed. According to her faith so was it done
   to her! And it was after she had been healed that our Lord spoke
   comfortingly to her He brought not forth the cup of cordial till the
   need for it had fully come. After she had touched Him and her faith had
   made her whole, a trial awaited her and her spirit was ready to
   faint--and then the tender One cheered her by saying, "Your faith has
   made you whole: go in peace."

   It happens to many and many a heart that after it has obtained the
   blessing of salvation and has been healed of the disease of sin, a time
   of fear occurs. After it has made its confession of faith, a season of
   trembling follows occurring, perhaps, as a reaction from the joy of
   salvation, a rebound of the spirit from excessive delight. We eat the
   heavenly provision eagerly and it is sweet to our taste and yet,
   afterwards, our long hunger having weakened us, we do not digest the
   food with ease--and pains ensue for which medicine is required. We fear
   and tremble because of the greatness of the mercy received and then
   this word is needed--"Be of good comfort: your faith has made you
   whole."

   We will meditate, first, upon this woman's need of comfort Secondly,
   upon the comfort which Jesus gave her And then, in the third place we
   will enter a little further into that comfort and think of the faith
   which Jesus Christ declared had made her whole--the faith to which He
   pointed her for comfort.

   I. Come, then, dear Friend, and attentively consider THIS WOMAN'S NEED
   OF GOOD CHEER. She felt in her body that she was made whole and yet she
   stood in urgent need of comfort. This necessity arose from several
   causes.

   First, she had hoped to obtain the blessing secretly, but she was found
   out She thought that by coming behind the Lord Jesus in the press, she
   would not be observed. And she anxiously desired secrecy because the
   peculiarity of her bodily disorder caused her to dread publicity. She
   aimed at gaining her end and retreating unnoticed into the multitude.
   Truth to tell, she stole the cure! Her touch was given in stealth, no
   eye resting upon her. No disciple seems to have spied her out, nor had
   anyone in the throng perceived the deed, or else when the Master said,
   "Who touched Me?" one or other of them would have pointed her out. So
   far she had shunned observation and even the Savior, Himself, had not
   seen her with His bodily eyes. But faith such as hers could not be
   hidden. It was not meet that such a flower should bloom unseen. She is
   called for and she stands discovered, the center of all eyes.

   You, perhaps, dear Friend, have hoped to find salvation and to keep it
   a secret. You entered the House of Prayer a stranger to the things of
   God, but very anxious--there you sat and wept--but you tried to conceal
   your feelings from those who sat near you. You have gone in and out of
   the place of worship, seeking the Savior, but fearing to be suspected
   of doing so. Nobody spoke to you or, if anyone did, you evaded all the
   questions that were put to you, for you were as jealous of your secret
   as if you carried diamonds and were afraid of thieves!

   Now you have believed in the Savior, or at least you hope so, but you
   court secrecy just as much. You have found honey and you have tried to
   eat it all alone--not because you grudge others eating it with you, but
   because you are afraid of them. You did not wish mother or father,
   kinsfolk or acquaintance to suspect you of being a Christian. You
   shrank from the blessed charge and desired to be a secret friend of
   Jesus--a Nicodemus, or a Joseph of Arimathea. To your great amazement
   you have been found out. Like Saul, you hid among the stuff, but the
   people have called you forth. Your love to Jesus has oozed out and is
   spoken of by many! Do you wonder? How can fire be hidden? Your speech
   has betrayed you. Your manner and spirit have revealed you as odors
   betray sweet flowers. And now that it is out, you feel a sinking of
   spirit at the notice you have attracted. Your modesty cries, "They take
   me for a Christian. Can I live like a Christian? Shall I be able to
   adorn my profession? They have discovered me in the family--my brothers
   and sisters see that there is a change in me. Is it a real change? Or
   shall I turn out to be one of those deceivers who have a name to live,
   and yet are dead?" Your heart fails you for fear of future backsliding
   and apostasy. And well it may be, for flesh is weak and the world is
   bewitching--and Satan is subtle and deceitful. Whatever comfort there
   is in our present meditation will be meant for you since it is intended
   for persons embarrassed by being forced out of the shade of solitude
   into the glare of observation--troubled because they fear that they
   shall not honor the holy name which is named upon them. To you who are
   in that condition, Jesus says, at this moment, "Be of good comfort:
   your faith has made you whole."

   This poor woman, in addition to being found out, had been constrained
   to make a public personal testimony. As we have already noticed, her
   case was a very special one in which privacy would naturally be
   courted. But that privacy had been invaded--the Savior had looked for
   her and had demanded, "Who touched Me?" And she, all trembling and
   afraid, had been constrained to fall down before Him and to tell Him
   all the truth! Do you wonder that the excitement was too much for her?
   The people had been astonished as they heard of the wondrous power
   which had emanated from the Person of Christ, even through the fringe
   of His garment--and that astonishment, in a great measure, referred to
   her. She was the observed of all observers! Of her cure she had to make
   a public acknowledgment. She was equal to the task. Being brought to
   bay, she did her work bravely and bore full and telling testimony. Take
   careful note that our Lord did not

   bid her be of good cheer till she had done so! She trembled before she
   confessed the Lord's deed of Grace which had been worked upon her, but,
   as soon as she had made a public avowal, her Lord said to her,
   "Daughter, be of good comfort."

   I have known certain timid ones who have wished to unite with the
   Church on the sly and to make no open confession either by word of
   mouth or by Baptism. I have refused to be a party to the breeding of
   cowards, and they have lived to thank me for what seemed a harsh
   demand! Yet, when the confession has been made, once and for all, many
   brave hearts have been full of anxiety. They have confessed Christ
   before men--they have proclaimed what the Lord has done for their
   souls--and after it has been all over, they have been overwhelmed with
   a sense of responsibility and have said within themselves, "What great
   things will now be expected of me? What have I had the courage to say?
   Shall I be able to live up to it all?" After the bold, open confession,
   comes the inward shrinking! Though they are not sorry that they made
   the admission for, on the contrary, they would make it a thousand times
   over if they could glorify Christ thereby, yet they know their weakness
   and tremble lest they should ever behave themselves so as to prove
   unworthy of the cause of their Beloved Redeemer! If you, dear Friend,
   have just come out from the world and have newly said, "I am on the
   Lord's side," do not be surprised if what you have just done should,
   upon calm consideration, look almost like presumption. A sense of fear
   is natural when you see to what a service your dedication vows have
   bound you. At such a time Jesus will give you the comfort of the text,
   "Be of good cheer: your faith has made you whole." May you have Grace
   to receive it by faith and to drink in all its consolation!

   This, however, is not quite all the reason for the woman's needing
   encouragement at the moment the Lord bestowed it. This woman, no doubt,
   had a very deep reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ She had such an
   esteem for Him that even His garments were thought by her to be
   saturated with healing energy! And now, when she found herself
   immediately in His Presence, she trembled and was afraid. She had come
   behind Him, no doubt, to a great extent out of modesty and humility as
   well as out of timidity. But now she finds herself face to face with
   the glorious Lord and He is asking her questions--and in full view of
   all the people she has to acknowledge her faith in Him. I hardly think
   that she was afraid of the people, but I do think that her faith was so
   reverential that she felt an awe at being found immediately in the
   Presence of the Lord.

   Beloved Friend, you have been singing lately--

   "Happy day, happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away," and you have
   joined in meetings where all have been filled with a sacred delight
   because they have met with Jesus. And I should not wonder if when you
   have been alone at home afterwards, and you have thought the matter
   over, it has seemed too gracious a thing to be really true that the
   Lord of Glory had lovingly communed with you! As your thoughts of Him
   have risen in reverential love, you have said, "Is it possible? Is it
   true? Am I dreaming? Has the Son of God really looked on me in love?
   Can it be true that He who wears the majesty of Heaven, has set His
   heart upon me and has come to tabernacle in my breast? This is a
   miracle of miracles! Is it, indeed, a fact?" You have felt pressed down
   by the weight of the Divine Goodness. I remember well, not only the joy
   I had when I found the Savior, but the horror of great darkness which
   fell upon me within a very short time after I had rejoiced with
   unspeakable joy. It was on this account I knew that I had found the
   Lord--I was fully assured of my salvation and full ofjoy as to my
   possession of His love. But then I asked, "Is it not too good to be
   true? Is salvation altogether of Free Grace? Is there an everlasting
   love of God and is it fixed on me? Am I, indeed, an heir of God and a
   joint-heir with Jesus Christ?" The brightness of the Glory blinded my
   weak eyes--by floods of amazing love I was carried off my feet! Are you
   in such a condition? Then it is time for the Savior's gentle words to
   sound in your heart, "Be of good comfort: your faith has made you
   whole." When a reverent sense of the Lord's amazing condescension
   causes us to swoon at heart, He will stay us with flagons and comfort
   us with apples. This is a sweet melancholy which Infinite Love can soon
   relieve.

   Perhaps the greatest reason for the trembling of the woman in the
   narrative lay in a sense of her faulty coming. When she looked back at
   the way in which she had approached the Lord, she saw a mass of faults
   in it--as we may well do in ours. When she had been made whole, her
   faith would say to her, "The blessed Lord did not deserve that you
   should come behind Him and touch His garment in that unbelieving
   fashion. See what a Savior He is! What love, what tenderness shines in
   His face! Why did you not openly come to Him? You crouched in the
   rear--why did you not look Him full in the face and crave His mercy? He
   would have received you freely--why did you suspect His Grace? You may
   have wounded Him by doubting His willingness to bless you. You should
   not have indulged such unbelief." After a seeker has found the Lord and
   has experienced salvation, he is sometimes tempted to question whether
   he is really a Believer in Jesus. He reasons within himself thus--"My
   faith is so mixed with unbelief that I am ashamed of it. Why did I come
   to Jesus in such a way as I did? It was well to come, but oh that I had
   come in a more childlike spirit and that I had done Him the justice to
   have a greater confidence in Him!" Do you, dear Friend, know this
   experience? If so, to you and to all others who are thus exercised, the
   comfort of our text is addressed!

   Very likely conscience would charge the trembling woman with dishonest
   stealth in her way of getting her cure. "You felt, at the time, that
   you had no right to the blessing, but you snatched at it and did not
   ask the Savior's leave to take it! You thought that you would be healed
   and then run away--and none would be any the wiser--thus you robbed the
   Lord of His Glory. Can a blessing rest on such a way of acting?"
   Conscience made her tremble and, therefore, the Savior as good as said,
   "Daughter, do not suspect your faith, for it has made you whole and,
   therefore, it is good faith. However it acted, it has brought you
   healing--therefore do not distress yourself about its imperfections,
   but go in peace." He pointed her for comfort to the fact that however
   faulty might be the way of her coming, it had healed her and,
   therefore, she might well be content. Is there not also a word of cheer
   in this for us? If we have been renewed in heart and life, the faith by
   which this change was worked cannot but be good!

   Perhaps, too, she might have felt that it was sadly too bold of her, a
   woman unclean according to the Law, to push among the throng and dare
   to touch the Lord, Himself. Many and many a time my heart has whispered
   to itself, "How could you be so bold as to trust Christ?" The devil has
   called it presumption and my trembling heart has feared that it might
   be so. One thing I know--I am certain that I am healed, even as the
   woman knew that the cure was worked in her! This I know, that I am not
   what I once was, but I am made a new creature in Christ Jesus! Yet the
   question will propose itself, "How can it be that you dared to dash in
   and seize on mercy, being such a sinner and so utterly unworthy?"

   For my own part, I confess that I acted toward the Lord Jesus somewhat
   like a poor starving dog who saw meat in the butcher's shop and could
   not restrain himself from laying hold of it and running away with it!
   Many a butcher would chase the wretched creature and take the meat from
   him, but our Savior is of a nobler temper. If our Lord Jesus sees us
   grasp His mercy, He will never take it away from us! He says, "Him that
   comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out." O you who are quite unfit to
   come to Christ and altogether unworthy of His favor, you are the very
   people who may come and welcome! O you who say that you have no warrant
   to come to Jesus, He would have you come without any warrant but His
   own Word which says, "Whoever will, let him come." Let your lack of
   inward warrant be your warrant! You are needy and sinful--let that be
   your passport! Come along with you and boldly grasp the covenanted
   mercy! It will not be theft, for Jesus has already given over Himself
   and all that He has to all who are willing to have Him! Have courage to
   take freely what the Lord freely gives--

   "To sinners poor, like me and you, He says Hell 'freely give.' Come,
   thirsty souls, and prove it's true-- Drink, and forever live!"

   Yet it may be that after you have done so--and have obtained the
   blessing--you will fall into a fainting fit and swoon with fear because
   you question your right to it. Listen to a word of comfort. "Possession
   is nine tenths of the law," and it is all the ten tenths of the Gospel!
   So long as you have Christ, there is no need to ask how you got Him.
   Yet the trembling conscience whispers, "You had no right to believe.
   You are not the man who should have ventured trust in Jesus." Then you
   will need a cheering word and then you will have it, even as our dear
   Master said, "Daughter, be of good comfort: your faith has made you
   whole." Let what Divine Grace has done for you plead your justification
   for having believed in Jesus! If you are, indeed, changed and renewed,
   question not your faith, but believe yet more--and you shall see
   greater things than these!

   Thus I set forth the woman's need of comfort. And if anyone else is in
   a similar case to hers, let him look up and be of good cheer, for her
   feet have trodden the way of fear before him. Let him say, as Augustus
   Toplady did--

   "If my Lord Himself reveals No other good I need! Only Christ my wounds
   can heal, Or silence my complaint.

   He that suffered in my place Shall my Physician be-- I will not be
   comforted Till Jesus comforts me."

   II. May the Holy Spirit rest upon us while we notice THE COMFORT WHICH
   JESUS GAVE HER. He said to her, "Daughter, be of good comfort: your
   faith has made you whole."

   There was comfort in the loving title. To call her "Daughter" was most
   kind and tender. I suppose that she must have been of much the same age
   as our Lord and, therefore, He did not call her, "Daughter," because of
   her youth. When our Lord said, "Daughter," He expressed His tender
   consideration for her which made Him feel towards her as tenderly as a
   father to a child. "Sister" would have been the word if He had only
   meant human relationship, but, "Daughter," meant careful affection.
   While Jesus is our Brother, there is a sense in which He is also our
   Father--and He exercises towards His poor, downcast children, a
   father's pity and care.

   Such a title must have dispelled her fears. To be so near of kin to Him
   who had worked a matchless cure upon her was consolation enough. Let
   our tried and cast-down friends rest with us concerning this
   matter--you have believed in Jesus and you have confessed His name and
   you are made whole--go your way in peace! From now on you belong to
   Christ and you are related to Christ as His daughter or son. Do not,
   therefore, question your right, since the Grace of adoption has
   confirmed it. If the Lord calls you His daughter, you did no wrong when
   you touched your Father's garment. If He avows you as His child, be not
   so unwise as to question the Divine declaration! Your rights and
   privileges are almost boundless. You may do much more than touch His
   garment's hem--you may lean on His breast! He gives you greater
   privileges than those which you have yet enjoyed, yes, favors beyond
   what you ask or even think! To those who believe on Him, He gives the
   right and privilege to become the sons of God, even to as many as
   believe on His name, so that all question about your right to do this
   or that may be ended, for He calls you His own beloved child and says,
   "Be of good comfort."

   The main point of consolation was that she was cured. Jesus said to
   her, "Your faith has made you whole," which would bring her comfort in
   several ways, for, first, it was a great consolation that her impurity
   was gone. So, my Brothers and Sisters, if you have believed in Jesus,
   you are no longer regarded as unclean before the Lord. The blood of the
   Lord Jesus has removed your defilement. You are, "accepted in the
   Beloved." His blood, like the hyssop of which David sang, has purged
   you and you are clean. Do not look upon yourself as being what you are
   not, but know yourself to be whiter than snow in Christ Jesus. In the
   removal of your guilt and the renewal of your nature, the source of
   your defilement is destroyed! Do not, therefore, hide your face and
   stand afar off from God, but come boldly to the Throne of Grace, since
   Grace has made you meet to come. When my anxious Brother or Sister, you
   come before the Lord with the recollection of all your past
   transgressions, you may well be ashamed and confounded and feel as if
   you should never open your mouth any more--but know of a surety that
   your sins have ceased to be--they shall not be mentioned against you
   any more forever! God, even the God of Judgment, has blotted out the
   record! Humble yourself for having been a transgressor, but let a sense
   of perfect forgiveness embolden you in coming to your Savior!

   Whatever you once were, God views you not as you were in yourself, but
   as what you are in Christ Jesus. When you come to His Table and feast
   among His family, do not hesitate to feel at home, although it cannot
   be denied that you once stood at the swine-trough and hungered after
   husks. Say within your believing heart, "Whatever I was, my Father has
   kissed me and put a ring on my hand and shoes on my feet. Therefore I
   will eat and drink as He bids me and I will not mar the music and the
   merriment by unbelieving lamentations. My Father rejoiced over me
   because He had received me safe and sound, and shall I not be glad at
   being thus received?" God be thanked that though you were the servants
   of sin, you have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which was
   delivered unto you--and you are now brought into the glorious liberty
   of the children of God! Though you were once unclean, polluted and
   polluting, it may be said of you, "But you are washed, but you are
   sanctified." Perhaps your old name will stick to you as it did to Rahab
   the harlot and to Simon the leper--but do not feel degraded since the
   Lord has turned away your reproach. Hear Jesus Christ Himself say to
   you, "Daughter, be of good comfort: your faith has made you whole."

   Remember that and rejoice in His Presence. You have a right to be among
   His people, for your faith has made you whole--and this is the mark
   which all His people wear. You are a sinner, it is true, but you are a
   sinner saved from wrath

   through Infinite Love! You are no longer a miserable sinner, so why
   should you call yourself so? You are a happy, blessed, forgiven child
   whom the Lord has taken from the dunghill and set among His princely
   children. Rejoice, therefore, because your faith has made you whole! Is
   not this a theme for boundless gratitude? Come boldly into the Church!
   Come boldly to the Throne of Grace for you are so cleansed by the blood
   of Atonement that you may come unquestioned even into the Holy of
   Holies! Has not Jesus said, "He that is washed is clean every whit?"

   The woman was comforted by being made to see in her cure that Jesus was
   not angry with her Our Lord in effect said to the saved woman, "Have
   you been afraid that you did wrong in touching Me? Are you fearful lest
   I should be grieved because you did not believe enough in Me to come
   and face Me, but must steal behind Me? Do you suspect that I shall
   blame you because of the littleness of your faith? Now"--He puts it so
   sweetly--"do not think so, but be of good comfort: for your faith has
   made you whole." Though her faith dared only to touch the hem of His
   garment, it was evidently acceptable faith, for because of it the Lord
   had made her whole! It is clear that the Lord has not rejected our
   faith when He acknowledges and honors it. He cannot be vexed at a
   confidence which He has evidently rewarded!

   Beloved Friend, has your faith been such that it has made you abhor
   sin? Has it been such that the things you once loved you now hate--and
   the things you once hated you now love? Has your faith made a complete
   change in you? Are you a new man or woman in Christ Jesus? Have you
   been made morally and spiritually whole? Then be sure that no wrong
   faith could have worked this good work in you! A faith that produces
   wholeness or holiness of life cannot have been a mistake! Whether in
   your coming to Jesus you came behind Him or before Him. Whether you
   touched His gracious hand or touched His garment's hem. Whether you did
   it secretly or did it publicly--all these enquiries are interesting,
   but not essential--for if a change of heart has been worked in you and
   you are saved, then the Lord Jesus must be pleased with you! He could
   not have worked a great work in you and yet be angry with you and,
   therefore, you need not be troubled as to the way in which you came to
   Him. "Be of good comfort: your faith has made you whole," is a most
   sweet and effectual way of lulling fears to rest!

   Possibly the poor woman may have been haunted by the fear that she
   would suffer a relapse, but our Lord consoles her by the assurance that
   her faith had effectually made her whole. She had not obtained a little
   time of deliverance from the evil, so that it would recur again, but
   she was made whole. The Lord gives her a medical certificate! He sends
   her forth with a clean bill of health! Oh, how sweet it is when Jesus
   Christ gives to any of us a full assurance of complete salvation so
   that we are delivered from all fear of the malady's return and can walk
   abroad free from fear! I know that some Christians think that after
   Christ has fed us and given us new hearts, the old hearts may come
   back--and though His Grace in us is a well of water which He promises
   shall spring up to everlasting life, yet they think that it may dry up
   to the last drop. Beloved, I do not thus read the Word of God--the very
   opposite is clear to me in Sacred Writ! The work of God in the soul is
   a lasting and an everlasting work! If you are once healed by Christ, He
   has worked in you an effectual cure which will hold good throughout
   time and throughout eternity! Solomon truly said, "I know that whatever
   God does, it shall be forever." He who has made you whole will keep you
   whole, for His gifts and calling are without repentance!

   The comfort to the woman in the narrative was meant, as we have seen,
   to meet the trial occasioned by her open confession. She had been
   driven to reveal her secret and this, to a large extent, caused her
   trembling. She would rather have hidden in the crowd, but she was
   called to the front and made to confess Jesus before all. The Savior,
   in effect, says, "You need not be ashamed to tell your story for it
   ends well, since you are made whole. You need not be ashamed to let
   everybody know that your faith has healed you. What does it matter what
   your sickness was, if you are now recovered from it?" It will be no
   disgrace to us to confess our guilt if, at the same moment, we are
   assured of full forgiveness! It is annoying to hear persons talk
   flippantly of their sins before conversion as though they were proud of
   them. They seem to glory in them as a Greenwich pensioner might boast
   of his battles and his broken bones. Such things are to be mentioned
   with blushes and tears. Say as little as you can about those things of
   which you are now ashamed, and let what you say be spoken in lowliest
   penitence. Still, there are times when you are bound to tell out your
   case to the praise of the Glory of the Grace which so abounded where
   your sin abounded! And then you need not be afraid to tell your story,
   for Grace has made it end so well. Let the world know that though
   foully defiled, you came into contact with the Savior by simply, humbly
   believing in Him--and that by this simple means you are saved.

   Once more, if anyone is conscious that faith has saved him, he may take
   to himself the good cheer of the text and use it wherever he goes, for
   nothing can happen to him so bad as that which has been removed.' 'Your
   faith has saved you," is an antidote for many ills. "I am very poor,"
   says one. So was this woman, for she had spent all that she had upon
   physicians. But Jesus said to her, "Your faith has made you whole." "I
   am very sick," cries a friend, "I feel low and ill." But "your faith
   has saved you"--is not this joy enough? Oh, what a blessing it is to be
   saved! That you are saved is enough to set all your being ablaze with
   joy! I am sure that the healed woman felt rich, though she had not two
   pence to chink together in her pocket! She was made whole by faith and
   that was wealth enough for her! To be one of the Lord's saved ones is
   joy enough to bear up the heart under every affliction!

   Do you not see that if your faith has changed your character and
   delivered you from the desperate plague of sin, there remains no longer
   any impossibility or even difficulty in the way of duty? You have been
   half afraid to try to teach the children in the Sunday school but,
   surely, since your faith has made you whole, you can teach a few little
   children! You have been afraid to address a score of people in a
   village chapel. But you need not be afraid to try if God has called
   you--for the faith which has made you whole can give you "a word in
   season." What is there that faith cannot do? Why, if my faith has had
   the power to drop the burden of my sin into the sepulcher of my Lord,
   what is there that it cannot accomplish? If, by that faith, my soul has
   risen from among the dead and taken her seat at the right hand of the
   Father in the heavenly places in Christ, what shall stand in its way?
   If we have to force a passage through a throng of devils, we need not
   hesitate! And though all the world combined and stood against us, we
   need not fear! Our faith has made us whole--who can undo the miracle? A
   faith which, by Divine Grace, saves us from Hell and secures us for
   Heaven--what is there that it cannot accomplish? It laughs at
   impossibilities and marches from strength to strength in majestic
   serenity! Holy confidence shall win victory upon victory till, at last
   it shall cry, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I
   have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
   righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at
   that day!" I cannot imagine a sweeter consolation than this--"Your
   faith has made you whole: go in peace." Endeavor to suck the honey out
   of it!

   III. We will close this meditation by considering THE FAITH WHICH OUR
   LORD COMMENDED.

   It made her whole. That is its best certificate of excellence! There is
   much to note in reference to that faith, but a few brief hints may
   suffice. Her faith is to be commended because it outlived a long season
   of discouragement She had been afflicted 12 years --think of that!
   Patience had indeed had its perfect work in her. But she believed in
   Christ for a cure and the cure came to her! So will it be with everyone
   who will believe in Jesus. If there could be a soul found which had
   been living in sin 1,200 years--if it had faith in Jesus He would make
   it whole! After half a century of impenitence, he that believes in
   Christ Jesus is saved at once. Eighty years of sin vanish in a moment
   when a man trusts in the great Atonement! Come, dear unconverted
   Friend, and cast yourself at Christ's feet at this quiet hour, for He
   will not cast you

   out!

   The faith which healed this poor woman had survived many failures. She
   had been deceived by all sorts of quacks and medicine-men--and yet she
   had not lost the capacity for faith. It is said that she had "suffered
   many things of many physicians," and I can well believe it, for if you
   read the prescriptions of the old doctors, you will quite agree that
   poor humanity has suffered many things from "the faculty." The way in
   which the ancient doctors went to work to cure their patients much
   resembled that which a man would follow who was eager to kill them! Dr.
   Sangrado, by his bleeding and drenching, has sent many into a premature
   grave and, in Christ's time, if you needed to be well, the first rule
   was to avoid all physicians!

   I will tell you the names of a few spiritual doctors to whom I beseech
   you not to go, for if you do, you will suffer a great deal from them,
   but get no good. There is one whose name is Dr. Self-Confidence, who is
   in partnership with a relative called Dr. Self-Righteousness. Dr.
   Legality and his son, Mr. Civility, are another popular pair of cheats.
   You will find them at home whenever you call--and they will give you
   bitter doses or silver-coated pills as they see fit--but you will never
   a be whit the better. There is a doctor about just now who was educated
   by the Jesuits and practices the Romeopathic system--wafers and wine
   and water are his specialties--to this school belong Mr. Ceremonies and
   Doctor Sacraments. None of these can heal a sick soul! Have nothing to
   do with them, but apply to the Beloved Physician, even the Lord Jesus
   Christ! Some of us went to most of these pretenders and gave them a
   long trial--and though we were disappointed in them all--yet we still
   were enabled to believe in Jesus Christ! Dear Friend, do the same!
   Though you have been disappointed everywhere else, yet go and knock at
   Christ's door and that faith of yours which leaps over discouragement
   will make you whole!

   Her faith believed in simple touching. She used no ceremonies--she only
   believed. It was a faith which believed that she would be healed
   without payment She took the cure, gratis--she offered no fee. That is
   Gospel faith which takes Christ's forgiveness without money and without
   price, just as He presents it in the Gospel! Hers was a great faith,
   for she believed that Christ could heal her when He was occupied with
   healing another He was hastening to the house of Jarius to work a
   miracle there, and yet she believed that He could heal her on the way!
   Can you, dear Reader, believe in this fashion? Do you know, of a
   surety, that however Jesus may be now occupied, He can without
   difficulty at this moment pardon and save you? If you have reached so
   great a confidence, then give the saving touch and trust Him once and
   for

   all!

   The poor sick soul had a faith which assured her that Christ could
   bless her when His back was turned. Can you also reach this point? Some
   of God's own children can hardly trust Him when they see the Light of
   His Countenance, but this woman could trust Him when His back was
   turned to her. I would to God that we had, each of us, such confidence
   in Jesus that we would not doubt, under any circumstances, His power
   and willingness to save all who trust Him! He must save these who rely
   upon Him! It is a necessity of His Nature that those who touch Him
   should receive healing from Him!

   Trusting in Jesus is a man's best evidence that he is saved, for it is
   written, "He that believes in Him is not condemned." Faith has made its
   possessor whole, whoever he may be! And if you are resting alone in
   Jesus and His finished work, the life of the holy has begun in you and
   you may, therefore, "be of good comfort."

   --Adapted from The C. H. 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.
     __________________________________________________________________

Landlord and Tenant

   (No. 3021)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1907,

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Set your house in order; for you shall die, and not live." Isaiah
   38:1.

   NOTWITHSTANDING that a thousand voices proclaim our mortality, we are
   all to apt to put aside the contemplation of it. Since we cannot escape
   from death, we endeavor to shut our eyes to it, although there is no
   subject whose consideration would be more beneficial to us. Altering
   one word of the poet's line, I may say--

   "'Tis greatly wise to talk with our last hours." To be familiar with
   the grave is prudence. To prepare for death it is well to commune with
   death. A thoughtful walk in the cemetery is good for our soul's health.
   As Jeremy Taylor well observes, "Since a man stands perpetually at the
   door of eternity and, as did John the Almoner, every day is building
   his sepulcher, and every night one day of our life is gone and passed
   into the possession of death, it will concern us to take care that the
   door leading to Hell does not open upon us, that we are not crushed to
   ruin by the stones of our grave and that our death become not a
   consignation of us to a sad eternity." The most of men prefer to
   cultivate less fruitful fields and turn their thoughts and meditations
   to subjects trivial for the present--and useless for the future. "O
   that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would
   consider their latter end!"

   Knowing this general aversion to my theme, I shall not treat it in a
   gloomy and heavy manner, but shall try to allure you to it by the use
   of pleasant and interesting similitudes. The subject shall supply the
   solemnity and I hope the metaphor will secure your interest. Forgive
   me, you spiritual, if I seem too flippant--my words are not for you,
   but for a class whose souls I trust you love--who cannot, as yet, bear
   the more serious thoughts of wisdom unless they are clothed in parable
   and picture.

   OUR BODY, OUR PROPERTY, OUR FAMILY, THIS PRESENT LIFE AND ALL ITS
   SURROUNDINGS ARE, IN THE TEXT, DESCRIBED AS A HOUSE. This simile is not
   at all unusual either in the Old or the new Testaments. The Apostle
   Paul tells us that "Moses was faithful in all his house," that is to
   say, in his lifelong charge and duty. Our Lord said of the Pharisees
   that they devoured widow's houses, meaning their estates. And Paul,
   referring to his body, said, "We know that if our earthly house of this
   tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made
   with hands, eternal in the heavens." We will see what instruction we
   can find in this most simple but comprehensive comparison.

   I. This mortal life and its surroundings are likened to a house and the
   first point of the similitude will be seen if we enquire, WHO IS THE
   LANDLORD?

   The first answer is that certainly we are not To all men, it may be
   truthfully said, "You are not your own." We are tenants, but not
   freeholders. We are mere tenants at will without a lease. The earthly
   house of this tabernacle belongs to Him who built it. He who sustains
   it keeps the title deeds in His own possession. Our house belongs to
   God. Dear Friend, do you ever think of this? Do you remember, as a
   matter of fact, that you and yours are God's property?. He created you
   and created you for His own Glory. Your soul was spoken into existence
   by Him. Your bodily powers were all bestowed by His hand. You are the
   creature of the Almighty! In every vein, sinew and nerve of your body
   there are traces of the Divine Embroiderer's skill. You are God's in
   all the most secret goings and issues of your life, for you owe the
   continued possession of your existence every day to Him. Your breath is
   in your nostrils, but He keeps it there. He has but to will it and the
   atoms composing your body, which He now keeps apart from their fellows,
   would return to the bosom of the earth. You are but a walking heap of
   dust and the cohesion of the various particles is maintained by the
   hand of Omnipo-

   tence. Let the sustaining power of God be withdrawn and your bodily
   house would fall in the ruin of death and the utterly dissolution of
   corruption! All that you have around you is in the same predicament,
   for food and clothes, house and goods, are God's gifts to you. The
   strength of hand or the nimbleness of brain that has enabled you to
   accumulate wealth, or to live in comfort has all come from Him! Day by
   day you are a commoner at the table of Divine bounty, a pensioner, hour
   by hour, upon the Infinite Mercy of God. You have nothing and are
   nothing but as God pleases! You owe all you have and all you are to
   Him.

   It is most useful for each of us to know what are the rights of God
   towards us. Even if we do not acknowledge them, yet candor demands that
   at least we hear them defined. Sad is the reflection, however, that
   when we learn these rights, if we resist them, we become willful
   robbers and so increase our guilt! If we will not have God to reign
   over us. If, in our spirits we say, like Pharaoh, "Who is the Lord,
   that we should obey His voice?" it will go harder with us at the last
   than if we had never heard the claims of God proclaimed. Men and women,
   how is it that God has made you and yet so many of you never think of
   Him? Shall I bring against you the accusation which the Prophet of old
   brought against his people? "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth:
   for the Lord has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and
   they have rebelled against Me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his
   master's crib: but Israel does not know, My people do not consider."
   Who among you would retain in your house a tool or a piece of furniture
   which was of no use or value to you? Who among you would keep so much
   as an ox or an ass if it rendered you no service? How much less would
   you nurture it if, instead thereof, it did you harm--if it had a spite
   against you and lifted up its heels against you?

   And yet, are there not some here who have been forgetful of their
   obligations to their Maker, who have never been of any service to Him,
   have never praised Him, have never desired to advance His Glory? And
   who, on the contrary, have even spoken high and haughty thingy things
   against Him and it may be words of profanity and blasphemy? O God, how
   are You ill treated in the very world which is full of Your goodness!
   How do the creatures of Your hand render unto You evil for good! Your
   house, which You have let out to man, is made into a castle for Your
   foes, a temple for idols, a den of thieves, a nest of unclean birds!
   You are ill requited at the hands of Your unworthy tenants! You Best of
   beings, you Fountain of love and mercy, what do You receive from many
   of Your creatures but forgetfulness and disdain?

   Bear this in mind, therefore, that the house in which we dwell, in this
   life, has God for its Landlord, and that we are only tenants.

   II. The simile runs further. WHAT IS MAN'S LEASE?

   One would imagine, from the way in which some men talk, that we were
   freeholders, or at least had a lease for 999 years! The truth is, we
   are but tenants at will We may possess the tenement in which our soul
   now finds a house for itself, together with its appurtenances and
   outhouses, for the term of 70 years and the tenure may even be
   prolonged to 80 years, or even to a longer period in rare cases, but,
   at no one time is the tenure altered! We always occupy from moment to
   moment. Our lease is not for three, seven, 14, or 21 years, nor is it
   even from day to day, or from hour to hour--but from second to second
   we hold precarious possession! We are tenants at the absolute will of
   God. The commencement of a day never secures the ending of it to us
   alive and the striking of the clock, as the commencement of the hour,
   is no guarantee that we shall hear it strike again. Every second we
   hold our lives, and goods, and chattels upon the sole tenure of the
   Divine Will of God! God has but to say to us, "Return, you children of
   men," and we return to the dust. Flowers are not more frail, moths more
   fragile, bubbles more unsubstantial, or meteors more fleeting than
   man's life! What transient things we are! I said, We are, but I made a
   mistake-- we are not. We but begin to be and before we are, we are not!
   It is God alone who can say, "I AM." None of the human race should dare
   to pronounce those words!

   Yet how many live as if their tenant rights of this mortal life, and
   all its goods, were a fixed tenure and entailed upon themselves,
   irrespective of assigns, or heirs, or superior lord of the manor or
   freeholder of the soil! "Their inward thought is that their houses
   shall continue forever and their dwelling places to all generations.
   They call their lands after their own names." To such people as these,
   the words of the Apostle James are very applicable, "Come now, you who
   say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such-and-such a city, and
   continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas you know
   not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a
   vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away."

   Yet how often we fall into the same error! Have not some of you, my
   Friends, been laying out your plans for months and even years to come?
   You have considered where you will spend the summer and where you will
   live when you retire

   from your business. Ah, boast not yourselves of tomorrow, much less of
   summer or of autumn, for you know not what a day, or even an hour may
   bring forth! O man born of dying woman, ask of God to give you, day by
   day, your daily bread and let your living and your planning be after
   the fashion of day by day, for when you begin to reckon for far-off
   time, it looks as if you had never prayed, "So teach me to number my
   days that I may apply my heart unto wisdom." O you young ones, say not,
   "We will give the first and best of our days to the flesh, and offer
   God the rest." You may have no remaining years to offer! You may be
   consumed in the morning of your lives! Say not, you men who are in the
   midst of the world's business, "We will retire soon and in the cool of
   our age we will think upon the things of God." You may have no evening
   of old age! Your sun may go down at noon! You may be called from the
   counting house while yet the ink upon the pages of the ledger is wet
   and the Bible, as yet unstudied!

   Set your house in order, for your Great Landlord may serve an ejection
   notice upon you and there will be no hope of resisting it, though the
   wisest of physicians should seek to bar the door! Here is the writ and
   these are the express words--"You shall die, and not live." Even the
   most aged presume that they shall live yet longer and the traditions of
   Jenkyns and of Old Parr, I doubt not, have tempted hundreds to imagine,
   even when they have been verging upon 80 or 90 that they may still live
   a few years longer in quiet possession of their tottering tenement
   whose pillars are shaken, whose windows are darkened and whose very
   foundations are decaying! We cling with dreadful tenacity to this poor
   life and the little which we foolishly call our all! It were well if we
   could cling with such fast hold to the life that is to come-- for that,
   alone, is worth clinging to since it is forever--whereas this life is
   to be but for a little time even at the longest!

   What a reflection it is that within a hundred years everyone in our
   most crowded audiences (unless the Lord shall come), will be soundly
   sleeping amid the clods of the valley--and not one of all the present
   armies of men that populate our cities will be in possession of his
   house and lands, or will know of anything that is done under the sun!
   We shall have gone over to "the great majority." We shall be, perhaps,
   remembered, perhaps forgotten, but, at any rate, we ourselves shall
   mingle no more with our fellows in the market, the street, the places
   of worship or the haunts of pleasure. We shall depart from sea and
   land, from city and village, from earth and all that is thereon. Where
   will our immortal natures be? Where will our spirits be? Shall we be
   communing among the blessed harpers whose every note is bliss, or shall
   we be forever gnashing our teeth in remorse among the castaways who
   would not receive the mercy of God? We hold our house, then, on no time
   or tenure than from moment to moment! Remember this, you dwellers in
   these houses of clay!

   There is this clause in the lease, which I am afraid some have never
   observed, namely, that the Landlord has at all times the right to enter
   and leave His own property. I thank God that some of us have yielded to
   the Lord this right and now our prayer often is that He would come into
   our house, search us, try us, know our ways and see if there is any
   evil way in us--and lead us in the way everlasting. Time was when the
   last thing we wished for was the Presence of God, when we said to Him,
   "Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Your ways." But
   now, being renewed by His Spirit, we say to Him, "Abide with us."
   Beloved Friend, are you always ready to open the doors of your heart to
   God's inspection? Do you delight in heavenly communion? Do you
   constantly invite the Lord Jesus to come in and sup with you, and you
   with Him? If not, you are forgetting one great clause in your lease
   and, let me also say, you are forgetting the greatest privilege that
   men can enjoy beneath the stars!

   It is well for me to recall to your memories that, according to our
   tenure, our Great Landlord permits us to call upon Him to execute all
   repairs. Our circumstances are apt to grow straitened and He it is who
   gives us power to get wealth. He daily loads us with benefits. When our
   bodily tabernacle is shaken, He it is who heals all our diseases. When
   our sorrows and needs multiply, He it is who satisfies our mouth with
   good things, so that our youth is renewed like the eagle's. It is well,
   no doubt, when we are sick, to seek direction from the physician, but
   it is a Christian action to resort first to Jehovah-Rophi, The Lord
   That Heals Us. "Is any sick among you?" What said the Apostle? Does he
   say, "Let him use no medicine," as some "Peculiar People" say? No! Does
   he say, "Use medicine and nothing else," as the most of professors do?
   No such thing! Does he say, "Let him lie in bed and expect his minister
   to come and see him," as though ministers, elders and deacons were
   Omniscient? No such thing!

   "Is any sick among you? Let him call"--that is his duty--let him call
   for the elders of the church." And then, as the form of medicine then
   in vogue was that of anointing the body with oil, "let them pray over
   him," and let them use the ordinary means, "anointing him with oil in
   the name of the Lord." Have your medicine by all means, or whatever may
   seem best, but, beside that, make prayeryour main confidence, for it is
   the Lord that heals us! Jesus is the Beloved Physi-

   cian. If we had more faith in God and resorted more often to Him by
   prayer and faith, the prescriptions of the pharmacist might be more
   often wise and his medicines more frequently useful. The Lord, who made
   our house, best knows how to repair the tenement and He permits us to
   resort to Him! When you are sick, my Friend, remember this, and
   practice it.

   III. Thus have we spoken of the Landlord and the lease. Now, thirdly,
   we come to THE RENT THAT IS TO BE PAID.

   We occupy a house which is evidently not our own and, therefore, there
   must be some rent to pay. What is it? The rent that God asks of His
   tenants is that they should praise Him as long as they live. "Oh!" you
   say, "that is but little." I grant you that it is. It is but a
   peppercorn, a mere acknowledgment, but yet there are millions who never
   pay even that! They offer the Lord no thanks, no love, no service. For
   the benefits they receive, they make no return, or, rather, they make
   an evil recompense. The breath that He gives them is never turned to
   song. The food they eat is not sanctified with gratitude. The goods
   that He bestows are not tithed, nor are the first fruits of their
   increase offered to the Lord. Their hearts do not love Him. Their faith
   does not trust in His dear Son--their lips do not speak of Him and
   magnify His glorious name. This is most unrighteous and ungenerous. For
   us to praise God is not a costly or painful business. The heart that
   praises God finds a sweet return in the exercise, itself. In Heaven, it
   is the Heaven of perfect spirits to praise the Lord. And on earth we
   are nearest Heaven when we are fullest of the praises of Jehovah! But
   how ungrateful are those who are tenants in God's house and yet refuse
   the little tribute which He asks of them!

   The question is raised, how often ought the rent to be paid? You know,
   in law, the time when the rent of a house is due always bears a
   relation to the tenure upon which it is held. If a man takes a house by
   the year, he pays his rent by the year. If he takes it by the quarter,
   he pays by the quarter. And if we hold our house by the moment, we are
   bound to pay by the moment.

   So, then, it was but simple justice when David said, "I will bless the
   Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth." To
   live in the perpetual exercise of praise to God is, at once, the
   Christian's duty and delight. "No," says one, "but we cannot do that,
   we have other things to think of." But remember, when the praises of
   God are not on our lips, they should be in our hearts. The incense was
   in the censer even when it was not smoking--our praise should abide
   with us till opportunity permits the holy fire to be applied. Besides,
   I believe that our God is best praised in common things. He who mends a
   shoe with a right motive is praising God as much as the seraph who
   pours forth his celestial sonnet. You in your workshops, you in your
   families, you on your sickbeds, you anywhere according to your
   avocations--if you offer, through Jesus the Mediator, the love of your
   hearts--you are paying the rent of praise unto God Most High! Oh, to be
   continually doing this!

   But, Brothers and Sisters, I am afraid that we are in arrears. Those of
   us who have paid the most rent are still far behind! Yes, you were
   grumbling this morning--that was not rendering a worthy recompense for
   benefits received. Shall a living man complain? There are some who do
   little else but complain. They complain of the times, of the weather,
   of the government, of their families, of their trade. If, for once,
   they would complain of themselves, they might have a more deserving
   subject for fault-finding! The Lord is good and does good--let His name
   be blessed! Let us, as His people, avow that, though He slays us, yet
   we will trust in Him. And if He make us groan under His heavy hand, we
   will even weep out His praises and our expiring sigh shall be but a
   note of our life's Psalm which we hope to exchange full soon for the
   song of the celestial host above! Praising and blessing God in life,
   practically by obedience, and heartily with gratitude--this is the rent
   which is due for the house in which we dwell.

   Are there not some of you who have not even recognized that you belong
   to God at all and who, up till now, have been paying rent and rendering
   service to another master? I am often amazed in my soul at what men
   will do for that black master, the devil! Why, Sirs, the devil will
   sometimes summon men to one of his meetings at the street corner where
   the gas is flaming, and they will cheerfully obey the summons. They
   will meet in such places with companions who are rude, boisterous,
   selfish, vulgar and everything else that is undesirable and call them
   "jolly good fellows." If the devil would pick out some fine brave
   spirits for them to meet--men of wit, genius and information--one would
   not wonder so much at the readiness with which the dupes assemble, but
   the congregations of Satan are usually made up of men and women of the
   lowest and most degraded kind and you people know it! When they are
   beckoned off to the assembly of the scorners, they go with the greatest
   readiness. And what is done at this gathering of the foolish? Well,
   they commune together in stupidities at which it must be hard to laugh
   and, meanwhile, they pass round the cup of liquid fire out of which

   they cheerfully drink and drink, and drink again, though each
   successive goblet is filled with deeper damnation! These willing slaves
   drink at their master's bidding though the cup makes their brain reel,
   sets their heart on flame and makes them unable to keep their feet!
   Yes, and when he still cries, "Drink, yes, drink abundantly," these
   faithful servants swallow down the poison till they lie down like logs,
   or roar like demons! They will keep putting the cup of death to their
   lips till delirium tremens comes upon them and possesses them as with
   Hell itself! Thousands obediently render homage to Satan by drinking
   away their lives and ruining their souls.

   How much further they go in serving their master than we do in
   following ours! Into Hell itself they follow their accursed leader!
   They pay him his revenues without arrears and yet his taxes are heavy
   and his exactions are most oppressive. Why, we have seen great lords
   hand all their estates over to Beelzebub! And when he has set up before
   them an image in the shape of a horse with a blue ribbon, they have
   bowed down and worshipped it and offered their all at his shrine! I
   wish we could meet with some who would do as much for Christ as these
   have done for the devil. Any kind of fashion which may rule the hour
   draws a mad crowd after it. No matter how absurd or ridiculous the
   mania, the worshippers of fashion cry, "These are your gods, O Israel."
   Yes, Satan is marvelously well obeyed by his servants. His rent is
   regularly paid and yet he is not the rightful owner and has no title to
   the house of manhood! Yes, men will even run after him to offer their
   homage. They will throw down their lives before his Juggernaut car of
   profligacy and cast themselves beneath its wheels, while the golden
   chariot of Christ, paved with love for men traverses their streets! And
   they have not a word of acclamation or of praise for that Prince of
   Peace. O come, you servants of Jesus, and be ashamed of this! Come and
   render to your Lord your full service! Throw your hearts' enthusiasm
   into your religion! Be at least as earnest for God as others are for
   the devil! Be at least as self-denying and self-sacrificing as they are
   who run the mad career of sin! Pay your rent to the great Landlord and
   let the arrears be made up!

   IV. But I must not linger. The next point to be considered is MAN'S
   DUTY WITH REGARD TO THIS HOUSE OF WHICH HE IS THE TENANT.

   The text says, "Set your house in order." This shows that we are not to
   destroy it, nor to injure it Our body should be the temple of the Holy
   Spirit. Nothing should be done by us that may injure our body, for, in
   the case of the Believer, it is a precious thing, ordained to rise,
   again, at the Last Day, since Chris Jesus has bought it, as well as the
   soul which it contains, with His own blood! Nor are we to waste our
   substance, for this is the accusation which, of old, was brought
   against the unjust steward, that he had wasted his master's goods.

   We are to set our house in order, that is, our own house. Some persons
   are very busy setting other people's houses in order and oh, how fast
   their tongues will go when they are sweeping out their neighbor's
   kitchen, or dusting his cupboard! Set your own houses in order, Sirs,
   before you attempt to arrange the affairs of other people!

   Again, the tenant himself must do it ' 'Set your house in order." You
   must not leave it to a priest. You must not ask your fellow man to
   become responsible for you. You mast make personal application to Him
   who can set all in order for you, even to Him who came into the world
   and died for this very purpose. If you need oil for your lamps, you
   must go to them that sell and buy for yourselves, for your fellow
   virgins can give you none of their oil. Set your own house in order.
   This is the chief business of every living man as a tenant under God.

   What kind of order is my house to be set in? My conscience will help to
   tell me that. An enlightened conscience tells us in what kind of order
   our heart, our family and our business should be. By its teachings, we
   may learn how all the departments of the house should be ordered. It
   cannot be right that the body should be master over the
   soul--conscience tells us that. It cannot be right that the memory
   should retain only that which is evil. It cannot be right that the
   affections should grovel in the mire. It cannot be right that the
   judgment should put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Conscience
   says that the heart is never right till the whole man is in
   Christ--till, by a living faith, we have embraced Jesus as our full
   salvation and have received the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier. We are
   never right till we are right with conscience and conscience tells us
   that we are never right till we are right with God! "Set your house in
   order." Obey the inward monitor, listen to the still small voice and
   prepare to meet your God!

   Do you ask, "Whatis God's order?"You can see by reading the 20th
   chapter of the Book of Exodus what His thought of order was when He
   wrote the Ten Commandments. You can learn what His order is under the
   Gospel, for we read that a new Commandment has Christ given to us, that
   we love one another. And yet again, "This is His commandment, that we
   should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ." Dear Friend, is
   your house, in this sense, right with God? If, at

   this moment, you had to surrender possession, is everything ordered as
   you would wish it to be? If the arrow of death should now fly through
   this sanctuary and find a target in your heart at this moment, is it
   all right, is it all right, IS IT ALL RIGHT, as you would wish to have
   it when God's eyes shall look upon you in the Day of Judgment? What if
   in a single moment we should see the heavens on a blaze and the earth
   should rock beneath our feet, and the dead should rise from their
   sepulchers? What if, instead of this Tabernacle and its gathered crowd,
   we should now suddenly see the King, Himself, upon the Great White
   Throne and hear the archangel's trumpet ringing out the notes, "Awake,
   you dead, and come to judgment!" Is everything with us as we should
   like to have it for the blaze of that tremendous day and the inspection
   of that awful Judge? Happy is that man who can say, "I have committed
   all to Christ--my body, soul and spirit-- all my powers and all my
   affections! I have committed all to Him by faith and prayer, so, come,
   Lord Jesus, come quickly for it is all right even now." "Set your house
   in order." Then conscience and God's Word will be your guides as to
   what is needed.

   But I am afraid that in you, my Friend, very many things need careful
   attention and rearrangement Oh, that every day each of us lived a
   Christ-filled life, for then we should not need to be told to set our
   house in order! I, as pastor of this Church, though I trust I am not an
   idler, have never been able to look upon my own work with any sort of
   satisfaction. I am obliged to stand where the publican stood with the
   prayer, "God be merciful to me, a sinner," upon my lips, for my work is
   too vast and I am too feeble! Is there any man here who can say that he
   fills his sphere to the full without an omission or transgression? If
   you can say so, my Brother, I envy you, for it is not long before you
   will be in Heaven! If that is not a self-righteous estimate, or a
   vainglorious opinion of yourself, inasmuch as you are so meet for
   Heaven, you will soon be there--depend upon that!

   But, whatever there may be about us now, dear Friends, which is not
   what we feel it ought to be, let the call come to each one of us at
   this moment, "Set your house in order." The vain regrets in which we
   sometimes indulge, we often mistake for true repentance, but let us
   remember that--

   "Repentance is to leave The sins we loved before, And show that we in
   earnest grieve By doing so no more."

   As believers in Jesus Christ, if there is anything deficient in us, if
   there is anything excessive in us, if there is anything that is
   contrary to the Lord's mind and will, may the Holy Spirit come and
   correct it all, so that our house may be set in order!

   Thus have I shown you in what manner our houses should be kept. But I
   am afraid that many of your houses need a great deal of setting in
   order. Some of your houses need sweeping. The dust and filth of sin are
   lying all over the floors! You need the precious blood to be sprinkled,
   or else if the Lord begins to sweep with the bosom of the Law of God,
   it will happen, as Bunyan tells us, that the dust will be enough to
   choke your prayers, or blind the eyes of your faith! May the Gospel
   come and sprinkle the water of Divine Grace and then may Christ come in
   and sweep your house! But you need more than sweeping--your house needs
   washing. Every floor needs cleansing and there is no one but the Lord
   Jesus Christ who can do this. Nothing can make you clean but His blood!
   In many of your houses the windows are very filthy and the light of the
   glorious Gospel cannot enter so as to bring with it an intelligent
   conception of the things of God. Oh, that this may be set right! The
   very drainage in some men's houses is neglected. Many a foul thing
   stagnates, ferments and pollutes their souls. Ah, what is there that is
   in order in the unregenerate man? To everyone in that state, the text
   calls loudly, "Set your house in order." But, Sirs, unless Christ comes
   to help you, it is a hopeless task! Unless Christ and His Holy Spirit
   come to the rescue, your houses will remain out of order--everything
   filthy and everything disarranged--and when the great King shall come
   and find it so, woe unto you, woe unto you, in the day of His
   appearing!

   V. We shall close with the last thought, which is this, WE ARE BID TO
   SET OUR HOUSE IN ORDER BECAUSE WE ARE SERVED WITH A NOTICE TO QUIT.
   "Set your house in order; for you shall die, and not live."

   This is not a reason for setting a house in order which bad tenants
   would care to consider--they wish to leave the house in as dilapidated
   a state as possible. But a just tenant desires to restore to his
   landlord his property unhurt. So is it with the man who is right with
   God. He wishes that when he dies, he may leave here on earth no trace
   of injury done to God, but many memorials of service rendered. He does
   not wish to leave the house as Satan left the poor possessed demoniac,
   rending and tearing him because he was coming out of him, having great
   wrath because his time was short. No, the

   honest man who loves his God desires to leave everything behind him
   that shall honor God and nothing that shall dishonor Him. Whitefield
   used to tell a story of a young man who could not live in the house
   where his old father had dwelt, because, he said, "every chair in it
   smelt of piety." He was a wicked, godless, rebellious man without
   Christ and he could not stay where his father's holiness would force
   itself upon his memory and rebuke him. Oh, I would like to make every
   chair in my house like that, so that when my boy comes into possession
   of it, he will think, "Why, there my father sat to study God's Word.
   And there he used to kneel in prayer. And now I have his house, I must
   imitate his ways."

   A dear man of God, who has now gone to Heaven, took me into his study,
   one day, and said to me, "You see that spot?" "Yes." "Well, that is the
   place where my dear wife used to kneel to pray and that is where, one
   morning, when I came to look for her, as she did not come down to
   breakfast, I found her dead." "Oh," he said, "that is holy ground!" And
   so it was, for she was a very gracious woman. Oh, that we may so live
   that everything we leave behind us may be like Abel's blood that cried
   from the ground! May our habits and manners be such that, after our
   death, everything associated with us may be perfumed with holy
   memories! God make it so! God make it so! Are you sure it will be so? I
   must appeal to some of you Christian people--are you not too negligent?
   Are there not with you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God?
   Might there not be much amiss with you if you were now called away? I
   beseech you, set your house in order!

   Beloved Friend in Christ, do try that everything may be in order for
   your dying, and everything now prepared for your departure if it should
   happen tonight. Do it for the Church's sake. So live that when the
   church misses you, there shall be left behind you your gracious memory
   and your holy example to inspire those who will mourn your departure.
   So live that the world may miss your zealous efforts for its good. May
   all be so ordered in your life that you may never lead others astray by
   your example, but bequeath it as a legacy of encouragement to your
   successors! Order all things well for your children's sake. They will
   be pretty much what their parents were. Sovereign Grace may interpose,
   but, ordinarily, the mother shapes the child's life. May your life be
   such that it shall be a fair mold for your child's future existence!

   Set your house in order, my dear Brothers and Sisters, even though you
   are leaving it, because you are going to a better one if you are a
   Believer in Christ The old clay shed will be taken down and you shall
   dwell in marble halls! You shall leave the hovel for the mansion! The
   traveler's tent shall be rolled up and put away in the tomb to be
   exchanged for "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
   Oh, let it not be said that you were so bad a tenant, in the first
   house, that you could not be trusted with a second, but may Divine
   Grace cause you so to set this house in order that you may leave it
   without reluctance, and enter into the next with joy, leaving your
   first house behind you without shame, in sure and certain hope of a
   blessed resurrection! May you cheerfully leave the first house and
   joyfully surrender the key to the Great Landlord because you know that,
   go where He will in all its rooms, He will see the remembrances of His
   own Grace, the marks of His own workmanship, the beauties and
   adornments of His own Holy Spirit! Then, conveyed by ministering
   spirits to a better country, you shall become possessors of a heritage
   undefiled which fades not away!

   I desire, in closing, that all of us may offer the key of our house to
   the Great Landlord and acknowledge that we live on sufferance as His
   tenants. A dear Brother told us, the other day, when he was speaking of
   his being over 70 years of age, that his lease had run out and that he
   was now living by the day. Let us each, in all things, carry out his
   remark and live by the day! Let us remember that "now is our salvation
   nearer than when we believed." Let us not act as if we expected to
   remain long in these lowlands. It is a dreadful thing to see men who
   profess to be Christians, unwilling to die! Should it be so that when
   we feel ourselves ill, and likely to die, we should have a host of
   matters to arrange and many regrets to express? Dear Brothers and
   Sisters, begin your regrets earlier, while there is time to retrieve
   the past! Regret now, and ask for Grace, now, to do all that is in you
   for Him who loved you and bought you with His blood!

   As for you who have no redeeming blood upon you, I do not marvel that
   you live to yourselves. O you who despise Christ, I do not wonder if
   you despise yourselves so much as to be the slaves of pleasure! But you
   who are the elect of God, who are bought by the blood of Jesus, who are
   called by His Spirit, who profess to be His people--you have nobler
   things to live for! I pray you, make us not to be ashamed of you by
   living as if you were mere worldlings who have their portion in this
   life. Live for eternity! Live for Christ's Glory! Live to win souls!
   Behave as occupiers under a Royal Owner should behave. With such a
   Landlord, the best in the whole universe, be also the best of tenants
   and always be mindful of the time of your removal to another land! Let
   my last words remain with you, and that they may, I will quote them
   from a book in which wisdom is set forth in goodly sentences.

   "Gird up your mind to contemplation, trembling inhabitant of the earth.
   Tenant of a hovel for a day, you are heir of the universe forever! For
   neither congealing of the grave, nor gushing waters of the firmament,
   Nor expansive airs of Heaven, nor dissipative fires of Gehenna, Nor
   rust of rest, nor wear, nor waste, nor loss, nor chance, nor change
   Shall avail to quench or overwhelm the spark of soul within you! "Look
   to your soul, O man, for none can be surety for his brother: Behold,
   for Heaven--or for Hell--you cannot escape from Immortality!"

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

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

God's Innumerable Mercies

   (No. 3022)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER
   22, 1868.

   "I know not the numbers thereof." Psalm 71:15.

   THE writer of this Psalm describes all the dealings of God with him
   under the head, "righteousness" and, "salvation." That description is
   perfectly accurate, for all that God does for His people is, first of
   all, in faithfulness to His promise. As He has spoken, so He does.
   Never, even in the sharpest trial, can the heir of Heaven accuse God of
   being unfaithful to what He has promised. He told His disciples that
   they would have to endure tribulation--and when it came, they proved
   the truth of His prophecy--and everything that God does to us, whether
   little or great, whether sharp or kind, will prove to have been done in
   accordance with His faithful Word.

   And then the Psalmist calls the dispensations of God's Providence by
   the name of salvation. And this term is also the right one, for
   everything that He does for us who are His people tends to our ultimate
   salvation. He is working out our deliverance from inbred sin as well as
   from outward temptation and trial. Very often the darkest days that we
   have are bright with Divine Mercy, even though we cannot discern the
   brightness. There is a good reason, a necessity, for all that He sends
   to us and that reason is to be found in the fact that He intends to
   present us "faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding
   joy." Open your diaries, Beloved, and write across the record of your
   daily experiences, "All this is being done to us in righteousness and
   all this is working out our full salvation." Never read the book of
   your life's history without putting that headline upon every page!
   Emblazon that motto as an illuminated picture at the beginning of every
   distinct chapter of your life--and believe that it is all righteousness
   and all salvation from first to last!

   Having thus comprehended all God's mercies under these two heads, the
   Psalmist adds, "I know not the numbers

   thereof."

   I. In considering these words, let us think, first, of THIS THING WHICH
   WE DO NOT KNOW, NAMELY, THE NUMBER OF GOD'S MERCIES.

   Have you ever tried to count them? Probably you never did that for even
   any dayin your life. I would like you to undertake that task and to jot
   down every mercy you receive from God in a single day--from the moment
   when the eyelids of the morning are opened till the moment when the
   curtains of the night are drawn. If your judgment were sufficiently
   enlightened to discern all the items, you would find that your
   arithmetic would fail to tell the total of them. But, Brothers and
   Sisters, the days of most of us have been many and there are some here
   who are approaching the longest period of human life. If the mercies of
   one da/would surpass their computation, what shall we say of the
   mercies of all these days in which they have been living as
   gentlemen-commoners upon the bounty of God, pensioners upon the loving
   kindness and faithfulness of the Most High? Truly, they may say, in the
   retrospect of all the loving kindness of the Lord, "We know not the
   numbers thereof."

   Let me now--not by way of attempting to help you to count the mercies
   of God, but by way of showing you the utter impossibility of even
   numbering them--just remind you, first, of the Divine Promises which
   have been fulfilled to you. They are very many. As you turn over the
   pages of Sacred Writ, you see them sparkling like grains of gold in the
   bed of some African or Australian river. God's Words of promise are
   there in great abundance, each of them as mighty as those Words of
   power which built the skies and, in your experience, from first to
   last, these Words of promise have been fulfilled. It would be a
   colossal task for you to write out all God's promises that have been
   fulfilled to you. Take your Bible and put a pencil mark in the margin
   for each one that has been proved true to you. Your task will be
   blessed to

   your memory and will move you to gratitude. And the most of God's
   promises have been fulfilled to us over, and over, and over again! We
   have taken these promissory notes into the great Bank of Heaven and we
   have received what was promised in them. But we have taken them to the
   bank, again, for, strange to say, after the Lord has fulfilled His
   promise today, that promise still stands good for tomorrow and right on
   until the end of time! Reckon up the multitude of God's promises and
   think of the many times in which those promises have been fulfilled to
   you and others of His children, for this will help you to realize how
   innumerable are the mercies of God!

   Think of the mercies of God in another form, namely, the many
   deliverances which have been vouchsafed to you. You have had
   deliverances when you knew nothing of your danger, when the Lord--

   " Watched over your path

   When, Satan's blind slave, you sported with death."

   You have had deliverances from sickness when, had death come to you,
   you would have died unforgiven. You had deliverances, perhaps, in
   childhood, from many temptations which would have been your lot had you
   been born under less happy auspices. Then came the great deliverance
   when your soul was released from the bondage of sin and Satan-- and how
   many deliverances are wrapped up in that one? David says that God
   delivered him from all his fears--and that day when He delivered us
   from all our sins, He emancipated us from every yoke of bondage that
   had rested on us. O happy day of glorious liberty when Christ made us
   free indeed! Well may, each one of us, sing--

   "Oh happy day, that fixed my choice

   On You, my Savor and my God!

   Well may this glowing heart rejoice,

   And tell its raptures all abroad.

   'Tis done! The great transaction's done!

   I am my Lord's and He is mine--

   He drew me and I followed on,

   Charmed to confess the voice Divine.

   High Heaven that heard the solemn vow,

   That vow renewed shall daily hear

   Till in life's latest hour I bow

   And bless in death a bond so dear." From that day onward, our march
   through the wilderness has been a series of remarkable deliverances and
   salvations! You have been delivered, dear Friends, from pride--you have
   been brought low when you were exalted above measure. You have been
   delivered from depression of spirits--your eyes have been delivered
   from weeping and your heart from fainting. You have been delivered in
   your seasons of bereavement. You have been succored in your times of
   pain and sickness. You have been delivered during the rush of business
   and you have been delivered in the time of solitary temptations. You
   have been delivered from self, from sin, from Satan, from the evil that
   alarmed you and from the more insidious mischief that sought to
   fascinate you! Until now the Lord has held you up and you have been
   kept in safety even while passing by the dens of lions, or fighting
   with Apollyon down in the Valley of Humiliation. Can you count all your
   deliverances? I feel sure that you must say with the Psalmist, "I know
   not the numbers thereof."

   Let us think for a minute or two, just to stir up our gratitude to God,
   of the innumerable mercies attending our very existence. Any physician
   can tell you what a wonderful thing our life is. Dr. Watts truly
   wrote--

   "Our life contains a thousand springs,

   And dies if one is gone!

   Strange, that a harp of thousand strings

   Should keep in tune so long!'

   The operations of Nature are conducted in a most intricate manner. The
   continuation of our life depends upon the slenderest thread--yes,
   often, upon particles of matter which are so minute as scarcely to be
   perceived by the eyes! As the blood circulates through our system,
   there is a risk of death at every beat of our pulse. As the air is
   inhaled by us, there is a further risk every time our lungs are
   inflated. I am not an anatomist, neither is it a part of my duty to
   dissect the fabric of the human body--but those who have searched into
   it have told us that life is a continued miracle from the cradle to the
   grave. We cannot even imagine what innumerable mercies, from the crown
   of our head to the souls of our feet, are concerned in our continuing
   to still be in the land of the living!

   Think, again, of the numberless mercies connected with happy
   existence--any one of which taken away would make life sadder--many of
   which removed would make life an intolerable torture. Can you ever pass
   a lunatic asylum without thanking God that your reason has not left her
   throne? Can you pass by a place where idiots are dwelling without
   thanking God that your mind has not become lowered till it has almost
   ceased to be? Can you go by our great hospitals without blessing God
   that you are not tossing on a bed that grows hard through unceasing
   pain? Can you look upon the many diseased folk whom we see in our
   streets and not thank God for the health you enjoy? I like to feel
   grateful for every minute that my teeth do not ache, or that my head
   does not ache, for some of these lesser pains do so distract us that we
   can scarcely attend to our daily duties! When we have to endure these
   pains, we think how grateful we should be if they were gone--but when
   they are gone, we are apt to forget the mercy which has removed them!

   Think, dear Friends, of the mercies which have made life happy for you
   in your domestic circle. "Ah," say some of you, "but we now have sore
   sorrows there." Yes, it may be so, but you ought to think how long you
   had almost unalloyed happiness! If a man lends you something and after
   a long while takes it back, you ought not to mourn because he takes it,
   but to thank him for letting you have it so long! Think of the ten
   thousand mercies that cluster around a happy fireside. What music there
   is in that blessed word, "home!" Yes, and with all the troubles that a
   family may bring, those dear little prattlers bring a world of
   happiness with them and you ought to be thankful if they are still
   spared to you--and not only spared, but in robust health, firm of limb,
   clear in intellect and many of them hopeful and promising in moral and
   spiritual things! Truly, if I were to attempt to record the mercies
   that make life happy here below, I would need a vast volume written
   within and without with thanksgiving! And even then I should have to
   make the Psalmist's confession, "I know not the numbers thereof."

   Take another measuring line. Beloved Friends, think of the preventing
   Providences of God and you have quite another vista opened before you.
   Walking in the street yesterday, you might have fallen and injured
   yourselves, for another did so. Sitting even in your house, the deadly
   fever might have entered--it did go in at a neighbor's door or window.
   In travelling, you might have been killed as many others have been, or
   have been mangled and scarcely escaped with life. We talk of
   Providences when we have hairbreadth escapes--but are they not quite as
   much Providences when we are preserved from danger? I have told you
   before what the old Puritan said to his son who had ridden several
   miles to meet him. "Father," said the son, "I have had a remarkable
   Providence! My horse stumbled badly three times, yet did not throw me."
   "Ah, my Son," said the father, "I have had a still more remarkable
   Providence than that, for my horse did not stumble once." We do not
   think, as we should, of the preventing Providences of God which keep
   off evil from us. It is a mercy that so many of you are not brought to
   poverty--that when so many others are out of work, you workingmen are
   not among the unemployed, but are able to provide for your families. We
   could probably all make a long list of trials from which we have been
   preserved and, after making out the list, we would still have to say,
   "We know not the numbers

   thereof."

   But when I turn to a still wider field, the best arithmetician must
   find his powers in vain. Think of the bounties of God's Grace. Your
   sins, though many, are all forgiven and every forgiveness a mercy--do
   any of you know the numbers thereof? The evils which sin has worked in
   you, all remedied by the Great Physician, or to be ultimately removed
   by His gracious hand--do you know the numbers thereof? Think now, you
   are the elect of God--trace the streams of His love up to that Eternal
   Council in which He planned your redemption and then say, with David,
   "How precious, also, are Your thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the
   sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the
   sand." Besides that, you have been redeemed by the precious blood of
   Christ! Do you know the number of mercies included in that one word,
   "redeemed"? It includes that mercy of mercies--God descending to take
   our Human Nature into union with Himself! It includes the whole life of
   Christ and His death upon the Cross--yes, and His Resurrection, and
   Ascension, and the Glory of His Second Coming--for all this has to do
   with your redemption! Truly, you know not the numbers thereof! You have
   also been called by Grace. You resisted God' s calls, perhaps hundreds
   of times, yet were the sweet persuasions of the Holy Spirit continued
   until you were at last constrained to yield! And repentance was given
   to you, faith was worked in you--you were made to pray and your prayers
   were heard and answered. Do you know the numbers of all these mercies?

   Further, the work of sanctification has gone on in you by the power of
   the Holy Spirit. Every good thought you have ever had, every right word
   you have ever spoken, every holy action you have ever done has been a
   mercy from God to you! He gave these blessings to you, or else you
   would never have had them--and I challenge you to try to count this
   great budget of mercies! Besides all that, you are this day an heir of
   God and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ! You have Heaven in reversion,
   assured to you by the faithful promise of God who cannot lie! Sit down
   and take your pen and count your mercies if you can. Even as you count
   them, your mercies multiply--and every beating pulse increases the
   innumerable multitude of them so that you must utterly despair of
   counting them! To what shall I liken them? To the countless odors that
   rise from the garden when the summer's sun is smiling on the
   innumerable beauties that are gathered there? Shall I liken them to the
   drops of dew that sparkle on ten thousand times ten thousand blades of
   grass? Shall I liken them to the innumerable birds and insects that fly
   in the air, or to the fishes without number that swim in the seas, or
   to the beasts untold that wander on the mountains or range the woods
   and forests? Shall I liken them to the innumerable leaves of autumn
   that fall when the frost comes, or to the shells or sands upon the
   seashore, or to the stars of Heaven which no man can number? I know not
   whereunto to liken God's mercies to you, for all comparisons fail me--
   and I can only wonderingly say with the Psalmist--"I know not the
   numbers thereof."

   II. Now, turning from that to another point--as we know not the numbers
   of God's mercies, we need not be surprised that THERE ARE OTHER MATTERS
   WHICH ARE ALSO BEYOND OUR KNOWLEDGE.

   To know the numbers of certain things would not be so difficult as to
   know their value. My God, I know not the numbers of Your mercies and I
   do not even know the value of any one of them! If I were to take one of
   them and try to estimate its worth, I would find that it would exceed
   all my powers of computation. I have never been able to weigh one of
   them in the scales and especially Your loving kindness in working by
   Your Grace in my soul. To have been washed in the precious blood of
   Jesus--angels, can you tell what a priceless gift this is? Devils, call
   you tell--for you are still covered with sin! Lost spirit in Hell, can
   you even imagine what it must be to be a forgiven soul? Bright spirits
   before the Throne of God who have washed your robes and made them white
   in the blood of the Lamb--do not even you, who have experienced this
   wonderful bliss, continue to marvel at the greatness of it? Then, dear
   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we need not be surprised that we do not
   know the value of the mercies which our God has so abundantly bestowed
   upon us!

   It is even more to be regretted that we have never felt due gratitude
   for the mercies of God to us. We might be forgiven for not being able
   to number that which reaches almost to the infinite. That would be an
   imperfection rather than a sin, but alas, we have been so ungrateful
   that we have not been thankful to God for the favors which He has so
   liberally showered upon us. They have been buried in forgetfulness and
   yes, have gone on, from year to year, as if we owed nothing to the
   Lord, but had received all His good gifts by mere chance! How many men
   are like the swine that eat the acorns which fall from the oak, but
   never thank the tree on which they grew, or the God who made it grow?
   They receive the benisons of Heaven, but thank not the God of Heaven
   for them as they should. The mercies of God are uncountable--the
   ingratitude of man is unaccountable! We, Christian men and women,
   cannot tell how it is that we can be so stolidly indifferent when we
   ought to be so devoutly thankful to God for all His goodness to us.

   And, Beloved, as our gratitude has never kept pace with God's goodness,
   I am also sure that our praises have not How many tongues there are
   that are blistered through their murmuring and complaining because of
   the hard lot which God has given them? There are some of us who have
   learned too well how to make discord, yet who know little about
   harmonious praise. Yet our God is a good God. Let us say so and stand
   to it--and repent that we have not said it more often and proclaimed it
   more publicly among the sons of men! God has been so gracious to us
   that we cannot count His mercies! May we be pardoned for our past
   silence concerning them--and henceforth may our mouth be filled with
   His praise and with His honor all day.

   And, my dear Brothers and Sisters, as we have fallen short in our
   praise, I am sure that we have fallen much more short of anything like
   a proper return for God's goodness in our conduct and conversation. If
   we had been His slaves, we could not have served Him worse than we have
   done though we are His children. If He had been a tyrant to us, we
   could scarcely have done less for Him than we have done although He is
   our Father! I have often felt that I could blot my diary with tears
   again and again, and again, as I have said to myself--

   " What have I done for Him who died To save my guilty soul?

   How are my follies multiplied

   Fast as my minutes roll!

   Much of my time has run to waste,

   My sins how great their sum!

   Lord, give me pardon for the past,

   And strength for days to come!' Let these practical reflections abide
   in your memories, dear Friends. You do not know the number, or the
   value, or the weight of God's mercies. You do not feel the gratitude
   for them that is due. You do not give to God the praise that is
   fitting, nor live the life that is consistent with His goodness to you.
   Here are reasons for deep humiliation and for seeking the Grace that
   will enable us to mend our ways.

   III. Now, lastly, while there are these things which we do not know,
   THERE ARE SOME THINGS WHICH WE DO KNOW, which ought to increase our
   thankfulness.

   First, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, you and I know very well
   the source from which all these mercies come to us. We cannot count
   them, but we know that they all spring from the eternal love of God in
   Christ Jesus our Lord towards His own people. We can trace every one of
   these sacred drops of mercy to the Fountain of God's discriminating,
   distinguishing Love. He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and
   He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. It was
   according to the greatness of His loving kindness to us, before the
   earth was, that He chose us to be a people to show forth His praise--a
   people to be "filled with all the fullness of God." Let us trace even
   our common mercies up to this source and let us especially see the love
   of God in every spiritual gift that we receive, for so shall we be
   moved to praise and bless Him more than we have ever yet done!

   Further, we know the channel through which every mercy comes to us. It
   comes through our blessed Lord and Mediator, Jesus Christ. And--

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

   I like to see the mark of my Master's sufferings upon every jewel with
   which He adorns my spirit--to know that if I am righteous, it is in His
   righteousness! If I am washed, it is in His blood! If I am saved, He is
   my Savior! If I am fed, He is my food. If I am glad, He is my crown
   ofjoy and if I ever enter Heaven, He will be my bliss forever!
   All-in-All is He to His people--everything comes to us through Him--so
   that we have a reason for gratitude in the way in which the mercy comes
   to us as well as in the mercy itself! We do not know the numbers of
   God's mercies to us, but we do know that every one of them comes to us
   by way of the Cross and bears the mark of the Redeemer's blood upon it!

   We do not know the number of God's mercies, but we do know the rule of
   them. That is to say, we know that they are always sent in love. If
   they seem to be stinted, it is love that stints them. And if they are
   increased, it is love that increases them. The whole of the day God's
   Love is shining upon us and when the natural sun has gone to its rest,
   there is no harmful moon to smite, us, but the same Love of God makes
   it light within our soul. If the Lord chastens me, it is because He
   loves me. If He takes away your child, your husband, or yourself,
   Believer, it is because He loves you! The rule of every mercy is the
   great rule of our Father's wisdom, our Father's faithfulness, our
   Father's affection!

   We know, also, with regard to all God' s mercies, the design of them.
   We know that they are all sent to us to be tokens of His Love and helps
   in our journey to Heaven. In addition to the mercy and the love that
   gives it, and the way by which it comes, there is a blessed end that
   sanctifies it all. The Lord said to Israel, concerning the Angel whom
   He promised to send with them, "He shall bless your bread and your
   water." Oh, to have the common mercies of life so blessed that they
   become spiritual helps to us! It can be so, for it is the design of
   God--in all that He sends to us--to bring us nearer to Him.

   Then, we know, over and above all this, the grand climax of it all. I
   know not the numbers thereof, but I know, my God, that when I shall
   have received my last mercy on earth, I shall receive my first
   enjoyment in Heaven! When I shall have had the last blessing of this
   mortal life, I shall have the first blessing of the life everlasting!
   When the goodness and the mercy that have followed me to the brink of
   Jordan shall cease, I shall have angels there to escort me up to the
   celestial hills, and to admit me to my Savior's Presence where there
   are pleasures forevermore! It is an endless chain, Beloved! When it has
   seemed to conclude in one place, it begins in another. David said,
   "Surely goodness and mercy shall

   follow me all the days of my life." And what did he say next?--"And I
   will dwell in the House of the Lord forever." Forever to behold the
   face of their Father, in His House above, is the portion of all the
   children of God!

   After all that I have said, I hope you will all say that a Christian's
   life is a happy one. It is! It is! We have our cross to carry. We have
   our daily sorrows, losses and trials--but each one of us can say, with
   Dr. Watts--

   "I would not change my blest estate, For all that earth calls good or
   great!" We enter our Master's service and accept the cross and all He
   gives us. We take the road to Heaven with all its thorns and briers.
   Yes, let what will come, He is so good and blessed a God who has made
   Himself to be His people's portion that if the rod is a part of the
   Covenant, then blessed be the rod and the hand that wields it--and let
   the Lord be praised from the rising of the sun even unto the going down
   of the same!

   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, since God is never wearied in giving,
   let us never be wearied in serving Him! Let us be steadfast, immovable,
   always abounding in the work of the Lord! Since He never stays His hand
   in bestowing mercies upon us, let us never stay our patient endurance
   of any of the ills of life that He is pleased to send us. And since His
   mercy will continue with us as long as we are here, let us never cast
   away our confidence in Him! Let us stay ourselves upon Him and fall
   back into His arms when we are weary. If we faint, let us faint on His
   bosom.

   I wish that all of us here, constantly receiving, as we do, so many
   mercies, had more thought of the hands and heart from which they come.
   Alas! Alas! With many, "the ox knows his owner, and the ass his
   master's crib," but these people do not know God! Feed a dog and he
   will get to know you. But there are men and women who know not the God
   who made them and in whose hands their breath is! Let this text abide
   with you--"The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the nations
   that forget God." You have not done anything amiss, you say. You do not
   drink, or swear, or lie, but, "all the nations that forget God" are to
   have the same portion as "the wicked" will have. Beware, you that
   forget God! And if you would remember Him, the easier way to do that is
   to see His love in the death of His Son, Jesus Christ! Think of Jesus
   bleeding for sinners. Trust yourself to Jesus and so you shall be
   saved, for, "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life."

   May God bless you all, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 71.

   This Psalm, written by an old man, is especially suitable for an old
   man. It is numbered seventy-one and it may suit those who have reached
   that age--but it is also appropriate to us all in prospect of the days
   of feebleness that will come to us, sooner or later, if we are spared
   to grow old.

   Verse 1. In You, O Lord, do I put my trust let me never be put to
   confusion. "Stand by me, O Lord, for I only stand as You uphold me--and
   if You should leave me, after I have trusted in You--what could I say
   or do? Therefore, O Jehovah, since I put my trust in You, 'let me never
   be put to confusion.'"

   2. Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape. "I am like
   a poor dove taken in a net--I cannot get away. Stretch out Your hand, O
   Lord, and tear the net and so deliver me, and cause me to escape. I
   cannot do anything for myself, except pray to You to deliver me."

   2. Incline Your ear unto me, and save me. "My prayer is weak.
   Therefore, O Lord, bend Your ear down to my lips, that You may catch my
   faintest words. Listen to my lisping, O Lord, and save me."

   3. Be You my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort You
   have given commandment to save me; for You are my rock and my fortress.
   If David wrote this Psalm after the rebellion of his wicked son,
   Absalom, I think there is an instructive illustration here. You
   remember that when the troops went out from Mahanaim to fight with
   Absalom, David commanded the three captains of the host--Joab, Abishai
   and Ittai--"Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with
   Absalom." They might slay his followers, but he commanded them to spare
   him. Alas, David's command was ineffectual, for Joab slew Absalom! But
   God's command was certain to be obeyed, so the Psalmist wrote, "You
   have given commandment to save me," with the full assurance that he
   would be saved. And all God's people can say to Him,

   "You have commanded angels and men, 'Touch not My anointed, and do My
   Prophets no harm.'" And each Believer can say to Him, "You have given
   commandment to save me; for You are my rock and my fortress."

   4, 5. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hands of the wicked, out of the
   hands of the unrighteous and cruel man. For You are my hope, O Lord
   GOD: You are my trust from my youth Happy is the man who can truthfully
   say that, "You are my trust from my youth." God does not cast off His
   old servants, as men often do. Those who give Him the best of their
   days will not find that He will desert them when the feebleness of age
   creeps over them.

   6. By You have I been held up from the womb: You are He that took me
   out of my mother's womb: my praise shall be continually of You. We do
   not think, as often as we should, of what we owe to God for His care
   over us at the time of our birth. Our mothers returned thanks on their
   own behalf and ours, but, as we look back, we are bound to return
   thanks, too, for that kindly care of God in our most extreme
   weakness--when the little candle of life was scarcely lighted and might
   have been so easily blown out. Then, as God took care of us in our
   first infancy, do You not think that He will take care of us when we
   get into our second childhood? We are never likely to be quite as weak
   as we were then, but, as the Lord guarded us at that time, will He not
   guard us in those dark days which are already looming before some of
   us? Of course He will! Therefore, be of good courage, for He shall
   strengthen your heart and your praise shall be continually of Him.

   7. I am as a wonder unto many. A prodigy to some, a monster to others,
   a marvel, a mystery, a riddle to all, but here is the solution to the
   problem that puzzles so many.

   7. But You are my strong refuge. Even the weak are strong when God is
   their refuge! The most defenseless are safe when God is their defense.
   Wonder not at the mysterious life of a Christian, for this Truth of God
   explains the mystery-- "You are my strong refuge."

   8. Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your honor all day.
   What a blessed mouthful, and what a sweet mouthful this is--and what a
   blessed means of keeping the mouth from saying unkind, slanderous, or
   murmuring words!

   9. 10. Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my
   strength fails. For my enemies speak against me and they that lay wait
   for my soul take counsel together When the lion is sick, every cur is
   bold enough to bark at him. Men were afraid of David when he was
   strong, but when he grew feeble, they began to howl at him and gather
   round him like a pack of hounds around a wounded stag. Worst of all,
   they uttered this monstrous lie, which was most grievous to David's
   heart.

   11. Saying, God has forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is
   none to deliver him. If they had possessed even ordinary compassion,
   they would have said, "Since there is none to deliver him, let us not
   attack him. If God has forsaken him, he is in misery enough, so let us
   try to comfort him." But, instead of doing this, they acted after the
   fashion of their father, the devil, who has no tenderness and nothing
   of a compassionate spirit within him.

   12. O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help. Notice
   the still more intense grip of faith in the second clause. The Psalmist
   first says, ' 'O God," then He says, "O myGod." It is grand pleading
   when we so grasp God with the personal grip of faith that we cry, "O my
   God, make haste for my help."

   13. 14. Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my
   soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonor that seek my hurt.
   But I will hope continually, and still yet praise You more and more.
   Hoping and praising are among the very best styles of living. Hoping
   honors God in secret--and praising honors Him in public. Oh, for more
   of these two good things!

   15. My mouth shall show forth Your righteousness and Your salvation all
   the day; for I know not the numbers thereof When David spoke of those
   who hated him without a cause, he said that they were more than the
   hairs of his head. He could not count them, but he went as near to
   doing so as he could. But when he began to speak of God's mercies as
   displayed in His righteousness and His salvation, he did not draw any
   comparison, or attempt to number them. This is a calculation in which
   we are utterly lost--our system of numeration fails us altogether when
   we come to deal with the loving kindness of the Lord!

   16. I will go in the strength of the LORD GOD: I will make mention of
   Your righteousness, even of Yours only. He did not reckon that any
   other righteousness was worth mentioning--and certainly not his own.
   The best of men, those who have been the most noted for their good
   works, have always been the first to feel that they had no works in
   which they could put any trust! One godly man, when he was dying, said
   to a friend, I have been trying to separate my good

   Volume 53 www.spurgeongems.org 7

   works and my evil works from one another, but I have found the task too
   great for me--so I have thrown them all overboard and now I will float
   to Heaven upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone."

   17. O God, You have taught me from my youth: and until now have I
   declared Your wondrous works. [Mr. Spurgeon delivered a remarkable
   discourse upon this text, illustrating the theme from his own early
   experience. See Sermon No. 2318, Volume 39-- GOD'S PUPIL, GOD'S
   PREACHER--AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY--Read/download the entire sermon, free of
   charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org. ] I pray very earnestly for you
   young people, and I beg you to pray for yourselves, that you may have
   the great privilege of being able to say with the Psalmist, "O God, You
   have taught me from my youth." They make good scholars who go to school
   early and keep at school long--and have such a blessed Schoolmaster as
   the Psalmist had--"O God, You have taught me." David's mother taught
   him much that was good, but it was still better for him to have God as
   his Teacher. Then, after being a scholar, he became a pupil-teacher. He
   still went on learning, but he also began to teach--"Until now have I
   declared Your wondrous works." All God's scholars ought to be
   pupil-teachers, always learning more and more from Him, and then
   teaching others all that they learn.

   18. Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not;
   until I have shown Your strength unto this generation, and Your power
   to everyone that is to come. Old men ought to tell younger men what God
   has done for them. There is great weight in the testimony of a godly
   man of ripe experience. Full of years, he speaks of what he knows, and
   testifies of what he has seen, tasted and handled of the Truth of God.
   We need many a Nestor in the camp of Christ, whose valor in former
   times and whose experience in days of battling for the right may
   inspire with valor the younger men to whom he speaks!

   19. Your righteousness, also, O God, is very high, who has done great
   things: O God, who is like unto You?The more we know of God, the less
   we think of all others. We sink ourselves out of sight and all other
   creatures seem to be as nothing in comparison with our God.

   20. You, which have shown me great and sore troubles, shall quicken me
   again, and shall bring me up again from the depths of the earth.This we
   shall experience in part even in our present lifetime, but we shall
   much more fully experience it on the Resurrection Morning--

   " When Christ His risen saints shall bring From beds of dust, and
   silent clay, To realms of everlasting day."

   21. You shall increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.
   Think of poor old David talking like this when he was driven into exile
   and many of his former friends had forsaken him--"'You shall increase
   my greatness.' I shall get good out of this evil. I shall rise by this
   fall. I shall be a gainer by these losses."

   22. I will also praise You with the psaltery, even Your Truth, O my
   God. "When I have proved Your Truth. When my joyful experience has
   proved that every promise of Yours is true to Your servant, then I will
   praise both yourself and Your Truth, O my God."

   22, 23. Unto You will I sing with the harp, O You Holy One of Israel My
   lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto You.That is the best kind
   of praise to God when our very lips are happy in singing--when we do
   not merely speak the sound, but when the meaning wells up from our
   heart and our lips are glad to sing it out.

   23, 24. And my soul, which You have redeemed. My tongue also shall talk
   of Your righteousness all daylong: for they are confounded, for they
   are brought unto shame that seek my hurt
     __________________________________________________________________

John Mark--or, Haste in Religion

   (No. 3023)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1864.

   "And they all forsook Him, and fled. And there followed Him a certain
   young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the
   young men laid hold on him: and he left the linen cloth, and fled from
   them naked." Mark 14:50-52.

   THIS little episode in the narrative of the Evangelist is very
   singular. One wonders why it is introduced, but a moment's reflection
   will, I think, suggest a plausible reason. It strikes me that this
   "certain young man" was none other than Mark, himself. He was probably
   asleep and, awakened by a great clamor, he asked what it was about. The
   information was speedily given, "The guards have come to arrest Jesus
   of Nazareth." Moved by sudden impulse, not thinking of what he was
   doing, he rises from his bed, rushes down, pursues the troopers, dashes
   into the midst of their ranks as though he, alone, would attempt the
   rescue when all the disciples had fled. The moment the young men lay
   hold upon him, his heroic spasm is over--his enthusiasm evaporates, he
   runs away, leaves behind the linen cloth that was loosely wrapped about
   his body--and makes his escape. There have been many, since then, who
   have acted as Mark did. And it seems to me that this digression from
   the main narrative is intended to point a moral.

   First, however, you will ask me, "Why do you suppose that this certain
   young man was Mark?" I grant you that it is merely a supposition, yet
   it is supported by the strongest chain of probabilities and will
   sufficiently account for the manner in which he has inserted it.
   Calvin, following Ambrose and Chrysostom, thinks it was John, albeit
   few modern critics attach much weight to that conjecture. I find that
   the more perplexing critics of the modern school ascribe this
   transaction to Mark for these reasons--it was usual, among the
   Evangelists, to relate transactions in which they themselves took part
   without mentioning their names. This commonly occurs in the case of
   John, for instance. He bashfully keeps back his name when there is
   anything to his credit and he does the same when it is to the reverse.
   I could quote one or two instances of this practice in the Gospel of
   Luke and it is not at all remarkable that such a thing should have
   occurred in the case of Mark. Whoever it was, the only person likely to
   know it, was the man himself! I cannot think that anyone else would
   have been likely to tell it to Mark and, therefore, I conceive it to
   have been he--for he might scarcely have thought it worthy of recording
   if it had been told him by someone else! And it is not likely that
   anyone to whom it had occurred would have felt it was much to his
   credit--and been likely to relate it to Mark with a view to its being
   recorded!

   Again, we know that such a transaction as this was quite in keeping
   with Mark's general character. We gather his character partly from the
   Book which he has written--the Gospel of Mark is the most impulsive of
   all the Gospels. You are aware and I have frequently mentioned it to
   you, that the word eutheos, translated, "straightway," "forthwith,"
   "immediately," is used a very great number of times by this evangelist
   in his Book. He is a man who does everything straightway--he is full of
   impulse, dash, fire, flash--the thing must be done and done at once.
   His Gospel is of that description. You do not find many of Christ's
   sermons in Mark. He gives you just a sketch, an outline. He had not
   perseverance enough to take the whole down and he scarcely finishes the
   narration of the death of Christ. His Book seems to break off abruptly,
   yet he is the most picturesque of all the Evangelists. There are pieces
   of imagination and there are Hogarthian touches in the sacred Biography
   he writes, that are not to be found in Matthew, or Luke, or John. The
   man is a man of fire! He is all enthusiasm. Poetry has filled his soul
   and, therefore, he dashes at the thing. He lacks perseverance and will
   hardly finish what he takes in hand, yet there is a genius about him
   not altogether uncommon to Christian men in this age--and there are
   faults in him exceedingly common at the present time.

   Once more, the known life of John Mark tends to make it very probable
   that he would do such a thing as is referred to in our text. When Paul
   and Barnabas set out on their missionary enterprise, they were attended
   by Mark. As long as they were sailing across the blue waters and as
   long as they were on the island of Cyprus, Mark stuck to them. No,
   while they traveled along the coast of Asia Minor, we find they had
   John Mark to be their minister--but the moment they went up into the
   inland countries, among the robbers and the mountain streams--as soon
   as ever the road began to be a little too rough, John Mark left them!
   His missionary zeal had oozed out. At a later period, Mark was the
   cause of a sharp contention between Paul and Barnabas. Paul would not
   have Mark with him any longer. He could not tame him-- he did not
   believe in these impulsive people who could not hold on under
   difficulties. But Barnabas, knowing him better--for Mark was his
   sister's son--and feeling a kinsman's lenity to his faults, insisted
   upon it that they should take John Mark. The altercation grew so
   violent between Paul and Barnabas that they separated on this account
   and would not proceed together on their Divine mission! Yet Barnabas
   was right, but I think that Paul was not wrong. Barnabas was right in
   his mild judgment of Mark, for he was a sound Believer at bottom and,
   notwithstanding this fault, he was a real, true-hearted disciple. We
   find him afterwards reconciled entirely to the Apostle Paul. Paul wrote
   to Timothy, "Take Mark, and bring him with you, for he is profitable to
   me for the ministry." And we find Paul affectionately mentioning,
   "Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas," which shows, on the one hand, the
   Apostle's Christian candor and kindness and, on the other hand, that
   Mark had retrieved his character by perseverance.

   Tradition says that Mark became the Bishop of Alexandria. We do not
   know whether that was correct or not, but it is likely enough that he
   was. Certainly he was with Paul at Rome and the latter part of his life
   was spent with Peter at Babylon. See what a man he is. He goes to Rome,
   but he cannot stay there long. He has done his work in Rome. He is one
   of your fidgety people who do things all of a sudden, so away he goes
   to Alexandria! But I think he must have found a very congenial friend
   in Peter. He would be a blessing to Peter and Peter would be a blessing
   to him, for Peter's disposition was cast in something of the same mold
   as his own. You may have noticed that Mark gives the most explicit
   account of Peter's fall. He enters very fully into it. I believe that
   he received it from Peter viva voce, and that Peter bade him write it
   down. And I think the modest spirit of Mark seemed to say, "Friend
   Peter, while the Holy Spirit moves me to tell of your fault and let it
   stand on record, He also constrains me to write my own as a sort of
   preface to it, for I, too, in my mad, hare-brained folly, would have
   run, unclothed as I was, upon the guard to rescue my Lord and Master,
   yet, at the first sight of the rough legionaries--at the first gleam of
   their swords--away I fled, timid, faint-hearted and afraid that I
   should be too roughly handled." For these reasons the supposition that
   this "certain young man" was John Mark appears to me not to be utterly
   baseless. There is no hypothesis in favor of any other man that is
   supported by equal probabilities. Very well, then. We will assume that
   he was the man and use the incident as the groundwork of our discourse.
   We have some counterparts of him, here, and we shall try to expose them
   and make use of Mark's blunder for their correction, in respect both to
   hasty following and hasty running away.

   I. First, here is HASTY FOLLOWING.

   John Mark does not wait to robe himself, but, just as he is, he dashes
   out for the defense of his Lord. Without a moment's thought, taking no
   sort of consideration, down he goes into the cold night air to try and
   deliver his Master! Fervent zeal waited not for chary prudence. There
   was something good and something bad in this--something to admire as
   well as something to censure.

   Beloved, it is a good and right thing for us to follow Christ and to
   follow Him at once. And it is a brave thing to follow Him when His
   other disciples forsake Him and flee. It is a bold and worthy courage
   to take deadly odds for Christ and to rush, one against a thousand, for
   the honor of His dear hallowed name. Would that all professors of
   religion had the intrepidity of Mark! Would that all who have been
   careless about religion might emulate his haste and be as precipitate
   in flying to Christ by faith as he was in running to the rescue in that
   hour of assault! The most of men are too slow--fast enough in the
   world, but, ah, how slow in the things of God! I declare that if
   corporations and companies were half as concerned about worldly things
   as the Church of God is about spiritual things, instead of a railway
   accident every three or four months, we would have one every hour! And
   instead of a revolution every one or two centuries, it would be well if
   we did not have one every year, for, of all the lazy things in the
   world, the Church of Christ is the most sluggish! Of all people that
   dilly-dally in this world, I think the professed servants of God are
   the most guilty.

   How slothful are the ungodly, too, in Divine things! Tell them they are
   sick and they hasten to a surgeon. Tell them that their title-deeds are
   about to be attacked and they will defend them with legal power--but
   tell them, in God's name, that their soul is in danger--and they think
   it matters so little and is of so small import that they will wait on,
   and wait on, and wait on, and doubtless continue to wait on till they
   find themselves lost forever! Let me stir up those who have not
   believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to look diligently to their eternal
   state. You have tarried long enough. The time that you have been out of
   Christ is surely long enough for the lusts of the flesh. What fruit
   have you gathered in your impenitence and sin? How much have you been
   bettered by neglecting Christ and minding worldly things? Has it not
   been all a dreary toil? It may have been decked out with a few
   transient pleasures, but, putting the ungodly life into the scale, what
   does it come to? "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Do you not
   confess this? Why, then, tarry any longer? Have you got any happiness
   in being an enemy to God? Then why not be reconciled to Him? Oh, that
   the Spirit of God would make you see that the time past has sufficed
   you to have worked the will of the flesh!

   Besides, how little time you have to spare! Even if you have much,
   Jesus demands that you repent now. "The Holy Spirit says, Today if you
   will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." The Gospel invitation is
   not for tomorrow, but for today. The warnings of the Gospel all bid you
   shun procrastination. Is not this Satan's great net in which men, like
   the silly fishes of the deep, are taken to their eternal destruction? O
   you dove, pursued by the hawk, tarry not, but fly at once to the
   dovecote--to the wounds of Jesus and find shelter there! Jesus calls
   you. Come to Him while He calls you. Why will you delay? His cause
   needs you. Young men, there are some of you who will spend the best of
   your days in Satan's cause--and when we get you, as we hope we
   shall--we shall have to baptize into Christ your shriveled ego, your
   palsied weakness! Let it not be so, I pray you. In these days of error
   and sin, Christ needs for His Kingdom men who are strong and vigorous,
   young men who are strong, as John says, and "have overcome the Wicked
   One." Gladly would I turn recruiting sergeant and enlist you for my
   Master! Oh, that you were on His side now! You cannot be too hasty
   here. If now the weapons of your rebellion are thrown down. If now you
   "kiss the Son, lest He be angry," you will have waited already too
   long! You will not--you cannot come to Christ too soon. Hark! Hark! I
   hear the chariot wheels of Death! He comes! He comes! And the axles of
   his chariot are hot with speed. He stands aloft, driving his white
   horse. The skeleton rider brandishes his awful spear and you are the
   victim! God has spared you up till now, but He may not bid you spend
   another Sabbath here. I hear the mowers scythe everywhere, as I pass
   along, making ready to cut down the grass and the flowers thereof.
   Death's scythe is being sharpened! He reaps his harvest every day and,
   whether you are prepared or not, you must be cut down when God's time
   shall come!

   Fly, then, I pray you! And though you are, like John Mark, unfit and
   unprepared, remember that you may come to Christ naked, for He can
   clothe you! You may come to Christ filthy, for He can wash you! You may
   come all unholy and defiled to Jesus, for He can put away your sin!
   Come! The Spirit of God seems to me to say to you, "Come." I pray that
   He may bid you to come and "lay hold on eternal life." I do not know
   how it is, I sometimes feel for many of my Hearers--especially for
   those of you whose faces I have seen for years--an awful earnestness
   even when I am not in this pulpit. And I think then that if I could get
   at your ear, I would plead with you. Think how many like you I have
   buried! How often do I stand at the grave's mouth, till sometimes,
   when, week after week and twice each week, I stand there, I fancy
   myself talking to dying men, and not to living men at all--talking to a
   company of shadows that come and go before me--and I stand still,
   myself a shadow, soon to flit like the rest. Oh, that I could talk to
   you as I then feel, and pour out my soul to you! We need a Baxter to
   bring men to immediate decision--Baxter with weeping eyes and burning
   heart--Baxter who says, "I will go down on my knees to entreat you to
   think upon eternal things." Baxter, who cries and groans for men till
   they cry and groan for themselves! Why will you die? Why will you let
   that fatal procrastination kill you? Why will you put off seeking the
   Savior until your day is over? Why will you still waste the candle
   which is so short? Why will you let the day go when the sun already
   dips beneath the horizon? By the shortness of time, by the sureness of
   death, by the certainty of eternal judgment, I beseech you to fly to
   Jesus and to fly to Jesus now, even though it should be in the hurry of
   John Mark!

   Now I change my note, for there is a haste that we must reprove. The
   precipitate running of Mark suggests an admonition that should put you
   on your guard. He came all of a sudden by his religion and there are
   some people who do this who might as well have no religion at all.
   That, however, was not the case with Mark. He was a genuine Christian
   character, yet, with nine out of ten of these people, I am afraid it is
   far otherwise. Let me address some here who have all of a sudden come
   to Christ. I do not want to throw doubts in their way as to their
   sincerity, but I do want to incite them to examine themselves.

   I am afraid some people make a hasty profession through the persuasion
   of friends. You walk with your friend and he says, "I have joined the
   church--why don't you do so?" He is not wise enough to put to you
   pointed questions which would let him see whether you are converted or
   not, but he unwisely presses you to make a profession when there is no
   Grace in your heart. I pray you, as soon as you know Christ, speak out
   for Him and come out and show your colors. But I also beseech you never
   profess to follow Christ merely through the persuasion of friends! I
   trust no pious mother would ever recommend you to do so. I am sure no
   wise father would ever urge it upon you. They would bid you fly to
   Christ at once, but, as to making a profession of faith, they would
   have you see first whether the root of the matter is in you--and when
   they are persuaded and you are persuaded that it is--they will throw no
   stumbling blocks in your way.

   Young people, I pray you, do not be deceived in this matter. How many
   have we seen, in revival times, who have been induced to come forward
   to "the penitent form," as it is called. That night, oh, how much they
   felt because their natural sensibilities were strongly worked upon! But
   the next morning, oh, how little have they felt! When the agencies that
   stimulated them have been withdrawn--when the meetings that stirred the
   embers, and the preacher that fanned the flame no longer exert any
   transient spell over them--their disenchanted souls sink down into a
   profound stupor! In many churches there are so few making profession of
   religion that there is not much danger of this evil--but here, where we
   receive so many every week, there is need for wise discrimination! I do
   beseech you never to sit down with a religion that comes to you merely
   through your being talked to by your acquaintances--

   "True religion's more than notion-- Something must be known and felt."

   Nor are there a mere few who get their religion through excitement.
   This furnishes another example of injudicious haste. They hear religion
   painted as being very beautiful. They see the beauty of it. They admire
   it--they think what a lovely thing it must be to be a Christian.
   Feeling this and misled by a sort of excitement in their minds, they
   conclude that this is repentance. A false confidence they write down as
   faith! They eagerly infer that they are the children of God, whereas,
   alas, they are but the dupes of their own emotion--and still "the
   children of wrath, even as others." Beware, I pray you, of a religion
   which lives upon excitement! We ought to be filled with enthusiasm. A
   fervent love should make our hearts always glow. The zeal of God's
   House should be our master-passion. Men never do much in politics till
   they grow warm upon a question and, in religion, the very highest
   degree of excitement is not only pardonable, but praiseworthy. What,
   then, is it, which we deprecate? Not the emotions of spiritual life,
   but an exclusive dependence upon impulse! If you try to live upon the
   spell of a man's words, upon the imposing grandeur of a multitude
   assembled together, upon the fascination of congregational singing, or
   even upon the heart-thrilling fervor of Prayer Meetings, you will find
   the lack of substantial food and the danger of an intoxicated brain! As
   it was with the quails which the children of Israel ate in the
   wilderness, God's bounties may be fed upon to your injury. No, dear
   Friends, there must be the real work of the Holy Spirit in the soul or
   else the repentance we get will be a repentance which needs to be
   repented

   of!

   I well know a town where there was a certain eminent revivalist whom I
   greatly respect. It was said that half the population had been
   converted under his ministry, but I do not think that if the numbers
   were counted at the present moment, there would be found a dozen of his
   converts. This revival work, where it is real and good, is God's best
   blessing, but where it is flimsy and unreal, it is Satan's worse curse!
   Revivalists are often like the locusts. Before them, it may not be
   quite an Eden, but certainly, behind them, it is a desert when the
   excitement is over. I like rather to see the Word so preached that men
   are brought under its power by the force of the Truth, itself, and not
   by excitement--by the Truth of God being laid down in so clear a manner
   as to enlighten the judgment, rather than by perpetual appeals to the
   passions, which ultimately wear out the sinews of mental vigor and make
   men more dull in religion than they were before.

   Beware, I pray you, of getting the mere religion of poetry, enthusiasm
   and rhapsody. Many profess Christ and think to follow Him without
   counting the cost They fancy the road to Heaven is all smooth,
   forgetting that the way is rough and that there are many foes. They set
   out, like Mr. Pliable, for the Celestial City, but they stumble into
   the first bog and then they say that if they can but get out on the
   side nearest to their own house, Christian may have the brave country
   all

   to himself for them! Oh, the many we have seen, at divers times, that
   seemed to run well, but they ran in the strength of the flesh and in
   the mists of ignorance! They had never sought God's strength. They had
   never been emptied of their own works and their own conceits and,
   consequently, in their best estate they were vanity! They were like the
   snail that melts as it crawls--not like the snowflake upon the Alps
   which gathers strength in its descent till it becomes a ponderous
   avalanche! God make you to be not meteors, but stars fixed in their
   place! I want you to resemble not the ignis fatuus of the morass, but
   the steady beacon on the rock! There is a phosphorescence that creeps
   over the summer sea, but who is ever lighted by it to the port of
   peace? And there is a phosphorescence which comes over some men's
   minds--very bright, it seems, but it is of no value--it brings no man
   to Heaven.

   Be as hasty as John Mark, if it is a sound haste, but take care that it
   is not a spasm of excitement--a mere fit-- otherwise, when the fit is
   over, you will go back to your old haunts and your old habits with
   shame. You will be like Saul among the Prophets one day and hating the
   anointed king the next! So much, so earnestly would I warn you against
   hasty followings of Christ!

   II. It only remains for me to notice briefly THE HASTY RUNNING AWAY.

   I do not know that the persons who are readiest to run away are always
   those who were the fastest to make their profession. I am inclined to
   think not. But some who do run well at first, have hardly breath enough
   to keep the pace up and so turn aside for a little comfortable
   ease--and do not get into the road again. Such are not genuine
   Christians-- they are only men-made, self-made Christians--and these
   self-made Christians never hold on, and never can hold on because time
   wears them out and they turn back to their formed state.

   There are two kinds ofdesertion which we denounce as hasty running
   away--the one temporary, the other final To the members of the Church,
   let me speak upon the former. My dear Brothers and Sisters, especially
   you who are young in years and have lately been added to our number, I
   pray you watch against temporary running away from the Truth of Christ.
   Think what a fool Mark made of himself. Here he comes. Here is your
   hero. What wonders he is going to do! Here is a Samson for you. Perhaps
   he will slay his thousand men. But no, he runs away before he strikes a
   single blow. He has not even courage enough to be taken prisoner and to
   be dragged away with Christ to the judgment seat and bear a patient
   witness there! He turns tail at once and away he flies! How simple he
   looked! How everybody in the crowd must have laughed at the venturesome
   coward--the dastardly bravo! And what a fool will you seem if, after
   uniting yourself with the Church and seeming to be a servant of God,
   you shall give way under temptation! Some young man in the same shop
   laughs at you and says, "Aha, aha, you are baptized, I hear!" And you
   tremble, like Peter, under the questioning of the little maid, or your
   employer sees something wrong and he makes some rough remark to you,
   "Well, this is a fine thing for a Christian soldier!" Cannot you face
   the enemy for the first time? "If you have run with the footmen and
   they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in
   the land of peace, wherein you trusted, they wearied you, then how will
   you do in the swelling of Jordan?"

   A religion that cannot stand a little laughter must be a very rotten
   one. We know some people whose religion is on so unsound a basis--whose
   profession is so hollow and whose position is so shaky--that they make
   a great noise when we touch them! Their system is of human construction
   and rotten--and they know it--therefore are they angry if we do but
   allude to it! Were it sound and good, then whatever we might say would
   never frighten them. But, Sirs, how many who have made a fair show in
   the flesh have been personally and individually tried and found
   wanting? "Tekel" has been written on the wall concerning them! Their
   first setting out was hasty and they have been turned aside through a
   little laughter.

   Do you not see, dear Friends, that this will always render you very
   untrustworthy? If you shrink in this way, the Church will never trust
   you. I hope you will be a leader in God's Israel one day, young man. We
   are looking to you, if not to be a preacher, yet to be a Church officer
   one day. But who will ever ask you to do anything when you cannot keep
   steadfast and hold your own position? He who has not Grace enough to
   prevent his running away in the time of tribulation is not at all
   likely to be made a leader of God's host. The Church will retain you,
   as it retained Mark, but it will always look upon you with a sort of
   suspicion. We shall always say, "Where is So-and-So? We know where he
   was yesterday, but where is he today?" Therefore, abstain from these
   inconsistencies for your own character's sake.

   Besides, how much damage you do the church with which you are
   connected! All the persecutors and infidels outside the church's walls
   can never harm us so much as inconsistent people inside. "Ah," they
   say, "there is one of the people who go to the Prayer Meeting," when
   they see a man in the pot-house who sits at the Communion Table. "Ah,
   there is one of your religious people! He can cheat as well as anybody
   else. He knows how to thumb the yard measure. He knows how to give
   short weight! He knows how to promise to pay on a certain day and then
   get into the Bankruptcy Court! The servants of Christ are no better
   than other people. They make a great fuss about their purity, but see
   what they will do!"

   And then see what harm this will do to Christ's Church, itself. How
   many who love God will sit down and weep when they see such
   inconsistencies in you! Good captains can endure wounds--they can even
   bear defeat--but they cannot bear to see cowardice on the part of their
   troops. They cannot bear to see their men running away. If "the men of
   Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turn back in the day of
   battle," then their leader weeps, for the glorious Cross of Christ is
   dishonored, the escutcheon is sullied and the banner is trailed in the
   mud! May the Lord so keep us that our garments shall be always white.
   That though before God we may have many sins to confess, we may stand
   like Job and say, "Lord, You know that I am not wicked." May your
   testimony be so clear concerning the religion of Christ that those who
   watch for your stumbling and who hate you with a perfect hatred may,
   nevertheless, find nothing against you, but may be constrained to say,
   "These are the servants of the living God and they serve Him, indeed,
   and of a truth."

   I urge you not to flee or to flinch. Some of us have had much lying and
   slander to bear in our time, but are we a whit the worse? No, and if we
   had to choose whether we would bear it again, would we not do so? We
   may have had to be laughed at and caricatured, but all that breaks no
   bones and should not make a brave man wince! Who can be afraid or
   alarmed when his war cry is, "The Lord of Hosts," and when the banner
   of God's own Truth waves over his head? Be of good courage, my Brothers
   and Sisters, and you shall yet win the victory! In the world you shall
   have tribulation, but in Christ you shall have peace! Value the Holy
   Spirit above all things. Realize your entire dependence upon Him. Pray
   for fresh Grace. Venture not into the world without a fresh store of
   His hallowed influence. Live in the Divine Love. Seek to be filled with
   that blessed Spirit and then, my Brothers and Sisters, even if the
   strong man armed shall lay hold of you, you will not flee away--shame
   shall not overtake you, dismay shall not frighten your souls--and you
   shall stand in unblemished integrity to the end as the true servants of
   Jesus Christ!

   And now, in concluding, what am I to say of a final apostasy?None of
   God's people ever pursue their wanderings to this terrible issue! No
   vessel of mercy was ever finally wrecked! No elect souls can run to
   this fatal length of wickedness! But there are many in the visible
   church who do draw back to Perdition. Many who profess to belong to
   Christ are branches that bear no fruit and, therefore, are cut off and
   cast into the fire! That may be the condition of some here present. It
   may be the lot of some of you who "have a name to live, and are dead."
   Let me plead with you. Oh, what a dreadful thing it will be if you
   apostatize after all! Shall I live to see you go back into the world? I
   would sooner bury you! Shall I live to see some of you who have
   professed to find the Lord under my ministry, at last sinning with a
   high hand and an outstretched arm--and living worse than you did
   before? God spare us this evil thing! Let Him chastise His servant in
   any way He thinks fit but, O Lord, if possible, let not this be the
   rod--to see professors become false!

   Remember that if you do apostatize, you have increased your guilt by
   the profession you have made--and impressed your character with a more
   terrible defilement! When the unclean spirit went out of the man and
   afterwards returned, he brought with him seven other spirits more
   wicked than himself. And they entered in and dwelt there--and the last
   state of that man was worse than the first! It would have been better
   for you never to have known the way of righteousness than having known
   it, to turn aside to those crooked paths. Think what the dying bed of
   an apostate must be. Did you ever read "The Groans of Spira?" That was
   a book, circulated about the time of the Reformation--a book so
   terrible that even a man of iron could scarcely read it. Spira knew the
   Gospel, but yet went back to the Church of Rome. His conscience awoke
   on his dying bed and his cries and shrieks were too terrible to be
   endured by his nurses! And as to his language--it was despair written
   out at full length in capital letters! My eminent predecessor, Mr.
   Benjamin Keach, published a like narrative of the death of John Child,
   who became a minister of the Gospel, but afterwards went back to the
   church from which he had seceded--and died in the most frightful
   despair. May God keep you from the deathbed of any man who has lived as
   a professing Christian, yet who dies an apostate from the faith!

   But what must be the apostate's doom when his naked soul goes before
   God? How can he bear that awful sentence, "Depart, you cursed one; you
   have rejected Me, and I reject you; you have departed from Me--I also
   have cast you away forever and will not have mercy upon you"? What will
   be this poor wretch's shame at the Last Great Day when, before the
   assembled multitudes, the apostate shall be unmasked? I think I see the
   profane and open sinners who never professed

   religion, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at
   him. "There he is," says one, "will he preach the Gospel in Hell?"
   "There he is," says another, "he rebuked me for cursing, yet he was a
   hypocrite himself." "Aha," says another, "here comes a Psalm-singing
   Methodist, one who was always at his meetings! He is the man who
   boasted of his religion, yet here he is!" No greater eagerness will
   ever be seen among Satanic tormentors than in that day when devils drag
   the hypocrite's soul and the apostate's spirit down to Hell! Bunyan
   pictures this with massive but awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks
   of the back way to Hell. The devils were binding a man with nine cords
   and were taking him from the road to Heaven--in which he had professed
   to walk--and thrust him through the back door of Hell. Mind that back
   way to Hell, professors! You professors of religion who have been in
   the church for years, "examine yourselves, whether you are in the
   faith." Examine yourselves, whether you are deceived. Look well to your
   state. See whether you are really in Christ, or not. It is the easiest
   thing in the world to give a lenient verdict when you, yourself, are to
   be tried! But oh, I implore you, be just and true here! Be just to all,
   but be especially rigorous in judging yourself. Remember, if it is not
   a rock on which you build, your house will fall and great will be the
   fall of it! Oh, may the Lord give you sincerity, constancy and
   firmness--and in no day, however evil, may you be tempted to turn
   aside! Rather, may you hold fast by God and His Truth--by Christ and
   His Cross, come what may!

   My soul longs, however many years God may spare me to walk in and out
   among you, to find you as earnest for God, and as loving towards Christ
   as you are this day. I glory in you among all the churches. God has
   given you the spirit of faith and prayer, of earnest zeal and a sound
   mind. Unto Him be the Glory! But, as a Church, do not backslide. Let
   not our fervor diminish! Let not our zeal die out! Let us love one
   another more tenderly than ever. Let us cling fast to one another. Let
   us not be divided! Let no root of bitterness springing up trouble us.
   Firm and steadfast, shoulder to shoulder, like a phalanx of old, let us
   stand fast and so repel the foe and win the kingdom for Jesus Christ
   our Lord! "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to
   present you faultless before the Presence of His Glory with exceeding
   joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be Glory and majesty, dominion
   and power, both now and ever. Amen."

   PUBLISHERS' NOTE: No Exposition of the passage of Scripture read by Mr.
   Spurgeon before he preached the foregoing Sermon appears to have been
   preserved and the subject on which he spoke was so unusual that no
   other Exposition would have been appropriate to accompany it. As the
   preacher, in his introduction, referred to various portions of the New
   Testament where allusion is made to Mark or Marcus, it has been deemed
   advisable to reprint all the references to John Mark, so that readers
   may examine them in the light of Mr. Spurgeon's message. Under the
   circumstances, they are printed without note or comment--

   Acts 12:11-25. And when Peter was come to himself he said, Now I know
   of a surety, that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me out
   of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the
   Jews. And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of
   Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where many were
   gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door of the
   gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's
   voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in and told how
   Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, You are mad. But
   she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his
   angel. But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door,
   and saw him, they were astonished. But he, beckoning unto them with the
   hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought
   him out of the prison. And he said, Go show these things unto James and
   the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place. Now as soon
   as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers, what was
   become of Peter. And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not,
   he examined the keepers, and commanded that they should be put to
   death. And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and there abode. And
   Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came
   with one accord to him and, having made Blastus, the kings chamberlain,
   their friend, desired peace; because their country was nourished by the
   king's country. And upon a set day Herod arrayed in royal apparel, sat
   upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a
   shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man! And
   immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God
   the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost But the
   Word of God grew and multiplied. And Barnabus and Saul returned from
   Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry, and took with them
   John, whose surname was Mark

   Acts 13:5. And when they were at Salamis, they preached the Word of God
   in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John as their
   minister.

   Acts 13:13. Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came
   to Perga in Pamphilia: and John departing from them returned to
   Jerusalem.

   Acts 15:35-41. Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching
   and preaching the Word of the Lord, with many others also. And some
   days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our
   brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and
   see how they do. And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose
   surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who
   departed from them from Parmphylia, and went not with them to the work.
   And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed
   asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto
   Cyprus; and Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the
   brethren unto the Grace of God. And he went through Syria and Cilicia,
   confirming the churches.

   Colossians 4:10-11. Aristarchus my fellow prisoner salutes you, and
   Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom you received
   commandments: if he come unto you, receive him) and Jesus, which is
   called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellow
   workers unto the Kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.

   2 Timothy 4:11. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with
   you: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.

   Philemon 23, 24. There salute you Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner in
   Christ Jesus; Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers.

   1 Peter 5:13. The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you,
   salutes you; and so does Marcus my son.
     __________________________________________________________________

Christ's Death And Ours

   (No. 3024)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   FEBRUARY 14, 1869.

   "And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of Man
   should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of
   wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone: but fit dies, it
   brings forth much fruit." John 12:23-24.

   CERTAIN Greeks desired to "see Jesus." They informed Philip of their
   desire, Philip consulted with Andrew and the two disciples together
   informed their Master of what seemed to them to be a very important
   matter. As wise men from the East once came to see Jesus, so now would
   these Gentiles from the West do the same! Probably Philip and Andrew
   expected that Christ would display His miraculous power before the eyes
   of these enquirers, but our Lord, instead of going on from His
   triumphal procession and the hosannas of the multitude to something
   outwardly grander, began at once to speak about a glorification far
   other than either His disciples or these Greeks desired--a
   glorification which was to follow upon death and burial!

   Is it not very noteworthy how our Lord's mind was always dominated by
   the anticipation of that Baptism of His, that immersion in grief and
   suffering, that decease which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem? This
   was the main thought of His whole life and nothing could make Him
   forget it. In His heaviest moments of trial and in His brightest
   moments of joy, His heart was equally at the Cross--He was longing to
   complete His atoning Sacrifice for the salvation of His people. O
   brave, loving heart of Christ, so firmly fixed in love, so resolute to
   be pierced for the Beloved--we admire and love You in return!

   Surely we make too little of our Redeemer's death. I fear that even we,
   who preach most concerning it, dwell too little upon it. That we who
   pray, plead it too little. That we who sing, praise our Lord too little
   for His wondrous death and that we who live upon His Grace, yet think
   too little of the channel by which it flows to us! Christ's death is
   His Glory and it ought also to be ours. All other topics in Holy
   Scripture are important and none of them are to be cast into the shade,
   but the death of the Son of God is the central sun of all these minor
   luminaries! It is the great Alpha and Omega, the first and the last! It
   is not only eminent, it is preeminent with us. I could almost wish that
   we had broken every other string of our soul's harp but that which
   resounds the music of His Love. Silence, you other voices, and let the
   voice of His blood be heard in our souls! If we were bound down to this
   one subject--chained to it and never allowed to take another, but
   compelled simply to stand and incessantly cry, "Behold the Lamb of God,
   which takes away the sin of the world"--it would be an enlargement,
   rather than a narrowing of our ministry! Here is a theme fit for
   seraphs! Yes, "Michael the archangel" might find this subject too vast
   even for his exalted intellect. While we are musing on this text, no
   other topic shall intrude. Our mottoes shall be, "All for Jesus," and,
   "None but Jesus." May the blessed Comforter, whose work it is to
   glorify Christ and to take of that which belongs to Him and apply it to
   us, give us the power of Christ's death in our hearts!

   The verses on which we are to meditate speak of two things--first,
   Christ's view of His death and, s econdly, Christ's view of the
   necessity and the results of that death.

   I. First, we are to consider CHRIST'S VIEW OF HIS DEATH. He says, "The
   hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified."

   Now, I freely grant that this passage may refer to Christ's
   glorification in His Resurrection, in His Ascension and in all His
   triumph beyond the skies, but, from its connection with the allusion to
   the grain of wheat, which is cast into the

   ground to die, it is clear that our Lord was mainly thinking of His
   death and that He spoke of it as being, in a certain sense, the hour of
   His Glory. Certainly, to spiritual eyes, the Christ of God was never
   more glorious than when He was nailed to the Cross of Calvary--not even
   yonder where the lamps of Heaven glow with supernal splendor, where the
   harps of angels pour forth matchless music and where Christ, Himself,
   sits upon the Throne of the Highest, "King of kings, and Lord of
   lords." A Glory never equaled shone around the Conqueror of death and
   Hell when He bowed His head and said, "It is finished," and gave up the
   ghost!

   Mark well that Christ said that, "the Son of Man should be
   glorified"--not the Son of God--for He was speaking here concerning His
   human nature. This teaches us that Christ, as Man, was glorified by
   enduring bravely, patiently and to the end, what no other man has ever
   borne. Without a murmur, He willingly endured all the agony and
   ignominy that were heaped upon Him. He marched boldly through the
   tremendous deeps of physical, mental and spiritual suffering which the
   Atonement demanded. It may be that in some of His bodily pangs, our
   Lord's anguish has been equaled by that endured by some of the martyrs,
   yet I greatly question whether that has ever been the case. Rather do I
   believe that His peculiarly sensitive body which had never lost any of
   its delicacy of tone through indulgence or impurity, and which was
   originally of the finest mold, seeing that He was "that Holy Thing"
   which was born of Mary through the overshadowing power of the
   Highest--for these reasons it appears to me that Christ may have borne
   physical pains such as, in their intensity, have not been known by any
   other son of man! But as for His mental and spiritual griefs, they were
   an unknown abyss--who can measure or conceive what His holy soul
   endured? Hart's lines, though very strong in expression, do not go
   beyond the Truth of God even when he says that Christ, in Gethsemane--

   "Bore all Incarnate God could bear, With strength enough, and none to
   spare." Yet how gloriously He endured it all even to the bitter end!
   The gold was tried in the furnace, but no dross was discovered.
   Mightier than Atlas, Christ bore a world of grief upon His shoulders
   and yet He neither staggered under it, nor cast off the lead. He went
   to prison and to death--and all through His way of woe, His mighty soul
   was strong within Him. And He died triumphing over all! He was
   unconquered and unconquerable unto the last! Crown Him, O you daughters
   of Jerusalem, as the King of Sufferers, most mighty to suffer and to
   save! With His garments all red from the winepress, adore Him as having
   alone sustained the fury of His adversaries!

   Remember, too, that Christ won, on the Cross, the glory of being the
   fully obedient One.''Being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled
   Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross."
   It is a great glory to a servant of God to be, through Divine Grace,
   sincerely obedient to His Lord. But it would be a greater honor if he
   could be perfectlyobedient. Upon our Lord, who had voluntarily taken
   the place of a Servant for us, the petition of His service casts the
   highest honor. After having, in all points, kept the Law perfectly by
   His active obedience, He crowned His life's service by His passive
   obedience and was glorious, indeed, when He went to "the end of the Law
   for righteousness." First-born of many brethren are You, O You glorious
   Son of Man, made perfect in Your obedience in order that You might be
   the Captain of our salvation and bring many sons unto Glory!

   Further, Christ was glorified on the Cross by achieving what no one
   else could have achieved. How often do we set forth the Truth of God,
   which is always fresh and delightful to Believers, that Christ Jesus,
   on the tree, took all the sins of all who believe in Him--took them to
   Himself, literally, and carried them as though they had been His
   own--and suffered for those sins upon the Cross, all that ought to have
   been suffered by us on account of those sins, enduring that which His
   Father accepted as an equivalent for all the agony which ought to have
   been endured by us because of those iniquities? We believe, Brothers
   and Sisters in Christ, in the literal Substitution of Christ for His
   people. Christ stood in the Sinner's place and suffered what was due to
   the Sinner--even the curse of God and the wrath of God! And now He has
   so suffered for sinners that those for whom He died can have no sin
   laid to their charge so as to involve them in punishment, since it is a
   maxim of all courts of justice that the law cannot first punish the
   substitute--and then punish those in whose place he stood. Every honest
   man admits that a debt, once paid, is settled forever. So, as Christ
   paid the debt that His people owed to Infinite Justice, it is forever
   blotted out and our obligations to Divine Justice are obliterated! This
   is the joy of joys! This is the Doctrine that makes the Gospel to be
   God's good news to guilty sinners! This is the glorious Truth of God
   that sets the bells of Heaven ringing with their loudest and their
   sweetest music--that Christ has made the sin of His people to cease to
   be! Thus is fulfilled that ancient prophecy, "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."

   The work of Messiah the Prince is "to finish the transgression, and to
   make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to
   bring in everlasting righteousness." And this work was fully
   accomplished when "this Man, after He had offered one Sacrifice for
   sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God." O Beloved, herein is
   bliss, indeed, for us if He did really die for us! Your question and
   mine must be this, "Did Christ die for me?" To answer that, I must ask,
   "Am I trusting in Him?" If I am, then He did die for me and all my sins
   are gone because He was punished in my place. My demerit was imputed to
   Him and He died to put it away. And now His merit is reckoned as my
   merit! A wonderful transfer has been made by means of the death of
   Christ--He has taken all the consequences of our guilt and borne them
   all--and ended them forever! So was He not, indeed, glorified in His
   death? And you, Believer, may sing this sweet song, on earth and in
   Heaven, too--

   "In my Surety I am free,

   His dear hands were pierced for me!

   With His spotless vesture on

   Holy as the Holy One.

   Oh the heights and depths of Grace!

   Shining with meridian blaze--

   Here the sacred records show

   Sinners black, but comely too." But we must not forgot that Christ was
   glorified in His death, officially, as our great High Priest He stood
   alone in that dark hour as the true High Priest presenting the one
   perfect Sacrifice unto God. All other high priests had been but types
   of Christ, the great Anti-type. They had, once a year, though "not
   without blood," passed under the embroidered veil which hid the Holy of
   Holies from other eyes. But in that dread hour of darkness on Calvary,
   Christ, the true High Priest, offered up Himself as the Propitiatory
   Sacrifice which alone could put away His people's sins. And then,
   through the torn veil, that is to say, His body--His soul passed up
   into the Presence of God and there His blood still pleads for His
   people, speaking better things than that of Abel! Begone all you
   gorgeous ceremonies of Aaron and his sons, like stars that hide their
   light when the sun itself appears! Christ, the Great High Priest, is
   the only one that His Church needs! You may banish your many-colored
   robes. You may put away your precious miters. You may lay aside your
   bespangled breastplate, for Christ alone wears the robe, the miter and
   the breastplate of the true High Priest before God! And He stands
   gloriously accepted through His unique Sacrifice. From now on let it be
   known, throughout the whole earth, that there is no other sacrificing
   priest but the living Christ, and there is no other sacrifice but the
   Sacrifice which He has once and for all offered--and which still avails
   for all who trust in it! His precious blood--

   "Shall never lose its power,

   Till all the ransomed Church of God

   Is saved to sin no more."

   Thus have I shown you that even on the Cross, Christ was glorified. Yet
   this declaration of His may also refer to that which followed His
   death. It is indeed so closely linked and intertwisted with His passion
   and Crucifixion that it would be wrong to separate it from them--yet we
   must never forgot that He who died and was put into the grave--also
   rose again! It was His Glory that by His own almighty power, He arose,
   "the first-born from the dead." After forty days He ascended unto the
   Father and angels welcomed Him as He returned triumphantly to Heaven.
   Our faith can almost hear the lingering notes of that wonderful song of
   His angelic escort, "Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be lift up,
   you everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in." Glorious
   was His welcome by the spirits bought with blood who were already
   before the Throne of God! And truly glorious was He as He sat down at
   the right hand of the Father. See the Son of Mary exalted to sit at the
   right hand of the Father! Man like ourselves, yet glorified in Being
   made to reign there with His Father! He had always been there as God,
   but now He is there, also, as Man, crowned with glory and honor, and
   made to have dominion over all the works of God's hands! The very Man
   who was once the Baby in Bethlehem and then the Carpenter of Nazareth
   and afterwards the Murdered One of Calvary, is now so highly exalted

   that at His name, which is above every name, every knee shall bow, "of
   things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and
   that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory
   of God the Father!"

   It strikes me that our Lord also meant, by making this statement in
   connection with the visit of these Greeks to Him, to teach us that
   after His death He would be glorified among all the nations of mankind.
   That although in His earthly ministry, He was not sent except to the
   lost sheep of the house of Israel, yet, after His death the Gospel
   should be preached in His name to all nations--and out of all nations a
   people should be gathered who would praise His name forever and ever!
   Even at the present time it is no small Glory to Christ, who was nailed
   to the Cross of Calvary, that His name is reverenced over a great part
   of the earth--even by nations whose ancestors were strangers to it--and
   that His name is the foundation of every true morning prayer and every
   holy evening song! "His name shall endure forever" and His Gospel shall
   extend its saving and sanctifying power from realm to realm till He
   comes again, "in His Glory, and all the holy angels with Him," to
   glorify His saints with Himself forever and ever!

   I have spoken at this length upon what our Lord said concerning His
   death as the means of glorifying Him, for I am anxious that we should
   not think lightly of that of which He thought so highly!

   II. The few minutes that remain must be devoted to the second part of
   the text which concerns THE NECESSITY AND RESULTS OF CHRIST'S DEATH.

   Our Lord seems to say that it was absolutely necessary that He should
   die--that even His perfect life would have been of no use to us if He
   had not died. He says, "Except a corn of wheat falls into the ground
   and dies, it abides alone." So you see, Brothers and Sisters, that if
   Christ, after having come to this earth as He did, had not died, He
   would, as far as mankind is concerned, have had to abide in Heaven
   alone. As God, the word, "alone," would have had no reference, for the
   holy angels, as well as His Father and the ever-blessed Spirit would
   always have been near Him. But if our Lord could have come here and
   then have gone back to Heaven without dying, it would not have been
   possible for any other man to ever have gone to Heaven--and Christ
   would have been the only Man in the whole of that land of joy! It is
   dreadful even to think of such a thing as that! If that could have
   happened, where must all the saints of God and all mankind have gone?
   There is but one other region--the land of darkness and of death, the
   land of pain, of horror and of unutterable woe. And we must all have
   gone there if Christ had not died upon the Cross--not only the thief on
   the left hand of Christ, but the thief on His right hand, too--not only
   Judas, but Peter, John and all the Apostles--not only Demas, but Paul,
   Silas and all the early Christians--not only Ahithophel, but David,
   also--not only the unrighteous, but the righteous, too--all! All! ALL,
   having sinned, would have been condemned to eternal wrath if Jesus had
   not died! Ah, but it was not possible for the Son of Man, who was also
   the Son of God, to be alone in Heaven! He could not be content to be
   there alone. He left His Father's side in Glory, in order that He might
   become the Son of Man! And then, after He had once taken our human
   Nature into union with His Divine Nature, He could not go back to
   Heaven to live there in solitude, without another man to bear Him
   company! We cannot conceive of the First-Born without a brotherhood,
   the Head without a body, the Savior with no saved ones to sing His
   praises, the Shepherd without sheep, the King without subjects! No,
   this could not be and, therefore, it was absolutely necessary that
   Christ should die!

   It was a most suggestive and suitable figure which Christ used--that a
   corn of wheat must be put into the ground and die, or it cannot produce
   its like. Our language and all languages, when they speak of such lofty
   themes as life and death, become very much like a skein of silk that is
   all in a tangle--and we must never talk lightly concerning these
   supreme Truths of God. I believe that half the disputes about that very
   important matter of eternal punishment-- concerning which some think
   that the Scriptures favor the view of a limited period to the
   punishment--arise because those who hold that view do not observe that
   there is a vast difference between mere existence and life and, an even
   greater difference between death and annihilation. If a grain of wheat
   were really to die, it would not bring forth any fruit. When the
   maltster has passed the corn through the various processes which end
   with kiln-drying, it is really dead. And if you were to plant it, it
   would never bring forth fruit. That is a very different kind of death
   from that which takes place when the seed is cast into the
   ground--there it dies in quite another sense, that is to say, it
   rots--the matter of the corn dissolves and furnishes the first soil for
   the little minute of life to feed upon, for the grain of wheat is not
   all life, there is a life-germ inside it. The grain of "corn or wheat"
   must be broken up and be resolved into its primary elements or else it
   cannot bring forth fruit. [In C H Spurgeon's Autobiography, Vol. III,
   pages 194-6, there are further explanations of this

   subject, including the definition of death given by Mr. Spurgeon to Mr.
   Ruskin, who said, "That is the most extraordinary definition of death
   that I ever heard, but it is true."]

   So, our Lord Jesus Christ had to die and to be buried in the grave, as
   the seed-corn is put into the ground, and there He had to be resolved,
   as it were, into His primary elements--the soul to be for a while
   separated from the body, and the Deity from the Humanity. Without this
   death there could have been no fruit-bearing to spring out of Him. But
   when He had passed through this experience of death, then there sprang
   up out of the dead Christ--dead after that fashion-- abundant fruit!
   Nobody can tell you why it is that if a single grain of wheat is put
   into the ground, it may bring forth a hundredfold. Why should it so
   multiply itself? That is a great mystery, but it is a solid fact--and
   it is a blessed mystery of faith that, as Jesus Christ died, all who
   put their trust in Him are the "much fruit" springing up from His
   death! It is because He died on the tree that Believers are to live
   with Him forever. I have not time to go fully into that subject now,
   but you all know that if Christ had not died, we would all still be
   under the curse. If Jesus had not died, we would have been condemned at
   the bar of God. If Jesus had not died, there would have been no way of
   approach for us to God. We could not, as Believers, have had any
   existence at all except through His death! And now, through the
   preaching of His death, and the hearing of the message by the ear of
   faith through the effectual working of the Holy Spirit, we are made
   alive unto God and so become "fruit" to the praise of the Savior who
   died on the Cross of Calvary!

   Brothers, if we want to have fruit in our ministry--if we want to see
   sinners converted--we must preach up Christ's death! As the blacksmith
   strikes the hot iron upon the anvil, we must keep the hammer of the
   Gospel at work upon this great foundation Truth of God, "Christ died
   for our sins according to the Scriptures." It is no talking to men upon
   other topics in the hope that it will lead to their conversion. The
   great soul-quickening agency is, "Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
   Whoever will come and trust in the God-appointed Substitute for sinners
   shall be eternally saved, for life comes only through His death! The
   salvation of sinners is not even by preaching the great and glorious
   Truth of Christ's Second Advent, nor by preaching about Christ's
   millennial and eternal Glory, but by incessantly pointing to Christ
   lifted up upon the Cross! There is the grain of wheat that put into the
   ground brings forth much fruit--and we must keep to that theme beyond
   all others! You who try to talk to the unconverted must do this if you
   wish to see them find real, lasting peace, and enter into true
   Christian liberty. You must say, with Charles Wesley--

   "His only righteousness I show,

   His saving Truth proclaim!

   'Tis all my business here below

   To cry, 'Behold the Lamb!'"

   I must close, Brothers and Sisters, with this reflection. You and I
   want to bring forth fruit unto God. We want to save souls. Then we must
   do what Christ did, though in another sense. That is to say, we must
   fall into the ground and die. Did you ever see a minister who was such
   a gentleman that he did not know his people, and never shook hands with
   them in his life--one who was only anxious to show them what a
   dignified individual an ordained minister is? Well, such a man as that
   is like a grain of wheat put into a golden shrine to be admired. But,
   possibly, you know another man--he may be a city missionary--and he
   goes right down into the midst of the sin and misery of those whom he
   seeks to win for Christ, looking at everything from their point of
   view. And often it is a difficult task for him, yet he will do it. He
   lays aside everything in which he is their superior, speaks so that
   they can understand him, and brings the Gospel right down to their
   level. That man will win souls for the Savior because he is not a grain
   of wheat laid on a marble shelf, but he is dropped into the ground! And
   the more that man will spend himself for his Master--work himself to
   death, break up his constitution--kill himself, as it were, in his
   Master's service--the more likely is he to bring forth "much fruit"
   unto God. I do not believe you can do much good without having a great
   deal taken out of yourselves. And when men are so very particular and
   careful about themselves and will only serve God if it does not cost
   them anything, I believe that no earthly good can come of that. The man
   whom God will greatly bless must be willing, in this sense, to fall
   into the ground and die!

   In persecuting times, the Christian has often had to literally give
   himself up to die, but, instead of the cause of Christ being injured by
   his death, he has, in that way, brought forth the "much fruit." There
   have been no other such fruitful preachers of the Gospel as those who
   suffered at the stakes of Smithfield or died upon the rack. If you
   would be the means of saving others, you must make no reserve for
   yourself, but imitate your Master, of whom His enemies tauntingly but

   truly said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save." I ask you,
   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, to resolve, by God's strength, that
   there is nothing you will not do and nothing you will not give for Him
   who loved you so well that He gave all He had to save you! Seek, by
   every means that you can use, to win souls for Christ! The man who must
   have conversions, or he will die, will have them! The woman who feels
   that she must bring her class to Christ and will never rest till she
   does, will bring them to Christ! The Lord help us so to preach Christ
   and so to live for Christ and, if necessary, so to die for Christ, that
   we may bring forth fruit unto God--"some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold,
   some thirtyfold." Amen.

   PUBLISHERS' NOTE:

   A very considerable portion of this Sermon was revised by Mr. Spurgeon
   in readiness for publication. The topic-- "Christ's Death and Ours"--is
   peculiarly appropriate to the 155th anniversary of the beloved
   preacher's last days upon earth.[He died January 31, 1892.] But the
   subject of the next Sermon, which is to be published on January
   31st--the exact anniversary of the date of his Home-going--is still
   more suitable. The text is, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken
   away; blessed be the name of the Lord." And the title of the Sermon is
   to be, "Fifteen Years After!" to remind all readers that although the
   preacher's voice has not been heard in this world for the past 15
   years, yet, like the martyred Abel, "He being dead yet speaks," and, as
   Dr. Newman Hall truly said, "as he yet speaks, he is not dead."

   It is also a somewhat remarkable fact that the Sermon to be issued next
   week was preached on Thursday evening, February 11th, 1869, exactly 23
   years to the very day before the funeral service at the Tabernacle, the
   long procession from Newington to Norwood, and the interment in the
   cemetery there in the presence of an enormous concourse of sympathizing
   spectators.

   Regular readers of the Sermons will remember that similar coincidences
   were pointed out at the time of Mr. Spurgeon's Home-going, when,
   without any human pre-arrangement, the Sermons intended for reading on
   the four Sabbaths in February, 1892, were as follows--No. 2242, Volume
   38--GOD'S WILL ABOUT THE FUTURE; No. 2243, Volume 38-- HIS OWN FUNERAL
   SERMON; No. 2244, Volume 38--MEMBERS OF CHRIST and No. 2245, Volume
   38--"LIVING, LOVING, LASTING UNION'--the four discourses concerning the
   Home-going of Deacon

   William Olney].

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN12:12-36.

   Verses 12-15. On the next day much people that were come to the feast,
   when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of
   palm trees, and went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna! Blessed is
   the King of Israel that comes in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when
   He had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not,
   daughter of Zion, behold, your King comes, sitting on an ass's colt
   Even in the little glory of a temporal kind, which was given to the
   Lord Jesus Christ when He was "here among men" as Mrs. Luke's hymn puts
   it, His humility and meekness were very manifest, thus fulfilling the
   prophecy recorded in Zechariah 9:9--"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
   Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes unto you;
   He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and
   upon a colt, the foal of an ass." Oh, that all His people would always
   be of such a lowly spirit, not seeking great things for themselves, but
   condescending to men of low estate, remembering that it was their
   Master who said to His disciples, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of
   Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest unto your
   souls."

   16. These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when
   Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were
   written of Him, and that they had done these things unto Him.I wonder
   whether, when Christ comes back to earth, in the Glory of His Father
   with the holy angels, we also shall not understand a great many things
   which are complete mysteries to us now. Perhaps it will be said of us,
   then, "These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when
   Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were
   written of Him, and that they had done these things unto Him." That
   first Glory of His Ascension to Heaven shed a flood of light upon the
   life of Christ, as

   doubtless the greater Glory of His Second Advent will shed a yet
   brighter light upon our understanding of the things of Christ which
   quite surpass our comprehension now.

   17-19. The people therefore that were with Him when He called Lazarus
   out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record. For this
   cause the people also met Him, for that they heard that He had done
   this miracle. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive
   you how we prevail nothing? Behold, the world is gone after Him. No
   doubt many of His disciples thought so, too, yet how mistaken were both
   the friends and the foes of Christ, for you recollect, Brothers and
   Sisters, that Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem was followed,
   within less than a week, by a far different scene--when the same crowd
   that cried, "Hosanna!" shouted, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify
   Him!" The world that was supposed to have gone after Him, nailed Him to
   the Cross, so short-lived is human popularity. So short-lived, also, is
   the admiration of Christ by carnal minds, for they do admire Him after
   a fashion, they cannot help doing so! There have been written lives of
   Christ which have been full of admiration of Him, yet equally full of
   opposition to His Deity. We must not always regard it as an encouraging
   sign when men praise Christ for very soon, if the root of the matter is
   not in them and they do not accept Him as their Lord and Master, they
   will change their note and instead of, "Hosanna!" it will be, "Away
   with Him, crucify Him!"

   20, 21. And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to
   worship at the feast: the same came therefore to Philip, which was of
   Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired Him, saying, Sir we would see Jesus.I
   do not know why these Greeks went to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of
   Galilee, unless it was because he had a Greek name. Yet Andrew and
   Peter also had Greek names. If I went to Paris and wanted to see the
   President, and knew that there was somebody in the cabinet who had an
   English name, I would probably say, "Well, either he is an Englishman,
   or he comes of English parentage, so he may take an interest in me and
   get me the introduction I want." Perhaps that was the reason why these
   Greeks came to Philip. I cannot think of any other, but I know that if
   you want to get to Christ, you will always find some way of doing
   it--and that the reason why so many people do not get to Him is because
   they do not want to! You may all come to Jesus Christ if you will. But,
   alas, until His Grace controls it and changes it, your will inclines
   you to go still further away from Christ rather than to come to Him.

   22, Philip came and told Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip told
   Jesus. Andrew and Philip appear to have been staunch friends and fellow
   laborers--and it is always well when Christian men can work for Christ
   with congenial companions. My poor perplexed Brother, if you cannot get
   to Jesus Christ by yourself, it will be a good thing for you to say to
   some Philip, "Sir, I would see Jesus." Perhaps Philip will tell his
   friend, Andrew, and then Philip and Andrew will go together and tell
   Jesus, and so you will get to Him! It is a great help in prayer, when
   you are yourself unable to pray, to get someone whom you know to be a
   Christian, and who has sympathy with you, to come and pray with you.

   23, 24. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son
   of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily "Amen, amen."

   24, 25. I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat falls into the ground
   and dies, it abides alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit
   He that loves His life shall lose it Or, as it should be rendered, "He
   that loves his life loses it." That is not the true way to live--and in
   his selfish attempt to live to himself, he is losing his life.

   25, 26. And he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto
   life eternal If any man serves Me, let him follow Me. The best service
   you can render to Christ is to imitate Him. If you want to do what will
   please Him--do as He did!

   26, And where I am, there shall also My servant be. You cannot expect
   better lodgings than that! So, as Christ had to live here amid sorrow,
   sin and shame, you must be willing to do the same. But, as Christ was
   afterwards exalted to indescribable honor, so shall it be with you if
   you are His true servant!

   26. If any man serves Me, My Father will honor him. For such is the
   Father's love to His Son, that He delights to honor all those who
   become His Son's faithful servants!

   27. Now is My soul troubled; and what shall Isay?Father, save Me from
   this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour There was a
   conflict in the Savior's heart--the weakness of His true
   Manhood--striving with the strength of His Infinite affection to His
   people, and also to His Father. We must never forget that "He was in
   all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." If it had been no
   pain to Him to die as the Substitute for sinners, there would have been
   no atoning Sacrifice in His death. And if no dread had overtaken Him at
   the thought of death, it would have proved that He did not die as we do
   and, therefore, He would not have been able to take our place as He
   did. Notice how the Savior speaks of the struggle that was going on in
   His soul. "What shall I say?" Do you ever have to ask that question
   when you are trying to pray? If so, do not be astonished, for even your
   Lord and Master said the same. "What shall I say?"--as if He paused to
   consider what form His prayer should take--"shall I say, Father save Me
   from this hour? No, but I will say, For this cause came I unto this
   hour."

   28. Father, glorify Your name. That is a grand answer to the Savior's
   question, "What shall I say?" And when you do not know how to pray, you
   may always present that petition, "Father, glorify Your name." You have
   some dear one at home very ill--you would be glad if the precious life
   might be spared, yet you are not sure whether you may ask for it. Well
   then, say, "Father, glorify Your name." Possibly you are passing
   through a great trial and you would be glad to escape from it--yet you
   do not know whether it is the Divine will that you should do so. Well
   then, you may, at any rate, put up this prayer, "Father, glorify Your
   name. Whatever is most for Your Glory, let that be my will as it is
   Your will."

   28 Then came there a voice from Heaven. An audible voice, for those who
   stood by could hear it--"There came a voice from Heaven."

   28-30. Saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The
   people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered.
   Others said, An angel spoke to Him. Jesus answered and said, This Voice
   came not because of Me, but for your sakes. "You needed to be
   strengthened as to the Divine Character and authority of My mission.
   You required to be comforted with the full assurance that I shall,
   indeed, be glorifying My Father even when I die upon the Cross of
   Calvary."

   31. Now is the judgment of this world. This is a wonderful sentence--as
   if, in Christ's death, the world was judged and condemned! And so it
   was. Nothing ever so convicted the world of high treason against God as
   when men said of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's well-beloved Son, "This
   is the Heir. Come, let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be ours."
   The shedding of the blood of Christ upon the Cross is the crimson
   evidence of the deep transgression of human nature! "Now is the
   judgment of this world." There is another rendering of this text,
   retaining the Greek word, "Now is the crisis of this world." [See
   Sermon No. 2338, Volume 39--THE CRISIS OF THIS WORLD.]

   31. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out Thank God for that!
   His throne was shaken to its fall when Christ died on Calvary. All the
   powers of darkness suffered eternal defeat in the hour that men and
   devils fancied they had gained the victory.

   32, 33. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
   Me. This He said, signifying what death He should die. Yet they did not
   understand it, even then, clear as it now appears to us that He spoke
   concerning His lifting up upon the Cross.

   34-36. The people answered Him, We have heard out of the Law that
   Christ abides forever: and how say You, The Son of Man must be lifted
   up? Who is this Son of Man? Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little
   while is the light with you.

   Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that
   walks in darkness knows not where he goes. While you have light,
   believe in the light, that you may be the children of light These
   things spoke Jesus, and departed,

   and did hide Himself from them
     __________________________________________________________________

Fifteen Years After!

   (No. 3025)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY FIRST, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   FEBRUARY 11, 1869.

   "Thee LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of
   the LORD." Job 1:21.

   [This title has been selected in order to call special attention to the
   fact that the Sermon is published exactly 15 years after the beloved
   preacher was "called Home" on January 31st, 1892. The subject is as
   singularly appropriate to the anniversary of that never-to-be-forgotten
   period as the Sermons which were issued at the time of Mr. Spurgeon's
   death and funeral--Sermons No. 2242, (All Volume 38)--GOD'S WILL ABOUT
   THE FUTURE; No. 2243, HIS OWN FUNERAL SERMON; No. 2244, MEMBERS OF
   CHRIST and No. 2245, "LIVING, LOVING, LASTING UNION".]

   OR, as some read it, "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; blessed
   be the name of the Lord." So that the text is not only concerning the
   past, but it may rightly be considered as relating also to the present.
   Some of the rarest pearls have been found in the deepest waters and
   some of the choicest utterances of Believers have come from them when
   God's waves and billows have been made to roll over them. The fire
   consumes nothing but the dross and leaves the gold all the purer. In
   Job's case, I may truly say with regard to his position before God, he
   had lost nothing by all his losses, for what could be purer and
   brighter gold than this which gleams before us from our text, revealing
   his triumphant patience, his complete resignation and his cheerful
   acquiescence in the Divine will? "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes
   away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

   There are two points to which I ask your earnest attention while we
   meditate upon this subject. The first is the exhortation drawn from the
   text--learn to see the Lord's hand in everything--in giving and in
   taking. And, secondly--and this is a harder lesson--learn to bless the
   Lord's name in everything--in giving and in taking.

   I. First, LET US LEARN TO SEE THE LORD'S HAND IN EVERYTHING.

   Our whole history seems to be divided, as our text divides itself, into
   a beholding of God's hand in giving and then a beholding of it in
   taking.

   We are then, first of all, to behold God's hand as a giving hand. If we
   are Believers, all the comforts and mercies that we have are to be
   viewed by us as coming from the hands of our gracious Heavenly Father.
   Job confessed that the Lord had given him the camels, the sheep, the
   oxen and that the Lord had given him his seven sons and three
   daughters. Everything which he had ever possessed he looked upon as
   having been the gift of God. Job did not say, "I worked hard to obtain
   all that stock that I have now lost." He did not complain, "I spent
   many weary days and many anxious nights in accumulating all those
   flocks and herds that have been stolen from me." He did not ascribe any
   of his wealth either to his own wit, or to his own industry, but he
   said of it all--"The Lord gave it to me." In his mind's eye, he took an
   inventory of all that he once had and of all that he had lost--and he
   said of the whole, "It was all the Lord's gift to me."

   Now, Beloved, whatever may be the possessions which you have at the
   present time. Whatever may be the number of those who are the comfort
   of your life--husband or wife, parents or children, kinsfolk of any
   sort--say of all of them, "The Lord gave them to me." And, as a
   Christian, learn the wisdom of never ascribing any earthly comfort to
   any earthly source. The worldling may not always be able to say what
   Job said concerning his possessions. Some of what he has may not have
   been obtained honestly--the Lord did not give any of that to him. Some
   of what he has may turn out to be a curse rather than a blessing, but
   the Believer in Christ may say with the utmost truthfulness, with
   regard to all that he has, "It is all the gift of my loving and tender
   Heavenly Father."

   And, Brothers and Sisters, there is associated with this fact that all
   our possessions are God's gifts, the remembrance that they are all
   undeserved gifts. They are gifts in the fullest sense of the word--the
   gifts of God's Grace. They are not given to us because we have merited
   them, for we have never deserved even the least of all the mercies
   which the Lord has so bountifully bestowed upon us. We may say of the
   whole river of His favor which continually flows side by side with us
   as we journey along the pathway of our pilgrimage, that there is not a
   drop of it which comes to us of debt or by law, but all comes through
   the free gift of God's Grace! All that we have, over and above what
   would have been our portion in the pit of Hell, is the gift of God's
   mercy towards us. It is of the Lord's mercy and because His compassions
   fail not, that we are not consumed. Every Believer can truly say with
   Job, "'The Lord gave,' yes, the Lord gave even to me, an unworthy one
   who sat as a beggar at His gate and received from His own hand
   countless tokens of His Infinite loving kindness."

   And I may add, with regard to those gifts, that they have been given to
   us with wondrous kindness and thoughtfulnes on Gods part. Some here, I
   think, will have to say that they have found themselves provided for by
   God's forestalling their needs. He has gone before them in the way of
   His Providence and mysteriously cleared a path for them. Before they
   have felt the pinch of poverty, the pinch has been averted. There are
   others of God's servants here who have sometimes been brought very low,
   yet they can bear witness that up to now their bread has always been
   given to them and their waters have been sure. And while God's mercy
   comes to us very sweetly when forestalling our needs, there is equal
   sweetness if it comes when the need has been felt. No food is so
   palatable as that which has hunger for its sauce! To know what it is to
   be poor will make us more grateful if God ever gives us abundance. But
   time would fail me to tell you the love and care of God towards each
   one of us, every day of our lives, and to recount how He not only
   continues but even multiplies His favors. It is impossible for us to
   count them, for they are more in number than the hairs of our head, or
   the sand on the seashore, or the stars in the midnight sky! [See Sermon
   No. 3022, Volume 53--GOD'S INNUMERABLE MERCIES.]

   Now, as everything we have is freely and graciously given to us by God,
   this should make us feel, in the first place, that this Truth sweetens
   all that we have. I daresay there is many a little thing in your house
   that is of no great value in itself, but it was given to you by someone
   who was very dear to you. How much a child values that Bible that was
   given to her by her mother who wrote her name in it! Many a man has, in
   his house, things which an auctioneer would appraise at a very small
   amount, but which the owner prizes very highly because they were given
   to him by someone whom he intimately esteemed and who gave them to him
   as a token of his love. In like manner, look at the bread on the table
   of a Believer as a love token from God. The Lord gave it to him--and if
   there were upon his table nothing but that bread, it would be a token
   of God's gracious condescension in providing for his needs! Let us
   learn to look thus at everything that we receive in this life, for such
   a view of it will sweeten it all. We shall not then begin to calculate
   whether we have as much as others have, or as much as our own whims or
   wishes might crave, but we shall recognize that all we have comes from
   the hand and heart of our Heavenly Father--and that it all comes to us
   as a token of our Father's love and with our Father's blessing resting
   upon it!

   This fact should also prevent any Believer from acting dishonestly in
   his daily avocations, or even from wishing to obtain anything that is
   not his own by right. All of you who belong to God have what God has
   given you--so mind that you do not mix with it anything that the devil
   has given you! Do not go into any worldly enterprise and seek to gain
   something concerning which you could not say, "The Lord my God gave it
   to me." Men of the world will engage in such transactions and they will
   say that you are not as sharp as you might be because you will not do
   the same. But you have a good reason for refusing to gain even a
   shilling upon which you cannot ask God's blessing. A sovereign,
   dishonestly procured, though it might gladden your eyes for a little
   while and help to fill your purse, would certainly bring a curse with
   it--and you do not want that. You would not like to have to confess to
   yourself, concerning anything you possessed, "I dare not tell my
   Heavenly Father how I got it, though He knows. And I dare not ask His
   blessing upon it, nor do I think He would ever give it to me. He will
   probably turn it into a rod and sharply scourge me for having dared to
   use such unholy means to get what I ought not to have even wished to
   possess." Some of God's people might have been very happy if they had
   not been greedy and grasping. He that hurries to be rich will soon find
   that he will fall into many snares and abundant temptations. It is an
   evil thing when people cannot be content although they have enough for
   all their necessities, for even the world's proverb says that, "enough
   is as good as a feast." Yet many stretch out their arms,

   like wide-encircling seas, and try to grasp in them all the shore! Such
   people, sooner or later, begin to rob others right and left, and very
   many of them come down to poverty and the Bankruptcy Court, disgraced
   and dishonored. Let it not be so with you, Beloved, but be content with
   such things as you have, whether God gives you little or much and,
   above all things, pray that you may have nothing but what He gives you,
   nothing in your house or shop but what comes in at the front door in
   the light of day, nothing but what may be seen coming in if any eyes
   should be watching. That man is truly happy who can say of all his
   substances, be it little or be it much, "The Lord gave it to me."

   Further, as it is the Lord who gives us all the wealth that we possess,
   how very foolish are those people who are proud of possessing a little
   more of this worlds wealth than others have! There are some who seem to
   be thoroughly intoxicated by the possession of a larger income than
   their neighbors enjoy. They even seem to fancy that they were made of
   better material than was used in the creation of ordinary mortals. Did
   not a broad grin appear on the faces of many aristocrats when someone
   said, in Parliament, that we were all made of the same flesh and blood?
   Of course all those who were in their right senses knew that it was
   true--but insanity in high places seemed to be moved to utter contempt
   at the bare mention of such a thing! When a man is poor, unless he has
   brought his poverty upon himself by extravagance, or idleness, or his
   own wrongdoing, the man is a man for all that, and none the worse man
   for being poor! Indeed, some of the best of men have been as poor as
   their Lord was. I have known many who have been very poor, yes, who
   have been the excellent of the earth, in whom a true saint of God might
   well take delight! There always will be various ranks and conditions
   among man and there is a certain respect which is due from one to
   another which should never be withheld where it is rightly due, but, at
   the same time, whenever a man begins to say that because God has given
   him more than He has given to another, therefore he will despise his
   poorer brother and look down upon him, it must be dishonoring and
   displeasing to God and it is extremely likely that He will turn round
   and make the proud man bite the dust! How often those who have held
   their heads so very high have been rolled in the mud--and how easily
   that might be made to come to pass with others!

   A further inference arising out of this Truth that God gives us all
   that we have, is that it ought never to be dificult for us to give back
   to God as much as we can. As He has given us all that we have, it is
   but right that we should use it to His Glory and if, under the rule of
   His Grace, and under the Gospel, He does not so much claim a return
   from us as a matter of right, but leaves our liberality to be awakened
   by the love which constrains us, rather than by the Law which compels
   us, yet let us not give God less because He gives us more! Under the
   Mosaic dispensation, the Jew gave his tenth by compulsion, but let us
   willingly give to God more than that and not need to be forced to do it
   except by the sweet constraint of love. Do I owe every penny that I
   have in this world to the bounty of God's hand? Then, when God's cause
   and God's poor are in need, let no one have to beg of me to give to
   them! I always feel ashamed when I hear people say that we are "begging
   for God's cause." God's cause has no need to be a beggar from those who
   would be beggars if it were not for God's Grace! Oh, no, no! It must
   never be so! We ought to be like the children of Israel in the
   wilderness who gave so generously towards the building and furnishing
   of the Tabernacle that Moses had to restrain their liberality, for they
   had already given "much more than enough for the service of the work
   which the Lord commanded to make." Let us try to imitate the liberality
   which God has manifested toward us in the gift of His well-beloved Son
   and in all the Covenant blessings which come to us through Him. All
   those who have received so much from God should count it their
   privilege and delight to give back to Him all that they can!

   These reflections might suffice for this part of the subject, but I
   shall add one more. "The Lord gave"--then we must worship the Giver and
   not His gifts. How can we so degrade ourselves as to worship that which
   God has given to us? Yet you know that many make idols of their gold,
   their lands, their husbands, their wives, their children, or their
   friends! It is no unusual thing for a little child to be the god of the
   family--and wherever that is the case, there is a rod laid up in store
   in that house. You cannot make idols of your children without finding
   out, sooner or later, that God makes them into rods with which He will
   punish you for your idolatry! "Little children, keep yourselves from
   idols," was the injunction of the loving Apostle John. And he wrote
   thus in love because he knew that if God sees us making idols of
   anything, He will either break our idols or break us. If we really are
   His people, He will, in some way or other, wean us from our idols, for
   He wants our love to be given wholly to Himself. So it is best for us
   to keep the creature in its right place and never to let the joys or
   comforts of this life usurp God's rightful position in our hearts! God
   has been pleased so to fashion the world that it should always be under
   our feet and, as Christians, we should always keep it there. The
   dearest thing we have on earth should always be estimated by us at its
   proper value as a gift from God but as nothing more than that--and
   never be allowed to occupy our heart's throne which should always be
   reserved for the Lord alone.

   But now we are to think, for a while, of the Lord's hand taking away
   from us as well as giving to us. Job said, "The Lord gave, and the Lord
   has taken away." Some of you have come to this service very sad and
   heavy of heart because that dear child of yours is dead. Well, I do not
   blame you for sorrowing over your loss, but I pray you also to remember
   that it is the Lord who has taken your child away from you. You say
   that it was the fever that took away your dear one--and perhaps that
   was the immediate cause of your child's death--but if you can realize
   that the fever was only the instrument in God's hands to remove the
   dear little one from your care to His own, surely you will dry your
   tears. And as for that substance of yours, which has almost melted away
   under the fiery trial to which it has been subjected, so that poverty
   seems, now, to stare you in the face, you will be able to bear even
   that when you remember that it is the Lord's hand that has taken away
   what His hand had first given!

   As long as we look at the secondary causes of our trouble, we see
   reasons for sorrow. But when our faith can pierce the veil and see the
   Great First Cause, then our comfort begins! If you strike a dog with a
   stick, he will try to bite the stick because he is a dog. But if he
   knew better, he would try to bite you--not the stick! Yet that is the
   way that we often act with the troubles that come to us--we fly at the
   second causes and so are angry and petulant with them! But if we would
   always remember that it is God who takes away, as well as God who
   gives--that He is at the back of all our trials and troubles--that His
   hand weighs out our shame of grief and measures our portion of
   pain--then we would not dare to rebel and bewail, but, like David, we
   would say, "I was dumb. I opened not my mouth because You did it." Even
   if we could not get up higher, and say with Job, "The Lord gives, and
   the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

   Further, when once we know that God has done anything, that fact
   forbids any question concerning it I t must be right because He did it.
   I may not be able to tell why, but God knows why He did it. He may not
   tell me the reason, but He has a reason, for the Lord never acted
   unreasonably. There never was any action of His, however sovereign or
   autocratic it might appear to be, but was done "after the counsel of
   His own will." Infinite Wisdom dictates what absolute Sovereignty
   decrees. God is never arbitrary, or tyrannical. He does as He wills,
   but He always wills to do that which is not only most for His own
   glory, but also most for our real good. How dare we question anything
   that God does!

   My dear Sister, rest assured that it is better that you should be a
   widow and seek to glorify God in your widowhood. My dear young Friend,
   believe that it is better that you should be an orphan--otherwise God
   would not have taken away your parents. It is better that you, dear
   Friends, should lose your eyes. It is better that you should be poor,
   or diseased, or else the Lord would not let you be so, for, "no good
   thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." If health and
   wealth were good things for you, God would let you have them. If it
   were a good thing for saints to never die, they would never die. If it
   were a good thing for them to go to Heaven at once, they would go there
   at once. If you are walking uprightly, you may know that you have all
   things, which, all things considered, would be good for you. Some
   things which might be good in themselves, or good for others, might not
   be good for you and, therefore, the Lord, in love, withholds them from
   you. But, whatever He gives, or takes away, or withholds, raise no
   questions concerning it, but let it be sufficient for you that the Lord
   has done it!

   Besides, when we know that the Lord takes away our possessions, the
   knowledge that they are His effectually prevents us from complaining.
   Suppose you are a steward to a certain nobleman and that his lordship
   has been pleased to entrust you with ten thousand pounds of his money?
   By-and-by he withdraws it from your charge and invests it somewhere
   else. Well, it never was your money--you might have complained if it
   had been. But you are only a steward and if your lord pleases to
   withdraw his own money, are you going to be out of temper with your
   master because he does what he wills with his own? Suppose you have a
   banker--and we are, as it were, the Lord's bankers--and suppose that a
   week or two ago you paid into the bank a thousand pounds, or more, and
   the clerks or those in authority were pleased to take charge of your
   money. But suppose that you went to the bank, today, and drew it all
   out? They did not get angry with you, did they? You would not like to
   trust a banker who was only civil to you when you were paying in money!
   And if we are God's bankers, He sometimes puts His treasure into our
   keeping and sometimes takes it out--but it is not our treasure any more
   than our money is the banker's when we entrust it to his care! It is on
   deposit with us and we ought to be paying God good interest upon it!
   Whatever God has given to us, He never gave it as our own freehold. It
   was always

   on a lease--a lease, too, that had to be renewed every moment, for if
   God chose to cancel it, He could do so whenever He pleased. How dare
   we, then, complain?

   To use another figure, our position is like that of a nurse into whose
   care a mother placed her baby and the nurse dandled the child, and was
   glad to have charge of it. But when she had to return it to its mother,
   she cried over the loss of the little darling! Yet it was not the
   nurse' s child, given to her to keep--it was only hers to nurse. So it
   was with your children whom God has taken Home to Himself--they were
   not yours to keep. The Lord put each one of them, for a while, into
   your charge and said to you, "Christian mother, take this child and
   nurse it for Me, and I will pay you your wages." So, when He called the
   child back to Himself, why should you complain as though He had wronged
   you? Or, to use another illustration, which has been frequently
   employed in this connection--a gardener had been especially careful in
   tending one particular rose which was very fair to look upon. But, when
   he went, one morning, to his favorite rosebush, he found that the
   flower of which he had taken such care, was gone! He was very vexed,
   for he thought that some bad boy had stolen into the garden and taken
   away his best flower. He was complaining very bitterly of his loss when
   someone said, "The master has been down in the garden this morning, and
   he has been admiring this rosebush, and he has taken away that fine bud
   of which you were so proud." Then the gardener was delighted that he
   had been able to grow a flower that had attracted his master's notice
   and, instead of mourning any longer, he began to rejoice! So should it
   be with anything upon which we have set our hearts! Let each one of us
   say to our Master, "My Lord, if it pleases You to take it, it pleases
   me to lose it! Why should I complain because You have taken from me
   what is really Your own?--

   'If You should call me to resign What most Iprize--it never was nine! I
   only yield You what was Yours-- Your will be done!'"

   II. The second part of my discourse must be briefer than the first
   part, yet it is equally important. It is this, LEARN TO BLESS THE
   LORD'S NAME IN EVERYTHING. Learn to ring the bells of His praise all
   day long and, for that matter, all night long, too!

   First, bless the name of the Lord when He reveals His hand in giving.'
   'Ah," you say, "that is an easy thing to do." So it ought to be, my
   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, and it is a neglect of our duty when we
   do not do it. We come down to our breakfast in the morning rejoicing in
   health and strength, and we go out to our day's engagements but, I hope
   not without thankfulness that we are in health and that we have food to
   eat, and raiment to put on! We are out all day and things prosper with
   us, but I trust that we do not accept all this as a matter of
   course--but that we praise the Lord for it all day long--and then when
   we go home again at night, and God is still with us, I hope we do not
   fall asleep before we again praise Him. John Bunyan used to say that
   the very chickens shame us if we are ungrateful, for they do not take a
   drink of water without lifting up their heads, as if in thankfulness,
   for the refreshing draught. If we, who are the Lord's children, do not
   bless Him for the mercies which so constantly come to us from Him, we
   are, of all people, the most ungrateful! Oh, for a grateful frame of
   mind, for I am sure that is a happy frame of mind. Those who are
   determined to murmur and to complain of God's dealings with them, are
   sure to find plenty of things to complain of--while those who are of a
   thankful spirit will see reasons and occasions for gratitude in
   everything that happens!

   Do you remember a touching story, told some years ago, of a poor mother
   with her two little fatherless children? On a cold winter's night they
   discovered an empty house into which they went for shelter. There was
   an old door standing by itself, and the mother took it, placed it
   across a corner of the room, and told the children to creep behind it
   so as to get a little protection from the cold wind. One of the
   children said, "Oh Mother, what will those poor children do that
   haven't got any door to set up to keep out the wind?" That child was
   grateful even for such a poor shelter as that! Yet there are some who
   have thousands of greater blessings than that, and yet do not see God's
   hand in them--and do not praise Him for them. If that has been the case
   with any of us, let us turn over a new leaf and ask God to rule it with
   music lines and then let us put on them notes of thanksgiving, and say
   to the Lord, with David, "Every day will I bless You; and I will praise
   Your name forever and ever." Or say with one of our old poets--

   "My God, I'll praise You while I live, And praise You when I die, And
   praise You when I rise again,

   And to eternity."

   Praising God is one of the best ways of keeping away murmuring!
   Praising God is like paying a peppercorn rent for our occupation of our
   earthly tenement. [See Sermon No. 3021, Volume 53--LANDLORD AND
   TENANT.] When the rent is not paid, the owners generally turn the
   tenants out--and God might well do so with us if He were like earthly
   landlords. If we are not grateful to Him for all the bounties which we
   constantly receive from Him, He may make the stream stop--and then what
   would we do? Ungrateful mind, beware of this great danger! Thankfulness
   is one of the easiest virtues for anyone to practice and certainly it
   is one of the cheapest! So let all Christians especially comply with
   the Apostolic injunction, "Be you thankful." It is a soul-enriching
   thing to be thankful. I am sure that a Christian, with gratitude for a
   small income, is really richer than the man who lives a graceless life
   and is plentifully endowed with worldly wealth. David spoke truly when
   he said, "A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches
   of many wicked." So, let others do as they will, we say, "Give us,
   Lord, whatever You will, whether it is little or much, so long as You
   give with it the light of Your Countenance, our souls shall be
   abundantly content!"

   Thus are we to bless the name of the Lord for all that He gives us.

   But, it is a much more difficult thing to bless the name of the Lord
   for what He takes away from us. Yet, difficult as it is, I venture to
   say that many Believers who have forgotten to praise God while He was
   giving to them, have not forgotten to praise Him when He was taking
   away from them! I do not know how thankful Job had been before this
   trying period in his history, but I do know that his trials brought out
   this expression of his thankfulness. It is his first recorded praise to
   God. Some of us need to lie a little while upon a sickbed in order to
   make us thankful for having had good health for so long. And we need to
   be brought low and to have our spirits depressed in order to make us
   grateful that we have had such cheerful spirits and been blessed with
   so many comforts. It is not natural or easy for flesh and blood to
   praise God for what He takes away, yet this painful experience often
   wakes up the gratitude of the Christian and he who forgot to praise the
   Lord, before, makes up for it now!

   Brothers and Sisters, praise is God's due when He takes as well as when
   He gives, for there is as much love in His taking as in His giving! The
   kindness of God is quite as great when He smites us with His rod as
   when He kisses us with the kisses of His mouth. If we could see
   everything as He sees it, we would often perceive that the kindest
   possible thing He can do to us is that which appears to us to be
   unkind. A child came home from the common with her lap full of brightly
   shining berries. She seemed very pleased with what she had found, but
   her father looked frightened when he saw what she had and anxiously
   asked her, "Have you eaten any of those berries?" "No, Father," replied
   the child, to his great relief. And then he said to her, "Come with me
   into the garden." And there he dug a hole, put the berries in, stamped
   on them and crushed them, and then covered them with earth. All this
   while, the little one thought, "How unkind Father is to take away these
   things which pleased me so much!" But she understood the reason for it
   when he told her that the berries were so poisonous that if she had
   eaten even one of them, she would in all probability have died in
   consequence! In like manner, sometimes, our comforts turn to
   poison--especially when we begin to make idols of them--and it is kind
   on the part of God to stamp on them and put them right away from us so
   that no mischief may come to our souls. Surely that child said, "Thank
   you, Father, for what you have done. It was love that made you do it."
   And you, also, Believer, can say, "Thank God for my sickness, for my
   poverty, for that dead child of mine, for my widowhood, for my
   orphanhood--thank God for it all! It would have been ruinous to me to
   have left me unchastened. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but
   now have I kept His Word. Blessed be His name for all that He has done,
   both in giving and in taking away."

   It is a grand thing when we do not judge God' s dealings with us simply
   by the rules of reason. From the first moment when the love of God is
   revealed to us, right on to the hour when we shall be in the Presence
   of the Father in Glory, we may depend upon it that there is Infinite
   Love in every act of God in taking from us, just as much as in giving
   to us! Jesus said to His disciples, "As the Father has loved Me, so
   have I loved you." The Father always loved Jesus with Infinite Love--He
   loved Him as much when He was on the Cross as He did when He was on His
   Throne. And, in like manner, Jesus always loves us with an unchanging
   love--a love which can never fail us. He loves us as much in the
   furnace of affliction as He will love us when we shall be with Him in
   Glory, so let us bless His name whether He gives or takes away! I
   invite every mourning soul here to bless God' s name at this moment.

   "Ah," says one, "I wish I could get a little more happiness to sustain
   me under my many trials." Well, let me just remind you of the poor
   widow woman who went out to gather a few sticks to make a fire, that
   she might bake some cakes for herself and her son. When the Prophet
   Elijah met her, what did he say to her? He told her to make hima little
   cake, first, and afterwards he added, "make for you and for your son.
   For thus says the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not
   waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail until the day that the Lord
   sends rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying
   of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house did eat many days. And the
   barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according
   to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah." Notice that he said
   to the woman, "Make me a little cake first." And God seems to say to
   you, "Praise Me first, and then I will bless you." Say, as Job did a
   little later in his history, "Though He slays me, yet will I trust in
   Him." I believe it marks the turn of the tide, with a saint, when he or
   she can say to the Lord, with good old John Ryland--

   "You, at all times, will I bless!

   Having You, I all possess!

   The sky soon begins to clear when the Christian begins to say, "The
   Lord's will be done." "Not as I will, but as You will." This is a sign
   that the chastisement has had its due effect--the rod will now probably
   be put away. You mourning souls, take down your harps from the willows
   and sound forth at least a note or two to the praise of the Lord your
   God! Praise Him with such notes as these--"Truly God is good to Israel,
   even to such as are of a clean heart...I will not fret myself because
   of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked
   devices to pass...O my God, I believe that all things are working
   together for my good and that You are my gracious Heavenly Father, full
   of compassion and overflowing with love." If you talk like this,
   Christian, and mean what you say, it will be a blessing to you, a
   comfort to others and an honor to your God!

   As I speak thus, I am reminded that these comforting Truths of God
   belong only to true Believers. And as I send you away, I dare not put
   the words of my text into all your mouths, for, alas, some of you
   cannot see our Father's hand in anything that happens to you! You are
   without a parent, except that wicked one of whom Christ said to the
   Jews, "You are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father
   you will do." Yet, remember, you who cannot claim God as your Father,
   that the door of His Grace is not yet shut. He is still willing to
   receive you! If you will come to Him, confessing your sins and seeking
   mercy through the precious blood of Jesus, He is both able and willing
   to give you a new heart and a right spirit--to save you here and
   now--and to adopt you at once into His family! Then will you also be
   able to see His hand both in giving and in taking away--and you will
   also learn to bless His name at all times!

   If God the Lord shall deal thus graciously with you, His shall be the
   praise forever and ever. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Vanity Deprecated

   (No. 3026)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, IN THE
   YEAR 1864.

   "Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken me in Your way."
   Psalm 119:37.

   THERE are divers kinds of vanity. In the play of the frivolous and the
   sport of the idle, we see but one sort of vanity--light, open and
   undisguised. The cap and bells of the fool, the motley of the jester,
   the mirth of the world, the dance, the lyre and the cup of the
   dissolute-- men know these to be vanities--they wear upon their
   forefront their proper name and title. Yet another species of vanity,
   and more deceitful, can be discovered in the cares of this world and
   the deceitfulness of riches. A man may follow vanity as truly in the
   counting-house as in the theater. If he is spending his life in
   amassing wealth, he is heaping vanity to himself quite as much as
   though he openly passed his days in vain show or empty pageant. All the
   fools do not dance or drink. All the fools do not make jests--full many
   there are of somber mood who spend money for that which is not bread,
   and their labor for that which satisfies not!

   Moreover, there is such a thing as solemn vanity--the vanity that may
   be seen among those who observe the empty ceremonials of religion,
   invest themselves with strange garments and affect the odor of
   sanctity. Or, turning from the gorgeous meetings to the lowly
   conventicle, vanity may even be discovered beneath the broad brim of
   the Friend who, seeking after the world rather than after Christ,
   thinks that he rebukes the world's vanity when the world may well
   rebuke his! Vanity, I say, is quite as certainly to be found among the
   sober as among the frivolous. Unless we follow Christ, and make God the
   great Object of our life, we only differ from the most frivolous in
   degree--and possibly the degree may not be as great as we suppose!

   You will all understand my text, as you hear it, to mean, first, "Turn
   away my eyes from looking upon the levities of men, the tomfoolery of
   the world." But it means more than this. "Turn away my eyes from
   looking at the world's pride, at the world's wealth, at the world's
   substantial temptations." These, as the royal preacher has said, are
   vanity. "Vanity of vanities," said Solomon, "all is vanity," as he
   looked at everything beneath the sun! And we may say of everything
   short of Christ, "Turn away my eyes from beholding it, less my heart
   should love it."

   The Psalmist goes on to couple with this another petition--"Quicken me
   in Your way." Beholding vanity is sure to bring deadness into the soul.
   You all know that this is true, not only of that which is frothy, but
   of all that, however specious, is not sterling. If you let the cares of
   this world enter into your mind too much, do they not destroy your
   spirituality? If honor is your game, or even if you are hunting after
   an honest livelihood without casting the care of it upon God, you know
   that your Grace declines, your faith grows weak and your love becomes
   ready to expire. No high degree of Divine Grace can be attained when
   the eyes are fixed upon debasing things. We must have our eyes where we
   profess that our hearts already are--beyond the skies. We must be
   looking for Christ to reveal the exceeding riches of His Grace and
   Glory--not after vanities to display the pleasure of this present evil
   world--or else our souls will soon lose the force and strength of piety
   and we shall have good reason to cry, "Quicken me in Your way."

   Beloved, I hope you all know what the Psalmist means by being quickened
   in God's way. Often your spirits get lethargic and dull when, suddenly,
   the Spirit of God comes upon you and once, more your former vigor
   returns. And, instead of creeping, you begin to run in the way of God's
   Commandments. Pray, then, this prayer as well as the former one,
   "Quicken me in Your way," for, as the looking at vanity will make us
   dull, so our souls being quickened will be sure to turn our eyes away
   from vanity! As the first part of the text acts upon the second, so the
   second will act also upon the first. Put the two together and may they
   be graciously fulfilled in the experience of every one of us!

   To amplify the teaching of the text, I shall now call your attention to
   four things--a tacit confession; a silent profession; a vehement desire
   and a confident hope.

   I. First, then, I observe here A TACIT CONFESSION. It is not stated in
   so many words, but it is really meant.

   The Psalmist seems to impeach himself and unburden his breast before
   God, deploring, indeed, a natural tendency towards vanity. What? Is it
   so, after all, that David has known of fellowship with the world? Does
   the vain still attract him? What? When God' s Covenant has been
   peculiarly delightful to the shepherd-king, do the mirth and revelry of
   this world and the gewgaws of earth still attract him? He seems to
   confess it. He would not need to have his eyes turned off from vanity
   if there were not a something in his heart that went after it! He would
   not ask God to turn them off unless he felt that he needed a stronger
   arm than his own to keep him in fitting restraints! It is very easy for
   you and me to stand up and play the wise man--yes, and in the closet to
   pray like wise men. We may feel, in our own souls, that we have
   experience, now, and shall never again be intoxicated by the world's
   draughts, never more be deceived by its lies. But no sooner does Madam
   Bubble show her face than her strange fascinations draw our eyes! Let
   the world ring the bell and straightway we start up and our heart
   wanders, too often before we are aware of it! We know they are vain
   things-- know it thoroughly--but yet, knowing it, we do not in our own
   nature therefore avoid them! Reckless of the snares, the birds are
   foolish enough to fly into them! Though we know that the draught is
   poisoned, yet is it so sweet that unless prevented by God's Grace, you
   and I would soon be drunk with it! Every child of God knows that he is
   a fool or he is a great fool, indeed, if he does not know it! Every
   heir of Heaven understands that there is within himself a very sink of
   vanities--his vicious tastes respond to the vile compounds of earth as
   "deep calls unto deep." It is clear enough, I think, if you turn over
   the prayer, that the Psalmist confesses that his heart goes after
   vanity.

   He confesses, yet again, that his eyes are on it now. He says, "Turn
   them off." What does he mean but that they are on it? And some of us,
   in coming up to the House of God, tonight, and, perhaps, while sitting
   here, have had to confess that our eyes are on vanity. Why, some of you
   Believers may have been thinking of some silly snatch of a song that
   you heard before you were converted, or some idle tale that was told
   you the other day. You would gladly forget it, but it has followed you
   in here--yes, and may even follow you to the Communion Table. Or,
   possibly, your worldly cares have come up with you and my poor talk has
   scarcely had power to lift you up from your families, from your shops,
   or from all the anxious thoughts that burden you! Your heart is on
   these things now. When you stood up to sing about Christ and asked Him
   to set you as a seal upon His heart, where were your flighty
   imaginations roaming? We tried to pray just now, but while the
   preacher' s words went up to Heaven, did not your hearts wander, I know
   not where?

   The confession assumes another character as it seems to hint that, no
   sooner are our eyes on vanity, than our heart goes after it. What? Can
   we not manage our own eyes? What? Are we such vain creatures that the
   mere sight of vanity is a temptation to us? Surely to see vanity ought
   to be sufficient to make us avoid it! Some men say that they will look
   at evil and, knowing that it is evil, they will be safe from the danger
   of being betrayed by it. Ah, how many have proved the hollowness of
   that pretense? Brothers and Sisters, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and
   Evil has brought little benefit to mankind--it has certainly brought a
   curse! Beware of the hope to be as gods through eating again of that
   tree! We are more likely to be as devils than to be as gods through
   feeding upon it! Oh, no! I know enough of sin without looking at it!
   There is enough knowledge of my sinfulness forced upon me by my daily
   temptations and failures, without my going to this place or to the
   other, that I may look upon sin! Do not tell me that you went into bad
   company just to ascertain its character! Do not tell me, young man,
   that having heard a certain thing condemned, you thought you ought to
   see it for yourself! That will not do! That is not a Believer's desire,
   nor a godly man's wish! He cries, "Turn away my eyes. Lord, let me
   speak to You humbly. Am I so sinful and so weak that I have only to see
   a ditch to fall into it--only to see a fire to put my finger into it? I
   am not like that in other things--how is it that I am so besotted in
   the carnality of my mind? Yet so it is, Lord. You know and Your servant
   feels that it is so." Therefore, let the confession stand, "Turn away
   my eyes from beholding vanity."

   The Psalmist's confession seems to go a little deeper, for he seems to
   say that he cannot keep his own eyes off vanity. "Turn away my eyes."
   What, Lord? Have I not an optic nerve? Is there not a power in my head
   to turn which way it wills? Am I compelled to look at vanity? No, not
   compelled by physical necessity, but still, so compelled by the
   disposition of this vile nature of mine that unless You keep Your hands
   on my head and turn my eyes from beholding vanity, I shall surely be
   looking at it! We will go anywhere to see vanity! It is strange what
   mountains men will climb-- into what depths they will dive--what
   leagues they will travel--what wealth they will spend to see vanity!
   And when

   they have seen all they can see, what does it come to but the sight of
   so much smoke, after all? And yet, Brothers and Sisters, we cannot keep
   our eyes off it! If anybody tells you that there is a lewd or unseemly
   thing, a juggle, or some witchcraft, do you not feel an inward craving,
   an unholy desire to see it? Is not that a well-known principle of human
   nature? There is a little tract, I think, entitled, "Don't Read
   It"--and why, do you think, was it so entitled? Because, whatever tract
   might remain unread, that one is certain to be read! "Don't Read
   It"--the prohibition provokes appetite, and the moment you and I hear,
   "don't," said, inclination begins to be astir! Thank God that this
   morbid propensity is restrained and subdued by Sovereign Grace through
   the love of Jesus! But still, the natural bias is toward evil and only
   toward evil. Therefore, Lord, "Turn away my eyes from beholding
   vanity." The confession goes very deep, you see.

   But there is even more in the next clause. "Quicken me in Your way." He
   seems to confess that he is dull, heavy, lumpy, all but dead. Do not
   you feel the same? I hope you do not, but I often do, and I am afraid
   you often do, even the best of you. And when we think of how fast our
   spirits ought to move along the heavenly road, constrained and moved by
   love like that of Jesus, I think we all must cry--

   "Dear Lord! And shall we always lie

   At this poor dying rate?

   Our love so faint, so cold to You,

   And Yours to us so great?'

   Yes, we are dull if God leaves us for a moment--so dull and so doting
   that the best motives cannot quicken us! Otherwise the Psalmist would
   not have needed to appeal to the Almighty to effect that of which he
   was himself capable. What? Will not the thought of Hell quicken me? Can
   I think of sinners perishing and yet not be awakened? Will not the
   thought of Heaven quicken me? Can I think of the reward that awaits the
   righteous and yet be dull and stupid? Will not the thought of death
   quicken me? Can I think of dying and standing before my God--and yet be
   slothful in my Master's service? Will not Christ's love quicken me? Can
   I think of His dear wounds, can I sit at the foot of His Cross and
   think of Him, and yet not be stirred to something like fervency and
   zeal? Yet it seems that no such consideration can quicken to zeal, but
   that God Himself must do it or else there had been no need to cry,
   "Quicken me." It struck me, as I turned this text over, that it was
   amazing how poverty-stricken the Psalmist felt himself. What does a
   beggar ask for? The poorest beggar that I ever met never asked me, so
   far as I remember, for anything less than a drink of water and a bite
   of bread--but here is a man who does not ask God for anything so little
   as that--he asks for life itself! "Quicken me." The beggar has life--he
   only asks me for means to sustain it. But here is a poor beggar,
   knocking at Mercy's door, who has to ask for life itself! And that
   beggar represents me--represents you--represents, I am sure, every
   Christian who knows himself. You may well ask, every day, for spiritual
   existence! It is not, "Enlarge me, Lord. Enrich me in heavenly things,"
   but, "Oh, do keep me alive! Quicken me, O Lord!" You see that the
   confession thus takes us into the most secret places of man's need. I
   pray God to teach us all so to feel what our true state is that, with
   humble, sincere and devout hearts, we may pray the prayer, "Turn away
   my eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken me in Your way."

   II. The text likewise involves A SILENT PROFESSION. Do you observe it?
   It is not all confession of sin--there is a profession of something.

   There is a profession at least of this, "Lord, I know it is vanity."
   That is something. "O my God, how I bless You that I know the
   hollowness of the world and the plague of my own heart! It was always
   so, but I did not always think so." There are some of you who do not
   think that even worldly amusements are vanity. You love them--there is
   a sweetness and a substance in them to you. Perhaps you are like the
   lady who said to the minister that she loved to go to the play,
   because, first of all, there was the pleasure of thinking of it before
   she went--and then there was the pleasure of being there, then there
   was the pleasure of thinking of it afterwards--and the pleasure of
   telling it to one's friends. "Ah," said the man of God, "and there is
   another pleasure you have forgotten." "What is that, Sir?" asked the
   lady. "It is the pleasure of thinking of it on a dying bed, Madam."
   Small pleasure that! Some of you have never thought of that last
   pleasure and, therefore, the world's vanity is very satisfactory to
   you. I know what a pig would say if he were to talk. As he munched his
   husks, he would say, "I cannot tell what to think of those stupid
   men--they call these husks empty--and throw them away. I think them
   very luscious and substantial." You would, then, attribute the quality
   of the taste to the nature of the beast. It is after the manner of a
   pig and so, sinners say, "We cannot make out why these strict people,
   these Puritans, find fault with worldly amusements--we find them very
   sweet." Yes, but you see that it is only a sinner who says so--it is
   only a sinner who feels so. The true child of God knows that both the
   pleasures of this world and its cares are, alike, vanity!

   I know how some of you have often felt when you were busy. Encumbered
   with many things, more than you could manage, a friend has complimented
   you and said, "I am glad you are getting on so well. Appearances
   bespeak a thriving trade." "Well," you reply, "I think I am. I am
   grateful for business." But, as your friend turned his head, you
   thought to yourself, "Ah, but I should be more grateful if I had more
   Divine Grace, for I feel that much business needs much Grace to balance
   it, or else the more I get, the poorer I shall be." You felt that it
   was vanity unless you could have God's blessing and the Presence of
   Christ with it.

   It is a feature of this profession that, seeing this vanity, you do not
   want to love it and would avoid being ensnared by it. If I say, "Turn
   away my eyes from it," I do, in effect, confess before God that I do
   notlove it. I hope there are many of us here who can say, "Lord, our
   evil heart sometimes goes after it, but we do not really love it--in
   the bottom of our souls there is a hatred of sin so deeply rooted that
   if the loss of our eyes would take away temptation and prevent us from
   sinning, we would thank You to never allow us to see a ray of light,
   again, for sin is so terrible an evil to us that even blindness would
   be a blessing if it enabled us to escape from sin."

   The second clause of the text has in it, likewise, the nature of
   profession--"Quicken me in Your way." The man who can pray thus is
   already in God's ways! He professes that he loves them--that he desires
   to be obedient to God's will and to continue to make greater progress
   in God's ways. What do you say, dear Brothers and Sisters? Some of you
   find the ways of righteousness very rough, yet, would you leave them?
   Some of you are reproached and persecuted for Christ's sake, yet, would
   you like to go back to the ways of sin? The devil has put a horse at
   your door and there is a golden bridle on it--and it ambles so softly!
   "Now mount," he says, "and come back and serve your old master! Nobody
   will laugh at you then! Everyone will call you a good
   fellow--charitable, kind and liberal. Come back," he says, "and I will
   treat you better than before!" Will you mount and ride? "No," the very
   least of us would say if we had the highest offer for the renunciation
   of Christ--we would not leave Him--

   "Go you that boast in all your stores,

   And tell how bright they shine--

   Your heaps of glittering dust are yours,

   But my Redeemer's mine!

   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." No, Lord, I may be weary in Your way,
   but, by Your Grace I will never weary of Your way.

   III. And now, in the third place, there is before us here A VEHEMENT
   DESIRE--how vehement, those only experience who know the bitterness of
   vanity and the disappointment which it brings! How vehement those only
   can describe who know the excellence and sweetness of Divine
   Quickening! The Psalmist breathes his whole soul out in this prayer. He
   seems to plead most vehemently, his body and his soul seem to pray
   together. "Turn away my eyes," says the body. "Quicken me," says the
   soul!

   This is a most reasonable and a most practical desire.

   How reasonable it is! When a Christian is not quickened in God's way,
   he is very uncomfortable. The happiest state of a Christian is the
   holiest state. As there is the most heat nearest the sun, so is there
   the most happiness nearest to Christ. I am persuaded that no Christian
   ever finds any comfort when his eyes are fixed on vanity--no, that he
   never finds any satisfaction unless his soul is quickened in the ways
   of God. The world may find happiness elsewhere, but he cannot. I do not
   blame ungodly men for going to their pleasures. Why should I blame
   them? Let them have their fill-- that is all they have to enjoy. I
   heard of a converted wife who despaired of her husband's salvation, but
   she used to be always very kind to him. She said, "I am afraid he will
   never be converted." But whatever he wished for, she always got for
   him, and she would do anything for him, "for," she said, "I fear that
   this is the only world in which he will be happy and, therefore, I have
   made up my mind to make him as happy as I can in it." But you
   Christians must seek your delights in a higher sphere because you
   cannot be happy in the insipid frivolities of the world, or in the
   sinful enjoyments of it!

   Besides being uncomfortable, it is very dangerous. A Christian is
   always in danger when he is looking after vanity. We heard of a
   philosopher who looked up to the stars and fell into a pit. But if they
   fall deeply who look up, how deeply

   do they fall who look down! No Christian is ever safe when his soul is
   so slothful or drowsy that it needs quickening. Of course you do not
   understand me to mean that his soul is in danger of being lost. Every
   Christian is always safe as to the great matter of his standing in
   Christ, but he is not safe as regards to his standing and happiness in
   this life. Satan does not often attack a Christian who is living near
   to God--at least, I think not. It is when the Christian gets away from
   God and gets half-starved and begins to feed on vanities, that the
   devil says, "Now I will have him!" He may sometimes stand foot to foot
   with the child of God who is active in his Master's service, but the
   battle is generally short. He that slips as he goes down into the
   Valley of Humiliation invites Apollyon to come and fight with him!

   Again, for a Christian to have his eyes fixed on vanity is injurious to
   his usefulness. No, more--it does positive damage to others. When a
   Christian is found setting his affection upon worldly things, what do
   worldlings say? "Why, he is one of our own kith and kin! He is just
   like us! See, he loves what we love, where is the difference between us
   and him?" Thus the cause of Christ gets serious injury. How can you, my
   dear Brother, from the pulpit, for instance, preach concerning a
   certain sin when you are, yourself, guilty of it? I should like, for
   instance, to hear a man who swears that Baptism regenerates when he
   knows it does not, rebuke a countess for saying that she is "not at
   home" when she is! I should like to hear him rebuke a draper for "a
   white lie" across the counter. I should like to hear him rebuke the
   devil, for, I think he could scarcely venture to do it! Unfaithfulness
   to the Spirit of God is as great a sin as ever Satan committed! No, my
   Brothers and Sisters, we must keep ourselves clear of these sins, or
   else, for practical purposes, the tendon of Achilles has been cut and
   we cannot serve God with might and main! We can only do some trifling
   service for Him when our garments are spotted and our souls are set on
   vanity.

   For all these reasons, then, let the Christian pray this reasonable
   prayer that he may be kept from vanity.

   Did I say that this is a very practical prayer? So, in truth, it is.
   You will observe that the former pain is practical, though the latter
   may seem spiritual. The Psalmist says, "Turn away my eyes." Now, the
   man who prays after this fashion will not fail in the directness of his
   aim. He who is diligent in praying this prayer will not be negligent in
   his life. He will not pray, "Turn away my eyes from vanity," and then
   go and drink death-draughts of carnal pleasures. He will not pray,
   "Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity," and then go and turn his
   eyes on the very evil that he deprecated! No, Brothers and Sisters,
   there is something so practical in the text that I commend it to your
   earnest observation. Make it your prayer tonight, each one of you!

   IV. Lastly, there is in the text an expression of CONFIDENT HOPE.

   The Psalmist does not pray like a waverer who will receive nothing of
   the Lord. It seems to me that he has an unmoved confidence that God
   will turn his eyes away from vanity and that God can quicken him. Have
   any of you backslidden? Let this sentence comfort you tonight! Do not
   lose the belief that Divine Love can restore you. Have you sunk very
   low? Do not, I pray you, doubt the efficacy of the right hand of the
   Most High to bring you back again! Satan will get a great advantage
   over you if you begin to think that God cannot quicken you. No, be
   assured that He can. And let me tell you that He can do so readily. It
   may cost you many pains, but it will cost Him none. He the made the
   world out of nothing can certainly restore to you the joy which you
   have lost!

   And may I tell you what I think is the means which God often uses with
   his people to restore and quicken them, and take their eyes from
   vanity? I think it is a sight of Christ! At any rate, my personal
   witness is that I never know the vanity of this world so well as when I
   see the beauties and the perfections of the Lord, my Master. That true
   man of God, Dr. Hawker--I am told by a friend of mine who visited him
   one morning--was asked to go and see a military review that was then
   taking place at Plymouth. The doctor said, "No." My friend pressed him
   and said, "I know you are a loyal subject and you like to see your
   country's fleets--it is a noble spectacle." The doctor said, no, he
   could not go and, being pressed until he was ashamed, he made this
   remarkable answer, "There are times when I could go and enjoy it, but
   my eyes have seen the King in His beauty this morning, and I have had
   so sweet a sense of fellowship with the Lord Jesus that I dare not go
   to look upon any spectacle lest I should lose the present enjoyment
   which now engrosses my soul." I think you and I will have felt the same
   thing, in our measure, when Christ has manifested Himself to us. What?
   Look on vanity, my Lord, when Your pierced hand has touched my heart?
   What are the grandest buildings of this world, with all their pomp of
   architecture, compared with You, You Great Foundation Stone, you Chief
   Cornerstone, elect and precious? What is the music of this world, with
   all its swell and roll, compared with Your name, Immanuel, God With
   Us--

   "Sweeter sounds than music knows Charm me in Immanuel's name-- All her
   hopes my spirit owes

   To His birth, and Cross, and shame."

   What are the world's feasts compared with You, O Christ? Its dainties
   are not sweet, for I have tasted of Your flesh. Its wines are no longer
   luscious, for I have sipped from the cup of Your blood. What are the
   world's choicest offers that she can make me of honor or of wealth?
   Have You not raised me up and made me to sit together in heavenly
   places with Yourself, and have You not made me a king and a priest unto
   God and shall I not reign with You forever and ever? Christian, you may
   carry on such musing as this by the hour together! You may boast
   yourself in God and your leviathan faith may swim in this boundless
   deep of Jesus' love! You surely, after this, can never wish to go back
   to the pool wherein the minnow of this world disports itself. Here you
   can bask yourself in the rays of a meridian sun--and will you
   afterwards cry for a farthing candle because you have lost its beams?

   Shame on you, Christian, if your soul is taken up with vanities! Let
   those love them find their all in them, but you cannot! The sight of
   Him who is white as the lily for perfection and red as the rose for
   sacrificial suffering must have taken away the beauty of this world for
   us! Says Rutherford, "Ever since I ate the Bread of Heaven, the brown
   bread of this world has not been to my palate. And since I have feasted
   on the food of angels, I cannot eat the ashes that satisfy the men
   whose portion is in this life." And truly it is so! Arise, Sun of
   Righteousness, and our love of darkness shall be dispelled while we are
   charmed with Your light! We hear of some who worship the sun at its
   rising--that is sad idolatry--but rise, Sun of Righteousness, and we
   will worship You and there shall be no idolatry in that! You are not
   like the sun that burns out human eyes when they look upon it. We will
   look into Your face until Your transporting light shall only burn out
   our sight for this world--to help us to gaze upon Yourself without a
   veil between.

   Oh, that I were talking thus for you all, but I am conscious that I am
   not. I do pray, however, that you who love vanity may find out how vain
   it is before you come to die. The other night I lay awake and tossed to
   and fro many hours before I fell asleep. I realized then, more than at
   any other time in my life, what it was to die. My every bone seemed to
   tremble. I lay, as I thought, upon a bed of sickness--the room seemed
   hushed around me. The ticking of my clock sounded like the ticking of
   the death-watch. I thought I heard them whisper, "He must die." And
   then my soul seemed to fling itself back upon the realities of God in
   Christ and I asked myself, "Have I preached or have I prayed for this?
   But now is Christ able to save me. He is my only hope and my only plea.
   Is it true that Christ came into the world to save sinners?" And I
   recalled those cogent and blessed arguments which prove that Christ is
   the Sent One of God and my soul rejoiced that it could die in peace!
   And then I could but think of that sweet rest which Jesus brings when
   you can throw yourself on Him.

   And now, tonight, in the recollection of that strange vision of the
   shadow of death through which I passed, I can but ask others, "What
   will you do when you really come to die, if you have no Savior?" Men
   and women, if you have no Christ to trust to, what will you do? You
   must soon have the death-sweat wiped from your clammy brows. You must
   soon have the needed drop of water administered to your parched lips.
   What will you do when Death shakes the bones within the strong man and
   makes each nerve thrill with the dread music of pain? What will you do
   when death, and Hell, and judgment, and eternity, and the Great White
   Throne have become real things to you and your business, and even your
   children and your wife seem banished from your eyes? Let a brother's
   love beseech you to flee from the wrath to come and to fly to Christ
   for salvation! God knows how I love your soul! It is for the sake of
   men's souls that I suffer contempt and scorn and will gladly bear
   it--yes, and will provoke it more than I have ever done--provoke it
   because this dull, dead age needs provocation--needs to be stirred up!
   Even its ministers need to be stirred up to something like honesty and
   zeal for the souls of men! I say that I will gladly bear reproach for
   your souls' sake--will not you?

   Oh, will not you be persuaded to think on those things that make for
   your eternal peace? The gates of Heaven are up there! The gates of Hell
   are down yonder! The Cross of Christ points you to Heaven--follow its
   guidance! Look to the wounds of Jesus! These are the gates of pearl
   through which you must enter Heaven. But if you will turn to your
   vanities and to your sins and follow them--and delight yourself in
   worldly pleasures--then Hell is your portion as surely as you sin! May
   the Lord give faith to those who have none and help us who have
   believed through Grace, to walk in His ways--and unto His name shall be
   the Glory, world without, end! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 119:81-88.

   Verse 81. My soul faints for Your salvation: but I hope in Your word.
   The Psalmist was so full of longing, hungering, thirsting, for God's
   salvation that he had come even to faintness through the strength of
   his desire. Yet, in his faintness, he was not too far gone to hope--and
   we, also, have good ground for hoping and believing that God, who gave
   us His Word, will stand to it, for He is both able and willing to
   fulfill all that He has promised!

   82. My eyes fail from searching Your word, saying, When will You
   comfort me?He looked out for a message from God as the watchers of the
   night looked for the breaking of the morning. His eyes ached to behold
   the comforts of his God. Oh, blessed state of strong desire! I pray God
   that we may all experience it!

   83. For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget
   Your statutes. When an empty skin bottle was hung up in one of the
   smoky dwellings of the East, it became withered, cracked, useless. And
   the Psalmist says, "'I am become like a bottle in the smoke,'--I seem
   to be good for nothing, withered, dried up--'yet do I not forget Your
   statutes.'" A good memory is one of the best of things for us to
   possess, but a good memory for that which is good is better still.

   84. Howmany are the days of Your servant? When will You execute
   judgment on them that persecute me?"I am not going to live here
   forever, Lord. Let me not have to wait to be vindicated until I am in
   my grave. O my God, hasten the day of my deliverance!"

   85. 86. The proud have dug pits for me, which are not after Your Law.
   All Your commandments are faithful: they persecute me wrongfully; help
   You me. God's Word is all true--the longer we test and try it, the more
   shall we find it to be worthy of our fullest confidence. Those who
   doubt its Truth have never really proved its power. Those who mistrust
   it in any degree are as yet like inexperienced mariners who are
   constantly doubting and fearing what is going to happen. But those who
   have long done business on the great waters of the ocean of Divine
   Inspiration and who have seen the wonders of the Lord there, will tell
   you that though Heaven and earth shall pass away, God s Word shall
   endure forever! We have seen a thousand things in the course of our
   earthly pilgrimage, but there is one thing that we have never seen, and
   that we never shall see, namely, God proving unfaithful to His promise
   and deserting His people in their time of need!

   What a short yet comprehensive prayer the Psalmist prayed when he
   uttered those three words, "Help You me!" "' Help You me --that I may
   never be frightened by those who wrongfully persecute me--that I may
   never do anything to deserve their persecution--that I may be able to
   behave myself wisely while they are plotting against me." If you are in
   business, write this prayer on your shops, your offices, and your
   ledgers! If you are sick, have this petition hanging before your eyes,
   that you may be constantly reminded to cry to the Lord, "Help You me."

   87. They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not Your
   precepts. Therefore his enemies could not consume him. As long as the
   Believer holds fast to God s precepts, he is indigestible even to the
   old dragon, himself! And no adversary shall ever be able to devour him
   as long as the Word of God is in his heart!

   88. Quicken me after Your loving kindness; so shall I keep the
   testimony of Your mouth "Give me more true spiritual life, inspirit me,
   revive me, 'quicken me.' At this very moment, good Lord, if I am cold,
   and half frozen, and almost dead, yet since I am like the trees whose
   life is in them even when they have lost their leaves, give me a new
   springtime--'Quicken me after Your loving kindness .'" We all need this
   quickening if we are to hold on and hold out to the end and, blessed be
   the name of the Lord--

   "New supplies each hour we meet While pressing on to God."
     __________________________________________________________________

God's Time for Comforting

   (No. 3027)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
   21, 1867.

   "My eyes fail from searching Your Word, saying, When will You comfort
   me?" Psalm 119:82.

   DAVID, in his troubles, knew where to turn for consolation--and that is
   no small piece of wisdom. When a man is ill, he may not know to which
   physician he had better send, but if he knows of one who has had much
   experience with the disease from which he is suffering, he sends for
   him at once if he is a wise patient. David knew that the best place for
   a true Believer to find consolation was in God's Word, so he did not
   look in a thousand places, but his eyes were turned to God's Word--and
   though he did not immediately find the comfort that he sought, yet he
   continued to look even till his eyes seemed to fail him, till they
   ached with looking, till they wearied with watching, till his
   disappointed expectation made his heart sick! Yet the idea never
   entered into his mind that he had better knock at another door, or seek
   another friend, or try another fountain! He still continued in the
   attitude of expectancy and desire, his eyes still searching the Word of
   God to find the comfort that he so greatly needed.

   Christian, learn this piece of heavenly wisdom from the Psalmist's
   experience--there is no other comfort for you beneath the skies like
   that with which the Word of the Lord will furnish you. If God's
   promises cannot comfort you, rest assured that no speech from the lips
   of man can do it. If your God shall not yield you the consolation that
   you need, you will go in vain to the giddy world and its pleasures and
   follies in the hope of finding it. If that overflowing well could ever
   dry up, you would indeed be the subject of despair. Resolve in your
   mind never to expect any good thing apart from God. Say with Toplady--

   "I will not be comforted Till Jesus comforts me."

   Refuse all consolation but that which comes from the Most High, for it
   will be fictitious, delusive, dangerous, perhaps fatal--but cling to
   your God whatever happens! Though He smite you, still cling to Him.
   Though He slay you, still trust Him. If His Word should seem to be like
   thunder and lightning to you, though every page of it should seem to
   bristle as with bayonets and not a single thought of consolation should
   be found in a thousand verses, yet still cling to your father's Bible,
   hold fast to the good old Book which made glad your mother's heart,
   for, before long, comfort shall shine forth from it upon you like the
   sun in the fullness of its strength--and the day shall break and the
   shadows flee away. Go not elsewhere to look for consolation! Seek out
   no strange doctrines! Weary not yourself in searching for other
   comfort, but let your eyes, even if they fail, still look to the Word
   of God for the consolation that your soul needs!

   David, however, besides looking to the Book of the Lord, looked to the
   Lord of the Book, saying, "When will You comfort me?" He did not expect
   the Word in itself to be a sufficient consolation to him, so he looked
   to the Word as applied by God, the Holy Spirit, the Word as spoken over
   again by the mouth of God into the silent soul of the waiting Believer.
   Paul tells us that "the letter kills, but the spirit gives life." And
   the Psalmist so far anticipates that Truth of God as to cry to the
   Lord, "When will You comfort me?"

   Christian, I again exhort you to imitate the Psalmist's example by
   going to your God for comfort. You are still far too apt to lean upon
   an arm of flesh, but have you not yet learned what disappointments are
   always to be met with there? Will you still go to the broken cisterns
   that can hold no water when they have already only mocked your thirst?
   When will you give up running to your neighbors and going to your
   brother's house in the day of your adversity? You will do far better if
   you will go to your Father's house and to your Elder Brother! Even our
   common proverb says, "Straightforward makes the best runner," so, run
   straight to your God! Do not beat around the bush in the hope of
   getting at God through second causes, but go to the great Fountainhead
   of all consolation at once. Depend upon it, that

   the more absolutely you hang upon the bare arm of God, the better will
   it be for you and the more will you learn to live independently of
   those poor creatures of earth whose breath is in their nostrils! The
   more you depend upon the great, invisible, Omnipotent, eternal Jehovah,
   the stronger and happier will you become! Then shall your head be
   lifted high above your enemies and you shall sing praises unto God for
   very gladness of heart.

   Troubled ones, I urge you to resolve that if you cannot have comfort
   from God, at any rate you will not have it from the devil--determine
   that if you cannot do business with Heaven, you will not trade with
   Hell! And say that you would rather live in a dungeon with God than
   dwell in tents of ease with Satan. If your life must always be one of
   sorrow, be content that it shall be so if the Lord so wills it, but be
   resolved that you never will dally with sin or Satan for the sake of
   any present consolation. You cannot afford to buy your gold so dearly
   as that, nor to part with Heaven for the sake of the richest comforts
   of earth!

   It is worthy of note that the Psalmist, even in his worst condition,
   always expected to be comforted. Our text was probably uttered by the
   same man who more than once asked himself, "Why are you cast down, O my
   Soul? And why are you disquieted within me?" Some men readily fall into
   a state of despair, but the Psalmist was not a man of that sort. When
   all God' s waves and billows had gone over him, he still said, "Yet the
   Lord will command His loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night
   His song shall be with me." And where deep called unto deep at the
   noise of Jehovah's waterspouts, he could still hear the still small
   voice of hope, so that he said to his soul, "Hope in God: for I shall
   yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."

   Beloved, let none of us give way to despair! No doubt Satan will tell
   us that it is humble to despair, but it is not so. The pride of despair
   is truly terrible. I believe that when a man altogether doubts the
   power of God to save him and gives himself up to sin because he thinks
   he cannot be saved, so far from there being any humility in it, it is
   the proudest action that depraved flesh and blood can perform! Man, how
   dare you say that there is no hope for you? If the iron gates of Hell
   were shut upon you and God had hurled the key of the Pit into the
   infinite abyss, then you might say that there was no hope for you. But
   as long as there trembles in the air that blessed invitation of Christ,
   "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
   you rest," it is only a lying voice that tells you that there is no
   hope for you! No hope, Man? Why, if you were in the very jaws of death
   and the grim monster's teeth were about to close upon you, there would
   still be hope for you! The dying thief on the Cross did but trust to
   the expiring Savior by his side--and that very day he was with his Lord
   in Paradise! Never despair, Sinner, but trust in Jesus when at your
   worst!

   And as for you, Christian, what have you to do with despairing? Be of
   good cheer, for your sins are forgiven you. [See Sermon No. 3016,
   Volume 52--GOOD CHEER FROM FORGIVEN SIN.] Even though your eyes fail,
   God's eyes do not fail, nor His arm, either. And though you grow weary
   with your long waiting, yet when He comes to you, He will make amends
   for that and your weary waiting shall be well repaid. Wait at the posts
   of His doors, for--

   "He never is before His time, He never is too late."

   If you will but play the man and let patience have her perfect work,
   you shall be well rewarded before long. Therefore wipe away your tears
   and "wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your
   heart: wait, I say, on the

   Lord."

   Now, although the Psalmist expected to receive comfort from the Lord,
   whatever his trouble might be, yet he was careful to do what he could
   in order to obtain it. He looked into God's Word for comfort and he
   asked the Lord, "When will You comfort me?"--as if he meant to say, "If
   there is anything on my part which prevents my receiving the comfort,
   let me know and, Lord, I will put it away from me. Should You be
   withholding Your consolation from me because of any sin which I am
   harboring, only say the word, Lord, and my sin shall be taken out to
   execution! Quick shall be my hand and sudden shall be the stroke, for I
   must have Your comfort to sustain my soul--I cannot longer live in this
   state of sadness."

   I trust that this will be the language of anyone here who is seeking
   the forgiveness of his sins. Perhaps I may be addressing someone who
   has been seeking mercy for months and he has not yet found it. I hope
   he is not satisfied to go without it--I trust that he will hunger and
   thirst until he gets it and that he will, at this moment, put up these
   requests to God, "Show me, Lord, why You contend with me. When will You
   comfort me? What is there which parts me from You and hides the light
   of Your face from my poor, guilty, dying spirit?"

   Perhaps the words which I am about to utter, in answer to the question
   in my text, may be the means of bringing comfort to some who are
   groping for it in the dark like blind man trying to feel the way marks
   which they cannot see. I shall first address myself to Christians and
   then to seekers after salvation.

   I. First of all, I SPEAK TO YOU, BELOVED BELIEVERS--to you who are
   saying with the Psalmist that your eyes are failing from searching the
   Word of God--to you whose hearts are saying to Him, "When will You
   comfort us?"

   God will answer your question in His own good time and way, but it is
   certain that God will comfort you one day He cannot leave His people
   without comfort. You know that He said, in olden times, by the mouth of
   the Prophet Isaiah, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she
   should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may
   forget, yet will I not forget you." The mother ought not to be able to
   forget her child when it is in that specially dependent stage of its
   existence--when it is a sucking child not only her love, but the very
   force of Nature ought to compel her to remember it! Yet, though she may
   forget her child, God cannot and will not forget you who are His
   children! That is impossible--the whole force of His Divine Nature
   constrains Him in loving kindness to remember you and to say to you,
   "As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you." His message
   to His servants is still, "Comfort you, comfort you My people, says
   your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her
   warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned." Now, how can
   comfort be withheld from those whose sins are pardoned? Christian, you
   must have comfort from your God sooner or later!

   To help you to answer your question as to why you do not have that
   comfort now, consider, in the first place, that God may, of His own
   Sovereign will and pleasure, withhold from you the comforting light of
   His Countenance. He has His reason for doing so, but He may not give
   you that reason. And surely, if He does not tell you the reason, you
   will submit to His will. Remember the good advice of the Prophet
   Isaiah, "Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of
   His servant, that walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in
   the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." If you do but at last get
   to Heaven--if the Lord should take away His candle from you on earth
   for a little time, you may cheerfully submit to that privation! You may
   cry out to Him, for "His own elect" do that--they "cry day and night
   unto Him," yet you must not be impatient if He does not at once grant
   your request. With ardent desire you may long for Him to comfort you in
   the night seasons, but, amid the darkest shades, you may still say to
   Him, "I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right and that You in
   faithfulness have afflicted me." It may be because of Divine
   Sovereignty that comfort is, for a while, being withheld from you. If
   so, then the same Sovereignty which shuts you up in the dark room will,
   in due season, open the door and set you at liberty!

   But more likely, dear Friends, you will get comfort when you have cast
   away your present unbelief. Most of us owe a great part of our sadness
   to our lack of faith in God. Is it any wonder that you are sad when you
   will not believe your Heavenly Father's promises? Child of God, is it a
   surprising thing that your mind should be ill at ease when you mistrust
   the veracity of your Father? Would you expect your own children to be
   happy if they were always doubting the truth of their father' s
   promises to them? What a wretched household such dark suspicions would
   soon make! Away, then, with all suspicion of the truth of your Heavenly
   Father's promises! It is utterly groundless! It is unworthy of yourself
   and it is dishonorable to God! Testify against Him now if you can. When
   did He ever fail you? Has He been a wilderness to you? Has He ever
   forsaken you? He has chastened you, it is true, but has He ever
   deserted you? "Come now, testify, O My people; bear witness against Me
   if you can!" says the Lord. "Have I wearied you with labor? Have I
   borne you down with burdens and not given you help?" Oh, no! We all
   bear witness that He is a good and gracious God--and we pray for the
   Holy Spirit's power to rest upon us that we may have done with our
   cruel, wicked, disgraceful unbelief! Come, child of God, take down your
   Bible, look up some precious promise, grasp it, believe it and expect
   to see it fulfilled to yourself! You will not then have long to ask,
   "When will You comfort me?" You will be comforted as soon as you have
   cast away your sinful unbelief from your soul. Ask the Holy Spirit to
   help you to do so at once!

   Possibly the answer to your question may take another form--The Lord
   will comfort you as soon as you have done with complaining. There are
   certain people in the world whom God will never comfort until He has
   taken their present murmuring spirit out of them. I know some such
   people, to my sorrow. If they prosper very much, if they get on a great
   deal in their business, they say, "Oh, yes, we have had a tolerably
   good year!" They never admit that they have had anything beyond "a
   tolerably good year." That is all that they will say even when their
   money is rolling in, in floods! Many a farmer, when his ground is
   bearing as much corn as it possibly can, says, "Yes, I shall do pretty
   middling this year." He calls the very best that he can possibly have,
   "pretty middling!" And if he should happen to have a little loss, or a
   little trouble, or some little vexation, then straightway his mouth is
   filled with murmuring against God. And though

   he would not like to have it called by that name, yet it is a sort of
   minor blasphemy against the Most High--envying others, speaking of them
   as though they had all the sweets of life and talking of himself as
   though he had to drink all the bitters and all the dregs of the cup.
   Some of you know people of that kind, who seem to be "cut on the
   cross"--a strange sort of people who can always see clouds on the
   finest day and who will say that the grass is all dried up even when
   all can see that it is beautifully green!

   Ah, my dear Friends, you must get rid of all this if you want God to
   comfort you! There is something expressive in that word, murmur--I have
   often wondered at the wisdom of the man who gave it the meaning that it
   has, though I do not know who he was. "Mur-mur"--two ugly little
   syllables such as any cross child could easily sound! But it is a
   childish, foolish, wicked habit for any of us to fall into--to be
   murmuring against God--for, after all, our mercies far outnumber our
   sorrows! As long as we are out of Hell, we have no right to complain,
   for, if we had received our just desserts, we would have been there.
   Dear Friends, may God help you to shake off this murmuring spirit as
   Paul shook the viper off his hand into the fire! And when you have done
   that, then you will probably find that the Lord will speedily appear to
   comfort your heart!

   Again, in some persons there is an absence of Divine Consolation
   because there is some sin which is tolerated within them. There might
   be very startling discoveries made here, this very hour, if every
   professing Christian were compelled, by his accusing conscience, to
   stand up and tell the congregation what his secret, besetting sin is. I
   fear that at least some of you would never dare to show your faces in
   the Tabernacle again--you would be ashamed to be seen among those who
   knew such things about you! Yet the smoke of these burning sins rises
   in clouds and shuts the face of God away from such inconsistent
   Christians. God loves His people, but He does not love their sins. Sin
   is hateful anywhere, but it is most hateful in the Lord's own people.
   You are, none of you, fond of loathsome diseases such as fevers, but I
   am sure that you loathe the fever most of all when it attacks your own
   dear child. So, sin is a disease which God hates everywhere, but He
   hates it most of all when He sees it upon one of His own children and,
   for this reason, He takes His rod into His hand and causes His sinning
   child to smart and to cry out with Job, "Show me why You contend with
   me." When the Lord's people are really in earnest about this matter, He
   points to their idol-gods, or to some other evil thing which they have
   harbored in their hearts and so awakened His anger. Then, if they arise
   and cast out these abominations, the rod is put away and God once more
   gives them the comforts of His Grace. Therefore, my Brothers and
   Sisters in Christ, if you lack comfort, search and see where the fault
   lies, for it is my firm conviction that in nine cases out of ten, it is
   owing to some sin that has been indulged! I quoted Job's question just
   now, and Eliphaz asked him, "Are the consolations of God small with
   you? Is there any secret thing with you? Why does your heart carry you
   away? And what do your eyes wink at, that you turn your spirit against
   God and let such words go out of your mouth?" I pass those searching
   questions on to anyone here to whom they may apply. And I trust that as
   the result of doing so, such a soul will be able to present the poet's
   petition with the poet's confidence--

   "The dearest idol I have known,

   Whatever that idol be,

   Help me to tear it from Your Throne,

   And worship only Thee!

   So shall my walk be close with God,

   Calm and serene my frame,

   So purer light shall mark the road

   That leads me to the Lamb."

   Possibly the lack of comfort is owing to some other cause. Dear
   Christian Brother or Sister, you may be at this moment without comfort
   because you have neglected some duty. I believe that many of God's
   people who know their Lord's will, yet do it not, do get beaten with
   many stripes. They say that they do not understand why they are thus
   chastised and they do not know what it is that causes them to be so
   frequently and so sorely afflicted. It is because there is some
   precept, which they know to be their Lord's precept, yet they wink
   their eye at it and leave it neglected. Learn a lesson from Jonah's
   experience. If the Lord should bid any of us go to Nineveh and cry
   against it and, instead of doing so, we go down to Joppa and find a
   ship going to Tarshish, and get in it, we must not reckon upon having a
   smooth passage! Before long there will be "a mighty tempest in the
   sea." If we had not been God's servant, there might have been fair
   weather--but when a child of God runs away from his plain duty, God
   will send a tempest after him--and he may be very thankful if God also
   sends a whale--for although the whale may swallow him, yet it may bring
   him safely to

   land--but he will be sure to rue the day on which he turned away from
   his clear duty and sought out a more comfortable path.

   Master John Bunyan, whom I cannot help quoting, tells us the result of
   Christian and Hopeful going over the stile into By-Path Meadow. They
   thought it would be much smother walking just on the other side of the
   fence and Christian tried to assure his companion that the path ran
   along by the way-side. No doubt they thought that they could keep so
   close to the King' s Highway that they would see, in a minute, when the
   path began to turn away from the right road-- and then they would just
   jump over the fence and get into the right way again. They felt sure it
   would be all right. At least Christian did, for Hopeful was doubtful
   all the while, though he gave way to his older companion. But when
   Giant Despair found them sleeping in his grounds, he drove them off
   into his dungeon and came, the next morning, with a great crab-tree
   cudgel and gave them not a mouthful of bread, nor a drink of water, but
   plenty of crab tree! And when, the day after, he counseled them to
   destroy themselves, and left them lying, day after day, pining in their
   filthy prison-- then they understood that smooth walking is not always
   safe walking, and that it is best to walk in the right road even though
   it may be a rough one! Let us be careful where we walk, for we may lose
   our comfort very speedily unless we keep strictly to the path of
   obedience. Let us, at all times, with a cheerful and willing spirit,
   wear our Master's yoke, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

   I will speak very plainly to some of you who get downhearted and
   desponding, for I am rather glad that you do get into such a state of
   mind. There are some who think that the blame rests with the preacher
   if they become despondent. They say that he ought to comfort them more
   than he does. Ah, but lazy professors must remember what Paul wrote to
   the Thessalonians, "This we commanded you, that if any would not work,
   neither should he eat." As for you busy preachers, Sunday school
   teachers, tract-distributors and other earnest workers for Christ, when
   you do get to a sermon, how sweet it is to you! You have been hard at
   work for the Lord and it has sharpened your spiritual appetites! But
   lazy Christians who never fail to win souls for the Savior and who only
   want to be spiritually fed without doing a stroke of work in the
   Master' s service get to be very dainty. No matter how good the fare
   may be, nor however much others enjoy it, they are sure to say, "That
   is not the food that we like." They want it spiced up to a wonderful
   degree and it must be carved so daintily or they will not touch it!
   Whereas if they had been hard at work, they would have gained a healthy
   appetite which would have turned even the bitters into sweets!

   I pray God that those professors who do nothing for Him may be
   miserable! "That is a very unkind prayer," say some of you. No, it is
   not, for it is meant for your good. See, if you get to be happy in your
   idleness, you will stay in that sinful state. But if you are unhappy
   while you are doing nothing for the Master, I think you will be the
   more likely to say to Him, "Lord, what will You have me to do?" Then I
   hope you will soon get to work and I believe that comfort will be sure
   to come to you when, in an evangelical spirit, depending upon the Lord
   Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, you go out to do
   what you can for the Lord! Some of you, perhaps, have a great heap of
   money stored up and you cannot make out why there is such a bad smell
   of canker all over the house--I could tell you! Some of you who have
   not been doing anything for your Master for a long while, think that
   surely your blood must be congealed in your veins, for it does not seem
   to move! I think I could tell you why that is. If you would again
   exercise yourself in God's work, as you used to do, you would soon find
   that the blood would again course through your veins and that the dew
   of your spiritual youth would come back to you. Our sorrows are often
   manufactured by our sins--our sins of omission, or of commission. May
   we all have Grace, then, to search within ourselves to see if we can
   discover the answer to the question, "When will You comfort me?"

   II. Now I am going, for a few minutes, to deal with THE CASE OF
   ANXIOUS, SEEKING SINNERS.

   Where are you, anxious one? Never mind where you my happen to be at
   this moment--let the Word of the Lord come straight to you as though
   nobody else were here! You are sorrowfully saying, "I have been praying
   for pardon for months. I am in the House of God whenever it is open. I
   search the Bible as diligently as I can, yet I cannot find comfort. Oh,
   that I could get my sins forgiven! I must get that blessing, or I shall
   die. Tell me, Sir, when will God comfort me?"

   My dear Hearer, it may be that comfort is withheld from you because you
   have not fully confessed your sin. We have God's Word for it that "if
   we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."
   Then if we do not make a complete confession to our God, we must not
   expect to receive pardon. "Oh," you say, "I have said, 'Lord, I am a
   sinner.'" That is right, but you must do more than that. Tonight,
   before you go to bed, think over your past life. Recapitulate your
   faults and confess the whole of them to God--and do not keep anything
   back. I have heard of a professor who was guilty of backsliding for a
   time and, therefore, was suspended from church membership. He prayed

   about the matter, but he used to pray thus, "Lord, you know that I have
   indulged a little--have mercy upon me!" Of course no comfort came to
   him. Then a Christian Brother said to him, "Tell the Lord the whole
   truth--He knows just what it is." The man was wise enough to follow
   this good advice, so he prayed, "Lord, you know that I was drunk, will
   you not forgive me, for Jesus Christ's sake?" Then the comfort came to
   him and you, also, must call your sin just what it is when you go
   before God, for you are not truly humbled and penitent as long as you
   try to put a gloss upon your sin. David could get no peace till he
   prayed, "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God." And, my dear Hearer,
   you must confess the worst aspect of your case before God. "Make a
   clean breast of it," as we commonly say--tell the Lord all about your
   sin. Perhaps it is the lack of this that keeps you from being
   comforted--the lack of an explicit, plain, full confession of your
   sins.

   Again, if you ask me why you do not have comfort, although you do try
   to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, I answer, Perhaps there is some
   sin that you have not given up and, depend upon it, if that is the
   case, although salvation is all by the Grace of God and we are not
   saved by our own works, yet, Sinner, you can never have peace with God
   till you have made a clean sweep of every known sin! There may be a man
   here who has attended the Tabernacle for a long time, and who says that
   he cannot get peace. Now, where was he last night? His conscience knows
   and I will ask him whether he expects to get peace with God while he
   can be found in such society? There is another man here who says that
   he cannot get comfort--but where is he to be found the greater part of
   the week? Does he not regularly go to the gin-palace? And can he expect
   that the Lord Jesus Christ will go there with him? No, that cannot be!
   There was no room for Christ in the inn when He was born and there is
   certainly no room for Him in the gin-palace of the present day. There
   are some men who can cheat in their business--they know very well that
   they do not deal fairly with their customers. Their goods are
   adulterated and they give short weight--yet they expect to have peace
   with God while this is the case? How can it be? Do you suppose that God
   will patch up a truce with your sins and give you His forgiveness while
   you are harboring such evil things in your house? No, that cannot be!
   Though you cannot be perfect, yet you must wantto be perfect and there
   must not be any sin which you knowingly spare. Cut them in pieces,
   every one of them! As soon as you know that anything is wrong, I pray
   you to have such a tender conscience that you will seek to escape from
   it, for, as long as you harbor even one of them, comfort will never
   come to you.

   "But this is such a little sin," says one. Yes, and those little errors
   are like the little boys that the big thieves take with them to crawl
   through the little windows--and then they open the door and let the big
   thieves in! Those little sins will be your ruin unless you forsake them
   and get them forgiven! One of our proverbs says, "Take care of the
   pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves." Turn that proverb
   round and it will teach you that if you look sharply after your little
   sins, you will not fall into great ones. It is these so-called little
   sins--mixing with worldly society, going into bad company and so
   on--that keep so many of you from getting peace with God! Some of you
   young women get to walking with ungodly young men. And some of you
   young men form acquaintances that are no good to you. And then you come
   here and your consciences are somewhat touched, and you ask that you
   may be found "accepted in the Beloved." How can that be when you will
   walk straight away from this service and talk in such a way as would be
   impossible if the Holy Spirit were really in you? The Holy Dove would
   fly away from such talk as that! A defiled heart is no nest wherein He
   can take His rest.

   Once again, is it not very likely that the reason why you do not get
   peace with God is this--that you have not trusted to the Lord Jesus
   Christ wholly and entirely? There is the root of the mischief! You
   still hope to save yourself in some measure and, as long as you cling
   to a rag of self-righteousness, you cannot get peace or comfort! If
   ever a Sinner is to be saved, it must be entirely by the mercy of God
   shown to him solely because of the merit of Jesus Christ and, as long
   as a man puts so much as a shadow of a trust in himself beside his
   trust in Christ, his comfort will be marred! You must be to yourself as
   though you were dead, so far as any confidence in yourself is
   concerned--and you must rest alone in Jesus. The finished work of the
   exalted Redeemer must be your only confidence!

   "How was it, Sam," asked a Christian master of his servant, "that when
   you and I were both under conviction of sin, you got comfort so much
   sooner than I did? As far as I know, Sam, my life seemed to be as good
   as yours before conviction came to me, yet I could not get comfort,
   though you did." "Ah," said Sam, "you see, Master, I was a great deal
   worse than you were. And when God the Holy Spirit showed me what I was,
   I looked at my rags and I said, 'Ah, they are nothing but a lot of
   filthy rags, they will never patch up.' So I took them off at once and
   I put on the robe of Jesus Christ's righteousness, for I knew my rags
   would never match that spotless garment of His. But, Master, when you
   got a little light, you looked at yourself and you had been so
   good--you had lived such a decent life that you said--'Ah, my coat
   needs mending. There is a hole in the elbow and a tear here and there,
   but it can be patched up and it shall do a

   little longer.' And so, Master, you did not got the robe of Christ's
   righteousness as quickly as I did." And some of you moral people will
   have hard work in fighting against your self-righteousness. When good
   Mr. Hervey questioned a godly farmer as to what was the greatest
   hindrance to a sinner's coming to Christ, he thought the farmer would
   say, "Sinful self," but he said, "Righteous self," and so it is.
   Righteous self-confidence in our prayers. Self-confidence in our
   repentance, self-confidence in something we mean to do, or something we
   feel that we already have--all this keeps us back from true peace and
   comfort!

   All the candles in the world will not enable us to do without the sun.
   Some of you light your poor little candles and try to get comfort that
   way. Put the extinguisher on every one of them and go and stand in the
   sunshine, for then you will have light indeed! Give up all your carnal
   hopes, your earthly confidences, your good works, your own
   righteousnesses--away with them all--and come as poor, guilty,
   condemned sinners and trust in Jesus Christ, and you shall get comfort
   this very instant, for, the moment a sinner trusts in Jesus Christ, he
   is saved! Peace and pardon immediately follow trust in Jesus! Only come
   to Him with your sins and miseries, your burdens and your unworthiness,
   your hardness of heart and your coldness of spirit--come to Him just as
   you are, for, "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto
   God by Him." The Lord Jesus is a Physician who heals the sick when
   their disease is at its worst--He does not want you to try to make
   yourselves better, but to come to Him just as you are--and then He will
   heal you as you are.

   That was a beautiful act on the part of the Good Samaritan who found
   the poor wounded man half dead by the roadside. He did not stand and
   gaze at his injuries, and say to him, "My dear fellow, when your wounds
   are less painful to you, I will come back and bind them up." He did not
   say to him, "My dear man, when you are more conscious of your need of
   my services, and can sit up and ask me to help you, I will do what I
   can for you." He did not say, "My dear man, when you are very sorry
   that you ever came down this dangerous road where you have been waylaid
   and injured, I will come and heal you." Oh, no! There the poor man lay,
   half dead, and the Good Samaritan went just where he was, stooped over
   him and looked at his wounds. Probably the man did not feel anything
   just then, for most likely he had been stunned, but the Good Samaritan
   felt for him. The man could not plead for himself, but the heart of the
   Good Samaritan pleaded for him--and he tenderly bound up his gaping
   wounds, pouring in oil and wine--and lifted him up, set him on his own
   beast, carried him to the inn and there did all he could to ensure the
   completion of his cure. As the Good Samaritan went to the wounded man
   where he was, so Jesus Christ, "the Good Samaritan" in the highest
   sense of the term, comes to the sinner where he or she is!

   But, Sinners, though you are trying to make your hearts ready for
   Christ, you will never succeed in doing it! You are wasting your
   strength upon a task that must end in failure. Remember that if you
   cannot come to Christ with a broken heart, you can come to Him for a
   broken heart! If you cannot come as you ought, come just as you are!
   And if you have no good thing to plead as a reason for your acceptance,
   so much the better will it be for you.

   I have tried to put this matter of finding comfort plainly and in as
   simple language as I could. O Sacred Spirit, come now, and bring
   sinners to Jesus, for His dear name's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

God's Glory Our Rereward

   (No. 3028)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "The glory of the LORRD shall be your rereward." Isaiah 58:8.

   THE Church of God is an army marching through an enemy's territory. She
   can never reckon upon a moment's peace. If she were of the world, the
   world would love its own, but because true saints are not of the world,
   but Christ has chosen them out of the world, therefore the world hates
   them. As the Amalekites suddenly fell upon the children of Israel,
   unprovoked and without giving any warning of their hostile intention,
   so, not only in times of persecution, but in these apparently softer
   days when the world does not use the stake and the sword, at all
   seasons the world is ready to pounce upon the Church of God and to call
   in its grand ally, the devil, to overthrow and destroy, as far as
   possible, the militant hosts of Israel!

   Every Christian, then, must be a soldier and take his share in the
   battles of the Cross. We must not look upon our life as being a
   pleasure-journey through a friendly land, but as a march--a march
   through the very midst of foes who will dispute every foot of our way!

   Now, if we thus view the Church of God as an army, it is consolatory to
   know that we have a vanguard--My righteousness shall go before you." We
   take our Lord Jesus Christ to be "the Lord our righteousness." He is
   the Forerunner and He has gone before us, even through the River of
   Death and up to the skies, that He may prepare a place for all those
   who have enlisted under His standard.

   Our text, however, speaks not of the vanguard, but of the "rereward."
   There is always danger there, and it is comforting to the saints to
   behold so glorious a shield borne in their rear by so mighty an
   arm--"The Glory of the Lord shall be your rereward."

   It is but little I have to say to you this evening, but may God make
   that little profitable to you! We will, first of all, dwell upon the
   rereward and enquire what it is which is here intended. And, secondly,
   we will try to show how the Glory of the Lord brings up the rear
   andprotects the saints on every side.

   I. In the first place, WHAT MAY WE UNDERSTAND BY THE REREWARD?

   Taking the text to refer to the Church of God as a body, we remark that
   there are always some who bring up the rear. God has never left His
   Church without men to stand in the front. A few choice men have always
   been raised up by God and they have led the way, both in testimony and
   in suffering. The race of the Prophets will never be extinct. "The
   scepter," in this sense, will not depart from the members of the Church
   until Christ shall come a second time. The teacher shall not be taken
   out of his place, nor the candlestick be removed, nor the Bread of Life
   be taken away. But the mass of the Church are rather like the body of
   the army marching on and fighting well--but not attaining unto the
   first three mighties.

   We have, moreover, in the Church of Christ, a considerable proportion
   of those who are always behind. Some of those are here tonight. You
   feel yourselves to belong to the rear because you are so weak in faith.
   It is a blessed thing to enjoy full assurance of faith and yet, no
   doubt, there are thousands in the fold of Jesus who never reach this
   attainment. It is a great pity that they should not reach it, for they
   miss much happiness and much usefulness. But still--

   "Thousands in the fold of Jesus,

   This attainment never could boast.

   To His name eternal praises,

   None of these shall ever be lost.

   Deeply engraved

   On His hands, their names remain."

   There are some who, from their natural constitution and other
   circumstances, are very apt to despond. Like Mr. Fearing, they not only
   go through the Slough of Despond, but, as Bunyan says, they carry a
   slough of despond about with them! They are little in faith, but they
   are great at foreseeing evil. They are always expecting some dreadful
   ill and they cower down before a shadow. I thank God that those of you
   who have faith but as a grain of mustard seed, shall not be left to
   fall away--the Glory of the Lord shall gather you up with the rest of
   the saints! The stragglers, the wounded, the halt, the lame--though
   these cannot march with the rest as we desire, though, like Mr.
   Ready-to-Halt, they have to go on crutches--yet the Glory of the Lord
   shall be their shelter and protection.

   Then there are some of you who are not exactly weak in the faith but,
   in your humble estimate of yourselves, you put yourselves in the rear.
   "I am very poor," says one, "it is but little that I can ever give.
   Even if I gave two mites, as the widow did, I might almost give all my
   substance in so doing. I am obscure, too, for I have no talent. I
   cannot preach. I can scarcely pray in the Prayer Meeting to
   edification. I hope I love the Lord and that I am one of the stones in
   the walls of His Church, but I am quite a hidden one." Ah, well! Poor
   though you are, despised and forgotten, the Glory of the Lord shall
   secure your safety! It was said of the tribe of Dan, "They shall go
   hindmost with their standards," and there must be some to be in the
   rear! So, while the rich may rejoice in what God has given to them, yet
   you, in your contentment with your lot, may be thankful for your
   poverty and bless the name of the Lord that though you may be in the
   rear, you are yet in the army--and you shall soon--as much as those in
   the van, have your full share of the spoil!

   Possibly there are some who get into the rear from a much more painful
   cause, namely, from backsliding. I would not say a word to excuse
   backsliding, for it is a dreadful thing that we should depart from our
   first love, or lose the vigor of our piety. It is dangerous to get even
   half a yard from the Savior's side! To live in the sun, like Milton's
   angel--that is blessed living! No lack of light or warmth there! But to
   turn our backs on the sun, as the descendants of Cain did of old, and
   to go journeying away from Christ--this is dangerous in the extreme.
   "The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways." Many men
   talk of David's sin--it were well if they would remember David's
   repentance and David's broken bones after he had received pardon. He
   never was the same man afterwards that he was before. His voice was
   hoarse and cracked. You can tell the Psalms that he wrote after his
   fall, for his pen quivered as he wrote them, and yet, blessed be God,
   he could say, "Although my house is not so with God; yet He has made
   with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure." Even
   to these falling ones, Christ is kind! Though they have wandered from
   Him, His voice is not that of condemnation, but of consolation. Return,
   you backsliding ones! He still acknowledges the marriage bonds. "I am
   married unto you, says the Lord." Backslider, let this be some comfort
   to you, if you are bewailing your backslidings. But oh, if you are not
   conscious of them, or are conscious of them, but are not mourning them,
   tremble, tremble, lest backsliding should become apostasy and you
   should prove beyond question that you never had a sound work of Grace
   in your heart!

   Now, whoever it may be, in the militant host of the Lord, who is in the
   rear, here is our comfort--that the Glory of the Lord shall be the
   rereward! Only one or two of you can guess, in any adequate measure,
   what the care of such a large Church as this is. I have sometimes felt
   as Moses did when he said to the Lord, "Have I conceived all this
   people? Have I begotten them, that You should say unto me, Carry them
   in your bosom, as a nursing father bears the sucking child?" But here
   is my consolation, "the Lord knows them that are His." And those of you
   who do not always show due faith and courage--who do not advance to the
   front, as we would wish in Christian service, we nevertheless commend
   you to the care of our God, praying that the rear may be Divinely
   preserved. We wish that you would quicken your pace, that you would
   grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
   but we know that even as it is, you shall be found of Him in peace in
   the day of His appearing, since your righteousness is found in Him and
   you are not trusting in yourselves.

   But, now, supposing the text to refer to the individual Christian--how
   shall we translate it?

   We will translate it in three ways. First, as relating to our
   past--that which is behind us. We need a protection from the past. Now,
   what is that which is behind us? There is something to rejoice in, for
   God has been gracious to us, but there is very much to mourn over, for
   we remember our former lusts in our ignorance, things of which we are
   now ashamed. Christian, look back awhile upon those sins of yours, the
   sins of your youth and your former transgressions--

   sins against Law and against Gospel, sins against light and against
   love, sins of omission and sins of commission. What about them? Suppose
   that, like a pack of hungry wolves, they should pursue you? Suppose
   they should come after you, as Pharaoh and his chariots and his
   horsemen went after the children of Israel when they escaped out of
   Egypt? Ah, then the Glory of the Lord shall be your rereward! Christ
   and His Atonement shall come between us and our sins and He shall drown
   our enemies in the Red Sea of His blood, even as he drowned Pharaoh and
   all his raging hosts who pursued the chosen people! Fear not your past
   sin, Christian! Tremble at the thought of it, by way of repentance, but
   thank God that you shall not be called to account for it, for all your
   sins were numbered on the Scapegoat's head of old and He took them and
   made an end of them and carried them away forever! "Who shall lay
   anything to the charge of God's elect?" As to past sin, the glorious
   Atonement shall bring up the rear!

   Then there are our past habits. How much of injury we still suffer from
   these! A man who has been accustomed to witness scenes of vice will
   frequently have most fearful pictures painted upon his eyeballs, even
   when they are closed for prayer! Yes, and when the sacred hymn is going
   up to Heaven, a word in it may suggest a snatch of a profane song, or
   bring to the recollection even blasphemy itself! It is a sad thing to
   have learned the arts of sin, to have acquired habits of passionate
   temper, of pride, or covetousness, or of falsehood. We may well tremble
   lest these old enemies should at last prove too much for us. We have
   left them behind us--they do not lead and guide us as once they
   did--but they dog our steps. The dominion of sin has been broken, but
   the law of sin is still there to vex us. The tree is cut down, but the
   sprouts still spring from the root and are all too vigorous, especially
   at times when they have been watered by circumstances, for at the scent
   of water they will bud and grow. Ah, then, we must take our bad habits
   to the Lord Jesus! We must ask Him to manifest His Glory by helping us
   to conquer them and we shall yet break these bonds which had become
   like fetters of iron! We shall snap them as Samson of old did his green
   straps and we shall be free! But, the Glory of the Lord must do it, and
   we shall have to give Him all the praise!

   So, the whole of the past, if you take it in any of its aspects, need
   not cause the Christian tormenting sorrow, for he can believe that all
   his sinful past is left with God, so that, as neither things present,
   nor things to come shall be able to separate him from the love of God,
   so not even things past shall be able to do it!

   But again, understanding the text as referring to the individual
   Believer, we may speak of the rear as signifying that part of our
   nature which is most backward in yielding to the power of Divine Grace.
   Brothers and Sisters, often, to will is present with us, but how to
   perform that which we would, we find not! The understanding is
   convinced and that leads the van. Firm affections are awakened and they
   follow after. But there is a weaker passion which would, if it dared,
   consent to sin--and that is this flesh of ours in which there dwells no
   good thing! It is this dangerous rear, this weakest part of our nature,
   which we have most cause to dread. O Friends, you know but little of
   yourselves if you do not know this, that there are such weak points
   about you that you might be overthrown in a moment if almighty Grace
   did not preserve you! Peter is laughed at by a silly maid and he falls.
   "How are the mighty fallen!" How little a thing brings an Apostle to
   the level of a blasphemer! As for this rear part of our army, what
   shall we do with it? It is here that God's Glory will be seen in
   conquering and overcoming! "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
   through our Lord Jesus Christ," and gives us victory in the very place
   where we were accustomed to say, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall
   deliver me from the body of this death?" Those straggling passions
   which we cannot marshal as we would, into regular order. Those
   wandering thoughts. Those downward desires. That cold heart which will
   not grow warm, as we would have it, but will lose its holy glow--all
   these powers of ours shall be brought into subjection and sanctified by
   Grace! God shall gather up the stragglers and bring the whole man safe
   to perfection by the sanctifying power of the Spirit!

   Once again, still understanding the individual Christian, may we not
   speak of our rear as signifying the end of our days? The Glory of the
   Lord shall be the rereward of our mortal history. The van was blessed,
   when we looked to Christ and were lightened, and our faces were not
   ashamed--

   "Many days have passed since then, Many changes have we seen Yet have
   been upheld till now-- Who could hold us up but Thou?" But the rear of
   the march of life is coming. We shall soon be up to our necks in the
   cold river--the waves and billows must soon roll over us! We may desire
   to be with Christ, but death, itself, never can be desirable--

   "We shrink back again to life, Fond of our prison and our clay."

   We long to be with Christ, for it shall be "far better" there, but that
   last pinch, when soul and body shall be separated, cannot be looked
   forward to without solemn awe. Oh, how sweet to think that Christ shall
   bring up the rear of our life! If ever we have had His Presence, we
   shall have it then! We shall--

   "Sing when the death-dew lies cold on our brow, If ever we loved You,
   our Jesus, 'tis now." Perhaps our last day will be our best and
   brightest day and we shall be surprised to find what floods of Glory
   there are around and above the floods of death! I see before me many,
   very many veterans. Your gray hairs tell of your nearness to Heaven. I
   trust your locks are whitened with the sunlight of Glory! Oh, be not
   afraid! You shall find it a blessed thing to sleep in Jesus--and even
   as you go to that last bed, you shall not tremble, for He shall be so
   manifestly with you that you shall not be afraid! The Glory of the Lord
   shall be your rereward and what that Glory shall be, what heart can
   imagine, what tongue can tell? The Glory that excels the glory of
   perfection! The Glory of being made like unto the First-Born among many
   brethren! The Glory of the Well-Beloved which He had with His Father
   before the world was! "The glory which you gave Me, I have given them."
   Behold, then, your latter end! Oh, that our last days might be with the
   righteous and our last end be like theirs! The Glory of the Lord shall
   be the Christian's rereward.

   II. But now, only for a minute or two, let me show you HOW THE GLORY OF
   THE LORD thus, both in the case

   of the whole Church of Christ and of each separate Christian, BECOMES
   THE MEANS OF GRACIOUS PRESERVATION.

   What is this "Glory of the Lord" which shelters the weak and preserves
   the saints? May we not understand it to mean, first of all, the
   glorious attributes of God? God's mercy is one of His glories. It is
   His great glory, you know, that He is a God passing by iniquity,
   transgression, sin and remembering not the guilt of His people. Now,
   Brothers and Sisters, as to our past sins, our weaknesses and all those
   other senses in which we understand the rear of our spiritual host--as
   to all these, the mercy of God will glorify itself in them all!
   Notwithstanding our weakness, Mercy shall find a platform for the
   display of itself and where sin abounded, there shall Grace much more
   abound. When you think of the greatness of your sin, think also of the
   greatness of God's mercy at the same time. As Master Wilcox says, "If
   you cannot keep your eye on the Cross when you are repenting, away with
   your repenting!" A sense of sin which is not also attended with a
   belief in God's mercy, is not an evangelical sense of sin. Oh, to know
   the super abounding mercy of the loving God who delights in mercy, His
   last-born, but His best-beloved attribute! He will glorify Himself by
   His mercy in delivering you when you most need it.

   So will He also use the glorious attribute of His Wisdom. It takes a
   wise captain to conduct the rear of the army. To lead the van needs
   courage and prudence, but to protect the rear often needs more wisdom
   and even more courage! And God will show the wisdom of His Providence
   and the fidelity of His Grace in taking care of the weakest of the host
   and in preserving you, Believer, in that place where you are most in
   need of preservation.

   So will He also show His Power. Oh, what power it will be that will be
   needed to bring any of us to Heaven! We need a God to get us there.
   Nothing short of Divine strength will ever be able to preserve any of
   us. So crushed and hardened, and sometimes so stung with the venom of
   the old serpent, how shall we who are in the rear be kept unless the
   bare arm of God is revealed? The Glory of the Lord in Mercy, Wisdom and
   Power shall shine transcendently in our case!

   And here, too, shall be conspicuous the Immutability of God. Beloved,
   of all the attributes of God next to His Love, this is, perhaps, the
   sweetest to the tried Christian, namely, His Immutability--

   "Immutable His will Though dark may be my frame." You are not trusting
   in a Savior who was yours yesterday, but is not faithful today, or who
   will fail you tomorrow! Every word of His promise stands sure and He,
   Himself, stands fast to it. How the Immutability of God will be
   illustrated in those who have had a long life and borne trials all
   through it, but who find, at the last, that Christ, who loved His own
   which were in the world, did love them even unto the end! Yes, the
   weakness, which you now discover and mourn over shall only afford an
   opportunity for the faithfulness of God to reveal itself in your case!
   The Glory of the Lord, in all its attributes, shall bring up the rear!

   May we not also understand, besides His attributes, His Providence? The
   Providence of God is part of His Glory. Thus He shows the skirts of His
   royal robes among the sons of men, as He has dominion over all the
   events of time. Ah, yes, you may rest assured that in all those points
   in the Christian Church which are the most weak, and the most behind,
   the Providence of God will be seen in bringing the entire army of God
   home, safely home, victoriously home! Looking at the history of the
   whole Church, it is cheering to us to see that God has never sustained
   a defeat. And when His army seems to have been repulsed for a time, it
   has only been drawn back to take a more wondrous leap to a yet greater
   victory! One wave may recede, but the main ocean advances, the great
   tide of our holy faith is coming up and as we watch wave after wave
   dying upon the shore, we must not weep, or think that God is sustaining
   a disappointment, for the main flood must advance and it shall, till
   all the mud of idolatry and human sin, and all the sand of human
   rebellion shall be covered with the silver tide of Truth and Love, and
   against the rocks of eternity, the great waves of Gospel Truth shall
   forever beat! Courage, my Brothers and Sisters, the Lord will bring up
   the rear by His Providence, ruling and overruling, making evil produce
   good and good something better--and better still in infinite
   progression! Not only to the whole Church, but to you, also,
   individually, shall it be so! And in due time, if you will but wait,
   you shall not be disappointed, but your light shall rise in obscurity
   and the days of your mourning shall be ended! The Glory of the Lord
   shall thus be our rereward.

   But may we not believe that the Glory of the Lord, which brings up the
   rear, is the Lord Himself? After all, we cannot dissociate the Glory
   from the Glorious One! God Himself we must have if we would see His
   Glory! Ah, Brothers and Sisters, the wine of communion with our Father
   and His Son, Jesus Christ, is the surest preservative against fear! And
   especially ought we to cultivate this communion when we feel that we
   are most in danger. Near to the Savior's bosom it does not matter what
   we suffer! Close to God, He who is full of infirmities will overcome
   them all. Whatever your besetting sin may have been, put your head upon
   the Savior's bosom and that besetting sin shall not overthrow you!
   Close to the Master and since His garments smell of myrrh, and aloes,
   and cassia, you shall never want for perfume. Have Christ with you and
   you cannot walk in darkness, however dark your way may be! Get to your
   chambers. Wait upon Him in prayer. In coming down from those chambers
   with your souls refreshed, say to Him, "Abide with us from morn to
   eve," for you may rest assured that in this holy communion you shall
   find the true protection, while they who neglect this are most apt to
   slip!

   And so, let me close these few words of address by entreating you
   always to fly to the Glory of the Lord whenever you feel your danger
   and even when you do not feel it, for it is well to be there. "Trust in
   the Lord and do good--so shall you dwell in the land, and verily you
   shall be fed." Trust not in man, nor put any confidence in the glory of
   man. Rest not in your circumstances, nor your wealth, nor your health,
   for the glory of all these shall pass away as the beauty of the flower
   in the field which is soon cut down beneath the mower's scythe. Trust
   in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength!
   You sons of men, trust in your God and you shall be secure beneath the
   shadow of His wings. You sinners, fly to the Savior! "Seek you the Lord
   while He may be found." Look to the Cross of Jesus and put all your
   dependence in His suffering and His merits--and you who have done so
   already, trust more than ever to your God and to your God, alone, in
   every hour of ill, and every night of grief!

   The Lord bless you, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 12:1-44.

   In this chapter our Savior dispels the fears of His disciples
   concerning temporal things, and especially their fear of persecution
   and their fear of need.

   Verses 1, 2. In the meantime, when there were gathered together an
   innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trampled upon one
   another, He began to say unto His disciples, first of all, Beware you
   of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is
   nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not
   be known. What, therefore, can be the use of hypocrisy? Hypocrisy leads
   a man to pretend to be what he is not. His only hope lies in not being
   discovered. But, as Christ declares that "there is nothing covered that
   shall not be revealed; neither

   hid, that shall not be known," hypocrisy becomes insanity as well as
   iniquity! Therefore, keep clear of it in every shape and form.

   3-5. Therefore whatever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in
   the light; and that which you have spoken in the ear in closets shall
   be proclaimed upon the housetops. And I say unto you, My friends, Be
   not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that
   they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: fear Him,
   which after He has killed, haspower to cast into Hell; yes, I say unto
   you, Fear Him. There is nothing, comparatively, to fear in death
   considered by itself. If that were the end of man, he need have little
   or no fear even of God, Himself. But inasmuch as after death there is
   another state which is everlasting and unchangeable, there is grave
   cause for the ungodly to fear Him who, "after He has killed, has power
   to cast into Hell."

   6, 7. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them
   is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all
   numbered. So particular is the care of Divine Providence.

   7, Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. And
   if He counts the sparrows, and cares for them, He certainly will not
   forget you!

   8, 9. Also I say unto you, Whoever shall confess Me before men, Him
   shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of Go : but he that
   denies Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.Mind what
   you are doing, then, you who never confess Christ before men, because,
   according to the context of this passage, you are set down as having
   denied Him. Christ first speaks of those who confess Him and then of
   those who do not confess Him--and He describes them as virtually
   denying Him. On another occasion, Christ said, "He that is not with Me
   is against Me. And he that gathers not with Me scatters abroad."
   Examine that attitude of yours, which you suppose to be neutral, and
   see how Christ regards it--and then ask yourself whether you can be
   satisfied to remain in it any longer.

   10. And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be
   forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemes against the Holy Spirit it
   shall not be forgiven. What is the sin against the Holy Spirit? We do
   not know and I think it is a great mercy that we do not know. I will
   tell you one reason why I think it is a great mercy, and that is
   because the devil is continually tempting poor distracted souls to
   commit that sin. I have, within the past week, seen several persons who
   have been frequently tempted to commit it. Only, happily, they did not
   know what the sin against the Holy Spirit was! And, therefore, they
   could not persuade themselves into the belief that they had committed
   it. I have seen many people who have told me that they have committed
   the unpardonable sin, and I have asked them to sit down and tell me
   what that sin was, for if they could do so, I would find out something
   that I did not know! In every instance I have very soon been able to
   say to them, "Though I do not know what the unpardonable sin is, I am
   quite certain that what you mention is not that sin, for such sin as
   yours has frequently been forgiven." It is a blessing that we are left
   in the dark concerning that matter! Only as I have often said to you,
   do not presume upon your ignorance. This warning is something like the
   notice you see put up on certain great men's estates, "Man-traps and
   spring guns set here." If you go round the mansion, and say to the
   owner, "If you please, Sir, will you tell me where the man-traps and
   spring guns are?" He will say, "No. Why should you want to know where
   they are? You keep from trespassing and then it will not matter to you
   where they are." That very indistinctness about the warning is a part
   of the preventive power which surrounds it! You have no right to go
   trespassing there at all, so keep away from the place! And you are not
   told what the unpardonable sin is, though there is a sin which is unto
   death and there is a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which shall not
   be forgiven.

   11, 12. And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto
   magistrates, and powers, take you no thought how or what thing you
   shall answer, or what you shall say: for the Holy Spirit shall teach
   you in the same hour what you ought to say. He has often done this. If
   you will read in Foxe'sBook of Martyrs, the answers given even by
   unlearned, illiterate men and women who were taken quite at unawares,
   and assailed by subtle questions, you will see that they often answered
   in a remarkably wise way. They could not have answered better if the
   questions had been before them for months! They frequently baffled
   their cunning adversaries by their wisdom and sometimes by their wit,
   for the Holy Spirit taught them in the same hour what they ought to
   speak.

   13. And one of the company said unto Him, Master, speak to my brother,
   that he divide the inheritance with me. He rudely broke in upon
   Christ's discourse when He was preaching upon these important matters
   because he wanted the Savior to act the part of a judge in his dispute
   with his brother!

   14. And He said unto him, Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over
   you? Some present-day minister, if this request had been made to him,
   would probably have said, "Well, I may save some litigation, perhaps,
   if I attend to this matter." As a general rule, Brother, you had better
   mind your own business! Your Master, who was far wiser than you are,
   would not entangle Himself with the affairs of this life and, usually,
   true wisdom suggests that we, also, should keep ourselves apart from
   them.

   15-17. And He said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness: for
   a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he
   possesses. And He spoke a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a
   certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within
   himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to
   bestow my fruits? This was his dialogue within himself. He might have
   answered at once, "As I have more than I can use, I will give some to
   the poor! Why should I need to lay up my fruits, to let them get moldy
   and corrupt? There are many poor people starving at my very gates--I
   will let them share in what God has so bountifully given to me." This
   might have been his answer to the question, "What shall I do, because I
   have no room where to bestow my fruits?" His reply, however, was a very
   different one.

   18, 19. And he said, This will I do: I willpull down my barns and build
   greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will
   say to my soul It is, "my," all through--my fruits, mybarns, my goods.
   The man was eaten up with selfishness and did not recognize the fact of
   his stewardship. He did not know that even his own soul did not belong
   to him--he thought it did--"I will say to mysoul."

   19, 20. Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years; take your
   ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, You fool, this
   night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things
   be which you have provided?"You fool." That is God's opinion of the man
   who means to build bigger barns in order that he may, himself, enjoy
   what is about to be taken away from him! He was a fool to be laying up
   in store for others to scatter. Many a miser's heirs have lived to
   ridicule him. He was the rake that gathered up a heap of gold--and they
   are the shovel and fork that scatter it! They drink the old man's
   health and are much obliged to him for stinting himself that they may
   drink so deeply.

   21, 22. So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich
   toward God. And He said unto His disciples, Therefore I say unto you,
   Take no thought It really means, "Make it not a matter of anxious care.
   Take no inordinate thought."

   22, 23. For your life, what you shall eat; neither for the body, what
   you shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than
   raiment.Everybody admits the truth of this saying of the Savior, though
   all do not see everything that is involved in it. Therefore, as the
   soul is more important than all else, look well to your soul, look more
   to your life than to your food!

   24. Consider the ravens.It is quite possible that some of them were
   flying overhead just at that time, and that Christ pointed to them and
   said, "Consider the ravens."

   24, 25. For they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse
   nor barn; and God feeds them: how much more are you better than the
   fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one
   cubit? "You cannot lengthen your body." Or perhaps the Savior meant,
   "You cannot lengthen out your life."

   26. If you then are not able to do that thing which is least It really
   is a matter of very slight consequence whether you are a little shorter
   or taller.

   26-29. Why take you thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they
   grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that
   Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God
   so clothes the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast
   into the oven; how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?
   And seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, neither
   be you of doubtful mind. Full of carking care and anxiety about little
   things or, indeed, about anything!

   30. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and
   your Father knows that you have need of these things. Therefore He
   would have you so live--industriously, prudently, thriftily--that you
   shall get these things and shall not waste them when you have them. But
   He would not have you live in an anxious, worrying, depressed spirit,
   as if you had no God, no Heavenly Father, no all-sufficient Friend--and
   as if there were no all-wise Providence, and you

   were left to drift about uncared for and alone. It is not so. O God of
   the lilies and God of the ravens, You will be the God of Your people,
   too!

   31, 32. But rather seek you the Kingdom of God; and all these things
   shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your
   Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. He may not give you
   much here, but, in due time He will give you the Kingdom! He may give
   to worldlings more of these secondary things--these husks, these mere
   illusions, these mirages of the desert--than He gives to you--but for
   you there is prepared a city that has foundations and a Kingdom that
   shall never pass away! Therefore patiently wait until the appointed
   time and fear not, "for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you
   the Kingdom."

   33, 34. Sell that you have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags
   which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that fails not, where no
   thief approaches, neither moth corrupts. For where your treasure is,
   there will your heart also be. It is not only important to lay up that
   which can truly be called treasure, but also to lay it up in the right
   place--"a treasure in the heavens that fails not, where no thief
   approaches, neither moth corrupts." Such treasure as that will not harm
   us if we set our heart upon it and, by-and-by, in God's good time, we
   and our treasure shall both be in Heaven!

   35-37. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning. And you
   yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return
   from the wedding; that when he comes and knocks, they may open unto him
   immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the lord when he comes
   shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself
   and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
   This always seems to me to be one of the most remarkable of our Lord's
   utterances while He was here upon the earth. His whole life was one of
   condescension, which was never more clearly manifested than it was when
   He, the Lord and Master of All, took the position of Servant of all,
   and washed His disciples' feet! Yet He here tells us that, if He finds
   us watching when He comes again, He will once more take His place as
   our servitor!

   38-44. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third
   watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know,
   that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would
   come, he would have watched, and not have allowed his house to be
   broken into. Be you therefore ready also: for the Son of Man comes at
   an hour when you think not Then Peter said unto Him, Lord, do You speak
   this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said, Who, then, is
   that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his
   household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is
   that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing. Of a
   truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he has.
     __________________________________________________________________

God's Tender Mercy

   (No. 3029)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
   23, 1869.

   "The tender mercy of our God." Luke 1:78.

   IT was a proof of great tenderness, on God's part, to think of His
   sinful creature, man, at all. When the created one had willfully set
   himself in opposition to his Creator, that Creator might at once have
   destroyed him, or have left him to himself--to work out his own
   destruction. It was Divine tenderness that looked on such an
   insignificant creature impudently engaging in so gross a revolt! It was
   also infinite tenderness which had, long before that, considered man so
   carefully as, practically, to frame a plan by which the fallen might be
   restored. It was a wonder of mercy that Infallible Wisdom should unite
   with almighty power to prepare a method by which rebellious man might
   be reconciled to his Maker. It was the highest possible degree of
   tenderness that God should give up His own Son, His only-begotten Son,
   that He might bleed and die in order to accomplish the great work of
   our redemption. It is also indescribable tenderness that God should, in
   addition to the gift of His Son, take such pity upon our weakness and
   our wickedness as to send the Holy Spirit to lead us to accept that
   "unspeakable Gift." It is Divine tenderness which bears with our
   obstinacy in rejecting Christ--Divine tenderness which plies us with
   incessant expostulation and invitation--all to induce us to be merciful
   to ourselves by accepting the immeasurable Gift which God's tender
   mercy so freely presents to us.

   It was wonderful tenderness on God's part that when He thought of
   saving man, He was not content with lifting him up to the place which
   he had occupied before he fell, but he must lift him far higher them he
   was before, for, before the Fall, there was no man who could truly call
   himself the equal of the Eternal--but now, in the Person of Christ
   Jesus, manhood is united with Deity! And of all the creatures that God
   has made, man is the only one whom He has taken into union with Himself
   and set over all the works of His hands. There was infinite tenderness
   in God's first thoughts of love toward us and it has been Divine
   tenderness right through up till now! And that same tenderness will
   bring our souls into Heaven where we shall say with David, "Your
   gentleness has made me great."

   I am going to speak of the tenderness of God's mercy towards sinners,
   in the fond hope that, perhaps, some of you who have never yet loved
   our God, may see how great has been His love to you and so may be
   enamored of Him--and trust in His dear Son, Jesus Christ--and so be
   saved!

   I. And, first, I will try to show you that in the mercy of God THERE IS
   GREAT TENDERNESS IN ITS GREAT PROVISIONS.

   There is a wounded soldier bleeding out his life upon the battlefield
   and here comes a friend, merciful and tender, who has brought him a
   refreshing draught which will help to bring him back to consciousness
   and open his half-glazed eyes again. He is covered with a clammy sweat,
   but there is cold water with which to wipe his fevered brow. His wounds
   are gaping wide and his very life is oozing forth from him, but his
   friend has brought the salve and bandages with which to strap up every
   wound. Is this all that he has provided for the wounded warrior? No,
   for there is a stretcher, carried by men who choose their steps with
   care, so that they do not jolt the poor invalid. Where will they carry
   him? The hospital is prepared. The bed--so soft, just fit to bear such
   a mass of weakness and pain--is waiting for him and the nurse stands
   there in readiness to render such service as may be required. The man
   soon sleeps the sleep that brings with it restoration--and when he
   opens his eyes, what does he see? Just such food as is suited to his
   circumstances and needs! A bunch of flowers is also placed near him, to
   gladden and cheer him with their beauty and fragrance. And a friend
   comes stepping softly up, and asks whether he has a wife, or a mother,
   or any friend to whom a letter may be written for him.

   Before he thinks of anything that he needs, it is there beside him and,
   almost before he can express a wish, it is supplied! This is one
   instance of the tenderness of human sympathy, but infinitely greater is
   the tenderness of God towards guilty sinners! He has thought of all
   that a sinner can possibly need and he has provided in abundance all
   that the guilty soul can require to bring him safe into Heaven itself!

   For every individual case, God, in the Covenant ofHis Grace, seems to
   have prepared some separate good thing. For great sinners, whose
   iniquities are many and gross, there are gracious words like these,
   "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
   though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." If the man
   has not fallen into such depths of open sin, the Lord says to him, as
   the tender-hearted Savior said to one who was in that condition, "One
   thing you lack"--and that one thing the Grace of God is prepared to
   supply! There is as much in the Word of God to encourage the moral to
   come to Christ as there is to woo the immoral to forsake their sins and
   accept "the tender mercy of our God." If there are children or young
   people who desire to find the Lord, there is this special promise for
   them, "Those that seek Me early shall find Me." Yes, even for the
   little ones there are such tender words as these, "Suffer the little
   children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the
   Kingdom of God." Then, if the sinner is an aged man, he is reminded
   that some were brought to labor in the vineyard even at the 11th hour!
   And if he is actually dying, there is encouragement for him in the
   narrative of the dying thief who trusted in the dying Savior and who,
   when he closed his eyes on earth, opened them with Christ in Paradise!
   So again I say that in the Covenant of His Grace, God has seemed to
   meet the peculiar case of every sinner who really desires to be saved.
   If you are very sad and depressed, desponding and almost dismayed,
   there are Divine declarations and promises that are exactly suited to
   your case! Here are a few of them--"He heals the broken in heart, and
   binds up their wounds." "The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear Him,
   in those that hope in His mercy." "A bruised reed shall He not break,
   and the smoking flax shall He not quench." Everything seems to be done
   on purpose that into whatever condition a man may have fallen through
   the grievous malady of sin, God may come to him, not roughly, but most
   tenderly, and give to him just what he most needs! I rejoice to be able
   to say that all that a sinner can need between here and Heaven is
   provided in the Gospel of Christ--all for pardon, all for the new
   nature, all for preservation, all for perfecting and all for glorifying
   is treasured up in Christ Jesus, in whom it pleased the Father that all
   fullness should dwell!

   Let us, then, before we go any further, bless that tender
   thoughtfulness of God which, foreseeing the greatness of our sins and
   our sorrows, our needs and our weaknesses, has provided for our vast
   necessities a boundless store of Grace and mercy!

   II. But, secondly, the tenderness of God is seen IN THE METHODS BY
   WHICH HE BRINGS SINNERS TO HIMSELF.

   The old system of surgery may have been useful in its time, but it
   certainly was not very tender. On board a man-of-war after action, what
   rough methods were adopted by those who were trying to save the lives
   of the wounded! Some of the remedies that we read of in the old
   doctors' books must have been a great deal more horrible than the
   diseases they were intended to cure, and I do not doubt that many of
   the patients died through the use of these rough remedies. But God's
   method of showing mercy to man is always Divinely tender. It is always
   powerful but, while masculine in its force, it is feminine in its
   tenderness.

   See now, my dear Hearer, God has sent the Gospel to you, but how has He
   sent it? He might have sent it to you by an angel--a bright seraph
   might have stood here to tell you, in flaming sentences, of the mercy
   of God. But you would have been alarmed if you could have seen him and
   you would have fled from his presence! You would have been altogether
   out of order for the reception of the angelic message. Instead of
   sending an angel to you, the Lord has sent the Gospel to you by a man
   of like passions with yourself--one who can sympathize with you in your
   waywardness and who will affectionately try to deliver his message to
   you in such a form as will best meet your weakness. Some of you first
   heard the Gospel from your dear mother's lips--who else could tell the
   sweet story as well as she could? Or you have listened to it from a
   friend whose tearful eyes and heaving bosom proved how intensely she
   loved your soul. Be thankful that God has not thundered out the Gospel
   from Sinai with sound of trumpet, waxing loud and long, reminding you
   of the terrific blast of the last tremendous day, but that the blessed
   message of salvation, "Believe and live," comes to you from a fellow
   creature's tongue in melting tones that plead for its reception!

   See also the tenderness of God's mercy in another respect, in that the
   Gospel is not sent to you in an unknown tongue. You have not to go to
   school to learn the Greek, or Hebrew, or Latin language in order that
   you may read about the way of salvation. It is sent to you in your
   homely Saxon mother tongue. I can honestly say that I have never sought
   after the beauties of eloquence and the refinements of rhetoric, but if
   there has been a word, more rough and ready than another, which I
   thought would favor my purpose of making plain the message of the
   Gospel, I have always chosen that word. Though I might have spoken in
   another fashion had I chosen to do so, I have thought it right and
   best, as the Apostle Paul did, to "use great plainness of speech," that
   no one of my hearers might be able to truthfully say, "I could not
   understand the plan of salvation as it was set forth by my minister."
   Well, then, since you have heard the Gospel so plainly preached that
   you have no need of a dictionary in order to understand it, see in this
   fact the tender mercy of God and His desire to win your soul unto
   Himself!

   Remember, too, that the Gospel comes to men not only by the most
   suitable form of ministry, and in the simplest style of language, but
   it also comes to men just as they are. Whatever your condition may be,
   the Gospel is suitable to you. If you have lived a life of vice, the
   Gospel comes to you and says, "Repent you therefore and be converted,
   that your sins may be blotted out." You may, on the other hand, have
   lived a life of self-righteousness. If so, the Gospel bids you lay
   aside this worthless righteousness of your own, which is as filthy
   rags, and bids you put on the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness!
   You may be very tender-hearted, or you may be quite the reverse. Your
   tears may readily flow, or you may be hard as the neither millstone,
   but, in either case, God's Gospel is exactly suited to you! Yes,
   blessed be the name of the Lord, if a sinner is at the very gates of
   Hell, the Gospel is adapted to his desperate condition and can lift him
   up even out of the depths of despair!

   One other thing I want you to particularly notice, and that is that the
   mercy of God is so tender because it comes to you now. If you are able
   to relieve a poor sufferer at once, and yet you keep him waiting, your
   treatment is as cruel as it is tardy. But God's Gospel says, "Behold,
   now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation!" If any
   sinner stands outside Mercy's gate for even half an hour, he must put
   the blame for his exclusion down to his own account, for, if he would
   but obey the Gospel message and trust to the finished work of Christ,
   the door would be opened at once! Such delays as this are not God's
   delays, but ours! And if we postpone our acceptance of His mercy, we
   have ourselves to blame!

   III. Now I must pass on to notice, thirdly, THE TENDERNESS OF GOD'S
   MERCY IN THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE GOSPEL.

   What does the Gospel ask of us? It certainly asks nothing of us but
   what it gives to us. It never asks of any man a sum of money in order
   that he may redeem his soul with gold. The poorest are as heartily
   welcomed by Christ as the richest! And the beggar who could count all
   his money on his fingers is as gladly received as the millionaire who
   has his stocks and his shares, his lands and his ships! Poor men are
   bid to come to Jesus "without money and without price."

   Neither does the Lord ask of us any severe penances and punishments in
   order to make us acceptable to Him. He does not require you to put your
   bodies to torture, or to pass through a long series of outward and
   visible mortification of the flesh. You may trust Christ while you are
   sitting in your pew--and if you do so, you shall be at once forgiven
   and accepted!

   No great depth of learning is asked as a condition of salvation. In
   order to be a Christian, one need not be a philosopher. Do you know
   yourself to be a sinner--guilty, lost, condemned--and Christ to be a
   Savior? Do you trust Christ to be yourSavior? Then you are saved,
   however ignorant you may be about other matters!

   Nor is any great measure of spiritual depression asked as a
   qualification for coming to Christ. I know that some preachers seem to
   teach that you must not come to Christ till you have first been to the
   devil--I mean that you must not believe that Christ is able and willing
   to save you until you have been, as it were, right up to Hell's gates
   in terror of conscience and awful depression of spirits! Jesus Christ
   asks not anything like this of you--but if you truly repent and forsake
   your sins, give up the evils which are destroying you and put your
   trust in the griefs and pains which He endured upon the Cross, you are
   saved!

   Nor does the Gospel even ask a great amount of faith of you. To be
   saved does not require Abraham's faith, nor the faith of Paul or Peter.
   It requires a like precious faith--faith similar in substance and in
   essence, but not in degree. If you can but touch the hem of Christ's
   garment, you shall be made whole! If your view of Christ is such a poor
   trembling glance that you seem to yourself scarcely to have seen Him,
   yet that look will be the means of salvation to you! If you can but
   believe, all things are possible to him that believes! And though your
   belief is but as a grain of mustard seed, yet shall it ensure your
   entrance into Heaven! What a precious Savior Christ is! If you have
   sincere trust in Him, even though it is but very faint and feeble, you
   shall be accepted. If you can, from your heart, say to Christ, "Lord,
   remember me when You come into Your Kingdom," you shall soon have His
   gracious assurance, "You shall be with Me in Paradise." Do not delude
   yourself with the idea that there is a great deal for you to do and to
   feel in order to fit yourself for coming to Christ. All such fitness is
   nothing but unfitness! All that you can do to make yourself ready for
   Christ to save you is to make yourself more unready! The fitness for
   washing is to be filthy--the fitness for being relieved is to be poor
   and needy. The fitness for being healed is to be sick--and the fitness
   for being pardoned is to be a sinner! If you are a sinner--and I
   guarantee you that you are--here is the Inspired Apostolic declaration,
   "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
   Jesus came into the world to save sinners." And to that declaration we
   may add our Lord's own words, "He that believes on Him is not
   condemned." "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Oh that
   God would give all of you the Grace to receive this gracious Gospel,
   whose requirements are so tenderly and so mercifully brought down to
   your low estate!

   IV. The fourth point which illustrates God's tender mercy is
   this--THERE IS GREAT TENDERNESS ABOUT ALL THE ARGUMENTS OF THE GOSPEL.

   How does the Gospel speak to men? It tells them, first, of the Father's
   love. You never can forget, if you have once heard or read it, the
   story of the prodigal son who wasted his substance with riotous living.
   You remember how he said, when he was feeding the swine, "I will arise
   and go to my father." That was a Divine touch and showed the Savior's
   master hand when He put it in and again when He added this affecting
   description, "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and
   had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." Sinner,
   that is God's way of coming to meet you! If you want to meet Him, He
   sees that yearning desire and that trembling wish of yours and He will
   come more than half way to meet you! Yes, it is because He comes all
   the waythat you are able to go any part of the way!

   How else does the Gospel talk to men? Why, it tells them of the great
   Shepherd's love. He lost one sheep from His flock and He left the 99 in
   the wilderness while He went to seek the one which had gone astray. And
   when He had found it, He laid it on His shoulders, rejoicing, and when
   He came home, He said to His friends and neighbors, "Rejoice with Me;
   for I have found My sheep which was lost." That lost sheep was the type
   of an unconverted sinner, and that Shepherd is the bleeding Savior who
   came to seek and to save that which was lost!

   Ought not such arguments as these prevail with you? When the Gospel
   seeks to win a sinner's heart--its master plea comes from the heart,
   the blood, the wounds, the death of the Incarnate God, Jesus Christ,
   the compassionate Savior! The thunders of Sinai might drive you away
   from God, but the groans of Calvary ought to draw you to Him! God's
   tender mercy appeals even to man's self-interest and says to him, "Why
   will you die? Your sins will kill you. Why do you cling to them?" It
   says to him, "The pains of Hell are terrible." And it only mentions
   them in love, so that the sinner may never have to feel them, but may
   escape from them. Mercy also adds, "The Grace of God is boundless, so
   your sin may be pardoned. The Heaven of God is wide and large, so there
   is room for you there." Mercy thus pleads with the Sinner, "God will be
   glorified in your salvation, for He delight in mercy, and He says that
   as He lives, He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that
   the wicked turn from his way and live."

   I cannot enlarge upon this point, but must be content with saying that
   all Scripture proves God's love to sinners. Almost every page of
   Scripture speaks to you, Sinner, with a message of love! And even when
   God speaks in terrible language, warning men to flee from the wrath to
   come, there is always this gracious purpose in it--that men may be
   persuaded not to ruin themselves and may, through the abounding mercy
   of God, accept the free gift of eternal life instead of willfully
   choosing the wages of sin which must assuredly be death!

   O my dear Hearers, as I think of some of you who are unconverted, I can
   hardly tell you how sad I feel when I recollect against what tenderness
   you have sinned! God has been very good to many of you. You have been
   kept from the depths of poverty, you have even been dandled on the knee
   of prosperity. Yet you have forgotten God! Others of you have had many
   Providential helps in fighting the battle of life. You have been often
   Divinely assisted when you were sick, or when your poor wife and
   children were all but in need. God very graciously stepped in to supply
   your needs, yet now you talk to your friends about how "lucky" you have
   been, whereas the truth is that God has been tenderly merciful towards

   you! Yet you have not even seen His hand in your prosperity and,
   instead of giving God the glory for it, you have ascribed it to that
   heathen goddess, "Luck." God has been patient and gentle with you as a
   nurse might be toward a wayward child, yet you altogether ignore Him or
   turn away from Him! You were sick, a little while ago, and God raised
   you up again to health and strength--is there still no burning of your
   heart towards God? I pray that God's Grace may work in you the change
   that no pleading of mine can ever produce, and that you may say, "I
   will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto Him, Father, I have
   sinned." If you heartily make that confession to your Heavenly Father,
   He will forgive you and welcome you as freely as the father in the
   parable welcomed the returning prodigal!

   V. The last point of the tenderness of God's mercy that I can now speak
   of is this, THE TENDERNESS OF ITS APPLICATIONS AND OF ITS
   ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

   What does God do for sinners? Well, when they trust in Jesus, He
   forgives all their sins, without any upbraiding or drawbacks. I have
   sometimes thought that if I had been the father of a prodigal son, I
   could have forgiven him when he came home and I hope I should have very
   freely done so. But I do not think I could ever have treated him in
   quite the same way that I treated his elder brother. I mean this--I
   would have had them sit at the same table, and feast on the same
   food--but I think that when market-day came round, I would have said to
   my younger son, "I shall not trust you with the money. I must send your
   elder brother to the market with that, for you might run away with it."
   Perhaps I would not go so far as to say this, but I think I would feel
   it, for such a son as that one would be rather suspicious for a long
   time. Yet see how differently God deals with us! After some of us have
   been great sinners and He has forgiven us, He puts us in trust with the
   Gospel and bids us go and preach it to our follow sinners! Look at John
   Bunyan--a swearing, drinking profligate playing at "tip-cat" on
   Sundays--yet, when the Lord had forgiven him, He did not say to him,
   "Now, Master John, you will have to sit in the back seats all your
   life. You shall go to Heaven, I will provide you a place there, but I
   cannot make as much use of you as I can of some who have been kept from
   such sins as you have committed." Oh, no! He is put in the front rank
   of the Lord's servants, an angel's pen is given to him that he may
   write The Pilgrim's Progress, and he has the high honor of lying for
   nearly 13 years in prison for the Truth's sake! And among all the
   saints there is scarcely one who is greater than John Bunyan! Look at
   the Apostle Paul, too. He called himself the chief of sinners, yet his
   Lord and Father made him, after his conversion, such an eminent servant
   of Christ that he could truly write, "In nothing am I behind the very
   chief of Apostles, though I am nothing."

   It is a proof of great tenderness on God's part that He gives liberally
   and upbraids not. He not only forgives, but He also forgets! He says,
   "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." And although
   we may have been the vilest of the vile, He makes no drawbacks on that
   account. I have known a father who has said to his bankrupt son, "Now,
   you young scapegrace, I will set you up in business again, but I have
   already lost so much money through you that I shall have to make a
   difference in my will, for I cannot give all this to you and then treat
   you as I treat your brother." But, blessed be God, He makes no
   difference in His will! He has not said that He will give the front
   seats in Heaven to those who have sinned less than others have done,
   and put the greater sinners somewhere in the background. Oh no! They
   shall all be with Jesus where He is and shall behold and participate in
   His Glory! There is not one Heaven for the great sinners and another
   for the little ones--but there is the same Heaven for those who have
   been the greatest sinners, but who have repented and trusted in Jesus,
   as there is for those who have been kept from running into the same
   excess of riot. Let us admire the wondrous tenderness of Divine Grace
   in its dealings with the very chief of sinners! When God deigns to
   cleanse a sinner, He does not partly wash him, but He takes away all
   his sin! He does not partly comfort him, but He loads him with loving
   kindness and gives him all that his heart could wish! Oh, that sinners
   could be persuaded to come unto Him for His full and free forgiveness!

   Possibly somebody here says, "If God is so tender in mercy towards
   those who come to Him through Christ, I should be glad if you could
   explain why His mercy has not been extended to me. I have been seeking
   the Lord for months! I am at His House as often as I can be. I delight
   to hear the Gospel preached and I long for it to be blessed to me. I
   have been reading the Scriptures and searching for precious promises to
   suit my case, but I cannot find them. I have been praying for a long
   while, but my prayers still remain unanswered. I cannot get any peace!
   I wish I could. I have been trying to believe, but I cannot." Well, my
   Friend, let me tell you a story that I heard the other day. I cannot
   vouch for its truth, but it will serve for an illustration for me.
   There were two drunken sailors who wanted to go across a narrow inlet.
   They got into a boat and began to row, in their wild drunken way, but
   they did not appear to make any headway. It was not far across, so they
   ought to have been on the other side in a quarter of an hour, but they
   were not across in an hour, nor yet in several hours! One of them said,
   "I believe the boat is bewitched." The other one said he thought they
   were and I suppose they were, through the liquor they had been
   drinking! At last, the morning light came and one of them, who had
   become sober by that time, looked over the side of the boat and then
   called out to his mate, "Why, Sandy, you never pulled up the anchor!"
   They had been tugging at the oars all night long, but had not pulled up
   the anchor! You smile at their folly and I do not regret that you do
   because you can now catch the meaning of what I am saying. There is
   many a man who is, as it were, tugging away at the oars with his
   prayers, and his Bible reading, and his going to Chapel, and his trying
   to believe. But, like those drunken sailors, he has not pulled up the
   anchor! That is to say, he is either holding fast to his own supposed
   righteousness, or else he is clinging to some old sin of his which he
   cannot give up. Ah, my dear Friend! You must pull up the anchor whether
   it holds you to your sins or to your self-righteousness! That anchor,
   still down out of sight, fully accounts for all your lost labor and
   fruitless anxiety. Pull up that anchor and there will soon be a happy
   end of all your troubles--and you will find God to be full of tender
   mercy and abundant Grace even to you! May it be so, for our Lord Jesus
   Christ's sake! Amen

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH54.

   The precious promises contained in this chapter belong in the first
   place to the Church of God, but, as that which belongs to the Church
   really belongs to every member of it, we shall not be acting
   dishonestly with the Scripture if we who are Believers, personally take
   home to ourselves every drop of comfort that we can find here!

   Verse 1. Sing, O barren, you that did not bear; break forth into
   singing, and cry aloud, you that did not travail with child.Sing, even
   though you are barren! Do not postpone your song until God's promise is
   fulfilled unto you, but sing even while you are desolate and
   forlorn--and let faith pitch the key-note. Let me, therefore, entreat
   any of you who are disconsolate and sad, to give heed to the words of
   the Prophet and even nowbegin to sing! Give to God songs in the
   night--imitate the nightingale and sing though not a star is to be
   seen!

   1. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the
   married wife, says the LORD. After all, we who have the deepest sorrow
   have the highest joy, and if we are sometimes desolate, we need not
   wish to change with those who always keep the even tenor of their way.
   If we have great downs, we also have great ups! If the valleys are
   deep, blessed be God, the hills are high and the view from their
   summits is glorious! Let us be thankful even if our lot is a hard one,
   if we are the Lord's, "for more are the children of the desolate than
   the children of the married wife, says the Lord."

   2, 3. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the
   curtains of your habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords, and
   strengthen your stakes; for you shall break forth on the right hand and
   on the left; and your seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the
   desolate cities to be inhabited. This is another act of faith--not only
   singing before the mercy comes, but getting ready to receive it before
   it is in sight, stretching the curtains and the cords in order to have
   room to house the blessing which has not yet arrived! Carnal reason
   says, "When we have the children, we will enlarge the tent. When we
   have gathered the congregation, we will build a House of Prayer." But
   faith says, "I will enlarge my heart that it may be able to take in the
   blessing which is sure to come. I will be big with expectation. I will
   open my mouth wide--not when I see the blessing, but before I see it,
   that God may place the blessing in my open, empty mouth." May the Lord
   graciously give us enlarged expectations, for, according to our faith,
   so shall it be unto us!

   4. Fear not; for you shall not be ashamed: neither be you confounded;
   for you shall not be put to shame: for you shall forget the shame of
   your youth, and shall not remember the reproach of your widowhood any
   more. Here is a third line for faith to run upon, namely, that of
   courage. Before you are strong, before you have been lifted up out of
   your weakness, be of good courage and fear not, for if you walk by
   faith and trust in the Lord with all your heart, you shall never have
   any cause to be ashamed of having done so. The Lord will always honor
   your faith because your faith honors Him. Be of good cheer, for you
   shall yet have good reason to rejoice and all those days that you are
   now ashamed to think of, in which you lived without God, and without
   Christ--your days of sad and terrible widowhood--shall be so completely
   surpassed by the abundance of mercy which you shall receive from the
   Lord that you shall not remember them anymore!

   5. For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of Hosts is His name; and
   your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel The God of the whole earth shall
   He be called.Oh, how blessed it is that Jehovah, Israel's God, the Lord
   of Hosts, is the God of the whole earth--so that we poor Gentiles may
   come and hide under the shadow of His wings! And what a joy it is to
   all Believers that this great God has united us in the sacred bonds of
   marriage with Himself! "Your Maker is your husband." Oh, what bountiful
   provision will such a Husband make for us! How well will He comfort us!
   How abundantly will He bless us! So let our hearts be glad in Him.

   6. For the LORD has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in
   spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were refused, says your God. Some
   of you know what it is to have had your affections betrayed and your
   hearts broken by unfaithful friends. Now the Lord calls you to come
   close to Himself that you may prove His faithfulness and so forget your
   past sorrows in your present and future joy.

   7. 8. For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies
   will I gather you. In a little wrath I hid My face from you for a
   moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, says
   the LORD, your Redeemer. These choice words do not need any
   explanation! This blessed plaster only needs to be applied to the
   wounded heart and it will heal it at once. If the Lord will but speak
   these sentences into our souls, so that we may know that they are
   really meant for us, our rapture will be complete! Let me read these
   verses again--"For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great
   mercies will I gather you. In a little wrath I hid My face from you for
   a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, says
   Jehovah, your Redeemer"--your God--your next of kin--your Advocate and
   Champion! What a blessed name is this and what a wonderful combination
   is this--Jehovah, your next of kin!

   9. 10. For this is as the waters of Noah unto Me: for as I have sworn
   that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have
   Isworn that I wouldnot be angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the
   mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed. There is nothing
   really stable about them--all things that are visible must melt and
   flow away.

   10. But My kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the
   Covenant of My peace be removed, says the LORD that has mercy on
   you.What gracious words are these! What majesty there is in such
   consoling sentences as these! They remind us of Mr. Paxton Hood's
   lines--

   "All His words are music, though they make me weep, Infinitely tender,
   infinitely deep."

   11. O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted. Where are
   you? Have you come in here to seek the consolation you cannot find
   anywhere else? Then see how God lays Himself out to comfort you! He has
   put into human language the true sympathy for you that He feels in His
   heart. And again He says to you, "O you afflicted, tossed with tempest,
   and not comforted."

   11. Behold, I will lay your stones with fair colors, and lay your
   foundations with sapphires. You shall have done with the rough tossing
   of the troubled sea and you shall come to land--to a royal city which
   has foundations of sapphire--to a king's palace where even the stones
   shall be stained with rich vermilion such as only princes use in their
   costly buildings--"I will lay your stones with fair colors, and lay
   your foundations with sapphires."

   12. And I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of
   carbuncles, and all your borders ofpleasant stones. See what riches
   belong to the Church of the living God! And, as I have already reminded
   you, everything that belongs to the Church belongs to every member of
   it. So we expect to see our Lord's face through a window of agate and
   to go through a gate of carbuncle to meet Him in the place of communion
   which shall itself be enriched with all manner of precious stones. Yes,
   and everything that has to do with us--even the very "borders" of our
   life shall be laid with "pleasant stones." Happy are all you who are
   the favorites of Heaven, the Beloved of the Lord! Blessed are you even
   in your shop and your store--blessed in the common things of your life,
   as well as in the choicest parts of your Christian experience!

   13. And all your children shall be taught of the LORD. Our children are
   often our greatest care. We ask, "How shall they be educated? Where
   shall we place our boys and our girls?" Put them under the care of God,
   for, as Elihu said to Job, "Who teaches like Him?"

   13, 14. And great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness
   shall you be established: you shall be far from oppression; for you
   shall not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near you. The
   man who has the fear of God within his heart need have no fear of
   anybody else--

   "Fear Him you saints, and you will then Have nothing else to fear! Make
   His service your delight-- He'll make your needs His care."

   15. Behold, they shall surely gather together You will have enemies,
   even if you lead the most blameless life that can be lived, for the
   absolutely Blameless One had many cruel enemies who hounded Him to
   death. 15. But not by Me. God is not with them, for He is on your side.

   15. Whoever shall gather together against you shall fall for your sake.
   Oh, how often, and how mysteriously, and how terribly God has smitten
   the enemies of His people! The hand of the Lord has gone out against
   them as it went out against Sennacherib and his host in the days of
   good King Hezekiah.

   16. Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire,
   and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created
   the spoiler to destroy. Even over the most wicked and the most powerful
   of men there is the supremacy of God! And deep and mysterious though
   the Doctrine is, yet Divine Predestination applies even to such sinners
   as Judas Iscariot and the vilest of the vile in all times. And herein
   is our confidence--that God is greater than death, and the devil, and
   Hell! He is supreme above all the malice and craft and cruelty of the
   worst and the greatest of men.

   17. No weapon that is formed against you shallprosper--

   "Neither two-edged sword nor falchion bright, Nor barbed arrow that
   flies by night"--

   "No weapon" of any kind--however cunningly made, or however deftly
   handled--"no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper."

   17. And every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment, you shall
   condemn. The tongue--that worst of weapons, whose wicked words are
   sharper than swords--is like a condemned criminal.

   17. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. Did I not rightly
   say that these precious promises belong not only to the whole Church of
   God as a body, but also to each individual member of that Church?

   17. And their righteousness is of Me, says the LORD. If, then, your
   righteousness is found in God, in God you shall find everything else
   that you need for time and for eternity! God grant this unto each one
   of us for His dear name's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Consistent Walk for Time to Come

   (No. 3030)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, DURING THE YEAR 1864.

   "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him."
   Colossians 2:6.

   THOUGH the shepherd cares for the lambs and carries them in his arms,
   he does not cease his care when they become sheep. But, as long as they
   shall need to be tended, so long will he watch over them. Hence it is
   that our Apostle, though always quick of eye after newborn souls and
   abundantly anxious to bring sinners to a knowledge of the Truth of God
   as it is in Jesus, is equally in a conflict of soul for the spiritual
   healthfulness of those who have been born-again. Our text contains one
   of those loving admonitions. It is addressed, not to the ungodly, not
   to those who are strangers to our Lord and Master, but to those who
   have "received Christ Jesus the Lord." Longing for their spiritual good
   and anxious that they should be established in the faith, he admonishes
   them thus, "As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in
   Him."

   In endeavoring, by God's help, to speak upon this subject, we shall
   have three points. There is here, first, a fact stated concerning
   Believers--they have "received Christ Jesus the Lord." Then there is an
   exhortation, or a counsel, offered to such--"walk in Him." Besides
   which we have a model held up for our imitation. How are we to walk in
   Him? Why, just in the same way as we at first received Him! Let our
   first coming to Christ be to us the mirror of how we shall walk in Him
   all our days.

   I. All true Christians are here described in the text as HAVING
   RECEIVED CHRIST JESUS THE LORD.

   The first point to which I would particularly direct your attention is
   the personality of this reception. Believers have, it is true, received
   Christ's words. They prize every precept, they value every Doctrine,
   but this is not all. They have received Christ Himself. While they have
   received Christ's ordinances and are not slow to walk in obedience to
   the things which He has commanded, they do not stay here. They have
   received Christ Himself--His Person, His Godhead and His Humanity. They
   have "received Christ Jesus the Lord." And, mark you, there is a very
   great distinction here--and also a great mystery. A great distinction,
   I say, for there are some who do, I think, wholly believe the doctrines
   which Christ has taught, and are profoundly orthodox, full of an
   earnest controversial spirit for the faith once delivered to the saints
   and yet, for all that, they do not seem to have received Him, the very
   Christ of God! And, truly, there are many who have received both
   Baptism and the Lord's Supper, yet, despite what any may say, we
   believe that they have not received Christ, but are still as great
   strangers to Him as though they had only passed through the rites
   common to mankind, or the rites in which heathens indulge! There is a
   vast difference between the outward reception of the Doctrine, or the
   ordinance, and the inward reception of Christ.

   We also said that herein is a mystery--such a mystery that only he who
   has received Christ can understand. The preacher cannot tell you what
   it is to receive Christ. Human language is not adapted to convey to the
   mind this deep enigma, this matchless secret. We know what it is, for
   "truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus
   Christ." We can describe it in such a measure that our friends who have
   also received Christ will know that we understand the mystery--but to
   the carnal mind it will always remain a puzzle how Christ can be "in us
   the hope of glory"--how we can eat His flesh and drink His blood. They
   run away to some carnal interpretation and suppose that the bread is
   turned into flesh at the Eucharist or that the wine is transformed into
   blood. That is carnal talk and this they talk because they know not
   what is the mystery of this receiving Christ and this walking in
   Christ.

   This much, however, we may affirm. The Believer has received Christ
   into his knowledge. He knows Him to be God and to be Man. He knows Him
   to be set forth of the Father as the Redeemer, but, he also knows Him
   by a personal acquaintance. His eyes have not seen Him and yet he has
   looked to Him and has, by faith, seen the King in His beauty! His hands
   have not handled Him and yet there has been a secret touch by which the
   virtue has come out of Christ and has flowed into him! He has never sat
   down at a Communion Table when Christ has been physically present and
   yet full often he could say, "He brought me to the banqueting house and
   His banner over me was love." He has talked with me as a man talks with
   his friend and the strongest sense that can be attached to that sweet
   word, "communion," is tame in reference to the Believer's connection
   with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ! And in that sense of knowing
   Him, intimately knowing Him, the Believer has received Christ!

   Not only has he received Christ into his cognizance, but into his
   understanding. He understands, with all saints, the love of Jesus in
   its height, depth, length and breadth. He has so seen Christ as to
   understand of Him that He was before all time as the Ancient of Days
   and then had His delights with the sons of men in the great Covenant
   decree of electing love. He understands how He became made flesh with
   us--married to us--when He came on earth, the Son of Mary, "bone of our
   bone, and flesh of our flesh." He knows by experience what is the
   meaning of the Atonement. He can understand how Justice is satisfied
   and Grace magnified. Without confounding or making mistakes, he knows
   how God was always gracious and full of love and yet how Christ Jesus
   came that the love of God might be shed abroad in our hearts and we
   were reconciled unto God by His death. Hence the Christian does not
   read of Christ as though He were a mere historical personage, nor of
   His work as a great mystery which he cannot comprehend, but he has
   received Christ into his understanding!

   Ah, Beloved! This is a very poor and shallow sense compared with the
   next. I have received but one ounce of Christ into my understanding,
   but, bless His name, I have received the whole of Him into my
   affections. Good Rutherford used to pray for a larger heart, that he
   might hold more of Christ and, perhaps, you remember that strange
   extravaganza of prayer in which he says, "Oh, that I had a heart as
   deep, and wide, and high as Heaven, that I might hold Christ in it!"
   And then he said, "Since the Heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, oh,
   that I had a heart as vast as seven heavens, that I might get the whole
   of Christ into me and hold Him in my arms!" And truly, Christian, in
   one sense you have taken all of Christ into your soul, have you not? Do
   you not love Him--not a part of Him, but the whole of Him? I hope you
   can truly say to Christ--

   "Have You a lamb in all Your flock

   I would disdain to feed?

   Have You a foe, before whose face

   I fear Your cause to plead?

   You know I love You, dearest Lord

   But oh, I long to soar

   Far from the sphere of mortal joys--

   And learn to love You more!" We must not leave this part of the subject
   without adding that the Believer has received Christ into his trust,
   and this he did at his spiritual birth. He received Christ into the
   arms of his faith. He took Jesus Christ to be, henceforth, the
   unbuttressed pillar of his confidence, the one Rock of his salvation,
   his strong castle and high tower. And, in this sense, every soul that
   is saved has "received Christ Jesus the Lord."

   Our text seems to point to a threefold character in which we have
   received Christ. We have received Him as the Christ. My Soul, have you
   ever seen Him as the Father's Anointed One--as the Chosen and Sent One,
   ordained of old-- as One that is mighty, upon whom help should be laid?
   Have you seen Him as God's great High Priest, ordained as was Aaron,
   chosen of God from among men? Have you looked upon Him as David did, as
   One chosen out of the people? We must accept Christ as the Anointed One
   and the right way to thus receive Him is to receive Him as the garments
   of Aaron received the oil that flowed from his head. Christ is the
   Anointed One and then you and I become anointed ones through the Holy
   Spirit which distils from Him to us--and so we receive Him as Christ.

   And then He is called, "Jesus," and we must receive Him as the Savior.
   ' 'You shall call His name, Jesus, for He shall save His people from
   their sins." Justification is receiving Christ as Jesus. So is
   sanctification! Only I think I must say

   justification and pardon receive Christ as Jesus--and sanctification
   receives Him as Christ Jesus, both as the Anointed One and the Savior.
   May you and I be daily delivered from sin--the guilt and power of
   it--and so receive Him as Jesus!

   There is a peculiar emphasis about the next expression. The article is
   emphatic here, "Christ Jesus the Lord." To me, if I receive Christ, He
   must be Lord--not one of the lords that may have dominion over me, but
   the Lord, peculiarly and specially. And though hitherto other lords
   have had dominion over me, now I am to obey Him and only Him. What do
   you say, professor? Have you received Christ Jesus the Lord?Is your
   will subject to His will? Do you desire only to act according to His
   bidding? Are His commands your desire? Is His will your will? Is He
   your Lord? For, mark you, you can never truly receive Him as Christ, or
   as Jesus, unless you receive Him as the Lord! Thus, another sense in
   which we receive Him is by subjecting ourselves entirely to Him,
   sitting at His feet, wearing His yoke, taking up His Cross and bearing
   His reproach.

   You will note that there is also, in this description of a Christian,
   the thought of his entire dependence. The Apostle does not say, "As you
   have therefore fought for and won or earned Christ Jesus," but, "as you
   have therefore received Him." It is a humbling word which divests the
   creature of everything like boasting! What is there to glory in if I am
   a receiver? The Apostle in another place says, "If you did receive it,
   why do you glory, as if you had not received it?" The vessel that is
   filled under the flowing stream cannot boast, though it is ever so
   full, for it was naturally empty and owes its fullness to the stream.
   The beggar in the street, let him receive gold, yet cannot boast of the
   gold because he is a receiver. He who gave must have the honor of the
   benefaction--not the person who received! So let your faith be ever so
   strong, let your confidence in Christ be ever so glorious, you have
   nothing to boast of in it, for you have "received Christ Jesus."
   Beloved, here is a test for us--is our religion a receiving religion,
   or is it a working and an earning religion? An earning religion sends
   souls to Hell! It is only a receivingreligion that will take you to
   Heaven! You may tug and toil, and do your best and make yourselves, as
   you think, as holy as the best of the Apostles--but when you have done
   your utmost, you have done nothing whatever! You have built a house of
   cards which shall soon fall down. But when you come as an empty-handed
   sinner, having nothing of your own--and receive Christ Jesus--then you
   have bowed your will to God's will. Or rather, Divine Grace has bowed
   it and you are saved according to the Lord's own word, "He that
   believes on Me is not condemned." Thus you have dependence connected
   with the personality of the Christian's faith!

   We also have here certainty--"As you have received Christ Jesus the
   Lord." Oh, how many Christians--I hope they are Christians--talk as if
   they really thought it was impossible to attain to any assurance of
   faith whatever! It is the fashion with some Christians to say, "Well, I
   hope," and, "I trust"--and they have a notion that this is being very
   humble-minded. But to say, "I know whom I have believed, and am
   persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto
   Him," is thought to be pride! The declaration of Job, "I know that my
   Redeemer lives," or of the spouse in the Canticles, "My Beloved is
   mine, and I am His; He feeds among the lilies," is thought to be vain
   presumption and boasting. But indeed, Beloved, it is no such thing!
   Doubting is pride, but believing is humility! Let me prove it.

   I think I used this illustration among you some little time ago. There
   are two children of one parent and the father says to the two children,
   "On such a day I intend to give you both a toy which has been the
   object of your ambition for many a day." Well, the older boy of the two
   sits down and calculates that the present will be expensive--and he
   begins to doubt whether his father can afford to purchase it. He
   remembers many times in which he has offended his parent, or broken his
   parent's commands and, therefore, he doubts whether he shall ever have
   it. He feels that he is unworthy-- therefore he goes about the house
   without any joy, without any confidence. If anybody asks him whether
   his father will give him this present or not, he says, "Well, I--I hope
   so. I trust so."

   Now, there is his little brother and the moment he heard that he was to
   have this present, he clapped his hands and ran out to his companions
   and said, "I am to have such-and-such a thing given me!" His brother
   checked him, "You are too presumptuous to say that." "No," said the
   little one, "for Father said he would give these toys to us." "Oh,
   but," said the other, "remember that you and I have often broken his
   commands!" "But he said he would." "Oh, but the thing is expensive!"
   "Ah, but Father said he would and unless you can prove that my father
   tells lies, I shall go and rejoice in the bright hope that he will keep
   his promise!" Now, I think that the younger of the two is less
   presumptuous than his brother, for certainly it is a high presumption
   for a child to doubt the veracity of his parent! No matter how
   excellent your reasoning may seem to be, and how clear it may be to the
   eyes of the flesh, it is always pride to doubt God! And to

   believe God--though, to the carnal mind which can never understand the
   bravery of faith, it may look like presumption--is always a badge of
   the truest and most reverent humility!

   Beloved, you mayknow whether you are Christ's or not! I exhort you not
   to give sleep to your eyes till you know it! What? Can you rest when
   you do not know whether you are saved or not? O Sirs, can you sit down
   at your tables and feast--can you go about your daily business with
   this thought in your mind, "If I should drop dead, I do not know
   whether I should be found in Heaven or in Hell"? I tell you nothing but
   certainties will suit my soul! I hope I never shall rest comfortable
   while under a doubt of my interest in Christ. Doubts may come--these we
   can understand--but to be comfortable under doubts, we hope we never
   shall comprehend! No, nothing but to--

   "Read my title clear To mansions in the skies"

   can give me joy and peace through believing! "You have received Christ
   the Lord." Just pass the question around the gallery there, and ask
   yourselves down below, "Have I received Christ Jesus the Lord?" Say,
   "Yes," or, "No," and God help you to give the answer solemnly as in His
   sight!

   II. As briefly as possible we turn to notice THE COUNSEL GIVEN--"As you
   have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." There
   are three things suggested by the word, "walk"--continuance, progress,
   activity.

   To walk in a certain way means continuing in it. Now, Christian, you
   took Christ to be your All-in-All, did you not? Well, then, continueto
   take Him as your All-in-All. The true way for a Christian to live is to
   live entirely upon Christ. Living by frames and feelings is a dying
   form of life. "He lived by a feeling experience," said one--and a poor
   method of living, too! Christians have experiences and they have
   feelings, but, if they are wise, they never feed upon these things, but
   upon Christ, Himself. You took Christ to be your All-in-All at first.
   You did not, then, mix up your frames and feelings with Him--you looked
   entirely out of self to Him. Well now, continue in the same frame of
   mind! You sat down at the foot of the Cross and you said--

   "Now free from sin, I'll walk at large My Savior's blood's my full
   discharge! At His dear feet myself I lay-- A sinner saved, and homage
   pay."

   Well, then stay there! Stay there! Never get an inch beyond that
   position. When you get sanctified, still look to Christ as if you were
   unsanctified! When you are on the verge of being glorified, look to Him
   as if you were just newly come out of the hole of the Pit. Hang upon
   Christ, you who are the best, just as though you were the worst! The
   same faith which saved Mary Magdalene, which saved Saul of Tarsus--must
   save you in the moment when you shall be the nearest to the perfect
   image of Christ Jesus! It is "none but Jesus" now to your soul--let it
   be "none but Jesus--none but Jesus," as long as you live!

   In walking, there is not only continuance, but also progress. After a
   man becomes a Christian, he has not to lay again the foundation, but he
   has to go on and to advance in the Divine Life. Still, wherever he
   shall advance, he is always to say, "None but Christ! Christ is all!"
   Depend upon it, every inch of progress that you make beyond a simple
   reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ will entail the painful necessity
   of your going back. If you begin to patch Christ's robe of
   righteousness with the very best rags of your own, no matter how
   cleanly you may have washed them, every rag will have to be unraveled,
   and every stitch will have to be cut! There is the Rock, Christ Jesus.
   Some Christians begin building their own stages on the Rock. How
   carefully they tie the timbers together. How neatly they plane and
   smooth them. And then they get high up upon these stages that they have
   built and they feel so happy--they have such frames! Such feelings!
   Such graces! Such fullness! And they are inclined to look down upon
   those poor souls who are crying, "None but Jesus!" By-and-by there
   comes a storm and the edifice they have built begins to creak, and
   crack, and rock to and fro--and they begin to cry, "Ah, where are we
   now? Now we shall perish! Now Christ's love begins to dry up! Now He
   will fail us!" No--no such thing! It is not Christ who is failing you!
   It is not the Rock that is shaking, but what you have built upon the
   Rock! Come down from the stage which you have built and, as Job says,
   "embrace the Rock for want of a shelter." I believe those souls have
   the most safety and comfort who simply trust to Christ. Was it not
   Irving who said that he believed his good works had done him more harm
   than his bad works had done him, for his bad ones drove him to Christ,
   but his good ones led him to rely upon them? And, after all, are not
   our good works, bad works, for is there not something in all of them to
   make us fly to the fountain of the Savior's blood for cleansing?

   "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,"
   also implies activity. Christians are not to be lie-a-beds, nor forever
   to sit still. There is an activityin religion without which it is of
   little worth. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Help the poor. Teach
   the ignorant. Comfort the miserable. But take care that when you do all
   this, you do it in Christ, and for Christ--and let no thought of merit
   stain the act! Let no reflection of getting salvation for yourself come
   in to mar it all, but in Christ Jesus walk day by day. Ah, Brothers and
   Sisters, if a thunderstorm were to come on just now while we are
   sitting here, and if the lightning should come flashing in at these
   windows and run with its blue flame down these columns, you and I might
   begin to feel some alarm! And if one were struck dead in our presence,
   in what kind of state would you and I likely to be amidst such
   confusion and alarm? If I were to choose the words which I would like
   to say at such a moment, they would be these--

   "Nothing in my hands I bring--

   Simply to Your Cross I cling." You are on board ship in a storm just
   now. There goes a mast into the water! The lifeboats have all drifted
   away. The ship is pretty sure to be dashed on yonder rock! Pallor is on
   every cheek and turmoil every side. What is your prayer as you kneel
   down? What are your thoughts? Do you think, now, about your sermons,
   about your visiting the sick, about your prayers and your experiences?
   No! I tell you that they will seem to you to be nothing better than
   dross and dung when you are in such a state of apprehension! But you
   will cling to Christ's Cross and be conveyed to Heaven, let the stormy
   winds blow as they will! And if everything were silent, tonight--could
   we hear nothing but the ticking of the clock were we, ourselves,
   reclining on our death pillow? While loving friends wiped the clammy
   sweat from our brow, surely we would, each one, wish to say--

   "My hope is built on nothing less

   Than Jesus' blood and righteousness!

   I dare not trust the sweetest frame

   But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

   On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand!

   All other ground is sinking sand." Well, walk in Him just as you would
   walk in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, but walk on the mountaintops
   of life's activities!

   III. Let us now say a few words on our third point--THE MODEL WHICH IS
   PRESENTED TO US HERE. We are to walk in Him as we received Him.

   And how did we receive Him? Let us remember. You will not have to
   strain your memories much, for, I think, though other days have mingled
   with their fellows and, like coins worn in the circulation, have lost
   their impression, yet the day when you first received Christ will be as
   fresh as though it were newly minted in time. Oh, that first day!--

   "Do mind the place, the spot of ground Where Jesus did you meet?" Some
   of us can never forget either that place or that time. Well, how did we
   receive Christ?'

   We received Him very gratefully, having no claim whatever to His Grace.
   We felt that we had done everything to deserve God's wrath. We
   confessed that there was no merit in us, but we perceived that there
   was mercy in Him--

   "We saw One hanging on a tree In agonies and blood"

   and as He told us to look at Him and assured us that there was life in
   a look, we did--and we were lightened, and we found life in Him! Surely
   we had shaken our hands of all merit, as Paul shook off the viper into
   the fire at Melita. We had no confidence, then, in any resolutions of
   our own, in any performances yet to come, much less in anything past.
   Well, then, we are to come now as empty-handed as we came then! Our
   song is to be--

   "Nothing in my hands I bring-- Simply to Your Cross I cling." How did
   we receive Christ? Well, we received Him very humbly. Whatever pride
   may be in our heart--and there is much of it--and, I suppose we shall
   never get rid of it till we are wrapped in our winding-sheets--there
   was as little that day as we ever had at any other time. Oh, how humbly
   did we creep to the foot of the Cross! We were then broken in heart and
   contrite in spirit. Ah, Christian, can you remember what humble views
   you had of yourself--what a sink of

   depravity you felt your heart to be? Do you not recollect Augustine's
   expression when he compares himself to a walking dunghill? And did you
   not feel yourself to be something of that kind--so base, so loathsome
   that you could only stand afar off and cry, ' 'God be merciful to me, a
   sinner"? And you cried to Christ just as Peter did, "Lord, save me!"
   And just as the sea seemed about to swallow you up, you laid hold upon
   His outstretched hand and you were saved! Now, tonight, do the same.
   Your danger is as great as ever out of Christ. Your sin is as great as
   ever out of Him. Come then, casting away all the pride which your
   experiences and graces may have worked in you--come to Him and take Him
   for your All-

   in-All!

   How did we receive Christ? If I recollect rightly--and I think I do--we
   received Him very joyfully. Oh, what joy my soul had when first I knew
   the Lord! It was holy day in my soul that day. Perhaps we have never
   had such joyous days since then, and the reason has been, most likely,
   because we have been thinking about other things and have not thought
   so much about Christ Jesus the Lord. Come, let us again take Him! The
   wine is as sweet--let us drink as deeply as ever. Christ, the Bread of
   Heaven, is as nourishing. Come, let us eat as heartily as ever. Fill
   your omers, O you poor and weak ones! Gather much, for you shall have
   nothing left over. This Manna is very sweet--it tastes like wafers made
   of honey. Come to my Master as you came at first and He will give you
   to drink of the living waters once again!

   How did we receive Christ? I am sure we received Him very graciously.
   He stood at the door and knocked, and we said, "Come in." Your Savior,
   my dear Friends, was long a stranger to your hearts. "Come in," we
   said. We knew that He meant to take the best seat at the table. We
   understood that He came as Master and Lord, but we said, "Come in." We
   did not quite know all that the Cross might mean, but whatever it might
   mean, we meant to take it! Surely that day, when He asked us, "Can you
   drink of My cup, and can you be baptized with My Baptism?" our soul
   said, "We are able." And though we have been unfaithful to Him, yet I
   hope tonight we can take Christ as unreservedly as ever. Had I dreamed,
   when first I preached His Gospel, that the way of the ministry would be
   so rough and thorny, my flesh would have shunned it! But, despite all,
   let it be what it is and ten thousand times worse, come in, my Master!
   Come and take Your servant--let me lie like a consecrated bull upon the
   altar, to be wholly burned, and not an atom left! Brothers, do you not
   feel the same? On this platform I have sometimes prayed that if the
   crushing of us might lift Christ one inch higher, it might be so! And
   if the dragging of our names through mire and dirt could make Christ's
   Church more pure, we have prayed that it might be so! We have prayed
   that if any shame, if any dishonor, if any pain might put one more
   jewel in His crown than could be there in any other way, we might have
   the honor of suffering and being made ashamed for His sake!

   And I think, Brothers and Sisters, though the flesh struggles, we may
   pray tonight, "Lord, bind the sacrifice with cords, even with cords to
   the horns of the altar." We have received Christ and in that same
   way--unreservedly, we desire to walk in Him--

   "Have you counted the cost? Have you counted the cost

   You followers of the Cross?

   And are you prepared, for your Master's sake,

   To suffer all worldly loss?

   And can you endure with that virgin band,

   The lowly and pure in heart

   Who, where ever the Lamb does lead,

   From His footsteps never depart?

   Do you answer, 'We can'? Do you answer, 'We can,

   Through His love's constraining power'?

   But do you remember the flesh is weak,

   And will shrink in the trial-hour?

   Yet yield to His love who around you now

   The bands of a man would cast.

   The cords of His love who was given for you

   To His altar binding you fast

   You may count the cost, you may count the cost

   Of all Egypt's treasure,

   But the riches of Christ you can never count--

   His love you can never measure."

   "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him."

   But oh, some of you have never received Him, so my last word is to
   them. Do you ask, "What is the way of salvation?" It is by receiving
   Christ. Oh, then come and receive Him! May the Holy Spirit's power lead
   sinners to Christ! You need not bring anything to Him. You need not
   bring a soft heart to Him. You need not bring tears of repentance to
   Him. But just come and take Christ. Remember, it is not what you are,
   but it is what Christ is that saves you! Never look at yourself, but
   look at the wounds of Jesus! There is life there. God help you to
   look--to look tonight! And if you shall find Him, our prayer shall be
   that from this day forth, you shall walk in Him and He shall have the
   glory!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM90.

   A Prayer of Moses, the Man of God.

   It may help us to understand this Psalm if we recollect the
   circumstances which surrounded Moses when he was in the desert. For
   forty years he had to see a whole generation of people die in the
   wilderness. In addition to the deaths which might occur among those who
   were born in the wilderness, the whole of that great host which came
   out of Egypt, numbering, probably, between two and three million
   persons, must lie in their graves in the desert so that there must have
   been constant funerals--and the march of the children of Israel could
   be perceived along the desert track by the graves which they left
   behind them. You do not wonder, therefore, at this expression of the
   awe of "Moses, the man of God" as he was so continually reminded of the
   mortality of mankind. And note how reverently and trustfully he turns
   to the ever-living and eternal God and rests in Him.

   Verse 1. LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
   "Did not Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all our fathers dwell in
   You? And though we are now weary-footed pilgrims who have no fixed
   dwelling place on earth, we do dwell in You. You, Lord, are the true
   home of all the generations of Your people."

   2. Before the mountains were brought forth, or before You had formed
   the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are
   God. God is the only Being who has had eternal and essential Existence
   independently of all others--and all others have owed their existence
   to Him.

   3. You turn man to destruction and say, Return, you children of men. He
   sends us forth into life, and He calls us back again in death.

   4. For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is
   past, and as a watch in the night Yesterday, while it was with us, was
   a short period of 24 hours. But when it is past, it seems like nothing
   at all. A thousand years, all big with events which we consider to be
   full of weight and importance, make up a long period in which myriads
   of men come and go--yet those thousand years, in God's sight, "are but
   as yesterday when it is past," or but as the few hours in the night
   during which the mariner keeps watch at sea and then is relieved by
   another. A thousand years are but "as a watch in the night" to the
   Eternal--and He needs no one to relieve Him, for "He that keeps Israel
   shall neither slumber nor sleep."

   5. You carry them away as with a flood. They have no power to stem the
   torrent.

   5. They are as a sleep. Our earthly existence is but "as a sleep." Many
   things are not what they seem to us to be in our fevered dreams. The
   time of awaking is coming and then things will appear very different to
   us from what they seem to be now.

   5. They are like grass which grows up. Fresh, green, vigorous, lovely,
   restful to the eyes.

   6. In the morning it flourishes, and grows up; in the evening it is cut
   down and withers. It needs no long period, ages upon ages, to destroy
   its beauty. Only let the swiftly-passing day come to its waning and the
   grass "is cut down and withers."

   7. For we are consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath are we
   troubled. If we had to endure the flames of God's anger, we would be
   consumed by it. But I think that Christians should not read this
   passage as though it applied to them. They are not under the Divine
   anger, nor need they fear being troubled by the Divine wrath, for His
   anger is turned away from them through the great atoning Sacrifice of
   His Son, Jesus Christ. But the children of Israel in the wilderness
   were

   being consumed by God's anger and by His wrath they were being
   troubled, so that the words of Moses did apply to them.

   8, 9. You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the
   light of Your Countenance. For all our days are passed away in Your
   wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. Like a romance, with
   which the Orientals still delight to beguile the passing hours. Such is
   the life of man--"as a tale that is told."

   10. The days of our years are threescore years and ten. This was a
   gloomy fact to Moses, who lived to be 120 years of age and who probably
   remembered other men who had been far older than himself. Yet it is
   well that the ordinary period of human life has been shortened. It is
   still far too long for those who do evil, though it may not be too long
   for those who do good. Yet there are, even now, some who outlive their
   usefulness, and who might have been happier if they had finished their
   course sooner. "The days of our years are threescore years and ten."

   10. And if by reason of strength they are fourscore years, yet is their
   strength labor and sorrow: for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
   Where do we fly? That is the all-important point! The cutting of the
   string that holds the bird by the foot is a blessing or a curse
   according to the way in which it takes its flight. If we fly up to
   build our nest on yonder trees of God that are full of sap, then,
   indeed, we do well when we fly away. And we may even long for the wings
   of a dove, that we may fly away and be at rest.

   11, 12. Who knows the power of Your anger? Even according to Your fear,
   so is Your wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our
   hearts unto wisdom. It has been well said that many men will number
   their cows, and number their coins, but forget to number their days!
   Yet that is a kind of arithmetic that would be exceedingly profitable
   to those who practiced it aright. Counting our days and finding them
   but few, we should seek to use them discreetly--we should not reckon
   that we could afford to lose so much as one of them! Who would be a
   spendthrift with so small a store as that which belongs to us?

   13, 14. Return, O LORD, how long? And let it repent You concerning Your
   servants. O satisfy us early with Your mercy that we may rejoice and be
   glad all our days. "If they are but few, yet let them be happy. Give us
   an abundance of Your mercy, O Lord, and let us have it at once, so that
   however few our days may be, every one of them may be spent in the ways
   of wisdom and, consequently, in the ways of peace and happiness."

   15. Make us glad according to the days wherein You have afflicted us,
   and the years wherein we have seen evil "Balance our sorrows with an
   equal weight of joys. Give us Grace equivalent to our griefs and if You
   have given us a bitter cup of woe, now let us drink from the golden
   chalice of Your love, and so let our fainting spirits be refreshed."

   16. Let Your work appear unto Your servants. May we have Grace to
   devote ourselves entirely to God's service and do the work which He has
   appointed us to do!

   16. And Your glory unto their children. If we may not live to see the
   success of our efforts, may our children see it! If the glory of that
   bright millennial age, which is certain to come in due time, shall not
   gladden our eyes before we fall asleep in Jesus, let us do the Lord's
   work as far as we can that our children may see His Glory.

   17. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish
   You the work of our hands upon us. Even if we die, let our work live.
   May there be something permanent remaining after we are gone--not wood,
   hay, and stubble, which the fire will consume, but a building of gold,
   silver, and precious stones which will endure the fire that, sooner or
   later, will "try every man's work of what sort it is."

   17. Yes, the work of our hands establish You it
     __________________________________________________________________

"The Shadow of a Great Rock"

   (No. 3031)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
   18, 1869.

   "A man shall be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Isaiah
   32:2.

   [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon on previous portions of this verse, are
   as follows--No. 2856, Volume 49--OUR HIDING PLACE and No. 1243, Volume
   21--RIVERS OF WATER IN A DRY PLACE.]

   EVEN in our usually temperate climate, we sometimes complain of the
   great heat, which is coolness itself compared with the terrible burning
   of Oriental lands. A journey through the Sahara Desert might make us
   long for even the heat of our hottest summer, unbearable though it
   seems to us to be. With the hot sand beneath his feet from day to day,
   with not a tree and scarcely so much as a bush within sight. With the
   sun pouring down torrents of heat as though he were full of wrath
   against the wayfarer, with water exceedingly scarce and what is to be
   obtained about as nauseous as one can conceive, the traveler through
   the wilderness finds it to be a "weary land," indeed, and longs for the
   time when he shall once again see the cultivated fields and the lands
   that flow with brooks and rivers!

   Travelers tell us that when the heat has become so intense that every
   living creature seems to be exhausted--when birds, if there are any,
   droop their wings, and beasts lie down and pant out their very life--at
   such times they have been glad to see great rocks right in the center
   of the barren plain. And, creeping under their shadow, they have left
   it on record that they have found most refreshing coolness and have
   lifted up their hands in gratitude to God for the blessing of "the
   shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Though I have never
   experienced to the same degree what these travelers report, I remember
   one hot day in Northern Italy, when riding over a dry plain where the
   only living creatures seemed to be the lizards and the abundant flies
   which they were pursuing, and the myriads of mosquitoes that stung one
   almost to madness--a great rock was really a source of solid comfort.
   Though we could afford time to rest only for a little while beneath its
   shadow, we gratefully remembered it all day long and wished that we
   could have stayed until nightfall beneath the shadow of that "great
   rock in a weary land."

   Writing under Divine Inspiration, the Prophet Isaiah describes the Lord
   Jesus Christ, in His Manhood, as being comparable to this great rock.
   In this wilderness life of ours, this wretched life apart from Him--to
   us pilgrims through this desert to the better land beyond--Christ is a
   great Rock and He casts a blessed shadow across our path in which we
   refresh ourselves and renew our strength to go on our way rejoicing.

   I shall try to bring out the meaning of the text by noticing, first,
   why our Lord may thus be compared to the shadow of a great rock.
   Secondly, I shall show when He is especially refreshing to us and,
   thirdly, and practically, I shall ask, what is our business with regard
   to Him?

   I. First, then, WHY MAY OUR LORD BE SAID TO BE A GREAT ROCK IN A WEARY
   LAND CASTING A REFRESHING SHADOW?

   We may remember concerning Him, in the first place, that, like a rock,
   He is always in the same place. There are some shadows which you can
   create artificially and carry with you. There have been shadows which
   have been cast by great trees, but those trees have been removed. And
   if the traveler, in passing over the same route, should expect to enjoy
   their cooling shade, he would be disappointed. But, the great rock
   remains just where it was when Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sheltered
   beneath it--and the traveler, today, may do the same. It is just so
   with our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be His name, He has not shifted His
   position! If any poor soul here wants to find Him, He is just where He
   used to be--that

   is, He is waiting at the Mercy Seat to receive every soul that will
   come and trust Him. Jesus Christ is not far away from any of you--He is
   so near that a prayer will reach Him, a sigh will find Him and a tear
   will get at His heart! Only turn your desires towards Him! Only say to
   Him, now, in the silence of your spirit, "Jesus, Master, cast Your
   shadow over my sin-burdened head. Protect my soul from the wrath of God
   and from the fierce heat of Hell!" Only ask this and it shall be given
   you, for Jesus is still waiting to be gracious and ready to bless you
   even now!

   He is like a rock, too, because His shadow is always there as well as
   Himself Wherever the sun and a rock are, there is sure to be a shadow.
   So, whenever God pours out the fierce beams of His wrath upon a sinner,
   let that sinner fly to Christ and he shall find a shelter from that
   wrath! Whenever conscience oppresses you and reminds you of your guilt,
   depend upon it that Christ has not lost His power to quiet conscience
   and to calm your fears. Sometimes a sinner fears that it is too late
   for him to find peace in Christ, or, possibly, he thinks it is too
   soon, or that he has sinned away his day of grace. Ah, poor Soul, all
   these suggestions are Satan's lies! If you really desire to have
   Christ's love shed abroad in your heart, that is a proof that Christ
   has already fixed His love upon you! If your head is now beaten upon by
   the fierce sunlight of God's wrath, you may come and find a shelter in
   the great rock of Christ's atoning Sacrifice! If you will trust in
   Jesus, you shall have the peace which only He can give--the peace which
   passes understanding. We rightly sing--

   "Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood

   Shall never lose its power

   Till all the ransomed Church of God

   Is saved to sin no more"--

   and they are not all saved yet--there are still some to be gathered
   and, therefore, Christ's blood has not yet lost its power to cleanse
   from sin! And Christ, as a rock, casts His welcome shade over all who
   come to Him to be thus refreshed!

   Our Lord may also be compared to the shadow of a great rock because the
   shadow of a great rock is broad. I remember the time when, after a
   long, hot and dusty walk, I found myself at the top of a considerable
   elevation where there is neither shrub nor tree--but a huge cross which
   someone has erected there. And I remember well how my friend and I
   tried to get under the shelter of that cross, but there was only room
   enough in the shadow for one of us. We both tried to get under the
   shadow, for it was terribly hot in the sunshine, but the cross could
   not give shelter to the two of us, so we had to take turns as long as
   we waited on the hillside. But it is not so in the case of a great
   rock! The shadow there is sometimes so wide that if a whole caravan
   shall wish to rest there free from the sun's heat, they may all come
   and shelter under it--travelers, camels and all! So is it with my
   Master. He is no little Savior! He has already saved millions, but He
   is just as able to save unnumbered millions more! If the shadow of His
   Cross could only screen one sinner, what a scramble many of you would
   make in order to be that one. Yet I fear that the very freeness of the
   Divine Mercy makes many despise it, though it should not do so. If the
   whole of us felt the heat of the sun of God's wrath in our conscience
   and we were all to come crowding to Jesus, we would not hear Him say,
   "I cannot receive you all. I have not room for you all." If there were
   room in Christ for all but one, I should hear a cry from somewhere in
   this place, "O God, shut me not out, but receive me, even me!" Yet many
   of you are content not to get under the shadow of Christ though there
   is room there for you! There is room in Christ for the biggest sinner
   out of Hell! There is room for ten thousand times ten thousand sinners!
   There will be room for all of Adam's race who are ever led to come and
   put their trust in Him! It is the shadow of a Great Rock and,
   therefore, it is a broad shadow!

   Further, the shadow of a rock is free to all Nobody thinks of paying
   for a seat in the shadow of a rock, and nobody would wait to be asked
   to come under that shadow. No one would dream of needing preparation
   before sitting on the shady side of a great rock. Everybody who is
   weary seeks the shelter--every man who is wiping the hot sweat from his
   brow comes and stretches himself to rest beneath that genial shade even
   without an invitation! In like manner, Jesus Christ is as free as the
   air to all who will trust in Him! You do not need to make any
   preparation for coming to Him and although many invitations are given
   to you to come to Christ, this is because of your unwillingness to come
   to Him--not because there are any hindrances on His part! When a soul
   is once brought to long for Christ, that soul may at once have Christ.
   The great difficulty is to make sinners feel their need of a
   Savior--they think that they do not need Him. They stand in the blazing
   sunshine and imagine that they will never faint beneath that fierce
   heat. But when their strength begins to depart, they are willing to
   come under the shadow of the Great Rock and there it stands, just as it
   always did, and they are invited to come to it, after all their neglect
   of it, and find a refreshing shelter there. Does not this Truth of God
   comfort some poor soul in my audience? Are there not some of you who
   have made the great mistake of supposing

   that you had to grow better, or to do some good thing in order to get
   to Christ? Well, then, let me assure you that as free as is the water
   in the drinking-fountain at the street corner, as free as is the air
   which enters into your lungs, so free is the ever-gracious Savior to
   every guilty sinner who will but come and seek a shelter beneath this
   "shadow of a Great Rock in a weary land!"

   Once again, our Lord is like a rock because His shadow is most
   refreshing. I do not know how true they are, but there are some old
   country notions that certain trees give an unhealthy shade. I have been
   sometimes warned not to sit under such-and-such a tree--if I did so, I
   would have a headache and I know not what evil besides! But this I do
   know-- the shadow of Christ never hurts anyone, but uniformly blesses
   in a thousand ways! When a man does but come and rest in Jesus,
   headaches and heartaches, as far as they have to do with moral and
   spiritual disorders, pass away. The believing man realizes that he is
   forgiven and, oh, what a blessed realization is that! Hear him sing--

   "Now, oh joy! My sins are pardoned, Now I can, and do believe!"

   And with that sense of pardoned sin comes a sense of perfect peace with
   God! The forgiven man feels a joy which he never knew before--not the
   wild joy in which he once delighted, which first intoxicated him and
   then left him depressed and heart-broken, but a joy like the course of
   a great river, increasing as it flows, widening and deepening as months
   and years roll on!

   It is a blessed thing to get under the shadow of Christ. I cannot tell
   you all the happiness I have personally felt since I first believed in
   Jesus, many years ago. Amidst many struggles, and wars, and fights, I
   can bear my testimony that there is no life like the life of one who
   trusts in Jesus! There is no happiness this side the grave that is
   comparable with the happiness of living by faith upon the Crucified
   Redeemer! I do but speak what I know to be true when I recommend all
   young people to come beneath the shadow of this Great Rock in the early
   part of their lives, that ever afterwards, even until life's latest
   hour, they may have the shelter which that Rock will surely bring!
   Never did I meet a Christian who repented of having trusted in Christ!
   And never have I heard of one who, in his old age, said that he had
   made a mistake in relying upon Christ as his Savior. Never have I sat
   by the bedside of the dying to receive the recantation of a saint who
   told me that salvation by Grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus
   Christ, was all a deception, all a delusion! But often have these ears
   of mine heard expiring songs as full of melody as the songs of angels,
   and heard declarations of peace and joy from departing Believers that
   have made my heart leap and my eyes flash with joy at the very hearing!
   So much more deep and profound have been the joy of those who uttered
   such words of holy exultation and delight!

   I have just one more observation to make upon this part of our
   subject--our Lord is like "a great rock in a weary land" because,
   though it gives shade to others, that is because it bears the heat of
   the sun itself The rock is the interposing medium between the burning
   sunbeams and the weary traveler. Here is a delightful picture of the
   mediatorial work of Christ. He puts Himself between the wrath of God
   and us. The awful beams that streamed from the meridian sunshine of
   inflexible Justice concentrated all their fierce heat upon Christ and
   because they fell upon Him and were absorbed by Him, He now presents a
   cool and refreshing shade to all who come and trust in Him! Jesus
   suffered that we may not suffer. Jesus died that we may live. He was
   punished in order that we may be forgiven. He was crushed to death
   beneath the heel of Divine Vengeance against sin in order that we may
   be lifted up to Heaven by the hands of Infinite Mercy. Here, then, is
   the Gospel in miniature set before you! You can, in your mind's eye,
   see the Great Rock and its welcome shadow, the sun shining on the rock
   and the traveler protected by the rock. Oh, that all of you who know
   not the Lord Jesus Christ would come to Him now! As you seek a shade
   from the sun when his beams are too hot for you to bear, so seek a
   shelter from the fierce rays of the sun of God's wrath! There is no
   shelter but in Christ, but there is perfect protection in Him. To come
   to Him needs no long pilgrimage, no elaborate ceremonies--you can sit
   in your pew and trust in Jesus. There is life in a single look at Him!
   As soon as you trust in Him--

   "The great transaction's done!" And beneath the shadow of that Rock
   your spirit is secure forever!

   II. But we must now pass on to notice that THERE ARE CERTAIN TIMES WHEN
   OUR LORD, LIKE THE SHADOW OF A GREAT ROCK, IS PECULIARLY REFRESHING.

   Unto them that believe, Jesus is always precious, but there are times
   when He is peculiarly so. This was the case with them when they were
   under conviction of sin. What memories that expression awakens in some
   of us--"conviction of

   sin!" Why, it was to some of us a very martyrdom! I think it would have
   been less painful to have been burned alive at the stake than to have
   passed through those horrors and depressions of spirit which some of us
   passed through while we were seeking pardon, but seeking it in the
   wrong way. When God makes the conscience a target for His sharp arrows.
   When the ten great guns of the Law are all fired at the sinner's soul.
   When shot after shot goes tearing through the man's false peace,
   blowing his self-confidence to pieces and leaving him wounded, mangled
   and maimed. When the man cries out in his agony, "What shal1 I do to
   find salvation? How shall I get rid of sin? God is righteously angry
   with me, how shall I appease His wrath? I fear that Hell will be my
   everlasting portion, how can I escape that awful doom?"--it is then
   that Christ becomes "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."
   Sinners will never come to Jesus while they have anything of their own
   to rely upon--so may the lord strip us and bring us down to absolute
   bankruptcy and beggary as far as everything of our own is concerned!
   For then we shall look to Jesus and find everything in Him! So, in the
   time of conviction of sin, when the ten-thonged whip of the Law falls
   upon a man's conscience, Christ is indeed precious!

   So too, dear Friends, in times of trial Believers find the shadow of
   this Great Rock to be most delightful and refreshing. I suppose that
   most of us, if not all, have had our trials. The dear child whom we
   loved so fondly has sickened and died. The husband or the wife, the
   delight of our eyes, has been borne away to the silent tomb. Possibly
   we were slandered by a cruel enemy, or forsaken by a false friend in
   whom we had implicitly trusted. It may be that our house was burned, or
   our business proved a failure and that losses followed on the heels of
   losses like Job's messengers with evil tidings. Yes, but, beloved
   Believer, in all these times of trial you have found Christ to be a
   blessed Comforter! And I will venture to say that the sharper your
   affliction has been, the sweeter has Christ been to you. I wonder how
   some people who have many troubles can get on without Christ? I marvel
   at you, consumptive young woman, and you, hard-working man with a
   growing family, trying to do without the consolations of our blessed
   Savior! I know that some people have the notion that religion is not
   meant for the poorest of the poor, but if there are any people whom it
   suits best, surely it is these! If it does not fill the cupboard, it
   makes the heart content with what it has! If it does not put broadcloth
   on the back, it makes the wearer satisfied with fustian! There is no
   one like Christ for the poor, and the needy, and the sick, and the
   sorrowing. He is, indeed, as "the shadow of a great rock in a weary
   land" to all such poor tried souls.

   Let me also remind you that we shall know more about the refreshing
   shade of Christ when we come to die. Not many weeks hence some of us
   must die. When there is such a large number of people gathered
   together, some of them must soon die. But all of us must, before long,
   gather up our feet in the bed and die--

   "Our fathers' God to meet."

   What must it be to die without a Savior? A shiver runs through my frame
   as I think of it. To die without a hope, how sad! But to die trusting
   in Christ, how blessed! I remember standing in the pulpit one sultry
   summer's afternoon, preaching of the joys of Heaven and there was one
   woman's eyes that specially caught mine as I was preaching. I knew not
   why it was, but it seemed to fascinate me. And as I spoke of Heaven,
   she seemed to drink in every word, and her eyes flashed back again the
   thoughts I uttered. She seemed to lead me on to speak more and more of
   the streets of gold and the gates of pearl till, suddenly, her eyes
   appeared to me to be too fixed--and at last it struck me that while I
   had been talking of Heaven, she had gone there. I paused and asked if
   someone in the pew would kindly see whether the friend sitting there
   was not dead and, in a moment, her husband said, "She is dead, Sir." I
   had known her long as a consistent Christian woman and, as I stood
   there, I half wished that I could have changed places with her! There
   was not a sigh, nor a tear. She seemed to drink in the thoughts of
   Heaven and then straightway to go and enjoy it! If such a sudden
   departure is not ours, it will be much like it--we shall close our eyes
   on earth and open them in Heaven beneath the shadow of that Great Rock!
   In Heaven, they sit beneath Christ's shadow, and on earth we will do
   the same. So we will still sing--

   "Where is the shadow of that Rock

   That from the sun defends Your flock?

   Gladly would I feed among Your sheep,

   Among them rest, among them sleep." But, my dear Hearers, what will it
   be to have the shelter of Christ in the Day of Judgment?We can never
   form right ideas of what that Day of Judgment will be--

   "That day of wrath, that dreadful day

   When Heaven and earth shallpass away"--

   and weeping and wailing shall be the prelude to the sitting of the
   Judge upon the Great White Throne! Then, when every eye shall see Him
   and they, also, who pierced Him, it will be a blessed thing to have Him
   as the Rock of Ages to hide us from the wrath of that tremendous day--

   "Day of judgment, day of wonders!

   Hark, the trumpet's awful sound,

   Louder than a thousand thunders,

   Shakes the vast creation round!

   How the summons

   Will the sinner's heart confound!

   See the Judge our nature wearing,

   Clothed in majesty Divine!

   You who long for His appearing,

   Then shall say, 'This God is mine!'

   Gracious Savor!

   Own me in that day for Thine!" III. Now lastly, if these things are so,
   and they are so, WHAT IS OUR BUSINESS?

   Our business is to get under this shadow if we are not already under it
   What is the use of a shadow to those who stand in the blazing sunshine?
   There is many a soul that stands in the sunshine longer than it needs
   and so feels faint and weary. And there are some who have thus got such
   a sunstroke as they will never lose this side of Heaven. I mean that
   they have to go doubting and fearing all their spiritual life because
   they were so long before they trusted in Christ. I know that only the
   Holy Spirit can bring a sinner under this blessed shadow, but how base
   must be the human heart when it will not come and take what Christ so
   freely provides! Why will you die? Why will you perish when you need
   not? There is a shadow--why will you stand in the fierce light of the
   sun? All the bells of Heaven are ringing out, "Come and welcome!" All
   the angels of God are singing, "Come and welcome! Come and welcome!"
   From this open Book, from the Gospel preached by one of God's ministers
   tonight, there sounds this message, "Come and trust in the Incarnate
   Son of God!" I wish I knew how to put it in more melting tones, but it
   needs the Holy Spirit to bring it home to your hearts. Dear trembler,
   waverer, halting between two opinions, you who have so long put off
   coming to Christ, come now! I ask again, why do you continue to stand
   beneath the wrath of God when you need not linger there a moment
   longer?

   "Come to Jesus,

   Come to Jesus, Sinner, come!" And when you have come, take care to tell
   others what you have discovered. Do not let any poor soul be without
   the knowledge of the way of salvation so far as you can tell it. Tell
   to those who are round about you, your experience of the comforts of
   true religion! This is the way to gather jewels for the Redeemer's
   crown. If you find that Christ deceives you, let us know, for, as
   honest men, we would not like to go on telling an idle tale. But if you
   find Him true. If He comforts you, and blesses you, do bear your
   testimony to others, for then, perhaps your child, your wife, your
   brother, your neighbor may come and trust Him too! I will be bound for
   Him that He will reject none of you who come to Him and I will be a
   bondsman for Him for another thing, that if you once have Him as your
   Savior, you will never grow weary of Him! You will say that it was the
   best day that ever dawned upon you when you gave your heart to the
   Crucified Christ, who, on Calvary's Cross, made the one Sacrifice for
   sin forever! Oh, yield your heart to Him! I see Him standing there with
   those pierced hands of His! He knocks softly at your heart's door--

   "Admit Him, for the human breast

   Never entertained so kind a guest

   Admit Him, before His anger burns,

   His feet depart, and never returns!

   Admit Him, or the hour's at hand

   When at His door denied you'll stand." By the love of God in Christ
   Jesus, hold out no longer! Young man, I beseech you by the precious
   blood of Christ, give yourself to Him! Have you done it? Do you trust
   Him wholly? Then, rejoice and sing, you seraphs, and let Heaven be

   glad, for Christ sees the reward of His soul-travail, for a child is
   born in His House tonight that shall live to praise Him, both here and
   throughout eternity!

   May the Lord bless everyone here, and His shall be the glory forever.
   Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW5:17-48.

   Verse 17. Think not that I am came to destroy the Law, or the Prophets:
   I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill The life-work and words of
   Christ are not an improvement of the Old Testament, or a doing away of
   it. It stands fast and firm, fulfilled, carried to perfection, filled
   to the fullest in Christ!

   18, 19. For verily Isay unto you, TillHeaven and earth pass away, one
   jot or one tittle shallin no wise pass away from the Law till all is
   fulfilled. Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least
   commandments, and shall teach men so, he 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. It is vain to teach the
   commandments without first doing them. The doing must always precede
   the teaching. If a man's example cannot be safely followed, it will be
   unsafe to trust his words.

   20. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the
   righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter
   into the Kingdom of Heaven. The scribes and Pharisees were supposed to
   be righteous beyond all others. "No," says Christ, "you must go beyond
   them." They were, after all, superficial, flimsy, pretentious, unreal
   in their righteousness--and we must have a far nobler character than
   they ever attained, or we "shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of
   Heaven."

   21. You have heard that it was said by them of old time, You shall not
   kill; and whoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.This is
   a proof that Christ did not come to abolish the Law, or to abate its
   demands in any degree whatever.

   22. But I say unto you. Oh, what Divine dignity there is in this
   majestic Person whose ipse dixit i s to shift all the sayings of the
   ages! He claims authority to speak, even though He should contradict
   all the Rabbis and all the learned men that went before Him--"I say
   unto you."

   22. That whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in
   danger of the judgment: and whoever shall say to his brother, Raca,
   shall be in danger of the council: but whoever shall say, You fool,
   shall be in danger of Hell fire. Christ here shows us that the
   commandment, "You shall not kill," deals with anger, with angry words,
   with words of cursing, with words of derision--for all these are
   killing things, hurting and wounding things--and the passion of anger
   is forbidden under the command, "You shall not kill." Men have not
   thought so, but it really is so, for he who is angry with his brother
   is a murderer! There is the spirit, the essence of that which leads to
   murder in the passion which breeds malice and revenge. The Law of God
   is spiritual--it touches the emotions, the thoughts, the desires as
   well as the words and actions of men. If I desire ill for a man, I have
   within me that which would desire his death--and what is that, after
   all, but murder in the heart? How strict is this Law, and yet how just
   and right!

   23, 24. Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there
   remember that your brother has anything against you; leave there your
   gift before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your
   brother, and then come and offer your gift.It is said that in India
   there is a complete divorce of religion from morality, so that a man
   may be supposed to be eminently religious even while living in the
   utmost filthiness and vice. But it must never be so among us. We must
   never imagine that God can accept an offering from us while we harbor
   any enmity in our hearts. Perhaps, after reading this passage, you say,
   "If I had anything against my brother, I would go to him at once, and
   seek to be reconciled to him." That would be quite right, but you must
   go further than that, for Christ says, "If you bring your gift to the
   altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you."
   It is much more easy to go to the man who has wronged you than to the
   one whom you have wronged. Yet the second is evidently the clearer
   duty, and should be attended to at once--neither can we expect the Lord
   to attend to us unless we attend to this duty.

   25, 26. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way
   with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver you to the judge, and
   the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison.
   Verily Isay unto you, You shall by no means come out till you have paid
   the uttermost farthing. There is nothing like ending disputes at once,
   before the

   rancor grows and your adversary becomes determined to push you to
   extremes. Oh, for more of that spirit of yielding! You know how people
   say, "If you tread on a worm: it will turn." But, Brothers and Sisters,
   a worm is not an example for a Christian, even if the poor wounded
   creature does turn toward you in its agony. If you turn, turn to kiss
   the hand that smites you, and to do good to them that evilly treat you!

   27, 28. You have heard that it was said by them of old time, You shall
   not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whoever looks on a woman
   to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart
   So that the unholy desire, the lascivious glance, everything that
   approximates towards licentiousness is here condemned--and Christ is
   proved to be not the Destroyer of the Law, but the Confirmer of it! See
   how He shows that the commandment is exceedingly broad, wide as the
   canopy of Heaven, all-embracing. How sternly it condemns us all and how
   well it becomes us to fall down at the feet of the God of Infinite
   Mercy and seek His forgiveness--

   "'Tis mercy--mercy we implore,

   We would Your pity move--

   Your Grace is an exhaustless store,

   And You, Yourself, are Love." 29, 30. And if your right eye offends
   you, pluck it out, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you
   that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body
   should be cast into Hell And if your right hand offends you, cut it
   off, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of
   your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast
   into Hell Give up the dearest, choicest and apparently most necessary
   thing if it leads you into sin. The same rule that bids you avoid sin,
   bids you also avoid all that leads to sin. If adultery is forbidden, so
   also is that glance with which the sin usually begins. We are to turn
   away our eyes from beholding that which leads towards sin and we are
   not to touch or taste that which would readily lead us into iniquity.
   Oh, that we had sufficient decision of character to make short work of
   everything which tends towards evil! Many persons, when their right eye
   offends them, put a green shade over it. And when their right hand
   offends them, they tie it up in a sling. But that is not obeying the
   command of Christ. He charges you to get rid of everything that would
   lead you wrong--make a clean sweep of it. You are wrong enough at your
   best, so do not permit anything to appertain to you which would lead
   you still further astray,

   31, 32. It has been said, Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give
   her a writing of divorcement: but Isay unto you, That whoever shall put
   away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication. Which is a
   sufficient and justifiable reason for divorce.

   32. Causes her to commit adultery: and whoever shall marry her that is
   divorced. That is to say, who is divorced without sufficient cause.

   32. Commits adultery.Among the Jews, divorce was the easiest thing in
   the world. A man might, in a pet, utter words which would divorce his
   wife. The Savior abolished that evil once and for all and made divorce
   a crime, as it always is "saving for the cause of fornication."

   33, 34. Again, you have heard that it has been said by them of old
   time, You shall not forswear yourself, but shall perform unto the Lord
   your oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all Christ thus abolishes
   the whole system of swearing, as it ought to be abolished in every
   place. And He goes on to show that He did not mean merely unclean,
   false oaths, or oaths taken as some men take them blasphemously, but
   every form and kind of oath, for He says, "Swear not at

   all."

   34-37. Neither by Heaven; for it is God's Throne: nor by the earth; for
   it is His footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the
   great King. Neither shall you swear by your head, because you cannot
   make one hair white or black But let your communication be, Yes, yes.
   No, no: for whatever is more than these comes of evil If words mean
   anything, this command of Christ is an utter abolishment of oaths taken
   before magistrates as well as everywhere else. I can make nothing else
   out of it--indeed, it must mean that because Christ contrasts His
   teaching with that of former ages--"It has been said by them of old
   time, You shall not forswear yourself, but shall perform unto the Lord
   your oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all." A man who cannot be
   believed upon his word, certainly cannot be believed upon his oath and,
   usually, when a man tells a lie, the next thing he does is swear to it.
   When Peter denied his Master, the next thing he did was to curse and to
   swear, because he thought it likely that they would not imagine that he
   was a follower of Christ if

   he did curse and swear. So he gave that as a pretty clear proof that he
   had not been with Christ and was not one of His disciples. Alas, that
   we should need anything beside "Yes, yes," and, "No, no!"

   38-43. You have heard that it has been said, An eye for an eye, and a
   tooth for a tooth: but Isay unto you, That you resist not evil: but
   whoever shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the other
   also. And ifany man will sue you at the Law, and take away your coat,
   let him have your cloak also. And whoever shall compel you to go a
   mile, go with him two. Give to him that asks you, and from him that
   would borrow of you turn not you away. You have heard that it has been
   said, You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. There are many
   who do the second of those two things, but not the first.

   44, 45. But Isay unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse
   you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
   despitefully use you, and persecute you; that you may be the children
   of your Father which is in Heaven: for He makes His sun to rise on the
   evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust God
   constantly does that which many people regard almost as a crime,
   namely, doing good to the undeserving. It is the very genius of
   Christianity to help those who are utterly unworthy--to be kind and
   generous even to those who are pretty certain to repay us with
   ingratitude and malice.

   46-48. For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Do
   not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only,
   what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be you
   therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect
   Stretch towards the highest conceivable standard and be not satisfied
   till you reach it.

   HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"--708, 808.
     __________________________________________________________________

Why Christ Is Not Esteemed

   (No. 3033)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON

   AT MAZE POND CHAPEL, LONDON

   "We esteemed Him not." Isaiah 53:3.

   This must be the universal confession of the human race. From the
   highest monarch to the meanest peasant, from the loftiest intellect to
   the most degraded mind, from the admired of all men to the unknown and
   insignificant, this one confession must come--"We esteemed Him not."
   Whether we examine the sensualist rioting in the delights of the flesh
   or the formalist starving his body to fatten his pride, the merchant
   laboring to acquire wealth or the spendthrift recklessly scattering
   gold with both his hands, the profligate black with profanity, the
   moralist rejoicing in his goodness, or even the devoted Christian, we
   shall make them all acknowledge that either now or at some past period,
   they esteemed not Jesus! We make no exception, for even the holiest of
   God's saints, those who now are--

   "Foremost of the sons of light, Nearest the eternal Throne"-- those who
   have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
   Lamb--even they once "esteemed Him not." And the brightest saints still
   upon the earth, those who are most earnestly and faithfully serving the
   Savior, at one time "esteemed Him not." I am going, first, to prove
   that this was true. Next, to dive deeper and try to find out the
   reasons why we esteemednot Jesus. And, afterwards, I want to remind you
   ofthe emotions which this fact ought to create in our minds--the fact
   that at one time--and in the case of many of us it was true not many
   years ago that "we esteemed Him

   not."

   I. First, then, I have TO PROVE THAT THIS WAS TRUE.

   Look, then, my Friends, first, at the overt acts of your transgression
   against the Lord Jesus Christ Go back in imagination to the scenes of
   your youth and recollect your former transgressions. Some of you have
   your heads covered with the snows of many a winter and you have been
   for 40 or 50 years wearing the harness of the soldiers of Jesus Christ.
   You have fought the good fight ever since you enlisted under the
   blood-stained banner of the Cross, yet you can never forget some things
   that happened before that happy day when you first sang from your
   heart--

   "'Tis done! The great transaction's done-- I am my Lord's, and He is
   mine." It might not be profitable to mention in detail those sins of
   long ago, yet some of you have a very vivid remembrance of them and,
   although the Lord has graciously forgiven them and blotted them out of
   His Book of Remembrance, your own conscience will not let you forget
   them.

   There are others of you who were, either by your early associations, or
   by the restraints of Sovereign Grace, kept from openly sinning against
   God as many others did, yet you know that your lives were not in
   accordance with the Law of God. You were, in comparison with many of
   your fellows, moral, upright, amiable, yet, as far as Christ was
   concerned, you "esteemed Him not." Your friends and companions could
   find no fault with your character, but you know, now, that all the
   while there was a fatal flaw which was plainly manifest to the eyes of
   God. In the case of some, the apparent excellence was all on the
   surface, but, underneath there was a mass of rottenness and sin of
   which they can only think now with shame and sorrow. That, too, has all
   been forgiven and forgotten by God--yet it lingers in their own
   remembrance in a most salutary fashion, for it makes them hate all
   forms of iniquity and turn from them with utter loathing.

   Besides the overt acts of sin which some of you committed--and the less
   public but none the less deadly evils of which others of you were
   guilty--there was further evidence that you did not esteem Christ in
   the fact that you did not esteem His Word as you should have done.
   Possible, just to quiet your conscience, you read a chapter from it in
   the morning and another in the evening, or you listened to it while
   your parents read it at family prayer. But how dull and dry it seemed
   to you! You could revel in a novel and be completely fascinated with
   fiction, but the Inspired Truth of God was a weariness and a burden to
   you. I must honestly confess that before I knew the Lord, or was
   seriously seeking Him, although I found the historical parts of the
   Bible interesting, a great portion of the Scriptures appeared to me to
   be dull and meaningless. As for anyone reading the Word as a treat, I
   could no more understand how that could be done than a blind man could
   appreciate the beauties of the scenery that could be discerned by
   sightseers on the top of a mountain! I might perhaps be mentally
   charmed by some beautiful passages in the Bible, but as to its hidden
   spiritual meaning, I had no true perception. If I were sick and in fear
   lest I was about to die, down would come my Bible and I would read it
   diligently for a while! But as for taking it as my everyday
   companion--that idea never occurred to me until the Holy Spirit began
   to work conviction in my heart. And then I was glad enough to turn to
   the neglected Book to find an answer to the all-important question,
   "What must I do to be saved?" If you, my Brothers and Sisters in
   Christ, could each one relate your own experience, I expect you would,
   many of you, have to join with me in saying, "We esteemed Him not, for
   we did not hold in proper esteem the Sacred Scriptures in which He had
   been revealed to us."

   many privileges, in this enlightened age--and some of whom even profess
   and call themselves Christians! Instead of bowing down to blocks of
   wood and stone, or worshipping the sun, moon and all the host of
   heavenly bodies, they are worse heathens than even you are, for they
   prostrate themselves before themselvesand adore their own merits, their
   own good deeds, their own charity, and so on! Christian, was not this
   the reason why you did not esteem Christ--because self was everything
   to you in the days of your unregeneracy? If anyone had then told you
   that your heart was corrupt to its very core, what would you have
   replied? You would have answered, "I feel that I am as good as anyone
   else whom I know and better than most of those I see around me." If you
   had been informed that all your good works were but varnished sins and
   that the very best of them were foul and full of faults, would not your
   blood have boiled with indignation? Or if someone had told you that
   your best righteousness was only like a heap of filthy rags, fit for
   nothing but to be burned, you would surely have replied, "I have a
   righteousness of which I have no reason to be ashamed. And although I
   do not say that it is perfect, yet I hope I shall have as good a chance
   of standing before God's Throne as anybody else will have."

   "Such were some of you" and, as long as you thus highly esteemed
   yourselves, of course you did not esteem the Lord Jesus Christ! Does
   the man who is in perfect health esteem the physician? If all were
   always well, who would care for the doctors? Would they not laugh them
   to scorn? Does the man who is rich hold in high esteem the one who
   would give him alms? "No," he says, "give your alms to those who need
   them. I do not require them." Will a man who has the proper use of his
   limbs care for crutches? "No," he says, "hand them over to the lame. I
   have no need of them." In like manner, we did not esteem Christ because
   we felt that we had no need of Him. We thought that we could do very
   well without Him, at least for the present. There might come a time
   when He might be able to give us a lift over a fence, or if we came to
   a muddy place in the road, He might be willing to lay His cloak down
   for us to step on so that we might not soil our feet. But as for the
   rest of our journey, we thought we could get on very well by ourselves,
   though we might be glad for Christ to help us into Heaven at the last.
   Perhaps no one of us would have put the matter quite so plainly as I
   have done, but that would have been the practical effect of our
   self-esteem--and that is why we did not esteem Christ, for self-love
   had completely engrossed our hearts. Self and the Savior can never live
   in one heart. He will have all, or none. So, where self is on the
   throne, it cannot be expected that Christ should meekly come and sit
   upon the footstool.

   Another reason why we esteemed not Jesus was because we esteemed the
   world so highly. We were like the man of whom John Bunyan tells us, who
   was quite willing that others should have the joys of the world to come
   so long as he could have all that he wanted in the present life. The
   worldling still says, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,"
   and to him this present evil world is the bird in the hand--and he
   thinks of all the bliss of Heaven as though it were but a bird in the
   bush. "Let me live while I live," he says, "and have all the happiness
   that I can here. And let them have the next world who can win it." With
   some of us, it is not very long ago since we also talked like that--and
   scorned the glories that are everlasting! And we put far away from us
   Jesus Christ and His great salvation. "We esteemed Him not" because we
   loved the earth and all its follies, because we were so busy gathering
   its poisoned dust into heaps, or delighting ourselves in its
   unsatisfying pleasures. It is not until the rope is cast loose that the
   balloon can soar above the clouds--and it is not until the cord that
   binds us to the things of this earth has been cut that our soul can
   hope to mount towards the things which are unseen and eternal! Until we
   have been weaned from the world, we shall never esteem Jesus as the
   chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely One in whom is all our
   delight!

   A third reason why we did not esteem Christ was because we did not know
   Him. It is true that we knew a great deal aboutHim, but we did not know
   HIM. We had read what the Evangelists had recorded concerning Him. We
   knew much concerning His doctrines. Perhaps we had even tried to keep
   some of His precepts, yet we did not personally and savingly know Him.
   There is a great distinction between knowing about Christ and knowing
   Christ Himself--between knowing what He did and knowing Who and what He
   is--really knowing Him in the sense in which He used that expression
   when He said, in His great intercessory prayer to His Father, "This is
   life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus
   Christ whom You have sent." Yet it is only through Him, by the
   Infallible instruction of His ever-blessed Spirit, that we can thus
   know Him! As the Apostle John writes, "We know that the Son of God is
   come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him who is
   true, and we are in Him who is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This
   is the true God and eternal life." The poet was right when he wrote--

   "His worth, if all the nations knew, Surely the whole world would love
   Him too."

   And Rutherford said, "Surely, my Lord, if the whole world could see
   You, the whole world must love You. If You would but open only one of
   Your eyes and look upon them, they must run unto You, ravished with
   delight, for You are so fair, my precious Jesus, that You only need to
   be seen to be loved." But the worldling has never seen Christ, so he
   does not know Christ and does not love Christ! Ah, poor worldling! If
   you had but seen my lord as I saw Him in the hour when He said to me,
   "I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake,
   and I will not remember your sins"--if you could, with the ear of
   faith, have heard that Divine declaration, sweeter even than the music
   of the harps of Heaven--in a single moment you would have loved the
   Lord Jesus with such an ardent passion that the bonds of life would
   scarcely have been strong enough to keep you in this clay tenement, but
   you would have longed to fly away and be with your beloved Lord
   forever! And, Worldling, could you have such a visit from Jesus as, now
   and then, the Believer is privileged to have--if you could experience
   but five minutes of the bliss that a Christian has, "Whether in the
   body, I cannot tell. Or whether out of the body, I cannot tell. God
   knows"--if you could thus be "caught up to the third Heaven" and hear
   unspeakable words, which it is not possible for a man to utter. If you
   could once behold our blessed Savior, you would be compelled to love
   Him, for He is so lovely, so gracious, so glorious that you could not
   any longer think unkindly of Him! Those who think wrongly of Christ
   have never known Him. And we who do know Him, confess with shame that
   the reason why, for so long "we esteemed Him not," was because we then
   knew Him not.

   The last reason I will mention is the very core of all the other
   reasons. There need be no surprise that we did not esteem Christ, for
   we were spiritually dead. I will suppose that there sits, away yonder,
   a man over whom I want to exert a certain influence. I will further
   imagine that I am a skillful musician and that I touch the strings of
   my harp in such a manner as to bring forth the most delightful melody,
   yet the man takes no notice whatever of it. Then I turn to an
   instrument of quite another sort--a cornet or a bugle--and blow a blast
   that startles all of you--yet that one man still gives no heed to the
   sound! Why is it that, charm we ever so wisely, he is like the deaf
   adder and regards neither the sweetest nor the shrillest or loudest
   noise? I try to attract his attention in another way. I place before
   him the daintiest dish that the cleverest cook in all England can
   prepare, or I bring some rare delicacy from a distant land--but he
   regards the food no more than he did the music. I will try another plan
   to reach his senses. I will bring Him--

   "The choicest flowers that were ever grown Since Eden's joys were
   blasted." I will hold them close to his face and let their fragrance
   ascend to his nostrils. Yet he heeds not! What will awake him? Let
   Heaven's thunder peals roll like the drums in the march of some mighty
   war-lord, but the man moves not. Let the lightning flash all around us
   till it seems as though the end of the world had come, but the man
   stirs not. What shall I do to awake him? Shall I beat him with a whip,
   or strike him with a sword? All is in vain and, at last, I perceive
   that the man is dead and that all my efforts have been wasted! Now the
   riddle is solved, the secret revealed, the knot untied--the man is
   dead. And so I wonder no longer that he esteemed not music, or food, or
   flowers. Or that he feared not thunder, lightning, or the sword. And,
   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, though the Holy Spirit has quickened
   us, there was a time when we were "dead in trespasses and sins" and,
   like Lazarus in his grave, we were becoming more and more corrupt as
   every moment passed!

   III. Now, having proved the Truth of the text, and given you various
   reasons why we did not esteem Christ, let me, in conclusion, ask WHAT
   EMOTIONS OUGHT THIS FACT TO CREATE WITHIN OUR SOULS?

   First, I think that the recollection of this Truth of God, that "we
   esteemed Him not," ought to produce in us the deepest penitence. I
   cannot understand that Christian who can look back upon his past life
   without a tear. If he can turn to the black pages of his history, which
   not only have no record of goodness, but are full of entries concerning
   his sins against his present Lord and Master, and yet not weep at the
   remembrance of them, surely he can never have learned the true nature
   of sin! O Christian, it would be becoming on your part to catch the
   spirit, if not literally to imitate the action of that "woman in the
   city, who was a sinner," of whom we read that, "when she knew that
   Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house," she, "brought an alabaster
   box of ointment and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to
   wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head,
   and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment." Our Lord's
   explanation of her conduct was that "she loved much." Is it because you
   love your Lord so little that you do not manifest your grief over your
   past sin as that poor woman did? Recollect that although you did not
   esteem Him, He had loved you with an everlasting love and He had
   purchased your soul's redemption at the great price of

   His own most precious blood! He stood before you, holding in His
   pierced hands the roll of the Eternal Covenant which set your soul at
   liberty and gave you a full discharge! Yet you did not esteem Him. O
   Christian, will you not weep even at the remembrance of the way in
   which you did treat the best Friend you have ever had? Recollect that
   you did virtually nail Him to the tree and pierce Him to the heart. Dr.
   Watts spoke for all Believers when he wrote the self-condemning words--

   "'Twas you, my sins, my cruel sins, His chief tormentors were! Each of
   my crimes became a nail, And unbelief the spear. 'Twasyou that pulled
   the vengeance down Upon His guiltless head-- Break, break, my heart, oh
   burst my eyes! And let my sorrows bleed."

   And now, beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, having for a while
   allowed our penitential sorrow thus to find suitable expression, let us
   strike a higher note and, remembering that there was a time when we did
   not esteem Christ, let us now rejoice in the great salvation which He
   has procured for us. It is true that we have great reason for sorrow
   that we should ever have been so vile as not to esteem Him to whom we
   owe everything for time and for eternity. Yet we have much more reason
   to adore the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of that love of
   Christ which passes knowledge and which carried out to completion the
   wondrous plan whereby all our iniquities have been blotted out and we
   have become "accepted in the Beloved!" It was right that we should weep
   at the remembrance that we were numbered among the fallen, yet it is
   equally right that we should rejoice over the fact that we have been
   reclaimed! And what should be the very key-note of our song of
   rejoicing? Should it not be the Sovereign Grace of God? The reason why
   the Lord chose us unto salvation was certainly not because we esteemed
   His Son, Jesus Christ, more than others did, for, "we esteemed Him
   not." If you ask me why God chose His people, I can only answer that it
   is for the same reason that Christ gave concerning the things that were
   hidden from the wise and prudent, but revealed unto babes, "Even so,
   Father: for so it seemed good in Your sight."

   There is one other emotion which every true Christian should feel--that
   is hope for his fellows. If I feel sorrow for my sin and joy for my
   deliverance, I ought also to have hope for other people! Perhaps
   someone here is saying, "I have brought my son to the House of Prayer
   time after time and I used to hope that God would have mercy upon him,
   but now I have given up all hope." Stop, my Brother! Do not talk like
   that! Do you not remember the time when it might have been said,
   concerning you and me, that we did not esteem Christ and, although your
   son does not now esteem Him, is that any reason why he should not yet
   do so? On the contrary, is not the manifestation of Divine Grace in
   your own case an encouragement to you in hoping for your son's
   conversion?

   "Oh," says another venerable father, "I have long prayed in vain for
   one of my children. These hands, which are now palsied with age, have
   been lifted up year after year to the God of Grace, but I have lost all
   hope of my child's salvation." But, my hoary-headed Friend, think not
   that your prayers have failed, even though they still remain
   unanswered! They are all filed in Heaven and when the required number
   shall be complete, when that petition which God has determined shall be
   the "effectual" one shall be presented, your child shall be saved! But
   why should you despair concerning your dear one? You know that for many
   years you did not esteem Christ, yet He is "altogether lovely" to you
   now! Then why should not your experience be repeated in the case of
   your child?

   "Ah," says another, "I live in such-and-such a district among many of
   the worst people in London. I have tried to bring them under the sound
   of the Word of God, but cannot induce even one of them to come! I feel
   as if I must give up even hoping for their salvation. They seem to me
   to be too bad to ever be saved." But, my dear Friend, you and I at one
   time did not esteem Christ--and if we really know what was in our own
   hearts, we shall say that these people are not much worse than we were!
   Yet suppose they areas bad as you think they are--remember that
   striking saying of Whitefield's--"Jesus Christ is willing to receive
   the devil's castaways." A very fastidious lady who heard that he said
   that, complained to the Countess of Huntingdon and said how sad it was
   that he should talk in such a vulgar way! The Countess said, "Mr.
   Whitefield is downstairs. I will send for him and let him answer for
   himself." When he came up and

   heard the lady's remark, he simply replied, "I had just been talking to
   a poor, sinful woman who had been to hear me preach, and the one thing
   that comforted her was the sentence to which this lady objects, 'Jesus
   Christ is willing to receive the devil's castaways.'" "Ah," said Lady
   Huntingdon and others who agreed with her, "That is quite sufficient
   justification for you."

   I can testify from my own experience that God often blesses some of our
   rough expressions more than our highly-polished ones. I have seen so
   many souls saved through some of the odd and singular sayings that I
   have felt moved to utter that I intend, God helping me, to go on in the
   same style, even though some people may continue to find fault with me
   for doing so. I can certainly endorse Mr. Whitefield's remark, "Jesus
   Christ is willing to receive the devil's castaways." However vile and
   foul a sinner may be, I always feel, "That is just what I would have
   been but for the Grace of God." Therefore, instead of imitating the
   priest and the Levite who left the poor wounded traveler to die so far
   as they cared, I feel anxious to go to the very worst of my fellow men
   and to say to them, "Why, my dear Brother, there was a time when I did
   not esteem Christ, so I will not be angry with you because you say that
   you are not religious. I will not scold you because you do not read the
   Bible, or pray to God, or go to a place of worship. But I will try to
   win your esteem for my Master by telling you of His great love to
   sinners just like you. Though He was reigning with His Father in
   Heaven, He gave up all His Glory and came down to earth to live just as
   any other poor man might have lived, only that He was without sin. He
   went about doing good, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising
   the dead and, at last, He willingly gave Himself up into the hands of
   wicked men and died, 'the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us
   to

   God.'"

   So I would try to make the Gospel very plain to my poor friend and tell
   him what the Lord had done for mysoul-- and assure him that, having
   saved me, there was no limit to His Grace and mercy! I always admire
   the argument of Charles Wesley in those familiar lines--

   "His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me."

   That was the same kind of argument that Paul used when he wrote, "This
   is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
   came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for
   this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show
   forth all long-suffering, for the pattern to them which should
   hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." Christian men and women,
   as you retire from this building, I leave these thoughts with you. At
   one time you did not esteem Christ, so now you have no right to be
   proud of your position as His followers, but should give to Him all the
   glory for your salvation! And you should hope for the salvation of
   others, even the very worst of your fellow creatures--

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

   You may go to the very worst haunts of sin and vice in this city or
   anywhere else and, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, you may
   proclaim the Gospel of Christ to be the most abandoned men and women
   whom you can find, knowing that He is able "to save them to the
   uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make
   intercession for

   them."

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW26:14-45.

   Verse 14, 15. Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went unto
   the chief priests and said unto them, What will you give me, and I will
   deliver Him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of
   silver At what a price did the traitor sell our blessed Master! O you
   who have been redeemed with His precious blood, set a high value upon
   Him! Think much of Him, say much in praise of Him! Remember these
   thirty pieces of silver and never be guilty of despising the Lord of
   Glory, as these chief priests did when they paid the price of a slave
   for Him.

   16-19. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. Now the
   first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus,
   saying unto Him, Where will You that we prepare for You to eat the
   Passover? And He said, go into the city to such a man, and say unto
   him, The Master says, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at
   your house with My disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had
   appointed them; and they made ready the Passover. See the

   absolute control which Jesus has over the minds of men! He can have any
   man's house that He wants and He knows who will be glad to welcome Him.
   Yet this same Jesus was about to die--and this shows how perfectly
   voluntary was His Sacrifice. He was not forced to stand in our place,
   nor was He compelled to suffer except by the constraint of His own
   great love. All was free, as became the freedom of His Grace. Then
   shall not our heart's love flow out freely to Him? Shall we need to be
   scourged to obedience? Oh, no, Beloved! So let us think what we can
   voluntarily do in honor of our Divine Lord who gave His all for us.

   20-22. Now when the evening was come, He sat down with the twelve. And
   as they did eat, He said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall
   betray Me. And they were exceedingly sorrowful, And well might they be
   sad.

   22. And began, every one of them, to say unto Him, Lord, is it I?What
   anguish does that question always stir within the heart and mind of
   every true Believer! "Shall I ever betray my Lord and Master? Shall I
   ever deny or forsake Him?" God grant that none of us may ever do as
   Judas did!

   23. And He answered and said, He that dips His hand with Me in the
   dish, the same shall betray Me. He who had been entrusted with the
   charge of the finances of the little band of Christ's immediate
   disciples--he who carried the bag--was the one who was about to betray
   his Lord. Since then, Christ has often been betrayed by those who have
   been in positions of trust, those who have led the way among the
   disciples of Christ, those who have, as it were, been so familiar with
   Christ as to dip their hand with Him in the dish!

   24. 25. 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 hadnot been born. Then Judas, which betrayed Him, answered and said,
   Master, is it I? He said unto him, You have said.Judas seems to have
   been the last to ask the question, "Master, is it I?" Yet he was the
   guilty one--the one who had already covenanted with the chief priests
   to sell His Lord.

   26-31. And as they were eating, 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 give it to them,
   saying, Drink you all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament,
   which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I
   will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when
   I drink it new with you in My Father's Kingdom. And when they had sung
   a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then said Jesus unto
   them, All you shall be made to stumble because of Me this night for it
   is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall
   be scattered abroad. Observe our blessed Lord's habit of quoting
   Scripture. He was able to utter words of Infallible Truth which had
   never before been used, yet He constantly quoted from the Inspired
   Scriptures! Those who nowadays quibble at the Word of God and yet
   profess to be followers of Christ, find no excuse for their conduct in
   the example that He has left us, for He sometimes quoted Scripture when
   it might not have seemed to be necessary to do so! Brothers and Sisters
   in Christ, have your Bible first in your hearts, then at the tip of
   your tongue. I was going to say at your fingertips, so that you may
   always be able to give a good reason--a solid and
   divinely-authoritative reason--for any statement that you may make!

   32, 33. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.
   Peter answered and said unto Him, Though all men shall be made to
   stumble because of You, yet will I never be made to stumble.No doubt
   Peter said this from his heart, but "the heart is deceitful above all
   things." Peter may have thought that he was stronger than his brethren,
   yet he was the very one who proved to be the weakest of the whole
   Apostolic band! "Though all men shall be made to stumble because of
   You, yet will I never be made to stumble."

   34. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto you, That this night, before
   the cock crow. That is to say, before that period of time which was
   called the cock-crowing.

   34. You shall deny Me thrice. According to Mrk'srecord, the cock was to
   crow once before Peter had denied his Lord thrice, and this it did. And
   when he had given his third denial, it crowed a second time. And then
   his slumbering conscience was awakened and, "He went out and wept
   bitterly." Some persons who are well acquainted with the religious
   ceremonies of the Jews, say that the period called the cock-crowing was
   the time for the sacrifice of the morning lamb, and that it was about
   that time that Peter denied his Lord.

   35. Peter said unto Him, Though I should die with You, yet will I not
   deny You. It is a great pity that Peter said this after he had received
   so plain a warning from his Master, yet he was not alone in his
   boasting.

   35. Likewise also said all the disciples. They all felt quite sure that
   under no circumstances could they be so base as to forsake their Lord.
   And if you think of the washing of their feet by their Lord and Master,
   the wonderful words of Christ to which they had listened and that
   solemn Communion Service in the large upper room, you may not be
   surprised that they felt themselves bound to Christ forever--felt that
   they could never leave Him, nor forsake Him! Yet they all did.

   36-39. Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said
   to His disciples, Sit you here, while I go and pray yonder. And He took
   with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful
   and very heavy. Then said He unto them, My soul is exceedingly
   sorrowful, even unto death; tarry you here, and watch with Me. And He
   went a little farther, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My
   Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not
   as I will, but as You will. Christ had to tread the winepress alone,
   yet He showed how complete was His Humanity by wishing to have a few
   choice friends near at hand. Yet even the chosen three failed Him in
   His hour of greatest need.

   40. And He came unto the disciples, and found them asleep, and said
   unto Peter, What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? Peter had
   constituted himself the spokesman of the Apostolic company, so the
   Master addressed the question to him, though it also applied to his
   companions--"What? Could you not watch with Me one hour?" They had all
   declared their devotion to Him, yet they had fallen asleep while He had
   bid them watch.

   41-45. Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation: the spirit
   indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second
   time, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if this cup may not pass away
   from Me, except I drink it, Your will be done. And He came and found
   them asleep again; for their eyes were heavy. And He left them, and
   went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then
   He came to His disciples, and said unto them, Sleep on now, and take
   your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed
   into the hands of sinners.
     __________________________________________________________________

Reasons for Seeking God

   (No. 3034)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Seek Him that makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of
   death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night: that calls
   for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the
   earth: The Lord is His name." Amos 5:8.

   IDOLATRY has been, in every age, the besetting sin of mankind. In some
   form or another, the unregenerate are all given to it and even in God's
   people there remains in their old nature, a tendency towards it.

   In its grosser manifestation, idolatry is the desire of man to see God
   with his eyes, to have outward representation of Him who cannot be
   represented, who is too great, too spiritual to ever be described by
   human language, much less to be set forth by images of wood and stone,
   however elaborately carved and cunningly overlaid with gold! There is a
   great God who fills all space and yet is greater than space--whose
   existence is without beginning and without end, who is everywhere
   present and universally self-existent! But man is so unspiritual that
   he will not worship this Invisible One in spirit and in truth, but
   craves after outward similitudes, symbols and signs. If Aaron makes a
   calf, Israel forgets the Divine Jehovah's Glory and says of the image
   of an ox that eats grass, "These are your gods, O Israel, which brought
   you up out of the land of Egypt."

   We are apt to imagine that it is a very strange freak of human
   depravity when men are led to worship visible objects and signs, but it
   is not at all unusual or singular! It is the general sin of all
   mankind. I suppose no man has been entirely free from it and every
   Believer has to contend against it in its subtler forms, for idolatry
   takes insinuating shapes, less gross in appearance than the worship of
   Dagon or Ashtaroth, but quite as sinful.

   Take, for instance, the common religious idolatry of our own country
   which consists, in part, of reverence to holy places, as if under the
   Christian dispensation, which is not one of type, but of fact, holiness
   could dwell in stone, lime, wood, slate, iron and brass when
   architecturally arranged! English idolatry further reveals itself in
   reverence to an order of men, not because of their superior character,
   but because of certain mystic rites performed upon them, by virtue of
   which they are supposed to become the representatives of Heaven and the
   reservoirs of Divine Grace. How trustful are our English idolaters in
   these men when they behold them appareled in vestments which the tailor
   has cut into fashions remarkably helpful to devotion! Without these
   priests and their sumptuous adorning and grotesque disfigurements, our
   modern idolaters cannot publicly worship--but in these they have as
   much as the Ephesians had in their great goddess Diana!

   They can only worship their god by objects which appeal to the senses.
   An outward altar, an outward priest, an outward ritual, outward
   rites--all these are nothing but another form of the old idolatry of
   Babel and of Bethel! Man still turns from the unseen God. The unseen
   Priest who has passed within the veil, man still ignores. The
   spiritualfeast upon the body and blood of Jesus Christ which is the joy
   of the saints, they know not! But the outward emblems are adored by
   some and held in great reverence by others. Bread and wine, which are
   but created and common things, even when placed on the table to assist
   us in Communion, are made into deities by the blind idolaters of this
   age! Could Egypt or Assyria do worse? Bread used at the ordinance is
   but bread and nothing other than ordinary bread. Its emblematic use
   imparts to it no measure or degree of sanctity, much less of Divinity!
   It is idolatry--flat, groveling idolatry--and nothing less, which on
   all sides is spreading its mantle of darkness over this land under the
   pretense of profoundly reverent piety!

   Where Ritualism does not reign, how easy it is for men to be idolaters
   of themselves! What is self-reliance, understood as too many understand
   it, but idolatry of self? It is the opposite of dependence upon the
   living God, the

   great Source of power and wisdom. Reliance upon my own wisdom, upon my
   own resolution, upon my own strength of mind--these are idolatries in a
   subtle and attractive shape. What is much of our overweening affection
   to our children and to our relatives? What is our unsubmissive repining
   but idolatry? How is it that we rebel against God if our friends are
   suddenly taken from us? O man, why is it that your God has so little of
   your love and the creature so much? There is a lawful affection--up to
   that point you should go. There is an unlawful affection when, by any
   means, the creature comes before the Creator--to this you may not
   descend! Unlawful love, love which idolizes its object, is to be
   avoided with all our might!

   Then, again, perhaps a less excusable form of idolatry, though no
   excuse is to be offered for any, is that in which men idolize their
   estates and their confidence in their accumulations--living only to
   acquire wealth and position-- struggling in the race--not to win the
   crown which is immortal--but that poor wreath with which men crown the
   wealthy merchant, the diligent student, the eloquent barrister, the
   valiant men of arms! This is idolatry, again, for it is setting up an
   earthly object in the place of the Creator. To God is due all my love,
   my trust, my fear. He made me and, therefore, I am bound to serve
   Him--and whenever I lay down at the feet of any person or object,
   dominion over my powers, apart from God, I am at once guilty of
   idolatry!

   I cannot stay to tell you all the various form which this idolatry
   assumes, but may God give us Grace to strive against them. And you who
   are still held captive by these idolatries, may He deliver! May He save
   you from leaning upon an arm of flesh, from trusting in what may be
   seen and handled, and bring you to rely upon the Invisible God to whom
   alone belongs power and strength, and who has a right to our confidence
   and our service!

   The text is addressed to those who have been guilty, either in word, or
   thought, or deed, of idolatry against God. It gives arguments to
   persuade them to turn away from everything else and to seek the true
   God. We shall read the text, first, in its natural sense and then,
   diving into its meaning a little more deeply, we shall find spiritual
   reasons in it for seeking Jehovah, and Jehovah alone.

   I. First, then, IN THE NATURAL SENSE OF THE TEXT, we find a Truth of
   God which is plain enough, but which we need to constantly be reminded
   of, namely, that Jehovah is really God. If Jehovah were not really the
   Creator of the world, if He did not in very deed make "the seven stars
   and Orion," if He did not actually work in the operations of
   Providence, changing the night into day, and day again into night, we
   might be excused for not rendering Him service since homage might be
   safely withheld from an imaginary deity.

   But, as God is real and exists as truly as we do, as our existence is
   dependent upon His Sovereign will and He is All-in-All, it is due to
   Him that we should "seek His face." And simple as that utterance is, I
   have need to push it home to you. I am afraid, dear Friends, that many
   of you think of religion in its bearing towards God as being a very
   proper, but at the same time, imaginative, matter. You do not
   practically grasp the thought that God Is and that He is the Rewarder
   of them that diligently seek Him. You do not lay hold upon the fact
   that as surely as there are fellow creatures round about you, there is
   a God close to you in whom you live, and move, and have your being. The
   worldly man puts his foot down on the earth and he says, "This is the
   main chance. I believe in this." He takes up certain fragments of that
   earth, yellow and glittering, and he says, "Ah, I believe in this. Here
   is something solid and I feel it." Just so, the created earth is real
   to him and God, who created all things, is to him but a shadowy being!
   He may not rudely deny His existence, but practically, he reduces his
   thought of God to a mere fancy and says in his heart, "No God." My
   attentive Hearer, I trust that you are not so unwise! You know that God
   Is, that He Is even if we are not, that He fills all things and that He
   dwells everywhere--and since He is the Creator, the First and Chief of
   all things, I trust you are anxious to seek Him and to yield your
   obedience to Him!

   Note from the text that God is not only the true God, but He is the
   glorious God. I cannot understand how the heathen, supposing their gods
   had been gods, could worship such little, mean, base and contemptible
   beings! Think of Jove, for instance, the great god of Rome and
   Greece--what a disgusting animal he was! What a monster of sensuality,
   selfishness and folly! I should feel it hard, as a creature, to worship
   such a god as that, if he could be a god. But when I think of Him who
   made "the seven stars and Orion," who stretched out the heavens like a
   curtain and made the sky as a molten mirror--who is magnificent in the
   acts of Creation, marvelous in the wonders of Grace and unsearchable in
   all the attributes of His Nature, my soul feels it to be her honor and
   delight to adore Him! It is an elevation to the soul to stoop to the
   dust before such a God! The more we reverence Him and the less we
   become in our own sight, the more

   sublime are our emotions. Well did even a heathen say, "To serve God is
   to reign." To serve such a God as ours is to be made kings and priests!
   Oh, were not our hearts perverted and depraved, it would be our
   greatest happiness, our highest rapture to sound forth the praises of a
   God so glorious! And our hearts would be always enquiring of Him,
   "Lord, what will You have me do? Your will is wiser and better than my
   own will. I ask no greater liberty than to be bound with Your bands of
   love! I ask no greater ease than to bear Your blessed yoke."

   Since, then, the Lord is real and, moreover, so glorious as to be
   infinitely worthy of worship, we should seek Him and live.

   Again, Jehovah the true God, is most powerful for He "makes the seven
   stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and
   makes the day dark with night: that calls for the waters of the sea,
   and pours them out upon the face of the earth: Jehovah is His name."
   Think reverently of Him, for He is not like the gods of the heathen, of
   whom the Psalmist said in satire, "Their idols are silver and gold, the
   work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have
   they, but they see not: they have ears, but they hear not; noses have
   they, but they smell not: they have hands, but they handle not: feet
   have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat."
   Contempt and ridicule are poured upon these wooden gods by the Prophet
   Isaiah when he tells of the workman who takes one end of a log and
   makes a god of it--and with the other part kindles a fire and warms his
   hands and cooks his food. Such a god as this it is indeed a degradation
   for the human mind to worship! But the true God, who has displayed His
   power in the glittering firmament and in the foaming sea, who is
   revealed with wonder to the eyes of the astronomer in the innumerable
   worlds revolving in boundless space--such a God we must reverence. In
   the hour of storm and tempest, when the Lord is abroad, riding in His
   chariot of thunder-cloud upon wings of the wind, casting forth His
   hailstones and coals of fire, making the earth shake at the sound of
   His voice and breaking the cedars of Lebanon with the flash of His
   spear, we feel we must adore Him! And as we bow before Him, reason
   endorses the worship which Grace suggests. Is not His power a cogent
   argument for seeking Him? Will not you who have hitherto lived without
   Him, now adore Him? A real God, so glorious and so powerful, should
   surely command your reverent adoration!

   Further, He is a God who works great marvels, achieving wonders every
   moment which would astonish us if we were not so used to beholding
   them! They tell the story--'tis but a legend of the days of Solomon the
   Wise, that the king astonished all beholders by taking a seed and
   producing from it in a few moments, a full-grown plant. They cried,
   "How wonderful! How astonishing!" But the wise man said, "This is only
   what the Lord does every day. This is what He is performing everywhere
   in His own time, and you see it, and yet you never say, 'How
   wonderful!'" When we have watched those who practice sleight-of-hand
   perform their feats, we have marveled greatly, but what are a few poor
   elicit tricks when compared with the ordinary, but yet matchless
   processes of Nature? Our fields and hedgerows teem with marvels never
   equaled by all the wisdom and skill of man! Walk into the grass field
   and you tread on miracles. Listen to the birds as they sing in the
   trees and you hear marvelous speech. If one little mechanical bird,
   with a few clockwork movements, were warbling out something like music
   in an exhibition, everybody would gather round it and some would even
   pay to hear it sing--and yet thousands of birds sing infinitely more
   sweetly than anything man can make--and men had rather kill them than
   admire them! Men fail to see the miracle which God is working in each
   living thing.

   Turn your eyes above you to the starry firmament and watch the Pleiades
   and Arcturus with his sons, for though we know but little of them, they
   have won from many an observer an awestruck acknowledgment of the
   greatness of God, insomuch that it has been said that--

   "An undevout astronomer is mad." The order, the regularity, the
   manifest calculation and design which appear in every one of the
   constellations, in every single planet, in every fixed star and in
   every part of the great multitude of worlds which God has created are
   such decisive evidences that if men do not see something of God in
   them, they must be weak in their minds or wicked in their hearts!
   Surely, what is seen of God in this way has tended to make us worship
   Him. Many of you may know but little of astronomy, but still, you see
   every day that God is working everywhere around us and that Heaven and
   earth, and land and sea are teeming with the products of His marvelous
   skill. The revolutions of day and night and the formation and fall of
   rain are indisputable proofs of the Presence of eternal power and
   Godhead! Let us, therefore, seek the Lord.

   How is it that a man can go up and down in God's world and yet forget
   the God who made the whole? I do not suppose that a man could have
   walked through the Exhibition at Paris without thinking of the emperor
   whose influence gathered all those treasures together and who attracted
   the kings and princes of the earth to visit it. And yet men will go
   through this world, compared with which the Paris "Exposition" was a
   box of children's toys, and will not recognize God therein! Oh, strange
   blindness! Mad infatuation that with God everywhere present and such a
   God--the God whom to know is life eternal, whom to delight in is
   present happiness and future bliss--man is willingly ignorant, blind to
   His own best interests, senseless to the sweetest and the most
   ennobling emotions and an enemy to his best Friend!

   The surface of the text supplies us with motives for seeking GOD. Oh,
   that the Holy Spirit might supply us with Grace that we might feel the
   motivesand be obedient to them!

   II. We will now regard the text with a more spiritual eye.

   We speak to those who are sensible of their departure from the living
   God and are anxious to be reconciled to Him by the forgiveness of their
   sins for Jesus' sake. But our text also has a word for the stubborn and
   unawakened. In many parts of Scripture the Lord has been pleased to
   invite the penitent to come to Him, but in this passage, in order that
   the invitation my miss none, it is made exceedingly wide in its
   character. Our text will appear to be very wonderful if we notice the
   context in which it stands--"You who turn judgment to worm word, and
   leave off righteousness in the earth, seek Him." There is no mention of
   those who thirst for Him, who are humbled and confess their faults!
   This exhortation is given to those who have no good points about them,
   but many of the most pernicious traits of character! Those who turn
   judgment into wormwood and leave off righteousness in the earth--even
   theyare bid to seek God! Marvelous mercy! Who after this shall dare
   despair? If my hearer has, up to this day, lived a stranger to God, the
   text does not exclude him from seeking God, but, as with an angel's
   voice, it whispers, "Seek Him." If sin has perverted your judgments,
   yet seek the great Creator and Preserver! Seek Him, for you shall find
   Him! You are not bid to seek His face in vain--the command to seek Him
   implies the certainty of His being found of you!

   The reasons given for seeking the Lord are, spiritually, these. The
   Lord "makes the seven stars." That is to say, the Pleiades. And He also
   "makes Orion." Now, the Pleiades were regarded as being the
   constellation of the spring, harbinger of the coming summer. We read of
   "the sweet influences of Pleiades." They are most conspicuous at the
   vernal period of the year. On the other hand, the Oriental herdsman,
   such as Amos was, when he saw Orion flaming aloft, knew the wintry sign
   right well. Both the Pleiades and Orion are ordained of the Lord--He
   makes our joys and our troubles. See, then, the reason why we should
   seek God, because if Orion should just now be in the ascendant and we
   should be visited with a winter of despondency, chilled by howling
   winds of fear and sharp frosts of dismay--if we seek God, He can
   withdraw Orion and place us under the gentle sway of the Pleiades of
   promise, so that a springtime of hope and comfort shall cheer our
   souls, to be succeeded by a summer of rare delights and fruitful joys!
   Do you hear this, poor troubled one? [See Sermon No. 818, Volume
   14--THE PLEIADES AND ORION.] Whatever your sorrow may be, the God who
   made Heaven and earth can suddenly change it into the brighter joy! By
   the dispensations of His Providence, He can do it! Your circumstances,
   which are now so desperate, can be changed by a touch of His hand
   within an hour. To whom can you better apply for succor? And if your
   heart is sick and sad with a sense of sin, and you are pining with
   remorse, His Grace can find a balm and cordial for your wounded
   conscience which shall give you peace at once! Before the clock ticks
   again, God can grant you perfect salvation, blot out your sins like a
   cloud and like a thick cloud your iniquities. Seek you the pardoning
   God! Seek Him, I say, for to whom else could you go? Where else could
   you look for strength but to the Strong? Where else for mercy but to
   the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?

   The Lord, moreover, turns grief into joy. In the text it is added, "He
   turns the shadow of death into the morning." The long dark night of
   sorrow, blacker than darkness, itself, because it presages everlasting
   wrath. The night created by the grim shadow of death--cold, chill,
   terrible--may have fallen upon your soul, but the living God can at
   once turn this darkness into the brightness of the morning! When the
   sun arises with healing beneath his wings, the whole earth is made to
   smile, and even thus can the Lord at once make your whole nature glad
   with the light of His Countenance. Though you are ready to lie down in
   despair. Though you suppose that Hell yawns for you and will soon
   receive your guilty soul--He can turn this shadow of death into the
   morning of peace and joy! To whom, then, should you go but to this God?
   He has already given His dear Son to be the way of life for us sinners.
   Have you ever heard of another who gave His son to die for His enemies?
   Gad not about after other helpers, but come at once to your Heavenly
   Father's arms, and say with the prodigal, "I will arise and go to my
   Father." If you are willing to come to God, the way is open, for Jesus

   died. You must not come arrayed in the supposed fitness of your own
   good works or good feelings, but you must come resting on the finished
   work of the appointed Savior. If you look to Him, you shall be
   lightened. If you come with His name upon your lips, you shall ask what
   you will and it shall be done unto you. Should not this be a reason for
   coming-- that He can turn your night into day, your winter into summer?

   But the text bears another aspect, namely, that God can also turn your
   present joy into grief and, therefore, you should seek Him. He makes
   the seven stars give way to Orion. "'He makes day dark with night." At
   this moment it may be that you are at ease--but how long will you be
   so? Though you have no God, you are content with what you possess in
   this world, satisfied with your daily earnings, or charmed with your
   yearly income. You are with your wife, your children, your estate. But
   remember how soon your joys may be taken from you! Have you not heard
   how often God's Providence has stripped the house, stripped the family,
   stripped the man's very soul of every comfort? Remember you not the
   story of Job who, in one day descended from riches to poverty? Know you
   not that although the wicked spread themselves abroad like a green bay
   tree, they shall suddenly wither? And though they are exceedingly proud
   and strong, they shall come to their appointed end like the ox fattened
   for the slaughter?

   All our joys on earth are dependent on the Sovereign will of Heaven.
   Some of you know this by bitter experience, for you have seen the
   delight of your eyes taken away in a stroke and the comfort of your
   heart carried to the grave. Now, to whom should you fly for succor, but
   to Him upon whom all your present comfort depends and who can so soon
   take it all away? How prudent to be at peace with Him! How wise, above
   all wisdom, to be reconciled to the mighty God! But, alas for those who
   have often been warned but who will not heed the warning! They have
   hardened their necks and will be suddenly destroyed. Their day will
   blacken into everlasting night! The proud sinner will die as others
   do--his eyes will pale and his brow grow cold, for he must face
   inexorable Death. And then, when he comes into the land to which the
   wicked are banished, he will enter into the outer darkness, darkness
   which shall be felt, in the land of confusion, where there is no
   beginning of hope, or end of misery--who would then desire to stand in
   his soul's place? Escape, then, before the darkness gathers! Seek Him,
   O man, who makes the day dark with night!--

   "You sinners, seek His Grace, Whose wrath we cannot bear. Fly to the
   shelter of His Cross, And find salvation there."

   The last clause of the text suggests a fourth reason for seeking the
   Lord, namely, God may make that which is a blessing to some a curse to
   others. Did you observe it? Seek Him "that calls for the waters of the
   sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth." This may allude to
   the deluge, when the waters of the ocean covered the very tops of the
   mountains. But it may be equally well explained by reference to the
   clouds which yield refreshing rain. The sun draws up the waters of the
   sea, leaving the salt behind and when these exaltations have floated
   their appointed time in the air, they descend upon the thirsty earth to
   make glad the soil. Now, since the clause bears two readings, it were
   well to note how the actions of God oftentimes bear two renderings.
   There is, for instance, the gift of His dear Son, an unexampled act of
   love--and yet to some of you it will prove "a savor of death unto
   death." To the unbeliever, it will prove a terrible thing that Jesus
   ever came into the world! He is a precious Cornerstone to those who
   build upon Him, but those who stumble upon Him shall be broken--and if
   this Stone shall fall upon any man, it shall grind him to powder! That
   which is Heaven's greatest joy is Hell's greatest horror. When Christ
   shall come, the sight of Him shall draw forth the acclamations of His
   people, but it will also cause the utmost anguish to His enemies. They
   shall weep and wail because of Him. They shall call upon the rocks and
   mountains to fall upon them, and hide them from the face of Him who
   sits upon the Throne of God and from the wrath of the Lamb! Since you
   who so constantly hear the Gospel must have it made to you either a
   savor of death unto death or of life unto life, I pray that the Eternal
   Spirit may show you the wisdom of seeking God by Jesus Christ--and of
   seeking Him now!

   It will be a dreadful thing, at the Last Great Day, to find the gentle
   Lamb become a Lion to you, to tear you in pieces when there shall be
   none to deliver! Why should that which is the meat of humble souls,
   become your poison? Why should the blood of that Savior in Whom so many
   have washed their robes, and made them white, be your condemnation?
   Remember that the blood of Jesus will be either upon you to cleanse you
   or upon you to condemn you! That dreadful cry of the Jews in the
   streets of Jerusalem, "His blood be on us, and on our children"--what a
   curse it

   brought upon their race in the massacres within the city walls and in
   the bitter exile and suffering which they have so long endured! Take
   care that the same curse does not bring upon you an eternal exile from
   God! Seek His face, I beseech you! You may not long have the
   opportunity to seek it. The day of His mercy may close as closes this
   day with the setting sun. You may not survive to enjoy another day of
   Gospel invitation! May God the blessed Spirit, who alone can do it,
   make you seekers--and then make you finders--and His shall be the
   praise!

   Thus much to the unconverted. The people of God can think over the text
   in relation to themselves. It is rich in priceless instruction to them,
   but time forbids me to direct their meditations. Farewell.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Psalm 139.

   In this Psalm David praises God by specially dwelling upon the one
   attribute of Omniscience. If we really wish to praise God, we must
   think of Him as He is--and it is the best praise that we can render to
   God to describe Him as He is. And any one of His many attributes is so
   full of His Glory that if we give due honor to it, we shall have much
   to say upon it.

   Verse 1. O LORD, You have searched me, and known me. It is true that
   God knows everything, but that is not what David says here. He makes a
   personal application of the universal Truth of God--"O Lord, You have
   searched me, and known me." He does not talk about God's knowledge of
   other men, but he speaks to God concerning himself--"O Lord, You have
   searched me, and known me." "You have searched me as if You were
   looking for contraband goods. You have ransacked me, You have gone down
   into my very heart and have spread out every secret part of my
   being--'You have searched me, and known me.'"--

   "Lord, You have searched and seen me through. Your eyes command with
   piercing view My rising and my resting hours, My heart and flesh, with
   all their powers."

   2. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my
   thoughts afar off "What I do, and what I do not do--my sitting down for
   rest, and my rising up for action--You know me altogether, my most
   trivial deeds and my most important movements. My thoughts are so well
   known to You that even before I think them, You know what they will be.
   You need not come near to me in order to know me, so strong are Your
   eyes that if You only look at me from a vast distance, as a man looks
   at a star in the midnight air, 'You understand my thoughts afar off.'
   What I think and why I think it, whether it is sorrowful or hopeful,
   You understand my thoughts. Sometimes I cannot understand it myself,
   but You always understand it."

   3. You comprehend my path andmylyingdown, andareacquainted with allmy
   ways. "You have put a ring around me both in my staying and my going. I
   go to sleep, but You do not sleep. I cannot think of You while I
   slumber, but You think of me and You 'are acquainted with all my
   ways.'"--

   "Great God, Your penetrating eyes

   Pervade my inmost powers.

   With awe profound my wondering soul

   Falls prostrate and adores.

   To be encompassed around with God,

   The Holy and the Just.

   Armed with Omnipotence to save,

   Or crush me into dust!

   Oh, how tremendous is the thought!

   Deep may it be impressed!

   And may the Spirit firmly engrave,

   This Truth within my breast!"

   4. For there is not a word on my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, You know it
   altogether "You not only know what it is, but You know all about
   it--even the word which I have not yet spoken, the word that is on my
   tongue, as well as the

   word that is not on my tongue--those seeds of speech that have as yet
   not grown into words, You know them altogether."

   5. You have beset me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon
   me."Like men lying in ambush, 'You have beset me behind and before.'
   All that I have ever done and all that I shall ever do, You know it
   all. I am like one under arrest, upon whom the officer lays his hand so
   that he may have no opportunity of escaping. I am in Your grip. You
   have taken such a firm hold upon me that I cannot get away from You. In
   another sense, I am like a child enfolded in His mother's arms, for You
   have 'laid Your hand upon me.'"

   6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot
   attain unto it "I cannot climb up to Your glorious Throne--the very
   lowest step of it is far higher than my feet can reach! 'I cannot
   attain unto it.'"

   7. Where shall I go from Your spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your
   Presence?'"I do not want to do so, but it would be quite impossible for
   me to flee from Your Presence even if I wished to do so. Neither by
   steady marching, nor by rapid flight can I get away from You."

   8. If I ascend up into Heaven, You are there. The Hebrew is, "You
   there," as if there was nothing else there but God.

   8. If I make my bed in Hell, behold You are there. This seemed even
   more amazing to the Psalmist than that God was in Heaven, so He put in
   a, "behold"--"Behold, You."

   9. IfI take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts
   of the sea. "If I fly on the wings of light, which travels with
   inconceivable rapidity."

   10. Even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold
   me."I cannot go there except by Your leading and I shall not be there
   except by Your uplifting. There is no way by which I can keep away from
   God even if I try to do so. If, instead of living in the light, I seek
   to hide myself in the darkness, what then?"

   11. IfIsay, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be
   light about me. "The very night shall change its nature and turn from
   darkness into light!"

   12. Yes, the darkness hides not from You, but the night shines as the
   day: the darkness and the light are both alike to You. See, my dear
   Brothers and Sisters, how we dwell continually under the inspection of
   God? You have seen bees in a glass hive and watched all their
   movements, or you have put an insect under a powerful microscope and
   examined every part of it. Even so does the Omniscient God watch and
   examine you! Nothing is done by you that He does not observe. The poet
   speaks of the fierce light that beats about the throne of man, but you
   dwell in that far fiercer light which beats about the Throne of God!

   13. For You have possessed my reins. "Those secret organs of my body
   which I cannot see, and whose working I can only imperfectly
   comprehend."

   13. You have covered me in my mother's womb. "Even before I came on the
   stage of action, You were exercising wondrous care over me."

   14. I will praise You. That is a good resolution for each one of us, as
   well as the Psalmist, to make! As God sees me, let me praise Him--it
   will be pleasing to Him to hear me praising Him. "I will praise You."

   14. For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Nobody can rightly study
   the anatomy of the human body and see the beautiful arrangement of the
   various veins, nerves, sinews, muscles and bones without saying with
   the Psalmist, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

   14. Marvelous are Your works; and that my soul knows right well To
   study God's marvelous works, you need not go abroad, for they can be
   plainly seen in your own body. This earthly house of your tabernacle,
   in which you dwell so long as you are in this world, is a masterpiece
   of Divine wisdom and skill!

   15. My substance was not hid from You, when I was made in secret, and
   curiously worked in the lowest parts of the earth. God made us in His
   secret workshop by a marvelous method of Divine Power.

   16. Your eyes did see my substance, yet being not perfect; and in Your
   book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned,
   when as yet there was none of them. God's wonderful foreknowledge
   enabled Him to know us even before we knew ourselves, or anyone else
   knew us! And in the very making of us, the creation of our body and
   mind and spirit, God was beforehand with us.

   17. How precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God! How great is
   the sum of them!"I love to remember that You, my God, are thinking of
   me. I am not distressed or alarmed by that recollection. I do not say,
   ' How terrible are Your thoughts unto me, O God!' But, 'How
   precious'--how consoling, how full of promises of blessing to me--'are
   Your thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!'"

   18. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when
   I awake, I am still with You. "You lull me to sleep and You awake me in
   the morning. And when I open my eyes, You are still there." Happy
   Believer, who is always with God! Why should not You and I, dear
   Friends, always be consciously in the Presence of God? We are never
   right unless we are in that condition--and if we ever begin to forget
   God, we are in a wrong state of heart. If we can live from day to day
   without realizing that God is near us, we are falling into a sad and
   dangerous condition!

   19. Surely You will slay the wicked, O God. It cannot be that God has
   seen all their wicked acts and read their evil thoughts, and yet will
   spare them! When men offend in the very presence of the judge, it is
   easy work for him to try them.

   19. Depart from me, therefore, you bloody men. "You men of blood. You
   men stained with the blood of your fellows. Get away from me, for I do
   not want to be harboring criminals. God sees my company as well as
   myself, so depart from me!

   20. For they speak against You wickedly, and Your enemies take Your
   name in vain. David could not bear even the thought that men should
   insult such a God--a lack of reverence to the All-Seeing One was
   altogether unbearable to him, so he bade those who were guilty of such
   wickedness to take themselves away from him.

   21. 22. Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate You? And am not I grieved
   with those that rise up against You? I hate them with perfect hatred: I
   count them my enemies.We are to love our own enemies, but we are not to
   love God's enemies, nor willingly to mix with them! How can Christians
   associate with the lewd and irreverent without becoming partakers of
   their evil deeds? Let us take note of what David says and realize that
   we cannot be the friends of God if we are the friends of God's enemies.
   Now the Psalmist comes back to his key-note. He began the Psalm with
   the declaration, "O Lord, You have searched me." Now he prays.

   23. Search me, O God, and know my heart "You have searched me, O God,
   but I pray You to do it again, and to keep on doing it--never take Your
   great searchlight away from me."

   23. Try me, and know my thoughts. "I cannot hide them from You, and
   would not if I could."

   24. And see if there is any wicked way in me. "Lord, l ook for the
   dross, to consume it! Look for the spots, to wash them away."

   24. And lead me in the way everlasting. "Amen." Our hearts say,
   "Amen--so let it be."
     __________________________________________________________________

Enquiring the Way to Zion

   (No. 3035)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY 9, 1870.

   "They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces toward it." Jeremiah
   50:5.

   I am going to take these words out of their context and use them as I
   believe they may very properly be used--as a description of those whom
   God is about to save. This is one of the signs and tokens of a coming
   salvation, "They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces toward it."

   You remember that Zion of old was the place, above all others, where
   God manifested Himself. To ask the way to Zion means, therefore, to
   seek after God, to desire to be reconciled to God, to long to be
   pardoned and accepted by God.

   Zion was also the only place where the offering of sacrifices was
   permitted. Though the disobedient and idolatrous Jews offered
   sacrifices on the high places which they had profaned by their
   abominations, they did so contrary to God's commands. The only place
   where the sacrificial victims could be acceptably offered was in the
   Temple on Mount Zion. To come to Zion, today, means to come to the one
   Sacrifice which God has provided for the sin of man, namely, to Jesus
   Christ, His only-begotten and well-beloved Son, who is the one
   Propitiation for human sin and who has, by His death upon the Cross,
   made a full Atonement for the guilt of all who believe in Him.

   Zion was also, in the olden time, the appointed place of public worship
   where the tribes went up on their solemn feast days, to join in the
   joyous Psalms that arose with thundering acclaim from ten thousand
   voices. There the multitude bowed in solemn prayer and there they heard
   the Word of the Lord. In a somewhat different form from that which we
   now observe, yet in a similar spirit to that in which we now meet, they
   worshipped God. So to ask the way to Zion means to desire to worship
   the Most High, to seek to become true and acceptable servants of the
   ever living God.

   Zion of old was also the place of delightful fellowship. There friends
   met friends from the farthest ends of the land. He that dwelt at Dan
   gave the right hand of fellowship to him that dwelt at Beersheba when
   they came to their great general gatherings at Jerusalem. To ask the
   way to Zion, then, means to seek to come to Christian fellowship, to
   desire to be united in Christian bonds with Brothers and Sisters who
   love each other because they love one common Lord and Master, Jesus
   Christ, their blessed Savior!

   Zion was, besides, a place of rest. It was looked upon as the abode of
   peace. Those who dwelt there were under the special protection of
   Heaven. To desire, therefore, to find the way to Zion is to desire to
   find peace, lasting peace, conscious peace with God, even "the peace of
   God which passes all understanding."

   Zion, too, has been regarded as a picture of Heaven. To desire to know
   the way to Zion is, therefore, to desire to know the way to Heaven. To
   say, "Tell us the way to Zion," is the same thing as to say, "Tell us
   how we may reach that blessed state of salvation which shall secure for
   us a joyful entrance into everlasting bliss." There are two things
   stated in our text concerning the enquirers as to the way to Zion.
   First, we have their enquiry and, secondly, we are told the direction
   in which their faces were turned--"They shall ask the way to Zion with
   their faces toward it."

   I. First, then, we HAVE THEIR ENQUIRY--"They shall ask the way to
   Zion."

   Who will do this? We will try to find out who they are who ask the way
   to Zion and, first, they are evidently those who are weary of other
   ways. They have been treading the way that leads to Hell. They have
   known and walked in the ways of pleasure and folly. They are familiar
   with the way of worldliness. Many of them have tramped along the miry
   way of self-righteousness and they have all run in the road of willful
   wickedness. Yet they are willing to leave all these ways, for a man
   cannot go in two opposite directions at the same time! He must go only
   in one or the other of them and, in

   asking the way to Zion, it is taken for granted that the truthful
   enquirer is weary of all other ways. Is it so with you, my Hearer? You
   are not yet saved, but are you discontent with all that you have ever
   known as yet? It is a blessed thing when God makes a man discontented
   with all but HIMSELF--when the way of sin is no longer so smooth and
   pleasant as it once was and the enjoyments of the world are no longer
   so delicious and alluring as they used to be. Surely, if this is your
   case, my Hearer, you are being weaned from the breasts of your vain
   delights that you may come to your Father who can make you truly blest!

   I can only praise God from the depths of my heart if any of you who are
   not yet in the way to Zion, have had your way hedged up of late, for it
   may be that the thorns which have scratched and torn you, have only
   kept you from going yet further astray from the right road. I hope that
   even the wretchedness which arises through treading the paths of sin
   may drive many to find relief from it in the Savior who is, Himself,
   the way to God! Am I addressing any who are in such a condition at this
   moment? Surely there must be someone here who is saying, "I need to
   find something real, for I have tried the sham and found it useless. I
   want to get peace of conscience if I can, for I am distracted by the
   thought of my guilt. Wealth cannot satisfy me. I have abundance of this
   world's goods, yet I am not happy. Worldly ambition cannot satisfy my
   soul. I have gained the position for which I strove, but I am not
   content. My mind is driven to and fro as by a whirlwind. I am like a
   cockle-shell boat at the mercy of the stormy waves, or like the chaff
   from the threshing floor that is driven before the wind. I have no
   rest, no peace, no satisfaction." Well, my dear Hearer, if you are in
   that state of mind and heart, I earnestly recommend you to ask the way
   to Zion--for that is the place of rest and contentment--and if you are
   sincerely asking the way, I am quite sure that it is because you are
   weary of all other ways.

   Those who ask the way to Zion also thereby confess that they are not
   yet saved. It is a great work, a Divine work, to bring His people to
   confess that they are not yet saved, for the most of mankind have the
   notion that, somehow or other, all is well with them in the sight of
   God. This is especially the case with those who have been brought up
   religiously. If you have, from your childhood, been regular attendants
   at a place of worship. If you have been kept strictly moral and
   outwardly religious, it is exceedingly probable that you will slide
   into the idea which perhaps you would not express in so many words,
   but, still the idea is there--that you have, after all, very fair
   prospects with regard to the world to come. In Jeremiah's day there
   were some to whom the Lord said, "Trust you not in lying words, saying,
   The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord,
   are these." And today the children of godly parents, the people who
   attend places of worship regularly and live an outwardly moral life,
   are very apt to say, "The people of the Lord, the people of the lord,
   the people of the Lord are we."

   Perhaps some of you fancy that because you have been baptized, although
   you never were converted, or because you have dared to profane the
   Lord's Table by your presence, although you are quite unfit to be
   there, you are therefore saved. If that is the case with you, it will
   be a happy thing for you if you are led to enquire the way to Christ
   because you feel that you have not yet accepted Christ as your Savior.
   It will be a mercy for you if you are led to see that your natural
   condition, instead of making you a citizen of Zion, makes you a citizen
   of Sodom or of Babylon! Certainly you cannot become a child of God by
   birth, by blood, by Baptism, or by any ceremonial process--but only by
   the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit! If you are not yet saved, I
   pray that you may be made to know that you are not. It is only God's
   gracious Spirit who can convict a man who thought all was well with
   him, that he is lost. Only the Holy Spirit can prove to him that he is
   not a Christian, though he thinks he is one! And when he is made to
   realize this, he will probably soon be transformed into that which he
   now fancies he is--a true child of the living God!

   So those who ask the way to Zion are those who are weary of other ways
   and who feel that they are not yet in the way of salvation, the way of
   holiness.

   Further, to ask the way to Zion proves that the enquirer is not
   presumptuous--that he does not think that he shall get to Zion, blunder
   on as he may. I believe that many men cherish the erroneous notion that
   if they are really sincere, and distinctly and decidedly moral, they
   will, somehow or other, by hook or by crook, get through the gate of
   pearl into Heaven. They say, "If we do not, who will? If it will not be
   well with us, then it must be far worse with a great many others who
   are worse than we are." That is the kind of talk in which many indulge,
   but it is sheer presumption! O Sirs, believe me that being saved is not
   child's play! It is not a matter to be dreamed over. No man ever hit
   this mark by chance! No man's soul was ever saved by mere chance. Many
   a soul has gone to Hell through neglect, but never has even one soul
   gone to Heaven in that way! Remember that solemn unanswered question of
   the Apostle Peter, "If the righteous

   are scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" If
   it is only after stern fighting and struggling--and often a long and
   wearisome pilgrimage--that the Christian gets into Heaven and if even
   he is sometimes "saved, yet so as by fire," how shall they escape who
   neglect this great salvation? If they who serve God most diligently
   have nothing to glory in, what will be the portion of those who rebel
   against the Lord, or who simply "neglect" His great salvation? O Sirs,
   if the best of saints sometimes fear that they will be castaways at
   last, though that fear is needless if they are the Lord's--what will
   become of godless Sabbath-breakers, or of you who never read the Bible
   and never bow your knees in prayer, but who live as if there were no
   God, or as if it mattered not whether you served your Maker or abhorred
   Him? This fatal presumption will never do--and I hope there are some of
   you who have now done with it forever, who are no longer hoping to
   stumble into eternal life, but who are asking the way to Zion, knowing
   that there is but one way--and sincerely desiring to find it!

   This enquiry, if it is honestly made, also proves that those who make
   it are not conceited. They ask the way to Zion for they do not think
   they know everything and they are willing to learn what they do not
   know. If a child should offer to tell them the way to Heaven, they
   would be glad to hear it. Or though the person who might deliver to
   them the message of salvation should be clothed in the garb of poverty,
   and although his language might be incorrect and ungrammatical, yet if
   he should tell them plainly what they must do to be saved, they would
   be willing to take the treasure even out of an earthen vessel and to
   find the priceless jewel in the mire! But when men boastfully say, "We
   know all that we need to know, so we have no need of any teacher. As
   for the Bible, we look upon it as an antiquated, worn-out old book and
   we, men of thought and intelligence, can do without it. Can we not
   study the rocks or the starry heavens, or the wide fields of Nature?
   What need have we of a voice from God to guide us?"--we can only reply,
   "Ah, Sirs, your boasting is that of fools! You must excuse the
   harshness of the word, but it is true, for wise men know their
   ignorance-- and only fools boast as you have been doing. May you be
   emptied of all your pride--turned upside down as a man turns a dish
   bottom upwards and pours out all its contents. And when you find that
   there is nothing in you, go and ask the way to Zion with true humility!
   You will never be truly wise till you find out that you are not wise.
   And you will never really know till you are willing to admit that you
   know nothing except what God teaches you by His Word, His Spirit, or
   His servants.

   There is another thing about this asking the way to Zion--it shows
   anxiety on the part of the enquirers. Sometimes when one wants to find
   a certain spot in the intricate streets of London, one stops and asks a
   policeman, or someone else, which is the way to such-and-such a place.
   And an answer is given, with more or less clearness. But having gone in
   the direction indicated and not having found the place, one naturally
   asks again and, perhaps again! If you are afraid of missing the spot
   you want to find, there is seldom anything lost by asking--and it is
   always better to spend one minute in asking the way than to waste ten
   minutes in going wrong! He who is the most anxious to find the right
   way is the man who will ask the most often--and I trust there are some
   here who are willing to ask of the Word of God and to ask of God's
   servants--"Tell me, is this the road to Heaven, or am I mistaken? Is
   this the plan of salvation by which alone sinners can be delivered from
   the wrath to come? O Sirs, I cannot afford to be mistaken here, for my
   soul's eternal welfare depends upon it! A mistake here would involve
   everlasting misery! So, as before the living God, tell me the truth,
   even though it should hurt my feelings and make me angry, yet be
   faithful with me, O men of God! I ask you again and yet again, the way
   to Zion."

   I think, too, dear Friends, we may say with regard to this enquiry,
   that the man who makes it is not a skeptic. He would not ask the way to
   Zion if he did not believe that there is such a place. There are some
   people who are continually trying to amuse themselves by pretending to
   be doubters. I speak what I really feel about this matter, for I do not
   believe in the honesty of nine out of ten of the doubts of which I
   hear, or of the new ideas that are constantly being brought forth
   concerning one Truth of God or another. I am sometimes asked why I do
   not preach more often against these heresies. What? Am I to tell
   everybody what any fool likes to say against God? Not I! If anybody
   else wants to propagate infidelity in that way, let him do it. I shall
   not blow a trumpet to call attention to the lies that men keep on
   inventing. If I answered everything that they have said up till now,
   they would say something else that was false next week. I have better
   employment than that of shining the devil's boots in this way! And
   besides that, I have the satisfaction of knowing that the most of you
   are not troubled by these heresies. You know, in your inmost souls,
   that His Book is true, that there is a God and that, before long, you
   will have to stand before Him to give an account of the deeds done in
   the body. If any of you do not believe the Bible, that does not affect
   the fact that it is true. And what I have to say to you is to charge
   you, as you love your never-dying souls, to escape from Hell and flee
   to Heaven--to point out to you which is the right road and to beseech
   you not to miss the overwhelming Glory of eternal life for the sake of
   indulging your foolish and fatal pride. There isa heavenly Zion--ask
   the way to it, press forward and find it!

   I will make only one other remark upon this part of my subject. Those
   who sincerely ask the way to Zion are evidently not asking out of mere
   curiosity, for if they were, they would ask where Zion is and what sort
   of a place it is. And they would probably ask some very foolish
   questions concerning it. Instead of doing so, they simply say, "Show us
   the way." That is practical--they ask the way to Zion. I often fear
   that the questions which are asked by many people concerning various
   mysterious or difficult Doctrines in the Bible are only asked in order
   to try to lull their consciences to sleep while they are living in
   rebellion against God. A man says to me, "Can you explain the seven
   trumpets of the Revelation?" No, but I can blow one in your ear and
   warn you to escape from the wrath to come! Another says, "Can you tell
   me when the end of the world will come?" No, but I can tell you how to
   be so prepared for it that you need not be afraid if it were to come
   tonight! I can urge you to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior,
   so that, let the end of the world come when it may, you can await it
   with holy joy and enter into eternal bliss! We want more, especially
   among sinners, of practical questions and not mere captious and curious
   enquiries. There will be time enough for you to ask all proper and
   right questions and to have them answered--when you have sought and
   found the Savior. But meanwhile, my dear Hearer, your immortal soul is
   in jeopardy, so attend to that first of all. A man who is sinking in
   the sea is mad if he says, "I won't lay hold of that rope until I
   understand all about astronomy." A man in a burning house need not
   trouble his head about geology--his first business is to get to the
   fire escape--he can leave his study of geology till tomorrow. So you
   unconverted ones should "seek first the Kingdom of God and His
   righteousness,"and all other things you need shall be added unto you.

   This must suffice concerning the sincere enquirers who ask the way to
   Zion.

   II. Now we will consider the direction in which these enquirer's faces
   are turned--"They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces toward
   it."

   If a man should ask you the way to a certain part of the town which
   lies toward the North, and his face should be turned toward the South,
   you would say, "Sir, that place is in the very direction from which you
   have come. You must turn your face the other way if you mean to get
   there." But suppose that he kept on walking in the same way in which he
   was going before he spoke to you? And suppose that he still asked the
   way, yet persisted in doing the very opposite to what he should do? You
   would at once know that he was merely mocking you and you would very
   likely pass on and say to yourself, "I will answer the civil enquiry of
   anyone who really needs directions, but I will not continue to answer
   the enquiry of a man who asks the way and when he is told, deliberately
   turns his face in the opposite direction!"

   I hope I am addressing many who are saying, "We do want to be saved. We
   are in real earnest about it. We would do anything in our power to be
   true Christians and to have our sins forgiven." Shall I tell you how we
   can know whether your faces are turned in the right direction? A man
   who has his face towards Zion is earnest about Divine things. He used
   to trifle concerning eternal realities, or to assume the appearance of
   earnestness on certain occasions. When he heard an earnest preacher
   deliver an impressive discourse, he felt his spirit somewhat stirred,
   but he soon cooled down and was as careless as before. A man who has
   his face Zionward is constantly in earnest. He feels that the chief
   business of his life is to get salvation and I believe that a man in
   real earnest about eternal life, sooner or later obtains it. I do not
   think there will be one lost sinner in Hell who will be able to say, "I
   honestly and earnestly sought the Savior, but I sought Him in vain." A
   man may be in earnest and yet, through lack of knowledge, he may miss
   the mark for a while. But I believe that sooner or later, the Light of
   God, by God's Grace, will come to him. If God continues to cherish the
   earnest desire within his heart, it will be a sign that He means to
   ultimately open the prison door and set the bound spirit at liberty! So
   earnestness is a good sign of the face being set Zionward.

   Another sign that a man's face is towards Zion is seen when he hears
   the Word attentively. There is great hope for the man who constantly
   attends the preaching of the Gospel--that is to say if it is really the
   Gospel that he hears, and if it is honestly and earnestly preached--and
   if, while attending the House of Prayer, the man does not merely come
   in and go out, as a mere formal worshipper, but anxiously listens and
   watches to hear whether there is a message that is especially suitable
   for him. I know that I have some hearers who seem to go fishing in my
   sermons to see if there is

   something in it suited to their case that they can catch and
   appropriate to themselves. Like the little boy who used to listen so
   attentively that his mother asked him why he did so. He replied, "I
   heard a minister say once that if there was a word in the sermon that
   might be blessed to us, Satan would be pretty sure to try to distract
   your attention so that we might not hear it. So I want to hear it all
   and see if there is something that may be useful to me." I am satisfied
   that your face is set Zionward when you can honestly say, "I come to
   the House of Prayer and sit there not merely because it is the
   Lord's-Day and we must go somewhere to worship Him--not because I like
   to see the crowded congregation and to join in the joyous songs of
   praise, but because I hope that one of these days the minister will be
   guided by the Holy Spirit to let fall a handful on purpose for me--and
   that even I may know what it means to be saved in the Lord with an
   everlasting salvation."

   Perhaps a better sign is when a man not only continually hears the
   Gospel preached, but frequently and as often as he can, reads the Word
   of God with a view of finding something that may meet his case. In some
   respects the preached Word has a very powerful influence over those who
   hear it because it comes with a living power from living lips--and God
   has ordained that by the preaching of His Word men shall believe and be
   saved. But in other respects, this Divinely-Inspired Word is far
   superior to anything that we can ever say, for it is the Infallible
   Word of God which lives and endures forever! Here is God's own Truth in
   God's own words--and when I find that any of you get up a quarter of an
   hour earlier in the morning so that you may be able to read a chapter
   before you go to work, or when I hear that you carry your little pocket
   Testament with you, so that in your dinner hour you may read a few
   verses with the prayer--"O God, save my soul while I read this, Your
   Holy Word!"--I feel that if you have not already found Christ, you soon
   will do so! At any rate, I am satisfied that you are enquiring the way
   to Zion and that your face is turned towards Heaven! And I do not
   believe, my dear Friend, that you will long be in the habit off
   attentively reading the Word without finding some precious promise that
   shall come home to your spirit and bring you into the light!

   There is still one better sign and that is this--I am so glad to know
   that some of you have begun to really pray. I expect that most of you
   used to pray, after a fashion, even when you were children. Your mother
   taught you to say a little prayer at her knee before she put you to
   bed. And many of you did not give up that habit until you went away
   from home. Perhaps you were apprenticed and possibly there was another
   apprentice in the room where you slept--and you had not the moral
   courage to kneel down while he was there. Well, I am sorry if it was
   so, yet I fear that where you did observe that form, you did not really
   pray! But now you do truly pray and from your heart you do really speak
   to God. It may be that there are others of you who have always used a
   printed or written form of prayer, yet till lately you never prayed in
   the true sense of that word. You used to read or recite the words just
   as the followers of Mohammed repeat their stereotyped form, but your
   heart was not in them and you were often half asleep even while you
   were uttering those meaningless words. But now you cannot help
   praying--you groan out poor broken sentences to God that you would not
   like to see in print. I recollect the time when I used to pray after
   this fashion, "O God, save me! I hear the Gospel preached whenever I
   can, but it does not bring peace to my heart. I am still without God,
   without Christ and without hope in the world! O Lord, do save me! Save,
   me, I beseech You. And save me now!" If that is the spirit in which you
   have prayed, never mind what your words may have been--if this has been
   your desire, your face is set Heavenward and I do not believe that the
   Lord will long let you cry thus unto Him without sending you a distinct
   answer of peace! You remember that the Lord said to Ananias, concerning
   Saul of Tarsus, as one of the evidences of the great change that had
   been worked in him, "Behold, he prays." And if that can also be said of
   you, there is good reason to hope concerning you! Surely the Holy
   Spirit has already been at work within you if you have begun to pray
   continually and to pour out your heart's supplication in secret before
   the living God!

   Another good sign of sincerity is when a man begins to forsake his old
   companions and shows that he likes the people of God far better In my
   early ministry in London, there was a certain friend--if he is not here
   tonight, he is usefully engaged elsewhere--who came to the service one
   Lord's-Day evening with no objective beyond a vain curiosity. But that
   night the Word of the Lord stung him to the quick and made him very
   angry. He wrote me a letter, the next morning, to tell me that I had
   insulted him--and I do not know what he was not going to do! He came
   again to see if I would do the same as before and the Word of the Lord
   cut him up far worse! But it was a very different letter that he wrote
   to me the next morning. He said that he had been in the habit of
   meeting, on Sunday nights, with half a dozen friends--most of whom are
   now members of this Church--and they used to, on Saturday, draw at the
   top of a sheet of notepaper a little sketch signifying, "Drop in on
   Sunday night--pipes and tobacco at seven." Then the man went on to tell
   me that if these former friends of his would not come with him to the
   House of Prayer, they would be friends of his no longer, for that old
   mode of spending the Lord's-Day evening would never suit him again!
   That is one of the sure signs of the working of God's Grace, when a man
   says to his old companions, "Now, Sirs, I cannot be your friend if you
   are not God's friends. As far as worldly matters are concerned, I will
   help you when I can. I will not break my friendship with you in that
   respect. But as to spending my leisure hours in the places of sin where
   you find your delights, I cannot do it. I fear I am not yet converted.
   I am afraid I am not a Christian, but this much I know--I cannot find
   my pleasure any longer where I used to find it."

   Ah, my Friend! When you talk like that, you have your face set
   Heavenward! Even if you are not actually on the road there, you are
   certainly in a hopeful condition and I trust that, before long, there
   will be something better even than that to be said concerning you! You
   will go to the houses where the name of Christ is like ointment poured
   forth and though you may sit still and hold your tongue, you will be
   thinking, "I wish I had a share in these precious things, and I do
   delight to hear these people talk about them." I know some learned men
   who have been delighted to listen to a very poor woman as she was
   talking of the joy of the Lord only a little while before she passed
   into the spirit-land. It is usually a sure sign that we are in love
   with the Master when we are in love with His servants and when we find
   delight in the company of His people. It is surely because there is a
   secret drawing of our hearts towards Him. It indicates to me, my
   Friend, that your face is set Zionward when you begin to hate the
   company of the loose, the frivolous, the wicked--and to choose the
   company of the earnest, the truthful, the godly, the prayerful, the
   lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ!

   I shall only detain you while I mention the best sign of all--a sign,
   dear Friends, which I believe is present in many of you--namely, that
   you are beginning to repent of sin and beginning, though you hardly
   dare to think that you are, to believe in Jesus! Only a few days ago
   you did really think that you had believed in Jesus, though you are
   afraid to think so tonight, and you would not like to be deceived about
   so important a matter. Yet at times there is a most blessed brokenness
   of heart about you. You cannot look back on your past history without
   feeling that your tears must flow as you mourn that you should ever
   have lived as you have lived--that you should have had so many
   privileges and should have slighted them--that you should have had so
   many warnings and should have despised them. You do not imagine that
   this feeling is true repentance, but I believe that a truly repentant
   soul scarcely ever thinks that it does repent as it ought to do. When a
   man is most tender in heart he generally says, "I grieve that I feel so
   hardened and that I am not as tender as I ought to be." Remember
   this--there never was a saint who repented as much as he should have,
   for repentance should be perfect and no Christian has ever attained to
   that height.

   As for believing in Jesus, I know that there are some of you who--when
   you have just been reading the very sweet promise in the Scriptures and
   your heart has been enabled to rest upon it--have had thoughts like
   these, "I cannot say that I really do believe in Jesus, but I do desire
   to believe in Him. And one thing I know, if He is not yet mine, I will
   never be fully at rest with anyone but Himself--

   "'Other refuge have Inone.

   "If I cannot nestle under His blessed wings, I will never try to hide
   under any others." You sometimes hope that you really have trusted in
   Jesus--and I think that you have done so, although your faith is very
   feeble. Remember, however, that even a feeble faith is a saving faith!
   Though your faith is no bigger than a mustard seed, so that you can
   hardly see it, it will bring salvation to you! Even if you cannot see
   it, God can. If you do but touch the hem of Christ's garment, virtue
   will flow out of Him to the saving of your soul!

   There are some who go to Heaven rejoicing all the way. I hope you may
   be of that happy number. But there are others, like those who are
   mentioned in the fourth verse of this very chapter, who go "weeping."
   There are tears at every step--"going and weeping." Yet, when they get
   to Heaven, they will not be asked whether they came weeping or
   laughing. It is better to go weeping to Heaven than to go laughing to
   Hell! There are some who go weeping to Heaven-- they seem every day as
   if they must surely perish on the road, yet they get there at
   last--and, dear Friend, if your face is set Zionward--if you can truly
   say, "There is none but Jesus for me. He is all my hope and all my
   trust," you may rest content that you also will get to Heaven at last!
   If you are really trusting in Christ, you are sure of Heaven, even if
   you have but one single grain of living faith in the Crucified Savior--

   "The feeblest saint shall win the day,

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM32.

   In this Psalm we have the Gospel of the peace of God as David knew it
   for himself and wrote it for the benefit of others.

   Verse 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is
   covered. Hear this Inspired declaration, you who have transgressed the
   Law of your God! You who cannot plead a righteousness of your own, you
   who are conscious that you are sinners in the sight of God--here is a
   door of hope for you! Here is a possibility of blessing even for those
   whose lives have been full of sin and transgression! This is not a
   blessing of the Law, but a blessing of the Gospel--"Blessed is he whose
   transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."

   2. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputes not iniquity. Even God
   does not keep it recorded against him. The man has committed iniquity,
   but it is no longer laid to his charge, even by Him whose all-seeing
   eyes have witnessed it! "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes
   not iniquity."

   2. And in whose spirit there is no guile. No shuffling, no deceit. He
   deals honestly with God and with himself--and with his fellows--and God
   deals righteously with him, and yet covers his sin, forgives his
   transgression and imputes not to him his iniquity!

   3, 4. When Ikept silent, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the
   day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is
   turned into the drought of summer Selah. While under a sense of sin,
   David could not pray. Or his prayer, if he did offer one at all, turned
   into a kind of roaring, like the cry of a wounded beast. He was so
   heavy in heart, his whole being was so scorched and parched by the fire
   of God's righteous anger because of his sin, that the very ducts of his
   tears refused to supply him with any further streams and he had to cry,
   "My moisture is turned into the drought of summer." Oh, what a burden
   sin always brings with it! And what a dreadful thing it is to be
   crushed under the almighty hand of God when He convinces us of our
   guilt by the effectual working of His Holy Spirit! When David was in
   that condition, what did he do in order to get peace with God and to
   find rest for his soul? Listen--

   5. I acknowledged my sin unto You, and my iniquity have I not hid. I
   said I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and You forgave
   the iniquity of my sin. Selah He made to the Lord a full, childlike
   confession of his sin, iniquity and transgressions--evidently putting
   his heart's trust in the mercy of God. And soon all the burden that
   oppressed him was removed and the fierce burnings of Divine Vengeance
   within his spirit were quenched--and his storm-tossed heart was at rest
   in his God! "You forgave the iniquity of my sin."

   6. 7. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto You in a time
   when You may be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall
   not come near unto him. You are my hiding place. See where a sinner can
   find a safe shelter-- only in his God. Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is
   the appointed Judge of all mankind, yet it is to Him that we fly for
   refuge, crying--

   "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee!"

   It is strange that He from whose lips the storm of wrath against sin
   comes, is the hiding place of His people! He draws the sword of
   infinite and Infallible Justice against all iniquity and then He
   furnishes, in His own great heart of love, the sheath into which that
   sword of justice is plunged! So today the Believer says to Him in a
   fuller sense even than David understood the term, "You are my hiding
   place."

   7. You shall preserve me from trouble: You shall compass me about with
   songs of deliverance. Selah The once heavy heart shall dance for joy!
   The spirit that was so grievously burdened shall take up the note of
   glad thanksgiving when the Lord's free Sovereign mercy brings
   forgiveness to His repenting children.

   8. I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go: I
   will guide you with My eyes. A good servant frequently does not need
   even a word from her mistress to guide her as to some duty to be
   performed, or some fault to be avoided--a look is all that is
   necessary, just a glance of the eyes gives the necessary guidance. So
   the Lord says to His

   watchful servant, "I will guide you with My eyes." But, like the
   attentive servant, we must be keenly on the watch for this indication
   of our Lord's guiding eyes.

   9. Be you not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no
   understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest
   they come near unto you.If you will be like a horse or a mule, do not
   be surprised when you are made to feel the bit and bridle which are
   appropriate for such creatures! And if a whip and spur are added,
   remember that you brought such treatment upon yourself! No, do not be
   so foolish, but give heed to the Divine Injunction--"Be you not as the
   horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be
   held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto you."

   10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked. The backsliding child of God
   will smart under the strokes of his Father's chastising rod, but still
   sterner treatment will fall to the lot of "the wicked." On another
   occasion, David wrote, "The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all
   the nations that forget God."

   10. But he that trusts in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about. What
   a number of blessed fences there are around a Believer! Just now David
   wrote, "You shall compass me about with songs of deliverance." And now
   he says of himself or his fellow Believer, "He that trusts in the Lord,
   mercy shall compass him about." What more can he need?

   11. Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, you righteous: and shout for joy,
   all you that are upright in heart The Psalm began with blessedness and
   it ends with holy gladness! It was necessary to go down into the Valley
   of Humiliation for a while, but the Lord brought the Psalmist up to the
   mountaintop again, so that he felt that he must have others join him in
   his gladsome song--"Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, you righteous;
   and shout for joy, all you that are upright in heart." May all of us be
   fitted, by God's Grace, to join that singing and shouting company, for
   Jesus' sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Proving God

   (No. 3036)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER
   19, 1856.

   "Prove Me now." Malachi 3:10.

   IT was my pleasure and my privilege, some time ago, to address you from
   the whole of this verse--"Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse,
   that there may be meat in your house, and prove Me now herewith, says
   the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of Heaven, and
   pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive
   it."

   If I rightly remember, we had at that time enough room, but very soon
   afterwards, when we strove to serve our God more, He did really pour us
   out such a blessing that we had not room to receive it! Then we
   enlarged this house--still the blessing flowed so copiously that there
   was no room to receive it and I might have preached again from the same
   text, to remind you again of the promise. This morning, feeling that we
   are about to enter on a new enterprise to God's honor and Glory, I
   thought I would endeavor to stir up your pure minds by way of
   remembrance, for which purpose I select such a text as this, "Prove Me
   now."

   According to the laws of our country, no man can be condemned until his
   guilt is proved. It were well if we all carried out the same justice
   toward God which we expect from our fellow men, but how frequently will
   men condemn the acts of their God as being hard and unkind! They do not
   say so--they dare not--they scarcely admit that they thinkso, but there
   is a kind of lurking imagination hardly amounting to a deliberate
   thought which leads them to fear that God has forgotten to be gracious
   and will no longer be mindful of them. Let us never, my Friends, think
   harshly of our God till we can prove something against Him. He says to
   all His unbelieving children who are doubtful of His goodness and His
   Grace, "Prove Me now. Have you anything against Me? Can you prove
   anything that will be dishonorable to Me? Wherein have I ever broken My
   promise? In what have I ever failed to fulfill My word? Ah, you cannot
   say that. Prove Me now, if you have anything against Me--if you can say
   anything against My honor--if you have hitherto not received answers to
   prayer and blessings according to promise. Set me down as false, I
   beseech you, until you have so proved Me."

   Moreover, not only is it unjust to think ill of anyone until we can
   prove something against him, but it is extremely unwise to be always
   suspicious of our fellow creatures. Though there is much folly in being
   over credulous, I question if there is not far more in being over
   suspicious. He who believes every man will soon be bitten, but he who
   suspects every man will not only be bitten, but devoured! He who lives
   in perpetual distrust of his fellow creatures cannot be happy--he has
   defrauded himself of peace and happiness--and assumed a position in
   which he cannot enjoy the sweets of friendship or affection. I would
   rather be too credulous towards my fellow creatures than too
   suspicious. I had rather they should impose upon me by making me
   believe them better than they are, than that I should impose upon them
   by thinking them worse than they are. It is better to be sometimes
   cheated than that we should cheat others--and it is cheating others to
   suspect those on whose characters there rests no suspicion. We
   acknowledge such morality among men, but we act not so towards God--we
   believe any liar sooner than we believe Him! When we are in trial and
   trouble, we believe the devil when he says God will forsake us. The
   devil, who has been a liar from the beginning, we credit--but if our
   God promises anything, we say, "Surely this is too good to be true."
   And we doubt the fulfillment because it is not brought to pass exactly
   at the time and in the way we anticipate! Let us never harbor such
   suspicions of our God. If we say in our haste, "All men are liars," let
   us preserve this one Truth of God, "God cannot lie." His counsel is
   immutable and He has confirmed it by an oath, "that we might have a
   strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
   set

   before us" in Christ Jesus. Let not our faith, then, dally with fear.
   Let us rather seek Grace--that we may confidently believe and assuredly
   rely on the words which the lips of God speak. "'Prove Me now,' if any
   of you are suspicious of My Word. If you think My Grace is not sweet,
   taste and see that the Lord is gracious. If you think that I am not a
   rock and that My work is not perfect, come now, tread upon the rock and
   see if it is not firm--build on the rock and see if it is not solid. If
   you think My arm shortened that I cannot save, come and ask and I will
   stretch it out to defend you. If you think that My ear is heavy that I
   cannot hear, come and try it--call upon Me and I will answer you. If
   you are suspicious, make proof of My promises, so shall your suspicions
   be removed. But, oh, doubt Me not until you have found Me unworthy of
   trust! 'Prove Me now.'"

   In these words I find a fact couched, a challenge given, a time
   mentioned, and an argument suggested. Such are the four points I
   propose to consider this morning.

   I. First, then, we have THE FACT that God allows Himself to be
   proved--"Prove Me now."

   In meditating on this subject, it has occurred to me that all the works
   of Creation are proofs of God--they evidence His eternal power and
   Godhead. But inasmuch as He is not only the Creator, but the Sustainer
   of them all, they make continual proof of Him, His goodness, His
   faithfulness and His care. I think when God launched the sun from His
   hand and sent it on its course, He said, "Prove Me now; see, O sun, if
   I do not uphold you till you have done your work and finished your
   career. You may rejoice 'as a strong man to run a race,' but while you
   fulfill your circuits, and nothing is hid from your heat, you shall
   prove My Glory and shed light upon My handiwork." When the Almighty
   whirled the earth in space, I think He said, "Prove Me now, O 'seedtime
   and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night,'
   refreshing you with incessant Providences." And to each creature He
   made, I can almost think the Almighty said, "Prove Me now. Tiny gnat,
   you are about to dance in the sunshine--you shall prove My goodness.
   Huge leviathan, you shall stir up the deep and make it frothy--go forth
   and prove My power. You creatures whom I have endowed with various
   instincts, wait on Me--I will give you your meat in due season. And
   you, you mighty thunder and you swift lightning, go teach the world
   reverence and show forth My Omnipotence." Thus, I think, all God's
   creatures are not merely proofs of His existence, but proofs of His
   manifold wisdom, His loving kindness and His Grace! The meanest and the
   mightiest of His created works, each and all, in some degree prove His
   love and teach us how marvelous is His Nature. But He has given to man
   this high prerogative above all the works of His hands, that he alone
   should make designed and intelligent proof. The things of earth prove
   God--the cattle on a thousand hills low forth His honor and the very
   lions roar His praise! Yet they do it not with intent, judgment and
   will--and although the sun proves the majesty and the might of its
   Master, yet the sun has neither mind nor thought and it is not its
   intention to glorify God. They do but prove Him unintentionally. But
   the saint does it intentionally.

   It is a great fact, Beloved, that God will have all His children to be
   proofs of the various attributes of His Nature. I do not think any one
   of the children of God proves all of God, but that they are all proving
   different parts of His one grand Character so that when the whole
   history of Providence shall be written and the lives of all the saints
   shall be recorded, the title of this book will be, "Proofs of God."
   There will be one compendious proof that He is God and changes
   not--that with Him there "is no variableness, neither shadow of
   turning." You will remember how one saint peculiarly proved the
   long-suffering of God in that he was permitted to pursue his career to
   the utmost verge of destruction--and while he hung on a cross, the
   patience that had borne with him so long, brought salvation to him at
   last! He was "in the article of death," falling into the Pit, when
   Sovereign Grace broke the fall, everlasting arms caught his soul and
   Jesus Himself conducted him to Paradise! Then again, you will remember
   another saint who plunged into a thousand sins and indulged in the
   foulest lust--but she was brought to Christ! Out of her did He cast
   seven evil spirits and Mary Magdalene was made to prove the richness of
   our Savior's pardoning Grace as well as the sweetness of a pardoned
   sinner's gratitude! It is a fact that the Lord is ready to forgive--and
   this woman is a great proof of it. There was Job who was tortured with
   ulcers and made to scrape himself with a potsherd. He proved "that the
   Lord is full of pity and of tender mercy." From him we get evidence
   that God is able to sustain us amidst unparalleled sufferings.

   Let me note how Solomon proved the bounty of God. When he asked for
   wisdom and knowledge, the Lord not only granted his request, but added
   riches and wealth and honor to his store. And how did Solomon magnify
   this proof of Divine bounty as he translates the experience of his
   dream into the counsel of his Proverbs? While he advises us to get
   wisdom, he assures us that "length of days is in her right hand, and in
   her left hand riches and honor." And then, once

   more, how great a proof of God's special Providence in maintaining in
   this world "a remnant according to the election of Grace" we derive
   from the history of Elijah. There sat the venerable Seer beneath a
   juniper tree in the lonely desert--a great but sorrowful man--an
   honored but a dejected Prophet of the Most High. Do you mark him as he
   comes to Horeb, takes up his lodging in a cave and complains in the
   awful solitude of his soul, "I, even I only, am left; and they seek my
   life, to take it away"? Oh, had his fears been realized, what a blank
   would earth have been without a saint! But Elijah proved from the mouth
   of God the impossibility! He learned for our sakes, as well as his own,
   what a reservation God has made in reasons of direst persecution! It is
   proved that there shall always be a Church in the world while earth's
   old pillars stand!

   Nor need we suppose that the testimony of the witnesses is closed. Each
   of God's saints is sent into the world to prove some part of the Divine
   Character. Perhaps I may be one of those who shall live in the valley
   of ease, having much rest, and hearing sweet birds of promise singing
   in my ears. The air is calm and balmy, the sheep are feeding round
   about me and all is still and quiet. Well, then, I shall prove the love
   of God in sweet communing. Or, perhaps I may be called to stand where
   the thunderclouds brew, where the lightning plays and tempestuous winds
   are howling on the mountaintop. Well, then, I am born to prove the
   power and majesty of our God amidst dangers! He will inspire me with
   courage! Amidst toils He will make me strong! Perhaps it shall be mine
   to preserve an unblemished character and so prove the power of
   sanctifying Grace in not being allowed to backslide from my professed
   dedication to God. I shall then be a proof of the Omnipotent power of
   Grace which alone can save from the power as well as the guilt of sin!
   The divers cases of all the Lord's family are intended to illustrate
   different parts of His ways--and in Heaven I think one part of our
   blest employ will be to read the great book of the experience of all
   the saints and gather from that book the whole of the Divine Character
   as having been proved and illustrated! Each Christian is a
   manifestation and display of some attribute or other of God--a
   different part may belong to each of us, but when the whole shall be
   combined, when all the rays of evidence shall be brought, as it were,
   into one great sun and shine forth with meridian splendor--we shall see
   in Christian experience a beautiful Revelation of our God!

   Let us remember, then, as an important fact, that God intends us to
   live in this world to prove Him. And let us seek to do so, always
   endeavoring as much as we can to be finding out and proving the
   attributes of God. Remember, we have all the promises to prove in our
   lifetime--and it shall be found, in the Last Great Day, that every one
   of them has been fulfilled! As the promises are read through now, it
   may be asked, "Who is a proof of such a promise?" Perhaps the question
   relates to some promises of almost universal application--and millions
   of saints will rise and say, "We proved the truth of that." Or there
   may be a promise in the Bible that it will seldom fall to the lot of
   one of God's children to prove--it is so peculiar and few shall have
   been able to understand it. But mark, there will be some witnesses to
   attest it, and all the promises shall be fulfilled in the united
   experience of the Church. Such, then is the fact--God allows His
   children to prove Him.

   II. And now, secondly, we have here A CHALLENGE GIVEN TO US--"Prove Me
   now." "You who have doubted Me, prove Me. You who mistrust Me, prove
   Me. You who tremble at the enemy, prove Me. You who are afraid you
   cannot accomplish your work, believe My promise and come and prove Me."

   Now, I must explain this challenge to you, as to the way in which it
   has to be carried out. There are different sorts of promises given in
   God's Word which have to be proved in different ways. In the Bible
   there are three kinds of promises. In the first class I will place the
   conditional promises, such as are intended for certain
   characters--given only to them and then only on certain conditions.
   There is a second class, referring exclusively to the future--the
   fulfillment of which does not relate to us at the present time. Then
   there is a third and most glorious class called absolute promises,
   which have no conditions whatever, but which graciously supply the
   requirements that the conditional promises demand.

   To begin with conditional promises--we cannot prove a conditional
   promise in the same way as an absolute one. The manner of proving must
   accord with the character of the promise to be proved. Let me mention,
   for example, "Ask, and you shall receive." Here it is quite obvious
   that I must ask in order to verify the promise. I have a condition to
   fulfill in order to obtain a benefit. The way to test the faithfulness
   of the Promiser and the truth of the promise is plainly this-- comply
   with the stipulation. Very different is the promise and equally
   different the proof, when God says, "I will put My spirit within you
   and cause you to walk in My statutes." Here we have the simple will of
   the Almighty. Such a promise is to be proved in a very different manner
   from the fulfillment on our part of a condition--but more of this soon.
   In order to prove conditional promises, then, it is necessary for us to
   fulfill the condition that God has annexed to them. He says, "Bring you
   all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in My house,
   and prove Me now herewith." No man can prove God, with reference to
   this promise, till he has brought all the tithes into the storehouse--
   for it is, "herewith," this promise has to be proved. Suppose the Lord
   says, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you
   shall glorify Me." The only way of proving Him is by calling upon Him
   in the time of trouble. We may stand as long as we like and say, "God
   will fulfill that promise." Yes, that He will, but we must fulfill the
   condition! And it behooves us to seek Grace of Him to enable us to do
   so, for we cannot prove such promises unless we fulfill the conditions
   appended to them. There are many very sweet conditional promises--one
   of them helped to save my soul at rest, it was this, "Look unto Me, and
   be you saved, all the ends of the earth." The condition there is, "Look
   unto Me." But you cannot prove it unless you look unto Christ! Here is
   another, "Whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
   What a blessed promise that is! But then you cannot prove the promise
   unless you call on the name of the Lord. So that whenever we see the
   promise to which a condition is attached, if we wish to prove it in our
   own experience, we must ask of God to give us Grace to fulfill the
   condition! That is one way of proving God.

   But some will say, "Do not these conditions restrict the liberality and
   graciousness of God's promises?" Oh, no, Beloved, for first, the
   conditions are often put to describe the persons to whom the promises
   are made. Hence, my Brother, when it is written, "He forgets not the
   cry of the humble," the promise fits your chastened soul. When the Lord
   says, "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
   contrite spirit and trembles at My Word." And when He says, "I will
   satisfy her poor with bread," you can, some of you, take comfort that
   the promise finds you in the fit condition to receive the blessing! But
   again, if the condition is not a state, but a duty, then let it be
   prayer--He gives the spirit of prayer! Let it be faith--He is the Giver
   of faith! Let it be meekness--He it is who clothes you with meekness!
   Thus the conditions serve to commend the promises to God's own children
   and to show the bounty of Him who gives "Grace for Grace."

   But then there is the absolute promise and that is the largest and best
   promise of all, for if they were all conditional promises and the
   conditions rested with us to fulfill, we would all be damned! If there
   were no absolute promises, there would not be a soul saved! If they
   were all made to characters and no absolute promise were made that the
   characters should be given, we would perish, notwithstanding all God's
   promises. If He had simply said, "He that believes shall be saved," we
   should all be lost, for we could not believe without His Grace. Now,
   the absolute promise is not to be proved by doinganything, but by
   believing in it. All I can do with an absolute promise is to believe
   it. If I were to try to fulfill a condition, it would not be accepted
   by God because no condition is appended to that kind of promise. He
   might well say to me, "If you have fulfilled the condition of another
   promise, you shall have it, but I have put no condition to this one. I
   have said, 'I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in
   My ways; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.' That is a
   promise without any condition." Although the child of God may have
   sinned, yet the promise stands good that he shall be brought to know
   his error, to repent, and be wholly forgiven! Such a promise we can
   only believe--we cannot fulfill any condition relating to it. We must
   take it to God and say, "Have You said that Christ 'shall see of the
   travail of His soul'? Lord, we believe it. Let Him see of the travail
   of His soul. Do you say, 'My Word shall not return unto Me void"? Lord,
   do as You have said. You have said it, Lord--do it." Has He said, "Him
   that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out"? Then go and say, "Lord, I
   come now. Do as you said." On an absolute promise, I can tell you,
   faith gets good foothold! Conditional promises often cheer the soul,
   but it is the absolute promise which is the rock that faith delights to
   stand upon!

   Now, beloved Friends, what promise has been laid this day to your
   hearts? Many of you have one that God gave you when you arose from your
   beds. I am always sure to have the most happy day when I get a good
   text in the morning from my Master. When I have had to preach two or
   three sermons in a day, I have asked Him for a morning portion, and
   preached from it. And I have asked Him for an evening portion, and
   preached from it, after meditating on it for my own soul's comfort--not
   in the professional style of a regular sermon-maker, but meditating
   upon it for myself. Such simple food has done more good than if I had
   been a week in manufacturing a sermon, for it has come warm from my
   heart just after it has been received in my own conscience and,
   therefore, it has been well spoken, because well known, well tasted,
   and well felt! What is your promise, then? Is it a conditional one?
   Then say, "Lord, I beseech You, enable me to fulfill the condition."
   And if the promise is applied to your soul with a condition, He will
   give you both the condition and the

   promise, for He never gives by halves. Has He put into your soul, "Let
   the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts"? Then
   He will give you Grace to forsake your ways and your thoughts too! He
   will not give you the conditional promise without, in due time, giving
   you the condition, too.

   But have you got an absolute promise laid to your soul? Then you are a
   happy man! Has God laid to your inmost spirit some of those great and
   precious promises, such as this, "The mountains shall depart, and the
   hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from you, neither
   shall the Covenant of My peace be removed"? Pause not to ask for
   conditions--take the promise just as it is! Go on your knees and say,
   "Lord, You have said it." Again, has the Lord promised, "I will never
   leave you, nor forsake you"? Plead it! Or are you in trouble? Search
   out the suitable promise and say, "You have said, 'When you pass
   through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they
   shall not overflow you.' I believe you, Lord! I am tried, but you have
   said I shall have no trial that I am not able to bear. Lord, give me
   all-sufficient Grace, and make me more than conqueror!" Go and prove
   God! Be not afraid with any amazement. If He gives you a single word,
   He means that you should bring it to Him and tell it to Him again--for
   you know He has said, "I will yet for this be enquired of by the house
   of Israel, to do it for them." Do, I beseech you, put the Lord in mind
   of His own promises and He will most assuredly fulfill them! Here is a
   challenge to all the redeemed, "Prove Me now."

   III. In the third place, there is A SEASON MENTIONED--"Prove Me now."

   Do you know what is the most perilous time in a Christian's life? I
   think I could hit upon it in a moment--"now." Many persons--I might
   well near say all Christians--are always most apprehensive of the
   present hour. Suppose they are in trouble? Though they may have had ten
   times worse troubles before, they forget all about them and, "now," is
   the most critical day they ever knew! Or, if they are at ease, they
   say--

   "Far more the treacherous calm I dread Than tempests rolling over my
   head"-- and they think no position in life more dangerous than "now."
   The lions are before them--how great their danger! And when, a little
   while ago, they lost their roll in the arbor of ease, how dreadful it
   was then! And when they got to the slippery ground, going downhill,
   "now" seemed their greatest danger! When they get a little further and
   Apollyon meets them, "Here," they say, "is the worst trial of all."
   Then comes the Valley of the Shadow of Death and they say, "Now this is
   the most serious period of my life!" In fact, it is right that we
   should feel in some degree that "now" is just the time we ought to be
   guarded. Yesterdays and tomorrows we may leave, but "now" is the time
   we must be watchful. God never lays tomorrow's promise on my heart
   today, because I am not in immediate need of it. The promises are given
   in the time, in the place and in the manner He has designed and
   intended they should be fulfilled. But no doubt some of you will
   sympathize with me when I say that "now" is the time when the Christian
   thinks he can trust God the least. "Oh," he says, "if I were in the
   same state as I was before, I would be happy. I believe that I could
   have trusted my Master better then, but just now I cannot lay my head
   so confidently on the Savior's breast. I remember, when I was sick, how
   sweet the promises were. I could then say--

   "'Sweet to lie passive in His hands, And know no will but His.'

   But now I am altered. Somehow or other, a languor has come over me. I
   cannot believe that I am a Christian." You compare yourself with some
   Brother and feel quite sure that if you were only like he, you would
   have faith. Go and speak to that Brother and he will say, "If I were
   like you, I would be better off." And so they would change experiences,
   each failing to trust God under his own circumstances. But the Lord is
   pleased to always give us a word that suits the particular position we
   may be in--"Prove Me now."

   To allegorize a moment. There is a ship upon the sea. It is the ship
   which the Lord has launched and which He has said shall come to its
   desire haven. The sea is smooth. The waves ripple gently and bear the
   ship steadily along. "Prove Me now," says the Lord. The mariner stands
   on the deck and says, "Lord, I thank You that You have given me such
   smooth sailing as this. But ah, my Master, perhaps this very ease and
   comfort may destroy my Grace." And a Voice says, "Prove Me now, and see
   if I cannot keep you amidst the storm." Soon the heavens have gathered
   blackness, the winds have begun to bluster and the waves lift up their
   voices while the poor ship is tossed to and fro on the yawning winds. I
   hear a Voice which says, "Prove Me now." Look, the ship has been dashed
   upon the rocks--she has been broken well near in sunder and the mariner
   sees her hold filling with water, while all his pumps cannot keep her
   empty! The Voice

   still cries, "Prove Me now." Alas, the ship well-near sinks--another
   wave will be enough to swamp her! It seems as if one more drop will
   submerge her. Still the Voice cries, "Prove Me now." And the mariner
   does prove God--and he is delivered safely from all his distresses.
   "They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their
   wit's end," but, "so He brings them unto their desired haven." Now the
   ship is scudding merrily along before the winds and, lo, she comes to
   the verge of the horizon. The mists have gathered round her. Strange
   phantoms dance to the waves of night--a lurid light flits through the
   shades and soon the darkness come again. Something broods about the
   ship that the mariner has never seen before. The water is black beneath
   his vessel's prow. The air hangs damp and thick above him. The very
   sweat is clammy on his face. Fresh fear has got a hold of him that he
   never felt before. Just then, when he knows not what to do, a Voice
   cries, "Prove Me now." And so he does! He cries unto the Lord and is
   saved!

   Ah, dear Friends, I might give you a hundred illustrations. I think
   this old Bible speaks to me today. I have wielded it in your midst as
   God's soldier. This sword of the Spirit has been thrust into many of
   your hearts and though they were hard as adamant, it has split them in
   sunder! Some of you have had sturdy spirits broken in pieces by this
   good old Jerusalem blade. But we shall be gathered together tonight
   where an unprecedented mass of people will assemble, perhaps, from idle
   curiosity, to hear God's Word--and the Voice cries in my ears, "Prove
   Me now." Many a man has come, during my ministrations, armed to his
   very teeth and having on a coat of mail--yet has this tried weapon cut
   him in two and pierced to the dividing asunder of the joints and
   marrow! "Prove Me now," says God, "go and prove Me before blasphemers!
   Go and prove Me before reprobates, before the vilest of the vile and
   the filthiest of the filthy! Go and prove Me now." Lift up that
   life-giving Cross and let it again be exhibited! Into the regions of
   death go and proclaim the Word of Life! Into the most plague-smitten
   parts of the city, go and carry the waving censer of the incense of a
   Savior's merits and prove, now, whether He is not able to stop the
   plague and remove the disease!

   But what does God say to the Church? "You have proved Me before. You
   have attempted great things, though some of you were faint-hearted and
   said, 'We should not have ventured.' Others of you had faith and proved
   Me. I say again, 'Prove Me now.'" See what God can do just when a cloud
   is falling on the head of him whom God has raised up to preach to you!
   Go and prove Him now--see if He will not pour you out such a blessing
   as you had not even dreamed of--see if He will not give you a
   Pentecostal blessing! "Prove Me now." Why should we be unbelieving?
   Have we one thing to make us so? We are weak--what of that? Are we not
   strongest in our God when we are weakest in ourselves? We are fools, it
   is said--so we are, and we know it--but He makes fools to confound the
   wise. We are base, but God has chosen the base things of the world. We
   are unlearned--

   "We know no schoolman's subtle art"-- yet we glory in infirmity when
   Christ's power rests upon us. Let them represent us as worse than we
   are! Let them give us the most odious character that has ever been
   given to man--we will bless them and wish them good. What though the
   weapon are a stone, or even the jaw-bone of an ass, if the Lord directs
   it? "Do you not know," say some, "what wise men say?" Yes, we do, but
   we can read their oracles backwards. Their words are the offspring of
   their wishes. We know who has instructed them and do you shrink from
   the Truth of God, or do you shrink from His Grace? In either case, you
   have not the love to your Master that you should have. If you are brave
   men and true, go on and conquer! Fear not, you shall yet win the day!
   God's holy Gospel shall yet shake the earth once more! The banner is
   lifted up and multitudes are flocking to it--the Pharisees have taken
   counsel together--the learned stand confounded--the sages are baffled.
   They know not what to do! The little ones God has made great and he
   that was despised is exalted. Let us trust Him, then. He will be with
   us even to the end, for He has said, "Lo, I am with you always, even
   unto the end of the world."

   IV. The last division of my subject is AN ARGUMENT and I have already
   preached on that--"Prove Me now."

   Why should we prove God? Because, Beloved, it will glorify Him if we
   do. Nothing glorifies God more than proving Him. When a poor hungry
   child of God, without a crust in the cupboard, says, "Lord, You have
   said that bread shall be given me and water shall be sure. I will prove
   You"--more Glory is given to God by that simple proof of Him than by
   the hallelujahs of the archangels! When some poor despairing sinner who
   has been fluttering round the Word, in hopes that he may--

   "Light on some sweet promise there, Some sure defense against
   despair"--

   when such an one gives credence to God's promise in the very teeth of
   evidence against him, staggering not at the promise through unbelief,
   then he glorifies God! If you are, this morning, in your own
   apprehension an almost damned sinner, and you feel yourself to be the
   vilest of all--if you will believe this, that Christ loves you and that
   Christ came to save you, sinner as you are--you will glorify God as
   much by doing that as you will be able to do when your fingers shall
   sweep across the string of the golden harps of Paradise! We glorify God
   by proving Him. Try God. This is the way to bring out the glorious
   points of the Christian character. It is in being singularly qualified
   for the duties of our holy Christian warfare, in being singularly
   courageous and singularly ready with the martyr-spirit, to imperil
   ourselves for His service, that we may bring glory to God! God says,
   "Prove Me now." Saint, will you rob Him of His honor? Will you not do
   that which shall crown Him, in the estimation of the world, with many
   more crowns? Oh, prove Him, for by so doing you will glorify His name!

   Prove Him again, for you have proved Him before. Can you not remember
   that you were brought very low and yet you can say, "This poor man
   cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles"?
   What? Will you not prove Him again? Mind you not the goodness you have
   proved? When you said, "My feet were almost gone; my steps had well
   near slipped," did He not support you so that you could say with the
   Psalmist, "Nevertheless I am continually with you: you have held me by
   my right hand"? Has your foot slipped? Can you not thus far witness to
   His mercy? Then trust in it to still hold you up!

   Again, accept this challenge! Prove God's Word, as He has called you to
   do, and how much blessing it will give to yourself! Beloved Brothers
   and Sisters, we endure 10 times as much anxiety in this world as we
   need because we confide not in Divine promises half as much as we
   might. If we were to live more on God's promises, and less on creature
   feelings, we would be happier men and women, all of us! Could we live
   always in faith on the promises, the shafts of the enemy could never
   reach us. Let us constantly, then, seek to prove Him! How much good Mr.
   Muller has done by proving God! He is called by God to a special work.
   What does he do? He builds an orphan asylum and trusts to God. He has
   no regular income, but he says, "I will prove to the world that God
   hears prayer." So he lives in the exercise of prayer and though he may,
   at times be brought to his last shilling, yet there is never a meal
   that his children sit down to without sufficient bread. Our work may be
   different from his, but let us seek, whatever our work is, to do it so
   that when anyone reads of it, he will say, "He tried God in
   such-and-such a promise and his life was a standing proof that that
   promise did not fail." Whatever your promise is, let your life be seen
   to be the working out of the problem which has to be proved, and like
   any proposition of Euclid, which is stated at the beginning and proved
   at the end, so may we find a text put at the beginning of our lives as
   a promise to be fulfilled--and seen at the close, demonstrated, proved,
   and carried out!

   But, dear Friends, let me just conclude by asking those here who have
   been brought to know their lost and ruined state, to remember this
   message, "Prove Me now." Thus says my God unto you, O Sinner, "Whoever
   shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." My dear Hearer, are
   you lost and ruined? Prove God now! He says, "Call unto Me, and I will
   answer you." Come now, and call unto Him. "Knock," He says, "and it
   shall be opened unto you." Lift up the knocker of Heaven's door and
   sound it with all your might! Or, suppose you are too weak to
   knock--let the knocker fall down of itself. He has said, "Ask, and you
   shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened
   unto you." Go and prove the promise now! Try to prove it. Are you a
   poor, sick and wounded sinner? You are told that Jesus Christ is able
   and willing to heal your wounds and extract the poison from your veins.
   Prove Him, prove Him, poor Soul! You think yourself to be a lost
   one--therefore I urge you, in Christ's name, to prove this promise--"I,
   even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and
   will not remember your sins." Take this to Him and say, "O God, I need
   faith to trust Your Word! I know You mean what You have said. You have
   said, this morning, by the mouth of your minister, 'Prove Me now.'
   Lord, I will prove You now, this very day, even till nightfall if You
   do not answer me! I will still keep fast by Your promise."

   Do this, my Beloved, and you will not be gone long before you will be
   able to sing--

   "I'm forgiven, I'm forgiven! I'm a miracle of Grace."

   Now, do not stand still and say, "God will not hear such an one as I
   am. My disease is too bad for Him to cure." Go and see, put your hand
   on the hem of His garment and then if the blood is not staunched, go
   and tell the world that you have proved God wrong. Go and tell it, if
   you dare. But oh, you cannot. If you touch the hem of His garment, I
   know what you will say--"I have tasted that the Lord is gracious. He
   said, 'Trust in Me, and I will deliver you.' I have trusted in Him and
   He has delivered me!" For the promise will always have its fulfillment.
   "Prove Me now," says God.
     __________________________________________________________________

Christians Kept From Sin

   (No. 3037)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY
   13, 1870.

   "And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which
   sent you this day to meet me: and blessed be your advice, and blessed
   be you, which has kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from
   avenging myself with my own hand." 1 Samuel 25:32,33.

   THESE verses are taken from the story of David's coming into contact
   with Nabal the churl. Nabal was a great sheep-master and David and his
   600 men had been especially careful not to injure his flocks, but had
   protected them from any pilfering that might have been practiced by
   wandering bands of desert rangers. At that time Nabal was shearing his
   sheep and David, who was in some measure of need, thought it a suitable
   time to ask something from him, according to Eastern custom, in return
   for the services which he had rendered to his shepherds. So he sent 10
   of his young men to ask Nabal for the backsheesh, but, instead thereof,
   they received an insulting message to take back to their master.
   Thereupon, David--who seems to have been always of a quick spirit,
   whether for right or for wrong--who made haste to obey God's
   commandments, but who made equal haste to obey his own impulses--girded
   on his sword and bade every man do the same and declared that they
   would march to the house of this churl, Nabal, fall upon him at once
   and destroy him and all that appertained to him, root and branch. While
   he was marching in haste to carry out his stern determination--as God's
   Infinite Goodness would have it, Abigail, the wise wife of the foolish
   Nabal, met him and confessed that her husband was a man of Belial. She
   pleaded that she had not seen the messengers whom David had sent,
   besought him to accept the provisions she had brought and urged David
   to leave the avenging of himself to God, so that when he came to be
   king, it would be no grief of heart to him that he had shed blood
   needlessly, or had acted as his own avenger. David who had Divine Grace
   in his spirit, although he was on his way to do wrong, felt the force
   of Abigail's rebuke, sheathed his sword, thanked her and thanked the
   Lord, too, that he had thus been preserved from committing a great sin
   which might have left a great stain upon his character and been a
   source of trouble to him for the rest of his life.

   Learn from this, dear Brothers and Sisters, that the best of men need
   to be always on the watch, lest, in some sudden temptation, they should
   be carried off their feet. You may fancy that you have no occasion to
   fear certain forms of temptation, but you do not know what you may do.
   The wall of resolution may be strong in one particular wind, but let
   the wind only blow from another quarter and the wall may speedily fall.
   You may think yourself to be strong simply because, as yet, you have
   not been tested and tried as you will be sooner or later--and then, in
   a single moment, when you are least prepared for it, you may be
   overthrown. Remember our Lord's words to His disciples, "What I say
   unto you I say unto all, Watch," for, in such an hour as you think not,
   temptation may come upon you and woe be unto you if you are not found
   watching! Therefore, commit yourselves unto the Lord and, "watch and
   pray that you enter not into temptation."

   Here, too, we may observe what a blessed thing it is when, in hours of
   crisis, the God of all Grace is pleased to interpose to preserve us
   from committing a certain sin into which we had almost fallen. Our
   steps had well-near slipped, but, just then the Lord sent some angelic
   messenger to us, even as Abigail came to David. For that Almighty Love
   which has manifested itself in restraining Grace, let us render
   grateful songs of thanksgiving as we look back upon our past lives, for
   we can scarcely tell how often we should have dishonored our character
   and our profession if it had not been that God came to our rescue and
   kept back His servants from presumptuous sins.

   The subject upon which I am to talk to you, as the Holy Spirit shall
   graciously guide me, is the great blessing of being prevented or
   preserved from sin. I shall speak first upon the blessing itself Then,
   for a few minutes, upon the means which God employs to secure it And
   then, thirdly, upon the great blessedness of which we may be partakers
   if we endeavor, like Abigail, to prevail with others so as to prevent
   them from going into sin.

   I. First then, we are to consider THE GREAT BLESSEDNESS OF BEING
   PREVENTED FROM SIN.

   It is an unspeakable blessing to have sin forgiven. We cannot measure
   the heaped-up blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven
   and whose sin is covered. But surely there is a very special favor
   rendered by God's Grace to those who are kept from the grosser sins
   into which so many others fall and who are converted early in life
   after having been hedged about by Divine Grace and not allowed to
   plunge into the foul kennels of iniquity in which others riot and
   revel. Those who are thus preserved not only have to sing of repenting
   Grace, as they must do however purely they may have lived, but they can
   also tell of the restraining Grace of God which would not let them
   wander into the paths of the destroyer as others did!

   To be kept from sin is to be kept from many evils for, in the first
   place, sin has such a hardening effect upon the conscience. There is no
   man who ever sins without having some trace of it left upon his mind
   and heart. For one thing, it is more easy for him to sin the next time.
   An impulse has been given and a habit begun which will make it almost
   inevitable that he shall fall into that particular sin again. He who
   has served Satan once will be likely to serve him ten times and, on
   each succeeding occasion, he will serve him more vigorously and
   readily. He will not need nearly as much temptation, but will go
   greedily after evil when the habit of sinning has taken firm hold upon
   him. But there are some who have been kept from overt acts of evil and
   so, when they hear the Gospel, they receive it like good ground into
   which the seed falls and brings forth abundant fruit. But there are
   others who, because of iniquity, are like the highway trodden hard by
   the feet of many--and when the good seed falls there, the birds of the
   air find it an easy task to steal away the grain because it has not
   penetrated below the surface. Do not imagine that you can live for
   twenty, thirty, or forty years in sin and yet be just as likely to be
   converted as anybody else is! I know that God can, if He pleases to do
   so, call you at the 11th hour as easily as at the first, but, as far as
   you are concerned, if you harden your neck, you have no right to expect
   that He will do so, but rather to expect that you shall suddenly be
   destroyed, and that without remedy. So that it is a mercy to be kept
   from sin in order that this hardening process may not even begin within
   our mind and heart!

   Besides, he who sins in a little way makes that sin, as it were, a
   steppingstone to something worse. David wisely prayed, "Who can
   understand his errors? Cleanse You me from secret faults. Keep back
   Your servant, also, from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion
   over me: then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great
   transgression." He seemed to feel that he would not go on to the great
   transgression if he was restrained from presumptuous sins--and he was
   right in thinking so. You dear young people who through the Lord's
   loving kindness and tender mercy, have been brought up among gracious
   influences, know that you have sinned and that your sin has done your
   soul such evil as only God's Grace can remedy--yet you may thank the
   Lord that you have not been permitted to learn to sing the song of the
   drunkard, or to live an unchaste life, or to forsake the assembly of
   God's people--and so put yourselves out of the reach of the usual means
   of Grace, as perhaps you would have done by this time if you had not
   been checked while you were children. A gentle stream, if it is allowed
   to flow unhindered, becomes at last, a foaming torrent that sweeps away
   its own banks and causes loss and damage far and wide! Thank God that
   the current of your life was checked and guided while it was but a
   stream! May the torrent of sin never overflow your character and
   career.

   There is this blessing about being restrained from sin, namely, that it
   saves us from much sorrow in later life. It should be no grief or
   offense of heart unto David, said Abigail, to think that he had shed
   blood causelessly, or had avenged himself. No sinner, when converted,
   although God has forgiven him, can ever forgive himself--and no child
   of God, although God has blotted out his sin, can ever blot it out of
   his own memory as long as he is here on earth. You can see that David
   was a different man, after his great sin, from what he had been before.
   He still sang Psalms to God, but there was a hoarseness about his voice
   which was not there before his great transgression. His Psalms were
   Psalms of sorrow, whereas before they were glad and joyful Psalms that
   tripped to lightsome music. I remember once hearing a strange sort of
   preacher say that sin did a Believer no harm--a more terrible Doctrine
   than that could drop from no man's lips, but then he added--"except
   that it destroys his peace of mind." And it seemed to me that such a
   result as that was harm enough even if there was nothing else. "He that
   wears the herb called 'heart's-ease' in his bosom," says Bunyan,

   "is a happy man even though he sings in rags." But he whose heart
   smites him, as David's heart did, need want no harder blow! May those
   of you who are unconverted be preserved from gross sin--and may those
   of us who are saved be preserved from falling by temptation into any
   evil, lest we have to wring our hands in anguish and go with broken
   bones to our graves.

   Further, he who is kept from sinning has to bless God that the
   consequences of his sin upon others are averted. It is a dreadful thing
   to know that there will be some in Heaven who were the means of sending
   others to Hell. I have sometimes wondered what must be the emotions of
   those who have sinned--especially in the foulest sense--when they are
   converted, but find themselves quite unable to induce their fellow
   sinners to even listen to the Gospel. Mr. Whitefield tells us that as
   soon as he had tasted that the Lord was gracious, he tried to think of
   all the companions with whom he had been accustomed to play cards, or
   to indulge in any kind of sinful sport. And he thanked God, he said,
   that he never gave himself any rest until he had done all that was in
   his power to bring them to the Savior. You, my Friend, were once an
   infidel and you are now a Believer--but you cannot recall the words
   that you spoke in those past days. You may refute, to your own
   satisfaction, the arguments you then used, but you cannot so readily
   make others see the force of your refutation. You, my Brother, were
   known, at one time, to use language which was unclean. You abhor it now
   and you rebuke it when you hear it from another--but you cannot make
   others forsake the habit which they learned from you. You cannot get
   out of your boy's memory that song which you used to sing in his
   hearing--you cannot get out of your daughter's heart that evil word
   which she heard you utter. It must go on rankling forever in her spirit
   and doing everlasting mischief unless the Sovereign Grace of God shall
   intervene to prevent such a calamity. What a blessing it is to begin
   with God in our youth before we have helped to pull down the walls of
   Zion, or even cast a stone against them! It is an unspeakable blessing
   to be saved in old age and to be able to sing of triumphant Grace which
   has blotted out innumerable iniquities. But it must be--at least on
   this side of Heaven--a cause of constant regret to such a late penitent
   that he should have worked so much evil which it is not possible for
   him to repair.

   Besides, dear Brothers and Sisters, it is always a blessing to the
   Christian--to whom I speak now--to be kept from sin, for thus his
   character is preserved and much of his influence for good will depend
   upon his character. When backsliders are restored, we cannot help
   standing in some doubt concerning them--and let them afterwards live as
   carefully as they may, it will be very difficult for them to ever honor
   the Church as much as they have dishonored it. If there is but one
   waterfall in a river--only one in a thousand miles--everybody hears
   about it and it is marked on the map. But if another river should flow
   on smoothly, gladdening the meadows on either side, and bearing navies
   out to sea, it would not cause such a noise as that one waterfall would
   make! In like manner a holy life is not talked of, by an ungodly world,
   one half as much as one unholy act of an inconsistent professor! How
   they delight to speak of that! How they roll the story of the sins of
   God's people under their tongues as sweet morsels! You may repent of
   your backsliding, you may become even more zealous afterwards, as you
   should do, but my dear Brothers and Sisters, after having once stained
   your reputation, it is not easy to wipe out the blot. It is infinitely
   better to be kept true to our first profession until we enter into
   Heaven, upheld and preserved by the love and Grace of God.

   And, only once more upon this part of the subject, you may rest assured
   that even if sin is forgiven and Divine Grace enters the heart, never
   is it better to sin than not to sin. There is a house on fire. Well, we
   are grateful if the fire engine comes rattling up almost immediately,
   if the water supply is abundant and if, by great exertions, every life
   is saved and much of the property is preserved from destruction. Yet it
   would have been a greater blessing if there had not been any fire at
   all. There is serious sickness in the home, but the physician is
   skillful, the nurse is wise and watchful, the disease takes a favorable
   turn, the man's life is preserved--he is restored to health and is
   thankful for his recovery. Yet he would rather not have been sick.
   There is a wounded soldier. He is carried on an ambulance to the
   hospital, the surgeons extract the bullet that injured him and bind up
   his wounds. The man is ultimately restored to the ranks, but he will
   carry to his grave the scars of the wounds that he has suffered. It
   would have been a great deal better for him if he had not been wounded
   at all. So is it with the wounds that sin has made. Let the results of
   evil be ever so well removed, it can never be better for any of us to
   fall into sin than to be kept out of it! It if were otherwise, it would
   look as if sin were not that damning a thing that God's Word tells us
   it is--it would seem as though it were but a trifle and that there was
   no need for Calvary's Cross, or of all the wondrous arrangements of
   Everlasting Wisdom and Love for the saving of men from sin and its
   awful consequences! Let us cry to God, my Brothers and Sisters, that we
   may be kept from sin! May this be our prayer night and day, "Lord keep
   us even from vain thoughts, but, above all, keep us from any acts that
   would be dishonoring to Your holy name!" We do not want to sin in order
   that we may know what sin is like. We do not want to plunge into evil
   for the sake of being washed from it. We do not want to go into this
   horrible pit and this miry clay for the sake of being drawn out of it.
   Our earnest desire is that we may be kept from the grosser forms of sin
   till we are saved by Sovereign Grace and receive the new nature which
   is the portion of the children of God--and that after that, we may walk
   in all well-pleasing to the glory of God our Savior!

   II. Now, secondly, let me remind you of SOME OF THE WAYS IN WHICH GOD
   KEEPS US FROM SINNING.

   He does this, of course, in the grandest way by the work of His Grace
   within our soul There is no protection against sin like the indwelling
   of the Holy Spirit! If the evil spirit goes out of the heart of man and
   it is swept and garnished--if the good Spirit does not come and dwell
   there, seven other spirits, yet more wicked than the first, will return
   to take possession. There is no way of keeping out the fire of sin
   except by having the fire of Grace blazing within the spirit. We must
   fight fire with fire! Let your soul be filled with all the fullness of
   God and then when the prince of this world comes to you, he shall not
   be able to overcome you. The Grace of God is the great antidote to sin.

   But God also uses other means, even before their conversion, to keep
   some from the grosser sins and vices in which others indulge. Among
   these, there is, first, early education. There are some who, happily,
   have never known the sins which others have forever to regret. They
   have been like plants kept in the greenhouse--they have never been
   tried by the frosts of this vile world. Be very thankful for this if it
   is true concerning you, but do not regard it as a substitute for being
   born-again. Remember that you who are the most amiable, the most
   excellent, the most zealous, the most honorable must be born-again just
   as surely as the most abandoned, the most dissolute and the most
   profane. Regeneration is an absolute necessity before any soul can
   enter Heaven--and you must not be satisfied with anything short of
   that! Yet you may be grateful if, like Timothy, from a child you have
   known the Scriptures, or if, like Samuel, you have been brought up in
   the house of the Lord from your very early years. Be thankful that you
   have been kept from much sin into which others have fallen.

   Christian association, too, is of the utmost value in helping to keep
   us from sin. There may be here a young man who has just come to London.
   After leaving that quiet country town where he was accustomed to attend
   the services at the little Meeting House, it may be that there is a
   strong temptation upon him to throw off all the restraints of his past
   life and to hide himself among the thick trees of this great forest of
   London and to indulge himself in sin from which he has been hitherto
   preserved. My dear Friend, if you desire everlasting ruin, this may be
   your fatal choice! But that you may not even wish to make such a
   choice, I strongly urge you to endeavor to form associations with
   Christian young men before you have been laid hold of by the active
   servants of Satan who are lying in wait for you. Come and join one of
   our Bible classes, or the Young Men's Christian Association, or find
   some Christian friends somewhere or other. Form associations and
   acquaintanceships which, if they do not actually bring you to Christ,
   may at least keep you from going far astray from the path which your
   godly parents have always desired you to tread. May the Lord grant that
   instead of your deciding for Satan, now that you are left to yourself,
   a sense of responsibility may so press upon you that you may decide,
   through the Holy Spirit's power, for the Lord Jesus Christ! If, this
   very night, you, as a newcomer into this great city, should surrender
   yourself to the Savior, what an eternal blessing it would be to you!
   The Lord grant that it may be so, and He shall have all the praise!
   Still, if you are not at once converted, Christian association will be
   very helpful in keeping you from outward sin.

   And you, my Brothers and Sisters who have Grace in your hearts, will
   often find that association with warm-hearted Christians is one of the
   very best ways of keeping you from evil. Some of our Church members
   have gone to live in the country where they have been only able to
   worship with a cold and indifferent congregation where the minister has
   not been more than half awake--and I have observed very serious
   declension in their spiritual life. When I have met them afterwards,
   and have ventured to speak to them about it, they have told me that it
   seemed like going from a hothouse into an ice well--and they confessed
   that they did not feel as earnest as once they did. O Christians, do
   prize any association with God's people that is possible! If any of you
   are in positions where you can enjoy Christian fellowship and you have
   the opportunity of earning ten times as much money in another position
   where you must give up that fellowship, do not do it! It is always a
   loss to Christians to lose the communion of saints. No amount of
   worldly prosperity can ever make up for the loss they will sustain by
   leaving an earnest Gospel ministry and an affectionate

   people. Thank God that He makes use of other Believers to help you in
   the road to Heaven--and often to restrain you from sin!

   The Lord, too, is pleased very frequently to make use of our position
   in society to keep us out of evil. I mean this-- some men have always
   been poor, although they have tried again and again to rise above the
   level of their poverty. Once or twice they have almost succeeded, yet,
   not from lack of ambition nor lack of industry, but as though God's
   Providence were at cross-purposes with them, they have always had to
   come back to that same sparse diet and tiny cottage! My dear Friends,
   the Lord knew that you could not bear to be rich. Had He permitted you
   to possess more than you now have, you might have become proud and
   worldly. It was better for you to live near to God in poverty than to
   be a backslider and be rich. I believe that many of the reverses which
   God's people suffer in trade are preventives from sin--when the Lord
   sees them beginning to launch out and to speculate--and perhaps to
   become associated with some rich man who has no Grace in his heart, the
   Lord says, "My servant is going on very dangerous ground. I must stop
   him before he is lost." And He soon does it. The man's substance takes
   to itself wings and flies away--and thus he is rescued from the
   threatening danger.

   Some are preserved from sin by physical infirmities. "Well," said one
   who was lame, "I believe I would never have run in the way of God's
   commandments if it had not been for my lame leg." "Ah," said another,
   "and I sometimes think that I would never have seen Christ if I had not
   been blind." Just because their infirmities incapacitated them for
   enjoyment of the world, they were made to look for higher enjoyments
   and to seek that spiritual health which is everlasting. Blessed are the
   lame and the blind who enter into Heaven--and blessed are they who have
   but one eye, yet who enter there, while some who have two eyes are cast
   into Hell!

   Others, doubtless, have been kept from sin by severe sicknesses. These
   come to us, I believe, not by chance, but by Divine ordination. We say
   to one another, "I cannot think where I caught that disease." Or, "I
   cannot imagine why such-and-such a sickness should have come to me."
   Perhaps you were more out of danger on your bed than you would have
   been anywhere else just then. Had you been out of that bedroom, you
   might have been in a position of very serious trial which you could not
   have been able to endure. I can bear my witness that at least in some
   of my many sicknesses I have been able to see the reason for them as
   plainly as I can see that twice two are four. Even when we cannot see
   the reason, God knows that there is a reason for it and if we cannot
   see it, it may be all the deeper and may lie all the nearer to the very
   heart of our Christian life. Your sicknesses, pains, griefs, depression
   of spirits and all sorts of trials are often sent to you to prevent you
   from sinning. They tether you, like the horse that was in a meadow with
   a clog on him, and a friend said to the owner, "I wonder that you clog
   such a fine horse as that. It seems such a pity." "Well," replied the
   owner, "I would rather clog him than lose him. And if I did not clog
   him, I would lose him. He has a habit ofjumping hedges and ditches--and
   we cannot keep him unless we clog him." So, my Brother, my Sister, you
   have a clog because the Lord would rather clog you than lose you! He
   would sooner make you suffer here than permit you to suffer forever in
   Hell.

   Once again, God's people have very often been kept from sin by
   remarkable Providences. And some, who are not yet the Lord's people,
   have been kept from certain forms of sins by very remarkable
   interpositions of Divine Providence. You probably all remember the
   story of the Quaker who, one night, felt an irresistible impulse to
   rise from his bed and ride to a neighboring town. When he got there, he
   stopped at a house where he saw a light in an upper room. He knocked,
   and knocked, and knocked again and, at last a man came to the door to
   ask what he wanted at that time of night. The Quaker replied, "Perhaps,
   Friend, you can tell me, for the Lord has sent me to you, but I do not
   know why He has done so." "Come upstairs," said the man, "and I think I
   can tell you." There he had fixed a rope with which he was about to put
   an end to his life, but God had sent His servant to him just in time to
   prevent the contemplated crime. Such striking Providences as that may
   not happen to all or any of us, for we may not require them. But they
   do happen to some people to prevent them from sinning against God. It
   may be also that the Providences which do not appear striking to us, do
   appear striking to those holy angels who minister to God's people and
   who bear them up in their hands lest they should dash their feet
   against a stone--and who constantly adore the wisdom and goodness of
   God in interposing to keep His servants from going aside into sin. The
   wheels of Providence, which are full of eyes, have those eyes
   continually fixed upon us--and those wheels are always revolving on our
   behalf to God's Glory.

   No doubt many have been kept from sin by a message to their conscience,
   either through a minister, or through a tract, or through a text which
   they read in the Bible, or a kind remark from a friend. There are
   members of this Church who, in the Lord's gracious Providence, owe
   their salvation to a word spoken to them in the street. There is
   especially one who was tapped on the shoulder just as he was going into
   a theater, and who was entreated--by one who did not know him
   personally, but who had mistaken him for somebody else--not to go into
   such a place as that, but to come with him that Thursday night and
   listen to the preaching of the Word of God. It was remarkable that such
   a mistake as that should have been made, but it was a blessed mistake
   for him and he rejoices this night that he finds himself in God's
   House, numbered among the Lord's people!

   III. This brings me to the last point which is that IT WOULD BE A VERY
   BLESSED THING IF CHRISTIAN PEOPLE WERE MORE EARNEST TO PREVENT SIN.

   This matter was put very plainly under the Old Testament command, "You
   shall not hate your brother in your heart: you shall in anywise rebuke
   your neighbor and not suffer sin upon him." Yet, under the Christian
   dispensation, I am afraid that we are very negligent in our endeavors
   to prevent sin. Some of us, it may be, think a great deal too much of
   our dignity. No doubt we are very respectable people, though everybody
   does not know it and does not treat us with the respect we feel is due
   to us. Perhaps we suspect others of not being all they ought to be and,
   therefore, our attitude towards them is not what it used to be. Then
   they begin to have harsh thoughts concerning us--and in that way Satan
   has reason to rejoice because Christian people are weaned from each
   other--and very grievous sin is caused by the roots of bitterness that
   are thus planted in the soil of the church! Now, my Brother, suppose
   that somebody did treat you very disrespectfully? Instead of your
   saying, "I will be avenged on him," suppose that you say to yourself,
   "If he were to treat me as I really deserve to be treated, God knows
   that it is very little respect I should receive from him. The man has
   slandered me this time, but if he knew what my faults really are, he
   could hit me in a much more tender part"? It is sometimes said that
   when a boy is wrongfully flogged, "If he does not deserve it now, he
   probably has deserved it at some other time when he has not had it, or
   he will deserve it in the future." So, if a rebuke should come to me
   wrongfully, I will lay it by in case I need it at another time! A
   Christian sometimes says, "If you tread on a worm, it will turn." Yes,
   I know it will, but I hope you do not consider a worm an example for a
   Christian--especially when you have the Lord Jesus Christ to be your
   Exemplar! If you tread on a worm, it will turn because of the pain you
   have needlessly caused it. But if you are trodden on by another
   person--and you are a Christian--you will forgive him and try to do him
   good. "Do my lord of Canterbury an ill turn," it was once said, "and he
   will be your friend as long as he lives." Happy are they who kill their
   enemies by heaping coals of fire upon their heads! Do so, my Brothers
   and Sisters, whenever it is possible, and do not sin by standing up for
   that foolish dignity of yours! Be willing to be a doormat, if it is
   necessary, as well as a doorkeeper in the House of the Lord and, in
   that way, you will be all the more honored, for "he that humbles
   himself shall be exalted."

   It may be that in certain company we may hear talk that is not what it
   ought to be. And there may be some wit or merriment connected with that
   talk. But if so, we must not laugh at it, because though we might laugh
   at the wit, others might suppose that we were enjoying the evil that
   was mingled with it. It is well for a Christian to put his foot down
   firmly in such a case as that and to say very emphatically, "As far as
   your mirth is proper and there is nothing in it that is defiling, I am
   willing to join with you, for I, also, am a man, and am of a cheerful
   disposition. But you are going too far, now, and I must enter my
   protest, for I cannot, by my silence, give my consent to such talk as
   that." You ought to do that, my Brothers and Sisters, and you would
   often find that there would be some who would thank you for doing it.
   Have you ever heard how Mr. Wesley once stopped a man from swearing? He
   was riding on the top of a coach and there was an officer in the army
   there who kept swearing, so Mr. Wesley, at last, very gently said to
   him, "My dear Sir, I want you to do me a great favor." "What is that,
   Sir?" asked the officer. "Why," he said, "if you should hear me using
   profane language during this journey, I wish you would kindly tell me
   of it." "I see," said the officer, "what you mean, and I appreciate
   your kindness." You might, perhaps, if you did that, receive a stormy
   reply and make the swearing person worse. Still, you would have done
   your duty by rebuking the sin gently and affectionately.

   How often we might prevent sin if we could come in just when some are
   on the very verge of doing wrong. Perhaps you say that you have a
   pastor to do this work, but I have often told you that in such a Church
   as this, you must all be pastors. With 4,200 members in one Church,
   what can even two pastors do? What can all the elders and deacons do?
   The only hope for the Church is that God will watch over you all and
   that you will all watch over one another. You who are elderly, you who
   have long been kept faithful, you who have the respect of your fellow
   members--you, perhaps, know of

   inconsistencies springing up. If so, do not go and talk about them,
   especially to those outside the Church. "It is an ill bird that fouls
   its own nest," so, instead of talking to others, go and speak to the
   offending one! You may thus, perhaps, be the means of saving a soul
   from death and hiding a multitude of sins. May God grant you wisdom,
   Divine Grace, discernment and affection to deal rightly with such
   cases! Let it be the resolve of every Christian man and woman to
   imitate Abigail's wise way of turning David from his evil purpose! You
   Christian women, do not be backward in this matter, but use to this end
   that winning way you have. I expect Abigail pleaded far better with
   David for Nabal than any man could have done, for she was a woman of
   understanding and her beaming countenance caught the eyes of the hasty
   and angry warrior. And he paused awhile to listen to her wise
   words--and so she won what she set out to gain. I pray that you may all
   use the powers which God has given you, not to lead others into sin,
   nor to confirm them in it, but to hold back, as far as you can, all who
   are about to commit any act of transgression. May God add His blessing
   to this message, for the Redeemer's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Colossians 3 and 4:1-4.

   Verses 1, 2. Ifyou then are risen with Christ, seek those things which
   are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your
   affection on things above, not on things on the earth. This is the best
   proof that we are really "risen with Christ"--that we set our affection
   on things above!

   3-15. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When
   Christ who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with
   Him in Glory. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the
   earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
   concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things'
   sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience: in which
   you also walked some time, when you lived in them. But now you also put
   off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
   out of your mouth. Lie not to another, seeing that you have put off the
   old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed
   in knowledge after the image of Him that created him: where there is
   neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian,
   Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is All, and in all. Put on
   therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, heart of mercies,
   kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one
   another, and forgiving one another. If any man has a quarrel against
   any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. And above all these
   things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the
   peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in one
   body; and be you thankful You notice that the Apostle again and again
   speaks of what we have put off and what we have put on, or of what we
   are to put off and to put on--"You have put off the old man with his
   deeds; and have put on the new man." "Put on, therefore, as the elect
   of God, holy and beloved, heart of mercies, kindness, humbleness of
   mind, meekness, long-suffering. . .And above all these things put on
   charity, which is the bond of perfectness." Let the blessed girdle of
   love bind upon you all these choice adornments of a true Christian's
   character!

   16, 17. Let the word of Christ dwellin you richly in all wisdom;
   teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual
   songs, singing with Grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you
   do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
   to God and the Father by Him. Now the Apostle, guided by the Holy
   Spirit, gives injunctions concerning various family and domestic
   relationships.

   18. Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands, as it is fit in the
   Lord. It is seemly according to nature. And it is still more "fit in
   the Lord."

   19. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Never
   say a bitter word against them and especially never dishonor them in
   the household, before children or servants, as some have done, but do
   all that you can to manifest love and tenderness toward them.

   20. Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is
   well-pleasing unto the Lord. Nowadays, there are some children who seem
   to be the head of the family and the parents obey them in all things.
   This is very foolish and wrong! And when their children grow up and
   become their plague and curse, they will bitterly lament their folly in
   putting things out ofjoint and not keeping the house as God would have
   it kept, the children in their place, and the father in his.

   21. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be
   discouraged. Some fathers do. They expect more of children than they
   will ever get--and more than they ought to expect. And they lay heavy
   burdens upon them which are grievous to be borne and for little faults
   there are severe chastisements. This also is wrong.

   22-24. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the
   flesh; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but in singleness of
   heart, fearing God: and whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the
   Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the
   reward of the inheritance: for you serve the Lord Christ. If you do all
   your work in that spirit, how noble it becomes and how cheerfully you
   will get through it! You may have a master who is unworthy of your
   service, yet, if you "do it heartily, as to the Lord," you will have
   rest of heart even in serving those who are froward and perverse--and
   in due time the Lord will reward your service.

   25. But he that does wrong shall receive for the wrong which he has
   done: and there is no respect of persons.

   Colossians 4:1. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and
   equal I sometimes think that the good men who chopped the Bible up into
   chapters--for it is not in chapters in the original--must have hoped
   that we would not read this message to the masters, as he had put it in
   another chapter. But I never like to read about the servants without
   also reading about the masters. There is six for one, and half-a-dozen
   for the other and, as is usual, in the Scriptures there are balanced
   duties. If there is an exhortation to the children, there is generally
   one to the parents close by. And if there is a word to wives, there is
   one for husbands, too. So let us read that verse, "Masters, give unto
   your servants that which is just and equal."

   1-4. Knowing that you also have a Master in Heaven. Continue in prayer,
   and watch in the same with thanksgiving; withal praying also for us,
   that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery
   of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: that I may make it manifest,
   as I ought to speak
     __________________________________________________________________

Justice Vindicated And Righteousness Exemplified

   (No. 3038)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, EARLY IN THE YEAR 1865.

   "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 who believes in Jesus." Romans 3:24-26.

   THE death of our Lord Jesus Christ answered many valuable purposes. It
   manifested the manifold Wisdom of God. To angels in Heaven and to
   saints on earth, God never appeared so infinitely wise as in the
   ordaining of the plan of salvation by the substitution of His Son for
   guilty sinners. That death also revealed God's amazing love. It
   proclaimed to astonished worlds how "God so loved the world, that He
   gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
   perish, but have everlasting life." The Atonement of Christ answered
   the purpose, moreover, of purifying His people. That He might sanctify
   the people by His own blood, He suffered outside the camp. He loved His
   Church and gave Himself for it, we know, "that He might present it to
   Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
   thing." The Cross has also been the great battering-ram for breaking
   down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. It is by
   Christ's blood that we are made one. "Now therefore you are no more
   strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of
   the household of God." Caste is abolished and invidious distinctions
   are set aside. There is no longer in Christ Jesus barbarian, Scythian,
   bond or free, circumcised or uncircumcised, but Christ is All-in-All.
   That same atoning Sacrifice also broke down the wall which separated
   both Jew and Gentile from God--"that He might reconcile both unto God
   in one body by the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby." The
   alienation prevailed till the reconciliation was effected by the
   precious blood of Jesus. We remain enemies in our minds by wicked works
   until we see the great love with which He loved us, and then that love
   melts our heart and makes us friends ofGod.

   Time would fail me did I attempt to enter into anything like an
   enumeration of the blessed purposes which the blood of Christ serves
   before God and among men. Try, if you can, to calculate the inestimable
   value of the air you breathe, how every plant feeds upon it, or upon
   some portion of it--how every creature, whether on the loftiest
   mountains, or in the deepest mines, must have a portion of it or else
   he can no longer exist. Think of the force with which it operates upon
   the world in wind and tempest. Need I do more than suggest to you the
   infinite number of ways in which the air becomes valuable, not merely
   as an accessory to our comfort, but as a necessity of our life? Yet,
   how infinitely more precious is the blood of Jesus Christ which in
   every way and in every place becomes efficacious to the everlasting
   salvation of all Believers! That water which sustains the life of
   leviathan, and of an infinite multitude of fishes, is your drink and
   mine. It makes glad the meadows, it fertilizes every field and gives to
   the farmer his harvest, but while it does this, it has other uses which
   we cannot stop here to discuss. See how it bears today upon its bosom
   the commerce of the world and becomes the highway of nations? When you
   shall have recalled all the excellencies of the water with which God
   has girdled the globe, you shall then have but opened a parable
   thoroughly inadequate to represent the immeasurable benefits which come
   to us through Christ--and the innumerable forms which those benefits
   assume! We know that it has an operation in the highest
   Heaven--certainly it has saved us from the deepest Hell.

   Do you see that Cross on which Jesus died? What is it more than a
   simple piece of transverse wood? I see it in vision. I see it growing
   till its top reaches the most excellent glory, lifting up the elect to
   the very Throne of the Most High! I see its base sinking deep as our
   helpless miseries could plunge us in hopeless ruin, going down till it
   reaches even the depths of the vengeance of God. I see its arms spread
   till all whom God has chosen are sheltered beneath them and all mankind
   receive some favors which never would have come to them if it had not
   been that there the Savior of sinners offered the one availing
   Sacrifice for sin. As when the servant of Elijah saw a little cloud,
   the size of a man's hand, and the Prophet marked in that the sign of
   abundance of rain--so, when I see the Cross of Calvary, it is as a
   little cloud, but faith beholds it spread all over Heaven and then drop
   down in mighty showers of mercy to fructify the earth and bless the
   children of men! If you would count the drops that fall from that
   cloud, you must grasp "infinity" in your comprehension!

   According to our text it appears that one main purpose of the Sacrifice
   of Christ was the manifestation of the righteousness of God. The
   Apostle twice over assures us that this was the case, "Whom God has set
   forth to be a propitiation . . .to declare His righteousness." And as
   if this were not enough, "to declare, I say, at this time His
   righteousness." What a grand thought! The death of Jesus Christ is a
   resplendent manifestation of Divine Righteousness! When we have mused
   upon that, we will proceed to notice that Divine Righteousness--the
   moral government of the Almighty--is, by the death of Christ, cleared
   of two difficulties to which reference is made. Then we shall close by
   noting the lessons which this great Doctrine teaches.

   I have nothing new to say this evening--I would be ashamed of myself if
   I had. This is the old Doctrine, this is the soul-saving Truth of God.
   It is blessedly simple and we thank God that it is and that, therefore,
   the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein. It is plain to
   him that understands and if the Lord gives us understanding in this
   thing, we certainly have here the beginning--and we shall soon have in
   it the end of wisdom!

   I. Jesus' DEATH, THEN, MANIFESTED DIVINE JUSTICE IN THE VERY HIGHEST
   DEGREE.

   The expulsion of our first parents from the Garden of Eden manifested
   the Justice of God, but not fully. They were only expelled from
   Paradise, but their lives were spared. In strict justice they would
   have died. "In the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die."
   Though that curse was not confined to natural death, it certainly
   included it. Had Justice there been fully vindicated, the human race
   would have been utterly destroyed. The expulsion of the sinner does not
   so fully set forth God's Righteousness as does the Expiation of the
   Savior.

   The Justice of God was exhibited in dreadful forms when the deluge came
   and swept the race of man from the earth. Yet why was yonder ark
   freighted with the chosen eight? Were they not sinners? If Justice is
   come out in its full strength, why does it permit so many as eight to
   escape? The number may be few, but the principle is infringed. In
   strict, severe justice, apart from the Atonement, not even Noah could
   have escaped, and certainly not his unrighteous son Ham. The eight, as
   they are floating yonder, indicate the exercise of some other
   prerogative than that of absolute and naked justice.

   Then comes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. See them, with the
   other cities of the plain, licked up by tongues of fire! Behold the
   light smoke as it ascends and clouds the heavens! But here was only
   Divine Justice upon one atrocious sin--a sin which will forever bear
   the name of the place in which it came to its worst height. It was not
   the declaration of God's Justice against sin as sin, so much as against
   sin in a certain form when the virus of evil had been most banefully
   developed!

   Hark to the shriek that goes up from the midst of the Red Sea, when the
   waters that stood upright as a heap, suddenly descend and lock in their
   death-wooing arms the multitudes of Egyptian chivalry! Do you not see
   here the Justice of God? You do, but you do not see it so completely,
   because a multitude of sinners, in front, have escaped by this very
   destruction! I grant you that, here, a most blessed type of our Lord
   Jesus Christ is conspicuous, but there is not a complete declaration of
   Divine Justice, for had Divine Justice slaughtered all sinners on that
   occasion, Israel would have been drowned as well as Egypt! There rather
   the pride of Pharaoh was subdued than the sin of Egypt. That judgment
   fell only upon the chief of Egypt, the chief of all her strength was
   smitten there--but judgment must come upon the little as well as upon
   the great when it comes from the hand of the Most High in its absolute
   force!

   Of all the other judgments which we find mentioned in Holy Scripture,
   it is enough to say that they were manifestations of Divine Justice,
   but they were not such manifestations of it as we have in Christ. If I
   might use such a metaphor, Divine Vengeance slept and all those
   judgments were but its startings in its sleep. God had not yet laid
   bare His terrible right arm--judgment was then His strange work. He did
   not put both His hands to the tremendous work of

   punishment as He did afterwards, when His only-begotten Son stood
   before Him--the Just in the place of the unjust, and the Guiltless with
   the guilt of man upon His shoulders!

   The death of Christ did more clearly set forth the righteousness of God
   than all these put together. In some respects, even Hell itself cannot
   so exhaust the vindication of Infinite Justice. Do you object to this
   last assertion? You may well do so till I explain my meaning. It needs
   a whole eternity to set forth, in Hell, all the Justice of God in the
   punishment of sin. To manifest to those who suffer, being impenitent,
   all the vengeance of incensed Deity demands an ageless age of years,
   countless and endless. Behold the Lamb of God! In Christ you have set
   forth at once all the fullness of the vengeance of God against the sins
   of men. See the cup of trembling drained to its utmost dregs. See the
   baptism accomplished. He sank beneath the swelling waves of vindictive
   wrath, but, lo, He rises again! He has finished the endurance and paid
   the debt that none could reckon. There is more of the vindication of
   Justice on the Cross than can be seen at any one time, or at any one
   point, in the lowest depths of Hell!

   The death of Christ gloriously set forth Divine Justice because it
   taught manifestly this Truth of God, that sin can never go without
   punishment I t is a law of God's moral universe that sin must be
   punished. He has made that as necessary as the law of gravitation. The
   law of gravitation He may suspend--the law of justice, never. He will
   by no means spare the guilty. "The soul that sins, it shall die."
   "Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written
   in the Book of the Law to do them." As the Lord had appointed the
   salvation of His people, even this, the dearest desire of His soul,
   does not lead Him to tamper with His inviolable Law. No, a Substitute
   shall be provided, who shall to the utmost farthing pay whatever His
   people owe. Upon His head the fire-cloud shall discharge itself, and
   into His bosom shall be emptied out the coals of fire. No pardon
   without punishment! If the question is asked, "Why not?" It is enough
   to say that as long as God rules the universe, He rules it in wisdom,
   and His Wisdom knows that it would be unsafe if sin were at any time
   permitted to be blotted out apart from satisfaction received. Christ,
   therefore, must Himself give a satisfaction for sin, that this rule may
   be declared and written upon the forefront of the skies--God will not
   pardon sin by overlooking it--there must be redemption before there can
   be remission!

   This was also shown very clearly in what the Savior had to endure. A
   part of the penalty of sin is shame. The wicked will rise "to shame and
   everlasting contempt." Rebellion against God is the most contemptible
   thing that angels ever heard of. The devil will be recognized, at last,
   as the worst of fools and become the object of intense mockery. But see
   our Savior! When He takes the sinner's place, "He is despised and
   rejected of men." His own disciples, as it were, hid their faces from
   Him! "He was despised and we esteemed Him not." He is the song of the
   drunk! Reproach has broken His heart. They that sit in the gate speak
   against Him. They spit in His face! They bow the knee and hail Him with
   mock homage. They put Him to the death of a slave--they give Him the
   pre-eminent place of shame as center of the three crucified ones. Never
   was shame more shameful than in the experience of our Lord. Here God
   seemed to declare, once and for all, how shameful in His sight sin was.
   When sin lay but by imputation upon His own dear Son, His Son must be
   an object of scorn to the universe!

   Transcendent was His sorrow as well as His shame. We cannot comprehend
   His meaning when He said, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto
   death." Your sympathies can never interpret those pangs of heart which
   forced the blood to stream from every pore.

   His physical sufferings alone are enough to make us faint if we would
   but think of them aright. As for His soul's sufferings, which were the
   soul of His sufferings, here is enough to melt our hearts away in grief
   that we should ever have caused Him thus to die. When the Lord thus
   emptied out all His quivers, and shot every arrow into the heart of His
   dear Son--when all His waves and His billows went over Him--when deep
   called unto deep and there was the noise of God's waterspouts, and
   Christ was made to sink in deep mire where there was no standing--then
   God declared most loudly what an intolerable evil sin is, how supremely
   just He is and how jealous of His Justice.

   In the Savior's sufferings, shame and sorrow were deepened, both of
   them, by Divine desertion. ' 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken
   Me?" has the grief of ages in it! Here you have tremendous pangs
   distilled and given to Christ in quintessence. "Eloi, Eloi, lama
   Sabachthani?" is a more desperate cry than ever came from lost souls.
   Every word of it was emphatic, every syllable needs to be pronounced
   with the awful force of one who is in the pangs of death and in the
   pangs of Hell, for the Savior could truly say, "The sorrows of death
   compassed Me, and the pains of Hell got hold upon Me. I found trouble
   and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech
   You, deliver My soul." No answer came, for God had forsaken Him! His
   enemies persecuted and took Him, and there was none to deliver Him.
   Herein, in the leaving of His own Son, His only-begotten Son, His
   ever-obedient Son, God showed His intense Righteousness and hatred of
   sin!

   Nor was Christ spared the last pinch--one would have thought that He
   might have been spared that--He died. Here shame, sorrow and desertion
   reached the culminating point--the Savior dies. The holy soul is parted
   from the pure and blessed body. He suffers the very pangs of death. He
   yields up the ghost. Though Immortal, He dies! Brightness of the
   Father's Glory, He slumbers in the tomb! See Him, Believer, as the
   disciples take Him down, drawing out the nails, one by one, so
   tenderly! See Him as they lay Him in the sheet which the holy women had
   prepared, and wrap Him up in the spices which Nicodemus in his love,
   and Joseph of Arimathaea in his bounty, had brought! See the Savior, as
   they put Him in the tomb and go away sorrowing, for the stone is laid
   and the seal is set upon Him! See Him, I say! See Him, whom angels
   worship, "over all God, blessed forever," sleeping thus a captive in
   the grave! Does not Jehovah here reveal how He hates sin in that He
   spared not His own Son? The Christ must die when sin and expiation come
   into contact, even though that contact is but by imputation!

   To one more point I must call your attention. The excellency of the
   Person who suffered all this is the great platform upon which God
   displays His Righteousness. He who suffered this was the Just One--of
   spotless nature--a King. "The King of the Jews." He was the Messiah,
   the Shiloh whom God had foreordained to be the Mediator of the
   Covenant. No, more than that--He was the Son of the Highest, being
   begotten of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary! Mounting
   higher still, He was, Himself, "very God of very God." It is a great
   mystery, one which, however, we receive with reverence.

   The hand that was stretched out to the nail is the very hand that
   wields the scepter of universal empire! The heart that was pierced is
   the very heart which will beat on throughout eternity in love to His
   people! Yet more, the very Being who thus became capable of suffering,
   was He who built the heavens and scattered the stars like dust along
   the sky! Who bespoke the light and said, "Light be," and sent forth the
   Spirit to brood over chaos, and brought order out of its confusion!
   "Without Him was not anything made that was made." He is the express
   image of His Father's Glory and Person--"in Him dwells all the fullness
   of the Godhead bodily." I merely talk--this theme demands an angel's
   tongue to sing! Sing of Him, spirits before the Throne of God, in your
   rapturous song--sing of Him in wonder that He should ever leave your
   happy choirs and forsake the Throne of His eternal Glory to become a
   man! Sing of Him when He stripped Himself of His azure mantle and did
   hang it on the sky--and took away His golden rings and hung them up
   like stars--and laid aside the vestments of His glorious reign and came
   to dwell in humble garments of clay! Oh, mysterious love! He came to
   suffer, bleed and die! Oh, mystery of Righteousness, that such an One
   as this should have to bleed, should have to smart, even to the
   uttermost, and be obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross!
   Never, then, did Righteousness receive such vindication as when God,
   the mighty Maker, having assumed flesh, in that flesh died for man, the
   creature's sin!

   II. THIS GREAT MANIFESTATION OF DIVINE RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE PERSON OF
   CHRIST, as I

   understand the text, INTELLIGIBLY CLEARS GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT OF TWO
   GREAT DIFFICULTIES.

   When Christ became a Propitiation, He declared God's Righteousness for
   the remission of sin. We are pardoned through the forbearance of God.
   For thousands of years men lived and sinned, and yet were
   justified--rebelled, and yet were forgiven--wandered, yet were
   restored. I say, for thousands of years poor fallible men claimed
   complete righteousness and entered into the rewards which belong
   exclusively to those who are justified before God. There they go,
   streaming up to Heaven, a long bright line of patriarchs, Prophets,
   warriors for the holy cause, kings, priests and saintly men and women
   who believed in God--and this was imputed to them for righteousness.
   Now here we are in a difficulty. A just God is saving all these sinners
   and taking them to Heaven without any sort of vindication of His
   Justice! But Christ comes in and declares the Righteousness of God,
   "for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of
   God," and all the difficulties of the antediluvian, Patriarchal, and
   Mosaic times are cleared up at once.

   Another difficulty, with which you and I are far more concerned, is how
   God can be just, and yet the Justifier. The Apostle says that this was
   cleared up, "To declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness; that
   He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believes in Jesus."
   This is the great problem which the world has been trying to solve. I
   know of no religion except Unitarianism--which is not a religion, but a
   philosophy--which ever pretends to do without a sacrifice.

   It is remarkable that no religion can be popular except that which
   deals with a sacrifice for sin. And where this is left out in any man's
   ministry, you very soon find there are more spiders than hearers, and
   very soon the place which might have been crowded under an Evangelical
   ministry, grows empty. It is a happy circumstance that it is so, but it
   is a very significant one. If a man were to open a shop for the sale of
   bread and were to sell nothing but stones, it is certain that he would
   have but few customers. The baker's shop is the last that is shut up in
   the parish. When all other trades die out, his will live, for men must
   have bread. And so if every other good thing should pass away, the
   Gospel, because it meets the needs of common humanity, is quite certain
   to survive them all. Dr. Patten, the other Sabbath morning, said to me
   after service, "I am often asked why so many people come to the
   Tabernacle and, my dear Friend," he said, "I cannot give any answer
   except this one, that you try to preach that which the soul needs, the
   essential and vital point of how men are saved and justified before God
   through Jesus Christ. And so," he said, "if you keep to that old theme,
   there is no fear but what there will be enough hungry souls to come and
   feed upon that bread." And so I think it is. This I know, if a man
   would have a subject that will never grow stale and never wear out, let
   him preach Christ Crucified! You need not go to philosophies, nor turn
   over the books in your libraries to find some novelty--the old story is
   more novel than the new! There is nothing so new as Christ! We may say
   of Him, "You have the dew of Your youth," for Christ Jesus and His
   Sacrifice exactly meet the common needs of our humanity!

   Well, there is a Sacrifice provided and that Sacrifice, dear Friends, I
   say, answers the question which God has put into every man's mind--"How
   can I be saved, and yet God be just?" Man has the conviction, though he
   may not express it, that God is just. Every sinner knows that sin must
   be punished! He may trifle with that knowledge, but he cannot destroy
   it and he never can get any peace of mind, when his conscience is
   really awakened, till he learns this great Truth--God punished Christ
   instead of you! Christ has so honored the Law of God that, without God
   being unjust, or being thought to be so, He can forgive you! There has
   been such a satisfaction offered to God's violated purity that He can
   be discovered to be infinitely pure--no, severely just and yet, at the
   same time, infinitely gracious and merciful! O Soul, have you ever
   caught a glimpse of this matter? My heart remembers when I first
   understood that. Though those words, "Look unto Me, and be you saved,
   all the ends of the earth," were the channel of my comfort, yet the
   ground of it was this--I did see that Christ suffered for me, that
   Christ stood as a Substitute for Believers and that precious Doctrine
   of Substitution was the window of light to my dark soul!

   Hear, you Sinners, hear this! God demands of you two things--first,
   that you should keep His Law. You cannot do this, for you have already
   broken it! If you never sinned again, you have put yourselves out of
   court. On Sinai's mountain there is no safety for you. Even Moses said,
   "I do exceedingly fear and quake," when Sinai was altogether on a
   smoke. But God demands more than this. He demands punishmentfor the
   sins that are past, as well as a perfect obedience for the years to
   come. Can you bear this? Can you endure the flames of Hell and the
   terrors of His vengeance? Your heart quails at the thought! Well, as
   Christ has come into the world, He has provided for both. He knows your
   need. Christ has kept the Law of God for you and Christ has suffered
   the penalty of that Law, too. You have two answers to the Most High--
   and when conscience says, "You must be punished, for you are guilty,"
   you can say, "No, not I! Christ was punished for my sins. God will
   never punish two for one offense--first the Substitute, and then the
   sinner for whom He was a Substitute." And when conscience says, "Ah,
   but you cannot bring in a perfect righteousness," you can answer, "Yes,
   I can, for Christ has worked out and brought in a perfect
   Righteousness. And He gives this to me, according to His own name and
   title, 'JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU,' The Lord Our Righteousness."

   Oh, that we might have Grace, dear Friends, to understand that all that
   God wants of us is found in Christ! You think there is something for
   you to do in order to save yourself, but Christ has saved all who will
   be saved--saved them already, virtually! And you shall be saved
   actually when, by humble faith, you receive the salvation which Christ
   has worked out. To add to Christ anything of your own would be to tack
   on your own filthy rags to His gold and silver-threaded garments! To
   bring your filthy lucre to eke out the golden payment which He has laid
   down at God's Throne. Do not do this, Sinner! God is content with
   Christ--be you content with Him and as you see how God is just, see
   also how you may be happy and at peace!

   III. And now I conclude by drawing TWO PRACTICAL LESSONS.

   First, let us see what an evil thing sin is and how God hates it
   Christian, do you hate it too? Loathe it! Never endure it. If I had to
   pass the place where some dear friend of mine was murdered, I should
   dread the very spot. But if there lived

   on earth the man who had stabbed my dearest friend in the heart, I
   think I could never bear him affection, but I should feel moved to stir
   the officers of justice to pursue him. Now, your sins have murdered
   your Savior. Revenge here is holy. In other places it must be very
   doubtful, but here it is sacred. Seize your sins! Where are they? Seize
   yourselves and you have them. If you feel any anger against the
   murderer of Christ, turn to your mirror and see his face. There stands
   the man who slew his Friend. There stands he who killed his Friend who
   died to save him! Yes, in the very act and suffering of murder that
   Friend gave Himself up to bleed and die for the good of His murderers!
   Shall I spare the sins, then, that nailed my Savior to the tree? O
   Christian, how you ought to hate the very thought of sin! Sometimes we
   are very severe upon the sins of others--how much more severe ought we
   to be upon our own! Truly, a man's foes are they of his own household!
   The very thought of sin, the word of sin, the very garments spotted
   with the flesh should be hated by the Christian. The Lord give us to
   feel more and more of this! We shall only get it, however, by living
   more where the groans of Calvary can meet our ears and the sight of the
   Savior's wounds can melt our hearts!

   Then, let us see our sad condition if we are not delivered from sin. If
   Christ became the Object of His Father's wrath when sin was only
   imputed to Him, how angry must God be, everyday, with the wicked whose
   own sins lie upon them! There can be no more dreadful thought to a
   sinner than this--if we will look at it in that light--that God spared
   not His own Son! Surely, if the Judge smites His own Son so severely,
   He will not spare you, His enemy! Ah, you who have no Savior and who
   have never looked to Christ to take away your sins, what will you do
   when you have to stand before the bar of God? Christ needed to be
   Omnipotent to endure the stroke of His Father's sword--what will you do
   when God's dreadful voice cries, "Awake, O sword, against My foe;
   against the man that despised My Son and trampled on His blood"? The
   wrath of the Lamb is the worst thing a sinner can ever feel. "The wrath
   of the Lamb!" Think of that! When love turns to anger, it is cruel as
   the grave. To despise Incarnate Love is to entail upon yourself
   infinite misery! They who perish without the knowledge of Christ,
   perish happily compared with you! It shall be more tolerable for Sodom
   and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for you if you have despised
   Christ!

   My Hearers, I have tried as best I can to preach Christ to you and to
   lift Him up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. But some
   of you will not look at Him. I fear you will never and that you will
   die in your sins. It was but the other day that I heard of one of your
   number who, after listening to this voice, suddenly went into eternity
   in a moment! And the same is happening to very many. You will not be
   able to say, at the last, that you never heard of Christ, or that I
   covered Him up amidst a multitude of gaudy periods and high-sounding
   words! I have set forth Christ Jesus in all the naked beauty of His
   mysterious Sacrifice. Look to Him, Souls! If I have never been able to
   move your heart before, may God move it now! Look to Jesus! Is
   salvation such a thing to be trifled with, that you can live without
   it? Are the joys of being reconciled to God such trifles that you will
   not have them? If you had to die like dogs, it would be worthwhile to
   prove the happiness of being reconciled to God in this life. But, oh,
   remember the world to come! You shall soon pass through the gates of
   the grave--the death-sweat will settle on your brows--the night of
   death shall seal your eyes. What will you do, in those few solemn
   moments when the last sands are trickling from the hourglass, without a
   Savior?

   Say not that these are things not to be talked of because they are too
   distant! Men and women, they will come to you. Tomorrow, before next
   Sabbath bells shall toll, you may be hurried to the land where the
   sound of the church-going bell is never heard. May God lead you to lay
   hold of Christ, now, for if not, there remains for you nothing but the
   fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation! The trumpet
   sounds, the dead awake, Jesus sits upon the Great White Throne, the
   heavens are opened, the angels come to gather God's harvest and it is
   gathered into the garner. But now they come to reap the vintage--and
   with their sickles they cut down cluster after cluster of the wild
   vines of sin. Oh, if you are there, you must be gathered with the rest,
   cast into the winepress of the wrath of God and, oh, how tremendous
   will that be, when He who once tread the winepress for His people,
   shall come to tread the winepress of His wrath for the last time! How
   dreadful when, to use the prophetic words of the Revelation, the blood
   flows forth even unto the horses' bridles! Oh, tremendous vengeance of
   an incensed God, whose mercy has been despised and whose Grace has been
   put away!

   I am not in the habit of often using such strong words. I rather love
   to plead the love of Jesus Christ to souls, but strong words must
   sometimes be used, or slumbering souls will never awake. Why will you
   perish? Do you choose your own destruction? Why do you choose it? Come,
   let a Brother lead you back! Here, in these seats, cover your eyes, and
   let the silent confession go up to Heaven. Look to Jesus Crucified! Fly
   to those dear wounds of His. A Substitute for sinners! There He hangs,
   and bleeds, and dies--

   "There is life for a look at the Crucified One! There is life at this
   moment for you"--

   if you believe in Him. God give you the Grace to believe, for Jesus
   Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS 3:19-31; 4:1-21.

   Romans 3:19, 20. 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. Therefore by the deeds
   of the La w there shall no flesh be justified in His sight for by the
   Law is the knowledge of sin. The Law can convict and condemn, but it
   can never justify the guilty. Its special work is to prove that they
   are not justified in sinning and to stop their mouths from uttering any
   excuse for their sin.

   21-24. But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested,
   being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets; even the righteousness of
   God 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. Now there comes in a new
   principle--the principle of Grace which accomplishes what the Law never
   could accomplish--that is, the free justification of all the guilty
   ones who believe in Jesus! And this justification is a righteous one,
   seeing that it is based upon "the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

   25-27. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His
   blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
   past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time
   His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him
   which believes in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By
   what law? Of works? No, but by the Law of faith. Faith's empty hand
   receives the free gift of Grace--that very fact excludes all boasting!

   28-31. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
   the deeds of the Law. Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He yet also of
   the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which
   shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through
   faith. Do we then make void the Law through faith? God forbid: yes, we
   establish the Law.

   Romans 4:1-8. What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as
   pertaining to the flesh, has found? For if

   Abraham were justified by works, he had something to boast about, but
   not before God. For what says the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and
   it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that works is the
   reward not reckoned of Grace, but of debt. But to him that works not,
   but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted
   for righteousness. Even as David also describes the blessedness of the
   man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed
   are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
   Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. There is a
   special blessedness, therefore, which comes to those who, by faith, are
   under the dispensation of Grace. It came to Abraham and it came to
   David--yet both Abraham and David were circumcised men belonging to a
   special race. So the question naturally arises.

   9-12. Comes this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon
   the uncircumcision also?For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham
   for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When he was in
   circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in
   uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the
   righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that
   he might be the father of all them that believe, though they were not
   circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: and
   the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision
   only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father
   Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. The historical argument
   is a very forcible one. The blessing was not given to Abraham as a
   circumcised man, but as a believingman. And hence it also comes to all
   of us who believe. What a mercy it is that there is, in this sense, no
   distinction between Jew and Gentile! I hate that plan of reading the
   Scriptures in which we are told, when we lay hold of a gracious
   promise, "Oh, that is for the Jews." "Then I also am a Jew, for it is
   given to me!" Every promise of God's Word belongs to all those who have
   the faith to grasp it. We who have faith are all in the Covenant and

   are thus the children of faithful Abraham--so be not afraid, you who
   are the true seed, to take every blessing that belongs to your father
   Abraham and to all the seed!

   13, 14. For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was
   not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the

   Law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of
   the Law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no
   effect. But that would also make void circumcision and the whole of the
   ancient Covenant, seeing that the blessing was given to a man whom God
   had chosen before his circumcision, and before the Ceremonial Law had
   even been made known.

   15-17. Because the Law works wrath: for where no Law is, there is no
   transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by Grace; to
   the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only
   which is of the Law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham;
   who is the father of us all, (as it is written, I have made you a
   father of many nations). Not a father of one select race of people,
   only, but a father of all who, in any land, and speaking any language,
   are believers in the glorious Jehovah, who is the God of Abraham, and
   of Isaac, and of Jacob!

   17. Before Him whom he believed, even God, who quickens the dead, and
   calls those things which are not as though they were. Abraham was a
   believer in the God of Resurrection, expecting to see Isaac raised up
   from the dead if he did actually offer him as a sacrifice to God. He
   was a believer in things that were not yet apparent to him, looking
   forward to them and expecting to see them in due time--believing in
   them because he believed in God, who "calls those things which are not
   as though they were."

   18-21. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the
   father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall
   your seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own
   body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the
   deadness of Sarah's womb: he staggered not at the promise of God
   through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and
   being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to
   perform.
     __________________________________________________________________

The King's Sharp Arrows

   (No. 3039)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 9, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY 16, 1870.

   "Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies; whereby the
   people fall under You." Psalm 45:5.

   WHEN our Lord Jesus Christ is represented as a King, we delight to
   think of Him as the Prince of Peace whose dominion shall put an end to
   all war and make it unnecessary for the nations of the earth to learn
   the arts of war any longer. Meanwhile, however, in this present state,
   evil is in the world, sin is all around us and thus sin is the curse of
   mankind. Christ, therefore, for our good, is a fighting King, combating
   evil and contending against sin in every shape and form and, in that
   aspect, we regard Him as standing in His glorious war chariot, riding
   through the world in the power of His Gospel, smiting right and left
   with the great sword of the Spirit and, at the same time, shooting His
   sharp arrows of Gospel Truth to the very ends of the earth! The Truth
   of God is the weapon that Christ uses. The weapons of His warfare are
   not carnal any more than are ours. The Truth of God is His sword and
   the Truth of God is His arrow!

   There are some Truths which Jesus Christ proclaims in the Gospel and
   which He bids us also proclaim, which are like sharp arrows--wounding,
   piercing, killing--and of these I am about to speak, hoping and
   trusting that those arrows may, in all their sharpness, pierce all
   hearts that have not felt them yet! And that where they go, they may
   kill sin and that He may then come in to heal who has wounded them and
   to give life to those whom He has slain.

   First, we shall ask and answer the question, what are those Truths
   which are like sharp arrows?Secondly, why are they arrows? And thirdly,
   how come they stick fast in human hearts?

   I. First, then, WHAT ARE THOSE TRUTHS WHICH ARE SHARP AS ARROWS IN THE
   HEARTS OF MEN?

   There are many of them, but I shall only mention such as are most
   usually felt when men are convinced of sin. One arrow that is always
   sharp is this--the spirituality and holiness of the Law of God. Many
   men read the Law of the Ten Commandments, or hear it read in their
   churches on the Sabbath, but they do not know that that Law means a
   great deal more than the mere words seem to convey. For instance, it is
   written, "You shall not commit adultery," but Christ tells us that even
   though no act of unchastity is committed, the very thought of it is
   condemned and he who indulges an unclean look has already broken the
   command. The Law of God not only deals with the overt acts, but also
   with desires--and even with those imaginations which scarcely amount to
   desires, in which a man pictures the sin and feels a pleasure in the
   picture, though he has not actually committed the sin. Now, when a man
   comes to understand in his heart, as well as to hear with his ears that
   God looks thus at his thoughts, imaginations, desires and words as well
   as at his actions, then he stands in awe and amazement of the Law and
   says, "I cannot keep this Law of God, for I am already condemned by
   it--and being condemned, what way of escape is there for me? How can I
   get my sins forgiven? By what means can I be reconciled to God?"

   This Truth of God is, indeed, a sharp arrow, and well do I remember
   when first it pierced my heart and conscience. I felt that I could not
   stand the test of such a Law for a single moment and that if called to
   stand before God's bar to be tried on such grounds, I would not require
   a trial, but must plead guilty at once, or stand there in silence to
   hear His righteous sentence of condemnation--

   "How long beneath the Law I lay In bondage and distress! I toiled the
   precepts to obey, But toiled without success.

   Then, to abstain from outward sin, Was more than I could do. Now, ifI
   feel its power within, I feel I hate it too."

   Another of the Truths connected with Christ's Gospel that is like a
   sharp arrow is this--the utter impossibility of self-justification.
   This is one of the Truths of the Gospel that we must never fail to
   proclaim--"By the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in
   His sight." Having offended against God, you cannot expiate the past by
   any actions of yours. If you should henceforth keep the Law without a
   single breach or slip, the fact remains that the sentence of
   condemnation has already gone forth against you! It is often said that
   this life is a life of probation, but that is not true. We have passed
   our probation! We have been proved guilty and we are already condemned!
   And we shall abide under that sentence of condemnation unless we have
   help outside of ourselves to rescue us from it. Lost, lost,
   lost--utterly lost is the entire human race apart from the Divine and
   supreme power which has been put forth in the Person of Jesus Christ!
   Well do I remember when I first learned that no works of mine--no
   repentance, no prayers, and no tears could deliver me from the horrible
   pit into which I was cast through sin! Then was I pierced, indeed, as
   with a barbed shaft that went right through my soul to the killing of
   all my proud hopes and boasts! May such an arrow from the King now
   pierce to the heart anyone here who still cherishes any hope of
   self-justification!

   A third shaft from the King's bow is this--the certainty of the
   judgment If there is any one Truth that Christ proclaimed more often
   than another, it seems to me to be this--that there shall be a
   resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust. And that
   the actions of this life will be reviewed in another life, and that
   rewards and punishments will be meted out by the Great Judge who cannot
   err. Kind and gracious as the mighty Prophet of Nazareth was, who has
   described in more graphic words than He did, the separation of the
   sheep from the goats--and the blessing of those on the right hand and
   the cursing of those on the left? What words could there be more
   terrible than His when He spoke of the worm that dies not and of the
   fire that never shall be quenched? O Sinner, your sin is immortal! And
   there is only One who can kill it and put it away--even Christ Jesus!
   You shall live again, Sir! It shall not be the end of you when you are
   carried to your grave and green grass grows above you. You shall live
   again and your thoughts, words and actions shall also live! Let them
   now live in your conscience. Let the recollection of them alarm you
   even before they arise and accuse you before Him who shall sit on the
   Great White Throne at the last tremendous Judgment Day! I know
   this--let a man be thoroughly convinced that he has sinned against God,
   that he cannot deliver himself from his sin and that as surely as he
   lives, there is a Day of Judgment awaiting him--he has an arrow
   sticking fast in his heart which he will be compelled to say is sharp
   as long as he is one of the King's enemies!

   Another sharp arrow is the sense of the need of an entire renewal of
   our nature if we are not to be condemned at that Judgment--

   "Not all the outward forms on earth, Nor rites that God has given, Nor
   will of man, nor blood, nor birth, Can raise a soul to Heaven! The
   Sovereign will of God alone Creates us heirs of Grace-- Born in the
   image of His Son, A new peculiar race."

   Christ's words are clear and positive, "You must be born-again." Some
   perhaps ask, "But Master, may we not reform and amend?" Yes, you may as
   far as you can, but that will not suffice. "But, Master, may we not
   observe certain ceremonies which You have ordained, may we not attend
   to Your precepts and so modify our present nature, and make ourselves
   fit for Heaven?" Jesus says to them, as He said to Nicodemus, "Verily,
   verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born from above," (for so
   stands the original), "he cannot see the Kingdom of God." The Holy
   Spirit must come upon you and create in you new hearts and right
   spirits. There must be as total a change in you as though you actually
   became new creatures! Otherwise from Hell you can never escape and into
   Heaven you can never enter--and this is true not only of the debauched,
   the dissolute and the depraved, but also of the most moral, amiable and
   honorable of the whole human race! "You must be born-again," or you
   cannot enter into Heaven. I remember how this sharp arrow stuck in my
   heart

   and how I wandered to and fro, hoping that I might yet be
   born-again--and sighing and crying in my soul because I lacked the one
   thing necessary--which I could not give to myself, but for which I must
   look up to that great God whom I had offended and who, I feared, would
   never deign to grant so great a gift to so unworthy a rebel! May that
   sharp arrow pierce other hearts just now!

   Another arrow from the bow of King Jesus is the Sovereignty of God. God
   has the right to bestow His mercy where He wills, or to withhold it if
   He so pleases. His Grace is in no sense the discharge of a debt which
   He owes to us. If He had determined to destroy the whole race of men,
   we must admit that they had deserved such a doom. As He has chosen to
   save some, it is His Grace that has done it, so let Him be forever
   adored for it! The Apostle Paul, writing under Inspiration, quotes
   God's words to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and
   I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion," and adds, "So
   then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that
   shows mercy." What humbling words are these! They make the sinner lie
   all broken and helpless at the feet of the God whom he has offended.
   They tell him that he cannot save himself, and that now his only hope
   lies absolutely in the Sovereign will of that God who can destroy him
   in a moment if He so wills! Men do not like this sharp arrow and will
   do anything to get rid of it. They will try to deny the truth of it if
   they can, but let the Lord once drive this arrow right home through the
   heart and conscience and I do not know any shaft out of the Divine
   quiver that is more killing to human pride and more deadly to
   self-righteousness than this eternal Truth of God which has already
   brought many to Christ and will bring many more, God blessing it--

   "Praise the God of all creation,

   Praise the Father's boundless love!

   Praise the Lamb, our expiation,

   Priest and King enthroned above!

   Praise the Fountain of salvation,

   Him by whom our spirits live--

   Undivided adoration

   To the one Jehovah give."

   Further, the Lord Jesus Christ often drives the arrow of conviction
   home in this form--the aggravation of the sin of men when they sin
   against light and against love. It is no little evil to break God's Law
   at all, but to do it knowingly is far worse than to do it ignorantly.
   To do it after many admonitions to the contrary, to continue to offend
   God after being frequently rebuked, to refuse all the invitations of
   His mercy, to resist the strivings of His Spirit, to be resolved to be
   lost, to be resolute upon damnation--this is the very worst form of
   sin! There are some of you in whose hearts this arrow might well find a
   place, for you were brought up by godly parents, you were dandled upon
   the knees of piety, you heard the name of Jesus among the first sounds
   that saluted your infant ears. You were carried to the House of God
   before you were old enough to walk there--and your mother's tears have
   fallen upon your infant brow as she has wept out her prayers to God
   that the soul of her child might be precious in His sight.

   Some of you remember when the Word used to prick your conscience as you
   heard it preached--you would go home and shut your bedroom door and
   kneel down and pray--and there was a time when, for weeks or months
   together, you could not sin as you used to, but felt obliged to give up
   one evil and another. Yet you resisted the conviction that was then
   upon you. You struggled against it, you overcame it and you went back
   into sin. You have never had so severe a contest with Grace since
   then--still, you have had some struggles and by dint of awful
   perseverance--oh, that we had half the perseverance to be saved that
   some have to be lost! By dint, I say, of awful perseverance, you have
   managed to remain a servant of Satan until now! Nor can we bring you to
   accept the Gospel of Christ. If you remain as you are, the Lord Jesus
   tells you, as He told the people of Capernaum and Bethsaida of old,
   that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah at the Day of
   Judgment than for you! It would have been better for you if you had
   never been born. It would have been better for you, Sir, if, when you
   were yet a babe, unconscious of right and wrong, a millstone had been
   hung about your neck and you had been cast into the depths of the sea!
   O man, I pray that this sharp arrow may strike you, now, and wound you
   and that God may bless it to you! If you and I should be lost after
   having such mothers and fathers as we had. If you and I should perish
   after such Christian training as we have had--when we meet each other
   in the lowest depths of Hell, our miserable salutation would surely be
   something of this kind, "What fools we were, with so

   much light to prefer the darkness, with so much love from God to
   resolve to hate Him! Knowing so well as we did our duty, what arrant
   fools we were to have neglected it! Knowing that sin was folly, how
   could we choose it? And knowing that holiness was happiness, for we saw
   it reflected in the faces of our dearest relatives and friends, how was
   it that we did not seek it for ourselves?" How we shall wring our hands
   in unutterable anguish if this should ever be our portion! The Lord
   prevent it, by His Grace!

   The last sharp arrow that I shall mention is one which Christ Himself
   has often shot, it is this--that condemnation for sin is a matter of
   this present time. Dear Hearers, if you have never heard this Truth of
   God before, hear it now and tremble at it! You have not to wait until
   you rise from the dead to receive your condemnation--"He that believes
   not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of
   the only-begotten Son of God." And as "there is, therefore, now no
   condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," so we may solemnly
   say, "There is, therefore, now a most weighty condemnation upon you who
   are not in Christ Jesus, who are walking not after the Spirit, but
   after the flesh." Your sentence is already passed, like that of the
   poor wretch who is now lying in the condemned cell, tomorrow to suffer
   the extreme penalty of the law! Such is your lot--"condemned already."

   All these Truths of God are the sharp arrows from the bow of King
   Jesus!

   II. Now, secondly, let us inquire, WHY ARE THEY CALLED ARROWS?

   First, they are called arrows because they are far-reaching. Some
   people who have never heard the Gospel have, nevertheless, unexpectedly
   found one or other of these arrows rankling in their hearts. We have
   known men who have been at their ordinary work when one of these arrows
   has suddenly struck them. Where the voice of the minister could not go,
   there the arrow of Christ could find its mark! Never give up hope for
   the world, even in its darkest days. The world was once in a very
   midnight and there was a monk, named Luther, on his knees, going up the
   so-called staircase of Pilate at Rome--and repeating a prayer on every
   step in order to try to win his way to Heaven. And there came to him,
   while on those very stairs, an arrow from the King that pierced him
   right to his heart! The arrow bore this inscription, "The just shall
   live by faith"--a sentence which had previously been discovered by
   Luther in a Bible in the monastery at Erfurt. He was attempting to
   justify himself by works like that of climbing the so-called holy
   stairs. But he found that it was of no use and, through faith in Jesus,
   he became the great leader of the Reformers of his day! Perhaps at this
   very moment, while we are assembled here worshipping God, there may be
   men, similarly deluded, in places where an idolatrous system has
   usurped the name and place of Christianity, yet the Gospel may reach
   them even amidst the mummeries of the "mass"! Yes, and at the
   ale-bench, and in still worse places, if God so wills it, the arrow
   from the Prince's bow may find its target and reach the human heart!
   Pray, my Brothers and Sisters, that the King may be profuse with His
   sharp arrows, so that many may fall under His power!

   They are called arrows, again, because they are penetrating. These
   Truths of God enter a man's heart whether he likes them or not. There
   are some of these arrows that are aimed at a man, but he seems to be
   clad in steel and they cannot gain an entrance for a time. But,
   by-and-by, they pierce him to the heart and cut him to the very quick.
   We have known some sinners to be very angry when this has been the case
   with them. That is of very little consequence so long as they do but
   get wounded by the arrows of King Jesus! Because these Truths wound
   people, penetrating their hearts, they are rightly called arrows.

   They are also called arrows because if they once get in, they rankle,
   and you cannot get them out Often have I heard something like this said
   by those who have come here to make a profession of their faith in
   Christ, "I was utterly godless and never went to any place of worship.
   But one evening I stole in here and listened to a sermon. I was angry
   to the last degree at what I heard--I could have cursed the preacher to
   his face! Yet, I do not know how it was, I soon found myself in this
   place again, wanting to know more about this religion that I detested
   all the time." I have often heard a man say, "I could not help thinking
   of it, Sir. It haunted my dreams. It stayed with me at my work. I
   loathed it, yet there it was always near me! Certain questions arose
   within me that I could not answer and difficulties came up which I
   could not solve. So I was obliged to let this strange new influence
   which had got hold of me, still rankle within my heart." I have
   sometimes likened an unconverted man to a wild giraffe in an African
   forest--and Christ's Gospel, like a mighty lion, leaps upon him from
   the thicket, fastens its powerful fangs in his flesh and begins to tear
   away his very life. He strives and struggles, dashes here and there,
   and tries to rid himself of the awful load that he bears upon his back,
   but all his efforts are in vain. The poor giraffe in the grip of the
   lion is distracted--and the man under conviction of sin cannot imagine

   what is to become of him. He thinks that he is lost and that he must
   feel the full force of Divine Wrath against sin--yet this is the way of
   Mercy--it is thus that men are saved! At last the man falls down and
   then He who seemed to be his enemy stoops down and nobly gives back the
   life that appeared to have gone from him. Or, rather, gives him an
   infinitely nobler life and so the forgiven sinner lives forever! Oh,
   that the power of the Gospel may thus be exerted upon some wild,
   untamable spirit that may be here just now!

   The Gospel message is especially called an arrow because it kills. What
   does it kill? It kills many things. Gospel preaching, when applied by
   the Holy Spirit, kills carnal ease in men. A man, when he first hears
   the Gospel, may perhaps say, "What is the need to bother oneself about
   that? It will all come right, I have no doubt." Ah, but let one of
   these Truths that I have mentioned--that Truth of God, for instance,
   about the Judgment to come--get into his heart and rankle there--the
   man will not talk any longer about not bothering himself! He must care.
   "Why," he says, "tomorrow I may be before God's Judgment Throne and I
   am unprepared to meet Him! My brother died only last week and my sister
   was taken away only a fortnight ago--and I may be called away at any
   moment. I cannot bear the thought of being in Hell forever! I must
   begin to think. I must begin to care about my soul." Carnal ease is one
   of the first things that is killed by the arrows of Christ!

   I will tell you another thing that is killed by these sharp arrows, and
   that is the foolish skepticism which some people think we ought to
   nurse and cuddle up in our places of worship. I do not believe that the
   skepticism of this age has so much to do with people's heads as with
   their hearts. If they were not wicked, they would not doubt, but
   because they will not be holy, they will not believe. To answer many of
   their questions would be as foolish as to do what a boy did, according
   to a fable which I read in an old book the other day. A boy, in a
   scavenger's cart, was so badly disposed that he said he would throw
   dirt in the face of the moon. And another boy, who, I suppose, was a
   great deal better, but certainly not any wiser, fetched a basin of
   water and a piece of sponge to wash the moon's face. When I read that
   story, I thought of those who are always finding out some reason to
   doubt the authenticity of the Bible, or who throw dirt in the face of
   the Gospel in some other way. And then there is some well-meaning but
   foolish Divine who leaves off preaching the Truth of God and runs with
   his sponge and his basin of water to wash the face of the blessed
   Gospel which is as clean as the sun or the moon and needs none of his
   washing, for it is not defiled with the dirt that any fool may choose
   to fling at it! I believe that at the bottom of your hearts, you do not
   really doubt, for you know that God will bring you before His Judgment
   bar to give an account of your actions! And when the King's sharp
   arrows pierce your hearts, all your whimsies die, your idle fancies
   flee away and your cry is, "Do I not believe? Indeed I do! Oh, that I
   could but doubt in order to get a little rest to my troubled spirit,
   or, rather, Blessed Spirit, come and teach me if there is not something
   to be believed by which a lost and condemned spirit may find peace with
   God!"

   The arrows of Christ, wherever they come, always kill
   self-righteousness. There was never a shaft shot from Christ's bow that
   was not fatal to all trust in our own goodness! Christ abhors that
   abomination and kills it wherever He finds it. Hardness of heart, lack
   of feeling--this is also slain wherever Christ's sharp arrows come. So
   also is procrastination, that great ruiner of the souls of men. Oh,
   that some sharp arrow might fly from Christ's bow into the heart of any
   sinner here who is saying, "There is time enough yet!" Instead of
   talking like that, he would say, "I want to be forgiven tonight! I
   cannot bear this terrible burden of guilt any longer. If there were no
   future, my present agony is so great that I long for immediate
   deliverance from it." Jesus, You blessed Divine Archer, shoot forth
   Your arrows now into men's hearts, that all these ills that they
   have--unbelief, hardness of heart, love of sin and delay, may fall down
   slain at Your glorious feet. And then come and save the sinners, by
   Your Grace, and Your head shall wear the crown forever and ever!

   How gladly would I, if I could, say anything that might encourage any
   of you to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, but I know that my feeble
   voice is not sufficient to help you. It is the almighty Spirit who
   alone can do this--and I earnestly pray that He may. My grief is not so
   much concerning you who are seeking the Savior, as concerning you who
   are not seeking Him. You may think that it is a trifling matter to
   preach the Gospel, or to listen to preaching. But the hour comes--and
   every moment brings it nearer--when you will know that the Truths of
   which I have been speaking are the only real things this side of Heaven
   and Hell! When you lie dying and are brought face to face with the
   mysteries of the next world, you will count all your money, your
   amusements and all else to be but foolery. Oh, do not trifle any longer
   with your eternal interests! If any of you must play the fool, do it
   with your money, or your estates, or your bodies, but do not do it with
   your immortal souls, for these, if once lost, can never be recovered!
   Once let the Divine sentence go forth, "Depart, you cursed," and it can
   never be reversed and changed into a benediction! Once let the iron bar
   that shuts up lost spirits in Hell be driven home by the hand of
   Infinite Justice, and there is no hand in Heaven, or earth, or Hell,
   that can ever slide that iron bar back! Once done, 'tis done forever!
   So, Sirs, I beseech you, escape to the Cross while you may! Look to Him
   who died upon it! Trust yourselves wholly to Him. Forsake your sins,
   walk in His ways and live as His followers should--for then, but not
   till then will you be safe!

   III. And now, to conclude, having examined the King's sharp arrows and
   seen why they are called by that name, let us inquire, HOW DO THEY GET
   INTO MEN'S HEARTS?

   Many are the times that I have handled these arrows of the King. And
   many are the times that from this, my watch-tower, I have shot them
   from my bow. And the Lord knows with what intense desire I have longed
   that they might enter the hearts of those at whom I have aimed them! I
   could, with my finger--but I shall not--indicate some of the targets at
   which I have aimed. I will mention no names--there is no need for me to
   do that--you know very well to whom these personal messages have been
   addressed. I suppose I cannot have been a good shot, for, with many of
   you, I have not yet found the joint in your harness through which I
   could reach your heart. Oh, that I might speedily be able to do so!

   But, according to my text, the arrows which are there spoken of and
   which are shot by the King, do get right into the hearts of His
   enemies--and I suppose this is for two reasons--first, because the Lord
   Jesus Christ always takes good aim. We cannot do this except as He puts
   His hands on our hands, for then the aim will be His rather than ours,
   like the shots of certain eminent people in great public occasions who
   have the sighting done for them by experts. It is only when the Lord
   Jesus Christ does this for us that the arrow of the Truth of God goes
   home to the heart and conscience of the hearer! Christ's aim is always
   true. If the Truth of God should come home to any of you, believe that
   it was meant for you! Do not be vexed, or think that there has been a
   mistake. It was meant for you and although it may pain you, bless God
   for the pain! It will be better for you thus to be pained and
   afterwards be fitted to enter into Heaven, than to be left to get a
   seared and hardened conscience--and to be cast into Hell.

   The other reason why these arrows of the King get into the hearts of
   his enemies is that together with the good aim, there is always
   almighty strength at the back of the bow. It is said that the bow of
   William the Conqueror was so strong that no man in England, except
   himself, could bend it. And the great bow of King Jesus is such as none
   of us can bend! It has the power of the Holy Spirit in it--it is the
   Holy Spirit, Himself, who gives force and power to the Word so that it
   pierces through all the sinner's armor, the most vital part of his
   being and smites him even in the heart. Bearing this last thought in
   mind, I say to you who love the Lord, do you not see how dependent we
   are upon the Holy Spirit? There lie the arrows, but they will kill
   nobody till the Holy Spirit gets them into the hearts of sinners! There
   is much precious Truth in this blessed Book, but there it will lie till
   the Holy Spirit takes it and shoots it right into the hearts of men.
   So, what is our duty as Christian men and women? Why, dear Brothers and
   Sisters, let us never grieve the Holy Spirit! You know that we can do
   it by neglecting to honor Him, by falling out among ourselves, by
   cherishing unlovely dispositions, by being unholy. As church members,
   we can easily drive the Holy Spirit away from us, but, instead of
   grieving Him, let us honor Him and let us entreat Him to work with us.

   Brothers and Sisters, pray for us. I believe I am the constant subject
   of the prayers of the different members of this Church--to whom I feel
   the deepest gratitude. But I also beg you to pray for all the ministers
   of Christ and for one another, and for all work that is being done for
   Christ. Remember the Sunday school teachers. Think of those good men
   who, all week, are doing the hard work of City Missionaries--and those
   good women who are working as Bible women--pray for all such laborers
   and for all who are doing anything for Christ--ask that the Holy Spirit
   may be with them to make their labors a means of blessing to the
   people. Whenever you seek to do anything for Christ--as you begin and
   as you go on, and when you conclude--let it all be done in real
   dependence upon the Holy Spirit! Blessed be God, the Holy Spirit is not
   far away from us, nor is He hard to find, for He dwells within the true
   Church of Christ. We are not to think of Him as if He were some
   mysterious Being, very far distant from us and not easily to be brought
   to us, to whom we need to cry as Baal's priests cried to their idol
   god, "O Baal, hear us!" The Holy Spirit is always at work in the Church
   and it is a wonder that He does so much while the Church often does so
   little. Oh, if we were but all awake, all alive, all full of zeal, all
   full of love, all full of self-sacrifice, then, depending upon Him, we
   might expect to see the King's sharp arrows flying from His bow to the
   right and to the left, behind and in the front, while tens of thousands
   would fall

   down before Him! And London, and Great Britain, and the world at large
   would behold the King riding in triumph in His glorious chariot of
   salvation!

   The Lord send it! The Lord send it! I know your hearts say, "Amen!" But
   you must work for it and watch for it and pray for it--and then it will
   come! And unto Christ shall be the Glory forever. Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM45.

   To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, (or, upon the lilies,) for the
   sons of Korah, Maschil, A Song of Loves. We may look upon the 45th
   Psalm as being a sort of compendium of the Song of Solomon. It is
   written, too, upon the same subject. And that is not the marriage of
   Solomon with Pharaoh's daughter--only the strangest and most whimsical
   fancy could ever have found Pharaoh's daughter either in this Psalm or
   in the Book of the Canticles! It is a description of Christ and His
   Church! A song of love between that pair forever affianced and soon to
   sit down together at the marriage supper in Glory!

   Verse 1. My heart is inditing a good matter Or, as the margin has it,
   "My heart boils or bubbles up with good matter." It is said of Origen,
   one of the ancient fathers of the Church, that whenever he preached, he
   preached with great earnestness and fervor--but that when he spoke of
   Christ, he seemed to be all on fire. So, whenever our hearts speak of
   the good matter which concerns Christ, our souls should be all on
   fire--we should be boiling over with love to Him!

   1. I speak of the things which I have made touching the king. A man can
   never speak so well of the things which he has learned, or heard, as of
   the things which he has made, that is, the things which he has
   experienced. Indeed, this is your life-work and mine, Beloved, to tell
   others the things which we have made our own touching the King!

   1. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer A ready writer writes what he
   has thought of beforehand, what he has well meditated upon and
   digested. So the Psalmist declares that this rapturous song is as
   certainly true as the verba scripta of a thoughtful accomplished
   penman.

   2. You are fairer than the children of men. The Hebrew word here is
   doubled, as much as to say, "You are doubly fair. You are fair, fair.
   Twice fairer than the children of men." Both in outward
   appearance--although His visage was so sadly marred while He was
   here--and in personal Character, our Lord Jesus Christ is "fairer than
   the children of men."

   2. Grace is poured into Your lips. Grace has, in the most copious
   manner, been poured upon Christ and now there pours from His lips a
   very cataract of Grace--floods of love, tenderness and holy eloquence
   stream from His lips.

   2, 3. Therefore God has blessed You forever Gird Your sword upon Your
   thigh, O most mighty, with Your glory and Your majesty. Put Your sword
   where it will be ready for use. Come forth and let us see You appear in
   Your strength, O most Mighty! For this is one of the names of
   Christ--"I have laid help upon One That Is Mighty--I have exalted One
   Chosen Out of the people."

   4, 5. And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth and
   meekness and righteousness; and Your right hand shall teach You
   terrible things. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's
   enemies; whereby the people fall under You. You may see, on some of the
   ancient slabs, representations of Oriental monarchs riding in their
   chariots, perhaps engaged in hunting, or pursuing their enemies, with
   their bow and arrow in their hands, and their sword upon their thigh.
   So is our Savior thus graphically described. His Word is His sword, and
   the testimony of His ministers He makes to be like sharp arrows
   sticking in the hearts of His enemies. May it be so this day and every
   day. May Christ thus ride prosperously!

   6. Your Throne, O God, is forever and ever: the scepter of Your Kingdom
   is a right scepter This could not have been said of Solomon, for He was
   never called God. It refers to none other than Christ the King, whose
   Throne is forever and ever!

   7-9. You love righteousness, and hate wickedness: therefore God, Your
   God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows. All
   Your garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory
   palaces, whereby they have made You glad. Kings' daughters were among
   Your honorable women. Your maids of honor, for all those who truly wait
   on Christ become at once the King's daughters. It is more noble to
   serve God than to sit as king upon a

   throne. The day shall come when all the honor of earthly kings'
   daughters will have passed away, but the glory of those who are in
   Christ's court as honorable women shall abide forever.

   9. At Your right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.In the best
   and purest gold. Every member of the Church of Christ may well say,
   with Dr. Watts--

   "Strangely, my Soul, are You arrayed By the great Sacred Three!"

   10, 11. Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear; forget
   also your own people, and your father's house; so shall the King
   greatly desire your beauty: for He is your Lord; and worship you Him.
   Though the Church has been brought up in the world, she is to be
   separated from it. The more distinction there can be between Christians
   and worldlings, the better will it be for both. Christ greatly admires
   the beauty of His Church when she is separated from the world, and it
   is nothing but an adulterous alliance when the church becomes united to
   the State. We never can expect any great and permanent blessing to any
   church which thus degrades and dishonors itself. If a church cannot
   stand without the support of the civil power, let it fall! But happy is
   that Church which relies alone upon the King, Himself, and is content
   with the dowry which He gives her.

   12. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich
   among the people shall entreat your favor. The day is coming when the
   Church of Christ shall be honored by all men. The merchant princes, who
   now esteem her as a thing of naught, shall come with their tribute to
   her--and those who once despised her shall entreat her favor.

   13, 14. The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of
   worked gold. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of
   needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought
   unto You. Happy was John the Baptist to be "the friend of the
   Bridegroom" to Christ, and happy are the hearts of those who are the
   bridesmaids to His Church--"the virgins her companions that follow
   her"--you, whose pure hearts are set upon the Lord alone, and who
   follow wherever He leads. You, too, "shall be brought unto the King in
   raiment of needlework" with His Church.

   15, 16. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall
   enter into the King's palace. Instead of Your fathers shall be Your
   children, whom You may make princes in all the earth. There is such a
   thing as an Apostolic succession, though not the fiction which usually
   goes by that name. The Lord is constantly raising up fresh disciples,
   fresh preachers and fresh teachers whom He makes to be princes in His
   earthly courts, and who shall be princes in His heavenly courts forever
   and ever.

   17. I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations:
   therefore shall the people praise You forever and ever--

   "Jesus shall reign wherever the sun Does its successive journeys run.
   His Kingdom stretches from shore to shore Till moons shall wax and wane
   no more."
     __________________________________________________________________

The Happy Beggar

   (No. 3040)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me." Psalm 40:17.

   THERE is no crime and there is no credit in being poor. Everything
   depends upon the occasion of the poverty. Some men are poor and are
   greatly to be pitied, for their poverty has come upon them without any
   fault of their own. God has been pleased to lay this burden upon them
   and, therefore, they may expect to experience Divine help and ought to
   be tenderly considered by their Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
   Occasionally poverty has been the result of integrity or religion--and
   here the poor man is to be admired and honored. At the same time, it
   will be observed by all who watch with an impartial eye that very much
   of the poverty about us is the direct result of idleness, intemperance,
   improvidence and sin. There would probably not be one-tenth of the
   poverty there now is upon the face of the earth if the drinking shops
   were less frequented, if debauchery were less common, if idleness were
   banished and extravagance abandoned. Lovers of pleasure, (alas, that
   such a word should be so degraded), are great impoverishers of
   themselves. It is clear that there is not, of necessity, either vice or
   virtue in being poor and a man's poverty cannot be judged of by
   itself--its causes and circumstances must be taken into consideration.

   The poverty, however, to which the text relates is a poverty which I
   desire to cultivate in my own heart! And it is one upon which our
   Divine Lord has pronounced a blessing. When He sat down upon the
   mountain and poured forth His famous series of beatitudes, He said,
   "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."
   The poor in pocket may be blessed, or may not be blessed, as the case
   may be, but the poor in spiritare always blessed and we have Christ's
   authority for so saying! Theirs is a poverty which is better than
   wealth! In fact, it is a poverty which indicates the possession of the
   truest of all riches.

   It was mainly in this sense that David said, "I am poor and needy; yet
   the Lord thinks upon me." Certainly, in any other sense, there are vast
   multitudes who are "poor and needy," but who neither think upon God,
   nor rejoice that God thinks upon them. Those who are spiritually "poor
   and needy"--the sacred beggars at Mercy's gate, the elect mendicants of
   Heaven--these are the people who may say, with humble confidence, as
   David did, "Yet the Lord thinks upon me."

   Two things are noteworthy in the text. First, here, is a frank
   acknowledgment--"I am poor and needy." But, secondly, here is a
   comfortable confidence--"yet the Lord thinks upon me."

   I. First, here is A FRANK ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

   Some men do not object to confess that they are poor in worldly goods.
   In fact, they are rather fond of pleading poverty when there is a
   collection coming, or a subscription list in dangerous proximity. Men
   have even gloried in history in the name of, "The Beggars." And,
   "silver and gold have I none," has been exalted into a boast! But
   spiritually, it is little less than a miracle to bring men to feel,
   first, and then to confess their poverty, for naked, and poor, and
   miserable as we are by nature, we are all apt enough to say, "I am rich
   and increased with goods." We cannot dig and to beg we are ashamed. If
   we did not inherit a penny of virtue from father Adam, we certainly
   inherited plenty of pride! Poor and proud we all are. We will not, if
   we can help it, take our seat in the lowest room, though that is our
   proper place. Grace alone can bring us to see ourselves in the glass of
   truth. To have nothing is natural to us, but to confessthat we have
   nothing is more than we will come to until the Holy Spirit has worked
   self-abasement in us. The emptiers must come up upon us for, though
   naturally as empty as Hagar's bottle, yet we boast ourselves to be as
   full as a fountain! The Spirit of God must take from us our goodly
   Babylonian garment, or we shall never consent to be dressed in the fair
   white

   linen of the righteousness of saints. What Paul flung away as dross and
   dung, we poor rag-collectors prize and hoard up as long as ever we can!

   "I am poor and needy," is a confession which only He who is the Truth
   of God can teach us to offer. If you are saying it, my Brother, you
   need not be afraid that you are under a desponding delusion. But, true
   as it is, and plain to every Grace-taught child of God, yet only Grace
   will make a man confess the obnoxious fact. It is not in public that we
   can or should confess our soul-poverty as we do in the chamber when we
   bow our knees secretly before God. But many of us, in secret, have been
   compelled, with many tears and sighs, to feel as well as to say, "I am
   poor and needy." We have searched through and through, looked from the
   top to the bottom of our humanity and we could not find a single piece
   of good money in the house, so greatly reduced were we. We had not a
   shekel of merit, nor a penny of hope in ourselves! And we were
   constrained to fall flat on our face before God and confess our
   inability to meet His claims. And we found no comfort till, by faith,
   we learned to present our Lord Jesus as the Surety for His servants for
   good. We could not pay even the poorest composition and, therefore,
   cast ourselves upon the forbearance of God.

   The Psalmist is doubly humble, for first he says he is poor, and then
   adds that he is needy--and there is a difference between these two
   things.

   He acknowledges that he is poor, and you and I, if taught of God, will
   say the same. We may well be poor, for we came of a poor father Our
   father Adam had at first a great estate, but he soon lost it. He
   violated the trust on which he held his property and he was cast out of
   the inheritance and turned adrift into the world to earn his bread as a
   day-laborer by tilling the ground from which he was taken. His eldest
   son was a vagabond. The first-born of our race was a convict on parole.
   If any suppose that we have inherited some good thing by natural
   descent, they go very contrary to what David tells us when he declares,
   "Behold, I was shaped in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
   me." Our first parents were utter bankrupts. They left us nothing but a
   heritage of old debts and a propensity to accumulate yet more personal
   obligations. Well may we be poor who come into this world heirs of
   wrath with a decayed estate and tainted

   blood!

   Moreover, since the time when we came into the world, we have followed
   a very miserable trade. I recollect when I was a spinner and weaver of
   the poorest sort. I dreamed that I would be able, by my own spinning,
   to make a garment to cover myself with. This was the trade of father
   Adam and mother Eve when they first lost their innocence--they sewed
   fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. It is a very laborious
   business and has worn out the lives of many with bitter bondage. But
   its worst feature is that the Lord has declared concerning all who
   followed this self-righteous craft, "their webs shall not become
   garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works." Even
   those who have best attired themselves and have, for awhile gloried in
   their fair apparel, have had to feel the Truth of the Lord's words by
   Isaiah, "I will take away the changeable suits of apparel, and the
   mantles.. .and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils... and
   instead of a girdle there shall be a rent; and instead of a stomacher a
   girding of sackcloth." Vain is it to spend our labor on that which
   profits not, yet to this business are we early put apprentice and we
   work at it with mighty pains!

   We are miserably poor, for we have become bankrupt even in our wretched
   trade. Some of us had, once, a comfortable competence laid by in the
   Bank of Self-Righteousness, and we meant to draw it out when we came to
   die-- and thought we should even have a little spending money for our
   old age out of the interest which was paid us in the coin of
   Self-Conceit. But the Bank failed long ago and now we have not so much
   as a farthing of our own merits left us, no, nor a chance of ever
   having any! And, what is worse, we are deeply in debt and we have
   "nothing to pay." Instead of having anything like a balance on our
   account, we are insolvent debtors to the Justice of God, without a
   single farthing of assets! And unless we are freely forgiven, we must
   be cast into prison and lie there forever. Job described us well when
   he said, "for want and famine they are solitary; fleeing into the
   wilderness in former time desolate and waste. They have no covering in
   the cold.and embrace the rock for want of a shelter."

   See, then, what poverty-stricken creatures we are--of a poor stock,
   following a starving trade and made bankrupts even in that!

   What is still worse, poor human nature has no power left to retrieve
   itself As long as a man has a stout pair of arms, he is not without a
   hope of rising from the dunghill. We once thought that we were equal to
   any task, but now Paul's description suits us well--"without strength."
   Our Lord's words, too, are deeply true, "Without Me you can do
   nothing." Unable so much as to thinka good thought, or to lift our
   hearts heavenward of ourselves--this is poverty,

   indeed! We are wrecked and the whole vessel has gone to pieces. We have
   destroyed ourselves. Ah, my fellow man, may God make you feel this!
   Many know nothing about it and would be very angry if we were to say
   that this is their condition--and yet this is the condition of every
   man born into the world until the Spirit of God brings him into
   communion with Christ and endows him with the riches of the Covenant of
   Grace!

   "I am poor," this is my confession! Is it yours? Is it a confession
   extorted from you by a clear perception that it is really so? I will
   recommend you, if it is so, to take to a trade which is the best trade
   in the world to live by--not for the body, but for the soul--and that
   is the profession of a beggar, certainly a suitable one for you and me!
   I took to it long ago and began to beg for mercy from God. I have been
   constrained to continue begging every day of the same kind Benefactor
   and I hope to die begging! Many of the saints have grown rich upon this
   holy mendicancy--they have indeed spoken of being daily loaded with
   benefits! The noblest of the peers of Heaven were here below daily
   pensioners upon God's love--they were fed, and clothed, and housed by
   the charity of the Lord--and they delighted to have it so. How clear is
   it from all this that none of us can have anything of which to glory!
   Boasting is excluded, for, let the beggar get what he may, he is but a
   beggar still--and the child of God, notwithstanding the bounty of his
   Heavenly Father, is still in himself a penniless vagrant!

   The Psalmist also said, "I am needy." There are poor people who are not
   needy. Diogenes was very poor, but he was not needy. He had made up his
   mind that he would not need anything, so he lived in a tub. He had but
   one drinking vessel and when he saw a boy drinking out of his hand, he
   broke his vessel, for he said he would not possess anything
   superfluous. He was poor enough, but he was not needy, for when
   Alexander said, "What can I do for you?" he answered, "Stand out of my
   sunshine." So it is clear that a man may be very poor and yet he may
   not be burdened with need. But David was conscious of extreme need--and
   in this many of us can join him.

   Brothers and Sisters, we confess that we need ten thousand things, in
   fact, we need everything. By nature, the sinner needs healing, for he
   is sick unto death. He needs washing, for he is foul with sin. He needs
   clothing, for he is naked before God. He needs preserving after he is
   saved, he needs the Bread of Heaven, he needs the water out of the
   Rock. He is all needs and nothing but needs. Not one thing that his
   soul needs can he, of himself, supply. He needs to be kept from even
   the most common sins. He needs to be instructed as to even the first
   elements of the faith. He needs to be taught to walk in the ways of
   God's most plain commandments. Our needs are so great that they
   comprise the whole range of Covenant supplies and all the fullness
   treasured up in Christ Jesus.

   We are needy in every condition. We are soldiers and we need that Grace
   should find us both shield and sword. We are pilgrims and we need that
   love should give us both a staff and a Guide. We are sailing over the
   sea of life and we need that the wind of the Spirit shall fill our
   sails and that Christ shall be our Pilot. There is no figure under
   which the Christian life can be represented in which our need is not a
   very conspicuous part of the image! In all aspects we are poor and
   needy.

   We are needy in every exercise. If we are called to preach, we have to
   cry, "Lord, open You my lips." If we pray, we are needy at the Mercy
   Seat, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. If we go out
   into the world to wrestle with temptation, we need supernatural help
   lest we fall before the enemy! If we are alone in meditation, we need
   the Holy Spirit to quicken our devotion. We are needy in suffering and
   laboring, in watching and in fighting. Every spiritual engagement does
   but discover another phase of our need!

   And, Brothers and Sisters, we are needy at all times. We never wake up
   in the morning but we need strength for the day--and we never go to bed
   at night without needing Grace to cover the sins of the past. We are
   needy at all periods of life. When we begin with Christ, in our young
   days, we need to be kept from the follies and passions which are so
   strong in giddy youth. In middle age our needs are still greater, lest
   the cares of this world should eat as does a canker. And in old age we
   are still needy and need Preserving Grace to bear us onward to the end.
   So needy are we that even in lying down to die, we need our last bed to
   be made for us by Mercy and our last hour to be cheered by Grace. So
   needy are we that if Jesus had not prepared a mansion for us in
   eternity, we would have no place to dwell! We are as full of needs as
   the sea is full of water! We cannot stay at home and say, "I have much
   goods laid up for many years," for the wolf is at the door and we must
   go out a-begging again! Our clamorous necessities follow us every
   moment and dog our heels in every place. We must take the two
   adjectives and keep them close together in our confession--"I am poor
   and needy."

   II. The second part of the subject is much more cheering. It is A
   COMFORTABLE CONFIDENCE--"yet the Lord thinks upon me."

   A poor man is always pleased to remember that he has a rich relative,
   especially if that rich relative is very thoughtful towards him, finds
   out his distress and cheerfully and abundantly relieves his needs!

   Observe that the Christian does not find comfort in himself ' 'I am
   poor and needy." That is the top and bottom of my case. I have searched
   myself through and through and have found in my flesh no good thing.
   Notwithstanding the Grace which the Believer possesses and the hope
   which he cherishes, he still sees a sentence of death written upon the
   creature and he cries, "I am poor and needy." His joy is found in
   Another! He looks away from self to the consolations which the eternal
   purpose has prepared for him.

   Note well who it is that gives the comfort--"The Lord thinks upon me."
   By the term, "the Lord," we are accustomed to understand the glorious
   Trinity. "The Lord thinks upon me," i.e., Jehovah, the Father, the Son
   and the Holy Spirit. O beloved Believer in Christ, if you have rested
   in Jesus, then the Father thinks upon you! Your person was in His
   thoughts--

   "Long before the sun's refulgent ray Primeval shades of darkness
   drove."

   He regarded you with thoughts of boundless love before He had fashioned
   the world, or wrapped it up in swaddling bands of ocean and of clouds.
   Eternal thoughts of love went forth of old towards all the chosen--and
   these have never changed. Not for a single instant has the Father ever
   ceased to love His people! As our Lord said to His disciples, "The
   Father Himself loves you." Never has He grown cold in His affections
   towards you, O poor and needy one! He has seen you in His Son. He has
   loved you in the Beloved. He has seen you--

   "Not as you stood in Adam's fall, When sin and ruin covered all, But as
   you'll stand another day, Brighter than sun's meridian ray." He saw you
   in the glass of His eternal purpose, saw you as united to His dear Son
   and, therefore, looked upon you with eyes of complacency. He thought
   upon you and He still thinks upon you. When the Father thinks of His
   children, He thinks of you. When the great Judge of All thinks of the
   justified ones, He thinks of you. O Christian, can you grasp the
   thought? The Eternal Father thinks of you! You are so inconsiderable
   that if the mind of God were not Infinite, it would not be possible
   that He should remember your existence! Yet He thinks upon you! How
   precious ought His thoughts be to you! The sum of them is great, let
   your gratitude for them be great, too!

   Forget not that the great Son of God, to whom you owe your hope, also
   thinks of you. It was for you that He entered into suretyship
   engagements before the earth was. It was for you, O heir of Heaven,
   that He took upon Himself a mortal body and was born of the virgin! It
   was for you that He lived those 30 years of immaculate purity that He
   might weave for you a robe of spotless righteousness! For you poured
   down His bloody sweat in the garden! He thought of you, He prayed for
   you in Gethsemane. For you were the flagellations in Pilate's Hall, the
   mockeries before Herod and the blasphemous accusations at the judgment
   seat of Caiaphas! For you the nails, the spear, the vinegar and the,
   "Eloi, Eloi, lama Sabachthani?"'Jesus thought of you and died for you
   with as direct an aim for your salvation as though there had not been
   another soul to be redeemed by His blood! And now, though He reigns
   exalted high, and you are "poor and needy," yet He still thinks upon
   you! The Glory of His present condition does not distract His thoughts
   from His Beloved. He is lovingly thoughtful of you. When He stands up
   to intercede, your name glitters on His priestly breastplate with the
   names of the rest of the chosen. He thinks of you when He prepares
   mansions for those whom His Father has blessed. He looks forward to the
   time when He shall gather together in one all things in Heaven and in
   earth that are in Him--and He counts you among them. Christian, will
   not this Truth of God comfort you--that the Son of God is constantly
   thinking upon you?

   We must not forgot the love of the Spirit, t o whom we are so
   wondrously indebted. He cannot do otherwise than think upon us, for He
   dwells in us and shall be with us. As He dwells in us, He cannot be
   unmindful of us. It is His office to be the Comforter, to help our
   infirmities, to make intercession for us according to the will of God.
   So let us take the three thoughts and bind them together. "I am poor
   and needy, but I have a part in the thoughts of the Father, of the Son
   and of the Holy Spirit." What fuller cause for comfort could we
   conceive?

   We have answered the question "who?"Let us now turn to "what?""The Lord
   thinks upon me." He does not say, "The Lord will uphold me, provide for
   me, defend me." The declaration that He "thinks upon me" is quite
   enough. "Your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of these
   things," says our Lord, as if it was quite clear that for our Heavenly
   Father to know, is for Him to act. We poor short-sighted and
   short-armed creatures often know the needs of others and would help if
   we could, but we are quite unable--it is never so with God--His
   thoughts always ripen into deeds. Perhaps, O tried Believer, you have
   been thinking a great deal about yourself of late--about your many
   trials-- so that you lie awake nights, mourning over your heavy cares!
   "Alas," you think, "I have no one to advise me and sympathize with me."
   Let this text come to you as a whisper and you paraphrase it into a
   soliloquy, "I am poor and needy, this is true, and I cannot plan a
   method for supplying my needs, but a mightier mind than mine is
   thinking of me--the Infinite Jehovah thinks of me! He sees my
   circumstances, He knows the bitterness of my heart, He knows me
   altogether and His consideration of me is wise, tender and gracious.
   His thoughts are wisdom itself! When I think, it is a poor, little,
   weak, empty head that is thinking! But when Godthinks, the gigantic
   mind which framed the universe is thinking of me!"

   Have you ever attained to the idea of what the thoughts of God must be?
   That pure Spirit who cannot make mistakes, who is too wise to err, too
   good to be unkind, thinks upon us! He does not act without
   deliberation, does not come to our help in inconsiderate haste, does
   not do as we do with a poor man when we throw him a penny to be rid of
   him, but He thoughtfully deals with us. "Blessed is he that considers
   the poor," says the Psalmist. Those who take up the case of the poor,
   weigh it and remember it, are blessed! That is what the Lord does for
   us--"yet the Lord thinks upon me." He considers my case, judges when,
   and how, and after what sort it will be most fitting to grant me
   relief. "The Lord thinks upon me." Beloved, the shadow of this thought
   seems to me like the wells of Elim, full of refreshment, with the
   seventy palm trees yielding their ripe fruit! You may sit down here and
   drink to your full--and then go on your way rejoicing! However poor and
   needy you may be, the Lord thinks at the present moment upon you.

   We have spoken upon who and what--now we will answer the inquiry, How
   do we know that the Lord thinks upon us? "Oh," say the ungodly, "how do
   you know?" They are very apt to put posing questions to us. We talk of
   what we know experimentally and again they cry, "How do you know?" I
   will tell you how we know that God thinks upon us. We knew it, first of
   all, when we had a view of the Redeemer by faith, when we saw the Lord
   Jesus Christ hanging upon a tree for us, and made a curse for us. We
   saw that He so exactly suited and fitted our case that we were clear
   that the Lord must have thought and well considered it. If a man were
   to send you a sum of money tomorrow, exactly the amount you owe, you
   would be sure that someone had been thinking of you. And when we see
   the Savior, we are compelled to cry out, "O Lord, You have given me the
   very Savior I needed! This is the hope which my despairing soul
   required and this the anchorage which my tempest-tossed boat was
   seeking!" The Lord must have thought upon us, or He would not have
   provided so suitable a salvation for us.

   We learn anew that the Lord thinks upon us when we go up to the House
   of God. I have heard many of you say, "We listen to the preacher and he
   seems to know what we have been saying on the road. The Word comes so
   home to our case that surely God has been hearing our very thoughts and
   putting into the mind of the preacher a word in season for us." Does
   not this show how the preacher's Master has been thinking of you? Then
   sit down and open the Bible, and you will frequently feel the words to
   be as much adapted to your case as if the Lord had written them for you
   alone! If, instead of the Bible having been penned many hundreds of
   years ago, it were actually written piecemeal to suit the circumstances
   of the Lord's people as they occur, it could not have been written more
   to the point! Our eyes have filled with tears when we have read such
   words as these, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."--"Fear not,
   you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel; I will help you, says the
   Lord."--"He shall deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven there
   shall no evil touch you."--"Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall
   you dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed." And such like
   which we could quote by the hundreds! We feel that the Lord must have
   thought about us, or He would not have sent us such promises.

   Best of all, when we sit quietly at the feet of Jesus, in the power of
   the Spirit of God, in solemn silence of the mind, then we know that the
   Lord thinks upon us, for thoughts come bubbling up, one after another,
   delightful thoughts, such as only the Holy Spirit could inspire. Then
   the things of Christ are sweetly taken by the Spirit and laid home to
   our hearts. We become calm and still, though before we were distracted.
   A sweet savor fills our heart like ointment poured

   forth--it diffuses its fragrance through every secret corner of our
   spirit. Sometimes our soul has seemed as though it were a peal of bells
   and every power and passion has been set a-ringing with holy joy
   because the Lord was there! Our whole nature has been as a harp
   well-tuned, and the Spirit has laid His fingers among the strings and
   filled our entire manhood with music. When we have been the subjects of
   these marvelous influences and gracious operations, if any had said to
   us that the Lord did not think of us, we would have told them that they
   lied, even to their face, for the Lord had not only thought of us, but
   spoken to us and enabled us, by His Grace, to receive His thoughts and
   to speak again to

   Him!

   The Lord not think of us? Why, we have proof upon proof that He does!
   He has very remarkably thought upon us in Providence. Should some of us
   relate the memorable interpositions of Providence on our behalf, they
   would not be believed--but they are facts for all that. William
   Huntington wrote a book called, "The Bank of Faith," which contains in
   it a great many very strange things, no doubt. But I believe hundreds
   and thousands of God's tried people could write "Banks of Faith" too,
   if it came to that, for God has often appeared for His saints in such a
   way that if the mercy sent had been stamped with the seal of God,
   visible to their eyes, they could not have been more sure of its coming
   from Him than they were when they received it! Yes, answered prayers,
   applied promises, sweet communing and blessed deliverances in
   Providence all go to make us feel safe in saying, "yet the Lord thinks
   upon me."

   We will close our meditation upon this text when we have remarked that
   those who are not poor and needy may well envy in their hearts those
   who are. You who have abounding riches, who feel yourselves to be
   wealthy in goodness. You who feel as if you could afford to look down
   upon most people in the world. You who are so respectable, decorous and
   deserving, I beseech you to note well that the text does not say a word
   about you! You are not poor, and you are not needy, and you do not
   think upon the Lord--and the Lord does not think upon you. Why should
   He? "The whole have no need of a physician." Christ did not come to
   call you. He said He came to call not the righteous, but sinners to
   repentance. Shall I tell you that it is your worst calamity that you
   have such an elevated idea of your own goodness? Whereas you say, "We
   see," you are blindest of all! And whereas you boast that you are
   righteous, there is in that self-righteousness of yours the very worst
   form of sin, for there is no sin that can be greater than that of
   setting up your own works in competition with the righteousness of
   Christ! I bear you witness that you have a zeal for God, but not
   according to knowledge, for you, being ignorant of the righteousness of
   Christ, go about to establish your own righteousness-- and your efforts
   will end in terrible disappointment!

   I pray you to cast away all reliance upon your own works. Tear up, once
   and for all, all that you have been spinning for these many years--your
   tears, your prayers, your church attendance, your chapel attendance,
   your confirmation, your baptism, your sacraments--have done with the
   whole rotten mass as a ground of confidence! It is all quicksand which
   will swallow you up if you rest upon it. The only rock upon which you
   must build, whoever you may be, is the rock of the finished work of
   Jesus! Come, now, and rest upon God's appointed Savior, the Son of God,
   even though you may not have felt your own poverty and need. If you
   mourn that you do not mourn as you should, you are one of the poor and
   needy, and are bidden to turn your eyes to the Lamb of God and live!

   I would to God that all of us were poor and needy in ourselves and that
   we were rich in faith in Christ Jesus! Oh, that we had done both with
   sin and with self-righteousness, that we had laid both those traitors
   with their heads on the block for execution! Come, you penniless
   sinners, come and receive the bounty of Heaven! Come, you who mourn
   your need of penitence, come and receive repentance and every other
   heavenly gift from Him who is the sinner's Friend, exalted on high to
   give repentance and remission of sins! But you must come empty-handed
   and sue, as the lawyers say, in forma pauperis, for in no other form
   will the Lord give ear to you! "He has put down the mighty from their
   seats, and exalted them of low degree. He has filled the hungry with
   good things; and the rich He has sent away empty."--

   "'Tis perfect poverty alone

   That sets the soul at large!

   While we can call one mite our own,

   We have no full discharge.

   But let our debts be what they may,

   However great or small--

   As soon as we have nothing to pay,

   Our Lord forgives us all!"

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM40.

   If our hearts are in trouble, as his was who wrote this Psalm, may we
   be able to act as wisely and as well as he did, and so obtain a like
   deliverance!

   Verses 1, 2. I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined unto me,
   and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of
   the miry clay, andset my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
   God does nothing by halves. If He brings people up out of their sorrow,
   or their sin, He takes care that their feet shall not slip back again
   into the mire. David says, "He set my feet upon a rock, and established
   my goings." What a blessing that last little sentence contains! God
   does not set our feet upon a rock, that we may afterwards slip off and
   finally fall, but He establishes our goings, He makes our footing firm,
   so that we do not ever perish!

   3. And He has put a new song in my mouth.Such a song as I never sang
   before, for I had never been in such trouble before and, therefore, had
   never experienced such a deliverance as the Lord has now granted to me.
   "He has put a new song in my mouth." With that sweet songstress, Ann
   Letitia Waring, I can say--

   "My heart is resting, O my God,

   I will give thanks and sing.

   My heart is at the secret source

   Of every precious thing.

   And 'a new song' is in my mouth,

   To long-loved music set--

   Glory to You for all the Grace

   I have not tasted yet."

   3, 4. Even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall
   trust in the LORD. Blessed is that man that makes the LORD his trust,
   and respects not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. You know
   that this Book of Psalms has many benedictions in it. It begins with a
   blessing upon "the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
   nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the
   scornful." But here it has a blessing for the Believer--"Blessed is
   that man that makes Jehovah his trust." As for the proud and the false,
   may God preserve us from ever paying any regard to them for, if not,
   they will lead us into some such mischief as that into which they have
   themselves fallen.

   5. Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done.
   "Your works in creation, in Providence and in Redemption."

   5. And Your thoughts which are to us-ward. God is always thinking of
   His people, and His thoughts are wise, and kind, and practical, for
   when He thinks of doing anything for us, He speedily performs it.

   5. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto You: if I would declare and
   speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.Think of that! You
   cannot count God's thoughts of you. If He were only to think of us
   once, in tender mercy, that one thought would run on throughout
   eternity, for He does not retract either a thought that He thinks or a
   word that He utters! Instead thereof, one gracious thought is followed
   by another, swiftly as the beams of light flash from the sun, so that
   it is impossible for us to number them. Thus thinking and writing
   concerning God's work, the Psalmist is carried away, as it were, into a
   vision in which he sees Christ and speaks in the name of Christ.

   6. Sacrifice and offering You did not desire. The blood of all the
   bullocks, and rams, and lambs offered in sacrifice had possessed no
   real efficacy in putting away sin. They had no virtue except as types,
   symbols and prophecies of the one great Sacrifice that was to come!

   6. My ears have You opened. Probably alluding to the ceremony of boring
   to the doorpost the ears of those who determined to remain as slaves to
   their masters when they might have gone free. So Christ was ready to be
   the Servant of His Father, and the Savior of sinners. He voluntarily
   undertook to bear all that this would involve.

   6-8. Burnt offering and sin offering have You not required. Then said
   I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight
   to do Your will, O My God: yes, Your Law is within My heart. He was the
   Perfect One, coming

   to do God's will for us and offering Himself as the truest Sacrifice
   that could ever be presented to God. So we may rightly picture our
   great Lord and Master uttering these words when He came to die.

   9, 10. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I
   have not refrained My lips. O LORD, You know. I have not hid Your
   righteousness within My heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and
   Your salvation: I have not concealed Your loving kindness and Your
   truth from the great congregation. With what indefatigable earnestness,
   with what indomitable courage, with what sacred faithfulness, with what
   holy tears did Christ preach the Truth of God while He was upon earth!
   He was always the Prince of Preachers, so, when He was dying, He could
   plead this fact with His Father.

   11, 12. Withhold not You Your tender mercies from Me, O LORD: let Your
   loving kindness and Your truth continually preserve Me. For innumerable
   evils have compassed Me about Was it not so with Christ? The evils of
   sinners seemed to compass Him about and, like wild beasts, to hunt Him
   to the death! And the saints of God, in their measure, may often use
   similar language to that which the Psalmist here prophetically used
   concerning Christ.

   12. My iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to
   look up; they are more than the hairs of my head: therefore my heart
   fails me.We could not apply this language to the Savior except as we
   spoke of the sins of ourselves and others which were laid upon Him, but
   we may apply this language, and ought to apply it to ourselves when we
   are sorely beset by sin. Have not even you, who are the dear children
   of God, sometimes felt as if you could not look up and dared not look
   up? You were so desponding, so downcast that there seemed no help for
   you, even in God. Your sins, your cruel sins, your fierce tormentors
   were and, therefore, your heart failed you.

   13-15. Bepleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
   Let them be ashamedand confounded together that seek after my soul to
   destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me
   evil Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me,
   Aha, aha. So will it surely be, for the enemies of God's people are
   God's enemies--and Satan and all his host who seek to destroy the souls
   of the Lord's chosen shall be driven backward and covered with eternal
   shame!

   16. Let all those that seek You rejoice and be glad in You: let such as
   love Your salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified. Are you
   content to bear your present trial, dear Friend, so that God may be
   magnified? Are you willing to be reduced by infirmities and weaknesses
   to a condition of absolute nothingness, so long as God is exalted? If
   you are, then you will be saying continually, "Let God be magnified in
   my weakness, let His majestic love be seen amid all my sorrows."

   17. But I am poor and needy. A double expression for a poverty that is
   doubly felt--perhaps poor in temporals-- certainly poor in spirituals!
   Poor and full of needs, yet with nothing to supply those needs. "I am
   poor and needy."

   17. Yet. That is a blessed, "yet."

   17. The Lord thinks upon me. That is enough for me! If He thinks of me,
   His thoughts are so kind, generous, wise and practical that He will
   help me!

   17. You are my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God
     __________________________________________________________________

The Sparrow and the Swallow

   (No. 3041)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY 30, 1870.

   "Yes, the sparrow has found a house, and the swallow a nest for
   herself, where she may lay her young, even Your altars, O LORD of
   Hosts, my King, and my God." Psalm 84:3.

   WHEN David was far away from the services of the Tabernacle, he envied
   the birds that had built their nests near the sacred shrine. And
   Christians, in like manner, when they are debarred from the holy
   associations of Christian fellowship and united worship, always sigh
   over the lost privilege of meeting with their Brothers and Sisters in
   Christ. With even greater emphasis we may say that when a Christian
   loses the realization of the Presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
   the "Minister of the sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle, which the
   Lord pitched, and not man," then it is, above all other seasons, that
   he sighs and cries for a renewal of communion with Christ. We would
   envy any, however poor and insignificant they may be, who can maintain
   unbroken fellowship with their Lord. And when it falls to our lot,
   through our own sin or neglect, or in the inscrutable wisdom of Divine
   Sovereignty, to be, for awhile, spiritually in the dark, seeking our
   Savior and not finding Him, we would willingly take the place of the
   godly captive pining in the persecutors' dungeon, or of the dying yet
   enraptured saint, if we could but once again enjoy the Presence of our
   Master! This was David's state of heart when he languished for the
   ancient Tabernacle services or, more probably, when he longed for that
   communion with his Lord which, perhaps, had been suspended together
   with his attendance upon the public worship of God's House. It was
   then, as I believe, that he was inspired to pen this "Pearl of the
   Psalms," including the verse upon which I am going to try to speak,
   praying that the Holy Spirit may enable me to utter words which shall
   be to the profit of both hearers and readers.

   It seems that the birds which came to David's mind when he wrote this
   Psalm had found two things--houses for themselves and nests for their
   young. And these two things Christians find in Christ and also, in a
   certain sense, in the assemblies of His servants for public worship in
   His name.

   I. First, I want to remind you that CHRISTIANS FIND IN CHRIST AND, IN A
   CERTAIN SENSE, IN THE ASSEMBLIES OF THE FAITHFUL, HOUSES FOR
   THEMSELVES.

   Turn to the text and read--"Yes, the sparrow has found a house." And
   upon that our first question shall be, What were those creatures that
   there found a house?

   Well, they were only sparrows, yet they found a house near the altars
   of God and, therefore, David envied them. Now, sparrows are very
   insignificant things. ' 'Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings?"
   said Christ to His disciples. And you and I, dear Friends, when we
   really know ourselves as we are in God's sight, are led to feel that
   because of our sin, we are even more insignificant than sparrows--and
   to realize that our being blotted out of the universe would be rather a
   gain to it than a loss! What unworthy creatures we see ourselves to be
   when once God pours upon us the bright light of His Word! Then we think
   that any mercy is too great and any blessing is far too good for us to
   receive. Yet, as the sparrows were permitted to find their house under
   the eaves of God's ancient Tabernacle, we, insignificant and worthless
   as we are, may come and build under the shelter of God's great House of
   Mercy. There we may find a safe refuge from every danger, a perfect
   security for all time, and even for all eternity. O you who think
   yourselves despised and forgotten, remember that the sparrow has found
   a house on God's altar! Come, then, and see if there is not also space
   there for you! Jesus said, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast
   out." And the Apostle Paul, writing under Inspiration, says, "God has
   chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God
   has chosen the weak

   things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base
   things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen,
   yes, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: that
   no flesh should glory in His Presence." Therefore, poor despised one,
   though you feel yourself to be a nobody, come and welcome to the
   Savior, come to Him with cheerful confidence, for He will not, He
   cannotreject you!

   The sparrows were not only very insignificant, they were also very
   needy. They needed a house, they needed a place of shelter--and they
   found it at God's altar. How needy, also, are we! Though we are
   insignificant, our needs are anything but insignificant. How much we
   need! Who can tell what we do not need? Were it not for God's super
   abounding mercy, we would all be in Hell. Were it not for His
   unspeakable goodness, we would, this day, have no hope of Grace, no
   prospect of pardon, no assurance of a holy, happy hereafter in Heaven.
   Our needs are countless--every moment brings a fresh one--and all the
   supplies of the past and the present are not sufficient to meet the
   voracious demands that will come upon us in the future. The sparrow,
   needy creature that she was, having nothing to bring to God's House,
   found there a house freely given to her and, you needy souls, the
   infinite supply of Divine Mercy in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
   is freely given to you! You need not bring anything with you when you
   come to Christ, only come and trust Him, and all your needs shall be
   supplied. Whatever your souls can need to bear them safely through the
   troubles of earth-- and bring them to the bliss of Heaven--you shall
   have it freely given to you if you do but come flying with the wings of
   faith to find a house and a home in Jesus Christ. At the great altar
   where Christ was offered as the one Sacrifice for sin forever, the most
   needy soul that ever lived on the face of the earth will find a hearty
   welcome!

   These sparrows were uninvited guests, yet they found a house and took
   possession of it. And they were never blamed for doing so. But in this
   verse David seems to commend them--he certainly envied them. But, my
   dear Hearers, you who have never come to the Lord Jesus Christ are not
   uninvited guests. The Gospel invitation rings through this building
   every Sabbath day--

   "Come and welcome, Come to Jesus, Sinner, come!"

   We not only invite you, but we earnestly press you, in Christ's name,
   to come and put your trust in His great Sacrifice, assuring you that if
   you do, you shall find an everlasting and blessed home for your souls.
   So, as the sparrows came to God's House without an invitation, will not
   you come to Christ with one? They were bold enough to find a house when
   no man bade them do so. Therefore will not you be bold enough, trembler
   though you are, to take what Divine Mercy freely proffers to you? Do
   you not remember how Agur commends the spider as being "exceedingly
   wise" because she "takes hold with her hands and is in kings' palaces"?
   No one ever asked the spider to come into the palace. She was a
   loathsome creature, quite out of place in a palace, and her web would
   mar the beauty of the place, yet the spider knew by instinct that a
   storm was coming on and so sought shelter in the king's palace. There
   was Solomon's fine house of the forest of Lebanon, and the spider said
   within herself, "Why should not I, spider though I am, abide here?" So
   she crept about till she found a window open and in she slipped and
   made herself at home by taking hold with her hands, first of one wall
   and then of another, till she found herself at ease! There came along
   one who said, "Let that spider and her web be removed. What business
   has she to be here?" But Solomon thought otherwise, so the spider is
   immortalized in this Book of Proverbs, because of her wisdom in taking
   hold with her hands even on the walls of a royal palace!

   O Soul, perhaps you are consciously to yourself as loathsome as that
   spider was, and the King's great House of Mercy seems too fair a place
   for you to enter! You ask, unbelievingly, "Shall I ever be made a
   saint? Shall I ever be cleansed from sin? Shall I ever be taken up to
   dwell with the great King in Heaven?" Talk not so, but rather see
   whether you cannot find an entrance into the King's palace! And if you
   can find it, go in! Surely there is a window open for you where it is
   written by the King, Himself, as I reminded you just now, "Him that
   comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." Then there is another window
   where the King has hung up the invitation, "Come unto Me, all you that
   labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Does not that
   invite you? Come in, poor spider-sinner! Take hold of the walls of
   Christ's great House of Love and Mercy, and I can assure you that my
   royal Master will not be angry with you! But when He sees you there, He
   will immortalize you in His "Book of Life." You shall have a name and a
   place there and He will think you wise, not intrusive, in daring to
   believe Him and to come into His palace, spider-sinner as you are! He
   delights to have great things thought of Him--and if you will but think
   great things of His love and mercy, I will guarantee you that you

   will never think thoughts that shall outstrip the reality, for what He
   has said is true, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My
   ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."

   Let us learn, then, from the sparrow finding her house near to God's
   altar, that although we are inconsiderable and insignificant, although
   we are full of needs and although we may even deem ourselves to be
   uninvited, yet we are at liberty to come to the Savior and find in Him
   our eternal dwelling place!

   Next, what does the text tell us that these sparrows did?We should
   learn something from that.

   The text says, "Yes, the sparrow has found a house." Then, first of
   all, she looked for it The sparrow needed a house and she searched to
   see where she could find it. One great reason why many do not find
   salvation is because they do not look for it. Many of them do not even
   know that they need it or, if they know it as a matter of doctrine,
   they do not believe it so as to look for it and appropriate it as their
   own. I feel persuaded that no man ever did sincerely seek salvation,
   through Jesus Christ, without finding it. I do not believe that among
   all the lost, there is one who will be able to tell the Lord that he
   honestly and earnestly sought His mercy, yet did not obtain it. If you
   have not found Christ, my dear Hearer, it is because you have not
   sought Him, for He said, "He that seeks, finds, and to him that knocks
   it shall be opened." I grant you that the blessing may be delayed for
   awhile--you may be some time in finding peace, perhaps through your
   ignorance, or through some cherished sin that you have not given
   up--but if you truly come to the Throne of Grace and cry in real
   earnest for mercy, as surely as God is in Christ Jesus, He will stretch
   out His silver scepter toward you and you shall touch it and find Grace
   in His sight! Be encouraged, O you Seekers, to persevere in your search
   for salvation! Ask that the aid of the Holy Spirit may be given to you
   that you may wisely and rightly seek the way of faith and may speedily
   find it!

   Further, "the sparrow found a house"--then there was a house for her,
   or she could not have found it A traveler in Palestine writes in his
   journal that as he was wandering among the ruins on the site of the
   Temple at Jerusalem, he noticed a little bird--known in the Hebrew as
   tzippor, or sparrow--fly out of a crevice between two great stones
   where the mortar or cement had been removed--and he thought at once of
   these words, "The sparrow has found a house." That is just what David
   meant. The sparrow no doubt found a little vacant place, just what she
   wanted, and in she went and there was her "house" ready-made for her!
   And let me say to you, O Seeker, that if you would find rest in Christ,
   there is rest prepared for you in Him! He who has prepared your heart
   to seek Him has prepared that which you would gladly find. It is not
   for you to make a salvation for yourself--your salvation is finished
   and you have but to find it. It is not for you to make an Atonement for
   yourself--the one Atonement for sin was made, once and for all, on
   Calvary! It is not for you to make a righteousness for yourself--the
   righteousness that Christ Jesus worked out for you is perfect and you
   may not add thereto any supposed righteousness of your own. If you are
   an honest seeker after Christ, for you there is already prepared by
   those dear hands that once were pierced for you, the salvation that
   shall lift you up from the depths of sin to the heights of Glory! As
   Bunyan said--"Does not your mouth water as you hear this? Do you not
   say, 'Is all this really prepared for me?' Then why do I not have it?"
   Ah, why not, why not indeed? In my Master's name, I assure you that
   "all things are ready" for all who will seek Him, for every soul that
   will trust Him. If you seek Him not. If you will not believe, there is
   no mercy for you! But if you seek heartily and trustfully, you shall
   assuredly find it, for it was prepared for you long ago by Him who has
   gone to Heaven to prepare Glory, having already prepared Grace for you!

   "Yes, the sparrow has found a house." That also means that when she had
   discovered it, she appropriated it. There was the little place, so snug
   and cozy, just on the warm side of the Tabernacle where the South wind
   would blow and she would be shielded from the cold--and in went the
   little bird. She had found it and she took care to make it her own by
   personal appropriation. Now, we may find Christ, in a sense, so as to
   know much about Him, to read about Him, to hear about Him and even to
   understand much about Him, yet not truly find Him. The root of the
   matter is to get Christ for yourself! In this respect, you must be
   selfish and you can thus be selfish without being sinful. You must
   personally lay hold of Christ if you would be saved!

   One who desired to teach a little girl this lesson, tried to do it when
   the child was waiting upon him while he was ill. "Please pour out my
   medicine, Jane," said the sick man. And when it was poured out, he said
   to her. "Now, Jane, take that medicine for me." "O Sir!" she said. "I
   would willingly do it, if it were the right thing to do, but the
   medicine would not do you any good if I took it." "You're right," he
   said, "and as I must personally take the medicine before it can do me
   good, my child, you must personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
   or else another person's faith will do you no good." The idea of
   anything like sponsorship in religion--one person vowing and promising
   certain things for another--is utterly without any foundation in the
   Word of God! Religion is wholly and only a personal thing--you must
   repent for yourself, believe for yourself and lay hold on Christ for
   yourself! It would have been no benefit to that little bird if all
   other sparrows had found houses for themselves if she, herself, had
   been driven about, shelterless, in the storm. Oh, no--she must have a
   house for herself, "and the swallow a nest for herself," where she
   might lay her young.

   You and I, dear Friends, will be wise if we do as this sparrow did, for
   she found a house for herself because she looked for it. She found it
   because it was already there for her and she found it by appropriating
   it so that it became her very own. Thus may we appropriate the Lord
   Jesus Christ--by an act of faith--and so make Him our very own!

   I have, at various times, learned some lessons concerning living by
   faith. A friend frequently drives me through the streets of London and,
   one day, when all the cabs and wagons seemed to leave us no room to
   move, I said to him, more than once, "I am afraid we shall have an
   accident." When I had said that to him, perhaps for the third time, he
   put the reins into my hand and said, "Here, if you cannot trust me,
   drive yourself." Suppose God should say to us when we fear that we are
   getting into difficulties, "If you cannot trust Me, arrange for
   yourselves"? What a position we would be in then! If He left the reins
   in our hands for a single hour, we would be like the one who sought to
   drive the chariot of the sun and set the world a-blaze! When we leave
   all in the hands of God--and we must leave all there whether we are
   willing or not--then we can sing that sweet little song which Luther
   said that the sparrows always sing--

   "Mortal, cease from care and sorrow, God provides for the morrow." May
   we all be able to sing that little song and to sing it to ourselves,
   too!

   We will further prolong this simile by noticing what the sparrow found.

   "Yes, the sparrow has found a house." The word is a very simple one,
   but there is much meaning in it. And when we find, in the Lord Jesus
   Christ, a house for our souls, we find safety in Him, even as the
   sparrow found safety in her "house." When the stormy wind blew all
   around her, the sparrow felt safe in her house hard by the altar in
   God's ancient Tabernacle. And when the storm of conscience beats upon
   us, we feel safe in our hiding place in the altar where Jesus suffered
   for us! And when the last dreadful storm of Divine Judgment shall come,
   we shall be safe beneath the shelter of the Atonement that He offered
   upon Calvary. He that believes in Jesus is safe forever! When the earth
   and all its works are burned up and the heavens shall pass away with a
   great noise, no hurt shall come to the man to whom Jesus is "a hiding
   place from the wind and a shelter from the tempest."

   Next to safety, we find rest in Christ. The soul that is out of Christ
   knows not what true rest is, but, "we who have believed do enter into
   rest."--

   "'Tis done! The great transaction's done! I am my Lord's, and He is
   mine!"

   My salvation is finished, my sins are pardoned, my security is
   established by the promise and oath of God, Himself, ratified by the
   blood of the Everlasting Covenant. If this is your happy condition, you
   can enjoy the blissful sleep of the Beloved of the Lord, "and the peace
   of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and
   minds through Christ Jesus." Just as the little sparrow felt perfectly
   at rest when she had entered her "house" in the Tabernacle, so do we,
   come what may, enjoy complete, absolute, unbroken rest when we have
   truly believed in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. "You will keep him
   in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You: because he trusts in
   You!"

   Further, a house is a place of abode. The sparrow lived in her house in
   the Tabernacle--and he who finds the Lord Jesus Christ, finds in Him a
   spiritual'abode--he lives in Christ. He has heard his Master's blessed
   command, "Abide in Me," and he desires to dwell there, hard by the
   pierced heart of Jesus. My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, you have not
   a mere temporary lodging place, out of which you may someday be driven
   back into the cold world where you used to live. That would be a poor
   prospect for us--but we need not anticipate such a sad future, for we
   can say with Moses, "Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all
   generations." And He always will be, blessed be His holy name!

   Once more, a house is, or ought to be, a place of delight When a man
   reaches his home, he is at his ease and can unwind himself. If he is
   not happy at home, where can he be happy? The little sparrow, when it
   reaches its home, is perfectly content. Its day's work is over, its
   day's needs are supplied, and it chirps its evening song of joy. So
   when we make our abode in Christ our soul is filled with delight! We
   have a bliss that is not only full to the brim, but it even

   overflows. Truly happy are those who are Christ's servants, thrice
   happy are they who are looking alone to His Cross for their salvation!

   But the point upon which David seemed to lay the greatest emphasis was
   that the sparrow's house was near to God's earthly dwelling place and
   oh, when we abide in Christ, how near we are to God! You remember how
   Christ prayed to His Father concerning His disciples, "That they all
   may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You...I in them, and
   You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one." No nearness
   imaginable can be greater than Christ's nearness to His Father! Yet, as
   we are in Christ, we are, in His Person, as near even as He is!

   I can only spare a minute or so for the secondary meaning which may be
   found in our text. In a certain sense, Christians, like the sparrow,
   find a house in the assemblies of the saints.

   When the sparrow went to her house in the Tabernacle, she never needed
   to be driven there, but she went there of her own accord. And I trust
   that when we came up to our solemn assemblies, we need nothing to
   compel us to come, but that our own delightful remembrances of
   fellowship with God, in seasons past, make us long for the renewal of
   such seasons again and again! I hate to see people going to any place
   of worship as if they were being marched off to jail. But I rejoice to
   see them come up to the House of God with alacrity and holy joy, and
   with fleet footsteps as if they were delighted to think that the time
   had come when they could once more unite with their Brothers and
   Sisters in worship before the Throne of the Most High God. If you, like
   the sparrow, have found a house in God's House, you will go there with
   joy! And when you are there, you will be happy to be there. And when
   the service is over, you will wish that it had to begin again and you
   will long for the time when you will reach that city of God--

   "Where congregations never break up, And Sabbaths have no end!"

   There are many poor people here who scarcely ever have any peace except
   when they are sitting in this House of Prayer and who find here the
   richest enjoyments they ever know. I know some of God's afflicted
   children who have but little sacred mirth except when the holy hymn
   goes up in glorious peals to Heaven and they can join in it--

   "Then they forget their pains a while,

   And in the pleasure lose the smart." Cultivate more and more your love
   for the assemblies of the saints! We have no reverence for bricks and
   mortar, stones and wood, glass and iron--we do not believe in the
   sanctity of any one place above others--but we have a reverence for the
   living Temple of God, built up of living men and living women whose
   hearts are sanctified by the Holy Spirit! And we can say of their
   assemblies--

   "I have been there, and still will go, 'Tis like a little Heaven
   below"--

   and we can also say--

   "There my best friends, my kindred dwell, There God my Savior reigns."

   The sparrow has found a house and we too have found a house, where
   God's people meet, and of that house we sing--

   "Here do I find a settled rest,

   While others go and come, No more a stranger or a guest, But like a
   child at home."

   II. After a man is himself saved, his first anxiety, if he is a father,
   will be concerning his children. The next clause of the text will be
   helpful to such parents--"The swallow (has found) a nest for herself,
   where she may lay her young, even Your altars, O Lord of Hosts, my
   King, and my God." Every Christian should think that what is good for
   himself is good for his children! He who does not labor and pray for
   the salvation of his own offspring has good reason to doubt whether he
   knows the Grace of God, himself. Believing parents cry, with Thomas
   Hastings--

   "God of mercy, hear our prayer

   For the children You have given!

   Let them all Your blessings share,

   Grace on earth, and bliss in Heaven."

   Children should early be brought to the House of God! To keep to the
   figure of the text, THE ASSEMBLIES OF THE SAINTS SHOULD BE A NEST FOR
   OUR LITTLE ONES.

   First, because they are safe there. At any rate, you need not fear that
   they will be hurt when they are where God is being worshipped in spirit
   and in truth. In the Sunday school, under the loving tuition of godly
   people, they will be safe. We never feel any need to ask whether they
   will be in a place of danger when we take them with us where Christ is
   preached and His Gospel is simply, earnestly and faithfully proclaimed.
   Bring, then, your children with you to the House of God, for it is a
   place where you may expect that your little ones, as well as
   yourselves, will be blessed.

   The "swallow" is expressed, in the Hebrew, by a word which signifies
   liberty. It is the bird of freedom. It is not to be caged. Even a whole
   continent does not give room enough for its rapid, untiring flight over
   hill and dale, mountain and plain, so it crosses the ocean and flies to
   other lands far away. The swallow is the bird of liberty, yet David
   writes of one that found her nest where she might lay her young at
   God's altar--and if you want your children to be truly free, train them
   in the fear of God and the love of His Truth. The spirit of liberty
   will always be maintained in this land as long as we have the open
   Bible, the family altar and the training up of our children in the way
   that they should go. But take these things away and Popery will again
   enchain our country and bring back the curse from which our fathers set
   free our land even at the cost of their own lives!

   Further, the nest is a place of delight to the little birds and so
   ought the House of God to be to children. And so it would be if
   preachers would always seek to make their language simple and would
   illustrate what they have to say so that the children can comprehend
   it. It is a bad sign concerning any man's ministry when the children do
   not understand him! I always look upon it as being one of the highest
   compliments I ever receive when I see some little boy's or girl's
   bright eyes, that are all too apt to wander here and there, fixed upon
   me while they seem to be drinking in what I have to say. There is a
   great lack in the preachers of the present day in this respect--we need
   to have the Master's words to Peter, "Feed My lambs," as well as the
   command, "Feed My sheep," more and more impressed upon our hearts! May
   you, Beloved, find a place of prayer for your children where it shall
   be their delight to go with you and to join intelligently in the
   worship of God.

   When you take them there--as I have already hinted to you, they are in
   the way that the blessing is often given. I do not say that they will
   all be saved through coming to God's House, but if they are there with
   you, He who called you by His Grace, may also call them. And that
   ever-blessed Spirit who led you to find the Savior may also lead them
   to Him. Bring them to Bethesda, "the house of mercy," and pray to
   Christ to say to them, as He said to the impotent man, "Will you be
   made whole?...Rise...and walk." At any rate, do not let your children
   miss the blessing through neglecting to use the means which the Lord
   has blessed to you and to many others, both old and young.

   Your children, if you take them with you to God's House, will be like
   the swallows in this respect, they will be pretty sure to return to the
   nest even if they leave it for awhile. Though the swallows may fly over
   the deep blue sea to the lands that are far away, yet when the next
   season comes, they find their way back again to the old nest and home.
   So, though some of our sons and daughters may grow up and leave the
   House of God for awhile, they cannot altogether forget it. The
   recollection of their father's prayers and of their mother's tears will
   follow them wherever they roam. Refrain your eyes from weeping, dear
   mothers! Your sons and daughters shall come back again! Possibly, when
   you sleep beneath the clods of the valley, they will recollect what
   they heard when, as children, you took them with you to the House of
   God. Words that have been forgotten for 50 years may yet ring in their
   souls and lead to their eternal salvation! At any rate, as the swallows
   found a nest for their young at God's altar, mind that you Christian
   parents make the House of God your children's house. Associate them, as
   far as you can, with all that is going on there so that they shall feel
   at home when they go with you to the place where you worship the Lord
   and serve Him.

   But after all it is not the main thing to merely bring our children to
   the House of God--oh, that we could bring them to Christ! That is where
   we long to lay our young, for only there shall they be truly safe,
   happy and blessed! Christian parents, can you rest content as long as
   your children are unconverted? I am ashamed of you if you can! Do you
   say that you hope they will be converted in future years? I hope so,
   too, but are you not concerned that they are out of Christ now? Perhaps
   you remind me of what I said just now, that your instruction may be
   blessed to their salvation long after you have been called Home. Yes, I
   recollect that I said that and I do not wish to withdraw what I
   said--yet I would like to ask whether you are willing to run the
   fearful risk of your children dying unsaved? The objective of parents,

   preachers and teachers should be that children should be saved while
   they are children! That while they are yet young their names should be
   enrolled in the army of the Church militant!

   How can we lay our children before Christ, as the swallow laid her
   young before God's altar? I answer, first, by prayer. The Lord will
   hear our prayers for our children as He heard our fathers' prayers for
   us. Example will also help toward the end we have in view--godly
   example at home. And personal precept will also help. We must talk to
   our children, one by one, alone, about their souls. I am afraid that
   some of you parents do not do this. But if you do not see your children
   grow up to do what is right, you will have to blame yourselves because
   you never personally pleaded with them to flee from the wrath to come.
   I know that the words of my father with me, alone, when he prayed for
   me and bade me pray for myself--not to use any form of prayer, but to
   pray just as I felt and to ask from God what I felt that I really
   needed--left an impression upon my mind that will never be erased. I
   have heard of an idiot who was one day scouring a brass plate to get
   the name out. But the more he scoured, the more clearly it shone! And
   when the devil tries to erase the impressions made upon my mind and
   heart by my mother's tears and my father's prayers, he is as much like
   an idiot as he possibly could be, for, let him scour as he may, those
   impressions will never be removed, but will continue to shine yet more
   brightly!

   Do, dear Christian parents, resolve that if your children perish, it
   shall not be through any fault of yours. But why should they perish?
   Why should I suppose that such a thing is possible? "The promise is
   unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as
   many as the Lord our God shall call." Did not Paul and Silas say to the
   jailer at Philippi, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be
   saved, and your house"? Do not be content with being saved yourselves!
   Say, "No, my Master, I cannot be put off with half Your promise--it is,
   'and your house,' and I would gladly have it all, and see my
   children--and if I live long enough, their children, too, all
   encompassed in the arms of Your love and all of them saved." Brothers
   and Sisters, if you are like the sparrow, and have found a house, now
   be like the swallow and find not only a nest for yourself, but a place
   where you may lay your young, even God's altar upon which Christ
   offered His great atoning Sacrifice.

   I wonder what other birds are represented here. Alas! Alas! I fear that
   I am addressing some who will not heed what I have been saying. They
   are not like the sparrow and the swallow. Perhaps they are like the
   eagle that was far too ambitious to think of building her nest anywhere
   near God's altar--too fond of soaring and struggling, too fond of high
   and lofty things. But there will come a time when the pride of man
   shall be laid low. Beware, beware, you who are like the eagle! Possibly
   there is one here who is like the vulture--far too foul to think of
   building in God's House! He is fond of everything that is
   unclean--wicked amusements and sinful pleasures, which are sadly
   miscalled, "pleasures." Ah, the time will come when sin will be as
   bitter to you as now it is sweet! Yes, and far more so, for it "will
   eat as does a canker." When you come to the dregs of the cup of sinful
   pleasure, you shall find that there is Hell in them and that forever!
   Or, perhaps there is one here who is like the cormorant who will not
   build on God's House because he is far too greedy after the world,
   seeking to gather gold and to amass property. Ah, Sir! Have you never
   heard of the rich fool whose soul was required of him the very night on
   which he boasted of his wealth? Play not you the fool, but be willing
   to leave all those things and come and seek enduring riches!

   If you do not care for your own souls, it must seem to you an idle task
   for me to talk to you about your children, yet I will venture to say to
   any unconverted person here that it will increase his misery
   intolerably to see his children lost through his own example! If you
   must perish--if you are resolved to perish--why need you drag your
   child down with you? If you must drink, why need that boy of yours be
   taught the base habit into which you have fallen? If you will swear, do
   not let your child hear you. I would not have you swear at all, but if
   you will do so, why should your child learn from you to curse and
   blaspheme God? O Sirs, you will find it dreadful enough to perish,
   yourselves, but to bring down one, two, three--I know not how many
   children you have--to bring them down, one after the other to that same
   place of awful and eternal misery--what a terrible increase to your own
   wretchedness! You could not look at your dear child's face and then do
   him harm. I know that you would not touch him so as to break a bone, or
   do his body any injury. No, you pat his curly head, and say, "God bless
   you!" Yes, but why do you then do injury to his soul by your evil
   example? Why do you take your boy where you know he will learn no good
   and much harm? How dare you take him to places where the amusement is
   defiled and defiling, lascivious, unclean? No, if you really mean it
   when you say, "God bless my boy!" then live so that you will bless him
   by your example! May you be saved yourself, and then may you be a true
   parent.

   to your children for immortality as well as for time! May these words
   abide with you and God bless them, so that we and our children may meet
   in Heaven, for Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Parable of the Ark

   (No. 3042)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 30, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, FEBRUARY
   17, 1856.

   "And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh,
   wherein is the breath of life." Genesis 7:15.

   CHRIST always taught by parables. Hence the popularity and the power of
   His teaching. The masses never were and perhaps, never will be, able to
   receive instruction in any other way than by parabolic illustrations.
   He who would be a successful minister must open his mouth in parables.
   He who would win the hearts of the multitude must closely imitate his
   Master and preach in parables which all men can understand. I believe
   there are few living men who are able to devise a parable. Those who do
   possess this rare ability are very scarce, indeed. Nor do I profess to
   belong to the honorable confraternity. I have sometimes endeavored to
   fashion a parable and though I found it easy, at times, to manufacture
   a figure, yet a parable I can by no means make. I am happy to say it is
   not required of me to do so, for God's Word, if it is rightly used, is
   suggestive of a thousand parables! And I have no reason to fear that I
   shall be short of subjects for preaching when I am able to find such
   parables as I do in God's Word.

   I shall preach to you this evening a parable. It shall be the parable
   of the ark. While I do so, you must understand that the ark was a real
   thing--that it was really made to float upon the waters and carry in it
   Noah and his family and "two and two of all flesh." This is a fact, not
   a myth. But I shall take this real fact and use it as a parable. Making
   the ark represent salvation, I shall preach to all who are within sound
   of my voice the parable of the ark. The ark, which saved from the
   floods of water, is a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ as the means of
   salvation, by whom multitudes of all flesh are preserved and saved from
   perishing in the floods of eternal Perdition!

   I. First, then, in working out this parable I shall remark that THERE
   IS BUT ONE MEANS OF SALVATION.

   No, Sir, but it does notsay any such thing! It says they are a
   multitude that no man can number who have been elected! And who knows
   but what you are one of them? Calvinism gives you ten thousand times
   more reason for hope than the Arminian preacher who stands up and says,
   "There is room for everybody, but I do not think there is any special
   Grace to make them come. If they won't come, they won't come, and that
   is the end of it. It is their own fault and God will not make them
   come." The Word of God says they cannot come, yet the Arminian says
   they can. The poor sinner feels that he cannot, yet the Arminian
   declares positively that he could if he wanted to. And though the poor
   sinner feels sometimes that he would if he could, and groans over his
   inability, this blind guide tells him it is all nonsense! Whereas, it
   is, in truth, God's own work. You must feel it and you may plead
   against yourself on account of it, but you shall come for all that. He
   will not plead against you, but He will put strength in you. There is
   more hope for you in the pure Gospel of the blessed God than there is
   in those fancies and fictions of men which are nowadays preached
   everywhere, except in a few places where God has reserved unto Himself
   a people who have not bowed their knee to the Baal of the age!

   III. In the third place, note that THE ARK WAS A SAFE REFUGE.

   Noah was commanded to make an ark of gopher wood and, lest there should
   be any leakage in it, he was commanded to "pitch it within and without
   with pitch." The ark had no harbor to go to and we never read that Noah
   called up Shem, Ham and Japheth to work at the pumps, nor yet that they
   had any, for there was not a leak in her. No doubt there were storms
   during that year, but we do not hear that the ship was ever in danger
   of being wrecked. The rocks, it is true, were too low down to touch her
   bottom, for, "fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the
   mountains were covered." Rising 27 feet above the loftiest mountains,
   she had no quicksands to fear--they were too deep below her keel. But
   of course she was exposed to the winds. Sometimes the hurricane might
   have rattled against her and driven her along. Doubtless, at another
   time, the hail beat on her top, and the lightning scarred the brow of
   night, but the ark sailed on, not one was cast out from her, nor were
   her sailors wearied with constant pumping to keep out the water, or
   frequent repairs to keep her secure. Though the world was inundated and
   ruined, that one ark sailed triumphantly above the waters! The ark was
   safe and all who were in her were safe, too.

   Now, Sinner, the Christ I preach to you is such a refuge as that. His
   Gospel has no flaw in it. As the ark never sank, and the elements never
   prevailed against it, so Christ never failed. He cannot fail. All the
   principalities and powers are subject to Him. Those who are in Christ
   are sheltered from every storm. They shall never perish, neither shall
   any pluck them out of His hands. Remember that God gave the pattern and
   Noah perfected the work of the ark before a single fountain of the
   great deep was broken up, or one drop of the desolating storm fell from
   the vengeful clouds. And it is not less true that our glorious Lord was
   set up in the counsels of eternity, a perfect Christ before the clouds
   of vindictive wrath began to brew on account of man's iniquity! And His
   mighty work of mediation was finished before your poor soul was invited
   to take shelter in Him. Oh, I think as the angels looked out of the
   windows of Heaven upon the swelling tide and saw how securely the ark
   rode upon its surface, they never doubted that all who were inside were
   as safe as the ark itself--and is there any reason to doubt that those
   who are in Christ are as safe as Christ? "They that trust in the Lord
   shall be as Mount Zion which cannot be removed, but abides forever."
   They that trust in the Lord are blessed! They are like trees planted by
   rivers of water--their leaf shall not wither and whatever they do shall
   prosper. If you once come to Jesus and trust in Him, there is no fear
   of your sinking! There will be storms, tempests will beat around
   you--these you will be sure to have--but you will be too high up ever
   to strike on the rocks. If you are once on board the Good Ship of
   Salvation, you will be lifted up too high above the floods to be
   swallowed in the quicksands. With cheerful heart I can "commend you to
   God, and to the word of His Grace." Christ will preserve you!

   Believers, could you give up to anybody the Doctrine of your Security
   in Christ? No, I know you could not. Touch one of my Brothers or
   Sisters in the Lord who attends this Chapel on that point and you will
   soon get your answer. I have sometimes heard disputes outside the
   chapel door, when some who do not believe that Truth of God, have been
   disputing it, and I have felt confident that I might leave its defense
   in your hands. There are mighty men of valor among you who are not
   ashamed to uphold the whole counsel of God, even as I am constantly
   anxious to declare it!

   IV. Now I go to another part of the parable. The creatures in the ark,
   of course, needed light--but it is a singular thing that THERE WAS ONLY
   ONE WINDOW IN THE ARK.

   In the 16th verse of the 6th Chapter we read, "A window shall you make
   for the ark." I have often wondered how all the creatures could see
   through one window, but I have not wondered what was meant by it, for I
   think it is easy to point the moral. There is only one window whereby
   Christians ever get their Light of God. All who come to Christ and
   receive salvation by Him are illuminated in one way. That one window of
   the ark may fitly represent to us the ministry of the Holy Spirit There
   is only one Light which lightens every man who comes into the world, if
   he is lightened at all. Christ is the Light and it is the Holy Spirit
   of truth by whom Christ is revealed. Thus we discern sin, righteousness
   and judgment. No other conviction is of any real value. As we are
   brought under the teaching of the Spirit, we perceive our guilt and
   misery--and our redemption and refuge in Christ! There is only one
   window to the ark. "Why," says one, "there are some of us who see light
   through one minister and some through another." True, my Friend, but
   still, there is only one window. We ministers are only like panes of
   glass and you can obtain no light through us but by the operations of
   the same Spirit that works in us. And even then, the different panes of
   glass give different shades of light. There you have your fine polished
   preacher--he is a bit of stained glass, not very transparent, made to
   keep the light out rather than to let it in! There is another pane. He
   is a square-cut diamond. He seems an old-fashioned preacher, but he is
   a bit of good glass, and lets the light through. Another one is cut
   after a more refined style, but he is plain and simple, and the light
   shines through him. But there is only one light and only one window! He
   who reveals to us "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
   the face of Jesus Christ" is the Holy Spirit. We have only one
   Instructor if we preach the Truth of God. One Brother may be preaching
   this night in the Church of England, another may be holding forth the
   Word of God among the Independents and others among the Baptists, but
   they have only one Spirit if they are taught of God. There was only one
   window to the ark and though there were first, second, and third
   stories to the ark, all saw out of one window. And the little saint who
   is on the first story, gets light through the one window of the Spirit.
   And the saint who has been brought up to the second story, gets light
   through the same window. And he who has been promoted to the loftiest
   story has to get light through the same window, too! There is no other
   means of our seeing except through the one window made to the ark, the
   window of the Holy Spirit! Have we looked through that? Have we seen
   the clear blue sky above us? Or have we known that when our eye of
   faith was dim and we could see nothing at all, still our Master was at
   the helm and would preserve us through all our darkness and
   difficulties?

   V. Now, if you will read the chapter (Gen 6) attentively, you will find
   it said, "ROOMS shall you make in the ark" (Gen 6:14).

   When I read that, I thought it would serve for a point in the parable,
   seeing that it may teach my dear friends that they are not all to be
   put together--in the ark, rooms were made. Those who lived in one room
   did not stand or sit with those who lived in another--but they were all
   in the same ark. So I have sometimes thought--"There are our Wesleyan
   friends, some of them love the Lord. I have no doubt they are in the
   ark, though they do not occupy the same apartment as we do. There are
   our Baptist friends who love the Lord--we welcome them in our room.
   Then there are our Independent friends, those also love the Lord. They
   are in another room and our Presbyterian and Episcopalian Brothers and
   Sisters--in all these various sections are some who are called of God
   and brought into the ark--though they are in different rooms." But,
   Beloved, they are all in one ark. There are not two Gospels. As long as
   I can find a man who holds the same Gospel, it does not matter what
   order of church government he adopts if he is in Christ Jesus--it is of
   little consequence what room he is in so long as he is in the ark. If
   he belongs to those of whom it is written, "By Grace are you saved,
   through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God," I
   will call him Brother.

   We cannot all expect to be in one room. The elephants did not live with
   the tigers and the lions did not lie down with the sheep. There were
   different rooms for different classes of creatures--and it is a good
   thing there are different denominations, for I am sure some of us would
   not get on very comfortably with certain denominations. We would need
   more liberty than we could get in the Church of England. We would want
   more freedom than we could get with the Presbyterians. We would need
   more soundness of Doctrine than we could get with the Wesleyans, and we
   would want a little more brotherly love, perhaps, than we could get
   with some of the Strict Baptists. We could not entirely agree with them
   all. And happy is he who can sometimes put his head into one room, and
   sometimes into another, and can say to all who love the Lord Jesus
   Christ, "Grace be with you all, so long as you are but in the Ark."

   VI. But though there were many rooms in the ark, I want you to notice
   that THERE WAS ONLY ONE DOOR.

   It is said, "And the door of the ark shall you set in the side
   thereof." And there is only one door into the ark of our salvation, and
   that is Christ. There are not two Christs preached--one in one chapel
   and another in another. "If any man preach any other Gospel unto you
   than that which you have received, let him be accursed." There is but
   one Gospel. We take in the righteous out of all sections, but we do not
   take in all sections! We pick out the godly from among them all, for we
   believe "there is a remnant according to the election of Grace" in the
   vilest of them. But still, there is only one door--and "he that enters
   not by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and
   a robber."

   There was only one door to the ark. Some animals, like the giraffe,
   whose heads are higher than those of other animals, might have to bow
   their necks to go in by the same entrance as the waddling ducks which
   naturally stoop, even as they enter a barn. And so the lofty ones of
   this world must bend their stiff necks and bow their proud heads if
   they would enter into the Church by Christ. The swift horse and the
   slow-paced snail must enter by one door. So too the scribes and
   Pharisees must come in the same way as the publicans and harlots or be
   forever excluded. All the beasts God had chosen went in by the one
   door--and if any had stood outside and said, "We shall not enter in
   that way," they would have been standing outside till the flood
   overtook and destroyed them, for there was only one door. There is only
   one way of salvation and there is only one means of getting into
   it--"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be

   saved." But "he that believes not," whoever he may be, must "be
   damned." There is no hope of any other way of salvation! He that comes
   in by the door shall be saved--and Jesus says, "I am the door."

   VII. Proceeding in the parable, you will notice that THIS ARK HAD
   SUNDRY STORIES IN IT. They were not all of one height--there were
   lower, second and third stories.

   This is, to me, a figure of the different kinds of Christians who are
   carried to Heaven. There is my poor mourning Brother who lives in the
   bottom story. He is always singing--

   "Lord, what a wretched land is this!" He lives just near the keel, on
   the bare ribs of the ark. He is never very happy. At times a little
   light reaches him from the window, but generally he is so far from the
   light that he walks in darkness and sees very little, indeed. His state
   is that of constant groaning--he loves to go and hear " the corruption
   preachers? He revels with delight in the deep experience of the tried
   family of God. He likes to hear it said, "We must, through much
   tribulation, enter into the Kingdom of God." If you paint the Christian
   life as a very gloomy one, he will like your picture, for his is
   gloomy, indeed. He is always poring over texts such as this, "O,
   wretched man that I am!" He is down in the lower story of the ark. But
   never mind-- he is in the ark, so we will not scold him, though he has
   little faith and very much doubt. "With lower, second, and third
   stories shall you make it." There is one of our Brothers who is up a
   little higher and he is saying, "I cannot exactly say that I am safe,
   yet I have a hope that my head will be kept above the billows, though
   it goes hard with me at times. Now and then, too, the Lord bestows
   'some drops of Heaven' upon me. Sometimes, I am like the mountains of
   Zion, where 'the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.'"
   He is in the second story, but he is no safer, though he is happier,
   than the man on the ground floor! All are safe so long as they are in
   the ark! Yet, for my part, I like the uppermost story best. I had
   rather live up there where I can sing, "My heart is fixed, O God, my
   heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise." I love the place where
   the saints are "teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and
   hymns and spiritual songs."

   I confess that I am obliged to go down to the lower story sometimes,
   but I like running up the ladder to the third deck, yet I am no more
   safe when I am in the top story than I am when I am in the bottom one.
   The same wave that would split the ship and drown me, were I in the
   lowest story, would drown me if I were in the highest. However high
   some of us and, however low others of us may be, the same vessel bears
   us all, for we are one crew in one boat--and there is no dividing us.
   Come, then, my poor desponding Hearer, is that your place, somewhere
   down at the bottom of the hold, along with the ballast? Are you always
   in trials and troubles? Ah, well, fear not, so long as you are in the
   ark! Do not be afraid. Christ is your strength and righteousness. The
   ark was, in each and every department, a secure shelter to all who were
   shut in!

   "Ah," says one, "but I am down there, Sir, always at the bottom, and I
   am afraid the vessel will sink." Do not be so silly! Why should your
   heart beget such fears? I knew a man who went up the Monument and when
   he had got half way, he declared that it vibrated and was about to
   fall, and he would come down. But the Monument has not fallen. It is as
   safe as ever and if 50 like he, or fifty thousand, went up, the
   Monument would be just as firm! But some poor nervous Christians are
   afraid Christ will let them sink. A wave comes against the side of the
   ship, but it does not hurt the ship, it only drives the wedges in more
   tightly. The Master is at the helm--will not that assure your heart? It
   has floated over so many billows--will not that increase your
   confidence? It must, indeed, be a strong billow that will sink it! No,
   there never shall be such an one! And where, do you think, is the power
   that could destroy the souls who are sheltered in the Ark of our
   salvation? Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect, since
   Christ has died and God the Father has justified us? Happy assurance!
   We are all safe, so surely as we are in the Ark of the Covenant. The
   ark floated triumphantly on amidst all the dangers and when it finally
   rested on Mount Ararat and God spoke to Noah, saying, "Go forth of the
   ark, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you.
   Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you," the
   inventory was complete and all were safely landed. So, too, will Christ
   present the perfect number of all His people to the Father in The Last
   Day--not one shall perish!

   VIII. This brings me to notice, in the last place, THE DIFFERENT KINDS
   OF ANIMALS THAT ENTERED

   INTO THE ARK. Listen to the statement--"Of every clean beast you shall
   take to you by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are
   not clean by two, the male and his female."

   www.spurgeongems.org

   5

   This great ark was meant to save both clean and unclean beasts! In like
   manner, the great salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ is intended for
   sinners of all kinds, the clean and the unclean. There are some people
   in the world whom we may well reckon in the former class. They are in
   every way respectable. Their conduct in society is beyond
   reproach--exact in their commerce, they were never known to erase a
   figure in their account books--they would not defraud their neighbors,
   nor would they be so negligent of their fair fame as to do a disorderly
   action. Their character is so amiable that their mothers might regard
   them from childhood as almost without a fault. They have grown up to
   mature years without the hideous taint of immorality--their practice
   has been always akin to piety. Their zeal for the Law of God has been
   truly commendable so that Christ, Himself, might have looked on them
   and loved them, although He would have tenderly and pitifully
   admonished them as He said to the young man who came to Him, "One thing
   you lack." Yes, but the desolations of the flood are so universal that
   there is no escape except in the ark. The clean beasts must go into the
   ark to be saved--and there is not a soul among you so good, nor a
   character so clean--but you have need of Christ, whether you know your
   need or not! You may be ever so good and excellent but you will need a
   Savior. There is something about your character that is not clean. Your
   lives require purification which you can never find except in Christ.

   But then the unclean beasts went in likewise. Here is the opposite
   class. Are there not some of you, (we know there are), whose education
   from early childhood has been vicious--certainly not virtuous? From
   your earliest recollections you have gone into the paths of open
   profanity. You have dived into the kennel and have steeped yourselves
   up to the very lips in the gall of bitterness. You have been drunks,
   swearers, Sabbath-breakers and injurious. You have indulged in all
   kinds of iniquities. You are just the sort of persons we should liken
   to unclean beasts. Yes--then the ark was built on purpose for you, too!
   The most moral man will stand no better when he comes before God than
   you will. He must be saved just as you are. You must both be saved by
   the one common salvation, or not at all. There is but one Savior for
   all who are saved--there is but one Redemption for everyone of you who
   really is redeemed. There is but one ark for the clean and the unclean!

   "Ah," says someone, "I suppose, then, the unclean beasts come from the
   courts, the alleys and the filthy slums of the metropolis." Oh, no, not
   particularly so! We can find the unclean as plentifully in St. James's
   as in St. Giles's. There are some in what you call "the higher circles"
   who, from infancy, have reveled in vice. Soon did you learn to break
   the rule of your parents' authority. You laughed at your mother's
   tears, you sneered at your father's counsels--you drank up iniquity in
   your schooldays, as the greedy ox drinks up water. You made a boast of
   your wild riots. You tell of your wickedness, now, with an air of
   impertinent triumph. You brag of having sowed your wild oats. So
   infamous has been your career, in spite of good example and education,
   that I suppose, "Newgate" could hardly produce a class of unclean
   beasts more to be loathed than you are!

   Well, now, to each class of sinners I preach. If you feel and deplore
   your uncleanness, there is mercy for you, unclean as you are. I beseech
   you, come into the Ark and you will never be turned out! If God shall
   compel you to come as He did those creatures, He will never, never
   drive you away. The ark was for the unclean as well as for the
   clean--for the swine as well as for the sheep--for the poisonous asp as
   well as for the harmless dove--for the carnivorous raven as well as for
   the turtle-dove. All creatures came in--some of every sort. You swinish
   sinner, one of Satan's hogs, come in and you shall be safe! And you
   lamb-like sinner, gentle and mild, come in, for there is no other Ark
   for you, and you will be drowned unless you come in by the same door
   into the great Ark of salvation!

   Let us divide these creatures once more. There were creeping things and
   there were flying things. On the morning when the ark door was opened,
   you might have seen, in the sky, a pair of eagles, a pair of sparrows,
   a pair of vultures, a pair of ravens, a pair of hummingbirds, pairs of
   all kinds of birds that ever cut the azure, that ever floated on wing,
   or whispered their song to the evening gales. In they came. But if you
   had watched down on the earth, you would have seen come creeping along
   a pair of snails, a pair of snakes and a pair of worms. There ran along
   a pair of mice. There came a pair of lizards and in there flew a pair
   of locusts. There were pairs of creeping creatures as well as pairs of
   flying creatures. Do you see what I mean by that? There are some of you
   who can fly so high in knowledge that I should never be able to scan
   your great and extensive wisdom--and others of you so ignorant that you
   can hardly read your Bibles. Never mind! The eagle must come down to
   the door and the ant must go up to it. There is only one entrance for
   you all--and as God saved the birds that flew, so He saved the reptiles
   that crawled!

   Are you a poor, ignorant, crawling creature that never was
   noticed--without intellect, without repute, without fame, without
   honor? Come along, crawling one! God will not exclude you! I have often
   wondered how the poor snail crawled in, but I daresay he started many a
   year before! And some of you have started for years and still you keep
   crawling on. Ah, then, come along with you, poor snail! If I could just
   pick you up and help you on a yard or two, I would be glad to do it. It
   is strange how long you have been near to the Ark, but not yet in--how
   long you have been near the portals of the Church, but never joined it.

   Remark again, they all got in. Do not fear if you are, in your own
   esteem, a crawling reptile--you may have the lowest possible opinion of
   yourself--still come! Nobody forbids you to come, however mean you are!
   Yes, and the meaner you are, the more willing do I feel to invite you,
   for Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance!
   What a strange assemblage was there that morning! But Noah was
   positively commanded to bring all sorts of creatures into the ark. He
   might have thought some too vile and worthless to preserve, yet his
   orders were to bring them in. When Peter was commanded to preach the
   Gospel to the Gentiles, God showed him in a vision, "all manner of
   four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things,
   and fowls of the air," and said to him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat."
   "Not so, Lord," said Peter, "for I have never eaten anything that is
   common or unclean." And, lo, "the Voice spoke unto him again the second
   time, What God has cleansed, that call you not common." In Christ there
   are some out of every nation, kindred, tongue and people who shall be
   saved to the praise of God and the Lamb forever and ever!

   Moreover, it was a mysterious impulse by which God moved the creatures
   to come. The sight must have been imposing--the elephants, the camels,
   the giraffes, the rhinoceroses and all the huge creatures walking in
   side by side (as it were) with the timorous hares, the tiny mice, the
   lizards, ferrets, squirrels, beetles, grasshoppers and all such
   insignificant-looking little creatures. So it has been in the Church of
   Christ and so it shall be to the end of her history-- "As many as were
   ordained to eternal life believed," though their characters, by
   nurture, were as various as this globe has ever witnessed--rude as
   barbarism's foulest sink, or polished as Grecian culture ever knew!

   Now, dear Hearer, I do not care about asking you who you are, or what
   you are--that has nothing to do with me. What I ask you is--Are you in
   the Ark, or are you not? You are saying, perhaps, "Sir, I do not care
   for you--why should you enquire about my condition?" But there will be
   a day when you will be like those who spoke to Noah and said, "Go
   along, old graybeard--build your ark on the dry land, like a fool, as
   you are--build your ark there on the hillside where the waters cannot
   come. As for us, we shall eat and drink and if, tomorrow we die, what
   will it matter, for we have eaten and drunk the merrier while we have
   had the opportunity." In vain did Noah warn them that the waters would
   surely come. He seemed to them as one to mock, and they laughed at him.
   Even so, when I preached to you, this

   morning, of the Resurrection, [Sermon #s66, 67, Volume 2--THE
   RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.] some of you may have mocked and thought that
   I was but pursuing a wild reverie of imagination. Ah, but how different
   was their tune when the rain fell and "the same day all the fountains
   of the great deep were broken up"! They doubtless changed their notes
   when the clouds began to empty themselves in fury, when the very earth
   did crack, and its heart was dissolved and the mighty fluid gushed up
   to devour them all! Did they think Noah was a fool when the last man
   stood on the last mountaintop and cried in vain for help?

   I saw, some time ago, a picture which I think time will never erase
   from my memory. It was a picture of a man who had been climbing up to
   the top of the last mountain and the floods were coming around him. He
   had his old father on his back. His wife was clasping him round his
   waist and he had one arm round her. She held one child at her breast
   and with her other hand she grasped another. In the picture one child
   was represented as just letting go, the wife dropping and the father
   clinging to a tree on the top of the hill. The branches were breaking
   and it was being torn up by the roots. Such a scene of agony I never
   saw depicted before--yet such a scene was likely enough to have been
   real when the waters entirely covered the earth. They had climbed up to
   the top of the last hill--and now they sank. False hopes gave place to
   fell despair--and so it will be with you, you careless ones, unless you
   take shelter in the Ark!

   Do you ask me, "How can we do that?" You look anxious, some of you.
   Listen, then, while I finish, as I have often done before, with the
   simple statement which contains our authority to preach and your
   admonition to believe! Jesus said, "Go you into all the world and
   preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized
   shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned."
     __________________________________________________________________

Filling Up the Measure of Iniquity

   (No. 3043)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 8, 1871.

   "The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." Genesis 15:16.

   THE Amorites had indulged in the most degrading sin. God had observed
   this, but He did not at once execute vengeance upon them. He had
   determined that, as a nation, they should be destroyed and rooted out
   from under Heaven and that their land should be given to the seed of
   Abraham. But He tells Abraham that his seed must wait for it, for as
   yet the Amorites had not filled up the measure of their iniquity. It
   would take more than 400 years, during which time God's patience would
   wait while the Amorites continued to heap sin upon sin, iniquity upon
   iniquity, until they reached a certain point--and then God would bear
   with them no longer. When the Lord uttered the words of our text, the
   Amorites had not come up to that fatal point and, therefore, He did not
   at once mete out their punishment to them, for the measure of iniquity
   was not yet full.

   It is a well-known Truth of God that God has great long-suffering, but
   that there is a point beyond which even His long-suffering will not go.
   It has been so in the great judgments of God in the world. Before the
   days of Noah, men had revolted from God, but Noah was sent to them as a
   preacher of righteousness. And he did preach and the Spirit of God was
   with him. Yet, for all that, the antediluvian world turned not from its
   sin and when the 120 years had expired--but not till then--God opened
   the windows of Heaven and down came the deluge which destroyed the
   whole race with the exception of the eight souls who were preserved in
   the ark. Those old-world sinners had had 120 years for repentance, and
   120 years of earnest, faithful warning from holy Noah--and not till all
   those year's had expired did God's patience come to an end and His
   judgments begin.

   Remember also the case of the children of Israel in the wilderness.
   They were a rebellious people--constantly revolting, often
   murmuring--at one time setting up a golden calf in the place of the one
   living and true God--yet the Lord had long patience with them. His
   anger did sometimes wax hot against them, but Moses came in between
   them as a mediator and God postponed the punishment of His wayward
   people. But at last it seemed as though He could bear with them no
   longer, so He swore in His wrath, "They shall not enter into My
   rest"--and their carcasses fell in the wilderness till the track of
   Israel through the desert could be marked by the graves of the
   unbelieving nation--and there were funerals every day. It was this sad
   fact that caused Moses so mournfully to sing, in the 90th Psalm, "You
   carry them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning
   they are like grass which grows up. In the morning it flourishes, and
   grows up; in the evening it is cut down, and withers. For we are
   consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath are we troubled. You have set
   our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your
   Countenance. For all our days are passed away in Your wrath: we spend
   our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore
   years and ten; and if by reason of strength they are fourscore years,
   yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we
   fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? Even according to Your
   fear, so is Your wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may
   apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? And let it
   repent You concerning Your servants. O satisfy us early with Your
   mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad
   according to the days wherein You have afflicted us, and the years
   wherein we have seen evil." Not a man of all that generation, save only
   Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, was permitted
   to enter the promised land!

   You will also at once call to mind the history of the two nations of
   Israel and Judah in later years. They exceedingly provoked the Lord and
   their land was, therefore, invaded by their enemies--and many of the
   people and their rulers

   were carried into captivity. But God did not cast off His people, nor
   expatriate them from their highly-favored land till, by degrees, they
   had reached the climax of rebellion and idolatry. Then He delivered the
   chosen nations into the hands of their cruel adversaries. Israel was
   swept clean as a man's threshing floor when he has purged it. And as
   for the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, they ceased to dwell by the
   vine-covered hills of their own dear land, for they were carried away
   into captivity by the rivers of Babylon where they wept when they
   remembered Zion. God is indeed long-suffering, but there is an end,
   even to His long-suffering! The Jews in our Lord's day, and especially
   the scribes and Pharisees, were so obstinate and perverse that, at
   last, our Savior said to them, "Fill you up, then, the measure of your
   fathers." He had borne long with them and He still pleaded with them
   and wept over them--but at last, the nation as a nation, was given up
   to blindness and hardness of heart! The beautiful city of Jerusalem was
   destroyed and not one stone of the Temple was left upon another.

   I might, if it were necessary, say that a similar experience has
   befallen all the great nations of the earth, for all of them have been
   greatly sinful. The crimes of the Assyrian king and people brought that
   mighty empire to an inglorious end. Babylon sank, not so much beneath
   the power of the Medes and Persians as beneath the sins of Belshazzar
   and his blasphemous princes and lords and ladies! And the Persian
   Empire, in its turn, passed not away because of Alexander's valor so
   much as because the Medes and Persians were corrupt in the sight of the
   Lord. So was it with Greece--her idolatries and her filthinesses
   brought upon her the ruin which makes her at once the admiration of all
   lands for her artistic beauty and the detestation of all lands for her
   festering corruption and iniquity. As for the Roman Empire--who that
   reads the history of her rise and fall but knows that long before the
   city of Rome began to crumble and decay, her virtue had departed, her
   ancient valor had declined, licentiousness had reached an awful
   pitch--and then the Word of the Lord went forth that the iniquitous
   empire should be swept away? I might give modern instances of the
   working of the same Law, but I shall not. Certain is it that God has
   long patience with the various nations and tribes of men that keep on
   sinning against Him, but at last He utters that mysterious prophetic
   sentence (Isa 34:5), "My sword shall be bathed in Heaven." And then woe
   be unto the men or the nations whom He smites, "for it is the day of
   the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of
   Zion."

   When we speak of this great Law of God as it operates on a large scale
   among nations, many will admit the truth of it, but they are not so
   willing to admit the truth of it so far as it concerns themselves. I
   intend, therefore, to confine myself in this discourse to the great
   principle of my text as it can be applied to individuals. There is a
   fullness of the iniquity of every individualsinner in these days, just
   as there was a fullness of the iniquity of the Amorites in ancient
   times. And I will try to prove to you, first, that there is a time when
   the measure of a sinner's iniquity is not yet full. Secondly, that the
   measure ofhis iniquity is constantly being filled. And, thirdly, that
   the measure willsoon be full And I want you all solemnly and seriously
   to consider the question--What will happen then?

   I. First, then, THERE IS A TIME WHEN THE MEASURE OF A SINNER'S INIQUITY
   IS NOT YET FULL.

   There is a measure for all iniquity and every iniquity is put into that
   measure. Flatter not yourself, Sinner, with the false and foolish
   notion that your sin is forgotten. You may possibly forget it, but God
   never forgets. You may keep no record of your transgressions, but God's
   recording angel does not fail to write in His Book of Remembrance, and
   to engrave them as "with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever," as
   Job said concerning the preservation of his own words. All those sins
   of yours--the sins of your youth and of your manhood--are registered in
   God's Book. You shut your eyes, and--like the ostrich that has buried
   his head in the sand and, therefore, thinks itself secure because it
   cannot see the danger that threatens it--you delude yourself with the
   notion that because you have forgotten your sins, they have ceased to
   be, but it is not so! Though you should seek to hide your sins in a
   cleft among the snow on the top of the Himalayas, Jehovah would
   speedily bring them down from those lofty heights! And though you
   should attempt to bury them in the depths of the Atlantic, God would
   bring them up from the lowest ocean bed! Sin is an everlasting thing--
   unless it is put away by God, Himself, for the Lord Jesus Christ's
   sake--no grave in the world can hide it. No earthly sepulcher can
   conceal it from the all-seeing eyes of Jehovah. If buried for a while,
   there will be a resurrection of sin as well as of sinners--and what a
   dread procession of sin, iniquity, unrighteousness and transgression
   shall slowly march before your newly-awakened eyes, O unrepentant and
   unforgiven sinner, when your iniquities shall rise up in judgment
   against you to condemn you!

   Thus I have reminded you that there is a measure for all iniquity, but,
   happily, that measure is not yet full. That was a very remarkable
   vision that was seen by the Prophet Zechariah, "a woman that sits in
   the midst of the ephah." And the angel said, "This is wickedness. And
   he cast it into the midst of the Ephah," so that evidently the measure
   had not been full. And it is still true that there is a time when a
   sinner's measure of iniquity is "not yet full." Let me, however, also
   remind you it is only God's infinite mercy that permits a sinner to
   continue to live after he has committed even one sin. There is no
   reason why, upon the basis of Infallible Justice, a man should be
   allowed to sin up to a certain point. A single sin is the transgression
   of the Law of God--it is high treason against "the King eternal,
   immortal, invisible," and deserves to be punished. However much or
   however little we may have sinned, "every transgression and
   disobedience" ought to receive "a just recompense of reward," as in the
   days of which Paul wrote to the Hebrews. Apart from the Atoning
   Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is not one sinner living in
   the whole world who could stand before God! It is not justice, but
   boundless compassion and infinite pity which put a measure to man's
   iniquity and allows him to live on until he has reached that point--for
   sin is worthy of death in every case, and in any degree--so says the
   Word of the Lord.

   I must also remark that when we say that some sinners have not filled
   their measure of iniquity, it must not be imagined that the same
   measure of sin is to be filled up by every sinner The measures differ,
   but when any man has filled his own measure, be it a large one or a
   small one, then will God come to him in His wrath and punish him in His
   hot displeasure. Some great offenders like Pharaoh and Judas fill up a
   huge measure of transgression--some others, cut off in their earlier
   days, spend a hot and hasty manhood in sin and go to their doom before
   they have committed any notorious offenses against mankind in general.
   The measures differ in size, but still in each case it gets filled
   sooner or later. And then, woe, woe, woe unto the man whose measure of
   iniquity is full! It is through God's long-suffering that we are able
   to tell you this solemn Truth. I have reminded you already that if it
   were not for His long-suffering patience, there would not be such a
   point for sinners to reach, but their first sin would the crushing,
   final, fatal blow from the hand of Divine Justice! It is God's
   long-suffering that gives men space for repentance, that presents to
   them, under the Gospel dispensation, the proclamations of mercy that
   plead with them to turn from their sins and to lay hold on Eternal
   Life.

   Because of this, does anymore here wickedly say that as his particular
   measure is not yet full, he may still go on in sin? Ah, my Friend, you
   know not how small your measure may be, nor how soon it may be full!
   But suppose it is a great measure which is to be filled by you? Then
   the longer it is in getting filled, the heavier it will be when it is
   filled and the more terrible will be your eternal doom! Little comfort
   can any man ever derive from the fact that he is permitted to live long
   in sin, for he will have to endure forever the heavier punishment for
   the greater measure of guilt. Beware, beware, beware, you who would
   draw the wrong kind of consolation from the subject we are now
   considering, for there is no consolation in it for the willfully
   wicked--only sorrow, fear and trembling of heart! Here we sit or stand
   together in this House of Prayer--some of us saved by the Sovereign
   Grace of God and others, sitting side by side with us, only here
   because the measure of their iniquity is not yet full! Here is one who
   is 40 years of age, but his measure is not yet full--he shall live
   another year. Over there is one who is 60 years of age, but his measure
   of iniquity is not yet full--he shall yet see another decade of years.
   Yonder is one who is 70 and even his measure is not yet full, but it
   soon will be! Ah, and how short is the span of human life even when it
   is longest! And as I have already said, the heavier the sinner's
   measure that takes so long to get filled, the more overwhelming shall
   be the punishment that shall be meted out to such a sinner in the Great
   Day of account.

   When I have such a solemn theme as this, my words cannot flow freely
   from my lips. I wish that I could speak out the inmost emotions of my
   heart without even using my tongue, for my words fail to convey to you
   what I feel in the deepest recesses of my being. O impenitent Sinner,
   it is so sad to think that you are only sitting here because the
   measure of your iniquity is not yet full! If there were half-a-dozen
   persons together in a room and one of them was only there because the
   hour fixed for his execution had not yet come, I think that you would
   not take any particular interest in the other five individuals, whoever
   they might be, but all your thoughts would center upon that one man of
   whom you would say to yourself, sadly and sorrowfully, "He has been
   judged according to the law of the land. The death-sentence has been
   pronounced upon him and he is only spared because the clock has not yet
   struck and the bell has not yet tolled for him to go out to execution."
   You unbelievers are, according to God's Word, "condemned already"
   because you have "not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of
   God." Christians, do you know that such condemned persons are here and
   have you no heart of compassion for them? Children of God, do you know
   that some of your own sons and daughters are in this terrible position
   and yet have you no tears to shed on their account? O Preacher, can you
   stand here and talk so coldly upon such a theme as this when words of
   flame would be all too cold to express the horror that should fill your
   soul in view of such an assembly as this? Oh, that we had more tender
   hearts! For then should we more deeply pity those poor sinning souls
   whose iniquity is not yes full!

   II. With a heavy heart I must turn to my second point, which is that IN
   THE CASE OF EVERY UNCONVERTED SINNER, THE MEASURE OF HIS INIQUITY IS
   CONSTANTLY BEING FILLED.

   Every sin that he commits helps to fill up the measure of his iniquity
   and there is nothing that he can do without sin being mixed with it.
   Solomon says that "the plowing of the wicked is sin." That is to say
   even his common actions, in performing the ordinary avocations of his
   daily life, bring sin upon him! Solomon also said, "The sacrifice of
   the wicked is an abomination to the Lord," so that even when he
   pretends to do that which is right in the case of a Christian, he is
   still heaping up sin, filling up the measure of his iniquity!

   There are some persons who fill up their measure very quickly--wanton,
   dissolute, depraved sinners, they seem as if they could not heap up
   iniquity fast enough! They are so greedy that with both hands they
   labor to fill up the measure. They run, as Peter says, "to the excess
   of riot,"with body and with the soul apparently determined to go post
   haste to Hell. And if anything can be found by which they can quicken
   their speed to destruction, they seek it out and seem to prize it. Is
   it not strange that it should be so? Yet, in London, and I suppose it
   is the same elsewhere, anyone who walks along the streets for a little
   while will soon see evidences of the fact that there are many persons
   to whom the usual methods of going to destruction seem to be all too
   slow. I trust that if there are any young men here who are thus rapidly
   filling up their measure of iniquity, they will stop and think. My
   Friend, your candle will burn fast enough without your lighting it at
   both ends! You will ruin yourself fast enough without needing to heap
   up sin upon sin by becoming a drunkard and a gambler as well as profane
   and unchaste! O man, why are you so diligent to be your own
   destroyer?--

   "Sinner, oh why so thoughtless grown? Why in such dreadful haste to
   die? Daring to leap to worlds unknown, Heedless against your God to
   fly."

   Perhaps among the sins that fill up a man's measure very quickly, one
   of the chief is persecution of God's people. A man will bear many
   insults and even much injury to himself, but if you touch his children,
   then the color comes into his face and he is swift to avenge the wrong
   that has been done to them. So is it in the case of God's children and
   their Father! He said to Zion in Babylon, "He that touches you, touches
   the apple of My eye." If you want to be damned out of hand, become a
   persecutor of the saints, for that is the quickest way to Hell! When
   holy Wishart was chained to the stake, he pointed to the cardinal who
   was gloating over the spectacle and told him that God's wrath would
   shortly fall upon him--and so it came to pass, for God avenges His own
   elect--and sometimes does it very speedily. The sin of persecuting the
   Church of God is one which, perhaps more than any other, helps to fill
   up the measure of a sinner's iniquity!

   Another sin of a similar character is that of attending Gospel
   ordinances and yet despising them. The Lord will deal more leniently
   with those who are ignorant of the Gospel and have no opportunity of
   hearing it, than He will deal with you to whom the Gospel has long been
   familiar as a household word, yet in whom familiarity with it has only
   bred contempt. Christ has been knocking at the door of some of your
   hearts for many years. I can personally bear witness that the message
   of salvation has come to you in many forms and various ways. I have
   searched the Word of God with the view of finding the most impressive
   texts--and I have prayed to God to guide me to subjects which might
   savingly affect you. These topics have often affected my own heart
   while I have been preparing for the pulpit, yet, so far they have not
   affected your hearts--or at least not sufficiently to lead you to faith
   in the Lord Jesus Christ. Depend upon it, you sermon-hearers are
   bringing a curse upon yourselves by despising and refusing the blessing
   which has so long been made known to you in vain! God may well say, "I
   will not always send My servant to preach to those who judge themselves
   unworthy of Everlasting Life. Why should I cast my Gospel pearls before
   such swinish creatures? Why should I continue to call to those who will
   not heed My voice?" Well may He say, as He did of old, "Because I have
   called, and you refused; I have stretched out My hand and no man
   regarded; but you have set at naught all My counsel, and would none of
   My reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your
   fear comes." It is no small sin to have heard the Gospel and yet to
   have rejected it. You know how our Savior upbraided the cities wherein
   most of His mighty works were done because

   they repented not--"Woe unto you, Chorazin! Woe unto you, Bethsaida!
   For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre
   and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes!
   But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at
   the Day of Judgment, than for you."

   It is another great help in filling up the measure of iniquity when a
   man has had serious personal affliction, yet it has not softened, but
   rather has hardened him. You, my Friend, were laid low a little while
   ago. Was it a malignant fever, or some other dangerous disease that you
   had? Your relatives said, "He cannot recover," and you turned your face
   to the wall, in the bitterness of your spirit, for you feared that you
   would die, and you knew that you were unprepared to meet your God. You
   were glad enough if somebody would pray with you then! And, after a
   fashion, you shuffled into some sort of prayer of your own and you
   promised what you would do if the Lord would spare your forfeited life.
   But where are your good resolutions now? There are some of you who used
   to be Sabbath-breakers. And when you were likely to die, you said, "If
   God will but spare me, the shop shall be closed on His holy day." Yet
   you have opened it again though He spared you. You were a drunkard up
   to the time of your great illness, but you said, "If God will spare my
   life, I will never touch the intoxicating cup again." God did spare
   your life, yet you are as conspicuous a slave of drink as ever you
   were! And you have proved yourself to be a liar in the sight of God!
   Young man, you got into a sad trouble once, but God, by a very special
   Providential deliverance, helped you out of it and you then said, "I
   will walk more guardedly for the future." Yet you have gone back to the
   same sin, as the dog turns to his own vomit, "and the sow that was
   washed, to her wallowing in the mire." But God will not waste His pains
   on you much longer. A farmer plows his field and if it brings forth no
   harvest, he may plow it again, but he will not always go on plowing a
   field that is as barren as a rock. [See

   Sermon #2977, Volume 52--PLOWING A ROCK.] A gardener may come to a

   fig tree and if it bears no fruit, he may prune it and dig about it,
   and fertilize it, but he will not go on doing that year after year--he
   will at last say, "Cut it down; why cumbers it the ground?" And it must
   be so with you if you still remain impenitent after all God's dealings
   with you! By refusing to heed God's warning message which came to you
   in the chamber of affliction. By forgetting the gentle pressure of
   God's hand of mercy which raised you up to health and strength again,
   you are helping to fill up the measure of your iniquity!

   And let me further say that--and I know that my words will go home to
   some here--when a man has been subject to convictions--whether those
   convictions may be set down to an alarmed conscience, or to what I may
   call the secondary operations of God's Holy Spirit, I will not
   say--but, when a man has been the subject of convictions and has
   stifled them, it greatly adds to the measure of his guilt The other
   night a young man was in the street and a temptation was set before
   him--and he knew it to be a temptation. He stood still a while and
   thought within himself, "I know that this is a wrong thing for me to
   do. It would break my mother's heart if she knew that I committed this
   sin. And as for my father, I could never dare to look him in the face
   again if he knew that I had done this and, besides, I am an attendant
   at a place of worship and know that this is an evil thing--and that it
   might be my eternal ruin." Now, after that young man had weighed the
   matter, if he had deliberately chosen to commit that sin, there would
   have been ten times the guilt in it than there might have been in the
   case of another who was overtaken unawares by sudden temptation and had
   no time to consider what was the right thing for him to do. In
   proportion to the violence that a man has to do to himself in order to
   commit a certain transgression, the measure of his guilt may be
   estimated.

   I believe there are people here who, on many occasions, have sat and
   trembled at the Word of the Lord--and have been softened in spirit till
   they have wept in silence--and sometimes openly. And they have
   whispered to themselves, "We will really seek the great change. We will
   cry to God for help that we may repent of sin and believe in Jesus, as
   the preacher urges us." But on those steps outside they have met with
   some worldly companion and, while talking with him, all their good
   resolutions have melted away and the sinner who seemed to be impressed
   remains a sinner still! The one who appeared to be awakened a month ago
   is now a drunkard and the conscience that was thought to be getting
   tender six months ago, is fast becoming as hard as the nether
   millstone! These are dreadful facts, but they all go to show that a man
   may be--even in the House of Prayer, and under the means of
   Grace--continually filling up the measure of his iniquity. These are
   terrible Truths of God for me to have to preach, but it is necessary
   for them to be told. May you all feel the force of them and may God
   thus drive you to seek shelter in His Son who died upon the Cross of
   Calvary, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God."

   III. My third point is that THE MEASURE OF INIQUITY WILL ONE DAY BE
   FULL.

   It will take time to fill it, but it will be filled in due time and, at
   the rate at which some men go in sinning, they will soon fill up the
   measure of their transgression. The tares are green and God will not
   have them cut down yet, for He lets even the tares ripen. He allows
   even the poisonous fruit of evil to hang on the tree till it grows
   mellow and then it drops with its own weight. But the tares will ripen
   and the evil fruit will become mellow--and then will their end come.
   And it will take time for you sinners to ripen in sin, but you wil
   ripen, and then you will be shaken from the tree and this life shall
   know you no more.

   I want you unconverted ones to think for a minute or two how nearly
   full your measure probably is even now. Begin with your early childhood
   and think over your many acts of willful disobedience and sin. I cannot
   trace your whole life, but let me remind you of your early manhood. Is
   there nothing for you to be ashamed of and nothing for you to repent of
   there? I am sure that there are some here who cannot think of that
   period of life without blushing for very shame. Then think of the later
   days of your riper manhood. O Sirs, what heaps of sin are there! The
   measure of your iniquity must be nearly full. Do not forget, too, that
   we are usually very bad judges of our real state in the sight of God.
   The probability is that the measure of our iniquity is a great deal
   more full than we think it is. I hope none of you were ever bankrupts,
   but if you ever were insolvent I expect that when you actually came to
   look into your books, you found that you were much more deeply in debt
   than you ever thought that you were! It is a common thing for men who
   are in an unsound state in their business to fancy that their position
   is better than a rigid examination proves it to be. And I believe it is
   so in spiritual things with many of you. Take care, take care! You
   suppose that only the bottom of the measure is full as yet, but the
   recording angel sees that your iniquity is nearly up to the top! It is
   a very mournful reflection, dear Friends, that there may be some
   here--and that there probably are some here--who have only to commit
   one more sin to fill up the measure of their iniquity! One more lie and
   the measure is full! One more lascivious song and it is full. One more
   act of theft, one more drunken bout and it is full! I have known some
   people come here--and perhaps some such are now here--who have had
   delirium tremens It is a wonder that they were not cast into Hell
   then--a marvel of mercy that they were spared a little longer! But, the
   next time that happens to you, Sir, it may be a delirium that will
   never have an end! The next time you put that poison cup to your lips
   and dare to drink till you are drunk, you will drink yourself into
   eternal damnation! O beware, beware, BEWARE! It is not merely a man who
   speaks thus to you--there is a warning Voice from Heaven which is
   speaking to some people here through my lips. Stop, Sir, for if you
   take only one step more you will be plunged in eternal ruin! Do you ask
   what concern it is of mine whether you are lost or saved? It is as much
   my concern as it would be if I could save your temporal life if I saw
   you in danger! Much more would I desire to point out to you the danger
   of your immortal soul that you may, by God's Infinite Grace, be saved
   from spiritual and everlasting ruin!

   All this while there is one very sad but most true reflection that I
   must mention to you. It is this--while the unconverted are always
   putting more sin into the measure, it is not in their power to take out
   anything that is already in the measure. I can fill the ephah of my
   transgression, but I cannot empty it, and I cannot even diminish it.
   Somebody says to me, "Suppose, Sir, that I never sin again?" Well, what
   then? Even if you get no further into debt, that will not pay off the
   old score. "Then, Sir, what shall we do? Shall we stand here and weep
   over our sins--will not our tears wash them away?" No, though you shed
   a Niagara of penitential tears, there is no power in them to blot out a
   single sin! "But what if we perform many good works?" No, though you
   could fill an Atlantic with your good works, you would not have washed
   out the crimson stain of even one of your innumerable transgressions!
   No, you cannot take one sin out of the measure, though you can keep on
   putting in sin upon sin upon sin--and so the measure is being filled
   and it will soon be

   full.

   IV. So I close by asking you--what then?

   I was reading in the New Testament, the other night, and there were
   half-a-dozen words that impressed me with peculiar force. I think they
   are, on the whole, as dreadful as any words that were ever spoken. I
   may venture to say that even the Scripture, itself, contains no more
   terrible words than these which I am about to quote to you, yet they
   were spoken by the Lord Jesus, Himself--the loving, tender, gentle
   Jesus, who called the little children to Him. They are recorded in the
   8th Chapter of John' Gospel, the 21st verse. And then, as though one
   thunder-clap must follow another, they are repeated in the 24th verse.
   These are the words--

   "You shall die in your sins."

   Hear them again--"If you believe not that I am He, you shall die in
   your sins." I heard of a man who died in a ditch, but that is nothing
   compared with dying in the ditch of your sins! I heard of one who fell
   down dead in the street, but what is that compared with dying in sin?
   Some die starved, but that is nothing to dying in sin! Near my house,
   the other day, there was one who sat down to eat and some coals from a
   fire flew out and caught her clothes on fire--the people around her
   tore her clothes from her back, but she was so badly burnt that she
   died--but the flames of sin are worse than coals of the fire. "You
   shall die in your sins." I have no choice as to how or where I shall
   die except in this one respect--that I may never die in sin, with
   iniquity like the fabled poison shirt killing its unhappy wearer. He
   tried to tear it off and even tore away his flesh, but the poison burnt
   into his bones--but it is worse than that to die in sin! Man, you must
   die in your sins if you continue to live in them! You cannot escape
   from the consequence of sin if you keep following in the pursuit of
   sin. Work and you shall have your wages--and "the wages of sin is
   death." Sow and you shall reap your harvest--and if you sow to the
   flesh, you must and shall of the flesh reap corruption! I pray God that
   none of you may ever know, in your own persons, the full meaning of
   those awful words of the Savior, "You shall die in your sins."\f you
   believe not--

   "YOU SHALL DIE IN YOUR SINS."

   But I cannot send you away like this, although yonder clock has struck
   the usual hour for closing the service. Thank God that no clock has
   struck to forbid me to proclaim the tidings of mercy as long as men are
   yet in this world. I told you that you could not take any sin out of
   that measure and most truly did I speak, but let me whisper in your
   ears that there is One, the ever-blessed Son of God, who can empty it!
   He can take the measure of your sin, just as it is, and not merely take
   out a little, but He can take it all and put it on His own shoulders
   and carry it right away, and hurl it into his own sepulcher where it
   shall be buried so deep that even the eyes of God, Himself, shall never
   see it again! "Oh, would to God," says one, "that He would do that with
   my sins!" Sir, He will do it with your sins, now, at this moment, if
   you believe on Him. "Believe on Him?" says one, "I believe that He is
   the Son of God and the Savior of men." Go further then, and trust Him
   as your own Savior. Give up your sins! Give up your self-reliance and
   cast yourself into those dear arms that were outstretched on the Cross
   that great sinners might be folded in them and find eternal shelter
   there--

   "There is life for a look at the Crucified One. There is life at this
   moment for you," if you will but look to Him! May God's gracious Spirit
   enable you to look away from self to His great substitutionary
   Sacrifice, to the full Atonement He made, to the utmost ransom that He
   paid! Close in with Christ and the measure of your iniquity shall be
   emptied!

   But remember that if Christ is not received, there is no other hope of
   salvation. And what is more, after this night there may not even be
   another proclamation of the way of salvation for some of you. I do not
   know when I am more pained--when I have to go to visit young men who
   are dying, perhaps of consumption and without hope. It is dreadful work
   to try to set forth the Gospel to them. I sometimes feel as if I must
   proclaim the Law, though they are so sick and weak. And, sometimes, the
   mother stands beside the bed and weeps, and says, "Ah, I have prayed
   for him many times, but, oh, that I knew that he was saved!" Then she
   says to me, on the stairs, "I could give him up, Sir, though I love the
   dear boy--I could give him up without a sigh, but, oh, it breaks my
   heart to think that he is dying without a Savior!" Yes, and every
   Christian ought to feel the same, in his measure, about every sinner!
   It is a trying thing to me, when I am walking in the street, to see an
   accident. I feel as if my heart were in my mouth at once. If I were in
   a railway accident and saw somebody killed, I do not think I would be
   able to hold up my head for days. But, oh, to know that some of you are
   losing your souls and that you are every day getting nearer and nearer
   to your eternal doom! "Turn you, turn you, for why will you die?"

   I often wonder why some of you come to hear me as you do. It puzzles
   me, for I see no reason why you should do so. I offer you no amusement.
   I tell you no comical stories, but I seek to break your hearts with the
   hammer of the Word of God! You come and you go, yet you get no blessing
   as far as I can see. Are you content to always have it so? If you are,
   I am not content! I am at least responsible for faithfully warning you
   and honestly preaching to you the great Gospel message, "Believe on the
   Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Every time I stand in this
   pulpit, there is somebody here who never comes again--he cannot come
   again, for he dies before the next Lord's-Day. So large is the
   congregation here that I may almost say, speaking according to the laws
   of probability, that it is almost certain that some one of us

   will have gone the way of all flesh before this week is gone. Who will
   it be? May God take the ripe and spare the green! May He take those who
   are ready and spare those who are not ready! But, better still, may He
   lead us all to trust in the Savior and then we shall all be ready
   whenever the summons comes! May He do so, for His name's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Spiritual Transformations

   (No. 3044)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON A THURSDAY EVENING IN THE
   YEAR 1865.

   "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the
   brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a
   name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off" Isaiah 4:13.

   For many centuries the Holy Land has been covered with thorns and
   briers. Travelers tell us it is so exceedingly barren that except upon
   the dreary desert of Sahara, you cannot find a more absolute sterility
   than in many parts of Judea and Israel. But the land will not remain
   forever thus unproductive. Even now, in spots where it can be
   cultivated, it flows with milk and honey, and the day is coming when
   the chosen people shall return to their own land which God has given to
   them and to their fathers by a Covenant of Salt--and when again they
   shall begin to irrigate the hills and to plant the valleys, to
   cultivate the vineyards and to scatter the seed broadcast into the
   well-plowed furrows! The Holy Land will again blossom--"Instead of the
   thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come
   up the myrtle tree." When this is done, the whole world will ring with
   the fame thereof. They will say, "Is this the Zion whom no man sought
   after? Is this the land which was called desolate? Is this the city
   whose name was FORSAKEN?" Then shall Mount Zion again be "beautiful for
   situation, the joy of the whole earth." And then shall the whole land
   flow with fertility--"and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an
   everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

   But the spiritual meaning of our text, to which we draw more immediate
   attention tonight, is this--God, by His Grace, is able to work moral
   and spiritual transformations. Men, comparable to thorns and briers,
   are, by the Sovereign Grace of God, changed and renewed so that they
   may then be compared to fir trees and to myrtles. This wonderful
   transformation is to the glory of God and is to Him "an everlasting
   sign that shall not be cut off." Let us talk a little with one another,
   first, concerning these transformations. Secondly, concerning how they
   are worked. And, thirdly, let us contemplate their happy result--they
   "shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall
   not be cut off."

   I. Let us talk CONCERNING THESE TRANSFORMATIONS.

   It appears, from our text, that there are some men who may fitly be
   compared to thorns and briers. The similitude may be applied to their
   original Here we must all take our share. The thorn is the child of the
   curse. The brier is the offspring of the Fall. There were no thorns and
   briers to cause the sweat to flow from Adam's face until after he had
   sinned. Then did the Lord say to him, "Cursed is the ground for your
   sake; sorrow shall you eat of it all the days of your life, thorns also
   and thistles shall it bring forth to you." And we, too, are the
   offspring of the curse. What says David? "Behold, I was shapen in
   iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." We are born under sin.
   We are subject to it from our very earliest moments and we go astray,
   not merely by the imitation of bad example, but from the force of a
   corrupt nature.

   It may be that there are some here, this evening, who feel that they
   are under the curse. You cannot look back upon your original without
   discovering this. It may be, my Friends, that your parents taught you
   to sin--you cannot remember ever having been instructed in the way of
   God. It may be that this very moment you can recollect some of the
   earliest training that you received--and you remember that it was such
   as might fit you for the service of Satan, but could not lead you to
   the Cross of Christ. You feel that you are under the curse and you have
   met such afflictions and your own heart is so heavy that if I were to
   write anyone down as a child of the curse, you would boldly say, "Put
   my name in the list. Indeed, I am born of a traitor and I feel in my
   blood the taint of his sin." There is comfort for us,

   however, even though this is true of us! We are thorns, but the Lord
   can transform us into myrtles. Jehovah knows how to remove the curse of
   the first Adam by the blessing of the second Adam. He can tear up by
   the roots everything that is vile, sinful and accursed, and can plant
   in the place, thereof, everything that is lovely and of good
   repute--and so we shall inherit His blessing. So be of good
   comfort--though you are now under the curse, the Lord Jesus, who was
   made a Curse for us, is able yet to pronounce you blessed!

   Again, the thorn is the true image of the sinner because it is of no
   sort of service. I suppose almost everything has its use, but I do not
   know that there has been discovered any use for the thorn and the
   brier. So has it been with many of us, and it is so with some of you
   tonight. What have you done for God? Twenty years, young man, have
   brought you to maturity, but what quit-rent has the Almighty ever
   received from you? Perhaps 40 years have ripened your manhood, but,
   hitherto, what songs of praise have gone up to Heaven from you? What
   acceptable fruits have you laid upon God's altar? You are His
   vineyard--what ripe grapes have ever come to Him from you? He has dug
   about you. He has protected you by the wall of His Providence and
   watched over you with tender care. How is it that when He looks for
   grapes, you bring forth only wild grapes? When He expects to have some
   return for the talent which He has committed to your care, how is it
   that you have wrapped it in a napkin and have hidden your Lord's money?
   You have been useless-- not exactly so to your fellow men--your
   children have received your care--you have been, perhaps, some help to
   your neighbors and to your friends. But, as far as God is concerned,
   the natural man is perfectly useless! He brings no harvest to the great
   Owner of the ground. Did I say, just now, you were 40 years old? What
   if there should be, in this place, some unconverted person of sixty,
   seventy, or even eighty? And all these years, in vain has the light of
   Heaven shone for you! In vain has the Divine long-suffering said,
   "Spare him yet another year." In vain the preaching of God's Word to
   you and all the ordinances of His House--you are still bare, leafless,
   fruitless! You have only lived unto yourself and you have in nowise
   glorified your Creator and your Preserver. You are a thorn and a brier!
   Yet be of good comfort--if you have a heart for better things, God can
   make you into the fir tree and the myrtle that yield genial shade and
   gladden the gardens of the Lord! He can yet transform your uselessness
   into true service and take you from among the idlers in the market to
   go and work actively and with success in His vineyard!

   The thorn, too, (we have only commenced upon this point), wastes the
   genial influences which, falling upon good wheat, would have produced a
   harvest The rain fell today, but it fell upon thorns and briers as well
   as upon the green blades of the wheat. The dews will weep and they will
   fall quite as copiously upon the thickly tangled thistles and matted
   briers as upon the cottager's well-weeded garden. And when the sun
   shines out with cheering ray, he will have rays quite as genial for the
   thistle and for the briers as for the fruit trees and for the barley
   and the wheat. So it is with you unconverted men and women! You have
   received God's daily favors in as great abundance as the righteous
   have. No, perhaps you have had even more! You have been sitting,
   clothed in fine linen, like Dives, while God's own saints have been
   rotting at your gates, like Lazarus. You have not pined for lack of the
   outward influences of the means of Grace. Some of you are
   sermon-hearers. You are constantly within God's gates. You frequent the
   place where the proclamation of mercy is freely made. Your Bibles are
   not unknown to you and yet, all this has been wasted on you. Are you
   not near unto cursing? Visited by daily favor, rebuked by conscience,
   awakened at times by the natural motion of your own heart, awakened by
   God's Spirit, awed under His Word and yet, for all this, you are aliens
   from the commonwealth of Israel! Yet despair not! If your souls seek
   after better things, God is able to transform these wasteful thorns,
   these briers that bear no fruit into fig trees that shall shower their
   luscious fruit all around!

   It was a foolish saying of a certain preacher that the tares would
   never become wheat--what business had he to strain Christ's parable?
   This I know--the brier can become a myrtle and the thistle can become a
   fir tree by Divine Grace! Did the man mean to deny the possibility of
   conversion? Did he mean to say that Almighty Grace could not turn the
   lion into a lamb, the raven into a dove? If so, he uttered a direct
   blasphemy, for there is no miracle of Grace which God cannot perform!
   He can take the black lumps of ebony and make them alabaster! He can
   cast the tree of the Cross into Marah's bitter waters and make them
   sweet as the water of the well of Bethlehem for which David thirsted!
   He can take the poison out of the asp and the sting out of the
   cockatrice--and make them serviceable to God and man! The camel can go
   through the needle's eye! Know for sure that nothing is too hard for
   the Lord! He can accomplish whatever He pleases.

   To continue our remarks upon the thorn and its transformation into the
   fir tree--Is not the thorn a hurtful thing? It rends and tears the
   passers-by. Sometimes, if I would pursue my path straight across to
   yonder point, I must break through a hedge of briers--and how often has
   the Christian been tormented and torn by the thorns of the ungodly? Let
   the age of martyrs tell how God's saints have had their flesh torn from
   their bones by these thorns and briers! And let a weeping mother tell
   how her son has broken her heart and turned her hair prematurely gray.
   And let a sorrowing wife tell how an ungodly husband has sent her to
   her chamber with briny tears streaming from her eyes. And let us all
   tell how sometimes our ungodly relatives have made our hearts beat fast
   with dread anxiety for them! Lot cannot live in Sodom without being
   vexed and David cannot sojourn in Mesech without crying, "Woe is me,
   that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!" But
   remember, however much you have persecuted God's saints, however
   harshly you may have dealt with the followers of Christ, the Lord is
   able to transform you into one of them! Paul little thought, when he
   was riding to Damascus, that it would be so with him. He had his
   precious documents all safe. "I will harass the Nazarenes," he seemed
   to say. "I will bring them to the whipping post. I will drag them out
   of the synagogue and compel them to blaspheme!" Little do you know,
   Paul, that you shall soon bend the knee to that very Jesus of Nazareth
   whom you hate! A light shines about him, brighter than the noonday sun!
   He falls from his horse. He hears a voice which says, "Saul, Saul, why
   do you persecute Me?" Them meekly he asks, "Who are You, Lord?" And the
   answer comes, "I am Jesus whom you persecute: it is hard for you to
   kick against the pricks." Ah, Sinner, perhaps you do not know that you
   are persecuting Jesus. You think that it is only your child, or your
   wife, or your mother. But, in persecuting the members of the body of
   Christ, you persecute the Head! Saul of Tarsus is lead by the hand to
   Damascus and, after his conversion, who is more bold than he? The
   preacher upon Mars' Hill, the witness before Nero, the aged man of God
   sitting in the dungeon, the child of God with his head upon the
   block--this is the man who persecuted the saints of God--but is now
   full of zeal above all others for the spread of the knowledge of
   Christ! The thorn is turned into a fir tree and the brier into a myrtle
   tree.

   Nor have I yet exhausted the figure. The thorn sows its own seed and
   when the winds blows they bear upon their wings the thistledown--and
   the seed is dropped here and there and everywhere! You cannot keep
   thistles to themselves. If you grow them in your own garden, they will
   be in your neighbor's garden before long. And if your neighbor grows
   them, it will be difficult for you to keep them out of your plot. And
   here is the worst point about an unconverted man. If you have been
   doing mischief, your children grow up in your own image, or your
   servants imitate their master. If you are an unscrupulous trader, you
   assist to make other traders, if not palpably dishonest, yet
   scandalously lax. Your language pollutes the air you breathe. Or if you
   keep that tolerably right, your sentiments are not without their
   influence upon your fellow men. You live not unto yourselves. If you
   were to lead a hermit's life, your very absence from society would have
   its influence. If you are literally a leper, I may shut you up and make
   you cover your lips and cast ashes on your head and cry, "Unclean!
   Unclean!" but with your spiritualleprosy, I cannot so seclude you. You
   will taint the air wherever you go--it is not possible for you to do
   otherwise than to spread pollution round about you. O thorn,
   seed-sowing thorn, my God change you!

   Do I tonight address some infidel who has been very earnest in the
   propagation of his views? How would my heart leap if the Lord would
   make you just as earnest in lifting up the Cross upon which you have
   trampled! He can do it! I pray God that He may. Do I speak tonight to
   one who has been furiously set against the things of God? Brethren, the
   worst of sinners make the best of saints! And if the Lord shall please
   to touch you, you shall be just as hot for Him as you now are against
   Him. He that has much forgiven shall love much. No one could break an
   alabaster box of precious ointment but the woman who was a sinner. John
   Bunyan used to say that he believed there would be a great band of
   saints in the next generation, for his own generation was noted for its
   many great sinners and he did hope that as these great sinners grew up,
   God would transform them into great saints. We could mention many names
   of men who have been, as it were, the devil's sergeants, but who, when
   God has once transformed them into His own soldiers, have made most
   blessed recruiting sergeants for the Kingdom of Christ. Look at John
   Newton, John Bunyan and other men of that stamp--and see what Sovereign
   Grace can do in similar cases.

   Yet once more. I cannot help remarking that it was the thorn and the
   brier that composed the crown that pierced the Savior's temples. And it
   is our sins, our cruel sins, that have been His chief tormentors. Every
   soul that lives without Christ, after having heard of Him, is piercing
   Christ's temples afresh. When you think that He is unwilling to forgive
   you, that ungenerous thought wounds Him more than anything else. And
   when you speak ill of His name--when you slander His people and despise
   His saints, what are you doing but plaiting another crown of thorns to
   put upon His head? Yet you, you who have pierced the Savior's brow, you
   can yet become a myrtle to crown that brow with victory! The Savior,
   having fought for you and won you--having bought you with His heart's
   blood--will put you as a wreath about His brow "and i t shall be to the
   Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not, be cut off."
   The meaning of the whole is that God does, by the power of the Gospel,
   transform His enemies into His friends. He turns men from darkness to
   light, from the power of Satan to the Kingdom of Christ, from being
   possessed with devils to become full of the Holy Spirit, from being a
   den of dragons, full of sin, to be temples where every Grace shall
   shine to reflect the Glory of the Most High. Some of you can bear
   witness to this as a matter of experience--others of you contemplate it
   with strong desire.

   II. Secondly, we are to consider HOW THIS TRANSFORMATION IS WORKED IN
   MEN.

   It is worked by the secret and mysterious agency of God the Holy Spirit
   Certainly, dear Friends, it can never be worked in us by the power of
   man! Let us tremble if our religion rests upon any man, for that is a
   poor, unstable foundation. I learn each day more and more my utter
   inability to do good to my fellow men apart from the Spirit of God.
   There come to me, sometimes, cases that completely stagger me. I try,
   for instance, to comfort a broken heart. I seek, but in vain, all sorts
   of metaphors to make the Truth of God clear. I quote the promises, bow
   the knee in prayer and yet, after all, the poor troubled spirit has to
   go away still unbelieving, for only God can give it faith! There are
   other cases where we know of men who have lived in sin and God has been
   pleased to put His afflicting hand upon them and we do not know what to
   say to them. They profess repentance, but we fear it is only remorse.
   They talk of faith in Christ, but we are afraid it is a delusion. We
   would convince them of sin if we could. We remind them of the past and
   they give an assent to every sentence we utter against them, but yet
   they feel not the evil of their own ways. Oh, it is hard work to deal
   with sinners! It needs a sharper tool than man can keep in his toolbox.
   Only God Himself can break hearts--and when they are broken--only the
   same hand that broke them can bind them up.

   It is the Holy Spirit, then, who is everywhere in the midst of His
   Church, who comes forth and puts Himself into direct contact with a
   human spirit and, straightway, a change is affected. I cannot tell you
   with what part of man the Holy Spirit begins, but this I can tell
   you--He changes the whole man! The judgment no longer takes darkness
   for light and light for darkness! The will is no longer obstinately set
   against God but bows its neck to the yoke of Christ! The affections are
   no longer set upon sinful pleasure, but they are set upon Christ! It is
   true that corruption still remains in the heart, but a new heart and a
   right spirit are given. There is put into the quickened soul a living
   Seed which cannot sin because it is born of God--a living Seed which
   lives and abides forever! "I don't know," said one, "whether the world
   is a new world, or whether I am a new creature, but it is one of the
   two, for, 'old things are passed away, and all things are become new.'"
   When Christ descends into the human heart to reign, He seems to take
   this motto, "Behold, I make all things new." Therefore is "a new Heaven
   and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness," within that poor
   sinner's heart! It is a complete change. You will observe that it is
   not the thorn, somewhat trimmed and pruned--it is not the brier made to
   grow upon a wall and trained into order--that is reformation. But it is
   the thorn turned into a fir tree-- this is a perfect re-creation, a
   making anew of the man and this happens to everyone of us, by the power
   and energy of the Divine Spirit, or else in the garden of the Lord we
   shall never bloom, nor ought we to join the Church of God on earth, for
   we have no part nor lot in the matter.

   But, while I have said that it is the Spirit who works this change, you
   are enquiring by what means He does it If you will kindly refer to the
   chapter from which my text is taken, you will observe that the Lord
   Jesus has to do with it-- "Behold, I have given Him for a Witness to
   the people, a Leader and Commander to the people." That verse comes
   before my texts. We must know Christ before we can ever be changed.
   Some people think they are to change themselves and then come to
   Christ. Oh, no! Come to Jesus just as you are! It is the work of His
   Spirit to change you. You are not to work a miracle and then come to
   show the miracle to Christ, but you are to come to Chris to have the
   miracle worked. It is Christ's work to begin with the sinner as the
   sinner, even as the Good Samaritan did with the man who fell among
   thieves. He did not wait for him to be cured before he helped him, but
   he poured oil and wine into his wounds, lifted him upon his beast, and
   then carried him to the inn. And Christ is able to save to the
   uttermost all who come unto God by Him.

   But the chapter seems to teach another lesson. You say, "I know that
   the Holy Spirit brings Christ home to the heart and conscience, but how
   am I to get at Christ?" The chapter tells you. It says that God's Word
   shall not return unto Him void. The way by which Christ is discovered
   and found by a sinner is by Christ being preached to him! "Hear, and
   your soul shall live." That is the Gospel! The way by which Christ
   comes into the soul is through Ear-gate. "Satan tries to stop up
   Ear-gate with mud," says John Bunyan. But, oh, it is a glorious thing
   when God clears away the mud of prejudice so that men are willing to
   hear the Truth of God! There was an old man, a member of this Church,
   who used to preach every Sunday in Billingsgate. Many persons tried to
   begin a controversy with him, but he was an old soldier in more senses
   than one and his answer, when anybody tried to dispute or enter into an
   argument with him, was, "'Hear, and your soul shall live!' I have not
   come to argue, but to preach the Truth of God--'Hear, and your soul
   shall live.'" That was a plain answer, sure enough!

   Now you know that simple trust in Christ is all that He asks of
   you--and even that He gives you. 'Tis the work of His own Spirit. Hear
   this, then, you thorns and briers, before God sets Himself in battle
   array against you--before His fires devour you! Hear the gentle notes
   of a Father's heart as He speaks in Gospel invitations to you, "Come,
   buy wine and milk without money and without price." "Ho, everyone that
   thirsts, come you to the waters." May you all be brought there! May
   God's Grace bring you all to lay hold on Christ!

   III. And then, to close--WHAT IS THE RESULT OF THIS TRANSFORMATION?

   To whose honor shall so beneficial a change accrue? "It shall be to the
   Lord for a name. "As soon as that great sinner gets converted, it makes
   a buzz and a noise in the workshop where he goes. "What?" they ask,
   "has that wretch become a saint?" He used to curse, but, "Behold, he
   prays!" He could drink with the drunk, but now he walks in the fear of
   God "in all temperance and sobriety." He could not be trusted, but now
   temptation cannot turn him from his integrity. The name of Christ at
   one time brought the blood into his cheeks, but now--

   "Sweeter sounds than music knows Charm him in Immnanuel's name." I say
   there is a buzz about the workshop--the men say to one another, "What
   is the meaning of this? How came this about." And though they hate the
   change, yet they gaze at it and admire it. They cannot understand it.
   They are like the magicians of Egypt--they cannot do these things with
   their enchantment and, therefore, they are compelled to say, "This is
   the finger of God." If God converts some ordinary sinners, He does not
   get half as much glory out of them as He does out of these
   extraordinary ones. The man whose vile character was known in a whole
   parish, whose name was foul in the court where he lived, who had
   acquired a reputation for evil in the whole district--when this thorn
   becomes a fir tree, then everyone wonders! If I had in my garden a
   great brier which had once torn my hands, but one day when I walked
   down I saw, instead of that briar, a fir tree growing and a genial
   shade could be enjoyed under its branches, how astonished I would be! I
   would naturally ask, "Who has done this? Who could have transformed
   this brier into a fir tree?" And so, when a great sinner is converted,
   the finger of God is recognized and God is glorified! Even the ungodly
   are compelled to honor the name of the Most High when other ungodly
   ones are saved!

   And then as to the church, the members are, perhaps, at first rather
   shy and cannot believe it is true. They hear that he who once
   persecuted the Brothers and Sisters, now professes the name of their
   Master and, at last, they get good evidence of the truth of it--and oh,
   what hallowed glee there is among the sons of God! There is a church
   meeting and he comes forward to confess his faith--they know how foully
   he has erred and they rejoice to see him brought back again. There may
   be one "elder brother" who is angry and will not come in but, for the
   most part, the household is very glad when the prodigal returns! And
   chief in joy among you all, when such a scene occurs, is the one who
   has preached the Gospel to you. Oh, the joy of my soul when some of you
   were brought to Christ! I remember the cheering nights I had and how I
   went to my house rejoicing and triumphant in my God because of some of
   you! You were once foul, "but you are washed, but you are sanctified,
   but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit
   of our God." And truly, there would be more of such joy if others were
   brought in! Some of the best of the members of this Church are those
   who were brands plucked out of the burning. May we have more such
   sinners saved by the blood of Jesus!

   Nor is this all. There was an angel present when the deed was done.
   They are always present in the assemblies of the saints--hence it is
   that the women have their heads covered--"because of the angels." If no
   one else could see it, yet the angels, who cover their faces when they
   bow before God, would have us come into His Presence in decency and in
   order.

   This angel hears us weep--a stream of light ascends to the regions of
   the blessed. Straightway the bliss spreads throughout the celestial
   field and, as the news is propagated, "A prodigal has returned, another
   heir of Glory is born," they take their harps and tune their strings
   anew! They bow with great reverence! They sing with loftier joy! They
   shout with more glorious praise, "Unto Him that loved the souls of men
   and washed them in His blood, to Him be glory, and honor, and power,
   and dominion, forever and ever!" And thus the songs of Heaven are
   swollen, made more deep, more mighty with tumultuous joy by sinners
   saved on earth! Yes, they tell it in Heaven that the thorn-brake has
   become a grove of firs, that the brier has become a myrtle and what,
   shall I dare to say?--even the Divine Trinity break forth in joy. Their
   joy cannot be increased, for God over all is "blessed forever." But
   still, it is written, "He will rest in His love, He will joy over you
   with singing." Is it not said that when the prodigal was yet a long way
   off, his father saw him? Can it be that among the servants and friends
   there was joy and none in the father's heart? Impossible! The Eternal
   God, Jehovah, Himself, views with delight the chosen of His heart!
   Jesus sees the purchase of His blood! The Spirit sees the result of His
   own power and so, up to the very Throne of God, the impulse of a sinner
   saved is felt! She came from the brothel. He came from the prison and
   yet even Heaven thrills with the news! She had defiled herself with
   sin. He had polluted others with his crimes and yet angels tune their
   harps to Jehovah's praise because of them! Was that prophetic when the
   woman broke the alabaster box and filled the house with the perfume?
   Was that prophetic of what every repentant sinner does when his broken
   heart fills Heaven and earth with the sweet perfume ofjoy because he is
   saved? And when she washed the Savior's feet and wiped them with the
   hair of her head, was that also prophetic? Did that show how Jesus gets
   His greatest honor, His purest love, His fairest worship and His
   sweetest solace from sinners saved by blood? I think it was so. May He
   get such joy from us! Truly Jesus died for me and, at the foot of His
   Cross, I now stand weeping to tell of His true love to sinners! And O
   poor Sinner, Christ is able to save you! Whomever comes to Him, He will
   in no wise cast out. Oh, that you would come! May Sovereign Grace
   compel you to come in!

   I sat, this afternoon, looking at one with a withered countenance and a
   sunken cheek, marked out for death, once a member of this Church, but
   foully fallen and gone far astray. And I remember two or three of his
   age, once also professors who, strange to say, also went away from God
   as he did. When I talked to him about the Lord and His infinite
   compassion, I could but have in my mind's eye the prodigal who wasted
   his substance with riotous living, and yet his father did not spurn
   him, did not even rebuke him, but he--

   "--was to his Father's bosom pressed,

   Once again a child confessed,

   From his house no more to roam." And I thought I would say to you
   tonight--

   "Come and welcome, Sinner, come." Do not think that God is harsh. Think
   not that Christ is not tender. There is no breast so soft as His, no
   heart so deeply full of sympathy. He cries over the very worst of you,
   "How shall I give you up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver you, Israel? How
   shall I make you as Admah? How shall I set you as Zeboim? My heart is
   turned within Me. My repentings are kindled together. I cannot destroy
   you, for I am God, and not man." Oh, shall my Savior plead with you in
   vain? Shall the tears of Jesus fall to the ground? Shall the love of
   God have no attracting influence? Shall not Mercy, as it rings its
   silver bell, draw you to the feast of love? Oh, why will you die? Is
   sin so sweet that you will suffer for it forever? Are the trifles of
   this world so important in your estimation that you will lose Heaven
   and Eternal Life? I pray you "seek the Lord while He may be found: call
   you upon Him while He is near," and think not that He will reject you,
   for "He will abundantly pardon." Oh, may He do this tonight!--

   "My God, I feel the mournful scene!

   My heart yearns over dying men

   And gladly my pity would reclaim

   And snatch the firebrands from the flame!

   But feeble my compassion proves,

   And can but weep where most it loves--

   Your own all-saving arm employ,

   And turn these drops of grief to joy!"

   O Lord, do it, for You can! Come forth, O Jesus! Mount Your chariot!
   Hell shakes at Your majesty. Heaven adores Your Presence--earth cannot
   resist you! Gates of brass fly open and bars of iron are snapped. Come,
   Conqueror, and ride through the streets of this city and through the
   hearts of all of us, and they shall be Yours, "and i t shall be to the
   Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."
   May God command His blessing on you, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM84.

   Verse 1. How amiable are Your tabernacles, O LORD of Hosts! "Though
   they are only tabernacles, temporary structures that are soon to be
   taken down and carried away, they are very dear to us. Your tabernacles
   are so lovely to us because You meet us there."

   2. My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the LORD: my heart
   and my flesh cries out for the living God. A little starving brings on
   an appetite for health-giving food--and a brief absence from the House
   of God through sickness, or by reason of distance, makes a Christian
   sigh and cry for the dainties of the Divine Table. Even the heavy
   flesh, which is so slow to move, at last joins the heart in crying out
   for the living God!

   3. Yes, the sparrow has found a house, and the swallow a nest for
   herself, where she may lay her young, even Your altars, O LORD of
   Hosts, my King, and my God. He envies even the sparrows which have no
   sort of bashfulness, but boldly enter God's House and find a house for
   themselves there. O Lord, make me like the sparrows, blessed in finding
   shelter in the courts of Your House! As for the swallow, she makes
   God's House a nest for herself, and a place where she may lay her
   young. And it is blessed when our children, as well as ourselves, love
   the House of God--when they have been so nurtured and cherished that
   they are at home there. We may well envy the sparrows and the swallows
   when we and our families are unable to go up to the House of the Lord.
   And it is as sad for those who have to go up to a place where there is
   nothing good to be had, a place where the Gospel is not preached and so
   their souls are not fed.

   4. Blessed are they that dweel in Your House. The men who are always
   occupied in the Lord's service, or those who are in God's House even
   when they are in their own houses--the men who are always at home with
   God, who feel that the canopy of Heaven is the roof of God's House in
   which they dwell and who, therefore, never go away from God's House,
   but always dwell there with Him--

   It also brings to us--at least it does to me--a painful remembrance of
   the time wasted--time spent unprofitably before our conversion when, if
   we were not actually doing damage to the souls of others, yet we
   allowed opportunities for doing them good to glide by unused. Oh, these
   blessed hours, these precious hours, these more than golden hours in
   which Christians may win souls for the Lord Jesus Christ! Angels never
   had them and the spirits of just men made perfect have them no more.
   Though they can render other and perhaps yet higher service to their
   Lord, this special service of soul-winning is reserved for us who are
   still living on this earth. We have, at the longest, only a few days,
   or weeks, or months, or years allotted to us in which we may glorify
   God by being a blessing to our fellow creatures after we have found the
   Lord for ourselves! Yet some of us allowed many years to pass away
   before we even gave earnest heed to these things for ourselves. Those
   of us who were brought to know the Lord in our early youth, bless Him
   for that, yet we

   regret that we were not saved in our childhood. We wish we had given to
   God the very first rays of the morning of our life as well as the
   bright beams of the fuller day, so that we might have been made a
   blessing to the Church and the world as soon as we had intellect and
   understanding--and were capable of influencing the minds and hearts of
   others.

   There is another reflection which is also a sorrowful one and causes us
   deep regret--namely that since the ever-blessed hour when the Holy
   Spirit taught us to trust in Jesus and gave us new life in Him, we have
   not been such a blessing to our fellow creatures as we ought to have
   been. Not altogether in vain have we lived--we have not sown to the
   flesh, but to the Spirit--yet how scanty has been our sowing of the
   Good Seed of the Kingdom! And, in consequence, how small has been the
   harvest that we have reaped! Oh, that we had availed ourselves of all
   the golden opportunities we have had of serving the Lord Jesus Christ!
   How much more good we might have done had we been earnest at all times,
   fervent at all seasons, had we thrown spirit, soul and body entirely
   into this holy service--and lived and breathed alone for our Lord and
   Savior Jesus Christ! If we had reached the ideal Christian life so that
   we did eat, drink and sleep eternal life, having Christ living in us
   and we living in Him, how much more we might have achieved than any of
   us have yet done! The capacity to "be a blessing" to others was given
   to all of us who have believed in Jesus at our conversion--but we have
   left that precious talent unused to a very large extent. To some
   Christians, and to some now present, this message must go home and this
   question must be asked and answered--what have we done for Him who died
   to save us? Alas, how little--at the most, how little--but by the most
   idle, alas, alas, how little! God help you to turn your regret to
   practical account while the glad sound of the text rings in your ears
   like the music of a silver bell, "You shall be a blessing." Let your
   tears fall plenteously as you recall the sad fact that before you knew
   the Lord, you were a curse to others--and not a blessing--and that even
   since you have known Him, you have not grasped the truth of the text
   and realized the fullness of its blessed meaning as you should have
   done, for such tears of regret will be likely to lead you to change
   your course of action for the future!

   II. Let us now notice, in the second place, that OUR TEXT IS CALCULATED
   TO EXCITE INQUIRY as well as to quicken regret. Inquiries will come
   something in this style from young Believers, "Will you kindly tell us
   what we can do by which we shall be a blessing? We hear the promise of
   the text, but how can we get it fulfilled in our own experience? In
   what way can we be made a blessing to others?" Beloved Friends, there
   are many ways in which God can make you the channels of blessing to
   your fellow creatures if you are, yourselves, regenerated by the Holy
   Spirit.

   First, it will probably be by your consistent conduct that you will be
   made a blessing to others more than in any other way. An unholy
   professor is a downright curse both to the church and to the world and,
   as for a church of inconsistent members, Satan himself could not devise
   an instrument more fitted to carry out his diabolical purposes! A
   community of ungodly men that is known by everybody to be a synagogue
   of Satan is robbed of much of its power to do mischief--but if it is
   misnamed a Church of Christ, it is potent for all manner of evil! An
   unholy professor outside the Church of God may batter against the walls
   with small effect but inside, he would be like the concealed soldiers
   in the wooden horse who opened the gates of Troy to the besiegers. It
   was only an Apostle who could be such a "son of perdition" as Judas
   was, so beware, you who profess to be followers of Christ! You have
   great capacities for usefulness, but your position gives you immense
   capacities for doing damage to the cause of Christ. Only holy
   Christians are useful Christians--and the preaching of Christ's Truth
   must be backed up by the consistent living of Christ's followers if it
   is to have its due effect upon the hearts and lives of the ungodly. No
   doubt many a shaft has missed the mark because it has not been shot
   from the bow of a consistent preacher, or because it has been turned
   aside by inconsistency in the church of which he is the pastor. Oh, for
   holy living! The honest tradesman who has just weights and measures.
   The diligent domestic servant who sweeps under the mats and in the dark
   corners. The laborious workman who may be trusted when his master is
   absent. The man who would not tell a lie even though he could win a
   fortune or a throne by doing so. The man who in all things acts justly
   towards men and walks humbly before his God--these are the people who
   "shall be a blessing" to all around them! If a man had no tongue and so
   never spoke a word. If it were not in his power to bestow as much as a
   farthing upon the poor. If he could not visit the sick or the
   prisoners, yet his very presence upon the earth would be in itself a
   blessing--a silent reproof, but none the less eloquent to ungodly
   men--and a powerful example to such as wish to walk in the way of
   righteousness. "Be you holy," for so shall you serve God and serve the
   Church of Christ and, in the highest sense, serve your generation and
   serve the world! I love to sing, with John Newton--

   "Let worldly minds the world pursue, It has no charms for me! Once I
   admired its trifles too, But Grace has set me free! Now, Lord, I would
   be Yours alone, And wholly live to Thee!"

   But, in addition to that, all Christians may be made a blessing to
   others by instructing them in the Truths of the Gospel. The world is
   still very dark, spiritually, though many people foolishly speak of
   "this enlightened century." It has "light" of a certain sort--or
   rather, of a very uncertain sort--within it. But the light that is in
   it is almost entirely darkness! It is still true of the bulk of
   mankind, as it was in Isaiah's day--they "put darkness for light, and
   light for darkness.. .bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" Today the
   scarcest thing in the whole world is true spiritual light and, where it
   is revealed, men hate it and try to banish it from their sight!
   Philosophy is exalted above Revelation. Science, falsely so-called, is
   set up in the place of Christ who is the Wisdom of God, though true
   science is never in conflict with the true Gospel. And anything that
   pretends to be light is preferred by many to Him who is "the true
   Light." Spiritual Light is mainly conveyed to the dark souls of men
   through the proclamation of the Gospel--the good news concerning Jesus
   Christ, the Savior of sinners. So, proclaim that--

   "Old, old story

   Of Jesus and His love"--

   to as many as you can! Tell it to thousands, to hundreds, to
   scores--tell it to one if you cannot tell it to more. Tell to all, as
   far as you can, these precious things concerning the Lord Jesus
   Christ--His Incarnation, His holy life, His wondrous Words, His perfect
   example and His substitutionary death! Tell these things to your
   children and charge them to tell them to their children--and to charge
   their children to tell them to the generation following. Tell that
   great central Truth of the substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ to the
   man who sits beside you in the tram or train, or who calls at your
   house on business! Seize every opportunity you can get of letting men
   know, by the Inspired Word of God, or by the written or spoken message,
   all that you can about "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom
   God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood,"
   "and by Him all that believe are justified from all things." And not
   only justified, but also glorified! Every true testimony to Christ
   brings glory to God and blessing to men. A preacher may halt and limp,
   his elocution may be faulty, his theology may be open to criticism--but
   if it is "the Gospel of Christ" that he proclaims, it will be precious
   Truth to the saints who hear him--and sinners will be saved by it!

   Not only by instructing men will you be a blessing to them, but also by
   reproof. This is a far more difficult matter and probably nine out of
   ten of us had better keep to the easier task of giving instruction. Yet
   now and then there will come occasions when you must not see sin in
   your Brother or Sister without rebuking it. If I hear blasphemy and am
   able to condemn it, yet do not, my silence makes me a sharer in the
   sin. I am always afraid lest when I hear God's name blasphemed, my
   guilty silence should make me an accomplice of the blasphemer. A rebuke
   need not be and should not be discourteous or disrespectful. And it
   should not be unduly severe, but I am afraid that nowadays we are not
   so likely to err by our harshness, as by failing to be faithful to our
   conscience and our God. We must boldly stand up, at all costs, for God,
   for truth, for purity. Shut your ear to the lascivious song--do not
   allow it to be sung in your house--and let not scandal be spoken at
   your table! Set your face like a flint against sin of every kind and,
   God speeding your testimony, you "shall be a blessing."

   More frequently, however, and much more pleasingly to yourself, you can
   be a blessing by giving words of comfort. And often something more
   substantial than words to the poor and afflicted ones with whom you may
   come into contact. If you know someone who is fighting with a fierce
   temptation, go and help to succor him. If you know another who is
   struggling with a troublesome doubt, try to assist him to drive it
   away. Your experience may be just what he needs to know, so tell him.
   Be not backward or bashful in speaking of what the Lord has done for
   you. I am always grieved when I hear of any persons coming to this
   Tabernacle for a long time and nobody speaking to them--let it not be
   so. Do endeavor, Brothers and Sisters--you who know Christ by
   experience--to tell others of the sweetness that you have found in Him
   and of the faithfulness of God to His promises--and of the power of
   prayer and the reality of faith. You will thus bring many a poor soul
   out of bondage who, but for you, might have lingered long in Doubting
   Castle in the dungeons of Giant Despair. God grant you the Grace "to
   speak a word in season to him that is weary." A word on wheels, as
   Solomon calls, "a word fitly spoken," is like apples of gold on plates
   of silver.

   Besides that you can be a blessing by your actions, as well as by your
   words. Some of you have the means with which you can assist your poorer
   neighbors. Of all people who ought to be kind and neighborly. Of all
   who should be sympathetic and generous, the Christian should be the
   first! The tendency nowadays is to get everything under a cast-iron
   code of law and I should not wonder if a law is passed, some day,
   making it penal to give sixpence to a poor person who is starving.
   Somebody said to me today when I was telling him how I had been
   deceived by a vagabond whom I had relieved, "It is such as you who make
   the vagabonds." If so, I shall go on making vagabonds sooner than let
   the stream of charity in my soul be frozen into ice! It is better to be
   taken in a few times than to let the heart become hardened like steel
   against the real poverty that there is in London and many other places
   besides--the gaunt, grim poverty that may soon be seen if we will but
   take a little trouble to search for it. Be charitable, notwithstanding
   all the mischief that unworthy applicants may make of your charity,
   remembering the command of our Savior to His disciples, "Give to him
   that asks you."

   You can also "be a blessing" in many other ways which I need not
   mention now. In such a vast city as this metropolis, there is work for
   all to do. A Christian living in a remote hamlet might, perhaps, say to
   his minister, "Sir, can you find me an opportunity of serving the
   Lord?" But no person who lives in London ought to ask another person,
   "What can I do for Christ?" If he is willing to do anythingfor the
   Master, the work lies at his door! Floods of sin are surging all around
   you--and sinners are sinking in them! Stretch out your hands to help
   them--

   "Rescue the perishing, care for the dying--

   Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave." In such a city as this,
   with hundreds of thousands--I might truthfully say, millions--needing
   the Bread of Life and the Water of Life--and with many of them
   literally needing bread and water--all of you can do something to
   relieve them! And I beseech you, if you love your Lord and Master, do
   the first thing that comes to hand and "whatever your hand finds to do,
   do it with all your might." Well did Dr. Horatius Bonar write--

   "'Tis not for man to trifle!

   Life is brief,

   And sin is here.

   Our age is but the falling of a leaf, A dropping tear.

   We have no time to sport away the hours, All must be earnest in a world
   like ours. Not many lives but only one have we, One, only one--

   How sacred should that one life always be, That narrow span!

   Day after day filled up with blessed toil, Hour after hour still
   bringing in new spoil."

   III. Now we must pass on to the third point which is that OUR TEXT IS
   ALSO CALCULATED TO SUGGEST ENDEAVOR. It has quickened regret and
   excited inquiry--now it suggests endeavor. But what endeavor?

   Well, first I think it stirs us up to look for a blessing upon what we
   have already tried to do for Christ and His Church. You, my Brother,
   have been teaching a Sunday school class for two years--is it not time
   that you saw some blessing? Go and look for it! Perhaps in looking for
   it, you will be the means, under God, of bringing it to your scholars.
   I think that an earnest, godly teacher, believing that God had blessed
   his message, would be well repaid if he asked the boys or girls in his
   class, "Has God blessed your souls through my teaching?" If he asked
   that question with tears, it might be more effective than all his
   ordinary teaching. And you, my dear Brother, have you been preaching in
   some little mission-room in London or in the country and have you seen
   no "fruit" from your sowing of the Good Seed of the Kingdom? Have you
   asked, "Who has believed our report?" If so, I ask you--"Have you
   believed the promise of my text, 'You shall be a blessing'?" If not, do
   so at once and go and inquire if there has not been a blessing--and
   never rest satisfied until you have it!

   Next, the text bids us look for a blessing wherever we may be and
   whatever we may do. What have you been doing just lately? You have
   moved to a more suitable neighborhood? Then let one of your first
   questions there be, "How can I

   be a blessing here?" You have been recently married. I congratulate you
   and suggest that you should ask, "How can I, in my new relationship, be
   made a blessing?" You, my Friend over yonder, have gone down in the
   world lately--well then, ask yourself, "For what purpose am I put in
   this lower position? Is it not that I may be a blessing to some whom I
   could not have reached under happier circumstances?" Are you a
   commercial traveler? Are you not sent from town to town to be a
   blessing to those you meet? Are you a tradesman? Are you not put behind
   the counter to be a blessing there?

   So I might go on addressing the members of various trades or
   professions, but I want to remind you that there are some persons who
   ought, above all others, to aim at being a blessing to their fellow
   creatures. And I put, first of all, ministers of the Gospel. O my
   Brothers in the ministry, if we are not a blessing, we are a double
   curse! Every so-called "place of worship" in which the true Gospel is
   not preached is a curse, for it is like a sepulcher full of rottenness
   doing nothing but harm! Worldlings more often judge Christianity by
   fruitless trees than by fruit-bearing trees. O preacher, be a blessing,
   or never enter the pulpit again!

   This rule should also apply to parents. What a blessing Christian
   parents often are to their children! I can conceive of nothing more
   natural and, at the same time, nothing more blessed than a father and
   mother who, by precept and example, have trained up their children in
   God's fear and whose loving instruction and earnest prayers have been
   blessed by the Holy Spirit to their children's salvation! What greater
   joy can we have than to see our children walking in the Truth of God?
   God grant that you, fathers and mothers, may all diligently seek to be
   a blessing to your offspring!

   There may be some domestic servants here. If so, let me remind you that
   you have great opportunities for being made a blessing. Good servants
   can contribute much to the well-being of the family. By the faithful
   discharge of their duties, they may be the means of preventing others
   from committing sin. Whereas on the other hand, untidy and idle
   servants create so much discord in the household that they are the
   fomenters of sin! I do not know of any person who can have so much
   influence for good as a godly maid who has the care of little
   children--one who, instead of scaring them with wicked threats or silly
   tales, talks to them discreetly concerning Him who said, "Suffer the
   little children to come unto Me." I have known domestic servants who
   were earnest Christians, who have gone to live where there was no
   religion whatever, no family prayer and no Sabbath observance--and
   without ever intruding beyond their proper place, they have worked a
   blessed revolution in the house--and their masters and mistresses and
   fellow servants have been brought to Christ by their godly example! Let
   all Christian servants here endeavor to get the fulfillment of the
   promise of our text, "You shall be a blessing."

   I might speak thus to you who have the duty and privilege of
   instructing the children in our schools, to you masters of large
   factories, to you who, as workingmen, meet with great numbers of your
   fellow men--all of you ought to aim at realizing this promise, "You
   shall be a blessing." Dearly beloved in Christ, let me say to all of
   you--Do, by God's Grace, maintain a holiness of walk with God and then
   seek to be a blessing to others. Look at the six words before our
   text-- "So will I save you, and you shall be a blessing." It is only as
   you yourselves are, in the fullest sense, saved--saved from falling
   into sin, saved from inward corruption, saved from error--it is only as
   you are conformed to the image of Christ that you can expect to be a
   blessing to others. Do, I pray you, as members of this Christian
   Church, always feel that you are to take your full share in being made
   a blessing to others! There are some who hold that blessing comes to
   men only through priests--that is what I hold! I believe that no
   blessing comes to men except through priests! First, through the great
   High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, and then through all who believe in
   Him, who are, as Peter says, "a holy priesthood" and "a royal
   priesthood," and whose song in Heaven shall be, "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. Amen."

   The priesthood of the Christian Church is common to all the saints!
   There is no other true priesthood but that of the Lord Jesus Christ. I
   cannot discharge any of your religious duties or relieve you of any of
   your responsibilities. My own are quite heavy enough for me to bear--I
   will seek, as God gives me Grace, to discharge them--but I cannot
   discharge the responsibilities of any other person in the world! You,
   having been personally redeemed by Christ, personally washed in His
   blood, personally saved by His Grace, are to render personal service to
   Him. All proxy-religion must be abhorrent to Christ, "who His own Self
   bore our sins in His own body on the tree." He did not seek to find
   someone else to save you, for He knew that no one else could do it! He
   tread the winepress alone and of the people there was none with Him.

   So, to your personal Redeemer render your personal service. Give
   liberally of your substance to help others to do their part of the
   work, but give yourself--spirit, soul and body--for these are claimed
   by Christ as "your reasonable service."

   IV. Now I must conclude by trying to show you that our TEXT FURNISHES
   US WITH MANY

   CONSOLATIONS. "You shall be a blessing."

   Some of you have to live in places where you are not comfortable.
   Perhaps you are not in a neighborhood that you like. Possibly in the
   very house where you live there may be others whose thoughts and
   feelings are very different from yours and, sometimes, you are grieved
   and perhaps perplexed because you have to live there. But if God put
   you there, "you shall be a blessing." My dear Friend, Mr. Orsman of the
   Golden Lane Mission, has often told me that the results of his work
   will never be visible in Golden Lane because as soon as a man is
   converted, he begins to save, he becomes industrious, wears a better
   coat, seeks a better house, for he cannot live in that dirty room in
   which he once lived and he cannot bear the foul language of the court
   or alley--so, very properly and very naturally--he moves away!
   Unhappily there are always others coming in to keep the place as bad as
   ever. Now, when a Christian man is compelled to live in such a place as
   that, let him conclude that he has been put there that he may be a
   blessing. If that is your trying lot, my Brother, fight the devil where
   you are placed, on his own ground! It is not fair that you should have
   the pick of the spot where the great duel is to be fought. Fight the
   devil where he has a firm foothold and beat him by God's Grace! I think
   if I were a gas lamp and had the choice of the place where I should be
   hung--and it was proposed to me that I should hang up somewhere in the
   West End where there is already abundance of light streaming from the
   fine shops--I don't know that I would particularly care to be put
   there. But if there was a dark corner where thieves were in the habit
   of meeting and where much mischief might be done if it were not for the
   light of a lamp--I fancy I should ask to be hung up there where I
   should be of the most use! At any rate, if you are placed, in the
   Providence of God, in a dark neighborhood, let this be your prayer, "O
   Lord, make me a blessing here!"

   Perhaps, however, you are a member of an ungodly family. Now, you had
   no hand in that matter. You were not responsible for your birth and you
   cannot get out of that family into which you were born. Now, instead of
   saying, "I wish I had a Christian mother and that our house were
   ordered in God's fear," say, "God has called me, by His Grace. At
   present I am the only one saved, but He must mean me to be a blessing
   to my brothers, sisters and parents and, therefore, I am thankful that
   He has put me where I am needed. I will try to do everything that shall
   be kind to them--I will win their love if I can and I will also try to
   win them for Christ." I am really thankful when some of you come to
   join the Church and tell me that there is no other in the house who
   cares for the things of God--for I look upon your conversion as getting
   in the thin end of the wedge! If we get one who fears God inside the
   house, I hope we shall get more, for, blessed be God, good example is
   contagious as well as bad! God grant that since it is your unhappiness
   to have ungodly relatives, it may be your happiness to "be a blessing"
   to them!

   It may be that you are persecuted, that you live in places where you
   are sneered at, where the Doctrines that are dearer than life to you,
   are regarded with contempt and Scriptural ordinances, in which you
   delight, are held up to constant ridicule. Do not altogether regret
   this, but say to yourself, "Perhaps I am put here in order that I may
   be a blessing to my persecutors." Do not imagine that the unlikeliest
   man to get a blessing out of you is the one who laughs most at you. I
   sometimes think that the infidels who shout most loudly have more faith
   than others and that because they are afraid they shall hear conscience
   speak, they make a great clamor to try to drown its voice! When a man
   bullies you, there is a great deal better opportunity for you to get at
   him than when he says, as so many do, "Oh, yes, Sir, it is all
   true"--and there the matter ends as far as they are concerned. But
   there is something in a man who will stand up to oppose you and you may
   yet be able to say a word for Christ that will be blessed to him. Why
   should we want to run away because men mock us? If they say, "Come and
   fight," let us go and fight--only with other weapons than theirs-- with
   the weapons of holy gentleness giving a good reason for the hope that
   is within us with meekness and fear, for that is always the more
   powerful way of speaking! Do not, therefore, fear persecution, but
   rather thank God for it, and say, "I have to endure this that I may be
   a blessing to those who revile and abuse me."

   Brothers and Sisters, I think our text furnishes sweet consolation to
   any who have been engaged in very arduous service. Have you a great
   deal to do for Christ--a great deal too much to do, it often seems to
   you? Are you incessantly occupied about the Lord's business? Then thank
   God for it, for He has said, "You shall be a blessing"--and the more
   you have to do for Him, the more blessing you are likely to be the
   means of conveying to others!

   Or on the other hand, are you passing through a very trying experience?
   If so, you are being qualified for greater usefulness. Your dark
   experience will only teach you more that you will be able to teach to
   others concerning God and His dealings with His own. Believe that you
   will become a blessing to others by means of your trials and cheerfully
   bow your heads to overwhelming floods of sorrow in the confident
   assurance that you will thus be made a blessing to others--and so bring
   glory to God!

   Yes, Beloved, and we may even be content to die if our last testimony
   shall be more useful than any that we have borne before! If God will
   enable us to glorify Him by being a blessing to others, we will be
   content. I hope we can say that we desire nothing on earth compared
   with this--to be blessed of God and to be made a blessing by God. We
   covet not earthly wealth or position, but we do covet the honor of
   being a blessing! Have an insatiable thirst for this honor, beloved
   Brothers and Sisters in Christ--to be a blessing to tens, to hundreds,
   to thousands, to the millions of this great city! Incessantly strive,
   by your private prayer, by your generous alms, by your kindly deeds, by
   your public testimony, to be a blessing and may God bless you more and
   more--you and your children--for His dear name's sake!

   But, alas, there are many who cannot be a blessing to others, for they
   are not themselves saved. They are getting gray, but they are not
   saved! Death will soon call for them. Hell opens wide for them and they
   are not saved! May the Lord have mercy upon all of you who are not
   saved and may He, by His Grace, constrain you to believe on the Lord
   Jesus Christ and then to make the Scriptural profession of your faith,
   for HE said, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." May God
   grant that you may all "be saved in the Lord with an everlasting
   salvation," for Jesus' sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Believers A Blessing

   (No. 3045)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER
   12, 1871.

   "You shall be a blessing," Zechariah 8:13.

   SO terribly had God punished idolatrous Israel and Judah that their
   names were a byword and a proverb among all the surrounding nations. If
   any man wished to pronounce upon his fellow man the most dreadful curse
   that he could utter, he would say, "May you become like a Jew--may a
   blight fall upon your whole life as awful as that which has fallen upon
   Israel!" Even the heathen used the Jewish nation as a model of their
   cursing and blasphemed the name of Jehovah who had poured out the vials
   of His wrath upon them. But God declared that He would return to His
   ancient people in love and mercy--and replenish them in the multitude
   of His loving kindnesses to them so that, from that time, instead of
   being the pattern of cursing, they should be used as the model of a
   blessing--that when men wished good things for one another, they would
   say, "May you be as blessed as the children of Israel, whom the Lord of
   Hosts has favored above all the rest of mankind!" You remember that old
   Jacob, when he blessed the sons of Joseph, uttered a sort of formula
   for future use by others, "He blessed them that day, saying, In you
   shall Israel bless, saying, God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh."
   And I believe that to this day, in Jewish marriages, the blessing is
   given to the newly-married couple, "As Isaac and Rebekah may they be!"
   In like manner would God make His people to become the model of
   benediction as before they had been the pattern of a curse.

   Leaving that primary meaning of the passage, I am going to apply the
   promise of the text to the spiritual'Israel. In His inscrutable wisdom,
   God allowed His ancient people, the nation of Israel, to become a curse
   among the other nations of the earth. Their idolatry was not only high
   treason against God, but it also gave the very heathen reason to
   blaspheme His holy name. The Lord said, by the mouth of the Prophet
   Jeremiah, "Has a nation changed their gods which are yet no gods? But
   My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be
   astonished, O you heavens at this and be horribly afraid, be you very
   desolate, says the Lord. For My people have committed two evils: they
   have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters and hewed them out
   cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Israel turned aside
   from Jehovah to worship Baal, Ashtaroth and other false gods without
   number--and so, by evil example, Israel led other people into idolatry,
   dishonored the name of the Most High and became a curse among the
   nations. Yet Israel was the guardian of the Oracles of God and the time
   will yet come when God shall again visit His ancient people--and the
   branches that have been broken off, because of unbelief, shall be
   grafted again into their own olive tree--and their "fullness" shall be
   "the riches of the Gentiles," as Paul so plainly shows in the parable
   of the olive trees in Romans 11:1136. Indeed, at this very hour a Jew
   is the riches of Jews and Gentiles alike, for our Lord sprang out of
   Judah and, therefore, do we "take hold of the skirt of Him that is a
   Jew, saying, We will go with You." And He is to us, "more precious than
   fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir." The Son of Mary,
   who is also the Son of God, is our blessed Lord and Savior, and in Him
   is that ancient promise fulfilled which was made to Jacob at Bethel,
   "In you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be
   blessed." We cannot sing too often that grand Coronation Anthem of the
   Christian Church--

   "All hail the power of Jesus' name! Let angels prostrate fall. Bring
   forth the royal (diadem, And crown Him Lord of all!

   Crown Him, you martyrs of our God, Who from His altar call. Extol the
   stem of Jesse's rod, And crown Him Lord of all! You chosen seed of
   Israel's race, A remnant weak and small, Hail Him who saves you by His
   Grace, And crown Him Lord of all!"

   Yet let us not omit to sing also --

   "The hymn shall yet in Zion swell

   That sounds Messiah's praise,

   And Your loved name, Immanuel!

   As once in ancient days.

   For Israel yet shall own her King,

   For her salvation waits,

   And hill and dale shall sweetly sing

   With praise in all her gates."

   Whereas through sin, then, Israel had been a curse to the other nations
   of the earth, she shall, through the mercy of God, be a blessing when
   she repents of her sin and accepts the Messiah whom she has so long
   rejected. But we need not confine to the literal Israel and Judah the
   promise of our text, for it belongs to all the people of God, and so to
   you, Beloved, who are, by faith, the true seed of believing Abraham!
   This promise is applicable to you--"You shall be a blessing."

   I. And first, I want to remind you that THIS PROMISE QUICKENS REGRET
   WITHIN OUR SPIRITS--"You shall be a blessing."

   Then the first emotion in our heart is that of penitential sorrow. If
   God says that He will make us a blessing, surely it is implied that
   once we were not so. Let us look back to the days of our unregeneracy.
   It may be that some of us were great curses to our families and to the
   neighborhood in which we dwelt. If so, we must look back with deep
   sorrow upon the past, for, albeit that God has blotted out the guilt of
   our iniquity, yet the consequences of the sin still continue. We cannot
   undo the evil that we have done to others. If we first tempted them and
   they fell into sin, we may be forgiven the temptation, but we cannot
   recall it, nor can we put them back into the place from which they have
   fallen. A child once learned an evil word from you--oh, how gladly
   would you unsay that word if you could! But it entered that child's
   memory and it will abide there, perhaps forever! If you led others into
   places of frivolous amusement, or into haunts of vice, you may abhor
   those places, now, and God may have forgiven you the sin of your
   youth--but what about those whom you led there--what will become of
   them? You can pray for them and I know that you will do so. You will
   plead with them if you know where they are and you will be quickened in
   your service for the Savior by your remembrance of the earnestness with
   which you served Satan in those evil days of the past--but Beloved,
   there must still remain the bitter fruit of perpetual regret that you
   cannot destroy the results of that early sowing of bad seed! The
   handfuls of cockle and darnel that you scattered broadcast in the
   furrows--you cannot call them back again! The firebrands you have
   thrown, the hot coals that you have cast about and which caused such a
   terrible conflagration--you cannot undo the mischief and ruin that they
   worked! The results of good or evil deeds will abide forever and ever,
   so let us beware what we do since it can never be undone. So, first,
   when God makes us a blessing, it reminds us that we were once a curse.

   It also brings to us--at least it does to me--a painful remembrance of
   the time wasted--time spent unprofitably before our conversion when, if
   we were not actually doing damage to the souls of others, yet we
   allowed opportunities for doing them good to glide by unused. Oh, these
   blessed hours, these precious hours, these more than golden hours in
   which Christians may win souls for the Lord Jesus Christ! Angels never
   had them and the spirits of just men made perfect have them no more.
   Though they can render other and perhaps yet higher service to their
   Lord, this special service of soul-winning is reserved for us who are
   still living on this earth. We have, at the longest, only a few days,
   or weeks, or months, or years allotted to us in which we may glorify
   God by being a blessing to our fellow creatures after we have found the
   Lord for ourselves! Yet some of us allowed many years to pass away
   before we even gave earnest heed to these things for ourselves. Those
   of us who were brought to know the Lord in our early youth, bless Him
   for that, yet we

   regret that we were not saved in our childhood. We wish we had given to
   God the very first rays of the morning of our life as well as the
   bright beams of the fuller day, so that we might have been made a
   blessing to the Church and the world as soon as we had intellect and
   understanding--and were capable of influencing the minds and hearts of
   others.

   There is another reflection which is also a sorrowful one and causes us
   deep regret--namely that since the ever-blessed hour when the Holy
   Spirit taught us to trust in Jesus and gave us new life in Him, we have
   not been such a blessing to our fellow creatures as we ought to have
   been. Not altogether in vain have we lived--we have not sown to the
   flesh, but to the Spirit--yet how scanty has been our sowing of the
   Good Seed of the Kingdom! And, in consequence, how small has been the
   harvest that we have reaped! Oh, that we had availed ourselves of all
   the golden opportunities we have had of serving the Lord Jesus Christ!
   How much more good we might have done had we been earnest at all times,
   fervent at all seasons, had we thrown spirit, soul and body entirely
   into this holy service--and lived and breathed alone for our Lord and
   Savior Jesus Christ! If we had reached the ideal Christian life so that
   we did eat, drink and sleep eternal life, having Christ living in us
   and we living in Him, how much more we might have achieved than any of
   us have yet done! The capacity to "be a blessing" to others was given
   to all of us who have believed in Jesus at our conversion--but we have
   left that precious talent unused to a very large extent. To some
   Christians, and to some now present, this message must go home and this
   question must be asked and answered--what have we done for Him who died
   to save us? Alas, how little--at the most, how little--but by the most
   idle, alas, alas, how little! God help you to turn your regret to
   practical account while the glad sound of the text rings in your ears
   like the music of a silver bell, "You shall be a blessing." Let your
   tears fall plenteously as you recall the sad fact that before you knew
   the Lord, you were a curse to others--and not a blessing--and that even
   since you have known Him, you have not grasped the truth of the text
   and realized the fullness of its blessed meaning as you should have
   done, for such tears of regret will be likely to lead you to change
   your course of action for the future!

   II. Let us now notice, in the second place, that OUR TEXT IS CALCULATED
   TO EXCITE INQUIRY as well as to quicken regret. Inquiries will come
   something in this style from young Believers, "Will you kindly tell us
   what we can do by which we shall be a blessing? We hear the promise of
   the text, but how can we get it fulfilled in our own experience? In
   what way can we be made a blessing to others?" Beloved Friends, there
   are many ways in which God can make you the channels of blessing to
   your fellow creatures if you are, yourselves, regenerated by the Holy
   Spirit.

   First, it will probably be by your consistent conduct that you will be
   made a blessing to others more than in any other way. An unholy
   professor is a downright curse both to the church and to the world and,
   as for a church of inconsistent members, Satan himself could not devise
   an instrument more fitted to carry out his diabolical purposes! A
   community of ungodly men that is known by everybody to be a synagogue
   of Satan is robbed of much of its power to do mischief--but if it is
   misnamed a Church of Christ, it is potent for all manner of evil! An
   unholy professor outside the Church of God may batter against the walls
   with small effect but inside, he would be like the concealed soldiers
   in the wooden horse who opened the gates of Troy to the besiegers. It
   was only an Apostle who could be such a "son of perdition" as Judas
   was, so beware, you who profess to be followers of Christ! You have
   great capacities for usefulness, but your position gives you immense
   capacities for doing damage to the cause of Christ. Only holy
   Christians are useful Christians--and the preaching of Christ's Truth
   must be backed up by the consistent living of Christ's followers if it
   is to have its due effect upon the hearts and lives of the ungodly. No
   doubt many a shaft has missed the mark because it has not been shot
   from the bow of a consistent preacher, or because it has been turned
   aside by inconsistency in the church of which he is the pastor. Oh, for
   holy living! The honest tradesman who has just weights and measures.
   The diligent domestic servant who sweeps under the mats and in the dark
   corners. The laborious workman who may be trusted when his master is
   absent. The man who would not tell a lie even though he could win a
   fortune or a throne by doing so. The man who in all things acts justly
   towards men and walks humbly before his God--these are the people who
   "shall be a blessing" to all around them! If a man had no tongue and so
   never spoke a word. If it were not in his power to bestow as much as a
   farthing upon the poor. If he could not visit the sick or the
   prisoners, yet his very presence upon the earth would be in itself a
   blessing--a silent reproof, but none the less eloquent to ungodly
   men--and a powerful example to such as wish to walk in the way of
   righteousness. "Be you holy," for so shall you serve God and serve the
   Church of Christ and, in the highest sense, serve your generation and
   serve the world! I love to sing, with John Newton--

   "Let worldly minds the world pursue, It has no charms for me! Once I
   admired its trifles too, But Grace has set me free! Now, Lord, I would
   be Yours alone, And wholly live to Thee!"

   But, in addition to that, all Christians may be made a blessing to
   others by instructing them in the Truths of the Gospel. The world is
   still very dark, spiritually, though many people foolishly speak of
   "this enlightened century." It has "light" of a certain sort--or
   rather, of a very uncertain sort--within it. But the light that is in
   it is almost entirely darkness! It is still true of the bulk of
   mankind, as it was in Isaiah's day--they "put darkness for light, and
   light for darkness.. .bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" Today the
   scarcest thing in the whole world is true spiritual light and, where it
   is revealed, men hate it and try to banish it from their sight!
   Philosophy is exalted above Revelation. Science, falsely so-called, is
   set up in the place of Christ who is the Wisdom of God, though true
   science is never in conflict with the true Gospel. And anything that
   pretends to be light is preferred by many to Him who is "the true
   Light." Spiritual Light is mainly conveyed to the dark souls of men
   through the proclamation of the Gospel--the good news concerning Jesus
   Christ, the Savior of sinners. So, proclaim that--

   "Old, old story

   Of Jesus and His love"--

   to as many as you can! Tell it to thousands, to hundreds, to
   scores--tell it to one if you cannot tell it to more. Tell to all, as
   far as you can, these precious things concerning the Lord Jesus
   Christ--His Incarnation, His holy life, His wondrous Words, His perfect
   example and His substitutionary death! Tell these things to your
   children and charge them to tell them to their children--and to charge
   their children to tell them to the generation following. Tell that
   great central Truth of the substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ to the
   man who sits beside you in the tram or train, or who calls at your
   house on business! Seize every opportunity you can get of letting men
   know, by the Inspired Word of God, or by the written or spoken message,
   all that you can about "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom
   God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood,"
   "and by Him all that believe are justified from all things." And not
   only justified, but also glorified! Every true testimony to Christ
   brings glory to God and blessing to men. A preacher may halt and limp,
   his elocution may be faulty, his theology may be open to criticism--but
   if it is "the Gospel of Christ" that he proclaims, it will be precious
   Truth to the saints who hear him--and sinners will be saved by it!

   Not only by instructing men will you be a blessing to them, but also by
   reproof. This is a far more difficult matter and probably nine out of
   ten of us had better keep to the easier task of giving instruction. Yet
   now and then there will come occasions when you must not see sin in
   your Brother or Sister without rebuking it. If I hear blasphemy and am
   able to condemn it, yet do not, my silence makes me a sharer in the
   sin. I am always afraid lest when I hear God's name blasphemed, my
   guilty silence should make me an accomplice of the blasphemer. A rebuke
   need not be and should not be discourteous or disrespectful. And it
   should not be unduly severe, but I am afraid that nowadays we are not
   so likely to err by our harshness, as by failing to be faithful to our
   conscience and our God. We must boldly stand up, at all costs, for God,
   for truth, for purity. Shut your ear to the lascivious song--do not
   allow it to be sung in your house--and let not scandal be spoken at
   your table! Set your face like a flint against sin of every kind and,
   God speeding your testimony, you "shall be a blessing."

   More frequently, however, and much more pleasingly to yourself, you can
   be a blessing by giving words of comfort. And often something more
   substantial than words to the poor and afflicted ones with whom you may
   come into contact. If you know someone who is fighting with a fierce
   temptation, go and help to succor him. If you know another who is
   struggling with a troublesome doubt, try to assist him to drive it
   away. Your experience may be just what he needs to know, so tell him.
   Be not backward or bashful in speaking of what the Lord has done for
   you. I am always grieved when I hear of any persons coming to this
   Tabernacle for a long time and nobody speaking to them--let it not be
   so. Do endeavor, Brothers and Sisters--you who know Christ by
   experience--to tell others of the sweetness that you have found in Him
   and of the faithfulness of God to His promises--and of the power of
   prayer and the reality of faith. You will thus bring many a poor soul
   out of bondage who, but for you, might have lingered long in Doubting
   Castle in the dungeons of Giant Despair. God grant you the Grace "to
   speak a word in season to him that is weary." A word on wheels, as
   Solomon calls, "a word fitly spoken," is like apples of gold on plates
   of silver.

   Besides that you can be a blessing by your actions, as well as by your
   words. Some of you have the means with which you can assist your poorer
   neighbors. Of all people who ought to be kind and neighborly. Of all
   who should be sympathetic and generous, the Christian should be the
   first! The tendency nowadays is to get everything under a cast-iron
   code of law and I should not wonder if a law is passed, some day,
   making it penal to give sixpence to a poor person who is starving.
   Somebody said to me today when I was telling him how I had been
   deceived by a vagabond whom I had relieved, "It is such as you who make
   the vagabonds." If so, I shall go on making vagabonds sooner than let
   the stream of charity in my soul be frozen into ice! It is better to be
   taken in a few times than to let the heart become hardened like steel
   against the real poverty that there is in London and many other places
   besides--the gaunt, grim poverty that may soon be seen if we will but
   take a little trouble to search for it. Be charitable, notwithstanding
   all the mischief that unworthy applicants may make of your charity,
   remembering the command of our Savior to His disciples, "Give to him
   that asks you."

   You can also "be a blessing" in many other ways which I need not
   mention now. In such a vast city as this metropolis, there is work for
   all to do. A Christian living in a remote hamlet might, perhaps, say to
   his minister, "Sir, can you find me an opportunity of serving the
   Lord?" But no person who lives in London ought to ask another person,
   "What can I do for Christ?" If he is willing to do anythingfor the
   Master, the work lies at his door! Floods of sin are surging all around
   you--and sinners are sinking in them! Stretch out your hands to help
   them--

   "Rescue the perishing, care for the dying--

   Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave." In such a city as this,
   with hundreds of thousands--I might truthfully say, millions--needing
   the Bread of Life and the Water of Life--and with many of them
   literally needing bread and water--all of you can do something to
   relieve them! And I beseech you, if you love your Lord and Master, do
   the first thing that comes to hand and "whatever your hand finds to do,
   do it with all your might." Well did Dr. Horatius Bonar write--

   "'Tis not for man to trifle!

   Life is brief,

   And sin is here.

   Our age is but the falling of a leaf, A dropping tear.

   We have no time to sport away the hours, All must be earnest in a world
   like ours. Not many lives but only one have we, One, only one--

   How sacred should that one life always be, That narrow span!

   Day after day filled up with blessed toil, Hour after hour still
   bringing in new spoil."

   III. Now we must pass on to the third point which is that OUR TEXT IS
   ALSO CALCULATED TO SUGGEST ENDEAVOR. It has quickened regret and
   excited inquiry--now it suggests endeavor. But what endeavor?

   Well, first I think it stirs us up to look for a blessing upon what we
   have already tried to do for Christ and His Church. You, my Brother,
   have been teaching a Sunday school class for two years--is it not time
   that you saw some blessing? Go and look for it! Perhaps in looking for
   it, you will be the means, under God, of bringing it to your scholars.
   I think that an earnest, godly teacher, believing that God had blessed
   his message, would be well repaid if he asked the boys or girls in his
   class, "Has God blessed your souls through my teaching?" If he asked
   that question with tears, it might be more effective than all his
   ordinary teaching. And you, my dear Brother, have you been preaching in
   some little mission-room in London or in the country and have you seen
   no "fruit" from your sowing of the Good Seed of the Kingdom? Have you
   asked, "Who has believed our report?" If so, I ask you--"Have you
   believed the promise of my text, 'You shall be a blessing'?" If not, do
   so at once and go and inquire if there has not been a blessing--and
   never rest satisfied until you have it!

   Next, the text bids us look for a blessing wherever we may be and
   whatever we may do. What have you been doing just lately? You have
   moved to a more suitable neighborhood? Then let one of your first
   questions there be, "How can I

   be a blessing here?" You have been recently married. I congratulate you
   and suggest that you should ask, "How can I, in my new relationship, be
   made a blessing?" You, my Friend over yonder, have gone down in the
   world lately--well then, ask yourself, "For what purpose am I put in
   this lower position? Is it not that I may be a blessing to some whom I
   could not have reached under happier circumstances?" Are you a
   commercial traveler? Are you not sent from town to town to be a
   blessing to those you meet? Are you a tradesman? Are you not put behind
   the counter to be a blessing there?

   So I might go on addressing the members of various trades or
   professions, but I want to remind you that there are some persons who
   ought, above all others, to aim at being a blessing to their fellow
   creatures. And I put, first of all, ministers of the Gospel. O my
   Brothers in the ministry, if we are not a blessing, we are a double
   curse! Every so-called "place of worship" in which the true Gospel is
   not preached is a curse, for it is like a sepulcher full of rottenness
   doing nothing but harm! Worldlings more often judge Christianity by
   fruitless trees than by fruit-bearing trees. O preacher, be a blessing,
   or never enter the pulpit again!

   This rule should also apply to parents. What a blessing Christian
   parents often are to their children! I can conceive of nothing more
   natural and, at the same time, nothing more blessed than a father and
   mother who, by precept and example, have trained up their children in
   God's fear and whose loving instruction and earnest prayers have been
   blessed by the Holy Spirit to their children's salvation! What greater
   joy can we have than to see our children walking in the Truth of God?
   God grant that you, fathers and mothers, may all diligently seek to be
   a blessing to your offspring!

   There may be some domestic servants here. If so, let me remind you that
   you have great opportunities for being made a blessing. Good servants
   can contribute much to the well-being of the family. By the faithful
   discharge of their duties, they may be the means of preventing others
   from committing sin. Whereas on the other hand, untidy and idle
   servants create so much discord in the household that they are the
   fomenters of sin! I do not know of any person who can have so much
   influence for good as a godly maid who has the care of little
   children--one who, instead of scaring them with wicked threats or silly
   tales, talks to them discreetly concerning Him who said, "Suffer the
   little children to come unto Me." I have known domestic servants who
   were earnest Christians, who have gone to live where there was no
   religion whatever, no family prayer and no Sabbath observance--and
   without ever intruding beyond their proper place, they have worked a
   blessed revolution in the house--and their masters and mistresses and
   fellow servants have been brought to Christ by their godly example! Let
   all Christian servants here endeavor to get the fulfillment of the
   promise of our text, "You shall be a blessing."

   I might speak thus to you who have the duty and privilege of
   instructing the children in our schools, to you masters of large
   factories, to you who, as workingmen, meet with great numbers of your
   fellow men--all of you ought to aim at realizing this promise, "You
   shall be a blessing." Dearly beloved in Christ, let me say to all of
   you--Do, by God's Grace, maintain a holiness of walk with God and then
   seek to be a blessing to others. Look at the six words before our
   text-- "So will I save you, and you shall be a blessing." It is only as
   you yourselves are, in the fullest sense, saved--saved from falling
   into sin, saved from inward corruption, saved from error--it is only as
   you are conformed to the image of Christ that you can expect to be a
   blessing to others. Do, I pray you, as members of this Christian
   Church, always feel that you are to take your full share in being made
   a blessing to others! There are some who hold that blessing comes to
   men only through priests--that is what I hold! I believe that no
   blessing comes to men except through priests! First, through the great
   High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, and then through all who believe in
   Him, who are, as Peter says, "a holy priesthood" and "a royal
   priesthood," and whose song in Heaven shall be, "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. Amen."

   The priesthood of the Christian Church is common to all the saints!
   There is no other true priesthood but that of the Lord Jesus Christ. I
   cannot discharge any of your religious duties or relieve you of any of
   your responsibilities. My own are quite heavy enough for me to bear--I
   will seek, as God gives me Grace, to discharge them--but I cannot
   discharge the responsibilities of any other person in the world! You,
   having been personally redeemed by Christ, personally washed in His
   blood, personally saved by His Grace, are to render personal service to
   Him. All proxy-religion must be abhorrent to Christ, "who His own Self
   bore our sins in His own body on the tree." He did not seek to find
   someone else to save you, for He knew that no one else could do it! He
   tread the winepress alone and of the people there was none with Him.

   So, to your personal Redeemer render your personal service. Give
   liberally of your substance to help others to do their part of the
   work, but give yourself--spirit, soul and body--for these are claimed
   by Christ as "your reasonable service."

   IV. Now I must conclude by trying to show you that our TEXT FURNISHES
   US WITH MANY

   CONSOLATIONS. "You shall be a blessing."

   Some of you have to live in places where you are not comfortable.
   Perhaps you are not in a neighborhood that you like. Possibly in the
   very house where you live there may be others whose thoughts and
   feelings are very different from yours and, sometimes, you are grieved
   and perhaps perplexed because you have to live there. But if God put
   you there, "you shall be a blessing." My dear Friend, Mr. Orsman of the
   Golden Lane Mission, has often told me that the results of his work
   will never be visible in Golden Lane because as soon as a man is
   converted, he begins to save, he becomes industrious, wears a better
   coat, seeks a better house, for he cannot live in that dirty room in
   which he once lived and he cannot bear the foul language of the court
   or alley--so, very properly and very naturally--he moves away!
   Unhappily there are always others coming in to keep the place as bad as
   ever. Now, when a Christian man is compelled to live in such a place as
   that, let him conclude that he has been put there that he may be a
   blessing. If that is your trying lot, my Brother, fight the devil where
   you are placed, on his own ground! It is not fair that you should have
   the pick of the spot where the great duel is to be fought. Fight the
   devil where he has a firm foothold and beat him by God's Grace! I think
   if I were a gas lamp and had the choice of the place where I should be
   hung--and it was proposed to me that I should hang up somewhere in the
   West End where there is already abundance of light streaming from the
   fine shops--I don't know that I would particularly care to be put
   there. But if there was a dark corner where thieves were in the habit
   of meeting and where much mischief might be done if it were not for the
   light of a lamp--I fancy I should ask to be hung up there where I
   should be of the most use! At any rate, if you are placed, in the
   Providence of God, in a dark neighborhood, let this be your prayer, "O
   Lord, make me a blessing here!"

   Perhaps, however, you are a member of an ungodly family. Now, you had
   no hand in that matter. You were not responsible for your birth and you
   cannot get out of that family into which you were born. Now, instead of
   saying, "I wish I had a Christian mother and that our house were
   ordered in God's fear," say, "God has called me, by His Grace. At
   present I am the only one saved, but He must mean me to be a blessing
   to my brothers, sisters and parents and, therefore, I am thankful that
   He has put me where I am needed. I will try to do everything that shall
   be kind to them--I will win their love if I can and I will also try to
   win them for Christ." I am really thankful when some of you come to
   join the Church and tell me that there is no other in the house who
   cares for the things of God--for I look upon your conversion as getting
   in the thin end of the wedge! If we get one who fears God inside the
   house, I hope we shall get more, for, blessed be God, good example is
   contagious as well as bad! God grant that since it is your unhappiness
   to have ungodly relatives, it may be your happiness to "be a blessing"
   to them!

   It may be that you are persecuted, that you live in places where you
   are sneered at, where the Doctrines that are dearer than life to you,
   are regarded with contempt and Scriptural ordinances, in which you
   delight, are held up to constant ridicule. Do not altogether regret
   this, but say to yourself, "Perhaps I am put here in order that I may
   be a blessing to my persecutors." Do not imagine that the unlikeliest
   man to get a blessing out of you is the one who laughs most at you. I
   sometimes think that the infidels who shout most loudly have more faith
   than others and that because they are afraid they shall hear conscience
   speak, they make a great clamor to try to drown its voice! When a man
   bullies you, there is a great deal better opportunity for you to get at
   him than when he says, as so many do, "Oh, yes, Sir, it is all
   true"--and there the matter ends as far as they are concerned. But
   there is something in a man who will stand up to oppose you and you may
   yet be able to say a word for Christ that will be blessed to him. Why
   should we want to run away because men mock us? If they say, "Come and
   fight," let us go and fight--only with other weapons than theirs-- with
   the weapons of holy gentleness giving a good reason for the hope that
   is within us with meekness and fear, for that is always the more
   powerful way of speaking! Do not, therefore, fear persecution, but
   rather thank God for it, and say, "I have to endure this that I may be
   a blessing to those who revile and abuse me."

   Brothers and Sisters, I think our text furnishes sweet consolation to
   any who have been engaged in very arduous service. Have you a great
   deal to do for Christ--a great deal too much to do, it often seems to
   you? Are you incessantly occupied about the Lord's business? Then thank
   God for it, for He has said, "You shall be a blessing"--and the more
   you have to do for Him, the more blessing you are likely to be the
   means of conveying to others!

   Or on the other hand, are you passing through a very trying experience?
   If so, you are being qualified for greater usefulness. Your dark
   experience will only teach you more that you will be able to teach to
   others concerning God and His dealings with His own. Believe that you
   will become a blessing to others by means of your trials and cheerfully
   bow your heads to overwhelming floods of sorrow in the confident
   assurance that you will thus be made a blessing to others--and so bring
   glory to God!

   Yes, Beloved, and we may even be content to die if our last testimony
   shall be more useful than any that we have borne before! If God will
   enable us to glorify Him by being a blessing to others, we will be
   content. I hope we can say that we desire nothing on earth compared
   with this--to be blessed of God and to be made a blessing by God. We
   covet not earthly wealth or position, but we do covet the honor of
   being a blessing! Have an insatiable thirst for this honor, beloved
   Brothers and Sisters in Christ--to be a blessing to tens, to hundreds,
   to thousands, to the millions of this great city! Incessantly strive,
   by your private prayer, by your generous alms, by your kindly deeds, by
   your public testimony, to be a blessing and may God bless you more and
   more--you and your children--for His dear name's sake!

   But, alas, there are many who cannot be a blessing to others, for they
   are not themselves saved. They are getting gray, but they are not
   saved! Death will soon call for them. Hell opens wide for them and they
   are not saved! May the Lord have mercy upon all of you who are not
   saved and may He, by His Grace, constrain you to believe on the Lord
   Jesus Christ and then to make the Scriptural profession of your faith,
   for HE said, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." May God
   grant that you may all "be saved in the Lord with an everlasting
   salvation," for Jesus' sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

One of the Master's Choice Sayings

   (No. 3046)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart." Matthew 14:16.

   OF course the Master was right, but He appeared to speak unreasonably.
   It seemed self-evident that the people very much needed to depart. They
   had been all day long hearing the Preacher. The most of them had not
   broken their fast and they were ready to faint for hunger. The only
   chance of their being fed was to let them break up into small parties
   and forage for themselves among the surrounding villages. But our Lord
   declared that there was no necessity for them to go away from Him, even
   though they were hungry, famished and in a desert place. Now, if there
   was no necessity for hungry hearers to go away, much less will it ever
   be necessary for loving disciples to depart from Him! If these, who
   were hearers only--and the bulk of them were nothing more, a
   congregation collected by curiosity and held together by the charm of
   His eloquence and by the renown of His miracles--if these needed not to
   depart, much less need they depart who are His own friends and
   companions, His chosen and beloved. If the crowds needed not through
   hunger to depart bodily, much less need any of the saints depart
   spiritually from their Lord. There is no necessity that our communion
   with Christ should ever be suspended--

   " To walk with Christ from morn till eve, In Him to breathe, in Him to
   live--

   is no mere wish, no visionary's prayer--it may be realized--we need not
   depart from Jesus! There is no need that the spouse of Christ should
   wander from beneath the banner of His love. Mary may always sit at
   Jesus' feet. There is no Law which says to holy fellowship, "To here
   shall you come, but no further. Here shall your communion cease!" There
   is no set hour when the gate of communion with Christ must inevitably
   be closed. We may continue to come up from the wilderness, leaning upon
   the Beloved. We "need not depart." Yet is it so commonly thought to be
   a matter of course that we should wander from our Lord that I shall ask
   for strength from Heaven to combat the injurious opinion.

   I. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, THERE IS NO PRESENT NECESSITY FOR
   YOUR DEPARTING FROM CHRIST. At this moment we may truthfully say of all
   the saints of God, "They need not depart."

   There is nothing in your circumstances which compels you to cease from
   following hard after your Lord. You are very poor, you say. But you
   need not depart from Christ because of penury, for, in the depths of
   distress the saints have enjoyed the richest Presence of their once
   houseless Lord. Your poverty may be pinching you at this very
   moment--to be relieved from that pinch you need not break away from
   Jesus, for fellowship with Him may be maintained under the direst
   extremity of need. Indeed, your need increases your necessity to walk
   closely with your Lord so that patience may have its perfect work and
   your soul may be sustained by the mighty consolations which flow out of
   nearness to Jesus. Need shall not separate the soul from communion with
   Him who hungered in the wilderness and thirsted on the Cross! You tell
   me that in order to relieve your necessities, you are compelled to
   exercise great care and anxiety. But all the cares which are useful and
   allowable are such as will allow of a continuance of fellowship with
   Christ! You may care as much as you ought to care--and I need not say
   how little that is--and yet you need not depart from Him who cares for
   you. But you tell me that in addition to deep thought, you have to
   expend much labor in order to provide things honest in the sight of all
   men. Yes, but you need not depart from Christ for that reason! The
   carpenter's Son is not ashamed of the sons of toil--He who wore the
   garment without seam does not despise the peasant's smock or the
   servant's apron. Labor is no enemy to communion--idleness is a far more
   likely separator of the soul from Christ. Not to the idlers in Herod's
   court did Jesus reveal Himself, but to hard-working fishermen by the
   lake of Galilee. If Satan is never far away from the idle, it

   is pretty plain that it is no disadvantage to be busy! A toil amounting
   to slavery may weaken the body and prostrate the spirit, but even when
   heart and flesh fail, the heart may call the Lord its portion. There is
   no service beneath the sun so arduous that you need depart from Christ
   in it! But rather, while the limbs are weary, the spirit should find
   its rest in drawing nearer to Him who can strengthen the weak and give
   rest to the laboring and heavy-laden. Do you tell me that you are rich?
   Ah, indeed, how often has this made men depart from Christ!--

   "Gold and the Gospel seldom do agree-- Religion always sides with
   poverty." So said John Bunyan and his saying is true. Too often the
   glitter of wealth has dazzled men's eyes so that they could not see the
   beauty of Christ Jesus. But O, you few wealthy saints, you need not
   depart! The camel can go through the needle's eye for, "with God, all
   things are possible." Men have worn coronets on earth and inherited
   crowns in Heaven! He who was the man after God's own heart swayed a
   scepter. To grow rich in substance does not make it inevitable that you
   should become poor in Divine Grace. Do riches bring you many
   responsibilities and burdens--and are you so much occupied with them
   that your fellowship with the Lord grows slack? It should not be so.
   You need not depart from Him. You can bring those responsibilities and
   the wealth to Jesus and communion with Him will prevent the gold from
   cankering and the responsibility from involving you in sin. Very often
   the servant of God who ministers to the Church of Christ finds so much
   to do in watching over the souls of others--and in caring for the
   various needs of the flock--that he is in danger of losing his own
   personal enjoyment of his Lord's Presence. But it need not be so. We
   can make all our many works subservient to our personal communion with
   our Lord and, as the bee flies to many flowers and gathers honey from
   each one, so may we, out of many forms of service, extract a sweet
   conformity to Him who was always about His Father's business. We need
   not be "cumbered" either with much serving or with much suffering. Our
   surroundings are not to be our sovereigns, but our subjects. We are, in
   all these things, to be "more than conquerors through Him that loved
   us."

   Brothers and Sisters, you need not depart because of anything in Christ
   Jesus. Those whom we love most would not desire us to be always with
   them and never out of their sight. A guest is very welcome, but the
   proverb says that after three days he is stale. A mother does not
   always want her child in her arms! Its face is the epitome of beauty,
   but at eventide she is glad that those dear blue eyes no longer shine
   upon her--she is happy to lay her treasure in its cradle basket. We do
   not always wish for the company of those whom we compassionate--if they
   will condense their requests and do their errands rapidly, we are best
   content. And Jesus Christ says to us, His poor dependents, His crying
   children, "You need not depart." When we are weeping, He will lay us in
   His bosom and give us rest. When we are famishing, He will entertain us
   at His royal table till we forget our misery. He is "a Friend that
   sticks closer than a brother" in this respect, for we need not, in this
   instance, heed the wise man's caution, "Go not into your brother's
   house in the day of your calamity," for we may, at all times and
   seasons, resort to our elder Brother! We may ask Him, "Where do You
   dwell?" and when we receive His answer, we may go forth and dwell with
   Him and make His house our home. Do you not remember His words, "Abide
   in Me"? Not merely "Abide with Me," but, "Abide in Me." The closest
   contact with Christ may be maintained with the utmost constancy--

   " You need not depart, you may tarry for, yes,

   Unchanged is His heart, He invites you to stay!

   He does not despise nor grow weary of you,

   You're fair in His eyes and most comely to view.

   Then wish not to roam, but abide with your Lord

   Since He is your home, go no longer abroad!

   Lie down on His breast in unbroken repose,

   For there you may rest, though surrounded with foes." II. Secondly, NO
   FUTURE NECESSITY WILL EVER ARISE TO COMPEL YOU TO DEPART FROM JESUS. It
   will always be true, "You need not depart."

   You do not know what your needs will be and though you are no Prophet,
   your words will be true if you affirm that no need shall ever
   necessarily divide you from Jesus because your needs will, instead,
   bind you to Him. "It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness
   dwell." "And of His fullness have we all received, and Grace for
   Grace." We will draw nearer to Him, in time of need, to obtain the
   Grace we need! We shall never be forced to go elsewhere to find sup-

   plies for our spiritual needs! There stands another trader over the way
   who gladly would have you deal with him--"his Infallible Holiness," as
   he styles himself--but, ah, if you need Infallibility, you need not
   wander from Him who is "the Truth!" And if you desire holiness, you
   need not withdraw from Him who was the "Holy Child Jesus." To gain all
   that the superstitious profess to find in Babylon, you need not depart
   from the Son of David who reigns in Zion! They tell us that we must
   confess our sins to a priest--we will stay at home and lay bare our
   hearts to the great High Priest who "sprang out of Judah" and who is
   "touched with the feeling of our infirmities." They teach that we must
   receive absolution from one chosen from among men to forgive sins--we
   go at once to Him who was raised from the dead "that repentance and
   remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations,
   beginning at Jerusalem." They tell us that we should continue in
   morning and evening prayers--we do so, and offer our "matins" and our
   "vespers" where no bells call us except the bells upon our High
   Priest's garments! Our daily office may not be according to "the use of
   Sarum," but it is according to the use of those who "worship God in
   spirit and in truth." They cry up their daily sacrifice of the
   "mass"--but in Him who "offered one Sacrifice for sins forever," we
   find our All-in-All! His "flesh is meat, indeed," and His "blood drink,
   indeed." You "need not depart" to pope or priest, church or altar, for
   you may rest assured that there dwells in the Man, Christ Jesus, the
   Mediator of the New Covenant, all that your spiritual needs shall need
   for their supply! And on no occasion--for any needs that can by any
   possibility arise--need you go down into Egypt for help, or trust
   yourself to Assyria or Babylon!

   You will experience great trials as well as great needs. That young
   man, fresh from the country, has come to town to live in a godless
   family. And last night he was laughed at when he knelt down to pray. My
   young Friend, you need not forsake the faith, for other saints have
   endured more severe ordeals than yours and have still rejoiced in the
   Lord! Yours are only the trials of cruel mocking--they were stoned and
   sawn asunder--yet neither persecution, nor nakedness, nor sword divided
   them from the love of God in Christ Jesus their Lord! Many also are
   those with whom God, in His Providence, deals severely--all His waves
   and billows go over them! Through much tribulation they enter the
   Kingdom of God and everything in the future forebodes multiplied
   adversities--but still, "they need not depart" from Jesus their Friend!
   If, like Paul, you should come to a place where two seas meet. If you
   should experience a double trouble and if neither sun nor moon should
   give you cheer, yet you need not suspend, but may rather deepen your
   fellowship with the Man of Sorrows! Christ is with you in the
   tempest-tossed vessel and you, and those who sail with you, shall yet
   come to the desired haven. Therefore be of good courage and let not
   your hearts be troubled. The Son of God will be with you in the furnace
   heated seven times hotter than normal. He has said, "When you pass
   through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they
   shall not overflow you; when you walk through the fire, you shall not
   be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you." This proves to a
   demonstration that you "need not depart" from Christ in great trials!

   You will also encounter many difficulties between here and Heaven.
   Those who paint the road to Glory through rose-colored glasses have
   never trodden it. Many are the hills and dales between this Jericho and
   the city of the Great King! Let who will, be without trials--Christians
   will have their full share of them! But there shall come no difficulty
   of any kind, between here and Paradise, which shall necessitate the
   soul's going anywhere but to her gracious Lord for guidance, for
   consolation, for strength, or for anything besides! Little know we of
   the walls to be leaped or the troops to be overcome--but we know full
   well that we never need part from the Captain of our salvation, or call
   in other helpers.

   Death will probably befall us, but we "need not depart" from Jesus in
   the hour of our departure out of this world. On the contrary, when the
   death-dew lies cold on our brow we will sing--

   "If ever I loved You, my Jesus, 'tis now"-- and we will say with the
   Apostle Paul, "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
   nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
   nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate
   us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Straight on
   into eternity--and on and on forever--that word, "depart," never need
   cross our path. As never in eternity will the great Judge pronounce the
   sentence, "Depart, you cursed," upon His saints, so never in His
   Providence, nor in the severest trial will He render it necessary that
   the saints should in any sense depart from Him--

   "Never, O time, in your darkest hour

   Shall I need depart from Him,

   Though round me your blackest tempests lower

   And both sun and moon grow dim.

   Faster and faster each grief shall bind

   My soul to her Lord above

   And all the woes that assail my mind

   Shall drive me to rest in His love." There is no necessity, then, in
   the present--and there will be none in the future--for departing from
   communion with the Lord!

   III. Thirdly, "they need not depart." that is to say, NO FORCE CAN
   COMPEL THE CHRISTIAN TO DEPART FROM JESUS.

   The world can tempt us to depart and, alas, too successfully does it
   seduce with its fascinating blandishments! Its frowns alarm the
   cowardly and its smiles delude the unwary, but none need depart. If we
   have Grace enough to play the man, Madam Bubble cannot lead us astray!
   "Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird." We need
   not be taken in the world's traps--there is One who can deliver us from
   the snare of the fowler! We are not ignorant of the devices of Satan
   and the temptations of the world--we are not compeled to fall from our
   steadfastness--and if we do, it is our willful fault. There is no
   necessity for it. Many live above the world--many in as difficult
   circumstances as ours. There are those in Heaven who have found as hard
   hand-to-hand fighting in the spiritual life as we do--yet they were not
   vanquished, nor need we be--for the same strength which was given to
   them is also available for us!

   "But," says one, "you do not know where I live." Perhaps not. "You do
   not know what I have to endure," cries another. Most true, but I know
   where my Lord lived and I have read that He endured "such contradiction
   of sinners against Himself" that Paul holds Him up as a pattern to all
   His people! He did not depart from holiness, nor from love to you. "You
   have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." Perseverance
   to the end is possible to every Believer-- no, it is promisedto us and
   we may have it for the seeking! You need not depart from Christ, my
   young Friend--the world cannot drag you from Jesus, though it may
   entice you. Yield not and you shall stand, for "there has no temptation
   taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will
   not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will, with
   the temptation, also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear
   it" (1 Cor 10:13).

   Satan i s a very cunning tempter of the souls of men, but though he
   would gladly constrain you to depart from your Lord, you need not do
   his bidding. Satan is strong, but Christ is stronger! His temptations
   are insinuating, but you are no longer in darkness that you should be
   deceived by him. You "need not depart." Even though surprising
   temptation should assault you unawares, it ought not to find you
   sleeping. Has not Christ said, "What I say unto you, I say unto all,
   Watch"? You will not be surprised if holy anxiety stands sentinel to
   your soul. Prayer and watchfulness will warn you of the enemy's
   approach and, therefore, you need not be driven to forsake your Lord.

   Yes, but it may be that in addition to the world and to Satan, you are
   very conscious of the terrible depravity of your own heart. And,
   indeed, that is the chief ground of fear! The heart is deceitful, prone
   to wander and ready enough to depart from the living God--but you "need
   not depart" from the Master because of that. The newborn nature takes
   up arms against the body of sin and death. The Holy Spirit also dwells
   within to conquer indwelling sin. Shall not the life which is from
   above subdue the natural death? Shall not the Spirit of God purge out
   the old leaven? You "need not depart" from Jesus! It is true that you
   have a fiery temper, but it must not prevail--there is a cure for that
   plague. Perhaps we are inclined to levity, but we need not let our
   frivolous nature reign--Grace can overcome it and will. "Where sin
   abounded, Grace did much more abound." There is no unconquerable sin!
   There is no Dagon that shall not be broken in the presence of the Ark
   of God! There is no temple of the Philistines which shall not fall
   beneath the might of our greater Samson! We need not, as the result of
   temperament, or because of any sin that does so easily beset us, depart
   from Jesus, for Grace is equal to all emergencies.

   Do you call to mind that there may be another force employed beside
   that of the world, or of Satan, or the corruption within, namely, the
   lamentable coldness of the Christian Church?Truly it is to be feared
   that more have departed from close walking with Christ through the
   chilliness of inconsistent professors than from almost any other cause!
   Newborn children of God too often feel the atmosphere of the church to
   be as freezing as that of an ice-well. Their holy warmth of zeal is
   frozen and their limbs are stiffened into a rigor of inactivity--so
   that it is a marvel that they do not die--and die they would were not
   the spiritual life immortal and eternal! But, Brothers and Sisters,
   even in the midst of the coldest church we "need not depart" from a
   near and elevated fellowship with the Lord. The church of Rome is a

   church defiled with error and debased with superstition, but was there
   ever a nobler Christian woman in this world than Madame de la Mothe
   Guyon? She did not depart from Christ, though in the midst of a
   pestilent atmosphere. Remember, too, the names of Jansenius, Arnold,
   Pascal, and Fenelon which are an honor to the universal Church of
   Christ--who ever walked in closer communion with Christ than those holy
   men did? In the midst of the darkest ages, there have shone forth the
   brightest stars! John wrote, by Inspiration, "You have a few names even
   in Sardis which have not defiled their garments." Often am I told, by
   some Brother in a country village where the minister seems to have gone
   to sleep 20 years ago and has never awakened since, that he finds it
   very hard to rejoice in the Lord, for his Sabbaths are a burden instead
   of a joy. My dear Brother, you need all the more Grace if this is your
   case! You must have more vitality within if you see so much death
   without. You "need not depart" from Christ--on the contrary, by
   becoming an example of living near to Christ, yourself, you may be the
   means of quickening others, for, thank God, Grace is contagious as well
   as sin! At any rate, it is certain that though many influences may
   seduce us, no force can compel us to depart from Jesus--

   "No power in earth or Hell

   Can force me to depart--

   Christ is my unconquerable strength,

   He fortifies my heart!

   Fixed in His love I stand,

   And none shall drive me thence--

   Enclosed I am within the hand

   Of Love's Omnipotence!"

   IV. Regarded from another point, our text may teach us that THERE IS NO
   IMPOSSIBILITY IN KEEPING CLOSE TO THE BELOVED.

   Many Believers think that if they have fellowship every now and then
   with Jesus, with long intervals between, they are quite as much
   advanced as they need be and have probably reached as far as human
   nature is ever likely to go. An affectation of superfine godliness is
   suspicious but, at the same time, a higher standard of religion than is
   commonly seen among professors at this time can be maintained--and
   ought to be maintained. We ought to attain to such a walk with God--to
   so calm and serene a frame--that the light which shines upon our
   pathway shall be constant and clear. "Enoch walked with God" for
   hundreds of years. So cannot a man, nowadays, walk with God for 20
   years? Enoch lived in the dark age of the world, comparatively, so
   cannot we, who live under the Gospel dispensation, continuously walk
   with God? Enoch begat sons and daughters and so had all the cares of a
   household--yet he walked with God--so cannot we, who have the same
   cares, yet still, by Divine Grace, be enabled to maintain unbroken
   communion with Christ? I know the place is high where they stand who
   consciously abide in Christ, but will you not strive to climb there and
   bathe your foreheads in the everlasting sunlight of Jehovah's face? I
   know that it would require most jealous walking, but you serve a
   jealous God and He demands holy jealousy from you! Oh the joy of living
   in the embrace of Jesus and never departing from it! Oh the bliss of
   sitting always at His feet, abiding with the Bridegroom and listening
   to His voice! Surely the gain is worth the exertion and the prize is
   worthy of the struggle! Let us not, since the attainment is not
   impossible, murmur at the difficulty, but rather, in faith, let us ask
   that we may begin tonight to achieve the blessed result and continue to
   achieve it till we are privileged to see the face of Christ in Heaven!
   Others have done so--why shouldn't we?

   Brothers and Sisters, the way to maintain fellowship with Christ is
   very simple. If you desire to retain in your mouth all day the flavor
   of the "wines on the lees well refined," take care that you drink
   deeply of them by morning devotion. Do not waste those few minutes
   which you allot to morning prayer! Lay a text on your tongue and, like
   a wafer made with honey, it shall sweeten your soul till nightfall!
   During the day, when you can do so, think about your Redeemer-- His
   Person, His work. Pray to Him and ask Him to speak to you. All day long
   lean on the Beloved. During the day, serve Him and constantly say,
   "Lord, how can I best serve You in my calling?" Consecrate the kitchen,
   consecrate the market-room--make every place holy by glorifying the
   Lord there. Converse much with Him and it will not be impossible for
   you to abide in Him from the year's beginning to its close! You "need
   not depart." There is no mental or spiritual impossibility in the
   maintenance of unbroken communion with Christ if the Holy Spirit is
   your Helper!

   V. Once more, we "need not depart." That is to say, THERE IS NO REASON
   THAT CAN BE IMAGINED

   WHICH WOULD RENDER IT A WISE, PROPER AND GOOD THING FOR A CHRISTIAN TO
   DEPART FROM

   CHRIST.

   Suppose that the search after happiness is the great drift of our life,
   as the old philosophers assert--then we "need not depart" from Jesus to
   win it, for He is Heaven below! If you desire pleasure, forget not that
   the pleasures of God which are in Christ--His joy, the joy that fills
   His great heart--are more than enough to fill your heart! I sometimes
   hear people say, as an excuse for professors going to doubtful places
   of amusement, "You know, they must have some recreation." Yes, I know,
   but the re-creation which the Christian experienced when he was
   born-again has so completely made all things new to him, that the vile
   rubbish called recreation by the world is so dull to him that he might
   as well try to fill himself with fog as to satisfy his soul with such
   utter vanity! No, the Christian finds happiness in Christ Jesus--and
   when he needs pleasure, he does not depart from Jesus.

   Perhaps it is said that we require a little excitement now and then,
   for excitement gives a little stimulant to life and is as useful to it
   as stirring is to a fire. I know it and I trust you may have
   excitement, for the medicinal power of a measure of exhilaration and
   excitement is great. But you "need not depart" from Christ to get it,
   for there is such a thing as the soul's dancing at the sound of His
   name while all the sanctified passions are lifted up in the ways of the
   Lord! Holy mirth will sometimes so bubble up and overflow in the soul,
   that the man will say with Paul, "Whether in the body, I cannot tell;
   or whether out of the body, I cannot tell; God knows." Joy in Christ
   can rise to ecstasy and soar aloft to bliss! If you desire to wear the
   highest crown ofjoy, you "need not depart" from Christ.

   "But," it is said, " we require food for our intellect A man needs to
   develop his intellectual faculties. He must learn that which will
   enlarge and expand his mind." Certainly, by all means. But, O beloved
   Brothers and Sisters, you "need not depart" from Christ to get this,
   for the science of Christ Crucified is the most excellent,
   comprehensive and sublime of all the sciences! It is the only
   Infallible science in the circle of knowledge! Moreover, by all true
   science you will find Christ honored, and not dishonored. And your
   learning, if it is true learning, will not make you depart from Christ,
   but lead you to see more of His creating and ruling wisdom. The most
   profound astronomer admires the Sun of Righteousness! The best-taught
   geologist has no quarrel with the Rock of Ages! The greatest
   mathematician marvels at Him who is the sum total of the universe! He
   who knows the most of the physical, if he knows aright, loves the
   spiritual and reverences God in Christ Jesus! To imagine that to be
   wise one needs forsake the Incarnate Wisdom is insanity! No, to reach
   the highest degree of attainment in true learning, there is no reason
   for departing from Christ.

   "We must have friends and acquaintances," one says. You "need not
   depart" front Christ to get them. We admit that a young woman does well
   to enter the marriage state--a young man is safer and better for having
   a wife--but, my dear young Friends, you need not break Christ's Law and
   depart from Him in order to find a good husband or a good wife! His
   rule is that you should not be "unequally yoked together with
   unbelievers." It is a wise and kind rule and is an assistance rather
   than a hindrance to a fit marriage. "But," says one, "I do not intend
   to depart from Christ, though I am about to marry an unconverted
   person." Rest assured that you are departing from Jesus by that act! I
   have never yet met with a single case in which marriages of this kind
   have been blessed of God. I know that young women say, "Do not be too
   severe, Sir, I shall bring him around." You will certainly fail! You
   are sinning in marrying under that idea. If you break Christ's Law, you
   cannot expect Christ's blessing. To be happy in future life with a
   suitable partner you "need not depart" from Jesus. There is nothing in
   life you can need that is truly desirable, nothing that can promote
   your welfare, nothing that is really good for you that can ever make it
   necessary for you to depart from the Lord Jesus Christ!

   Now, if this is true, do not some of us feel very guilty? I could weep
   to think that I have so often departed from close fellowship with my
   Lord and Master when I need not have done it. I am cast down and
   weary--and occasionally cumbered with much serving. I know my faith is
   in Christ, but I have not the calm, unstaggering faith I desire to
   have. And I know that with a thousand cares, (and I have ten thousand),
   I need not for a moment lose serenity and peace of mind if I can reach
   the place which, by God's Grace, I will yet reach. Do you not feel
   ashamed that your family troubles and perhaps your family joys have
   taken you off from your Savior? Some of you have a great deal of
   leisure and yet you slide away from Christ. Let us be ashamed together,
   but let us remember that while this verse stands true--if we have
   departed from Christ and the enjoyment of His fellowship--we can offer
   no excuse by saying that we could not help it! We do it willfully, we
   do it sinfully! It is not to be thrust on the back of circumstances. It
   cannot be laid on the devil nor blamed to

   this, nor blamed to that--it is our own fault. We "need not depart!"
   There never was any need for it and there never will be. May God's
   Grace descend mightily upon us so that we may henceforth abide in our
   Lord! May those who know Him not, be led to seek Him by faith even now,
   and find Him, and then even they shall not need to depart from Him at
   the last.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 14:13-36.

   Verse 13. When Jesus heard of it, He departed from there by a boat into
   a desert place apart It is well for us to get alone with God when He
   takes Home the best and most faithful of His servants. Neither the
   Church nor the world could afford to lose such a man as John the
   Baptist--so it was well for Christ's disciples to retire with Him to a
   desert place that He might teach them the lesson of that highly-favored
   martyr's death.

   13, 14. And when the people had heard thereof, they followed Him on
   foot out of the cities. And Jesus went forth, and saw a great
   multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed
   their sick He needed quiet, but He could not get it just yet. He was
   not "moved" with indignation against the crowd that had sought Him out,
   but He "was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their
   sick." Out of the fullness of His heart of love, He condescended to do
   for the people what they most needed.

   15. And when it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, This is
   a desert place, and the time is nowpast; send the multitude away, that
   they may go into the villages and buy themselves food. Human compassion
   might have moved the disciples to say something more kind than that
   heartless request, "Send the multitude away." Perhaps they wished to
   spare themselves the sight of so much distress, but they evidently did
   not expect the answer that Christ gave them.

   16. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; you give them
   something to eat. Christ seemed to say to His disciples, "If you only
   exercise the power that is within your reach, with Me in your midst,
   you are equal to this emergency--'You give them something to eat.'"

   17. 18. And they said unto Him, We have here but five loaves, and two
   fishes. He said, Bring them to Me. "They are little enough in your
   hands, but they will be ample when they get into Mine." When everything
   that we have is in the hands of Christ, it is amazing how much He can
   make of it. Bring your talent to the Lord Jesus, be it ever so little--
   sanctify to Him every possibility that lies within your reach--you
   cannot tell how much He can and will do with it.

   19. And He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass. It must
   have been a beautiful sight to see those thousands of men, women and
   children at once obeying His command! There were five loaves and two
   fishes--probably five small barley cakes and a couple of sardines--so
   the people might have said, "What is the use of such a multitude
   sitting down on the grass to partake of such scanty fare as that?" But
   they did not say that--there was a Divine Power about the very simplest
   command of Christ which compelled instant obedience! "He commanded the
   multitude to sit down on the grass."

   19. And He took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to
   Heaven, He blessed. This was that "blessing of the Lord" of which
   Solomon says that "it makes rich, and He adds no sorrow with it." If
   you get this blessing on your five loaves and two fishes, you may feed
   five thousand men with them--besides the women and the children!

   19, 20. And broke, and gave the loaves to His disciples, and the
   disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and
   they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full Much
   more than they began with, for it is a Law of the Heavenly Kingdom that
   he who gives to God shall be no loser--his five loaves and two fishes
   shall turn to twelve baskets full after thousands have eaten and been
   satisfied! The more there is of complete consecration to Christ and His
   blessed service, the more reward will there be in the world to come
   and, possibly, even here!

   21, 22. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside
   women and children. And straightway Jesus constrained His disciples to
   get into a boat, and to go before Him unto the other side, while He
   sent the multitudes away. He always takes the heavier task upon
   Himself. They may go off by themselves, but He will remain to send the
   multitudes away. Besides, no one but Christ could have done it--only He
   who had made them sit down to the feast could make them go to their
   homes.

   23. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a
   mountain apart to pray. He had had a long day of preaching, healing and
   distributing the bread and fish--and now He closed the day with prayer
   to His Father.

   23. And when the evening was come, He was there alone. Dr. Watts was
   right in saying to His Lord--

   "Coldmountains, and the midnight air

   Witnessed the fervor of Your prayer." He is not now on the bare
   mountainside, but He is engaged in the same holy exercise up yonder
   before His Father's Throne.

   24. But the boat was nowin the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for
   the wind was contrary This is the case with the good ship of the Church
   of Christ today--it is "tossed with waves" and the wind is "contrary."
   It is very contrary just now, but then, Christ is still pleading for
   the ship and all on board. And while He pleads, it can never sink.

   25-29. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them,
   walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea,
   they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit: and they cried out for fear
   But straightway Jesus spoke unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is
   I; be not afraid. And Peter answered Him, and said, Lord, if it is You,
   bid me come unto You on the water And He said, Come. And when Peter was
   come down out of the boat, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.You
   who are wanting to get to Jesus should make a desperate effort to get
   to Him--even walk on the water to get to Jesus. Walking on the water
   might be an idle and evil exhibition, but to walk on the water to go to
   Jesus is another matter. Try it and the Lord enable you to get to Him!

   30-32. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and
   beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me! And immediately
   Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him, and said unto him, O you
   of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they were come into the
   boat, the wind ceased. The Greek word implies that the wind was tired,
   weary, "done up," as we say. It had had its boisterous time and spent
   its force--but now it knew its Lord's voice and, like a tired child,
   fell asleep.

   33. Then they that were in the boat came and worshipped Him, saying, Of
   a truth You are the Son of God. This seems to have been the first time
   that the disciples arrived at this conclusion so as to state it so
   positively. Yet, do you not think that after the miraculous
   multiplication of the loaves and fishes they might have very fitly
   said, "Of a truth You are the Son of God"? Sometimes, however, one
   wonder will strike us more than another and, possibly it was because
   they were in danger when this second miracle was worked and, therefore,
   they the more appreciated the coming of Christ to them at midnight.
   They were in no danger when the multitude were fed. Perhaps they were
   not themselves hungry. That strikes us most which comes most home to
   us, as this miracle did.

   34-36. And when they were gone over, they came into the land of
   Gennesaret. And when the men of that place had knowledge of Him, they
   sent out into all that country roundabout and brought unto Him all that
   were diseased; and besought Him that they might only touch the hem
   ofHis garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.
     __________________________________________________________________

If So--what Then?

   (No. 3047)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 4, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   OCTOBER 15, 1871.

   "If the righteous are scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the
   sinner appear?" 1 Peter 4:18.

   SOME people suppose that it is a very easy thing to be saved, but our
   Lord said, "Strive ("Agonize" is the original word) to enter in at the
   strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall
   not be able." When men hear a simple Gospel sermon of which the pith
   and marrow is the great soul-saving message, "Believe and live," they
   say, "If it is such a simple matter, will not all believe?" But the
   Prophet Isaiah spoke not so, for his sad inquiry was, "Who has believed
   our report ("our doctrine" is the marginal reading)?" Faith seems so
   easy that one might ask, "Where will it not be found? But our Savior
   thought not so, for He asked, "When the Son of Man comes, shall He find
   faith on the earth?" He who knows where to look for it and who has the
   quickest eyes to discern it, asks whether He shall be able to find,
   anywhere on the earth, that scarce thing called faith--"the faith of
   God's elect." Believe me that though "the way of holiness" is so plain
   that "the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein," yet on
   account of the hardness of our hearts, it is no easy thing for any of
   us to enter that way and to continue in it until it leads us to our
   everlasting Home above.

   I do not intend to keep strictly to my text, but to give you the
   meaning of it in this way. First, here is a fact stated-- "The
   righteous are scarcely saved." Then, secondly, there is an inference
   drawn from that fact--if they are truly saved with great difficulty,
   "where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" When we have
   considered that inference, we shall take the liberty to draw two other
   inferences which may afford us further instruction.

   I. First, then, HERE IS A FACT STATED--"The righteous are scarcely
   saved." That is to say, they are only saved with great difficulty. This
   is not because there is any deficiency in Jesus Christ, our Lord and
   Savior, or any lack of efficacy in His atoning Sacrifice, or in His
   intercession for transgressors. God be thanked that there is no
   difficulty there! It is not through any lack of power to save on the
   part of the Holy Spirit. Nor is it through any failure of God's
   faithfulness that "the righteous" are only saved with great difficulty.
   But it is for two reasons which I will now give you.

   The first reason is, because of the strictness of Divine rule. Read the
   first clause of the verse preceding our text-- "The time is come that
   judgment must begin at the House of God." And that judgment is so
   severe that even "the righteous are scarcely saved." When Christ comes
   even to His own people, He comes to purge and purify them. The Prophet
   Malachi wrote concerning His first coming, "He is like a refiner's
   fire, and like fullers' soap; and He shall sit as a refiner and
   purifier of silver; 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." John the Baptist said, concerning Christ, "He that
   comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear:
   He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire: whose fan is
   in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His
   wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
   fire." Judgment must always "begin at the House of God" and there is,
   as good Archbishop Leighton very properly says, both "equity and
   congruity in such an arrangement." There is equity in it, for
   Christians profess to be better than others and so they ought to be.
   They say they are regenerate, so they ought to be regenerate. They say
   that they are a holy people, separated unto Christ, so they ought to be
   holy and separate from sinners, as He was. It is right that where there
   is a high calling and an honored name, there should be a life proving
   the accuracy of these two things. So, when God begins to test that
   which professes to be gold and silver, who can say that He does not
   begin His testing at the right place, and with the right material?
   There is also a congruity or fitness in this arrangement.

   The Church of God is His house--and where does a man begin cleansing
   and reforming? Why, in his own house, of course! He might perhaps feel
   that he must have some filth in the farmyard, but not in his own
   sitting-room! There may be much evil abroad that he cannot remove, yet
   he can begin cleaning up at home. If we want to do any good in
   reforming the world, the very first duty for each of us is to begin
   reforming at home-- and the Lord, when He means to clear away the
   dross, begins at home by setting up His "fire in Zion and His furnace
   in Jerusalem."

   The tests to which God subjects those who profess to be His people are
   not easy ones. When His fan is in His hand, woe be unto those who are
   "like the chaff which the wind drives away." The Lord says, by the
   mouth of the Prophet Amos, "I will sift the house of Israel among all
   nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least
   grain fall upon the earth." Nor shall an atom of chaff be left in the
   sieve. When Omnipotence and Omniscience unite to sift the chaff from
   the wheat, you may depend upon it that the sifting will be thoroughly
   done! There is also the testing by fire. And if any are not able to
   endure that test, "reprobate silver shall men call them because the
   Lord has rejected them." Then God will weigh us--we shall be put into
   the balances of the sanctuary and if we are found wanting, how terrible
   it will be! We often judge by appearances, but God looks at the heart.
   We may be deceived by the outward profession, but God sees what is
   within. He looks for the Truth in our inward parts and in our hidden
   parts there must be the true Wisdom or else we are not saved.

   Now, dear Friends, as the tests are so severe, you see how it is that
   the righteous are only saved with difficulty. Oh, if I may but come out
   of that scale full weight, if I may but come out of that fire as pure
   gold, if I may but remain with the wheat in that sieve and not be blown
   away with the chaff, I shall bless God forever and ever that I was
   saved, even though it was with great difficulty!

   Further, the experience of all Christians proves that the work of Grace
   in their hearts is not easily accomplished and that their pilgrimage to
   Heaven is full of difficulties. At the very beginning of the Christian
   life, some find it hard to lay hold on Christ. We truly sing or say--

   "There is life for a look at the Crucified One." Yet there was a time
   when I felt that I would gladly give my life in exchange for that look!
   Easy as it seems to be to cast ourselves into the Savior's arms, there
   are Satanic doubts, evil questionings, and fierce temptations that
   cause even that simple act to be accomplished only with great
   difficulty. Indeed, wherever it is accomplished, it is a miracle of
   Divine Mercy and in every case saving faith is "the gift of God."

   Then, how difficult it is to overcome the flesh! Are you a Believer in
   the Lord Jesus Christ? Then I need not ask whether you find it so. You
   love holiness, yet unholiness tries hard to make you its slave. Perhaps
   it is a fiery temper that is your "thorn in the flesh," or some
   constitutional sin, or some lust that you thought had been subdued. You
   may have said, with David, "My feet were almost gone; my steps had
   well-near slipped." And I know that if your life is that of a true
   child of God, you have to fight hard in order to "put off the old man
   with his deeds," and to lead a godly life in the midst of this ungodly
   generation.

   The temptations that assail you from without are equally hard to
   overcome. There are temptations of wealth and temptations of
   poverty--temptations to turn aside to the right or to the left--and it
   is not easy to keep to the middle of the King's highway and to walk in
   the footprints of Jesus who has left us an example that we should
   follow His steps. When the world, the flesh and the devil combine to
   assail us--if the Lord does not cover our head in the day of battle,
   how can we gain the victory? With some Christians it is a very hard
   struggle from day to day, and even from hour to hour--and then we are
   like Mr. Stand-Fast who, when he was in what Bunyan calls the Enchanted
   Ground, was assailed by Madam Bubble and who could do nothing but fall
   on his knees and cry to God for help! There are many of us who have
   felt like that and who, in the bitterness of our agony, have had to cry
   to God to help us, for it is only with difficulty that we are saved. I
   can say, with good John Fawcett--

   "Temptations everywhere annoy,

   And sins and snares my peace destroy.

   My earthly joys are from me torn,

   And oft an absent God I mourn.

   My soul, with various tempests tossed,

   Her hopes overturned, her projects crossed,

   Sees every day new straits attend,

   And wonders where the scene will end.

   Is this, dear Lord, that thorny road

   Which leads us to the Mount of God?

   Are these the toils Your people know,

   While in the wilderness below?

   'Tis even so, Your faithful love

   Does thus Your children's graces prove--

   'Tis thus our pride and self must fall,

   That Jesus may be All-in-All." How difficult is it for a true Christian
   even to perform necessary duties in a humble and holy spirit! It is a
   simple matter to pray--it is just going, like a child, to tell God all
   that you feel and all that you need. Yet I ask you, Christian, whether
   you do not sometimes find it hard work to pray? When you are on your
   knees, all sorts of cares come buzzing about you, like so many hornets.
   You want to wrestle with God as Jacob did, but you find that your
   wrestling has to be with the devil! I know what it is to long to pray
   when I cannot find a prayer in my soul! I make this confession because
   I believe there are many of God's people who get into that state. And,
   moreover, I know that we often pray best when we think we are not
   praying. Perhaps those groans that come from the lowest depths of our
   spirit when we think we are not groaning at all are just the most
   potent prayers that ever reach the Throne of God! But there are seasons
   when one can only say, "May the Holy Spirit feel for me what I cannot
   feel, and utter for me what I cannot speak, and do for me what I cannot
   perform!"

   And if such ordinary acts of devotion are so difficult, how much more
   difficult is it to reach gracious attainments in the Divine life! If
   any of your graces come to you very easily, suspect whether they are
   genuine, for in the Christian life, all that is worth having has to be
   fought for in stern conflict. So determined are the powers of darkness
   to prevent the Christian pilgrim from entering the Celestial City that
   all the way to Heaven will be more or less a Hill of Difficulty. You
   will have to go often upon your hands and knees because the road is so
   rough and the ascent is so steep that you cannot advance in any other
   way. We would be holy as God is holy, but there is another law in our
   members warring against the law of our renewed minds. God knows that we
   yearn after perfection but, alas, like the bird that would gladly fly,
   there is something that holds us down! Many of you have seen an eagle
   in a cage and you know how he looks up with those bright eyes of his
   that were made to gaze into the sun! If he stretches his wings and
   tries to fly, he only wounds himself against the bars of his cage and,
   oh, what wounds some of us have had when in our aspirations after
   better things, to will has been present with us, but how to perform
   that which we would, we found not! Often have I had to cry, with Paul,
   "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
   death?" Yes, it is hard work for any of us to get to Heaven. God, the
   Eternal Spirit, helps us to overcome our infirmities, but we are often
   made to feel those infirmities and to confess that our weakness is no
   match for the strength of sin--and to admit that were it not for God
   Himself, we should certainly perish after all. I delight to sing with
   holy John Newton--

   "Beyond a doubt, I rest assured

   You are the Christ of God!

   Who has eternal life secured

   By promise and by blood.

   The help of men and angels joined

   Could never reach my case,

   Nor can I hope relief to find

   But in Your boundless Grace!" Do you not, dear Brothers and Sisters in
   Christ, sometimes feel how hard it is for you to be saved when you put
   your soul before the tribunal of your own enlightened conscience? Our
   own conscience, at the best, is a poor partial judge compared with the
   impartial and Infallible Judge who will, by-and-by, sit upon the Great
   White Throne. Yet I ask any Christian here who is really aware of his
   own frailties and infirmities--when he comes seriously to take stock of
   himself, whether he finds any reason in himself for glorying? I have
   turned over my sermons and my many labors for the Lord, but there is
   scarcely one of them that I dare to think of without tears--they are
   all marred by sin and imperfection! As I think of every act I have ever
   done for God, I can only cry, "O God, forgive the iniquity of my holy
   things!" But what

   about our unholy things? Brothers and Sisters, look well to the
   evidences of your new birth. And as you examine them, see if you do not
   have to say with the Prophet, "We are all as an unclean thing, and all
   our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf;
   and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." If so, then let
   each one of us pray with penitent David, "Purge me with hyssop and I
   shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." If we are
   really God's people, it is a great consolation for us to know
   that--notwithstanding our many infirmities and iniquities, our many
   anxieties and doubts and fears as to whether, after all, we have been
   self-deceived or devil-deceived--God will never forsake us!

   II. This must suffice concerning the fact that Christians are only
   saved with great difficulty. Now, secondly, let us consider THE
   INFERENCE FROM THAT FACT.

   Peter says, "If the righteous are scarcely saved, where shall the
   ungodly and the sinner appear?" By which he means, I think, first, that
   if even the righteous are so severely tested, what short work will God
   make with the unrighteous--if the wheat must thus be winnowed, how
   certainly will the chaff be destroyed--if the gold must pass through
   the fire, how assuredly will the dross be consumed! The God who tries
   and tests the best will certainly not wink at the worst.

   He means next, I think, that if "the righteous" only attain to felicity
   with great diificulty, "the ungodly and the sinner" can never attain to
   it Suppose there has been a terrible storm on a rock-bound coast. The
   lifeboat has gone out and the men have nobly done their duty and saved
   many precious lives. But as each man leaps ashore, he says, "I was
   never before out in such a storm. It is only by the merciful Providence
   of God that we were able to get back." When the people on the shore see
   that even the lifeboat so narrowly escaped destruction, they naturally
   ask, "What must become of those poor leaky and unseaworthy boats that
   are hardly fit to be in a mill pond?" Or imagine a river, full of
   sandbanks, with a channel that twists and turns in a tortuous
   fashion--and there is a vessel on it with an experienced pilot on
   board--yet even he is very anxious and is constantly heaving the lead,
   and frequently going at half-speed, or stopping altogether! Now, if a
   steamer with a good pilot on board can scarcely get up the river, what
   will happen to a small sailboat, in the charge of a reckless drunk, who
   scarcely steers at all, but lets the boat drift wherever it will? Why,
   it must be lost! So, if "the vessels of mercy...before prepared unto
   glory," on which Christ is the Pilot, barely escape the rocks and
   quicksands, what must be the end of "the vessels of wrath fitted to
   destruction" which have no pilot on board and drift here and there at
   the mercy of winds and waves? If there is a great conflagration in the
   city and there is a massive stone structure with iron girders which the
   firemen can only save from destruction with great difficulty, what will
   be the fate of a wooden house, covered with pitch and tar and full of
   oil? If a man who has built for eternity upon Christ, the only true
   Foundation--and who has built, not with gold, silver and precious
   stones, but with wood, hay and stubble-- if such a man "shall be saved,
   yet so as by fire," what will become of the sinner who is only like a
   dry log fitted for the everlasting burning?

   My text does not tell us where "the ungodly and the sinner" will
   appear. This is one of the unanswered questions of Scripture--"Where
   shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" So I shall scarcely speak of
   that dreadful place where our Savior says, "There shall be weeping and
   gnashing of teeth," "where their worm dies not and the fire is not
   quenched." These metaphors, terrible as they are in their grim
   suggestiveness, are only faint images of the awful reality! And I again
   remind you that they are the words of Him to Whom we teach our children
   to pray--

   "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, Look upon a little child."

   In Psalm 50:22 there is this dreadful Divine warning, "Consider this,
   you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to
   deliver." If it is difficult for a Christian to be saved--and I have
   shown you that it is--where shall you who are not God's people, you who
   have no Christ, you who have no Holy Spirit to guide you--where shall
   you appear? The Apostle Paul wrote, "I keep my body under and bring it
   into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to
   others, I myself should be a castaway." If Paul entered Heaven with
   difficulty, where will you be? Martin Luther's biography tells us that
   he was the subject of grievous doubts, depressions and soul anxieties.
   So, if he only reached Heaven as a sinner saved by Grace, where will
   you be who know nothing experimentally of the Grace of God? If John
   Knox, after serving his God so faithfully that his epitaph truly says,
   "Here lies a man who in his life never feared the face of man"--if he,
   on his deathbed, found it hard to cherish a hope of Heaven--what will
   you do who despise Christ's mercy and riot in sin?

   Before I close, I want to draw two other inferences. The first is
   this--IF THE RIGHTEOUS ARE ONLY SAVED

   WITH DIFFICULTY, WHAT ABOUT THOSE PEOPLE WHO ARE "SAVED" SO VERY
   EASILY? It looks as if they were not righteous, does it not? Perhaps
   there is a man here who is like Bunyan's Formalist. This is his
   hope--"I was 'christened' when I was a child, I was confirmed as a
   youth, I attend my church and take the 'sacrament' regularly." Or he
   may say, "I regularly attend chapel." He says, "Don't talk to me about
   anxieties as to my state--I have no such anxieties." No, I expect you
   have not, but if you have no doubts about yourself, permit me to have
   my doubts about you! And let me go a great deal further than doubts and
   solemnly tell you that a hope founded on ceremonies will lead to your
   "everlasting destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the
   glory of His power."

   There may be another who says, "I have made a profession of religion,
   but I never have any questions about whether I am saved or not. I
   pray--in a fashion. As to praising God, I always could sing and I
   believe I am about as right as I can be. I don't see any cause for
   distressing myself." Yes, Friend, but let me remind you that there is a
   great difference between presumption and "full assurance of faith."
   There is also a very great difference between believing that you are
   saved and being really saved!

   Possibly there is another who says, "I believe I am one of God's elect
   and that I am quite safe." Well, Friend, if it is so, no one is more
   thankful than I am. But if that is your only hope of salvation and you
   have never been born-again and know nothing of the new life with its
   anxieties and joys, I would not give a bent pin for your hope of
   Heaven! And the sooner you get rid of it, the better. A dead fish finds
   no difficulty in floating down the stream--it is only the living fish
   that can swim against the current. The broad road is very smooth and
   there is a good deal of company on it--but it leads to destruction.
   There are few in the narrow way and many difficulties there--but it
   leads to eternal life. You say that you never know any changes. No, nor
   do the statues in St. Paul's Cathedral. There they stand, year after
   year, upon their marble pedestals because they are dead--and you are
   the same. "But I never have to fight that battle of which you have been
   speaking." No, of course not, because the world and you are friends!
   And because you are of the world, the world loves its own. If you were
   a stranger and a foreigner in this world, you would be treated as
   strangers and foreigners are in an inhospitable country.

   I will draw only one more inference from our text and that is a very
   comforting one. THE RIGHTEOUS ARE ONLY SAVED WITH DIFFICULTY--THEN
   TEMPTED SOULS MAY BE SAVED. That Truth of God has given me comfort when
   I have thought, "Well, it is difficult for me to be saved, then it
   appears that I am numbered with the righteous and that I am on the
   right road." "Oh, Sir," says a poor sinner here, "I am glad you said
   that. I hope I have cast myself wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ and I
   thought I was going to have peace always, but, instead of that, ever
   since I have believed, or thought I had believed, I have had more
   fights in my soul than I ever had before." Well, the righteous are only
   saved with difficulty, so do not be depressed. "But I have been more
   tempted than I ever was before and it seems, Sir, as if everybody is
   against me and tries to drive me back. I thought I should find cheerful
   companions who would help me on the road to Heaven, but I seem to be
   alone in an enemy's land." My dear Brother, it is always so with the
   righteous--no strange thing has happened to you. "But, Sir," says one,
   "horrible thoughts and terrible blasphemies arise in my mind even when
   I try to pray. And I say to myself, 'If I were a child of God, could it
   be thus with me?'" Dear Friend, be comforted! Satan is afraid of losing
   you, so he is putting out all his force to try to hold you. Now that
   you are a Christian, you are a target for all the devil's fiery darts,
   so do not be astonished--this is the lot of the people of God! When a
   man has been drowning, I have heard that his sensations have often been
   very pleasant, but when the circulation of the blood commences again,
   pain begins at once and the more pain he suffers, the more surely is he
   being restored to life! It is just so with the spiritual blood that is
   circulating in your soul. You are not dead, so you smart and suffer
   because you are alive. If you imagine that the moment you believe, your
   battle is over, you make a great mistake--your battle has only just
   begun and because while really trusting in Jesus, you have battles,
   contentions, difficulties and troubles, conclude that, therefore, you
   are a child of God!

   Remember this, if the righteous are only saved with great difficulty,
   they would never be saved if they did not look right away from
   themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. There lies the one hope for
   sinners and saints--in the finished work of the blessed Redeemer! "I
   know what you are at," said a good man once to one who was doubting,
   "Christ has finished the work of salvation, but you are not content
   with what He has done, so you want to patch it up with something of
   your own." Come sinners and come saints, back to the foot of that dear
   Cross where Jesus bought with His own blood the souls of all who
   believe in Him! let us throw ourselves prostrate before Him and say,
   "You are all our confidence, our only hope and our full salvation
   forever and ever. Save us, O Savior! We are sinners and You are the
   sinners' Friend-- save us now and we shall be saved forever!" Amen, so
   let it be!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ZECHAARIAH8. [See Note to Sermon No.
   3045, on Zechariah 8:13.]

   Verses 1, 2. Again the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying,
   Thus says the LORD ofHosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy,
   and I was jealous for her with great fury. Because they worshipped
   idols instead of the living God, Jehovah of Hosts, who is a jealous
   God, was very angry with His ancient people and allowed them to be
   carried away into captivity. And it is well for us in these days to
   remember that we serve a jealous God and that if our hearts are not
   true to Him, He will soon send us sharp afflictions and make us feel
   the weight of His rod! It was Paul's anxious desire that he might be
   able to present the Church at Corinth "as a chaste virgin to Christ"
   and, certainly, our Lord Jesus Christ will not accept the professing
   Church of these days on any other terms. Let your heart be loyal and
   true to Him, or else you will stir up the holy jealousy of your God!
   Yet the same jealousy which makes God punish His people for their
   unfaithfulness, prompts Him to return to them in love as soon as He
   sees that He can justly do so. When their enemies have sorely vexed and
   oppressed them, then is the Lord jealous, not against them, but against
   their enemies-- and He swiftly returns to His own people in love.

   3. Thus says the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the
   midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and
   the mountain of the LORD ofHosts the holy mountain. The first coming or
   the return of God to a Church, or to an individual heart, always
   promotes holiness. So, unless your piety is growing daily, do not
   imagine that God is in the midst of you, for wherever the Lord comes,
   He comes "as a refiner and purifier." You will never find Jesus come
   except as John the Baptist pictured Him to the Pharisees and Sadducees
   of his day--"whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His
   floor." The coming of Christ into any soul, or into any Church, is the
   death of sin and the birth of holiness!

   4, 5. Thus says the LORD ofHosts, There shall yet old men and old women
   dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his
   hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys
   and girls playing in the streets thereof It is an indication that there
   is peace in the city when the children can play in the streets without
   fear. We may thus apply these verses spiritually--when God greatly
   blesses a Christian Church, there are sure to be many aged persons in
   it, those who, by their long experience and their matured wisdom, are
   able to teach others the lessons which they have themselves learned at
   the feet of Jesus. Happy is the Church that has in it many fathers and
   mothers in Israel. At the same time, a Church that is largely blessed
   by God will also have in it many young converts who will be as full of
   life and joy as children playing in the streets of a city in time of
   peace. There is a text which is true both in its literal and its
   spiritual sense--"Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord...Happy is
   the man that has his quiver full of them." There is no glory so great
   to a Christian minister and a Christian Church as that of having an
   abundance of spiritual children and multitudes of converts brought to
   Christ. So shall it be with any Church when God is in the midst of her.

   6. Thus says the LORD ofHosts; If it is marvelous in the eyes of the
   remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvelous in My
   eyes?says the LORD ofHosts. This is a very remarkable passage, warning
   us not to judge of God by ourselves. Though a thing may be difficult to
   us, there are no difficulties with God. No, even if we imagine anything
   to be impossible to man, the word impossibilityhas no relation to the
   Deity, for "with God all things are possible." Are you in trouble
   today? Do you say that it is impossible for you to be delivered? It is
   an easy thing for God to deliver you, though the task seems so hard to
   you. Do you feel the weight of your sin and do you imagine that it is
   impossible for your sin to be pardoned? Would you look upon it as a
   miracle and because it seems so marvelous to you, do you think it is
   marvelous in God's eyes? Remember what He said by the mouth of Isaiah,
   "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says
   the Lord." Consider the infinite difference between God and man--and
   look no longer at God through the misleading glasses of your own
   feebleness!

   7, 8. Thus says the LORD ofHosts; Behold, I will save My people from
   the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and
   they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be My
   people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. Mark
   God's emphatic language, how full it is of, "shalls" and, "wills." "I
   will," and "they shall," says He, again and again. And if God says, "I
   will," who shall dare to say that it shall not be? What God declares
   shall certainly come to pass. Surely this is golden language of comfort
   to those who are bowed down! Then how great must be the sinfulness of
   that unbelief which dares to despair when God says, "shall" and,
   "will"! That one sentence in the eighth verse contains the whole Gospel
   in two short sentences--"They shall be My people, and I will be their
   God." This is the tenor of the Covenant of Grace. There is no "if," nor
   "but," nor "perhaps" in it. God does not say, "I will be their God if
   they will be My people." Nor, "I will love them if they will keep My
   Laws." That is the Old Covenant of works which has been broken forever!
   The Covenant of Grace runs thus, "They shall be My people, and I will
   be their God, in truth and in righteousness."

   9-11. Thus says the LORD ofHosts; Let your hands be strong, you that
   hear in these days these words by the mouth of the Prophets, which were
   in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD ofHosts was
   laid, that the Temple might be built For before these days there was no
   hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to
   him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all
   men, everyone against his neighbor But now I will not be unto the
   residue of this people as in the former days, says the LORD ofHosts.
   The Jewish people had been brought into abject poverty. They were all
   so poor that there was not one who could hire his fellow man or even
   pay for the hire of a beast of burden. This was before the foundation
   of Solomon's Temple was laid. But, as that wondrous structure grew, the
   State also grew and often the prosperity of a Church brings prosperity
   to the people around it. And to the residue of God's people there comes
   a blessing, and not a curse.

   12. For the seed shall be prosperous. It is a happy omen for a Church
   when the Word preached is with power.

   12. The vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her
   increase. Happy are the hearts that are like fruitful vines, and good
   and fertile ground yielding thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold increase.

   12. And the heavens shall give their dew.We cannot bring forth fruit
   unto God without the bedewing influences of the Holy Spirit. This is
   that "womb of the morning" of which David speaks in Psalm 110:3--and
   out of which the precious fruit of the Spirit must come.

   12-15. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these
   things. And it shall come to pass, that as you were a curse among the
   heathen, Ohouse of Judah, andhouse ofIsrael; so willIsave you, andyou
   shall be a blessing; fear not, but let your hands be strong. For thus
   says the LORD ofHosts; As I thought to punish you, when your fathers
   provoked Me to wrath, says the LORD ofHosts, and I repented not: so
   again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the
   house of Judah: fear you not Did you notice the repetition of the
   exhortation, "Fear not," and then again, "Fear you not"? The Lord knows
   how much mischief, doubts and fears do to His people and, therefore,
   many a time in Scripture He aims a blow at them. "Fear nots" abound in
   Scripture! It would be well if you made every one of them into a
   gallows upon which to hang your unbelief until it died! What is your
   fear at this moment? What is the cause of your trembling? "Fear you
   not," says God to you! Will you dare to fear after this?

   16, 17. These are the things that you shall do; Speak you every man the
   truth to his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your
   gates: and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his
   neighbor Some have wickedly said that "thought is free and can't be
   condemned." But here we see that if it goes after evil, it is a wicked
   thing which God abhors.

   17-19. And love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate,
   says the LORD. And the word of the LORD of Hosts came unto me, saying,
   Thus says the LORD ofHosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast
   of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth,
   shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts;
   therefore love the truth and peace.God turns sad fasts to glad feasts
   when He visits His people in love! Is there one here who has been
   having a long fast? Has your soul been sorely afflicted? Have you been
   desponding and trembling so that you have had no joy and gladness? Ah,
   when the Lord Jesus Christ reveals Himself to you, He will soon change
   your sad state into something brighter and better! He will give you
   "beauty for ashes, the oil ofjoy for mourning, the garment of praise
   for the spirit of heaviness." Look up, poor trembling Soul, to yonder
   hill of Calvary where Jesus bled and died for you--and there let your
   joys begin and never, never end!

   20, 21. Thus says the LORD of Hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that
   there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: and the
   inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily
   to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of Hosts: I will go also.
   You see that in the latter days there is to be a great spirit of prayer
   and of seeking the Lord. This will include the hearing of the Word and
   the love of the Truths of God. And one good sign is that the people
   will say, "Let us go speedily." They will not come in late, as so many
   do nowadays, just getting into their seats when the Scripture is being
   read, instead of being present at the opening prayer. I am sorry to say
   that some of you are getting later and later--and some morning I shall
   most certainly carry out my threat, and preach the sermon first unless
   you are more punctual! A little more thought and a little sooner start
   and you might all be at God's House on time. David longed to be a
   doorkeeper in the Lord's house and you know that the doorkeeper is
   always the first in and the last out. May you all have more of David's
   spirit, though you cannot all be doorkeepers! These people are to say,
   "Let us go speedily (the marginal reading is 'continually') to pray
   before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts: I will go also." That is
   the best way of bringing others to God's House--to say, "I will go
   also." I have read that Julius Caesar never said to his soldiers, "Go,"
   but, "Let us go." So should we seek to get others to God's House by
   saying to them, "Let us go...I will go also."

   22, 23. Yes, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD
   ofHosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD. Thus says the LORD
   ofHosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take
   hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the
   skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have
   heard that God is with you. In the latter days, the Jews, who are still
   despised, oppressed and persecuted in many countries, shall be so
   highly honored by God that men of other nationalities will want to be
   in their company! But, no doubt, there is here a special reference to
   Jesus, the Jew, the Son of God who became the Son of Mary, too. Oh that
   this very day many Jews and Gentiles may take hold of His skirt by a
   living faith and so may receive blessing from Him and be saved in the
   Lord with an everlasting salvation!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Holy Spirit in the Covenant

   (No. 3048)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 11, 1907.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD'S-DAY MORNING IN 1856.

   "And I will put My Spirit within you." Ezekiel 36:27.

   THE Holy Spirit is the third Person in the Covenant. We have considered
   "God in the Covenant" and "Christ in the

   Covenant" [See Sermons #93 and 103, Volume 2--GOD IN THE COVENANT and
   CHRIST IN THE COVENANT.] and now, this morning, we have to consider the
   Holy Spirit in the Covenant. For, remember, it is necessary that the
   Triune God should work out the salvation of the Lord's people if they
   are to be saved at all. And it was absolutely requisite that when the
   Covenant was made, all that was necessary should be put into it and,
   among the rest, the Holy Spirit, without whom all things done even by
   the Father and by Jesus Christ would be ineffectual, for He is needed
   as much as the Savior of men, or the Father of spirits. In this age,
   when the Holy Spirit is too much forgotten, and but little honor is
   accorded to His sacred Person, I feel that there is a deep
   responsibility upon me to endeavor to magnify His great and holy name.
   I almost tremble, this morning, in entering on so profound a subject,
   for which I feel myself so insufficient. But, nevertheless, relying on
   the aid, the guidance and the witness of the Holy Spirit, Himself, I
   venture upon an exposition of this text, "I will put My Spirit within
   you."

   The Holy Spirit is given, in the Covenant, to all the children of God
   and received by each in due course. And yet upon our Lord Jesus Christ
   did the Spirit first descend and alighted upon Him as our Covenant
   Head, "like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the
   beard, even Aaron's beard; that went down to the skirts of his
   garments." The Father has given the Holy Spirit without measure unto
   His Son--and from Him, in measure, though still in abundance, do all
   "the brethren who dwell together in unity" (or union with Christ)
   partake of the Spirit. This holy anointing flows down from Jesus, the
   Anointed One, to every part of His mystical body, to every individual
   member of His Church. The Lord's declaration concerning Christ was, "I
   have put My Spirit upon HIM." And He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is
   upon ME, because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor;
   He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted." The Spirit was first poured
   upon Christ and from Him descends to all those who are in union with
   His adorable Person. Let us bless the name of Christ if we are united
   to Him--and let us look up to our Covenant Head, expecting that from
   Him will flow down the heavenly unction which shall anoint our souls!

   Those who are taught of the Spirit often surpass those who are taught
   of man. I have met with an entirely uninstructed clod-hopper in the
   country who never went to school for one hour in his life--who yet knew
   more about the Holy Scriptures than many a clergyman trained at the
   University! I have been told that it is a common practice for men in
   Wales, while they are at work breaking stones on the road, to discuss
   difficult points in theology which many a Divine cannot master! How?
   Because they humbly read the Scriptures, trusting only to the guidance
   of the Holy Spirit, believing that He will lead them into all
   Truth--and He is pleased so to do. All other instruction is very well.
   Solomon says "that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good." We
   should all seek to know as much as can be known, but let us remember
   that in the work of salvation real knowledge must be obtained by the
   teaching of the Holy Spirit. And if we would learn in the heart and not
   merely in the head, we must be taught entirely by the Holy Spirit. What
   you learn from man, you can unlearn--but what you learn of the Spirit
   is fixed indelibly in your heart and conscience--and not even Satan
   himself can steal it from you. Go, you ignorant ones, who often stagger
   at the Truths of Revelation--go and ask the Spirit, for He is the Guide
   of benighted souls! Yes, and the Guide of His own enlightened people,
   too, for without His aid, even when they have been "once enlightened,
   and have tasted of the heavenly gift," they would not understand all
   Truths of God unless He led them into it.

   IV. I desire further to mention that GOD WILL GIVE THE SPIRIT TO US AS
   A SPIRIT OF APPLICATION.

   Thus it was that Jesus said to His disciples, "He shall glorify Me, for
   He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto

   you." To make the matter still more plain, our Lord added, "All things
   that the Father has are Mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of
   Mine, and shall show it unto you." Let me remind you how frequently
   Jesus impressed on His disciples the fact that He spoke to them the
   words of His Father--"My Doctrine," said He, "is not Mine, but His that
   sent Me." And again, "The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of
   Myself: but the Father that dwells in Me, He does the works." As Christ
   thus made known the will of God the Father to His people, so the Holy
   Spirit makes known to us the words of Christ. I could almost affirm
   that Christ's words would be of no use to us unless they were applied
   to us by the Holy Spirit! Beloved, we need the application to assure
   our hearts that they are our own, that they are intended for us and
   that we have an interest in their blessedness! And we need the unction
   of the Spirit to make them bedew our hearts and refresh our souls.

   Did you ever have a promise applied